One may wonder how a skeleton can come to desire approval. Maybe it was some compulsion, some lingering part of the enchantment which Jorteg had originally given White Rose zes (un)life by. Maybe it was the Bony Love spell, which had mixed into zes being the seeds of a Wild Gnome.

In truth though, it was something much more simple. White Rose was a learning machine, and much of what ze learned was by mimicry, with some creative trial and errors of zes own. However, within that learning there was the learning to do right, and thus the discovery that certain actions within certain contexts were inherently not just prefential, but sought. Knowing which things were sought gave existence a certain intensity and breadth, it produced a liveliness within White Rose, making ze react to the world with mobilized energy – a clarity of purpose. For that was something sorely lacking, seeing as ze was undead and had no bodily functions to take care of, no natural compulsions to force interaction and entanglement with the world. Getting things wrong was, at the same time, a narrowing of zes world, a lessening of the intensity of life. Which psychologically speaking was like stepping towards death; a ceasing of being. And dying – even if it was more figurative than literal – it was still something that White Rose was very much opposed to.

Thus it was inevitable, given zes basic instinct for preservation, that ze should want Wizard Daddy’s approval. For he knew right. He knew right words, right sentences, right math – and ze loved math, there was so much right math to learn! – and he knew right things about the world. All the things that gave intensity to life. If ze could also learn from him the right punching-people-in-the-shoulder procedures, that would add a whole new domain of right things she knew. After all, there were a lot of people in the world. A horizon full of opportunities. Thus, White Rose wanted very much this to be right. That’s what ze thought, anyways, while adventurers were sent left and right, up and up into the air, before landing and joining the growing carpet of moaning bodies around them.

White Rose’s strategy for succeeding at Wizard Daddy’s mission was this: find a single target close to a gathering of other targets. Hit that first target really hard so it went into the other targets, knocking them down. In the next step, ze would run over and punch each knocked-over person in the shoulder before they could get up and run away. Then, find new targets following the same specifications, and repeat. Of course, it wasn’t necessarily that simple in practice.

“STOOOOOP! WHITE ROSE STOOOP!” Electroblade screamed the words as she countered adventurer after adventurer trying to stab and slash and smash both White Rose and herself. Meanwhile, White Rose was an unstoppable machine against the mainly low-to-mid level adventurers out here. Electroblade could only do but try to keep up as another female adventurer swung her sword their way, or another burly man tried to grapple them both, to which she had to give the man a thorough shock of electricity. Electroblade screamed again, “STOP! WHIIITE ROOOSE!”, and a few deflected blows later, she screamed once more. But the unstoppable machine would could not. Electroblade felt like strapped to a boulder running downhill. They might not’ve been picking up speed exactly, but for every passing second, the hopes of simply ceasing this continuous run of shoulder-breaking grew ever dimmer.

“WHITE ROSE!” Rum yelled frantically towards his skeleton. “STOP! ENOUGH!” But White Rose didn’t. It wasn’t that ze couldn’t hear him, ze always heard him, clearly. But in zes magic mind ze wanted more time, more time to complete zes task. Electroblade and Wizard Daddy were being too demanding right now! Asking ze to complete all those punches already? That was impossible! No, ze needed more time. So ze ignored the screams. The screams of Electroblade. The screams of Rum, and even the screams of Amez when he joined in, repeating the same similar phrases as the others. “STOP!”, “ENOUGH!”, “COME BACK!”. But no. Ze would show Wizard Daddy that ze could complete this task first. Then, and only then, he’d know that ze could do this too.

38, 39, 40, 41, 42. In zes head, White Rose counted the bodies – up until there was a sudden great shower of light, and WHOOOMMM! Some kind of spell surrounded zes position. In the midst of 12 moaning bodies ze halted, with no other adventurers close enough to strike. Nobody, except for one: a dwarf. Next to the dwarf was a ram. The dwarf calmly stroked the ear of his ram, before stepping away and clapping its behind, sending the animal away. As the animal went away, the dwarf was left in hands with a great shining shield, and a thick heavy hammer.

“You want to deal with these two yourself, Grum?” spoke a mounted elf man some short distance behind the dwarf. The elf, White Rose saw, was surrounded by a party of others, covered all over with shiny and magical gear.

