This should not prove overly difficult, yes? As Tess flew off into the distance, Verin took stock of their situation. While she would not deny feeling more at ease with Tess around, her absence did not overly worry Verin. If anything, with how little Tess had let her contribute to fighting in the past week, Verin was almost eager to flex her magic a bit.
True, undead weren’t her preferred sparring partners, but with how many Tess had killed -- and how effortlessly -- Verin was not anticipating much trouble.
Yes, the sight of the sheer number of the foes had perhaps minorly shocked her, but that was all.
“I do not believe we possess the same level of Endurance that the Lady Tess has; however, we should manage fine if we trade off holding the choke point. Does this sound reasonable to you? If so, I will go first.”
Verin swore she saw some level of doubt in the Lady Calilah’s eyes, but skeptical or not, she shrugged amenably. “Take it away, Lady V. Let’s just hope Tess doesn’t take too long.”
As much as Verin would have liked to correct the rogue’s usage of that ridiculous moniker, there was no time. The barricade of corpses plugging the choke point had already been pulled aside, and a skeleton was slowly pushing itself forward through the gap.
With little desire to get too friendly with the creature, Verin formed an icicle and shot it off with great accuracy. The sharp ice unerringly crashed into the undead’s skull, the sound of the impact and subsequent shattering filling the small, enclosed space. Verin allowed herself a faint grin at the sight.
It was an expression that quickly vanished when the chips of ice cleared, revealing a fully undamaged skull.
The bone is… much tougher than expected. No matter. She was hardly limited to only ice bolts.
She sent out a wave of frost next, beads of ice forming on the purple carpet before likewise covering bone and armor alike. While the skill had begun as a rather basic slow, after enough class points, it generally arrested a target’s motion entirely.
With a painful crack, the skeleton lifted its foot from the icy carpet and took another step forward.
I suppose the effect is more pronounced on flesh… naturally.
This was proving to be rather tedious, wasn’t it? She was confident she would discover the optimal way to dispatch the skeletons after a few more bouts, but she was aware that she needed to put the garish creature down now, before more had time to spill through the opening. Moderating the height of her Ice Wall spell, she created a barrier only a few centimeters high, watching with satisfaction as the mindless skeleton tripped and fell.
Not my preferred form of combat, but no matter. An elegant dagger of crystal clear ice condensed in her hand, and she leapt forward, slamming it into the creature’s spine right at the neck.
Impossibly, her blade chipped on impact, the bone undamaged.
Before she could ponder the how or the why of the matter, her calf lit up with pain, and she gasped, reflexively jerking herself backwards. Instead of disengaging, however, Verin found herself falling backwards as she spotted the sharp and bony fingers which even now pushed themselves into her flesh.
That’s… not…
All at once, her head emptied itself.
Which was ridiculous. She was a high noble. She did not freeze up in such situations. Her very station meant that she’d been trained for both capture and torture scenarios. If perhaps her physical stats weren’t high enough to earn her the actual Pain Resistance skill, she’d found workarounds -- an ice-aligned nerve freezing spell was one of her favorites. If that weren’t enough, she’d spent the last semester running her own city’s dungeon many a time.
Admittedly, she’d taken the role of a backline fighter, and her party members were all hand-selected to best protect and empower her. If pressed, she would be forced to admit she could not recall ever being damaged by a monster at such close range, and certainly not in such an uncontrolled environment where she couldn’t simply teleport away with one of her accessories.
But still! Verin remained level-headed and calm in all situations. She was immune to such mental slip-ups.
And yet, for all the noble’s prodigious Frost Resistance, she could not deny that presently, she was frozen. The skeleton’s other arm quested forth towards her, and it was all she could do to stare at it, uncomprehendingly.
“Why.” Crunch. “Is.” Crunch. “This.” Crunch. “Fucker.” Crunch. “So. Crunch. “Tough!”
POP.
