Mirai shuffled her feet, composing herself for the fight to come. The undead made a gesture and its final summon began. A rift appeared over the arena and the strange, purple magic oozed out once more, taking a human-like form this time.

“I summon… bone witch of the abyss!” the undead shouted, and laughed.

Monster: [Bone Witch of the Abyss]

* Type: [Undead]

* Level: 2

She caught her breath, seeing its level and form. The skeleton wore tattered robes and a pointed hat, broomstick in hand. It reached inside its robe, withdrawing a wand inscribed with runes.

Its bony jaw rattled with a skeleton’s version of an evil witch cackle and she hesitated, her fingers trembling.

A bone version of the Witch of the Abyss?

The undead conjurer must have read her memories somehow and created this abomination. She turned to glare at the undead, but its decayed visage smiled, satisfied with her distress.

“Fight!”

She snapped her attention back to the witch, trying to focus, only she couldn’t stop thinking about her father. Memories flashed in her mind of how things had been before he fought the real Witch of the Abyss. Before it cursed him.

She was scared. She was furious. She was sad. The real witch was far from here, sealed away in an unclearable rift after too many adventurers had met their doom. She tightened her grip on the hilt of her sword and settled into her stance, legs and hands shaking.

Meanwhile, the witch mounted its’ broom, soaring up into the air. Its’ wand glowed and a spell was cast. However, the witch froze mid-flight, engulfed in its’ own spell—a sphere of blue energy. A handful of hourglasses appeared, counting down the seconds.

Move, move!

She slapped herself and began moving. Lacking any ranged skills, there was little she could do except prepare her defenses. She found a good spot, where the witch would have little cover when it swooped down at her, and tried to clear her mind.

She recited the first line of her master’s mantra as she shifted into a defensive stance.

Thanks to our enemies, the wheel that grinds mettle…

The hourglasses ran out and the sphere broke, launching the Witch outward at a tremendous speed. As it raced towards her, it used a second skill to attack her, tossing a flask that hit her with enough force to send her rolling backward. She found her feet, but the flask broke, covering her in a bubbling green liquid.

Condition Afflicted: [Poison]

* Creatures will continually take damage per second for the next minute.

* Removed by healing.

With a practiced grace, she withdrew a potion from her inventory and drained it in a fraction of a second. She didn’t even take her eyes off the witch, watching it circle her overhead like a vulture.

The witch quickly slowed back to its regular flying speed and attacked with magic next, a barrage of black orbs. She dodged and recited the next line of her master’s mantra.

Thanks for their power, and ways to turn it…

How would her master turn this monster’s power around on it? What were its weaknesses? Of course, her master was very fond of improvised weapons. She’d probably pick up one of these bones and whack the skeleton with it. It was easy to imagine the fierce woman making short work of this monster, whacking it out of the air and pummeling it to death with her fists...

She paused...

That could work.

All she had to do was knock it out of the air. It would be much more vulnerable on the ground, without its broom. Perhaps when the creature’s acceleration skill came off cooldown, it would charge her again and she’d have a chance to unseat it. The hourglasses telegraphed the timing of the witches’ skill, so she’d have a good chance at lining up a counter attack.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

She dodged a few more black orbs, weaving between the set of ribs partially absorbed into the arena. The orbs looked similar to the rot magic that had hit Edgar, so she was careful to avoid it. Even though it didn’t appear to do all that much damage, getting another affliction would force her to use her last potion. She searched for a good bone or something she could use to unseat the witch, but there was nothing.

Eventually, the witch’s acceleration skill came off cooldown and the witch froze in mid-air once more. This time, Mirai ran straight at the witch, leaping into the air just as the hourglasses timed out and kicked.

She knew the maneuver wasn’t as fluid as Edgar’s flips, but she was also not a rift-born, maybe-monster, so she'd take what she could get.

The witch barreled towards her, managing to swerve around her kick. As it passed by her, it lobbed another flask of potion over its shoulder, but the attack missed, and she rolled safely away.

The poison sizzled, pooled around the broken vessel as the bone witch began bombarding her with black magic once again.

