Despite Leaf on the Wind we were dropping pretty damn fast. I was spreading the skill over both of us so it was kind of dampened, not to mention I didn't want to drop too slow because the Gargoyles were after us. As mentioned they COULD fly. Somehow. I was still in Afterburner, but I couldn't fly, even with Leaf on the Wind so when they started swooping down I couldn't do much...at least not without a little nudge from another skill. I used Cloud Step, planting my foot firmly on midair, then pushed off hard, hurling myself at the nearest gargoyle.

I slammed into it feet first, knowing it out of the air with the impact. Callie, who was adjusting pretty well to hurtling toward the ground at an admittedly less than terminal velocity, lashed out with a kick with one of her black boots, the heel of which shifted into a spinning drill via shadow embodiment. The leg flashed out a few times, shattering the Gargoyles head. I yelled into her ear. "If I switch you to my back can you make a glider with your coat?" I'd been considering hopping from Gargoyle to Gargoyle to get down but the damn things were all higher than us, and if we slowed down too much it would run out the clock on my skill.

She grinned. "Yeah!" It took some awkward shuffling to get her onto my back midair without letting go, but I managed to get her in a piggyback position. Her coat, which was imbued with shadows and could be manipulated just like her other clothes, flared out behind us and stiffened into a glider. "Ok! Since we don't have to worry so much about steering let's take out the other ones!" Her obvious glee was infectious, and I whooped my agreement as I pushed off the dead Gargoyle, hurling us at another one.

The body went flying toward the ground from the force, but hell it gave me some footing. I managed a relatively small bit of push and a shallow arc, with the coat catching the air as we started to dip again. We went sailing forward toward the Gargoyle I'd picked at a smooth glide, and I was able to draw my tonfas and actually attack without Callie in my arms. I activated Flurry of Blows and Consecration of Flame and rained down the weapons as we got within range, shattering the Gargoyles, which were mostly just rock shells around ghosts.

The fire helped disperse the spirit, and I realized that these things were actually pretty weak, at least if you could actively defy gravity. The whole flying rock death machine thing probably made them a huge pain for most people but once we got started we took out the nearest two or three and the rest of them veered away. Callie cheered and I turned, starting us in slow circles that would let us descend to the ground. Luckily with Leaf on the Wind I was able to go at a steeper angle than would have been safe otherwise.

Still, the destruction of those Gargoyles didn't seem to deter the ghosts much. They kept swooping in to attack, trying to exploit and openings we left. Callie and I were forced to stay on guard as we descended. We were able to scare them off with my tonfas though, at least for a bit, until they all scattered of their own volition out of nowhere. I heard Callie yell. "Oh shit!" And had the unfortunate feeling things just got more complicated. I looked tightened our turn so I was facing the same direction she was and felt my blood run cold.

I had to curse aloud at our luck, not to mention the ridiculous nature of what I was seeing. "Oh COME ON! That fucking dragon skeleton is made of BONES. How is it flying? That doesn't even make any fucking sense!" Well, it looked like a dragon skeleton. I doubted an E rank world had actual dragons on it, but whatever it was it was big and reptilian and carrying what I suspected was a really pissed off corpse in a robe and crown. I was guessing from context clues that this was the Lich.

On the upside the ghosts didn't seem enthused about getting near the pair either. I basically abandoned the spiral and went into a straight dive. We needed to get away from this thing as fast as possible, and that meant the quickest drop we could make. I would pull up once we got lower and Leaf on the Wind should help me come out of the dive, and if it didn't I could MAKE it. Callie squealed with joy and surprise as we dove, and I tried very hard not to think about the corpse on the dragon behind me. It didn't work.

Firstly the thing had dancing blue flames for eyes. Really eerie set in the dessicated face and surrounded by poorly contained whispy white hair. It was holding a staff of some kind made of glowing blue wood and it had a saddle affixing it to the back of its bony steed. Despite not having any expression, I could FEEL the malice coming from the eerie blue glare. Not to mention BOTH of them were G rank, and I was seriously worried even the whole crew would be able to take them down.

The ground barreled up at us faster than I was really comfortable with, skill or not, but I was able to pull up as I went. I used Seek Hidden as we plummeted, searching for my party, and a flash of red was enough to bring me in the right direction to meet up with my friends. Mostly. As we came in I pulled up on Callie's legs to get her to yank back and try to come out of our dive. It...didn't entirely work. Between the skill and glider I avoided most of the impact but I still hit the ground going forward and slid about forty feet, tearing up a long strip of black grass.