“I don’t think that should be a problem” the dwarf replied.

“Hey-hey-hey-hey!” Electroblade raised her arms. “We come in peace! I PROMISE! It’s NOT what it looks like!”

“And what does it look like?” Grum the dwarf replied.

“Well, to be honest, it does look like we’re massacring everyone here” Electroblade tried for a very nervous smile, and looked around, as if to acknowledge the evidence. “But WE-HAVEN’T-KILLED-ANYONE!” she spurted, forehead sweating. “And nor do we intend to. Right, White Rose?” Electroblade tried to look up at White Rose from her harness, but White Rose didn’t look down to meet the gnome’s eyes. Rather, White Rose saw before ze an opportunity. One adventurer, aligned with a mass of bodies behind.

“I’d have to verify that statement” Grum commented. “But if you aren’t attacking our zerg to kill, why are you hitting everyone?”

“Eeeeh-eheheh... I don’t know. You see, White Rose here” she patted the skeleton’s kneecap with her blade, “was told to free herself from some people who were holding her down, and that... well, it turned into this, somehow.” Electroblade’s eyes darted between dwarf, the rest of the vanguard, and the collection of fallen adventurers.

“You just happened to take down dozens of our adventurers?” Grum raised a hairy eyebrow.

“Y-yes” Electroblade sweated some more.

Grum sighed. “Why don’t you just surrender” he gesticulated with his hammer, “and we can find out what happened from there.”

Electroblade smiled broadly, another nervous smile. She looked up to White Rose again. “We surrender, okay White Rose? Stand down? No more punching?”

For two very quiet seconds, nothing happened. White Rose stared at the party, the party stared at ze. Then ze took a step forward. Grum reacted instantly, raising his shield ever so slightly, his grip tightening around his hammer and shield. White Rose, moved quicker. Grum’s eyes widened slightly, his shield going higher still while his body entered a battle stance. White Rose started to sprint. “NOOOOO! WHITE ROOOOOOSE!” Electroblade cried in despair.

When White Rose got close – her target moved! Grum sprung to the side, circling around White Rose and closing in on ze from the side. Electroblade, eyes wet with tears of fright, deflected the blow with an electrified swing of her blade. The magic struck at Grum’s hammer, threatening to run across the metal and up into his body. Yet it didn’t. Instead, a red glow momentarily shone on the hammer and the electricity was apparently suppressed. The dwarf effortlessly swung the heavy hammer again, towards White Rose’s back this time, threatening to shatter the skeleton’s body.

White Rose, though taken by surprise, was fortunately quick to react. Not as one might expect in order to dodge or defend zeself. Ze had in fact never had to defend zeself, ze was a pure offensive machine. Instead White Rose ran around, trying to circle around the dwarf circling ze, and trying to reach the dwarf’s shoulder. The scene that developed from these two, the dwarf and the skeleton, each one trying to outmaneouver the other, was a strange one. From the outside, it really just looked like two people running around in a circle, perhaps as some sort of exercise, or even stranger dance.

“What are you doing, Grum?” shouted the elf man.

“What do you think!?”

“Looks like you’re playing!” The elf answered, a weak smile on his face.

Grum grunted, and threw himself at White Rose, charging straight for where he’d expect ze to go. White Rose though did not see the point in meeting this dwarf head on. After all, the dwarf had his shield raised, and he had that annoying hammer, so ze would not be able to punch his shoulder this way. As such, White Rose simply made a quick u-turn and ran off from the charge.

“Hey you there, come back you coward!” The dwarf sprinted after the skeleton, his heavy armor making metallic sounds with each step.

“You’re losing!” The elf on his horse burst out in a small fit of laughter.

“White Rose stop!” Rum shouted as he and Amez came over jogging.

“NO! WHITE ROSE RUUUN!” Electroblade contradicted. She did not have the same opinion about the outcome if they were to halt now. A successful hammerblow from a top level dwarf was not on her list of experiences to be had.

“You can’t outrun me!” The dwarf yelled from behind them. True to his words, and despite his heavy armor and short legs, the dwarf gained in on them, a ferocious grimace on his face.

“Aaaah!” Electroblade’s eyes were wide with fright looking back at their chasing enemy. “RUN-RUN-RUN FAAASTER!”