Right as Verin was about to suffer from a second serious wound, Cal appeared out of thin air, straddling the skeleton’s shoulders. A conical dagger, much thicker than what Verin had used, pounded down into the same spot she’d struck earlier. The initial strike did nothing, but Cal was unrelenting, her hands a blur as her dagger struck out in rapid succession.
With her final blow, the abomination’s skull popped off, its arms at last going limp. With a single swift motion, Cal ripped its phalanges from Verin’s leg and pushed her away.
“Damn, what kind of Strength is Tess packing these days? Not the point. Look alive, V! Lots more to go.” As if to prove her point, a mummy already towered above her, queued up and ready to replace the felled skeleton.
Swapping from her thicker dagger to her newly discovered golden blade, she cut into the mass of bandages. A wide gash appeared in the cloth, but otherwise, the mummy showed no signs of change.
“You know, I’m getting the sense this might not be a good matchup for us…”
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What followed could only generously be described as frenetic and pitiful.
Dagger and blade of ice alike bounced ineffectually off of bone and armor, rendering each new skeleton impervious to both of their basic attacks. With the mummies, it was almost the opposite, their bandaged forms easy to slice into, but resulting in cosmetic damage only.
Even worse, both types of enemy proved largely resistant to Verin’s frost spells, the mummies growing slightly stiff from the cold, but otherwise unimpeded. It was only through great physical exertion that they managed any form of victory, tripping and hastily hammering off skulls and sawing off the bulk of each mummy’s legs until they collapsed.
Cal was thankfully able to heal the worst of the leg wound Verin had taken, and after summoning up her ice armor, the noble was far better protected. Even so, the close range fighting took its toll, dozens of scrapes and scratches managing to get through. On the rare occasions where she was slow enough to let one of the mummies grab hold of her, something even worse happened.
For the first time in as long as she could remember, Verin felt cold.
Not the familiar and comforting cold of common frost, but something much worse. It sank into her bones, filling her with the unsettling chill of the grave.
Through all of that, she was getting better. More efficient. Though it rankled at her sensibilities, she swapped out her beautiful dagger of ice for a more mundane hammer and nail, letting her pop off each skull in as little as three blows, as long as they didn’t move too much. A long, thin blade worked better against the mummies, and when she needed to buy some time, she pinned them to the enemy behind with a spear.
For all the improvements, though, it was clear they were steadily losing if for only one simple reason.
Verin was exhausted.
Cal too, to a lesser extent. It was clear that the rogue hadn’t focused overly much on her Endurance. Verin, however, was in a league of her own. Born with a pitiful Endurance of 8, she’d never bothered to raise it once. Even this much exertion had her huffing and puffing, and if the enemies didn’t put her out of her misery first, she wondered if her heart would eventually give out.
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As much as it gnawed at her pride, Verin knew something would have to change, with only one clear solution presenting itself to her.
“Lady… Calilah… I will be closing the gap. Let us pray it is enough.” Not even waiting for a response, Verin cast Ice Wall once more, fully blocking them off from the surrounding undead.
And for a moment, it seemed like that would be it. The undead weren’t that intelligent after all. Now that they were out of sight, perhaps they would leave them be. An eerie silence suffused their makeshift igloo, until-
Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk.
What felt like hundreds of hands started to knock on the ice. Robbed of their clear path inside, the undead seemed intent on making one for themselves.
For a while, the thick ice held fast. Just as the skeletons had proved able to claw through her armor, though, so too were they able to break down her spell. When the first of their bony fingers pushed through the ice, Verin could feel her heart pounding in her chest.
“Chop the fingers off! Should slow down their digging.” Already following her own advice, Cal darted to and fro, her golden dagger slashing off questing digits. If a touch behind, Verin followed. When finally the wall was on the verge of collapsing, she cast the spell twice more. Unable to create the new walls directly atop the old, the defenses were now slightly closer together, cutting into their available space.
