The thing about being cost-efficient was that one had to be efficient with one’s costs. It sounded simple if a bit repetitive, but ultimately some got it and some didn't. The trick was finding the best way to reduce costs while still accomplishing the goal set before them. Teyva kicked off the ground and rushed to the far wall. Her Mockeries chattered in excitement, their part of the scheme already drawing out their bloodlust. Teyva slid to a stop at the edge of the room, glancing up the wall she didn’t have time to reassess her strategy so she just went for it.

Holding out her hand she visualized a wall extending out of the dirt and stone of the outer wall of the room. She cast [Create Wall] and watched a small shred of mana drop off her total. A wall about the size and thickness of a door took shape. She took a step and put her foot on it, testing the strength of the ‘wall’ before climbing on entirely. Then came the next step. She cast [Animate Object]. She felt her mana dip again, this time significantly more than [Create Wall] but she still had over half of her MP left over.

Without warning eyes began to form on the side of the platform she had made. Six large eerie orbs stared up at her from below while a twisted mouth formed along with them, curving between eyeballs until teeth formed and it let out a low, brassier hiss and click compared to her mockeries. Teyva grinned and patted its side before pointing up to the root hanging in the center of the room. Without hesitation it sprouted legs and began to climb, holding itself at an angle to keep its mother aloft. Teyva crossed her legs and focused on recovering her Mana, every second counted.

Then she noticed something about the wall. The smooth gleam of marble glittered out from behind a thin layer of dirt. She glanced over her shoulder at the Bound One and Azrael zipping around her enemy. She’d never seen a person move that fast before. “Holy hell,” Since when could Azrael move that fast? Had she been restrained by where they’d been fighting this whole time? Teyva snorted out a laugh and looked back at the marble, brushing it clean a little to get a better look.

“Mother? Is now really the time?”

“Hold on Nephral,” She said, eyeing the golden seam that passed through the marble. She looked back at the Bound One again before making a snap decision. She cast [Create Wall] again, drawing out a small wall from the marble and feeling her Mana plummet to half. She shuddered and caught her breath before attempting to cast [Animate Object]. The first two times nothing happened, a prompt informing her that she did not have enough mana. The third casting saw her MP drop to 3. She felt faint even as the sense of triumph washed over her, the marble wall coming to life with an angry grunt.

“Sick’em boy,” She pointed down at the Bound One. The Marble Mimic sprouted four long spindly legs and began its aggressive descent towards the ground level. Teyva urged the Dirt and Stone Mimic to keep moving, ascending closer and closer to the ceiling and her ultimate target. Thirty seconds had passed since she had departed the ground. Azrael had been fighting that thing for just about as long. Another thirty seconds and she would hit about 90 MP, she wasn’t sure if that would be enough to do the damage she needed but she didn’t care at this point. She had to try.

She glanced back at the Marble Wall, trying to fathom how much MP she would have needed to bring it to life without [Starlight Sorceress]. Dismissing the thought she felt a gentle shudder as her moving platform came to a stop as close as it could to the root. She opened her bag; “Your turn darlings, I’m counting on you!” She said, releasing the cloud of mockeries into the air. They all swarmed about her, chittering and clacking their mandibles as they found places to grip her clothing. The low drone of their wings turned into a din in her ears as they pulled with all their might eventually lifting their mother off the platform mimic and carrying her, inch by agonizing inch, toward the root.

As mockeries began to exhaust themselves they stopped flapping their wings, clinging to their mother instead so they didn’t fall. Teyva gritted her teeth, looking down at the horrendous fall beneath her. She swallowed and looked up to the ceiling instead; trying to not let fresh terror claim her. She was beginning to run out of Mockeries when she finally reached close enough to grab onto the enormous chain that bound the root. She gripped tightly and pulled herself on, letting her Mockeries rest on her shoulders while she got into position.

Teyva climbed, listening to the rapid clangs of Azrael’s throwing knife striking against the body of the Bound One. Teyva wondered just how fast her friend was going, how much faster could she go? How did she even slow down? Those questions were answered as Teyva reached the halfway point up the root, the base of the root finally in sight. She heard a cry of pain and a crashing sound below. She glanced down and spotted three things. Azrael had hit the ground and was clutching at her leg; Teyva couldn’t make out the injury from here. The Bound One was marching toward her and the Marble Mimic was only a few feet behind the Bound One. It just needed a few seconds of distraction.