Seconds ticked by, and the dwarf closed in at 1.5 meters, then 1 meter, then 0.5 meter – just out of range to swing his hammer and strike true.

“White Rose! Towards me!” Rum shouted from the sidelines and for once, the skeleton listened. For why not? Ze wasn’t having much luck shaking this pursuer off ze. If Wizard Daddy had a plan or anything to help, ze’d take it. White Rose traced an arc in the field where the dwarf had been chasing, and bounded back towards zes daddy.

Rum meanwhile looked caught in preparing some kind of spell. As White Rose ran to him and passed him, ze was disappointed to see him doing nothing. However, as the dwarf followed passed, giving Rum a suspicious glance, Rum turned towards the back of the passing dwarf, his hand reaching out for a the briefest of touches. “Self-Running Legs!”

The dwarf’s legs slowed down. But – he hadn’t intended that? They slowed furthermore and to a halt. Then, before he could figure out how to regain locomotion, he was suddenly turning, and picking up speed again – AWAY from his target. “Whaaaaat!” The dwarf let out, disbelief on his face. “WHAAAAAT!” His voice, ironically, got louder the further the dwarf ran away.

From among the vanguard audience, the gnome mage looked sternly towards the departing figure. “I’ll help him.” She mumbled a spell. A blue shimmer spread about her figure, and up into the air she ascended, the robes about her becoming floaty as if deep in water, a graceful hovering sight. She flew after the dwarf who’d gotten on the road and was passing through scattered adventurers. Gathering a bright white ball of magic in her hand, she got closer and threw it at the dwarf. A great flash of white light went upon contact. As the flash blinded onlookers, and then receeded to show the world once more, the dwarf was shown staggered to a kneel. But no longer moving.

White Rose meanwhile had ran off to chase easier prey. 43, 44, 45, 46... Beginner and intermediate mages tried to slow ze down with firebolts and icebolts, entangling wines and spawned mud, but the speed of White Rose meant most spells missed from lack of target precision, while ze powered through the small mudpit before it could even fully materialize. A couple of firebolts that would’ve struck were also blocked by Electroblade’s sword slicing them with her own electric magic.

“I’ll take them down” stated the crossbow-gnome among the vanguard heroes. His face was steely calm, as he raised a small one-handed crossbow towards the amock shoulder-punching figure in the near distance, closing one of his own eyes to aim with his arm outstretched. TWACK!, it was the snappy sound of string and the friction against wood, not loud, but distinct.

Over where White Rose was counting – 52, 53, 54 – ze noticed nothing as the projectile came at ze with blinding speeds, entering the attire at zes neck at one side and exiting out the other. In fact, ze did not even notice once it had completed its penetration, neither did Electroblade notice anything, as she was too busy deflecting an adventurer stabbing at them.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The crossbow-gnome smiled at first, then, as White Rose seemed not to have reacted at all, he frowned. Ignoring the people around him, who gave his back stares, he took out another bolt, strung his hand-crossbow, and stretched out his arm again, taking a moment longer to aim this time. The first one had to have missed, right? TWACK! His shot flew right into White Rose’s chest, in between zes ribs, through her cavity, exiting out the other side. White Rose still noticed nothing, however, Electroblade heard a sound far too familiar and dangerous – one familiar to all experienced adventurers – that of a missile SWOSH! pass her head.

“White Rose!” The skeleton was in the process of knocking in another shoulder. “I think someone’s shooting at us. Can you see them!?”

Curious, and liking another opportunity to prove zeself, White Rose proceeded to finish punching the next and last shoulder in this group of moaning adventurers in front of them, before looking about, turning zes whole body in the course of scanning their surroundings.

“There!” Electroblade pointed with zes blade off in the distance, towards the crossbow-gnome as well as the other heroes. “He’s shooting at us! We must escape, or he’ll hit us eventually. Or me, more likely.” White Rose looked for a moment at the little gnome figure ahead, who was readying another bolt. “Don’t just stand still White Rose! RUN! Do something! We can’t just wait to be shot at!”

White Rose thought it over briefly. Maybe ze could make a bit of a detour to punch this troublesome other gnome first? Then he probably wouldn’t be firing at them anymore. Yes, ze quickly made up zes mind. In one swift turn of motion, ze charged across the field towards the vanguard, aiming for the crossbow-gnome.

