Chapter 142
The Glimmerhide Group along with Carly entered the next room, and it was a grand looking room. The far wall was comprised of floor to ceiling windows that looked out over the tall grasses that the group had traveled through to get here. If Jay could get to the windows he was certain he'd be able to look down and see the flower patch they had walked through. Centered along the far wall was a giant lamp that rotated. It was a standard looking lighthouse lamp, but its location in the room was unusual.
Normal lighthouses would have a lamp centered on the roof. This lighthouse appeared to be set up quite differently and Jay was momentarily overcome as his brain tried to come up with some possible reason for the lamp to be set up right next to the windows instead of in the center of the room surrounded by windows. It was an odd setup.
Every so often the light would swing past the group and they were forced to squint their eyes and look away or be blinded. The ceiling was high, double the usual height and was difficult to make out, except for when the lamp rotated in their direction and the entire world appeared to light up all at once. Thick wooden beams held up the ceiling.
The walls were stone, smooth in appearance, and without seams. The floor was polished wood, a dark glossy stain making the ground seem almost reflective.
A streak of lightning raced across the night sky outside the wall of glass windows and the image seared their eyes as they were unprepared for it. As they looked away from the bright light a sudden crash overwhelmed them as thunder loud enough to feel in one's bones rolled across the sky in a series of deep resounding booms.
Rain began to fall, the drops pattering against the glass windows. The sound of rainfall on glass filled the room as another streak of lightning and boom of thunder crashed across the inky black sky.
Jay switched his attention from the far opposite wall to the walls along the side. There were paintings hung along the walls, their pictures too grimy to make out details. Along the base of the walls were circular looking holes spaced every few feet apart from one another. The holes were all sealed but Jay could make out that they ran the length of the room along both sides. In addition, each wall had what appeared to be an ornamental waterfall.
The waterfalls were only a foot wide at most and they didn't use a lot of water. It was more of a water-trickle than a waterfall. There was one on the left and right walls.
The group hadn't spread out the way they normally would and were clustered together, perhaps due to the thunder & lightning or perhaps due to their own nervousness, each had their own reasons. They had however all stepped to the side after passing through the door.
T'lly would have been proud. Or she'd at least not yell at them for doing it right. Ok, maybe she'd yell at them anyway – it was hard to tell with T'lly sometimes. Still, the group had reacted as she had taught them. Go through the fatal funnel and then immediately to the sides, don't plug it up with your body!
The group stood uncertainly clustered together and it was M'redith that was first to speak.
“Any ideas? I think I see some holes along the walls, we might have to dodge rats, but that's all I've been able to figure out so far.” M'redith said quietly, not quite whispering but not speaking loudly either.
Jay nodded, “The light. Stay in the light. If this last boss uses mechanics from earlier mini-bosses then we need to remember what we've learned in here so far. Dodge rats. Kick poop. Rinse off debuffs in the waterfall. Follow the light when it gets foggy. Don't fight things in the fog, use the light to kill them.”
“What? All of that at once?!” Aiden asked. He seemed a little upset.
Jay sighed and shook his head, “All that and probably more. Most big end bosses have their own mechanics as well. Don't worry, we've done great so far. We've got this!” Jay said in encouragement.
Aiden didn't appear as if he agreed but he went quiet and didn't argue. Not that there was any point in arguing – they were at the main boss and they were going to fight him. No one was prepared to turn around and just leave.
The lamp's beam swung past them once again and the group shaded their eyes from the glare. Once the beam of light had passed however it left behind a tall shape standing in the middle of the room.
A man the height of Jay stood with his back straight, his face hidden in the shadows of his hat. The man was wearing a yellow raincoat that extended all the way to the floor and a yellow rain hat, pulled down to hide his face. In one gloved hand he carried a vicious looking knife. In the other he held a coil of rope with a dangerous looking hook on the end, its sharp point glinting in the passing lamp light.
“THAT'S the BOSS?!” Aiden asked incredulously, “He looks like Jay in a raincoat!”
The man's rope holding hand swung and the sharp hook shot out towards the group, the rope playing out of the coil he held at a furious pace. The hook struck Aiden and fouled around his left arm, the tip biting in to his leather armor. The man began to pull the rope towards him and Aiden skidded forward.