Undeniably, this new state of affairs was easier on both her mana and her stamina, but this too had a limit. With every few minutes, the walls closed in on them more and more, until they were cramped and packed together. While the digging had slowed dramatically, it was still just a matter of time before the undead broke through.
“Honestly, I think we’ll both have a better chance if I duck out,” Cal ventured. “We’re about to run out of space, and if this doesn’t last for too much longer, I think I’ll probably be okay with my invisibility?”
In truth, Verin did not relish the idea of being left alone, but she could think of no valid counterargument.
A simple nod was all it took, and Cal vanished with a “Good luck!”
No longer having to worry about freezing her companion, Verin dumped her mana into her defenses. The entire space slowly transformed into one giant mass of ice with her at the center.
It made her feel safe. Secure.
And yet, the arhythmic thunk, thunk, thunk steadily grew louder, closer, until she was forced to admit her ice was not enough. Her mind raced as she tried to think of a way out. Maybe height? If she summoned a pillar of ice, would the undead prove unable to make the ascent, or would they simply climb it? Or worse yet, would they knock it down?
It was a moot point regardless, as a quick glance at her mana confirmed that she was far too low for any serious spellwork.
Though it ate at her pride, there was only one thing she could think of with a good chance of working. With a good chunk of the little mana she had left, Verin hollowed out the ice above her until it formed a makeshift blow-horn.
Then, with more volume than she’d likely used in all her life, Verin shouted.
“LADY TESS! I AM IN SOME MEASURE OF TROUBLE. I WOULD IMPLORE YOU TO PLEASE HASTEN WHATEVER IT IS YOU ARE DOING!”
As the first of skeletal hands grew visible through the distorted ice surrounding her, Verin could only hope her words had their intended effect.
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More than half done more than half done more than half done more than…
As I looked towards the pulverized forms of four skeletal champions spread out around me, the phrase was the only thing on my mind. It repeated itself over and over again like a worn-out mantra, keeping me going.
Four champions were down. Two to go. Plus the lord. Four out of seven. More than half done.
You have taken 40 damage from a death bolt!
Can’t stop. Pay attention. More than half done.
The spell, courtesy of the Necropolis Lord, sank through my armor and bit into my flesh. I’d long since enhanced my armor with life mana, resisting a good portion of the damage and slowly healing the rest, but it was a good reminder to finish up quickly. I’d barely even noticed it flying towards me, and I could tell it wouldn’t be much longer before I’d be easy pickings.
Next one. Here we go.
A massive greatsword swooped down to cleave me in two, its twin lunging forth from my side to cut off one avenue of escape. It was no use. Strong though the champions were, they lacked the Dexterity to truly threaten me. At least that was true with only the two of them. The original six had made things far more touch and go, but with enough mana dumped into my movement skills, I’d managed to avoid being trapped or encircled. Spatial Step in particular had shown its worth.
In fact, the fight wouldn’t have been that bad except…
Ducking beneath the first champion’s sword, I threw all of my Strength into my hammer, caving in the golden armor covering its ribcage. Despite its massive size, the entire skeleton went flying. It landed in a heavy crash.
And then slowly lifted itself to its feet, none the worse for wear.
So. Damn. Tough.
I liked to believe that I didn’t have an inflated view of my own strength. I’d come too close to death too many times for that to be the case. Still, when I’d first seen the seven undead, I’d expected the fight to be over with far faster.
While the lord had been a nuisance the entire time -- casting death bolts, summoning skeletal hands that rose from the ground to grab my feet, empowering the champions with extra speed and defense -- it was the heavily armored champions that were the real issue. More so than the scorpions, more so than anything I’d fought in the metal or mud dungeons, they just would not go down.
Slowly though. I can win. More than halfway done. The fractures in their bones would add up, or they’d be too slow to get up in time. I was wary of casting too many more spatial steps until my mana rose a bit higher, but I’d manage. I’ll just do it slow-
It was at that very moment that a faint shout sounded out from the far end of the room, barely carrying over the multitudinous chattering of thousands of bones and the dull thuds of mummies falling to the ground.
