Crow had about a million questions for Unity, but before he could ask even a single one of them he heard that awful scraping and turned to see several still in-tact skeletons getting to their feet- apparently after being thrown to the ground. Unity grabbed him by the arm and broke into a run, pulling Crow along with him.

At first he wasn’t sure where they were headed, to Crow it seemed as though there was nothing in their way but a solid wall. And then just before they hit said wall, a familiar glowing oval of light appeared in front of it. Crow grinned before diving through after Unity, his smile not breaking for a moment amidst the second of discombobulation before his feet landed on solid ground once more. He glanced over his shoulder just in time to see the portal collapse in on itself and disappear, then his attention was brought away to the source of a cleared throat.

Once his eyes had finished growing accustomed to the darkness, Crow locked them with those of a familiar face. His sister. Astra didn’t look much different than she had at the start of the stage, her clothing was slightly dirtier, perhaps torn or burnt in a few places, but apart from that she was more or less the same. There weren’t even any visible scrapes or bruises on her, Crow had known she’d do well but he hadn’t expected her to emerge completely unscathed. By comparison he probably made a rather unimpressive sight, all aching joints and pulverised flesh. Before he could open his mouth to dismiss this with a joke, however, Astra beat him to it.

“Hello Birdie, you look like you just ran through that wall without a portal.”

Crow felt his face heat up slightly, but still grinned along with her. That was when the wall at Crow’s back began to shake and rumble, with dust falling from it in clouds to the ground, apparently making Unity decide it was time to speak up.

“As touching as this reunion is, we have about…”

He glanced at the wall, then scrunched up his face as though in deep thought. Before he continued, another voice came from Crow’s right.

“About sixty seconds.”

The source was a small, or rather tiny, girl with brown hair and remarkably soft features. She was looking at Unity happily, as though expecting him to be grateful or impressed. Unity was neither.

“Thank you little miss abacus, I knew that.”

The girl folded her arms and muttered something which sounded a lot like “could’ve fooled me” while Unity began speaking once more.

“As I was saying,” he almost hissed, “we don’t have long until those bastards are through the wall. Personally I’m all for running, this passage leads to an exit you see. Unfortunately tall, blonde and frigid-” he gestured to Astra upon saying this, eliciting a glare, “says that you probably won’t want to run away with your tail safely between your legs.”

Crow smiled and nodded.

“She’s right, sorry but I- we- need these credits.”

Unity sighed exaggeratedly before carrying on.

“Alright then, looks like we have about fifteen seconds to get ready.”

And so they did. Crow didn’t need to focus on reactivating any of his abilities, in the heat of his escape he’d never actually turned them off in the first place. However he saw the momentary looks of focus on the faces of Unity, Astra and the girl who he could only assume was one of his teammates. The air became thick with the buzz of energy. Both figuratively, in the sense that the gulping, tensing and jittering of the three people around Crow made it very clear just how close they were to a fight for their lives, and literally, due to the fact that those same people were pumping out so much magical power that Crow felt the hairs on his arms stand on end.

The thudding on the other side of the wall grew louder by the second. It was somewhat dark, the passage Unity had spoken of couldn’t have been nearly as far from where they were as the one Crow had taken, but precious little of its light actually reached them nonetheless. From about ten feet away, Crow could see the cracks in the stone as they widened. They overlapped and ran parallel the way they could never have with only one point of origin, growing deeper and larger by the second.

It occurred to Crow, perhaps stupidly lately, that he was yet to share his realisation about the enemy’s ability to control the skeletons. Keeping his voice low to avoid giving away that they knew, he murmured it to Unity, asking him to repeat it to Astra and the brown haired girl. Unity seemed annoyed at something, probably the seconds-short notice, but for once complied without complaint or delay. It seemed the imminent threat of the attack was getting to him too, even if he didn’t show it.

Before long sections of the wall were falling out, and shortly after the first fragments hit the ground there was a sudden stream of light filling the passage from the other side. Crow winced, his eyes closing against the painful glare. He heard more cracking and crumbling while he covered his face, and before he could get his bearings that damn scraping sound was filling the passage once more.