The others all grabbed the rope and pulled while Norri helped Aiden unhook himself. As they held the rope the man ran towards them brandishing the knife held out between them. As he ran towards them M'redith got her feet under her, squared up her shoulders, and pushed when she intercepted the man and they made contact. She swept his knife to the side with her sword just before they collided.
A sickening crunch could be heard as the man was bodily checked back across the room at an odd angle and landed in a heap. M'redith stood unharmed but looked a bit winded.
The group didn't need any encouragement but spread out.
“Who is this guy?!” Aiden yelled out over the sound of pattering rain.
“Lighthouse Keeper, just look at him. He LOOKS like he works at a lighthouse, doesn't he?” Norri yelled back a bit flippantly but with a grin on her face as she readied her staff. Although Norri could not use her Ursine Rage until a day had passed she still had the use of her staff, and she planned on using it.
The man got back to his feet as if nothing had happened. He pointed at M'redith and stomped over to her. He had recoiled his rope and was once again swinging the hook on its end in the air as he circled M'redith.
She let him circle her until he was between her and her group. That was when she stopped allowing him to move freely. The next time he tried to go around her she delivered a blistering side swipe that left an opened cut in the rain jacket. The man had narrowly avoided being disemboweled as he had pulled his midsection out of the way with the barest of margins.
The lighthouse keeper was forced to stay between M'redith and her group as neither would let the man reposition himself.
Norri struck the man's left ankle once, twice, and he lifted his foot off the ground in pain. M'redith followed up with an overhand blow that forced him to dodge or die, so he dodged. His left foot came down but not in time and Norri and M'redith struck repeated blows as he frantically tried to regain his balance.
The others hadn't been standing still that whole time, and Carly had managed to cast one of her Starburst. The six inch star sped towards the Keeper and struck the raincoat and then peppered it with 100 tiny stars that then themselves exploded. The raincoat became torn and tattered with tens of tears and holes in it.
Jay attacked when he could find an opening, which wasn't often. He kept an eye out instead on the battlefield and watched out for any changes in the combat mechanics.
Aiden constantly re-positioned himself so that he would be able to heal anyone in his group should they need it. He could certainly fire off a few Physician's Bolts – they would definitely do damage – but they would also cost him mana that he would not get back until after the fight. If he used too much of his mana damaging the boss he'd find himself with not enough mana for healing when the time came.
So Aiden watched, and waited.
M'redith and Norri at the front of the fight continued to trap the boss between them and struck repeated blows against the man. Carly kept up a barrage of explosive stars as well, the yellow jacket and hat quickly becoming nothing but tattered strips only held together by a few threads.
The fight progressed with no breaks as the man suddenly whipped his knife in a wide arc as he turned to face behind him. The knife carved its way along the surface of Norri's armor and left a deep gouge in the leather. The tip of the blade had then slid off the leather and caught Norri's skin when the blade passed through a gap in the leather.
Norri was hit hard and went down, bleeding profusely.
M'redith delivered a vicious overhand cut that wedged in to the man's shoulder for a moment before she could forcefully tug her weapon free once again. As she did so the man screamed, an inhuman sound that made its enemies reassess whether it was truly a man or not. She delivered additional blows with as much force as she could muster in an attempt to force the boss to ignore the injured Norri and to focus on M'redith instead.
Aiden and Jay had leapt forward to save Norri. They dragged her back away from the boss and Jay took up a fighting stance between her and the boss. Jay took a step forward as Aiden dragged Norri further back.
Aiden tried to get a better look at Norri's wound but her midsection was awash with flowing blood that made it impossible to determine where exactly her wound, or wounds, were. Aiden decided that speed was more important than precision and began casting Patchwork all along her abdomen. Soon her entire midsection was wrapped in patches.
Aiden checked her skin tone and pupils and found her to have gone almost white, her flesh a pale version of her normally healthy coloring. Aiden fired off a Physician's Blast at point blank range and sent all three bolts hurtling in to her midsection. She shook in his arms as her body was quickly coated in a green gel before it disappeared entirely, absorbed by Norri's damaged body.
The improvement was as rapid as it was effective. Her pupils went from the dilation of shock to the focus of a woman with things to do. Aiden smiled as he realized that Norri was healthy again.
“Thank you but let me go!” Norri yelled.
Aiden realized that he was still holding on to the back of her armor with one hand and let go of her with an apologetic smile. Norri grinned, winked at him, and jumped up before swooning momentarily. Aiden stood and helped her keep her balance as her blood pressure rapidly returned to what it should be.