“LADY TESS! I AM IN SOME MEASURE OF TROUBLE. I WOULD IMPLORE YOU TO PLEASE HASTEN WHATEVER IT IS YOU ARE DOING!”
To my great discredit, I responded to the message in the exact wrong way, momentarily freezing up.
Faced with one more task, one more issue, I could feel as my brain started to shut down, though not before it finally parsed Verin’s words.
Fast. We do this fast.
Not even glancing at my mana, I Spatial Stepped away from the champions, moving directly to the lord’s barrier. Unsure if the flat hammer would fare as well against the barrier as my sharper pickaxe, I swapped weapons and flooded it with mana.
Down I swung the weapon, no different than how I would for standard mining. Up, then down, then up again. Each time, the pickaxe recoiled forcefully.
Strange. Strange, strange, strange. What am I mining again? With the way my pick kept bouncing off, it was probably mithril, wasn’t it? That was good. Mithril was pretty rare, I remembered.
You have taken 40 damage from a death bolt!
You have taken 133 damage from Necrotic Cleave!
Oof. That was some nasty recoil, wasn’t it? I think I’d thrown out my hip too, as I could feel it ache with each swing.
You have taken 136 damage from Necrotic Cleave!
You have taken 40 damage from a death bolt!
You are bleeding!
You are suffering from necrosis!
For some bizarre reason, my body was shoved away from my mining site. Some other miner jealous of the vein I’d found? I didn’t care. On autopilot, my body found a proper mining site and continued.
Feeling myself grow tired far faster than normal, I decided to pick the pace up. I flooded my weapon with as much earth mana as I could until it felt unbearably heavy. Raising my body high, almost as if in prayer, I readied my strongest blow yet and brought it down.
CRACK.
Free from the past strikes’ recoil, it continued down until it impacted a thin, purple carpet, mangling it. Needing something new to mine, I looked ahead, only barely understanding what I was seeing.
A skeleton? That was… odd. Why was that here?
You have taken 133 damage from Necrotic Cleave!
The question was too hard for me. Just as I was about to give up, though, my sore muscles erupted in a wave of pain from a job well done, and an epiphany hit me!
It’s like Slippy, isn’t it! That was right. Sometimes you were supposed to mine a monster, weren’t you?
Only, this one was till moving. That was different.
Well, no matter. Eager to finish a hard day’s work, I shot forward, my legs feeling strangely battered. The bandaged wrapped skeleton attempted to move away, but even as tired as I was, there was no contest. Apparently more tired than I’d realized, I stumbled at the last moment, crashing into the creature and riding it to the floor.
Perfect.
“Good mithril vein. Stay riiiight there.” I dumped my mana into my weapon once more, for the first time in ages feeling my mana pool bottom out. Down the pickaxe fell, directly into the skull beneath me.
CRUNCH.
This time, there was no resistance.
As if to applaud me, the room was filled with all manner of clacking and clattering and crashing before it grew strangely silent. I wasn’t entirely sure why, but I was pretty confident that meant I was done.
Oh. Not done. One more thing.
I had the lingering feeling that there was someone I was supposed to talk to. A teacher? A foreman? Was Merve around somewhere?
I felt my body moving of its own accord, seeming to know where to go better than I did. My eyes drooped for a moment, and when I blinked, I was somewhere else. Somewhere full of ice?
It felt like the person I needed was inside all of that, and for a dreaded second, I thought I might have to cut through it. As if to reward all my hard work today, though, the ice split apart a moment later, two women stepping out.
Both were covered in all sorts of scratches, cuts, and bruises, with the white-haired one many times worse off than the black-haired one, the prior shambling forth while leaning on the latter.
The instant I saw them, I could tell that I’d found who I needed to.
“Hi guys,” I mumbled. “I think I’m… clocking out… for the day.”
All at once, I collapsed, at last taking a well deserved post-work nap.