It was the middle of the night when the tapping of eight pairs of bony legs moving erratically rustled the forest floor. The two spider golem constructs reached the castle walls unseen, unnoticed, each from a different side of the castle. Bones made the tips of their legs serrated, so they could easily climb the castle walls, and the spiders infiltrated the castle successfully. The easy part was reaching the castle, the hard part was yet to come.
Bones aimed to destroy the mechanism used to open and close the thick, large iron gates. One spider skittered towards the gates and the other towards the warehouse, where the barrels of liquor were stashed. There was always bound to be large quantities of alcohol with the bandits and Bones hoped the warehouse was still in the same place as it was shown on the layout of the castle.
The two spiders were identical in design, but had completely different nuclei. Bones made sure to program each spider according to its function and purpose. The spider heading toward the gates was quick and had the ability to jump as per Bones' instructions, and the other sneaked quietly toward its location. Both spiders, however, had skull bombs embedded on top of their bodies - the same skull bombs Bones made a few months back at Hemdus' smithy.
The bombs weren't originally designed to inflict great damage on explosion, but they would suffice for the objective Bones hoped to achieve. The first spider reached its destination and jumped, exploding immediately on contact with the mechanism. The counterweight suspended in the air that made the gates open and close snapped and dropped to the ground, opening the gates all the way. The whole castle burst into motion in seconds. The sentries patrolling the rampart were the first to arrive on the scene and search for the intruders while the second spider made slow progress toward the warehouse.
Bones dashed forth out the forest and into the clearing. He was spotted and a rain of arrows quickly rained down on his location, missing him by a step every time. He moved in a zig-zag pattern and under the cover of the night, he was hard to pin down. Then, the boss appeared, the One Eye Garrison.
The bandit leader noticed a strange construct immediately upon arrival and didn't even stop to aim when taking a shot. His first arrow pierced the already destroyed construct of the first spider, pulverizing the leftovers completely. He kept moving until he reached the castle walls. Bones heard a whistling sound while running. He quickly reacted by jerking his body sideways and narrowly missed having a giant hole in the middle of his chest. The second arrow was even closer to hitting him, leaving a long gash against his leather armor.
Instead of firing the third arrow, the bandit leader was forced to change positions. Bones had just jumped through the open gates, rolled over and ran to the side for cover. The arrows hadn't stopped coming his way and a few did hit him, but none dealing enough damage to impede his movements. The next arrow that hit Bones was an imbued one and impossible to dodge. The arrow passed through Bones' shoulder, knocking him down where he remained motionless. He was quickly approached and surrounded by the group of bandits who awaited the leader's orders.
The Garrison was taken aback. He averted his focus from Bones to the forest and the castle's vicinity. He slightly pulled his skin mask down and after a minute of silence and observation, he ordered his men to lift Bones up and take him down to the dungeons. The leader surveyed the surroundings once more, then glanced at Bones. He doubted the man infiltrated his castle alone but he couldn't see, nor detect anyone else around. Still, the man remained vigilant and just when things quieted down, the warehouse exploded, sending wooden shrapnel and stone debris flying around. A couple of bandits were caught up by the explosion, a couple got caught on fire and - as expected - started running around screaming and spreading fire. The ground was clear of snow and wet, so the fire didn't spread far.
Bones didn't count on fire to deal with the bandits anyway, but to serve as a distraction, which it did! Right after the explosion, Bones made a move. He casted Boneyard and pinned his handlers. Their screams were muffled by the screams and yelling of others. Bones didn't waste a moment and swiftly dealt with distracted bandits and then continued casting Boneyard. With such a large group of targets, Bones decided to use his bone manipulation prowess and started manipulating a great number of spikes in the air. When he casted the spell for the third time, the spikes didn't respond and he felt the mental strain.
Two Boneyard's worth of spikes will be enough!
Unperturbed, Bones left himself open to the leader's deadly arrows and focused entirely on the rest of the bandits. The explosions and the fire weren't the only surprise he had for the leader. In the midst of all the chaos, two additional figures joined the fray. One of the figures charged through the open gates and cleaved through a group of bandits with wide swings of a battleaxe while the other figure climbed the castle walls and ambushed The One Eye Garrison. Bones timed the exact moment for his golems to join the fight and partly, he managed to exceed the bandit's leader expectations and take him by surprise. The ambush, however, failed.
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Garrison was a second tier. His stats alone, topped Skully's and adding wind affinity to his skills, he was almost untouchable. Skully couldn't catch up to the man's speed but he did make him run. Even Bones' occasional spikes thrown man's way missed the target. Bones figured the bandit leader this time will be more difficult to deal with.
*tsk tsk*
He couldn't help but express annoyance and hoped Skully would at least be able to occupy the leader's attention for long enough for him to deal with all the other bandits. Not to waste time, Bones kicked it up a notch and started recklessly firing levitating projectiles at whoever he saw moving. Dozens fell to his spikes and the rest wizened up and rushed inside the castle, immediately starting to barricade themselves in. The One Eye Garrison also saw that the fight was escalating in a different direction, to his disadvantage, and he too disappeared somewhere inside the castle.