He felt several hands grip him at once, and it was by pure luck that they all tried pulling him in different directions and failed to take him off balance as a result. Forcing himself to look through his tears, he was able to make out the blurred outline of a skeleton step towards it. The sounds of battle filled the air around him as his elbow crunched into its ribcage, and Crow was almost sure he heard something snap over the rattling and clacking filling the room.

He wiped the tears from his eyes and turned, now able to see more than just the outline of the three other skeletons as they reached for him. Fighting his instinct to flee, as well as his instinct to turn and defend himself from the half-dozen or so others that were engaging his teammates, he waited for the nearest one to approach. The moment it came within range, he threw a carefully timed low kick with his left leg, slamming it into the sight of his enemy’s right knee just as it finished taking a step with it.

This time he knew he’d definitely cracked something. Though it was too small to see, he felt the bone give way through his foot- and it certainly had an effect. As the skeleton went to bring its left foot forward and continue closing the distance, it faltered. Its right leg wavered right at the spot Crow had hit, and it began to topple to one side. Crow, feeling particularly helpful, decided to help it back up with another kick- this time aimed squarely at its still-falling chin.

The skeleton flipped back the opposite direction, its back hitting the ground and its body remaining still as it lay there. Unfortunately Crow had no chance to admire his handiwork, for the other two were nearly upon him.

Unlike the first two, these skeletons were charging nearly shoulder to shoulder. Crow wouldn’t get the chance to knock either of them down before the other could attack, he’d have to fight them both at once rather than turning it into individual battles against one. He opted to retreat instead.

As he turned to run from the charging enemies, Crow’s eyes met the sight of his teammates in battle. And it was a sight to see. Astra was taking two skeletons at once, with Unity and Xeno battling a single one each. However their fights were taking place amidst several clearly visible scraps of broken bone. Crow would have liked to watch a bit more closely to figure out exactly how well his teammates were doing, but he was interrupted by the first skeleton he’d knocked down beginning to get back up and put itself in his path. He put it back on the floor with a kick to the face as he ran past.

Unfortunately, Crow had forgotten that the undead didn’t have brains to concuss. And when he went to step by the skeleton, it was able to reach up- grasping his left ankle with both hands. His stomach lurched as his balance was broken, and Crow toppled over onto his face. It felt strange to fall in slowed time, it seemed to take an age. However once he ended up, for the second time, lying on the floor with the skeletons standing over him, he couldn’t help but wish it had taken just a little longer.

***

Astra tried to shake off the undead as it gripped her shoulders, then she heard Crow yell from somewhere out of sight and ran out of time. Gritting her teeth, she headbutted the skeleton with all of her strength. It hurt, a splitting, hot pain flashed across her forehead and she just knew it would be bruised for a week. Thankfully it also broke the monster’s hold, sending it stumbling back. It would’ve been a perfect chance to follow up, but she had more pressing concerns.

She frantically looked for her brother, quickly locating him. It seemed he’d been knocked off his feet somehow, as he was lying in a heap while being stared down on by two undead as they prepared to kick him. But despite the disadvantageous position he was still putting up a fight by keeping his arms firmly locked around a third skeleton. With the undead lying on top of him, Crow was keeping it between him and the others, essentially using it as a shield. At any other time Astra would have found her brother’s messy improvisation amusing, now she was just glad it had helped him keep his body intact.

Her own opponent came charging back at her, fortunately Astra knew just what to do with it. She waved her hands, conjuring a portal between her and the rushing undead- then placing another one in front of the ones standing over Crow. The skeleton disappeared through the oval of light, its momentum remaining exactly the same as it hurled out through the second and knocked down one of Crow’s attackers. Astra closed the portals with a gesture, then zero’d in on the remaining skeleton, lashing out at its leg with one kick after another- wincing slightly each time at the pain of hitting something so hard. As unpleasant as they were to land, her strikes did their job. The skeleton was forced to step back to avoid having its bones broken, and after tossing aside the one he was grappling on the ground Crow stood up next to her.

