The first thing that I do once I finish reading is retract all my pity I had for the thief skeleton before. I mean really, what kind of sick fuck targets a population dying from plague to steal from. Although, I guess I'm not much better since I'm actively looking to loot from the same people, but they are all long dead now, so maybe that makes it better? Leaving that aside, I guess what I should be focusing on is how depressing it is to know that the village was most likely wiped out entirely by the plague that was described in the book. That Douglas Wheedon guy must've died at some point, maybe killed by the monster he went to go find, since there wasn't really a conclusion after the last entry. Another thing that is weird is how the town must've been called Littlecreek, but when I entered the town's surroundings I got a system message saying that I entered the Rusalka’s Creek Domain. Hopefully it's just the name for the river in the middle of the town, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the monster mentioned in the last entry has made its home here.
Making sure to keep that in mind when going forward, I set the book down atop the desktop and take the ring full of keys, ignoring the jar of ink and feather quill. Getting up from the desk’s chair, I head out of what must have been Guard Captain Wheedon’s office and back into the second floor hallway. Seeing nothing useful in the jail cell, I don't even bother trying to open the door and walk past and back towards where I originally came from. I turn to the right, going towards the locked door, and start trying out keys.
*CHOMP*
“AAAARGHHH!”
Or rather, I would have if not for something tackling me from the side, knocking me to the ground, and biting down on my shoulder with extremely painful results. I try elbowing its head over and over again as it shakes its head violently, tearing apart my shoulder. I quickly remember that I am in fact being an idiot, and slam down on the thing pinning me down with a [Light Of Justice] infused [Tail Whip]. That does the trick, the assailant stopping its movements soon after, and I shove it off to the side of me. I turn over just in time to see silver flaming balls wink out from the eye sockets of the skull of some sort of canine animal.
Bringing myself to a sitting position, I press my hand against my shoulder to try and reduce the flow of what I now discover is my black-colored blood. It didn’t bite down too deep, but its violent thrashing tore apart my skin by a decent amount. On top of that mess, I start to hear the rattling of bones from below, and I realize I don't have time to wait for my Recovery to kick in, so I do something that might be a little stupid. Whilst listening to the footsteps and rattle of bone, my eyes glued to the doorway leading to the stairs, I activate [Light Of Justice] on the hand currently pressed against my shoulder, and hiss as I feel a burning sensation on my hand and, more importantly, the gashes in my shoulder.
By the time the bony footsteps start climbing the stairsteps, my bleeding has stopped due to the burns, and my arm has been freed up, though still painful to move too much. Letting the arm rest to my side, I get ready to ambush the skeleton creeping up the stairs, only to be left waiting as the movements on the other side of the wall stop. Unsure of what to do, I stand at the ready by the door, when suddenly, a bony arm smashes through the wooden wall to grasp my head by the hair, and slams my face into the wall with surprising force, causing me to stumble back dazed as it lets go of me to retract its arm. As I struggle to stay on my feet, my good arm raised as I rub my bleeding nose, a cool mist flows into the room near the floorboards, preceding the entrance of a terrifying entity. Composed of a lanky form that towers over me by a good foot or two, the skeleton that enters is coated in a layer of opaque ice of an artificially blue coloration that constantly emits a cool mist. In addition to that, its finger bones have sharp ice claws extending from their tips, and jagged edges can be found jutting out all over its body. The cherry on top of this shitty sundae is the presence of the foreboding silver orbs in the eye sockets that seem to be glaring right at me. As I take in all of these details and look for more while backing away from it, my [Eyes Of Aspirations] take effect and a small system window appears above the skeleton’s head.
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{Ice-forged Skeleton Construct}
[Current Desire: Not Applicable]
As soon as I skim the words that appear, the Ice-forged monster of a skeleton lunges towards me whilst swiping with one of its claws, and I have to step back even further to avoid the blow. I keep backpedaling whilst trying to find a good time to attack back, when my back slams against the wall behind me and the skeleton’s claw manages to swipe right across my chest, leaving a set of five bleeding cuts in its wake. I act on total instinct and slam my now glowing fist into its chest in return, only managing to crack the ice shell it is covered in a little bit.
The skeleton then grabs my throat with one of its hands and slams me against the wall whilst lifting me a few inches above the ground. It starts to grip tighter, pressing its claws slightly into my neck, and I start to choke as I begin wildly kicking, punching, and tail whipping at my assailant with strikes all infused with [Light Of Justice]. The skeleton just weathers my assault as it stabs its free claw into my side, blood spilling onto the floor, and it opens its jaw to let a wave of mist exit out accompanied by a chilling, raspy whisper that enters into my ears, “My. Domain. You. Perish.”
Not having the time to give that revelation any thought, I stopped my assault to change tactics. I bring both my arms up to press against the sides of its skull, while willing my tail to wrap as tightly as possible around its neck, squeezing with all three appendages that are also covered in Holy light. My vision darkens around the edges as I stare into the lifeless silver eyes in front of me, cracks spreading from the ice covering its skull. As the cracks get larger and larger from the continued application of [Light Of Justice], the jaw opens to let mist exit once more, delivering another haunting message to me, “Mists. Will. Come. Depths. Will. Engulf. You.” Right as I break through the layer of ice, almost immediately shattering its skull and neck simultaneously, the terrifying being rips its hand from my side to widen the opening further, and blood spills out as both the {Ice-forged Skeleton Construct} and I collapse to the floor. I immediately press both of my still glowing hands against my wound, using all my willpower to keep focused and awake as I gulp in air as swiftly as I can, only to be met with a message that I couldn't care any less about at the moment.
[You Are Now In Relative Safety, Rewards From Combat Shall Now Be Distributed]