“NOT WHAT I MEANT BY RUNNING!” Electroblade screamed as she realized they were about to confront people dozens of levels above them.

TWACK! The faint sound ahead was followed by the near instant CRACK! inside White Rose’s skull. Uncomprehending, the skeleton just continued running. However, ze did glance down at Electroblade. The gnome stopped screaming to look back up at the skeleton.

“There’s a bolt sticking out your face!” Having managed to lodge itself in the frontal cranium, the bolt’s thinly feathered back poked out from the black fabric like a crude ornament. White Rose didn’t know what to do with Electroblade’s observation though, so ze just continued sprinting forward.

Over to and among the vanguard, the crossbow-gnome had none of White Rose’s chill. He was rather starting to feel a tiny bit anxious. Three shots and the enemy didn’t as much as stagger? What kind of strong enchantment was his enemy carrying? The crossbow-gnome grimaced a silent snare, and decided to pluck from his belt a special bolt.

Meanwhile, the spear-gnome stepped up next to him. “Gilmak, I can take it from here. My spear–” he gestured his weapon, “–will halt that crazy duo before they ever get close to you.”

Gilmak the crossbow-gnome briefly glanced at his spear brother, dismayed. But his attention quickly returned to prey. Silently, he stretched out his arm, his left eye closed.

Ze was closing in on zes target!

TWACK!

CRACK!

White Rose felt something ze had never experienced before. At the moment of that last sound, a force so powerful exerted against ze that ze could not simply ignore it. The bolt struck one of zes rib bones, shattering it into pieces. Next, a magic of strange energies began filling the cavity of zes ribs. Over the course of a second, these magical energies swelled outwards, before detonating. Electroblade was struck by the blast eminating from White Rose’s midst. The pressure-wave flung her head and limbs forward, with her hand losing grasp of her sword. At the same time, the gnomish script on her arm flared and flickered like blue flames extinguished under a sudden storm.

White Rose collapsed forward. Electroblade, attached as she was by the harness, landed first among them. The skeletal body that followed draped itself across her like a black carpet. As White Rose was only bone, there was not any danger of Electroblade being squished by this event. However, her face and chest landed upon her own sharp sword, cutting serious strips of blood across her body.

In the scene that played out next, Rum and Amez both came rushing to their bodies, and before any of the vanguard had arrived.

“You” Gilmak pointed his unloaded hand-crossbow at Rum. “You interfered. You attacked Grum with magic.”

As if on cue, the dwarf came back that very moment. The dwarf’s bearded face looked red with outrage. His armor had picked up some dust along the way, and he was marching with determination towards all four of them: Rum, Amez, and the two fallen. “You treacherous swine! I should beat your face into the ground until your bones are dust!” To emphasize his threat, Grum’s teeth formed a snarl, while his hammer raised halfway up into the air as if to strike. Still, the dwarf slowed his pace down to a smooth stop as he got close. He was not, after all, going to charge right at them then and there.

“Calm down Grum” shouted the flying witch gnome, who entered the group of people surrounding the downed duo. “I can’t say he did you any great harm. You are, after all, unscathed.”

“Well my DIGNITY is NOT!” the dwarf barked back. “This insulting use of magic has got to have a price, Caliten!” As he said that though, his hammer was lowered slightly, and his anger appeared to vent.

“Hmm” Caliten the witch sounded. She looked over at Rum, who himself was trying to think of what to say or even when to speak. After all, the wizard had in fact ordered the dwarf’s legs to run all the way to Jorteg’s Dungeon, a merciless trip that probably would’ve caused the dwarf to lose consciousness before he got there. Nobody, of course, would know that this is what he’d intended. “What spell did you cast on my team mate?”

“Eeeh” Rum’s eyes went from dwarf tank, to gnome witch, back and forth, again, and once more. He had a pained smile as his eyes landed on the witch at last, whose stare felt more comfortable. “A simple order to leave the area” Rum replied, lying under the gaze of a furious dwarf he knew were far beyond his power level, and who more importantly, had equally powerful friends. No reason to try and take on a zerg all by yourself.

“A simple order, hmm? What was the spell?”

“Nothing you’d know” Rum replied quickly.