Astra would have liked to turn to him and say something cool and care-free, sadly the trio of skeletons Crow had been “fighting”, as well as the one Astra had thrown at them, had joined up with a fifth- she had been wondering where the fourth one to attack Crow had disappeared to. With such a formidable force facing them down just metres away, she couldn’t bring herself to take her eyes off them for a second.

“Astra,” Crow muttered. His voice sounded strained. “I can’t keep my time dilation up any longer, so I’m about to do a lot worse against these than I was before.”

Trying not to let her worry show, Astra forced a light laugh which came out just a bit too hysterical before replying.

“Relax Birdie, you didn’t have me before. We’ve got this.”

Then the skeletons charged, cutting off whatever Crow had been about to say and forcing Astra to find out whether or not she did, in fact, have it.

***

Not for the first time in his life, Unity really wished his body had been just a bit more receptive to physical enhancement magic. Sure, his talents had always laid elsewhere rather than nowhere, but being specialised in attacking and disabling people who didn’t know he was an enemy left him at a terrible disadvantage in… well, most other situations really.

If, for example, his magic allowed him to shoot energy beams or punch with the force of a small cannon, he would have had many opportunities to at least damage the skeleton he was currently fighting. As things were he was limited to stumbling out of the way of its attacks and waiting for an opportunity to grab it for the split-second he needed to use his ability.

“I knew you were the biggest threat.” the skeleton murmured after a particularly near miss. “That magic of yours is truly quite destructive, bringing down that much rock the way you did was something I’d expect from a Gladiator level mystic.”

It paused briefly as it hurled a flurry of punches at Unity, the sudden enthusiasm behind the assault catching him off guard and forcing him into a particularly graceless retreat. He barely realised what the skeleton’s plan was in time to dodge and roll to the left before he could be trapped against the wall. The undead, for its part, didn’t seem to even register the failed trap while it continued talking- closing in on Unity with more barely-dodgeable attacks all the while.

“Of course that sort of offensive power comes at a price, doesn’t it? That’s why you’re so fragile and slow, yes? Funneling so much potency into your attack that you hardly had any left over to strengthen your body… tsk tsk, rookie mistake. And one you won’t be getting to learn from.”

Hearing the word “fragile” caused Unity’s right thigh to throb painfully, the relatively light attack the skeleton had landed on it still stung like a bitch. He was almost glad at how many of the undead there were, the opportunity to see the smug cunt die so many times in a row was quite wonderful- he only wished he’d savoured crushing half of them a few minutes earlier.

The skeleton’s offensive continued. Its lack of any flesh or organs didn’t seem to slow it down, in fact the lack of mass was likely responsible for its startling speed. It swung over and over, mixing things up between punches, kicks, elbows and knees. It was… amateurish. Unity wasn’t a close combat specialist, but he’d seen people with even rudimentary training who were better than the thing attacking him now. Of course a lack of skill didn’t make so much difference when it was so absurdly fast, and his train of thought was interrupted by a barely-blocked knee.

Though Unity was quite sure his block had been very well executed, the amount of power behind it was more than enough to lift him from his feet and send him flying back. The forearm he’d caught the attack with was racked with a deep pain, one that went right down to the bone, the only thing that took his mind from it was the act of landing once more and having the air driven from him.

He hit the ground hard, bounced and barely managed to scramble to his feet before the section of stone he’d been lying on was split open by a stomp. Faced with an utter lack of alternatives, Unity continued his agonisingly sustained retreat. And the skeleton continued its offensive.

This was bad. Dodging was all well and good, but it would only serve to delay the inevitable. His enemy was faster than him, and the longer the fight continued the more tired Unity would grow. He doubted that the skeleton’s muscleless body could experience fatigue, but even if it did he was working much harder to evade it than it was to catch him. The longer the battle dragged out, the closer Unity would come to defeat. A quick glance at his allies showed that they were winning against the remaining enemies. It seemed he had no choice but to try and last as long as he could while waiting for their assistance.

Unfortunately, that really wasn’t his style.

The skeleton darted forwards, and Unity leapt to the right. Its left arm shot out to catch him, while both of Unity’s arms shot out to catch it. He felt the familiar buzz of magic as it crackled between his fingers, forked crimson lines appeared around his hand from the nails to the wrist. He almost succeeded in grabbing his enemy, however it was able to snatch its hand back with that annoying speed before he got the chance.

