My main goal was to reach the necromancer and do something to get them to stop. Maybe I can just threaten them or maybe… Well, I had another option. Scorch Affinity would probably be able to weaken her magic, or at least distract her long enough for me to think of something that would work better.

Experimentally, I flipped that metaphorical switch and felt something that I couldn’t quite sense shift in my Lightning. I didn’t really know much about undead, but if they were similar to the Water Elemental then this should do some serious damage.

As soon as a Skeleton got within a metre of me, I threw a Bolt at as close to the centre of its ribcage as I could. The attack flew and in the blink of an eye had lodged itself within the monster’s bones, subtly pushing it backwards thanks to the effect of Grand Skewer. Waves of Lightning washed over it and, over a period of just a second or so, something about it felt somewhat reduced. Like it was no longer quite as fully the same as before, if that makes sense.

But a theoretically reduced skeleton wasn’t a dead skeleton, and it continued to make its way inexorably towards me. Well, that makes it sound much more impressive than it actually was. In reality, the Bolt that was still pushing it away meant that its movement was significantly slowed and, once it gave up on walking or running and tried to lunge at me, it was unable to account for the jarring change to its mobility and simply fell straight onto the ground.

Alright, so that’s a no go. I’ll just stick with blowing them apart for now, then.

Thankfully, my other bolt had still been charging whilst this was going on, so after pushing just a little bit more Mana into it I felt confident that it was strong enough to finish it off. Unfortunately, a sudden and glaring spike in the feeling from Sense Danger gave me just barely enough warning to jump backwards out of the way of a pitchfork that was being held by, surprise surprise, another Skeleton.

Shoot, gotta look out for that.

I changed my target and instead shot the Bolt at the new, much more threatening, Skeleton and managed to land a hit right on its sternum. It was thrown back from the force of the blast, then thrown further when it failed to disappear on contact, and I watched it be scorched and burned to the point that it lost whatever was keeping it moving.

That’s more like it.

I didn’t stop to rest when the Skeleton was launched, and ran down the gap that had been created by its sudden and violent backwards trajectory, clutching my side in an attempt to stem the bleeding. That turned out to not be one of my brightest ideas, however, when the dozen or so Skeletons that were now surrounding me all began to simultaneously launch attacks at me in a chaotic mess, demanding every ounce of my attention.

Forgoing any more Lightning Bolts, I focused all my Mana recovery on a passive Lightning Cloak, sometimes pushing a sliver of Mana in to deflect an attack that I was able to predict. But I wasn’t able to predict everything, not even close, and Sense Danger ended up being more of a liability. The all encompassing feeling of unease, of wrongness, combined with the slashes and stabs that began to rain down on me ate away at my focus. Within seconds, I was beginning to mess up when deflecting attacks, and whilst my Breath Of Mana Lightning Cloak was doing a decent enough job at softening the blows, it couldn’t block or deflect the attacks entirely.

Instinctively, I began to do the only thing I knew for sure would let me focus properly. I closed my eyes and took in deep breaths, trying to Meditate to calm my mind. Almost without even realising it, I pushed more Mana into my Cloak, slowly draining my Pool but allowing me to last just that little bit longer.

Then something about Sense Danger changed, and I felt my mind almost go blank. I could still think just fine, but it felt trivially easy to just ignore all of those pesky distractions like pain, worry, and grief. My mind just felt… clear, like when I Meditated only distinctly different.

Proficiency Gained You Have Reached Max Level In The Skills [Sense Danger] And [Meditation]

Compatible Skills Detected Would You Like To Merge The Skills [Sense Danger] And [Meditation]?

Error [King Slayer] Has Overridden Your Choice

Merging Skills [Sense Danger] And [Meditation] [King Slayer] Has Created The General Skill [Battle Meditation]

All of these notifications flashed through my mind in an instant, and I ignored every single one of them. Ultimately, they weren’t as important as getting out of this situation and dealing with that Necromancer.

I felt an attack coming towards me from my left and immediately spun to face it, cutting off the flow of Mana to my Cloak. Raising a hand with a hurriedly Charged Bolt, I loosed it towards the Skeleton’s ribs. Knowing that I couldn’t finish it with such a weak attack, I immediately followed it up with a kick that was able to do that last little bit of damage that I needed.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Idly, I thought about how slow the Skeletons had gotten, only to feel something building up in what I could reach of my mind in this state.

Proficiency Gained Would You Like To Take The General Skill [Fast Thinking]?

For a moment I thought about whether or not to take the Skill, but then I realised that I didn’t have the time to think about anything in the midst of battle and just took the damned Skill. I thought that the Skeletons would have slowed down even more, but I guess the Skill didn’t come with Fast Seeing or something like that.

Also, have I ever declined a General Skill? I think I might have when I first got Meditation, but then I ended up taking that one anyway.

Skill Gained

Existing Proficiency Detected

Altering Level

Regardless, with my new Skills it became laughably easy to react to the attacks raining down around me, and I found myself easily dodging or deflecting every attempt at my life. My wounds still throbbed angrily, and I felt a less than ideal amount of blood escaping from my body, but I was riding the high of suddenly turning the tables on a previously overwhelming foe.