“I'm good! Thanks!” she said as he let her go and she ran past Jay and rejoined the fight.
Jay was thrilled to have her back. He hadn't been of much help to M'redith and she had become a bit overwhelmed when Norri raced back to her rescue.
Jay took a step back as the two main melee combatants in their group went to work on the Lighthouse Keeper once again.
The Keeper was an excellent combatant and kept not only M'redith but Norri as well at arms length for the majority of the fight. Only occasionally would either of the two women be able to land a hit on the Keeper, and when they did, it didn't seem to do a whole lot of damage.
Something was off, Jay thought. “Why isn't it hurting more? You two are kicking the life out of it!” he yelled to them.
“This thing doesn't fight like a man! I'm not surprised we're not doing more damage.” M'redith yelled back.
Norri managed to sling the end of her staff around in an arc over her head and then along the ground. The staff made contact with the Keeper's knee right as he was about to lower that leg for balance. The leg never made it. Norri's strike forced the leg off at an odd angle and the Keeper fell to the ground in a heap.
M'redith quickly swung her sword in to a reverse grip and began stabbing downwards over and over again, the blade passing through the yellow raincoat as if it didn't exist.
The shape stopped moving and the group all took a step back, unsure of what that meant.
“Did we win?” Aiden asked.
The Keeper stirred. With one hand the Keeper tore away at its jacket. It removed its gloves before finally wiping the hat off of its head with one hand. The Keeper stood as its outfit disintegrated around it.
They could plainly make out the man now where before they could only see the raincoat. It was no man at all, but a skeleton, bones stained brown and black, its eyes glowing red.
The lighthouse lamp sent a brilliant beam of light that swept across the room and blinded all within. When the light had passed, the skeleton was gone.
A scrabbling could be heard and Jay whipped his head back and forth as he tried to locate the source. A 'snick' sound was heard as Jay saw the tiny doors in the wall open.
“Rats! Get ready to dodge!” Jay yelled as furious squeaking could be heard.
A massive wave of rats appeared and began to cover one entire side of the room near the windows.
“Run back to the entrance!” Carly yelled as she turned and ran back to the doorway they had entered from. The door was shut tight but that didn't matter to Carly. Her side of the room was entirely clear of rats while the other side was beginning to fill with lines of rats a bit at a time.
Thankfully the others were fast enough and made it with time to spare. They all gathered together and watched lines of rats take over the far side of the room. Slowly the rats began to dissipate before they left entirely. Another 'snick' and the holes along the walls closed.
“Get ready!” M'redith called out as another beam of light swept past the group, blinding them once more.
When the light had finally passed them the skeleton was back, and grinning, red eyes still glowing brightly.
M'redith ran towards the boss and met it in the center of the room. Again she danced around the monster as she tried to force it to face away from the rest of her group. Finally she managed to force the boss to face away from the others and she switched from trying to bait the creature in to turning to trying to force the creature to stay in place.
Swords and bones don't go well together. It's hard to cut bone – it's a lot easier to crush them. That was what Norri was trying to do and she delivered crushing blow after crushing blow. Not all of them were effective, but after a couple had gotten past its defenses the skeleton turned and refocused on Norri.
That turned out to be a fairly dumb move as Norri was far better suited currently to fight the skeleton compared to M'redith, who was armed only with her sword.
M'redith, now at the creatures back, continued to rain strikes down upon the skeleton while Norri kept its attention while at the same time deflecting its attacks.
Norri and M'redith delivered a strike at the same time and crushed the skeleton between their weapons. The skeleton let out a freakish sounding scream and sent its hook flying in to the air once again. It struck out at Carly and the hook and line wrapped around one of her legs. The skeleton pulled mightily and managed to send Carly sprawling on to the ground.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The boss ignored the other two women as he pulled the line in and dragged Carly across the room bit by bit.
Carly was more angry than scared, and focused on sending a Starburst that directly struck the line between her and the boss. Her focus and aim proved true and the star struck the line and exploded. The line held but was now lit on fire. A hundred other stars burst all around the line, some in the air, some along the surface of the rope, others burrowed in further before popping.
With a high pitched straining sound the line stretched taught before it snapped completely. The boss stumbled backwards and M'redith hacked furiously at its shoulder. Finally she managed to do some major damage and caused the boss' clavicle to shatter.