However the sudden shift in the battle’s tempo seemed to startle it, and that shift added precious milliseconds onto his enemy’s reactions. Before it could come to terms with what was happening, Unity closed in. He held his right arm up, intending to use the muscle and bone as a shield for his vitals, while his left hand snaked around for his enemy’s body. This time he succeeded in closing his fingers around one of its ribs. He couldn’t quite help but grin as he built his magic up in preparation to use it on the captured bone.

The green smoke surrounding the creature seemed to pulsate slightly, then it leapt back with such force and speed that the rib Unity had a hold of was torn free from its body. He felt his power discharge through his hands, glancing at the white shard as it crumbled into pieces barely bigger than dust granules. Hiding his irritation at the near-victory, Unity forced a smirk on his face and spoke.

“Progress!”

One word. Not his most creative jibe, but it did the trick. The smoke around the skeleton began to writhe once more, something Unity realised was most likely a consequence of its controller feeling a sharp bout of emotion. Good. He may not have done much damage, but if he could get into his enemy’s head then doing so in his next attempt would become a lot easier.

***

Astra ducked a punch before circling around the skeleton while its momentum brought it forwards. She glimpsed another one closing in on her out the corner of her eye, and so she seized the first one from behind before swinging its body around- slamming the two undeads’ skulls against one another with a clattering echoey noise quite unlike anything she’d heard before. The second skeleton fell with chunks falling from its clearly shattered face, the first dropped to one knee but began to get back up. Astra grabbed it by the jaw, placed a boot against its collar bone, tearing its head free from its spine before it got the chance. The body did not move any more.

She heard a yelp and spun on her heel to look at the source. Crow was fighting the remaining four skeletons by himself, or rather he was occupying them. They attacked him from all sides, each one eager to land one of their many strikes, yet he was parrying, dodging and blocking them all. It was his precognition, she realised. So long as he continued running and made sure there was always some distance between them, he’d be able to avoid taking an attack to the back.

Not bad Birdie…

Astra felt the pull of her magic as she conjured yet another pair of portals, this time placing one directly in-between Crow and one of the skeletons just as it charged at him. The other appeared right in front of her. The undead’s fist disappeared into the blue patch of light then exited through the one by Astra, and before it had the chance to do anything as inconvenient as retreating she seized its arm with both of her hands and pulled it through- closing the portal behind her.

On a physical level Crow was stronger than the skeletons, and Astra was stronger than Crow. So when she swung the skeleton over her body like a towel, then brought it slamming into the floor, she was not remotely surprised to see it do quite a bit of damage. She brought her foot down on its sternum as it attempted to stand, and her heel caught the bone at just the right angle to snap it inwards.

***

Xeno realised that she probably wouldn’t look back on her current actions with any measure of pride, however they were sadly quite necessary. Her physical limitations made dodging impossible, and so her only option for surviving her confrontation with the skeleton currently attacking her had been to surround herself in a ball of hardened light and assume the position. Personally she’d have preferred to use her enormous power advantage to turn it into a pile of white splinters with a few well-placed attacks, but her ability to do so was apparently diminished while she was leaking out more potency than she was retaining.

A crack appeared in the hardened light just a few inches from her face, and Xeno stifled the frustration she felt for her own pathetic temperamentality as she hastily reinforced the barrier in that section. She wasn’t quick enough. The skeleton’s foot smashed through, catching her in the right shoulder and sending her sliding back to slam into the inside of her own barrier.

A dozen needles of pain jabbed through the spot it had kicked, intensifying tenfold when Xeno tried to move her injured arm. A cracked clavicle then.

Unfortunately Xeno wasn’t given much of a reprieve to further examine her injury. Another blow landed on the already-weakened shield, and she watched in horror as the cracks turned into fissures, snaking outwards. One more impact and it would come apart. Xeno had taken two heartbeats to make that barrier, she’d be beaten or killed before she got the chance to replace it with another. So instead she concentrated her magic on forming another construct, and just as her dome turned into a rain of luminous fragments, she launched her attack.

