JohnWillStab was thinking about the skeleton, for the first time in a long time he felt reasonably at peace, albeit dickless.

He paced around the study, a few of the LFTO members sat around the room quietly trying to come up with a plan.

"We can assume the skeleton is an NPC based in his unique skills... he might be max-level already... exclusively capable of short-ranged attacks..."

"Can't get stabbed, might be shatterable..."

"Maybe acid? Or lava? Fire magic... we could end up burning the entire forest... those hippie-wizards would be upset..."

"Something to destroy the bones themselves... break ... crack... erode... water!" JohnWillStab turned to Foxly.

"Remember the spell from the first time we went to a dungeon? The ball of water! Do you think you could use that to erode his bones?" John asked.

"If I had a few years, but I don't think we have that long..." Foxly sighed.

"..." JohnWillStab scratched his head.

"...heating up the water? No... cooling it? - If we cool and heat the water rapidly it'll cause the bones to shrink and expand and crack them!" John exclaimed.

Jordan piped up, "I could fire a few fire bolts into the water, that'd heat it up for sure! Plus we wouldn't have to worry about starting a fire!" he exclaimed.

Bromy butted in.

"And how are we going to cool it?" he asked.

The room fell silent.

"Maybe I could shadow-step to Kearudown? No... they said it's an instance-off zone, there's no way I'd find my way there..."

"Maybe I could try and shadow-step up? No... that temperature-change would be too slow..."

JohnWillStab let out a sigh.

"..."

"..."

"Why don't you just do that thing where you delete its soul?" asked Crown.

"That's completely out of the question! Doing that is literally inviting creatures beyond your understanding into this world!" Thal erupted.

Thal's shaky tone made a chill run down Crown's back.

Thal was still in the form of a sword, though he could switch between his human form at will.

The room went quiet once more.

"Break... shatter... crack... what if we... add sand?... sand! Abrasives!"

"We'll add some sand and rocks into the water! It'll fly around in the water, smashing into the skeleton-like a massive ball of sandpaper! John exclaimed.

"That might work!" Bromy remarked.

"We have plenty of sand here!" Foxly exclaimed looking out the window.

"Actually, I have an even better idea!" JohnWillStab smiled thinking back to a certain ogre temple in Ajuan.

After shadow-stepping through the sea and sand, he came across the massive pyramid.

Its sandstone bricks worn out by the harsh sand that only further reminded John of what he needed to do.

He walked downstairs to the corridor where he met Steve.

"Hey! Steve! Are you here?" John called out.

"John? Is that you?" Steve called out before sliding out of the wall.

"Steve! I need your help!" John exclaimed.

"Alright!"

"It's really important, there's this one-... that was fast..." John didn't even have to convince him.

"I'd love to help you! Just tell me what to do!"

John gave Steve the run-down of their situation.

"Oh boy, another undead! I don't know how useful I'll be - but I'll do my best!" Steve exclaimed.

"Great! Grab my hand!" John instructed the skeleton.

"Hm? Alright!" he did as instructed and in a fraction of a second JohnWillStab and Steve the skeleton shadow-stepped across the entire map, well, technically the journey lasted like twenty minutes.

"We're here!" John exclaimed gesturing towards his base.

"It looks lovely! It reminds me of the deserts of Ajuan!" Steve remarked following John inside.

As soon as he set foot inside the main building, Steve was met with a punch from Larry.

"IT FOUND US!" he exclaimed.

Steve the skeleton fell to the ground, cracking and disappearing into a puff of sand and dust.

"..."

"..."

JohnWillStab's expression darkened, his eyes looked at the pile of bone dust that was once Steve, John's mouth trapped in a forced smile, awaiting Steve's reappearance.

"THAT WAS MY FRIEND YOU ASSHOLE!" John finally snapped, grabbing Larry by the collar and shaking him violently.

Four minutes later, steve respawned.

"Ah! Good as new!" he said patting his ribs clean.

"Uhmm... sorry about that..." Larry said avoiding eye-contact with the eyeless skeleton.

"Oh, don't worry about it, I understand my appearance is quite grotesque!" Steve replied.

"But I do use moisturiser!" Steve exclaimed before pulling a small wooden box of white cream out of his backpack and applying it liberally to his bones.

"I... see..." Larry said uncertainly.

"No time for bone-care!"

"We have a skeleton to defeat!" John reminded them.

"You're right! Let's go!" Larry exclaimed picking John up under his arm.

"Slow down, we need to make sure that'll work!" John said.

He used the friends-communication to contact Foxly and get everyone to come outside the main building.

John was still being held by Larry.

"Go on! Let's test it out!" John said excitedly.

Foxly tossed a handful of seals onto the ground, a ball of water manifested, swirling around so quickly it made a whistling noise, the water turning solid white.

"Alright, Bromy! Bring out the first test subject!" John exclaimed, from the back of the ground Bromy appeared, dragging a skeleton over his shoulder, it was short and stumpy.

He tossed it into the water, after about a minute of complete silence Foxly cancelled the spell, splashing the water everywhere and dropping the skeleton to the ground.

The bone was visibly worn away in places, mostly from hitting itself.

"..."

"...where'd you get that skeleton?" Foxly asked nervously.

"..."

"..."

All the other L.F.T.O members also turned to Bromy.

"...shit, you did recognise it..." Bromy quietly said under his breath.

"THAT'S MY SKELETON ISN'T IT!?"

Bromy's eyes moved to the side avoiding a reply.

"IT IS MY SKELETON!" Foxly cried.

"Your bones are very easy to store, small and foldable!" Bromy explained.

"HOW DID YOU EVEN GET THAT MANY SKELETONS OUT OF ME!?" Foxly demanded.

"A few days back I kind of borrowed a skeleton and healed you back up while you were asleep,"

"I was going to put it back, but there was another one in the way now... so I took it out, and I just had this realisation..."

"Why have one skeleton in my basement, when I can have thirteen!" Bromy exclaimed.

"DO YOU HAVE THIRTEEN OF MY SKELETONS?! WHY DO YOU NEED THAT MANY!?" Foxly demanded.

"See, Bonifacius' skeleton's are too big... and John's are so weak they crack while I fold them..." Bromy explained.

"..."

"..."

"Bromy..." Crown began.

"It's alright, I already had frogman's bones, you're good... for now..." Bromy said menacingly.

"Bromy! Thou can't steal skeletons from us!" Bonifacius exclaimed with crossed arms and a look you'd give a child screaming on a plane.

"Alright... alright..." Bromy sighed.

"So is skin off limits too?" he asked.

"..."

"..."

"I knew my skin was feeling dry lately..." Alex thought looking down at his hands.

"Hah!" Thal laughed.

"I have his skeleton too..." Bromy remarked.

"...you what?" asked Thal.

"You switched to your humanoid form in your sleep once, so I took the opportunity and scavenged some pieces..."

After a lecture on the ethics of bone-stealing, the group proceeded with the next experiment.

The water began to swirl as the next skeleton began swirling around the water, sand was thrown inside by Steve, spinning it in the opposite direction.

After only a minute, the skeleton was reduced to small bits.