The next day after finishing his chores, Mortimer arrived in front of Melissa’s quarters accompanied by his werewolf undead.

After knocking and waiting for a moment, the door cracked open and Melissa's head popped out the gap.

“You came! I thought you’d ditch me.” she pulled Mortimer inside by his arm.

He looked around her room, it was the same size as his, but the interior was completely different. She had replaced the previous furniture with fancier cream-colored variants and had a vanity set added, along with a white fur carpet and magic crystal lamps. But there was no sign of Melissa’s undead inside.

His skeleton followed after him inside, the door closing behind them. Melissa looked the werewolf undead over from all angles. “It looks quite good, my resin made it look less nasty than skeletons usually are.” she poked the surface.

Mortimer pulled Melissa back by her ponytail. “Don’t scratch the paint.”

She turned her head and grinned at him. “Oh, you’ve grown quite attached to it already.”

“Everyone gets attached to their first one.”

She nodded. “I liked mine more when I saw it in action. You still haven’t used yours yet, right?”

“Where is yours anyway?”

“It’s right here.” she pointed to the ceiling.

Mortimer looked up, only to see a giant spider wreathed in snowy white fur upside down on the ceiling, it had a fair amount of bald patches, ten legs, two large fangs, and multiple dull blue eyes. He widened his eyes and took a step back the instant he spotted it, he hadn’t noticed it at all the entire time he was here.

Melissa tilted her head, looking at him oddly. “Why’d you get scared? It’s quite fluffy and cute, not scary at all compared to your boney werewolf.” The snow spider dropped down on the floor, standing at around one meter tall and two meters long.

Mortimer regained his composure and gestured to the door. “Let’s get going, you don’t want to miss your match.”

Outside the catacombs, the charred ruins of the ancient city were overgrown with plants, gray clouds covered the entire sky, joined by the howling wind.

“It looks like it’s going to rain soon.” Mortimer looked up to the sky.

“I hope not, my fluffy spider will smell terrible if it gets wet.”

Their loose black robes were billowing with the wind, heading towards the ruins of the colosseum with their undead in tow.

Mortimer pulled the hair that was blowing in his face away. “How long is this gonna take?”

Melissa ran her fingers through the frost spider’s snowy fur. “Won’t take long at all, I’ll kick his ass then we’ll be done.”

Mortimer spotted the dilapidated colosseum in the distance, it was one of the few structures still standing in the ruins. It was shaped like a circle with some open portions of it that had collapsed over time. The stone it was made out of blackened from the great fire thousands of years ago. There was an expansive arena in the middle of it, the spectator rows were completely collapsed and unuseable.

When they arrived inside the ruins, they spotted over a dozen other neophytes that were accompanied by their undead, separated into their owns groups. A minority were having undead duels inside the expansive arena, most were watching or putting down bets at the bookmaking for upcoming popular matchups. There was also a small section dedicated to trading or other services located away from everything else.

The neophytes who lived in the catacombs usually gathered here to test out their new creations in live combat, socialize, gamble or trade, it was a hotspot for entertainment among them.

Mortimer looked around the bustling place. “It’s quite busy.”

“Everyone gathers here when they have nothing else to do.”

“Do you remember when we last came here?” she squinted her eyes at him.

“We bought the werewolf skeleton and soul at a trading stall here months ago.”

“That’s right, so you still remember.” she let out a sigh.

“Of course I do.” Mortimer avoided her eye contact.

She put on a half-hearted smile and nodded. “Let's get this over with.”

When they reached the betting stall, there were three neophytes around it, Mortimer was surprised to recognize two of them. It was Gregory who was running the bookmaker stall, the duergar courier that dropped off his feydust yesterday, and an unfamiliar slim and tall female drow covering herself with the hood of her robe, he could only get a glimpse of her skin and gray hair.

The trio was accompanied by their undead, keeping them close to themselves. Gregory’s was a set composed of an armored zombie warhorse, upon which sat a skeleton knight wielding a lance. Its heavy iron armor plate was black, with a horned open-faced helmet and a ragged black cape on it’s back.

The drow woman’s undead was a tall desiccated zombie with white skin, wearing a set of steel plate armor that shined in a purple tint with sharp spikes attached all over its surface, and wielded a twin blade set.

The duergar spotted Melissa approaching and bared his teeth at her, making no attempt to hide his hostility. His bear skeleton turning to face her along with its master, its bones were reinforced by small iron plates and it had a brass Gatling gun mounted on top of it’s back.

Mortimer frowned at Melissa. “I thought this wasn’t personal.”

“They’re all like this.” she snickered, making the duergar watching ball his fists at the sight.

The two of them arrived in front of the stall, interrupting Gregory and the drow woman from their conversation.

“You’re here too.” he gave Mortimer a cursory glance before fixing it on Melissa. “What are you going to stake on your match against Gruth?”

Melissa narrowed her eyes at Mortimer before opening her satchel and digging through. She pulled a pouch from inside, tossing it on the stall’s table.

“Forty lesser soul essences, can you match it?" she put on a mocking smile.

Gruth swallowed hard. “Uhmm…” he turned to look at Gregory. “Can you lend me some?”

Gregory grinned. “Don’t you already have another outstanding debt to me?”