With the barrier gone she had a clean shot, and with that clean shot opening up so suddenly her enemy had no chance to evade. The sphere of light hit its mark, flying just under the ribs and crunching into the spinal column. It was a pitiful thing, robbed of its power by her lack of composure it was two- no, three- times weaker than it should have been.

But it did its job.

The skeleton dropped down onto one knee, folding over and obscuring the site of impact. A pity, Xeno would have liked to see exactly how much damage she’d done before deciding how to follow up. As things were she was forced to merely hope that the second attack she prepared was the best course of action.

***

Unity’s hands closed around the skeleton’s head as he began charging his magic. There was a flash of agony in his side, and he knew that it had struck him in the ribs with its remaining arm. As much as the pain made him want to relax, he forced his fingers to remain in place. Just a fraction of a second more and he’d win.

Another blow, this time Unity swore he felt something snap under his skin. He gagged as he tasted hot iron in his mouth, but spat the blood free before continuing to tighten his grip. The skeleton’s arm swung back in preparation for another punch, but Unity’s ability was ready first. He opened the floodgates, sending his magic pouring through his fingertips, the red lightning-like markings which had been clinging to his hands leapt from them and carved themselves into the undead’s skull. Bone became brittle, then it became barely more than dust. The glowing green smoke dissipated and the skeleton fell limply to the floor, the section by which Unity had been holding it no longer existing.

Half-laughing in relief, then stopping as the expression elicited another twang of pain in his abdomen, Unity staggered to the nearest wall and leaned against it.

***

Crow pushed the skeleton with everything he had, sending it stumbling away. For a moment he thought it would lose its balance and topple over, but instead it began to right itself. Not quickly enough. He swung a roundhouse kick with all his might, intending to exploit his enemy’s loss of balance to land what would otherwise be an impractical, but still devastating, blow. Time almost seemed to slow down as it did with his dilation ability, and the milliseconds dragged by like years while he waited for his attack to land.

***

Astra saw the skeleton staggering away from Crow and towards her, then before she knew what was happening she was swinging a kick for its head. A side-step lined her body up to land it, and she felt that satisfying rush which came from realising her blow would succeed a moment before it did. What she hadn’t expected, however, was for Crow’s own kick to hit the opposite side of the enemy’s head at the exact same moment. Their combined strength rendered the skull a fragile thing, and it fell from the undead’s shoulders as a cascade of chipped bone.

***

Xeno felt her barrier begin to give way as the skeleton continued charging into it. One more blow and it would be gone, then the undead’s momentum would carry it onto her. She’d be pinned against a wall and in the inescapable clutch of an enemy far stronger than her. That wasn’t something Xeno had any intention of allowing.

As the undead backed up for another running body-slam, she concentrated on her magic and tore her own barrier apart at the seams. It dissolved into drifting specks of light just a moment before impact, and she almost thought she saw a hint of surprise on her enemy as its charge brought it hurtling into the wall instead. Ridiculous of course, that faceless head had remained unchanging during the entirety of her battle. Right up until that very moment, where it was changed only by the great cracks its contact with the hard stone sent across it.

The skeleton took two steps back, its torso leaning further and further off-centre all the while, before it dropped to the ground. Unmoving.

***

Crow wanted to drop to his knees in exhaustion. But then, he’d wanted to do something similar after destroying the first enemy to attack him. The memory of that relief turning into such a pure and unmitigated terror had made him rather averse to relaxing at all.

And so instead of relaxing, he looked to Astra, Unity and the tiny brown haired girl they’d brought with him. In the dim darkness he couldn’t tell much about their condition, or at least not when they were more than a metre or two from his face, so he was forced to ask in-between pants.

“I’m fine!” Unity answered first, then groaned and continued. “Well, actually I’m in agonising pain. But if we don’t count the broken rib I’m more or less unhurt.”

The brown haired girl came next, speaking while leaning against a wall in a sitting position.

“I have a cracked or broken clavicle, fairly serious since I need both hands to really use my ability.”

Astra answered last.

“I have a few cuts and scrapes, nothing serious.”

