“You ready for this first part?” I asked my companion, but he just shrugged his shoulders. We had walked back into the jail portion, and the headless body of the Kurgan reminded me of a previous quest. “Oh, shit. Almost forgot. RRRRRAAAAAAMMMMIIIIIIRRRREEEEEZZZZZZZZZZZ!” I shouted at the top of my lungs, and almost instantly his ghost was beside us.

“Ack, I can hear ya just fine, what’d’ya want?”

“I think this is yours.” I said, handing over his sword. As he reverently took it, the sword took on a blue ethereal glow.

“Oh, my schweet. Together again at last. Thank you, Angus. You kept your word, and I think I have the right reward for you. Despite your hammer, you tend to be more focused on precision attacks, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Very good. Then take this earring, and know that precision strikes will take down your enemy better than brute force.” He pulled off the pearl bob that was in his left ear, and handed it to me.

Ramirez’ pearl bob

A pearl earring worn by the swordsman Ramirez. It contains his dedication to precise strikes.

+25% critical hit chance

+30% critical hit damage

+10% attack speed

“Thanks Ramirez. Hopefully you get to enjoy the rest of your afterlife.” I said, and smiled as he faded away. In addition to the earring I received, I also got enough experience to level up. “So close to evolving. Let’s go, I’m going to enjoy finishing this dungeon.”

We headed outside, and started circling the main keep to see what we were working with. The first level had a set of stairs at the north end that cut through the material of the pyramid, while the south end had an open air doorway that entered into a room of unknown size. I could see some mana forms moving around inside, so I knew there were some skeletons in there. As they hadn’t seen me yet, I climbed up the stairs, but slowed near the top.

The second level of the pyramid was an inverse of the first, with an open air doorway on this side. Once again I could see some movement inside. I pulled back, and thought about how to take care of things. I might have let out a dark chuckle as I came up with a plan.

“OK, I’m first going to create some stone barricades. It’ll just be a slab with some pikes sticking out to slow them down. We are going to put that at the base of the first set of stairs, and will be coating the stairs in the cooking oil. The time for stealth is over. You are going to have the most important job. I want you to start out above the little alcove in the first level. When I fire into the room to draw out all the enemies, I want you to take one of the opened bags of flour, and fling it around in the air for a second. Your task is to create as big of a cloud in the small area as possible, then get out of there. Climb up to the third level, and get ready with another bag of flour. This time you will simply be cutting a smaller hole in it and throwing the bag as far as you can.”

Plan set, I went to the side of the pyramid and cut a simple ladder to climb to the second and third levels. The third level was really interesting. It appeared to be a large cabin type structure with a massive crystal sitting on the top. The stone doors to it were shut, which only helped my plans. Getting my skeleton minion set up, I went down and started by liberally coating the stairs with the oil while staying out of sight of the skeletons that were hiding inside the chamber. Once that was done, I formed a very rough barricade and had to have the skeleton help me drag it over. I then put a large amount of heavy rocks at the base, just to make sure the press of skeletons didn’t push it out of the way with numbers.

Traps set, I went around to the entrance to the first level. Taking aim, I fired blindly inside while aiming in the general area of a group of mana signatures. As soon as I fired, my skeleton helper performed his tasks to perfection. There was a very fine cloud of flour hanging in the air, and I could see a stampede of skeletons coming my direction. My helper had already vacated, and as soon as the first skeleton was almost out of the cloud, I threw a pyrophoria potion at its face. It slashed the vial, and the resulting explosion was spectacular. It almost seemed like the very world took a breath, as an invisible blue wave of flame spread through the flour cloud, then everything came crashing back in a massive explosion that sent shards of bone flying. I quickly charged around to the backside of the pyramid, making as much noise as possible.

When I got there, there was a rather comical display of skeletons falling all over each other as a handful remained at the top of the stairs. Well, that was until they saw me and their eyes flashed to red. They carefully picked their way down the stairs, and I loaded a smasher bolt and waited until all of them were on there before throwing another pyrophoria potion on them. As soon as the fire caught the oil on fire, I saw the bag of flour arching its way over the skeletons. I punched it with the smasher bolt, cancelling a good bit of its forward momentum and also shredding the bag open. Once again the flour rained down, and another massive fireball erupted, shattering the skeletons and knocking me on my ass.