Maybe I should just beat all the Skeletons into dust! Who needs to use the best strategy?

Me, I need to use the best strategy.

The demeanour of the Skeletons shifted, and all of a sudden their clumsy and random attacks began to become more skillful, and I was forced to dodge one blade only to land right in front of another. The Necromancer had noticed my sudden growth and decided to do something about it.

Any joy and hope that had come from my success was immediately shattered, despite apparently not being a particularly impressive example of a Necromancer, I was completely unable to stand up against them. Was I just weak, or were Necromancers just that strong?

I continued to dodge any attack that I could, allowing the instincts and warnings from Battle Meditation to take over, but it was beginning to feel as though the fight was unwinnable. By failing to take that opportunity in the beginning I may have killed both myself and Render.

And I wouldn’t have even killed them if I’d used Scorch Affinity, how could I have just forgotten about it?

The question was obviously rhetorical, I knew how. What had happened with the Water elemental had soured it in my mind, it felt like too cruel of an option to use on any feeling being, even though logically I knew that only Elementals would react that way.

Lost in my own thoughts, my reactions slowed down ever so slightly. Not enough for me to notice and act accordingly, but plenty for me to be just barely too slow to dodge an attack. I felt it coming, but had just stepped backwards away from the wide arc of a sword swing, so I knew that I wouldn’t have enough time to dodge.

That won’t kill me, will it?

In truth, I had no idea. All I knew was that the attack would land and, even if I used my Cloak, it would most likely deal a significant amount of damage. Certainly enough to slow me down even further.

I panicked, and wasted nearly a tenth of my Mana on an uncontrolled burst of Lightning Cloak, giving me just a little bit of breathing room but not even changing the direction of the attack coming towards me.

Wow, good thing I have Fast Thinking. I’ll be able to think about all the mistakes that led me to this moment. That’s just fantastic.

But then I heard the sound of something blunt slamming into the dirt nearby, and in the next instant a fist wreathed in what looked like bluish grey flame crushed the skull of what may well have become my murderer.

“Rob, we are running out of time. I cannot keep fighting for much longer, and there are still over half of the Skeletons left.”

Half? But I’ve only killed like 3!

Uncaring of my shock and feelings of inadequacy, Render powered on, talking whilst still holding off a literal horde of Skeletons, “I will do my best to create an opening Will you be able to deal with the Necromancer with, let’s say, 15 seconds?”

15 seconds?! That’s just not possible, there are still too many obstacles between me and them, I’d probably have to jump over them or something. Lightning Steps with my weird version of Channel Lightning might be able to make it if they were higher level, but they just don’t have enough power to get me that far.

Oh, wait. How have I never tried that before?

“On it.” I nodded and crouched down, trusting that Render wouldn’t let any Skeletons get close enough to hit me.

Lightning arced across my legs, building up in bursts of magical energy every second or so, until it had been 5 seconds and the Lightning was nearly dense enough to actually burn the grass around me.

Deciding to be a little cautious with my time, I enacted my plan right there. Ordinarily Lightning Steps would have gotten me just a short distance above Render’s head and I would have landed within a thrashing pit of deadly bones and weapons, but by actually boosting it with Charge that distance would grow… well I didn’t know by how much, but it would surely be a lot.

With these thoughts running through my head, I leapt through the air, watching as the Skeletons below me scrambled to reach Render and, further away, the Necromancer looked at me with an expression that I dearly wish wasn’t hidden behind their shadowy hood.

Before I even reached the top of my arc, I began to charge as much Lightning as I could between my hands. By the time I was around 5 metres above the ground and I was beginning to grow concerned about how I was planning to land, I’d already activated Scorch Affinity and shoved over a quarter of my remaining Mana into the spell.

Just about a second later, as I was nearing the Necromancer, the violent light of my Lightning Bolt shone around the battlefield. Skeletons rushed to get between me and the Necromancer, but my attention was being soundly taken when I suddenly remembered just who it was that they looked like, at possibly the worst time it could have happened.

Isn’t that the person who lived in the shack? The one with the Water Elemental problem? What in all the hells is going on here?

My confusion must have shown on my face because the Necromancer- Elaria, my mind finally supplied- looked to have seen an opportunity and held their hands together in a way similar to what I tend to do for Lightning Bolt.

No time for thinking, I’ll just do that later.

I’d already shoved around half of my Mana into this Bolt, which was not as much as I would have liked but it would have to do, so I stopped supplying Mana to it and pushed the Bolt towards the Necromancer.

For some reason, maybe a conflict with Scorch Affinity, it wasn’t nearly as easy to do as the Bolts earlier in the fight, but with my Willpower I simply powered through and fired the Bolt with barely a moment’s delay.

At this, the Necromancer finally looked panicked, and they scrambled to move out of the way. They’d barely managed to blink before the Bolt speared through their chest and slammed them into the ground. Something else happened as well, probably along the lines of the Skeletons losing their commander, but I was unable to see that as I, too, was slammed into the ground.

I had just enough time to curse my impulsiveness before I slammed into the grassy dirt and everything went black.