Crow went to recount his own injuries, but paused when he realised he wasn’t quite sure how bad they were. He’d never really had a broken bone and didn’t exactly know how to tell if he did now. While he was pondering this conundrum, however, he felt a strange sensation. A vibration, coming from his right wrist. No, not the wrist. His gauger. Crow grinned to himself as he peered at the screen, straining his eyes to read the barely-visible symbols even as they appeared in the dark stone surface.

Credits: 1147

Team Credits: 4750

Team Position: 3rd

Time left: 15 minutes

It took very little time for Crow to realise why they had received no reward this time, though it made his heart sink all the same.

“Fuck. Everyone up and ready.”

Crow wasn’t sure what anyone’s faces showed, however even in the gloom he could make out their heads turning to him.

“What is it?”

Astra was the one who asked the question. Even with her expression hidden by the darkness, the tension in her voice was clear. Similarly, Unity’s tone was tight enough to strangle a Grankor.

“Check your gaugers,” the black haired boy hissed, clearly having figured it out for himself. He got to his feet and Crow saw his silhouette favouring one side. “We didn’t get a single grade point, whatever was controlling these skeletons is-”

The ground rumbled, and on the lighter part of the passage- the one partially illuminated by its adjacency to the main chamber- Crow saw sections of the floor fall inwards. Within moments a miniature ravine had appeared, as long across as the passage itself and over a quarter as wide. Then something emerged from within it.

It was a tall figure, perhaps a little over eight feet. Its body was adorned with black metal armour, though a kind which seemed to eat the light rather than gain from it a metallic sheen. What little sections of its body were visible through the gaps in its apparel were withered and desiccated, like a long-dead corpse. Just like the skeletons, a green fog surrounded its body. Just as Crow felt his heart sink, the smell hit him.

It was a stench like nothing he’d ever encountered. Thick and rancid, like the smell of a battlefield- yet somehow more aged. Crow had never smelt a long-dead body before, or rather not one that still had a smell to it, but he immediately recognised the scent. The same way a rabbit might know the shadow of a hawk. This was the smell of death, and the being which gave it off was death itself.

The chilling voice of the undead’s controller resounded through the passage once more, emanating from the green smoke around the armoured monstrosity.

“You know, I’d like to tell you that you’re the first bunch to get past my skeletons and make me use something that was actually difficult to conjure. Of course I would be lying, you’re actually the fourth. Still, at least you're not the least competent suicidally reckless imbeciles to attack me. Silver lining, eh?”

There was suddenly a great black broadsword in the undead’s hand, and an equally huge square shield in the other. Before Crow could decide how pleased he was to not be the stupidest idiot in the Sieve, the monster was charging. It was closest to the brown haired girl, perhaps a half dozen normal-sized paces. Yet given its size Crow realised it would likely clear that distance with only a handful of bounds. He felt his magic writhing under his skin as he prepared to rush in and help her, his eyes burning in protest as he tried to force them to activate his time dilation one last time. But it was all for nought. He was farther from his teammate, and almost certainly slower than the abomination. He wasn’t going to make it in time.

It took all of two steps before the wall on its left exploded inwards, filling the corridor with a cloud of thick dust and yet another beam of light. Everything instantly became simultaneously more visible in the lessened gloom, yet simultaneously less distinct in the thick airborne debris. Over the clattering of flying fragments striking walls, ceiling and floor, Crow heard what sounded like the voice of a young woman.

“I assume the giant monster is the most powerful thing in this stage?”

There was a stunned silence. Crow could see his teammates' expressions now. Astra had the same stupefied, dull look of utter incomprehension that he imagined was on his own face. Unity seemed quietly amused, as always. The brown haired girl, merely one metre from the newly-made hole in the wall and barely thrice as far from the undead, looked like she was about to drop dead of fright. And as the dust slowly settled, the silver-haired blue-eyed girl standing in the breach spoke. Her voice reaching them all as clearly and confidently as if she’d been standing before her best friends.

“Well, when I say most powerful I obviously mean second most powerful after me.”

Then Gemini Menza, alight with power, rushed forwards. Clearing the distance between her and the undead in three strides.