Preparations complete, Jay strode out of the half open double doors of the temple. Makeshift stone club in hand, she made no attempt to hide her presence as she walked out into the main thoroughfare that split the village in two. The eastern buildings on her left she had already searched over the course of the previous days. The western buildings to her right were as of yet untouched by her hands. Any of them could house a skeletal abomination within.

Stopping perhaps a hundred paces down the road, Jay took in her surroundings, making note of particular stone buildings that seemed like they might have been workshops or the like. She wanted to check those places in particular for supplies. Looking down the road, she could see that it continued in an almost straight path southward, bending a bit to the east as it progressed. Eventually the road disappeared into the tall pine trees of the forest.

Aside from the main road, maybe another fifty or so paces from where she stood, Jay could see a smaller road that branched off, heading to the west. From what Jay could see, the village was a lot closer to the western mountains that enclosed the valley, so the road had to lead right into side of the mountain there. Perhaps it went up the mountain? She was certainly curious and made mental note to check.

A few clouds passed overhead, putting the village in momentary shadow on an otherwise sunny day. A light breeze ruffled Jay’s white hair as she stood quietly, watching and waiting. The creak of pine trees swaying in the wind was the only sound she could hear, the gentle, almost rhythmic squeak of groaning wood almost a song.

The only issue with that creaking wood was it had come from the building directly to Jay’s right.

Barely turning her head, Jay watched from the corner of her eye as a skeletal figure, cloaked in shadows, took slow, sneaky steps inside the first floor of the abandoned house. She could see it through the open windows and front door as it crept along on two horse-like legs. Its figure was hunched, curling half-bent over, with three long arms jutting from its torso, the extra one coming out of the middle of the chest.

Jay couldn’t help but curl a lip in revulsion when she saw the heads the bone thief had stolen. One of the five was, without doubt, a baby’s skull.

Waiting just long enough for the bone thief to reach the door of the house it had been hiding in, Jay abruptly turned and sprinted for D’s temple.

In a flash the demon was chasing after her, bone striking cobblestone in an otherwise soundless run. Jay wasn’t sure if it would have been more or less creepy if the skeletal abominations screeched or roared at her as they hounded her. Either way, being chased by a creature that meant to tear her flesh from her bones got her heart pounding in a disturbingly exciting way.

Maybe she was just a little twisted in the head.

By the time Jay reached the partial open doors of the temple, the pursuing demon was only a couple paces behind her. It was clearly faster than she was, and if she planned on fleeing the bone beast, there was no chance she’d be able to outrun it. But Jay wasn’t fleeing.

As soon as Jay entered the temple, Dys sprung the trap Jadis had devised.

Jadis didn’t know much about trap making. She understood a few basic concepts from the survival videos she’d watched online and at least a couple of fiction books she’d read that tackled survival tropes. Very few of the traps that came to mind were anything that she felt she could recreate, not with her lack of tools and training. However, there was one trap she felt was within her capabilities. A deadfall trap.

The bone demon sprinted inside the temple just as Dys pushed against the wooden pews she and Jay had stacked high on one side of the temple doors. The tower of wood crashed down on top of the demon in a deafening racket of wood on stone and bone. The demon’s momentum carried it forward a bit, but half of it was pinned under the weight of wood that had toppled down on it.

Before the creature could recover, Jay and Dys were upon it, raining blow after blow down on the prone demon. Bones shattered with the force of their blows; attacks made in tandem that the lone bone thief could not defend itself against. In mere seconds Jay and Dys overwhelmed the monster and split its shell, squashing the wriggling mass within.

Congratulations!

Bone Thief Defeated.

Bonus Experience Points Awarded

for Defeating a Demon Spawn of Samleos.

“Way easier when we know what’s coming!” Jay said with a laugh, still panting a bit from her dead sprint.

“Yup, smooth as silk,” Dys agreed, shaking a bit of the smelly demon mush off her club. “We should get this stacked up again quick, though. That was a pretty loud crash. Other demons might already be on their way.”

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Jadis acted quickly, her two bodies working in unison to efficiently stack the pews on their sides, creating another heavy tower to the right of the temple doors. The pews were meant for people of smaller stature than her and would have felt like sitting on a kids bench if she did sit on one, but they were still of solid construction and when set on their sides were a little taller than she was. Arranging a few pews like pillars and stacking near a dozen more on top turned them into a decently effective deadfall, as Jadis’ first kill of the day proved. The trigger was just Dys pushing the tower over, rather than the precariously set wooden trigger that a true deadfall trap would have, but the end result was the same.

Once the pews were restacked, Jadis tossed the dead bone thief’s remains to the side and out of the way. Poking her head outside, Dys saw that the commotion of her short battle had drawn some attention.

Two more bone thieves were stalking along the edges of the main road. One was another of the dog-like forms she’d encountered before, only much larger and with two long necks ending in horse or deer heads. The other bone thief was more human-like, though it had an asymmetrical number of arms on either side of its squat torso, one of the large arms ending in pickaxe-shaped bone protrusion.