For a brief moment, Bones and his two golems were alone in the courtyard of the castle. The next stage of the fight will begin shortly and Bones came prepared.
[noise of window glass shattering]
The bandit archers positioned themselves by the windows and during the time the adventurers left, he devised different scenarios how the fight could progress. Most of the scenarios he came up with involved the bandits retreating to the castle and changing to ranged combat. Bones' came up with the most optimal way to deal with them by using the leftover skull bombs, filled with poisonous powder.
Fools!
With the cackling of his teeth and zest, Bones started flinging skull bombs toward the shattered windows. The two sides exchanged projectiles, both hitting their marks more than they missed, and Bones' end up winning in exchange once again. One fourth of his bombs hit the walls next to the windows but the remaining ones filled the inside of the castle with a poisonous gas. Each and every bandit, their boss included, inhaled a dose of the gas. The ones that were quick on their feet managed to leave the castle either through the doors or by jumping out the window, only to be met with a blade of the axe or a tip of the spear. The rest suffocated.
The One Eye Garrison wasn't nearly as affected as his subordinates but he was the only one left now and was visibly disturbed. Bones followed the man as he bolted out of one of the top windows of the castle and ran down the rampart. Skully was hot on his trail and then Bones looked on in disbelief as the leader jumped off the castle walls, the wind carrying him halfway past the clearing, and then started running toward the forest.
"That son of a…" Bones yelled out loud and sprinted after him. Skully followed closely by, then overtook Bones while the orc golem, the slowest of the three, walked. The bandit leader was fast, leaving a wider gap with each passing second while the chase continued until he started crashing into trees. His head was a fog, his eyes misty and his vision blurred. The gas he inhaled started affecting him unpredictably when he overstrained his body and overused his mana and now, his speed did him more harm than good. The man stopped, turned and aimed. His arrows were still imbued and very destructive. Bones attested their power first hand. He hadn't been able to approach any closer for quite some time, even his orc golem managed to catch up to them.
Strange - It's pitch dark and yet he can accurately locate mine and Skully's position. How? Can he see in the dark?
Bones asked himself while hiding behind and going from tree to tree. The bandit leaders' arrows keep finding their way to him. His thief's outfit was torn, shredded and his bony layer visible. Skully fared better. His orders were to simply stay low and avoid arrows and Skully, instinctively Bones' guessed, got down and moved on all four. His golems even got closer to the leader than him.
Bones used Skull Bombs, Bone Lance and the spikes from Boneyard to the extent of his abilities but the leader was elusive. When he couldn't avoid the attack, he used a skill similar to mana blast called Wind Blast to repel the projectiles. The final fight had been going on for an hour and Bones sensed his opponents' attacks were once again sharp and precise. Whatever effect the poison from the skull bombs had on the leader, it started to wear off and Bones knew he didn't have much time left. The leader ran away once already and would no doubt run away again at first opportunity.
Bones grumbled in annoyance and had the orc golem approach him. His ranged skills didn't work and he couldn't get close, so he opted for a more unconventional approach. He shoved the remaining poisonous bomb he had inside the orc ribcage and used shaping to tighten the gap between the ribs so as not to let the bombs slip and fall down. He then directed the orc to charge toward the bandit leader.
The leader, of course, immediately saw the orc thumping the ground, moving between the trees and heading towards him. He knocked an arrow and before he took the shot, Bones overwhelmed him with bone spikes. Skully also charged from the side, distracting the man. With Bones and Skully in the mix, The Garrison didn't think of the orc as much of a threat.
Bones pushed through the wounds and injuries and occupied the leader's attention away from the approaching orc. The bandit leader was no fool. His perception skill detected the orc coming. He just didn't perceive him as an immediate threat until it was too late. Just a few meters away from him, blue rays of light penetrated through the orc ribcage and illuminated the surroundings. The leader acted on instinct and used Wind Blast around himself, knocking the orc backwards and propelling himself upwards. He couldn't escape the magnitude of the blast, however.
The bombs exploded in a cone shape towards the leader and while the orc was knocked backwards, the poison still engulfed the leader wholly while the force of the explosion helped propel him further into the air. The leader dropped his weapon in the process, a bow made of elven wood and supported by reinforced steel. The Garrison hit the upper branches of the tree and hung onto them so he wouldn't fall down while fighting for air. The amount of poison he inhaled this time was too much to simply brush off and continue fighting. He didn't hang for long. In the midst of the green smoke permitting the area in the radius of fifty meters and rising, Skully climbed a tree, unperturbed by the poison and with a spin of his tail sweeped the hanging leader off the tree, knocking him to the ground.
The fall wasn't gentle. The coordination between Bones and his golems was as if practiced beforehand and Bones awaited with a casted Boneyard and a dozen of spikes levitating in the air. The moment The Garrison inhaled the poison, marked the beginning of his end. He landed in the midst of spikes, avoiding most, but not all of them. Bones immediately followed with a barrage of densely packed levitating spikes that riddled the man with holes. Skully jumped down from the tree and left a large gash across the man's torso. The number of injuries the bandit leader suffered in a short span of time was the most he suffered in recent years, but the fire still burned behind his visible eye.