“But I know a lot of spells” Caliten countered. “Can’t you at least point me towards the god of this spell? Perhaps I can tell you if I know the spells offered by this god.”

“Eeeh” Rum began, and failed to come up with any god in his head at that moment. Should I just make up a god? There are a lot of gods. Surely this person cannot go around remembering all of them. “Bu—Bulbes. Bulbes, of The Great Coral Jungle. A minor deity, you wouldn’t know him I think. Very niche, hardly ever mentioned. Practically forgotten in the records.”

Caliten raised her eyebrow. She entered a thinking pose for just a moment, then fixed her eyes at Rum, narrowing them. “I do not know that name.”

Rum merely smiled back up.

“I don’t care what spell it was!” Grum interrupted. “It was an offense, an offense against the zerg! And ME!”

Caliten thought with difficulty in the silence that followed, while Grum appeared to try and reign in his own steaming aggression.

“Your group has committed an offense against the zerg, this is true” the witch finally spoke, directing her attention to Rum and Amez both. “You, for casting a spell against Grum” she nodded at Rum, “and them” she looked down, “for, well... obvious reasons.” She eyed the landscape about them, filled with moaning and beaten down bodies, and more hostile and scared glares further away. “Why did you do this” she spoke without taking her eyes off the masses.

“We were only defending ourselves” Amez injected, before Rum could offer an answer. However Rum spoke next after that, while Caliten turned her head back to them.

“I was merely scared what such a powerful man as this dwarf here would do to my child and assistant. I felt it necessary to save them both in that moment.”

“Okay, but why was your child and assistant rampaging throughout our forces?”

Rum sighed involuntarily. Amez probably tried to think of what to say, however it was Rum who answered first. “What started out as an act of defense did, regretably, take off a bit. For reasons that I’m not entirely certain of. To be frank, it might’ve taken off more than a bit.” He also glanced to the masses around them. “We are very sorry about what transpired here, and I will find a way to make sure it does not happen again.”

“MORE THAN A BIT!?” Shouted Grum. “You practically crippled the lower level portion of this entire zerg. Look around you! How many dozens of adventurers did your friend not beat useless!? I’d say this was staged – somehow. You working for the dungeon lords or something? Are you spies!?”

“Calm down Grum!” Caliten spoke with a loud firm voice. “Look at them, these aren’t spies. Who’d be so silly as to attack a zerg going after some low level dungeon lord like Jorteg, and inside the lands of Ermos? You know our march there is practically a publicity stunt. Jorteg is hardly a dangerous challenge for Ermos. If these were spies, they’d be the most useless kind. If they didn’t kill anyone, what are they doing here? Trying to raise the price of low grade healing potions?” She gestured sarcastically at a nearby moaning young wizard, crying from the pain of his dislocated shoulder.

“Maybe they’re bait” Grum replied suspiciously, and darted his eyes over to the horizon. “Maybe there’s an army waiting out there to attack us now, in our moment of distraction.”

Caliten rolled her eyes. “You are welcome to look for one. Meanwhile, I’ll be the voice of reason here. You!” she pointed at Rum. “This should be a fitting punishment for you – all of you. You will provide the equivalent of two standard low grade healing potions, free of charge, to every single person here targeted by your defense.” She made air quotes for the last word. “You can either pay up here, or we’ll take you as prisoners and escort you back to Ermos as criminals – after we’ve visited dungeon. The authorities there may hand you your judgement, unless you pay up now.”

“We’ll pay!” Amez blurted.

Rum’s mind was distracted though, his eyes lingering on White Rose below. What did they do to you? What happened to you, my child? When Amez nudged him, he blurted out in agreement as well. “Yes! We’ll pay. No worries. We have the money.” He looked about them. “I also know a powerful healing spell. If anyone would prefer that, I can alleviate all of their sufferings in seconds.”

Several adventurers chose to take Rum up on the offer as soon as it had been made. They’d rather have their pains taken away immediately, than wait for any healing potions to be distributed, even if that’d mean they’d probably have one potion to spare after recovery.