The skeleton had two clavicle bones, one on each side. The clavicle on the side of its body that held the rope shattered and the skeleton's arm folded forward and came to rest on its chest. When the skeleton tried to move the arm it ended up dropping the rope instead.
The skeleton screamed as the others in the group yelled encouragement at M'redith.
“Great Job M'redith!” Norri yelled, delivered almost a cheer.
The skeleton lowered its head as another beam of lantern light swept across the room. The group was momentarily blinded for a moment before the light dissipated, the boss no longer anywhere to be found.
“Get ready to move!” M'redith yelled.
A blanket of fog began to roll across the floor emanating from the windows. The fog began to spread and thicken and blocked the group's view of the room.
“Stack up!” M'redith yelled as she ran towards the rest of the group.
Everyone quickly got in to line in the same order they had throughout the dungeon. The fog had gotten so thick that each of them grabbed on to the armor of the person in front of them just so that they wouldn't lose them.
The fog expanded and thickened before turning an ominous black, like storm clouds. The light in the room began to dim and darken until the group was in almost total darkness. The fog drifted across the room, hiding everything completely.
A bright light shone in the darkness, a sweep of light that was gone as fast as it appeared.
“Moving!” M'redith whispered. She still remembered that talking loudly attracted enemies in the fog.
The group moved out at a slow pace, not wanting to become separated from the others.
Clicking and chittering could be heard off in the distance in the fog. M'redith led them further and further in to the fog. The group was beginning to wonder if they had gotten lost when another beam of light swept past them from off to their left.
As the beam swept over the group it also struck a number of low slung insect looking creatures that almost hugged the ground as they skittered towards the group, opened maws glistening.
Carly let out a high pitched squeal of terror when she caught sight of them and readied her Starburst ability but didn't have time to cast it before the passing light shredded the creatures where they stood.
“Hurry!” M'redith whispered as she moved out at a jog. The others followed along but Carly got left behind a bit as she had kept too much of her attention on her enemies and not enough on her group mates.
“Hold up!” Jay whispered furiously as M'redith and group came to a stop in the fog. “We lost Carly. Carly! Pssst!” he whispered.
Carly finally heard Jay as if far off in the distance and began walking towards him. She reached him almost immediately. He had been close by but invisible in the fog. Somehow he had sounded as if he was far away. She frantically reached out and grabbed at the back of his armor, her eyes wide.
“Stay close,” Jay scolded her kindly. “Good to go M,” he said, shortening her name to a single letter.
Carly nodded, not even commenting on Jay's tone.
M'redith wasn't sure how she felt at being called M and decided to save that discussion for later. Instead she turned and continued on in the direction she was facing.
The sweeping beam of light came again and again. Sometimes from their sides, a few times from behind them. It seemed like they had been walking in the mist for hours while being chased by giant insects when suddenly they stepped in to a space clear of all fog.
The bright light swept by them again, this time blindingly bright and when it had passed the fog was gone. The skeleton was back and had appeared very close to the group. He appeared with one arm still trapped along his chest, unusable thanks to a missing clavicle bone.
He did however still have his knife hand handy and he employed it to great effect. He swung the knife in a high arc as he stepped in close towards the group.
Everyone had just exited the fog and was not prepared for the boss's attack. The blade swept past the bunched up group and caught Jay along the forehead as well as Carly along her left eye.
Both wounds bled, a lot, and Carly screamed in pain. Jay's wound wasn't very painful at all but bled as if he was rapidly dying. He was not. However, Carly's face had a gash along the eye and was bleeding and weeping fluids. Carly began crying from the pain.
Jay leaned forwards so the blood would drip to the floor and not on to his chest and moved closer to Aiden.
Aiden was a bit shocked at having two people to heal at once. Up until that point injuries had come in one at a time for the most part. He reached out with one hand and pressed it up against Jay's forehead. He cast Patchwork a few times until the bleeding stopped. Aiden was covered in other people's blood at that point and didn't care if he got a little more on himself.
He turned and reached out towards Carly but didn't touch her. He fired off a Physician's Blast and watched to see how it would land. Two bolts took Carly in the face, the green glassy bolts becoming a gel that covered her head and face before the magic healing was absorbed by her and went to work repairing whatever damage it could find.
Aiden then reached out and cast Patchwork over her damaged eye. It would have to remain until they could reach an infirmary with more advanced healers. She would get her eye back, but not until after they left the Lighthouse. Carly rubbed at her face and tried to clear most of the blood off of her as the pain thankfully receded.
