Chapter 11: Chapter 9 – The Skeleton Mage

This time, there were skeletons in various areas in all directions, usually behind a fence or gate but milling about at a safe distance; it seemed this area was too far for him to be detected by them, or it was some kind of safe location. The skeletons were all more than 100 meters from where Jake and the demoness appeared.

Jake and the demoness took it all in, and Fhesiah pointed off to Jake’s left. It seemed this gate was open, making it the most obvious direction to proceed first. He nodded, and began to head there. It seemed if these skeletons all came when they were attacked, Jake would have to fight more than a dozen skeletons at once.  While Jake felt like he might be able to win against that many, he wasn’t sure. He’d rather fight his way up to larger numbers.

With that, he asked if the demoness could handle the age-old MMO task of pulling, and, potentially kiting. He explained with his thoughts what he wanted: for her to grab the attention of hopefully a single enemy, and bring it back to him, or if the entire group came after her for her to draw them away in a direction that would allow Jake to pick off an enemy from the rear, potentially without the other skeletons knowing.

Fhesiah would then continue keeping the chasing skeleton’s attention until Jake whittled them all down, killing them until none were left. Plans made, the demoness set to attacking a nearby skeleton with a tiny mana bolt from afar and away from Jake. When the bolt struck the skeleton, two of the other nearby skeletons gave chase towards the demoness, to which she took off in the same direction. Jake positioned himself to the side of where they were approaching.

Three enemies should prove to be an adequate test of the skeletons. He fired a mana bolt almost perpendicular to their path, and struck the one in the rear. The blow did not seem to damage them very much, but Jake had just sent a probing attack rather than his empowered mana bolt. All three turned towards him, but the demoness attacked again, getting the attention of the other two, to which Jake thanked the demoness. She would continue to kite them around until Jake’s fight with this one was complete.

Jake rushed at the remaining skeleton that was armed with a rusted sword. Jake feinted a stab towards the skeleton’s ribcage, to which the skeleton tried to block with its sword, but Jake stopped the attack short, stepped forward and swung down towards the skeleton’s leg with a great deal of force.

Jake was able to take the skeleton’s leg off below the knee, and the skeleton tumbled to the ground, being unable to stand on just one foot, then he stabbed the skeleton through the skull, killing it. Jake then used an empowered mana bolt to one of the two running skeletons, using the same strategy: blowing off one of the legs.

He did the same to the other, and tried testing their durability against his mana bolt. He was able to destroy the skull killing one instantly with an empowered mana bolt, but using just what Jake considered a regular one took two to be successful.

Jake smiled at the demoness. Their teamwork reminded him of playing two ranged attackers teaming up in a MMO game. Using this sort of strategy, he could safely take on dumb enemies like the skeletons. On top of that, this was a target rich environment. They would not need to hunt down more enemies, there were plenty just in view. Fighting that small group just took a few minutes.

With that, he looted their femurs and finger-bones for sale on the [Multiverse Market] and prodded the demoness to bring in the next group. Looking around, he definitely had a lot of skeletons to kill.

Three hours of killing skeletons and a small break later, it seemed like Jake and Fhesiah had cleared out the graveyard. There was only one section left that they had not yet cleared. Jake had killed over 50 skeletons, and he even had to go through the portal to empty his gym bag twice.

The skeleton cores were worth the most of the enemies he’d fought at 15 credits each, and the femurs and finger bones added up to over 800 credits total so far. For just a few hours of work, Jake almost wished there were dozens more graveyards full of skeletons.

Fhesiah and Jake’s teamwork on kiting and killing the skeletons was starting to get quite impressive. It was like they each had eyes on the back of their heads as they fought the skeletons together. The demoness would immediately know when Jake was going to finish his skeleton and bring the ones chasing her just in time for Jake to peel them off. She would also target their ankles where she could, causing them to trip or topple over and become easy targets for Jake.

They headed over to the last section they hadn’t checked, and found there to be yet another dozen skeletons, but they were tightly packed this time. Most importantly, there was a skeleton with robes and a staff in the back: they had found their goal.

Jake took stock. He felt like he was barely down on energy. Despite using mana bolts every fight, thanks to his mana siphon and larger mana core, he had barely used more than he could regenerate; even with the stamina regeneration spell going. He had spent some time trying to increase the effect of mana siphon, but felt like his attention attempting to get things spinning more rapidly were only marginally improving things. He would still continue and eventually get even better.

He looked over to the demoness. She was much larger than she was. He noticed her mana bolts were big enough to even cause damage to these skeletons, whose bones were much more durable than goblin’s bodies were, most likely if she was back at the goblin caves he started at, she could kill goblins now. Was it possible for her to take out the mage with fire, or at least help him take it down quickly?

Fhesiah hesitated, but eventually nodded. She pointed to Jake and then to the skeleton mage, then seemed to gesture something very large as she spread her arms wide, and pointed at the mage again. Jake guessed she wanted him to launch as big an attack at the mage he could manage, to which she nodded.