Without ranged skills, her only chance to win was unseating the witch during a fly-by and her kicks weren’t going to cut it.

She needed speed and precision.

She smiled down at her old friend, her shining ray of moonlight. It was truly a beautiful thing, with moon metal running in a thin thread down its core and through the hilt.

The witch surprised her by lobbing a flask of poison from on high, but with [Parry] she deflected it with the flat of her blade. Then, the witch froze in mid-air once again.

She strode into the center of the arena, sucking in a deep breath as she settled into her stance and grounded herself with the last line of her master’s mantra.

Thanks for their weakness, and ways to use it.

The witches’ poison skill would be on cooldown, so it would be some other attack—perhaps a new one.

The blue orb shattered and the witch accelerated. A dagger appeared in its hands, glowing with purple magic. Mirai slashed at the monster. Her timing was perfect and the witch was unable to dodge—instead, it blocked her with the dagger. The force of Mirai’s attack unseated the witch and sent it crashing to the ground.

The bone witch threw the dagger at Mirai and drew its wand, the runes glowing as the broom began hurrying back to its master.

Mirai deflected the dagger gracefully and, with a flick of her wrist, disarmed the witch. Its wand bounced away, ultimately falling off the edge of the arena. In a flurry, she activated [Moonlit Strike], marked the witches forehead with magic, and followed up with three expert strikes, each hitting the exact spot she intended.

On the third strike, the skeleton’s skull split apart. Her focus was so intense she barely registered Edgar’s hoarse cheering as the witch collapsed into so many bones. Her blood was like lava in her veins and essence flowed into her core.

Thoughts of her father flashed in her mind once more.

Winning this fight didn’t fix anything, but even so, it felt good.

Clunk-clank-clop-clunk, the undead’s clapping from the viewing platform could be heard. It removed the cigar glowing with poison from its mouth and flicked it into the abyss.

“Humph… Well done, I guess.”

The undead didn’t look angry so much as bored now. It waved its hands and the scoreboard vanished. A rumbling sound filled the cavern and the stone walkway rose up from the darkness, showing the way back to the warm hearth in the room of doors.

Mirai sank to her knees. She hadn’t realized she was so tense. She had nearly died. The boy had nearly died too. She glanced over at him.

“We did it!” he shouted, his arms in the air and his tail quivering excitedly. Looking at him from a distance, he wasn’t all that unlike her cat back home.

Sigh… It would be nice to pet little Orli. She hoped he was doing well, with her away for so long. Of course, the proud little one had two attendants to himself, so he was well cared for…

She touched the skeleton’s corpse and began the process of looting it. There were fifty [Bone], 50 iron coins, 50 copper coins, a [Witches’ Satchel], and two more items. She gasped, seeing that the monster had dropped both an [Essence of Time] and a Soul Fruit called an Evercherry.

She couldn’t believe it and withdrew the fruit from her inventory just to be sure. She had never even seen one in person, although they were famously rare and granted strong abilities—a prize even her mother would drool over. It looked like a small berry, colored a deep shade of purple with maroon stripes, but quickly returned it to her inventory. There would be time for that later.

She ran up to Edgar on the platform.

“Did you get a Soul Fruit, too?”

“Yeah, a Blacknessberry… Are they good?”

Sigh… Of course the boy had no idea what it was.

“Very! Just hold onto it for now. Don’t lose it!”

She bowed to the undead, as was proper when one was granted a great gift. She had never bowed to a monster before, but it felt right, so she followed her instincts.

“Thank you.”

The undead looked taken aback and Edgar did a double-take, scrambling to follow her example. The undead nodded to them both, wearing a slight smile.

Click-clink-clink-clink. “Off you go, then.”

Without further ado, they made their way over the stone pass. The boy didn’t even flinch at the great heights this time around, leading the way across.

She watched his tail flick back and forth as they walked, reminding her of Orli once again. She wondered what he was thinking that sent his tail twitching like that.

~~~~~~~~~~

* Check out the Stats Page for this Chapter here