But first, “I just have to check on them both, see how hurt they are” Rum said to Caliten and Grum, before bending over the bodies of White Rose and Electroblade underneath. In truth, I’m really concerned that your disguise might be blown. With these top tier adventurers right next by, it would be disasterous should they see White Rose’s skeletal form revealed under the black cloth. Luckily, so far it appeared that none of the cuts to the attire had produced large open holes. Having determined this to be the case with a thorough glance across zes body, Rum switched over into the ethereal world, trying to sense the magical structure that was White Rose. Oh no. My child, your enchantments are damaged. At this rate, you will not be able to drain the mana you need to sustain yourself, and your bones will not be properly animated. In that moment, Rum felt his heart ache, and a tear mixed with relief and sorrow fell down his right cheek. Hopefully, I cannot see any major structural damage to your magical mind. Whatever nullifying magic they used against you, it must’ve not been strong enough to penetrate your mind.

Rum switched out of the ethereal world, and looked up at Caliten. “Give me a moment, my child is severely injured, and I must fix the damage.” Instead of waiting for a reply, Rum wiped away his tear, and immediately switched back into the ethereal world, mobilizing his mana for whatever repairs he could manage. The task of healing you is too great at this moment, my child. Yet I cannot leave you entirely disabled like this. Rum labored for only a few minutes, it was all he could do, given the circumstances. When he was done, he had restored some of White Rose’s mobility, but ze was not going to be making any great moves or be carrying large bags of loot for the rest of the journey. If luck is on our side, you will be walking mostly normal while still carrying Electroblade in her harness. Using the ethereal world to discover the fragments of zes bones on the ground, he walked over and collected them, putting it all into a pouch. Nobody asked him about that, which he was glad about. He also charged up White Rose’s mana pool, since the enchantment giving ze the ability to drain mana from Electroblade appeared to be broken beyond simple repair. Lastly, he rolled White Rose over to the side and found Electroblade.

“Took you long enough” the gnome said, giving him a smile even as her face betrayed the terrible cuts from her own blade.

Rum lay a hand on Electroblade’s head. “Trinity of Healing” he whispered, and the magic closed the wounds.

Next the wizard stood up. “I’m ready to see to whoever else needs healing” and so he went around, following the cries for healing. Grum stayed close to him all that time, watching the wizard’s every move as he walked from downed adventurer to the next. Fairly quickly, Rum was drained by the costs to mana of this job, and in the end had to decline the mounting cries for heals. “The rest of you will have to drink potions” he said through an exhausted breath.

Amez had meanwhile gone and found their loot and belongings, which they had thrown to the roadside in the events. The little brother counted up stacks of coins, and went around distributing it to the victims on the ground. Caliten stayed near White Rose, watching the disguised skeleton making tiny motions of life while staying down to rest with Electroblade. Gilmak held his fingers on the triggers of his loaded hand-crossbow throughout the exchange of heals and money. The gnome never let his eyes off Rum for long, except to glance down at White Rose and be sure that ze would not jump up and attack. Ze didn’t.

The other hero adventurers stood at a distance, making smalltalk during the whole tense but ultimately boring series of events. The mass of low level adventurers stood around the scene from a safe distance. A few of them hurled insults, complaints, or promised vengeance, but most just let the higher leveled adventurers deal with the situation, even the beat up adventurers largely acted content with the money they were granted as recompense.

In the end, Rum and Amez both came back, and White Rose carefully stood up on both zes feet. All of them were being watched carefully by the suspicious eyes of both Grum and Gilmak, while Caliten hovered with more of a mildly curious expression.

“We have the clean-up” Rum explained.

“We can go now, right?” Amez asked. “We are good? We can leave in peace?”

Grum snarled, though he chose not to speak. Caliten eyed the snarling Grum. “Mm-yes. You can go in peace. But we will make a note of what happened here. You are adventurers, right?”

“Yes” Rum replied.

“What is your guild?”

“The same as yours” Rum answered. “The Mecha-Gnomes’ Revenge.”

“In that case, you may receive an uncomfortable summonings in the future. But for now, you may go.” She waved them off with a hand, and turned around, hovering back to the other heroes. Gilmak was the next to turn and leave. Lastly, Grum produced a final sound of snarl, before he too turned and left them. The vast zerg gradually followed, though none in that little army felt the need to get more than a half a dozens meters close to them.

As most of the zerg had passed them, Amez finally turned to Rum, a puzzled expression on his face. “Where did our party go?”