“That, was a thing of beauty.” I said while I knocked the dust off my backside. I downed a health potion, just in case something survived I would be at full health. I backtracked to loot the skeletons, thankful that after I looted them they would disappear. It really made things easier. Out of curiosity I checked the chamber they were lounging in, but it was barren save for several pillars to hold the upper levels. The same thing with the second level, and I smiled as I saw my helpful skeleton hadn’t taken any damage.

“We make a great team, and I’m glad you made it unscathed. Are you ready to take out the necromancer?” At his nod, I had to address the one thing that was bothering me. “Will you be ok in his presence? He might try and take over your will.” At that, the skeleton stopped and seemed to be thinking hard on what to do. “Tell you what, let me go in and distract him this time. You come in as we are battling and attack from behind.” That plan seemed to be a lot more appealing.

What’s that saying about best laid plans? As soon as we had hashed that out, the doors opened and the two skeletal body guards emerged, likely to see what the ruckus was. No time for plans, I charged in. “[Death’s gaze][Reaper’s edge]!” I yelled, knowing that two higher level skeletons on one and an injured assistant wouldn’t be good. To their credit, the bodyguards reacted immediately. One dropped back and started to cast, as the other launched itself forward in an attempt to skewer me with its oversized spear. Speeding up, I punched the side of the spear, turning it into a spin as I came up behind the skeleton and slammed my scythe into the base of its skull.

Not quite dead, the skeleton started slamming the butt of its spear into my ribs as its companion fired a bolt of dark energy into my chest. The force from the magic blast was enough to knock me backwards, and my scythe that was stuck in the spearman’s head ended up twisting and ripping out a massive chunk of the skull, compromising it enough that it ended up being a decapitation.

“Ugh, well, that’s one down.” I muttered as I climbed back to my feet, keeping an eye on the mana of the mage. I held an arm sideways to stop my ally from charging in, seeing that the mage had scattered a few magical land mines around himself. “Careful, if you are going to follow me in you need to step exactly where I step.” I took a few hops on one foot, trying to distract the mage who was busy conjuring a multiple bolt spell, as seven orbs were hovering in a semicircle above his head. Right before he finished, I darted into action. Instead of straight ahead, which would have netted me a double bolt of darkness to the chest, I moved three feet to my left with one hop, then changed direction and started closing the distance.

Three more bolts came my way, but the mage lacked the precision to hit a target that was changing directions so many times, and I managed to completely dodge two while only taking a glancing blow to my left bicep from the third one. Smiling at my luck, I figured I had the mage, as I was almost within striking distance. Then he fired the last two bolts not at me, but at the two mines I was just about to pass between.

The explosions literally rocked my world. Reeling from the concussive forces, I ended up tripping a third explosion that sent me skidding on my stomach at the feet of the mage. It walked around to my side and flipped me over with a foot, so that I could see the massive spike of darkness that it had conjured over its head. The jaws opened in silent, mocking laughter, and just when I thought my number was punched my companion came through and smashed a full body blow into the face of the mage with its greatsword. I rolled as soon as I saw the sword entering in an arc, and between my movement and the attack only got caught in the area effect of the spell instead of having it explode within my stomach.

Coughing as I climbed to my feet, I rushed in to help my skeletal friend, catching a blow from the mages staff he had pulled from somewhere in the nook between the scythe and shaft of my weapon. For a split second, we were in a stalemate. The mage had his magic forcing my partner’s weapon into the ground, while I had to use both hands to keep his staff from smashing in to my partner’s head. Then my partner surged forward with a shoulder check, and the lack of leverage let me fling the mage’s weapon up, letting my partner slide around behind him after dropping his greatsword. I had no idea my partner knew grappling, but he swiftly had the mage in a full nelson hold, allowing me to slash at the animating magic in the mage’s stomach with abandon. I couldn’t locate the reanimation core, as the mage’s magic was flowing throughout his body and was doing an effective job at hiding it. I grew frantic with my attacks, as I saw the mage overcharging a massive orb of darkness above our heads, most likely in some sort of suicide attack. Before it could finish it, I slammed an uppercut of a strike into the chest cavity with my scythe, finally taking the enemy out. I breathed a massive sigh of relief as I saw the threads of darkness surging outward like a ball of skittering bugs instead of exploding in destruction.

“Ha. Ha ha, hahahahaha!” I couldn’t help but let out a series of nervous chuckles as I patted the skeleton on the shoulder. “Thanks. You really saved my bacon.” I said before popping a few health potions and looting two reanimation cores from the bodies. Sighing in resignation, I said, “And then there was one. You ready?” At the skeleton’s nod, I entered the boss’ chamber.