He scowled at Gregory, crossing his thick hands in front of him. “I’m gonna pay that off after I win, I’m tired of running errands for your sleazy ass.”

“Very well.” He turned to Melissa. “I’ll pay you in his place if he loses.”

Gruth spat on the ground. “C'mon.”

The duergar walked off in the distance to pick a space for their duel, his bear skeleton following behind with heavy steps.

Mortimer patted Melissa’s back. “Good luck.”

“Just watch me crush him.” Melissa tailed Gruth to their designated dueling space, followed closely by her skittering snow spider zombie.

The drow female spoke for the first time with a husky voice after they left. “Who’ll think will win?”

Gregory rolled his eyes. “I’d never lend him money if I thought he’d win.”

She frowned but didn’t speak further.

The snow spider and bear skeleton were fifty meters apart and facing each other, their controllers taking a long distance from them to prevent getting hit by any stray attacks. The heavy bear skeleton stood its ground, hunkering down and angling itself to face the enemy, waiting for the snow spider to close in so it could riddle it with holes.

“It'll all come down to if she can reach him.” the drow squinted at the faraway battle.

Mortimer sat down on his skeletal improvised chair and watched the fight with his hand to his face, he wasn't particularly interested in the outcome.

When the snow spider came within forty meters, bursts of tiny metal balls were fired upon it from the Gatling gun, coupled with a series of bangs and a cloud of smoke. Most of them missed and hit the ground next to it, kicking up dust, but a couple of dozen shots hit true and embedded themselves in its flesh, staining it’s white snowy fur with dark green blood.

The spider was frantically dodging to the sides to avoid the metal storm released upon it, green blood trickling on the ground from its numerous small holes. While none of them managed to dig deep enough to truly cripple it, the damage was accumulating fast all over its body.

It finally skittered to the side further enough to get out its range after advancing twenty meters in, forcing the bear to have to stand up and reposition itself to be able to hit it. When the bear sat back down and was ready to fire, the spider had already moved to the side and out of it’s firing range.

Gruth’s face was red with veins pulsing in his neck, shouting incomprehensible and obscene words from across the field at the spider. It seemed he never even considered that his enemy would ever make it close enough to make this happen, he underestimated the speed and resilience of the spider.

Gregory had his feet kicked up on his stall and laughed at the sight. “What a silly battle.”

“It was completely different yesterday, he fought a slow ogre zombie and it didn’t manage to even get close before dropping down. It’s a bad matchup for him.” The drow shook her head.

The fight turned one-sided as soon as Melissa’s spider got close enough to easily dodge the volley of shots by leaping to the side. The bear could do nothing to turn its hefty Gatling gun fast enough to target the spider, it was more of a burden at this stage.

When the snow spider came into melee range, the bear was too top-heavy to use its paws or teeth to fight without tipping itself over. It took multiple hits by the spider’s front legs, it’s bones showing faint cracks where it had been hit.

Gruth’s shouts were heard across the field when he realized continuing the fight was futile. “Stop! I lost, stop hitting it!”

Melissa smiled at him and commanded her snow spider to maneuver to the bear’s side, anchoring it’s back legs into the ground and shoving with it’s front, tipping the bear over.

The skeleton bear collapsed in a heap on its side, the heavy Gatling gun snapping it’s boney spine in two from the impact and crashing into the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Gruth knelt on the ground when he saw it's tragic state when the dust cleared out, his eyes getting moist at the sight of his undead getting destroyed. While he could glue the bones together and mend the cracks, they would be much more fragile than before and prone to snap again in the same places. The skeleton was ruined.

The snow spider returned to Melissa after it’s victory, green blood trickling from the small holes in its fur. She took out a vial and syringe from her satchel, injecting the solution into its wounds to stop the bleeding and begun its post-battle treatment.

Melissa let out a pronounced sigh when she saw the additional missing patches of snowy fur, she could not regrow those. "One day it's gonna end up completely bald..."

After she was done, Melissa strutted over to the stall holding her head high at their stares. “Told you I’ll crush it.”

Gregory tossed a pouch containing eighty lesser soul essences to Melissa, then turned his head to look at Gruth who was crouched over his destroyed skeleton with tears in his eyes. “You did.”

"You didn't have to take it that far." the drow shook her head and walked towards where Gruth was, her undead trailing behind.

After exchanging a few words with him, she used her zombie’s strength to carry the still intact Gatling gun on its shoulder, abandoning the ruined bear skeleton on the field and leaving the colosseum together with Gruth.

Melissa stuck her tongue out at the drow when she was a fair distance away. "He shouldn't have looked at me that way."

Gregory chuckled. "You shouldn't offend her, her undead is one of the strongest among all of us."

Mortimer looked at Gregory's mounted knight and asked him. "Stronger than yours?"

He choked on his saliva. "Ahem, of course not, but her undead got a master dual-wielding mastery, it's scary at close range." A set of unknown neophytes approached Gregory for his bookmaking services, taking his attention away.

Melissa nudged Mortimer. "Let's check out the stalls before we leave, I got plenty of money to spend now."

He trailed after Melissa, he was interested in what they had to offer as well, even if he couldn't afford anything.