The final bolt leapt across the intervening space and struck the skeleton. As the bolts struck the skeleton Aiden received a combat notification.
Physician's Blast deals bonus damage to undead! Lighthouse Keeper is now engulfed! Affected area takes increased damage from all sources!
Aiden let out a woop as he yelled to the rest of the group what he had just discovered. He needn't have bothered however as the skeleton let out a high pitched keening and used its knife hand to try and wipe off the gel that had stuck to it as the bolt had landed.
The gel was absorbed in to the skeleton's bones where it had struck and parts of it became engulfed in green flames. The flames weren't large, they were almost a faint aura over where the bolt had struck, but the effected bones looked as if they had taken, and were continuing to take, some serious damage.
Parts of the skeleton now glowed green, and the green bones looked as if they were in the process of disintegration.
The damage must have been enough to push the skeleton in to the next phase of the fight and a beam of light swept past them. They were blinded and the boss was gone after the light had passed, exactly as it had been the other times.
The scrabbling started up once again and M'redith called out, “Get ready to move! Rats!”
Carly looked upset at having to face awful rats again but she gritted her teeth and forced herself to stay focused. She could do this she told herself.
The rats began to come out from holes all along the walls and the group began to panic, unsure of where to walk. Carly was no longer sure if she could do this. She could do this, right? Carly focused on the group's survival and nothing else.
“Line up next to me!” Jay shouted as he found a safe lane between two approaching lines of rats.
The rest of the group tried to make it over to him but did not succeed. Jay, Aiden, and Carly had all gathered next to each other in a safe lane where no rats had appeared. M'redith and Norri frantically avoided the rats as they tried to find another open lane.
They found one almost right next to the windows and took a brief moment to glance out at the stormy weather, rain beading down the glass in rivulets.
“Poop!” yelled Jay.
“No need to swear!” responded Norri.
“No, get ready to kick away poop!!” Jay yelled back.
The rats had begun to occasionally leave a round dropping on the ground that would then roll between any intervening lines of rats until it could get close to Jay's team. The floor wasn't tilted, the poop just seemed to roll under their own power. Magic, Jay assumed. Poop magic?
Jay laughed but refused to explain to anyone else why. He assumed they would NOT find it amusing the way he did.
The first ball of poop rolled up to Jay and he quickly kicked it away before it came to a stop. More and more balls of poop were dispensed in the room and they each rapidly rolled towards one of the group. Thank Goddess the balls of poop were solid and mostly unbreakable.
A rather brutal curse word was spoken by M'redith as she failed to kick the ball away in time and was given a debuff. A very stinky debuff.
Rat's Ass Gas – you have been covered in rat's ass gas and will gradually smell worse and worse with each additional stack of this debuff. After a predetermined but secret number of stacks the gas will begin to make the targeted individual physically sick and weakened. The gas will then also affect anyone within 5 feet and becomes capable of spreading to others. There is no limit to the number of stacks you may accrue. This debuff will remain until removed. There are many ways to do so, discovering them is up to you!
M'redith let out another curse before she then read the notification to the rest of the group as they each kicked poop balls away from themselves.
Moments later Aiden groaned as he too failed to kick a ball of poop away in time and was rewarded with the Rat's Ass Gas debuff.
The poop balls continued to roll towards them for another thirty seconds before the rats disappeared in to their holes which then closed with a snick sound.
“Quick!” yelled Jay, “Run to the fountains and cure your debuffs!”
Jay, Carly, and Norri gathered up in the center of the room while M'redith and Aiden ran to the waterfall on the left side of the room. M'redith quickly dunked her head under the trickle of water and was rewarded with a new notification.
The healing waters from the waterfall has left you clean! Rat's Ass Gas has successfully been purged. 6 instances removed.
As Aiden attempted to use the waterfall however the water stopped falling and the waterfall went silent.
“What the heck is going on?” asked Aiden as he and M'redith both ran back to the center of the group.
“Don't stop Aiden!” Jay told him, “Go to the other side and use the other waterfall. Hurry, before the boss gets back.”
Aiden ran to the right side of the room and used the waterfall there. He dunked his head under the trickle of water and was given a notification just before the water ceased to flow.
The healing waters from the waterfall has left you clean! Rat's Ass Gas has successfully been purged. 11 instances removed.
