The stone spike crashed right into the middle of her shield, puncturing through the steel and wood beneath before it got stuck, instead lifting Alice up from the ground and catapulting her back.

A shot fell, followed by an explosion and a roar of pain.

Still flying through the air, Alice curled into a ball to protect her head and extremities, at the same time throwing her ax to the side. She had no plans on braining herself with her own weapon while she couldn't control her flight.

With a screech of steel on asphalt, Alice came to a tumbling halt, bringing her shield up to protect herself from any potential attackers. Instead of an enemy, the only thing Alice saw was Max's hand. She grabbed it, letting him help her up.

"Hissss," Alice pulled air through her teeth, intense pain in her side. Two cracked ribs, maybe even broken. The fact that she could tell that much just from the pain, Alice thought to be slightly concerning, but it wasn't something she could do anything about.

"Only cracked, you can heal yourself," Max commented, prompting several activations of Soul absorption.

Warmth spread through Alice's body, healing her injury and waking her up, her focus immediately back on the fight some distance away.

"Here," Max passed her the weapon she had dropped just earlier.

"Thanks," Alice grabbed the ax, realizing that she should also make sure not to brain her teammates by accident either.

Quickly, Alice assessed the battlefield. The monkeys had been dealt with first of all, so there weren't any more left. That only left the two Goliaths they were still fighting. However, those were working together surprisingly well. AR all times, one would be attacking with its fists, occupying the front line, while the other would run interference, a weak but large number of ground spikes making it hard to get a good hit in.

Luckily, that was about to change, as Harry's last shotgun slug was the kind that exploded, having ripped out a large chunk of flesh from the frontliner's leg.

With a loud crackle, Daniel's lightning lashed out at the monster in the back, electricity arcing on its skin as the magic paralyzed it for a few seconds.

It wasn't long, but it was more than enough. With both opponents immobile, Harry took aim with a long-barrelled revolver, the bullets drawing red lines through the air as their magic allowed them to pierce through the arm the Goliath was using to shield itself and the head behind that. A total of three shots rang out, three parallel red lines going straight through the monster's brain.

In an almost unnatural silence, the giant toppled over, the earth quaking as the ginormous body hit the ground.

"RRRAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!" the other Goliath screamed, a red, misty aura streaming from its fur-covered body as it broke the paralysis.

"Harry, get it now, quick!" Ava screamed out, taking Alice the words out of her mouth. Whatever was going on with that one, Alice had no plans of finding out.

There had been no need to tell the veteran. Before Ava even finished, another shot rang out, the red line it drew in the air going wide however, after the quake had cost Harry his balance.

Before he could readjust, the Goliath hit the ground. Once, twice, five times, its large fists slammed into the asphalt, swarms of Groundspikes lashing out in all directions, acting both as a protective wall and attack against those too close to the creature.

In horror, Alice watched as the spikes shot at her girlfriend, Ava having been caught off guard.

Carl glanced to his side, disappearing in a blur. With a grunt, he activated his defensive Skill as he reappeared between Ava and the spikes, embracing her to protect her smaller form as they got flung through the air just like Alice just moments before.

"ROOAAAARRRR!!!" an animalistic sound erupted from Alice's throat, challenge and taunt to their enemy.

Using every ounce of power her supernaturally strong legs could conjure up, Alice charged forward, shield in front, and ax at the ready. Cracks formed in the asphalt where her feet hit the ground as her body accelerated in moments beyond any speed a human body should be capable of producing.

In the last moment before she hit the thorn wall, Alice's foot stamped down on the ground, the counterforce catapulting her high into the air, meeting the Goliath at the highest point who had jumped just like her.

With all the strength she could muster, Alice swung her Ax forward at the creature's neck, moving her shield simultaneously to intercept the blow she had seen coming from her left.

Time seemed to slow down, allowing Alice to experience everything in unprecedented clarity. First, there was a crack, the shaft of her weapon splintering and breaking as it was unable to bear the force of her swing. Her attack had missed, the axehead now stuck in the monster's shoulder, instead of the neck where Alice had it intended to go, and it had gone by far not as deep as it was supposed to.

Then, the monster's arm hit her, the steel of her shield bending, the wood beneath it breaking. The force traveled into her arm, breaking the bone as it got pressed against her side, her whole body bending around the massive arm, Alice feeling her muscles compress and bones crack.

Then, time sped up once again, and she got flung to the side, crashing through a hedge at the side of the road and coming to a stop on the lawn behind it, her body carving a groove into the earth where it came to a stop.

"Be careful! It's much stronger and more durable now," Alice got the message out before checking her surroundings with her Soul sense. Luckily, no other creatures were around, else this might have been her end.

Quickly, she activated Undead constitution and stood up. Her Ax was broken, and Alice doubted her knives could do much to the creature. Her shield was also little more than a hindrance now, so she quickly took off the straps, freeing her left arm.

As she squeezed herself back through the hedge, Alice got thinking. If she wanted to be of any more help in this fight, and they would need any help they could get, she would need a new weapon. And while it was a gamble, and Alice had wanted to do this after the fight, she didn't see much more of a chance.