It seemed he would hit it with an alpha strike, and she would do her best to finish it off. Jake planned on sweeping through the skeletons with mana blade, as the enemies were packed quite dense to where in just a few seconds he should manage multiple swings, culling several before he was overwhelmed.

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With that, they got into position. The demoness had gone invisible, and it appeared she was sneaking up to the skeleton mage. Jake prepared his empowered spell, and was mostly ready when she got near the target. However, when she got near, the mage seemed to notice and turn towards her. Jake did not hesitate, and charged his attack as much as he could before he fired, just as the mage raised their staff and a white opaque barrier enveloped them.

The mana bolt struck the shield and seemed to weaken it greatly based on how opaque the barrier originally was versus how transparent the barrier became after it was struck, and it was now riddled with cracks, but it held true. The demoness sped away from the mage, but the mage seemed to track where the demoness was flying with its staff.

Jake did not like where this was going, and his mind searched for a way to stop the skeletal mage from doing whatever it was that it was going to do. His heart clenched in worry for her, and his mind reeled at the implications of what might happen if the mage got off its spell. He also felt fear coming from the demoness. Jake had confidence in the demoness for a number of things, but durability against something that could target her was simply not one of them.

There was a dozen or more skeletons heading for Jake that were now between him and the mage, and they would make it near impossible for him to hit the mage with a mana bolt until he blew through more than one, something that would make him far too late to prevent the mage from casting its spell.

He knew that he would be absolutely devastated if she were to die and he had a hard time imagining his life without her in it any longer. She was the only one that had managed to bring joy to Jake’s lonely existence, and just as Jake had thought just before he had summoned her, she had already become an important person in his life, a part of his family.

Jake had only known the demoness for a short time, but he knew that he cared deeply for her, perhaps even loved her. Perhaps, he was just so desperate for love and affection that he latched on to the first one willing to give anything resembling it, to him. While they didn’t share words, they did share feelings over the bond. He knew that she did enjoy her time with him, just as he enjoyed his time with her.

Jake hardened his resolve. He would save the demoness, and to do that he would risk himself. He channeled as much of his mana as he could into his spell: Mana blade. The tip of his spear lit up like never before, a near blinding light. He then reeled his arm back, and threw the spear as hard as he could directly for the mage’s center. He tightened his spell with his will and his intent as the spear flew, using everything he had learned with and from the demoness.

It passed through two skeletons in between like they were not even there, and they began to crumble from where they were pierced. The spear was above his target, heading directly for the mage’s skull. However, just as Jake thought that they were in the clear, what he feared happened: the mage completed its spell.

A fireball was released from its staff, and while Jake’s worry spiked, a strange thing happened: he felt the fear disappear over the bond, to be replaced with derision. A moment later, that feeling was replaced with a smug satisfaction. Jake’s spear struck true piercing straight through the weakened barrier and into the mage’s skull, destroying the mage. The fireball seemed to slow to a near stop in front of the demoness, like a soldier reporting to its general.

Jake felt a strange power being emitted, one that felt similar to, but different from, the divinity he felt from Odin. Like Fhesiah was the empress of fire, and all flame must bow down when they enter her eminent domain. The demoness seemed to almost catch the slow-moving fireball that was larger than herself, then flung it at the skeletons coming for Jake, which were now getting almost within striking range.

However, the fireball exploded in the center of the pack, instantly destroying several of them, and setting the rest on fire, as the flames almost seemed alive and spread easily to them. The skeletons seemed to pause in anguish for a few seconds, and Jake was ready to draw his short sword, only to find all the skeletons falling to the ground one after the other. 

Fhesiah floated above and looked down on the dead skeletons like a lord over their peasants, with a smile on her face. Jake on the other hand had just been on quite the rollercoaster of emotions, and actually felt more tired than he had ever been.

He realized what happened: the demoness was in fact scared of the potential spell that the skeletal mage was casting, however, it ended up casting the worst spell for actually harming a dragon-touched demoness. Just which dragon, or which demon is afraid of fire? But what if it had used lightning, or some other attack that the demoness couldn’t dodge?

That was just too close. Jake had really felt like he had failed her. They both failed to account for the possibility that the mage both would be able to detect her, but also target her with a spell so easily. If his gambit with the spear failed, he likely could have just run for the portal, or maybe fighting with his short sword and his spells would have worked out. It was a rude awakening, but Jake tried to look on the bright side. They would need to account for the possibility in the future. They survived, and they can do better next time.

The demoness sent reassurance over the bond, but Jake could tell that she was tired too, despite her demeanor. It was times like these that he really wished they could converse somehow. He looked over the charred corpses, and set about collecting their mana cores. He wondered what to do about the bones and the dust, should he get a broom and a dustpan? Jake never imagined he would be looting dungeon monsters with such.

He gathered a few of their bones and they headed over to the portal. Jake’s body was still full of energy, but he was emotionally exhausted. He was happy that they managed to finish a dungeon in a single day. This dungeon run was quite the windfall.   

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