Chapter Eighteen) Bone on Bone. Or, Fallout boys.

There was no pain as the two of us hit the ground, a lack of nerve endings will do that, just a clatter, and the sound of bones cracking.

I wasn’t sure whose bones those were, but Mr. Bones didn't care, he was still in motion, heaving halfway upright and then coming back down with a fist to my skull.

When York had fought one of these that wasn't under my control, they tried to claw at her with the tips of their finger bones, but I guess it understood on some level that slashing wouldn't work on another one of its kind.

Getting my hand on its shoulders, I pulled it toward me and braced my leg to roll us over. For this, it didn’t matter which of us was hurt more, since we were light, and both of us began to roll over and over each other, each too busy tumbling to get a hit in.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that one of us had left the lower half of a leg behind.

When we hit the wall, I started flipping us back the other way, and all of the sudden I was in control.

I had two legs for leverage.

Sending him skittering away for a moment with a shove I was able to get back to my feet and kick him away as he scuttled at me on two hands and one leg. The kick lifted off the ground and flipped him over.

“Mage Bolt”

Between the time it took for the energy to show up in hand, and for me to let it fly, Mr Bones rolled out of the way, letting the bolt hit the firmament that was the floor with a snapping sound, and sending it flying off into the far wall with a crack.

As he got back up to three limbs and twisted around, it was to see me with my staff in both hands and cocked back like I was ready to hit a home run.

“Power Strike”

Yep. I do have that. Good to know.

Then I whipped the end of the staff around to shatter and scatter bits of Mr Bones all over the room.

Instead of feeling drained, like with magic, instead, I felt like I had clenched every muscle in my body, just long enough to feel weak all over. Despite not having any muscle to do that with.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Well, if I didn’t have Staff unlocked as a weapon before, I should now.”

I must have since there wasn't a notice.

“If I was tired, this would be a good time for a rest, but I’m not. So…”

Ignoring the bones, I headed into the last room.

The sign above the gate said “Castle Haven” which sounded nice, but Focus told me a different story.

[Castle Haven is a proving ground for adventures in which new arrivals are held prisoner until there are a total of ten that then go against each other two at a time in challenges in which the loser dies until there is only one adventure left ]

“I wonder what the other two choices were?”

It seemed like all the exit portals led to bad places... almost like the Trainees for these dungeons were all ones with negative credit scores, or to say it another way, in debt.

"That's it, isn't it? Either every Trainee goes to a someplace meant to kill them off quick, or just use up debtors.”

Shoot, even the Planes of Slaughter, the best of the bunch sounds like you got no choice but endless fighting against monsters, and they gave it a scary name to discourage anyone from picking the only one that starts you somewhere safe.

“I think I’m going to need to speak to the management.”

But for right now, I had to make a trip back home.

The pack was heavy enough to let me climb back up the rope to the top of the Strata, and heading over the first spot that I had stood at to look down into the Mage dungeon gave me decent bearing to head back to my dungeon.

I guess I was about halfway there when I heard…

[ 10 ]

“Shoot, this means there going to be another skeleton waiting for me up here to try to kick my behind.”

Or would it? I mean it attacked me before because the Mage dungeon was treating me like a Trainee, and it was meant to attack any Trainee that got within ten feet of it, but that was in a dungeon. Would that be true up on top like this? And did it matter since I didn’t have any reason to head this way again?

Unless there were more dungeons out this way?

And did I lose track of the countdown?

[ 4 ]

Yep, I did.

With ten seconds or so that I had left, I called out "Power Strike" and tried to punch myself in the leg. If this old boy came after me some time, I figured a broken leg might slow him down, but I hesitated so long at the idea of breaking part of the body I was in that [ 1 ] came up just as I got off the pot and was making contact with my thigh bone and then I was back in my starting spot. Looking down the main hallway, right in the middle of the dungeon.

"Panel. Could you show me all the skills I got squares for?"

Swim, Climb, Jump, Fire starting, were still there, but now I had Mage Armor, Bolt, and Fall listed as a new category as Spells.

Looks like my next customer is going to have some options. At least if they let me take the time to build them.

Heading into the equipment room, I heard some swearing and came in to see a young woman who looked a bit Hispanic. She had her some short black hair that would stand up in spikes with some product, but without it sort of looked like a dark dandelion head.

She was pulling down her pants to look at her legs, and I tried to turn my back to look the other way.

I don’t have a back, but I seem to be able to direct which way I was looking, even if now that I thought about it my side vision seemed a lot wider now, and would go wide if I let it to the point it made me feel dizzy. At least while I was a ball in comparison to what I remembered from back when I was human, or when I was in a goblin or skeleton.

"Ahem. Whenever you're ready and get your britches back up."

There was a quiet moment, then some more angry swearing which I will parrotphrase.

I know what I said, I like to make my own fun.

“Oh darn it, now I have a fornicating piece of floating excrement in my face. Fornicate!”

Pardon my French.