“Hey, Azrael!” Teyva shouted from above, “You ever think about running Track?”

The Bound One’s head shot up, looking at Teyva, it jerked around, trying to rush to the center of the room only to get bludgeoned by a marble slab that eagerly body-slammed it with its entire body. Teyva burst into delighted laughter before starting to climb back up. “Azrael’s on the ropes, what’s she going to do now? The Bound One is closing in, but what’s this? What is this? By god! By god! It’s the Marble coming in with a whomp!” She babbled for her amusement, emphasizing the last word to make it more of a sound effect than anything. Maybe she had snapped, she thought.

Below her, the Tomb Guardian was swinging its arms at the Marble Mimic only to find its body remarkably durable. Azrael meanwhile had crawled away to nurse her injuries and drink the remaining healing potion.

As her Mockeries recovered they began to swarm off of her clothing, climbing the sides of the root and finding purchase at any exposed sections of the mighty thing. Without waiting for further orders they began to bite and tear, their acidic teeth ripping into whatever they could. Teyva, on the other hand, pulled herself hand over hand along the chains that ran along the sides of the root; finding footing wherever she could either on a spike or in a chain loop. By the time she’d reached the top, her mana had just about filled up and with no time to spare. She reared back with both hands, claws on her left gleaming with frost while her mechanical fingers began to turn white, and dug in.

She held her grip, burning through every second of mana she could spare as the instances of [Chilling Weakness] built and built and built. She knew she couldn’t silence the thing but she wondered what all this cold and necrotic damage would do at the very base of the thing. She checked her journal and watched with delight as the damn thing’s HP finally began to plummet. Below, The Marble, which was what Teyva decided she was going to call him from now on, was eagerly striking its body against the Bound One, shoving it away from any direction it seemed to want to go. The Bound One’s transformed weapons bounced uselessly off of the marble and death magic just seemed to dissipate around the stone.

“Knew there was something weird about the walls of that tomb,” Teyva grunted, returning her focus to the base of the root. She glanced again at its health and was pleased to see it had dropped to fifty percent.

As she mentally patted herself on the back, she felt a sudden shift beneath her grip and blinked. The Mockeries stopped in their assault as well, looking around in confusion. Another shift set off alarm bells. Teyva looked back at the spot she had been rotting away and saw the necrotized roots of the parasitic root sliding out of the base of the tree. Teyva thought fast, glancing over her shoulder and shouted down below; “Marble! Get him beneath us, quick!”

The grunt of assent was followed by a series of loud bashing sounds and the terror-inspiring groan of the failing connection between the Bound One and the tree above. Teyva climbed up as high as she could clinging for dear life as the root finally gave way. There was a sudden lurch and the entire Root body of the Bound One came hurtling to the ground, crashing atop the Automaton body and The Marble. Teyva was hurled into the air by the impact, she rolled and hit the ground, hard, feeling a good portion of her health chip off as she slid to a stop. She let out a groan of pain and opened her eyes to look at the ruins in the center of the room. She used her journal.

[The Bound One] - [Corrupted Tomb Guardian] - Hostile - Level 8

HP: 22% MP: 61% SP: 77%

The falling root had done a huge amount of damage! It hadn’t killed the damn thing though. She got to her feet and looked around for Azrael. “Az? Are you good?”

“My leg!” Azrael called back; “Potion fixed most of the damage but I need to see a healer!”

Teyva grimaced and followed the sound of Azrael’s voice, hurrying to her side to check on her. Azrael’s health was at just under half and her stamina was completely bottomed out. Her leg was rough, her grey skin had turned pallid and the limb had withered slightly beneath the power of the death magic. Her toes were moving, at least, which meant that the potion had saved the limb. That also meant that they were completely out of potions and options. Whatever came next would be entirely on Teyva to deal with.

As if reading her mind, a horrible sound breached the silence that had come with the fall of the root. It sounded like creaking metal and wood popping and burning. Teyva glanced over the side of the rock Azrael had hidden behind and saw flames coming off the side of the dead root. Then a sword arm jutted from the spot, coppery red instead of silver. The sword turned into a hand and with some effort the Bound One pulled itself out, turning its glowing eyes in Teyva’s direction. It stood up atop the root that had been its cocoon and flexed its legs before leaping off the side and breaking into a run.

Teyva’s eyes went wide; “Shit!”