Necromancer

A Royal Road Fan Fiction

By: Halosty

Chapter 42

The party was getting prepared to fight the skeleton boss that Quietus had seen.

“It was huge, and it carried a giant sword. I don’t know what other abilities it has though.”

Since they didn’t know what the boss could do, they prepared with what they could. Maratis buffed the party with various spells, including one that significantly increased Angelo’s defense. Quietus made sure Maratis had some mana potions to use in emergencies.

Once in combat, Ruby would choose which abilities to use. She could make the party’s offense or defence stronger, or weaken that of the enemy. Some of her abilities wouldn’t work on undead, but she still had some options.

Since waiting around wasn’t going to do them any good, the group headed around the corner and into the room. It was a largish, rectangular room. Except for some small piles of broken stone, the floor was level.

In the middle of the room, just as Mortimer had described, was a giant skeleton. It stood about ten feet tall, with a sword almost as tall as itself. It didn’t have any armor, but that didn’t reassure the party as they looked into its glowing yellow eyes. Above its head stood the name “Destroyer Skeleton”. It didn’t seem much of a proper name, but the description seemed apt.

The party nervously advanced, unsure of what level this boss was. It was entirely possible for it to be out of their league and wipe out the party.

As they all got into the room, the boss moved, and focused his eyes towards the group. Then, with surprising speed, he dashed towards the party.

Before anyone could do much to react, the skeleton reached the front of the group. It swung and Angelo, who barely managed to block. Even so, Angelo was knocked back almost ten feet, and took quite a bit of damage.

Instantly the rest of the party moved into action. Maratis healed Angelo. Ruby decided that the most fitting things to do was sing a song that increased the speed of the party. Nilrem moved to the side and started casting his most accurate lightning spell, Seeker Bolt. Quietus moved around behind the giant skeleton, who so far was ignoring him.

Angelo was quickly back up and in front of the group, and the real battle started.

It soon became obvious what the broken stone on the ground could have been caused by. Whenever Angelo dodged the boss’ downward swings, it took a huge chunk out of the floor or wall. This did give a small opportunity for the group to attack.

Quietus did his best to stay behind the boss, while attacking its right elbow. He hoped to damage it enough there to reduce its swinging power. Nilrem’s Seeker Bolt spell did a good job of hitting, even when the skeleton dashed towards different party members. Since their speed was increased, most of them were able to evade enough of the damage to survive the hit, before Angelo once again gained the attention of the boss.

During one sequence, the Destroyer Skeleton suddenly spun around and swung its sword at Quietus. It was a powerful enough attack that it could kill him, but he was ready for an attack like that, based on how it had been standing. He silently thanked Master Valarao’s training. Of course, he couldn’t really prepare to dodge an attack that fast, but he’d come up with a sort of plan. As soon as he saw the movement coming, he used Backslide. Normally, this would have been enough. However, the skeleton had enormous striking distance. Even striking down at an angle, it still would have probable taken off his legs. In this rare case, Quietus thought ahead, and had already been prepared to do even more. He actually used Backslide a second time in a row, right after the first. This put him about ten small steps backwards from where he had been.

For a moment, Quietus was disoriented by the extra movement. He’d gotten used to the sudden change caused by one use, but two was new. Fortunately, the skeleton hadn’t been prepared either, and thus didn’t take the opportunity to charge him. In fact, it created a small opening for Angelo and Nilrem to damage the boss further.

The party managed to struggle through ninety percent of the boss’ health, but were getting a bit low on stamina and mana. The boss started spinning around with its sword out, and was soon a whirlwind of death. It moved somewhat randomly, damaging and knocking back party members. Fortunately its accuracy was somewhat reduced so it didn’t do any critical damage to the party members. However, all of the party members except Quietus were injured and knocked away, with only minimal damage dealt to the boss. Quietus himself was backed into a corner.

The giant sword was moving too to properly dodge, and Quietus knew he wouldn’t be able to escape to either side. Of course, the corner prevented his other escape routes. As it approached him, Quietus saw a single chance. As it was close enough to hit him, its sword struck the wall. This only slightly slowed the attack, but Quietus was already moving. He dived forward and rolled, directly toward the skeleton. Because of its long reach, this movement meant he ended up immediately next to it.

Before the skeleton could react by kicking him away, Quietus jumped up and grabbed onto the skeleton’s ribcage… from the inside. Then he began frantically hacking at its spine with his other hand.

The skeleton moved violently, trying to shake him off, but he managed to hold on. It tried to reach him with its free hand, but it was a very awkward angle to try and grab him.

At this point, the rest of the party was back up, if a bit bedraggled. Ruby used a dance to decrease the defense of the giant skeleton, and the rest attacked. Angelo charged the skeleton, while Maratis and Nilrem fired holy and lightning spells respectively. Because it couldn’t balance properly, it was unable to continue its deadly whirlwind skill. Before it was given a chance to adjust, the party finished it off.

As the skeleton’s health dropped to zero, there was a bright flash and a clattering sound. Quietus fell to the floor, and landed on a small pile of loot.

Level up!

You have defeated the Destroyer Skeleton and finished the exploration of the dungeon!

You have gained experience!

Level up!

You have gained fame! Fame +50

With the addition of two levels, the entire party was now slightly over level 100.

Nilrem identified the loot, and they divided it up among the party. Quietus got a belt. He didn’t really question where the loot came from on a skeleton.

Acrobat’s Belt

Agility + 20

Movement Speed + 5%

At this point it was late in the day, and everyone started saying their goodbyes and logging off. Quietus was the last one, and he was about to log off when he noticed that there were no bones. Normally, he might not have cared, but he had been interested in studying them for his Repair Undead skill. The sword was also gone.

He found another missing stone with an area that was open in the back wall. He used his combination of Animation on his eye and Spectral Hand to open another secret door.

He then learned that putting your eye back in without a healer was much more painful, but he somehow managed to use his stitching skill after quite a bit of fumbling around, and it seemed to be effective. He thought he might want to look into some anesthetics in case he ever did that again.

Inside the secret-secret room, he found a sarcophagus. It was a rectangular shaped box of stone, mostly plain, but almost as tall as Quietus in its shortest dimension. However, instead of the proper covering on top, it was open.

Quietus peeked over the edge, and saw the skeleton. Well, more like a wide variety of broken and cracked bones. They just piled in the sarcophagus, and it no longer resembled a giant skeleton at all. He felt kind of sad that it was all broken to pieces. He started picking out pieces and trying to fit them together. Then…

You have received a Quest!

Repair the Destroyer Skeleton

Destroyer Skeletons were created from the bodies of giants. Although there were many smaller forms, some of them were more than thirty feet tall. They focused on speed and unmatched destructive power, and were used as soldiers on the battlefield. However, the arts required to animate such beings have been lost to time, and the last Destroyer Skeleton now lies broken. Perhaps if it were repaired, there could be some insight gained into the art.

Reward: Experience in Repair Undead

Unknown

Penalty for failure: none

Quietus was happy to get another quest related to Repair Undead so soon.

He was even more eager to fit the pieces together, and spent several hours trying to organize the pieces. It was quite a large process, and he only managed to get a small part of the ribcage somewhat back how it was supposed to be. He was very tired, so after sealing the secret room, he logged off. He would continue to work on it later.

End Chapter 42

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