Dys walked a few paces out of the temple, waving her club in challenge at the two enemies.

“Come on, boneheads, come get your daily supply of vitamin D!” She jeered at them, ready for another round of combat.

Predictably, the two demons sprinted at her in a silent charge. Dys quickly backed up, hustling backwards into the stone temple, keeping an eye on their progress. The bone dog was far faster than the pickaxe skeleton and reached the doors first.

Unable to catch both demons in her trap, Jadis didn't waste the opportunity and still pushed the tower over and caught the charging demon in the collapsing mass of heavy wood. This time Jadis was able to time the shove a little better and caught the demon fully in the trap, burying it completely.

As Jay moved to strike at the demon as it struggled to pull itself free from under the pile, Dys kept her eyes on the second demon. The pews had blocked the door and it had stopped its sprint just short of colliding with the blockage.

Apparently not quite stupid enough to try and climb over the unstable pile fighting, the pickaxe skeleton turned and went around the left side of the building. With the dog skeleton pinned and Jay smashing the parts of it that were sticking out of the wreckage, Dys moved to intercept.

The demon reached one of the broken windows in moments, smashing the remaining glass as it moved to enter the temple. Before it could, Dys swung her club like a baseball bat, slamming the demon’s torso with enough force to send it flying back out of the window, landing on its back a few paces away.

“Ha! Eat dirt, fucker!” Dys laughed, heart pounding and adrenaline high.

A crunch echoed in the temple, punctuating Dys’ laugh as Jay broke open the shell of the four-legged demon. It had pulled itself out of the pile too late, Jay’s repeated heavy attacks smashing its shell to pieces. The demon was promptly squashed by another crushing blow.

Outside the temple, the bone thief had regained its feet and moved to enter the window again. As it moved to the window frame, Dys could see the demon’s orange eye looking at her from the hole her club strike had put in the demon’s shell.

Target clear, Dys swung at the eye, all too happy to take advantage of an easy opportunity.

In a surprisingly dexterous move, the bone thief caught Dys’ club in the three arms it had on its left side and pulled her off balance, dragging her closer as it swung the pickaxe arm down at her head.

Reacting quickly, Dys let go of her club and let herself drop and roll to the side, the bony pickaxe glancing off her shoulder. As she rolled to her feet, the bone thief climbed its way inside the temple, intent on pouncing upon the now disarmed Dys.

Jay’s club struck the demon with an overhead blow, crunching bone and sending the monster bouncing against the floor as it lost balance. Moving quickly, Dys lunged at the prone demon grabbed the pickaxe arm and yanked on it, dragging the abomination across the floor of the temple, keeping it off balance while Jay struck again and again, breaking off arms and legs before finally pulverizing the main mass of the demon.

The moment the second demon was slain, two more notifications popped into Jadis’ mind, letting her know she had defeated two more of Samleos’ spawn. A third message appeared shortly after.

Level Up!

Mirror Knight has Reached Level 7.

1 New Skill Available for Selection.

“About time!” Jay said, dismissing the notifications.

“Fuck yeah,” Dys grinned. “I bet we’ve got some cool new skills to choose from, too.”

Looking at the dead demons and pile of pews blocking the door, Jay gave a dramatic sigh. “Better get ready for more demons first before we start reading, though. I don’t want to be caught off guard again.”

“Yeah, fair. Let’s get back to work.”

Jadis had to smile at the thought of what she was doing being her ‘work’ now. Slaying bone demons was a far cry from the career she’d planned on having in physiotherapy. She wasn’t complaining, though. Not at all.

By the time the sun had passed its zenith and was heading towards the western mountain peaks, Jadis had killed seven more demons using her bait and trap technique. There were a few mishaps, some of the demons managing to land blows on either Jay or Dys, but the injuries were minor and, much to Jadis’ delight, mitigated by the leather armor she wore.

One particularly nasty demon with antlers for hands raked its sharp natural weapons against Jay’s chest, only leaving some light furrows in the tough leather. Jadis was certain that if she had been unarmored, the attack would have slashed her flesh open and left Jay bleeding out on the ground.

Having armor was wonderful.

With more demons slain, so too came more experience. Jadis was awarded two more levels over the course of the fights, bringing her total level to nine. She was extremely pleased with the results of her day so far.

The stream of demons had slowed, though, and by mid afternoon Dys had stood in the open road for what felt like an hour before Jadis decided there were no bone thieves around to take the bait. She highly doubted the valley had been emptied of all skeletal demons, but at the very least there were none in the vicinity of the village. At least, none that were rushing head long to at her to steal her bones.

There was the possibility, she knew, that there could be more hidden somewhere in the vacant stone houses, laying their own ambush for her, but she had doubts. The demons had acted with little intelligence so far, ambushing as more a matter of happenstance than by any true plan. All of the bone thieves she had killed so far had rushed mindlessly at her the moment they seemed to realize she knew they were there.

Well, if there were any demons waiting for her, she’d be ready for them. Jadis had three whole levels to increase her power. The next bony monstrosity she ran into was going to get a good taste of what a level nine Jadis could do.