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

Reward: Skill

Bone armor Lv 1

Costs Mana.

Clad yourself in a self-mending armor of bones, taken from the fallen around you.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

"Fuck!" Alice swore.

I could have really used a goddamned offensive Skill just about now!

At least, every little bit of additional defense was appreciated, and in Alice's books, every bone that stayed unbroken was a win.

Getting closer to the next pile of dead monkeys, Alice activated her new Skill, quickly replenishing her Mana through Soul absorption, while grabbing the monster's souls at the same time.

Immediately, the corpses began to move in small twitches, cracks sounding out as limbs bend in places they weren't supposed to. With a wet squelch, the first pieces of ivory bone pierced through the flesh of the dead before shooting at their summoner.

Surprised, Alice swatted at the first of the pieces, trying to protect herself from its pointy end. But instead of being repelled, or worse, puncturing what remained of her armor, the piece liquified, feeling like she had hit a particularly soft piece of clay.

Within moments, more pieces flew at her, splattering over her body and stretching out, covering her whole body in a thin layer of the material, the scene continuing as Alice came closer to corpses still containing their bones.

When it was done, her body and armor were covered in a millimeter-thick layer of bone, with the only gaps being in her newly remodeled visor. Sharp edges and ridges covered her, accentuating the form of what lay underneath while also hinting at overlapping armor pieces in a strange design somewhere between skintight sci-fi armors and a medieval knight.

Interestingly enough, despite hinting at the presence of joints, those didn't actually exist, the bone stretching and flowing to adjust to her movement without leaving a single gap.

Not far away, the fight was still going on.

Daniel and Harry were running around the berserking Goliath, their bullets annoying it more than anything else. At least, they were also keeping the creature's attention away from their group's supporters, who were kneeling next to Carl, who was lying on the ground. Alice couldn't tell where Ava was, not without focusing on it at least, but Alice trusted that the girl was just waiting on her opportunity to get a good strike in.

"Is Carl okay?" Alice sent the question in Max's direction.

"In a minute. But are YOU okay?" the question came back immediately.

"I'm as fine as an undead is going to be," she answered.

Unsure what to do now, Alice looked down at her hands. Her shield and ax were broken, neither of them able to endure the supernatural forces every single combatant was exerting, and Alice had doubts about getting any different result if she went to grab her replacement weapon.

Getting an idea, she focused on the design of her armor, and in just a few moments, her gauntlets grew small bone spikes on top of her knuckles. It wasn't ideal, but at least she was relatively sure that her arms wouldn't break from the force of her own punch.

"RUUOOOAAAARRRRGGGHHHHH!!!" another challenge escaped Alice's throat, this time with a deeper, more gurgling nuance, fitting of her current identity as an undead.

The monster's head shot around, its focus completely shifting to Alice, who was once again charging the monster.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Ava appeared in the creature's shadow, her arm reaching around its head, her knife finding purchase in the being's eye socket.

Roaring from anger and pain, the giant monster's arms began flailing, allowing Alice to charge straight through, evading its attacks.

Opting out of the punching, Alice tackled the monster's leg, barely even moving it. Her body weight was simply too little in comparison, and no matter how powerful her body got, there was a limit to how fast she could move without losing control if she didn't have the right Skills to support the endeavor.

Still hugging one of the monster's legs, it hit her in the back, squishing her in between its two extremities. Far too soon, her new Skill got to show its prowess, the new shell around her body cracking and breaking but softening the blow to half its power at least. Within moments, the armor reformed, cracks and breaks closing as the bone liquified once again and flowed back into place, consuming Mana in the process.

With a crackle, another lightning bolt hit the creature, the smell of ozone and burning hair filling Alice's nose as the Goliath stood paralyzed for a few precious moments once again.

Alice crouched down, getting a good grip on the creature's fur.

"Arrrrghhhh!" with a scream of exertion, Alice pushed against the ground, quickly consuming Mana and souls to temporarily bind two nearby Monkey souls, leveraging every bit of force she could produce through mundane and arcane means.

Moments later, her efforts were rewarded, the monstrosity toppling backward before it could break free from Daniels Skill and prevent its fall.

Flailing its limbs, the Goliath flung Alice away once again. However, it was already too late.

Appearing next to its head now that it was at ground level, Ava produced one of her pitch-black shadow spikes, plunging it down into the monster's still healthy eye, taking it out of commission too. Before the monster could hit her, she dropped down next to its large head, disappearing in its shadow, completely evading its flailing arms as she stepped back out of a hedge a few meters away.

The distinctive sound of a pump-action shotgun being cocked rang out, the foreboding silence that followed shooting shivers up one's spine.

However, the old soldier could clearly tell when something was a worthy opponent and when it was helpless prey. As such, he took his time, carefully aiming before unloading the supersonic lead-projectile, delivering its payload of explosive magic at his target's head.

Again, the dreadful sound disturbed the momentary silence that followed, the following explosion blasting away chunks of the creature's skull.

With finality, the instrument of death was prepared for the last time, delivering its message straight into its victim's mind. The explosion was muffled inside the skull, pulped brain matter spraying out of the hole.