A bright beam of light swung past the group and blinded them. The boss was revealed as the light faded and was standing near the lighthouse lamp enclosure over by the windows.
M'redith and Norri trotted over to it and M'redith began once again to try and turn the boss so it was facing away from the group. She had gotten it to at least face to the side instead of directly towards the group when Jay noticed a major change.
A red line had appeared on the ground, six feet wide, that emanated from the boss and extended all the way to the room's edge. M'redith was standing directly in the middle of the six foot wide lane.
Jay was confused for a moment but quickly recovered. He had remembered that he had an ability that didn't get much use. When it did show up though it was in life or death situations.
Fancy Footwork (uncommon) – During combat when any enemy prepares to use a special ability the area of that ability's effect will be highlighted on the ground in red. The highlighted portion is only visible to the caster and indicates where an ability will do damage once it completes. Once the ability executes the highlighted portion will disappear.
“M'redith! FANCY DOPPLEGANGER NOW! HURRY!” he shouted and M'redith's head whipped around to face him.
Without even pausing she smoothly transitioned in to her second Class Ability. M'redith's body suddenly appeared in front and behind the boss for a split second before the M'redith in front of the skeleton burst in to sparkling glitter.
The boss's eyes suddenly glowed bright red as a beam of fire shot out in a wide band across the room where M'redith had been standing a moment before. Briefly the beam was stopped by the glitter but M'redith had already been in motion with her next attack and struck with a straight thrust. As soon as she made contact with the skeleton the glitter disappeared and the flames shot out the remaining length of the room until the flames danced across the wall they had reached.
A few seconds later and the flames disappeared, the skeleton turned, and attempted to attack M'redith.
Aiden fired off a Physician's Blast. One of the bolts went wide and struck the wall harmlessly. The other two however struck the skeleton and again lit it on fire. He received another notification that the skeleton had been engulfed. The front of the skeleton was now a mess of disintegrated bones and green flames.
Aiden followed up with a second volley but only one bolt reached the skeleton, striking the neck which began to flicker with green flames just like the other struck bones.
M'redith hacked away at the skeleton and was thrilled to discover that she was finally hacking away at the bones and making progress. Chips of bone fell to the ground as she and Norri delivered blow after blow.
Aiden fired another volley, and then another. He was becoming dangerously low on mana and wouldn't be able to heal very much at the rate he was going. He was the only one in the group capable of really damaging the boss however. What's more, his damage let other group members do even more damage to the boss. A double win.
They'd have no need of healing if Aiden could kill the boss in time.
Aiden had enough mana left for another bolt or two.
Again he fired as two bolts went wild and the third struck the skeleton's neck straight on, the bones quickly glowing green as they began to shed flakes.
M'redith caught sight of the bolt landing and immediately followed that up with a brutal overhand swing that came down on the skeleton's neck. The head and a bit of the shoulder popped free of the skeleton's body and fell to the ground. The head rolled a bit and came to a rest a few feet away from Carly.
The skeleton's eyes were still glowing red and its body was still fighting as if nothing had happened.
Aiden looked about until he found the skeleton and cast his last Physician's Bolts at it. One bolt went wide and hit Carly who smiled as the bolt turned to a soothing green gel that was absorbed by Carly's body.
The remaining two bolts struck the skeleton's head and crackled as the green substance was absorbed in to the bone, crackling green flames danced across its surface. The bone darkened and flaked and Carly took the opportunity to join in.
She cast Starburst and the golden six inch star descended gently and rested on the surface of the skull before burrowing inside. The star exploded into 100 tiny stars which then burrowed further in to the skull. With a loud popping sound the stars exploded and shattered the skull. Bits and flakes of bone were shot all across the room and left nothing behind that was recognizable.
The body collapsed once the skull was destroyed and the room became abruptly quiet save for the sounds of heavy panting, the creaking of leather armor as they each sat down where they stood, and the pitter patter of rain drops on the expansive glass windows.
In the semi-silence the skeleton began to flake away in to motes of light and rose in to the air before disappearing entirely. Like watching rain only in reverse the group sat quietly until the body was gone. In its place was a giant golden chest, platinum bands ran across its surface, studded with gems Jay was unfamiliar with.
“We did it!?” Carly half stated and half asked as she rubbed at the patches over her wounded eye which had begun to throb in mild pain.
“Great job everyone!” Norri said brightly before closing her eyes and going silent.
Everyone needed a moment to recover.