My friends were running to meet us even as they saw me come down, I'd managed to get close enough to be visible to them at least, though the skid took me well past them so it took a minute for them to reach us. As they headed over I groaned, pulling myself out of the dirt. My costume had tanked most of the impact, but even with all the mitigation it wasn't exactly comfortable. Luckily Callie had been on my back so I had cushioned her fall. Lucky for her rather, because I'd gotten twice the damage, not that I was stupid enough to mention that. It had been my idea after all.

I brushed the dirt off me as I climbed to my feet. "That was a terrible plan. I should never have ideas. You ok babe?" Callie was climbing to her feet right next to me, cracking her neck and checking her costume for rips. There was nothing there of course, I'd taken most of the hit. I turned to see our friends arriving. "Hey guys, good to see you, if you didn't notice the Lich is riding a skeleton dragon down here to kill us. Which seems bad to me. Sarah, any idea what the hell that is and what we should be expecting?"

Sarah stared up at the sky in trepidation, looking for the Lich and the dragon. I suspected we'd lost them for a second during the fall, one of the benefits of being in a dark cavern and crashing into a field of black grass wearing all black. Luckily the flowers were in patches and we'd avoided them in our hit. "Well it isn't a dragon. At least I don't think so. Bone Dragons are powerful undead monsters. It's most likely Bone Wyvern, they're much smaller and more common. Still terrifying but they don't breath frostfire."

She spotted the Lich as it finally drew close. "Ok, wow, yes that's a Wyvern. The skull shape is different. Wyvern horns curl like a ram, dragon horns curve back gently and they're branched. Plus dragons are universally pretty high rank when they're grown. The younger ones can be lower but you don't often see them out and about. Point is, there should be a core in there you can target. An organ magically bonded to the bones that supports the spell keeping it animated. It makes them more independent but for undead of that scale its more efficient because they can continue to grow stronger."

I winced, though honestly the Wyvern was a distant second concern. Mostly I was staring at the withered, eyeless, flame socketed face of the lick as it sneered hatefully down at us. Now that it was getting closer and I wasn't falling I could finally focus on the thing properly. I could see its withered hands clutching the blue staff with twisted black nails, a pair of cloth shoes in the stirrups of the saddle, and flaming eyes seemed to follow us everywhere, despite being literal balls of fire and not having any indicating features to show orientation or direction.

The Bone Wyvern crashed down onto the grass in front of us, a low boom as its massive weight smashed into the earth, buckling the loose, hydrated dirt under the field. The soil down there had been dark and loamy, like a graveyard, and I wasn't shocked to see the ground buckle under the weight of the massive skeletal form. The shadow of the towering beast fell over us like an impending tidal wave as it loomed above out group, a specter of grim judgement that was preparing to enact our final punishment.

The Lich stood, sliding free of the saddle and stepping off the draconic form, floating gently to the grass beside it. Despite the lack of determining features on the eye flames the Lich was clearly focused on Callie and I when it finally spoke. "Thieves." The Lichs voice was terrifying. A rasping, rustling hiss like the wind through dead tree leaves in depths of a haunted forest. "Return what you have stolen, and die swiftly."

I raised an eyebrow under my mask. "Don't you mean or?" He cocked his head, and I rolled my eyes as I repeated. "Don't you mean return what we have stolen OR we die swiftly? Because saying you're going to kill us if we give the shit back is clearly not an incentive to do it. Who wants to die?" The response was an even more raspy and terrifying chuckle, the blue flames dancing in their sockets.

The withered head shook slowly. "You misunderstand. Death is inevitable. YOUR death is inevitable within the day. Your choice is not life, but quality of death. If you return what was stolen I will kill you swiftly. If you make me take it from you, your deaths will take hours, and your corpses will serve as footsoldiers for my army, where I will use them for the amusement of my sapient troops. So, I say again, and for the last time. Thieves. Return what you have stolen, and you can die swiftly."

Ah, that wasn't ideal. I kind of wished we'd had time to plan this out. We'd discussed fighting the Lich a bit, but since they tended to vary we had no actual idea what the hell he could do. His magic could be any one of multiple different things, so we would need to play it by ear. Not to mention the existence of the Bone Wyvery complicated the hell out of this entire situation.

I pretended to think about it for a second, but eventually I'd run out that clock. I turned to Cark and bellowed. "Wall!" As if on reflex the pyrokinetic hurled out a hand and tossed a huge wall of blue inferno out between us and the Lich. The Bone Wyvern roared and charged into the flames, its sheer size creating a break in the fire for the Lich to hurl itself through. As it landed in front of us, bringing the staff to bear we all readied ourselves. Looks like we wouldn't have time for a planning session after all. Oh well, guess we'd have to wing it.