As the red haze finally dissipated from the now dead body, Alice fell out of the sky once again, crashing heavily into Ava, who had been trying to catch her, and bowling her over in a tangle of limbs.

"I think you are a bit too small to catch me like that," Alice tried to downplay the situation with a joke.

"Are you fine?" Ava completely ignored her comment, worry clear in her face.

"You know me. A few broken bones and probably some squished organs, but nothing immediately lethal if I turn back again."

"Max, how long do you need to get done with Carl?" Ava asked loudly, stress making her forget to use telepathy.

"Give me a sec... Aaaaaand done. I'm coming over," their combat nurse answered, jogging around the giant corpse in between them seconds later.

"How bad is it?"

"Broken ribs, broken arm, and I'm pretty sure my armor is dented more than is healthy."

"Think you can turn back here? How are the surroundings?"

"Yes, and clear. Whatever was left ran away after that second Goliath turned berserk. What the hell even was that in the first place? That's the first time shit like that happened," Alice complained.

"The one we killed first had a dick, the second one didn't," Harry commented.

"First, when did you have the time to check that? And second, why is that even relevant?" Ava asked in a mix of disgust and curiosity.

"Being observant is important. And if I had to guess, whatever kind of ability that thing used, it was a desperate attempt to protect its offspring," the old man explained.

"Okay, as interesting as the mating behavior of five-meter tall gorillas is, right now, I need your help to hold her down in a moment. Alice, can you deactivate that armor of yours? And take off the one underneath?" Max interjected.

Feeling for her Skill, Alice knew that with just a thought, she could have her armor crumble into small pieces, completely falling off her body. However, she could tell that there was also a second possibility.

With a command of her mind, the bone around her torso and left arm crumbled. For the rest of her limbs, however, the bone receded from her joints, turning into a set of armor plates molded directly to her body, ready for the Skill to deploy again at any time.

Brushing of the pieces of bone, Alice opened her enhanced rugby armor and shrugged it off. Looking at her left side, she gingerly pulled a piece of the plastic shell that was the original armor out of her side.

"Bit on this," Max opened up her visor, putting a piece of wood wrapped in leather between her teeth, before continuing to give instructions to the rest of the team that had gathered around, "Carl, Harry, take her legs. Daniel, take her right arm. Ava and Debby, hold down her left, but try not to stress the break too much."

Finally, He himself pressed down on her head.

"Harer," Alice encouraged the others around the stick in her mouth, causing them to redouble their efforts.

"Okay, deactivate the Skill on three, two, one!"

For a moment, Alice hesitated, knowing what was waiting for her. However, she knew that she had no choice but to go through with it at one point or another, and the longer she waited, the worse it would get. Biting on the rod with all her might, she could feel it splinter under her teeth. She deactivated the Skill.

"AAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!" Alice screamed, tightening all the muscles in her body in a desperate attempt to suppress the spasms. Still, Harry and Daniel got almost flung off by her.

When Max began to poke and prod at her wounds, bone scraping on bone as he set the break in her arm manually, Alice could barely feel it, still numb from the earlier pain.

"Okay, you can heal yourself now."

Not waiting for a single second longer, Alice used up her entire stock of Soul energy, causing an incredible warmth to flow through her body, close her wounds, and fuse her bones back together.

She let out a sigh of relief, continuing to lie there on the ground for a few seconds longer before she stood up with a grunt.

"Don't forget your armor," Daniel commented, noticing the mentioned piece of equipment still lying on the ground.

"I don't think I will continue to use it. Not after having a piece of it stuck in my side and a better alternative in the form of a Skill," Alice answered.

"Don't get overconfident. You have to activate it for it to be actually better, don't you? What if we get ambushed? What is a thin piece of non-magical bone going to do to protect you?" Harry nagged at her.

"Fine, fine," Alice grumbled, picking up the piece of protective equipment, quickly pulling a few more shards of hard plastic out from the inside before using a rock and her replacement ax to hammer out the dents in the steel.

"Harry, do your enchantments now. I need to collect some souls in the meantime. Ava, come with me."

Puttin her armor back on, Alice and Ava went around the battlefield, collecting souls, recharging Alice Mana and Stamina, and even 'refilling' her bone armor before putting it into standby. Activating her armor from nothing meant that she needed several corpses worth of bones and a minimum of ten Mana just to get started, not to mention the passive Mana cost to maintain the Skill and the Mana it took to repair it. However, if she had already her bone armor on standby, most of the initial problems were not present anymore.

Finally, there was one last issue.

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

Level Up!

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

She had leveled up twice in a single fight again. And once again, she decided to take a shot at a new Skill.

I'm putting this note in the chapter, because I definitely want you to read this.

Alice definitely needs an offensive Skill, sadly, she didn't get one until now. Mostly due to chance, but also because I don't have many good ideas for attack Skills for her.

So, I decided to leave it to you, my readers!

Yes, you get to make suggestions for Skills, and I'm going to pick one of them, maybe with a bit of rebalancing, but I'm mostly going to keep it as it is.

Of course, you have to keep to the theme. Alice is a warrior, so nothing too magicy.

I'm excited to see what you guys can come up with!