Warden had seen a lot of weird and unusual creatures over the past few days but the seven creatures that erupted from the blood lake were easily top of the class for how disturbing they were. They looked vaguely like shrimp-like with a similar looking exoskeleton and tail but their legs were instead scaly spider-like legs. Where a shrimp’s head would be however a humanoid torso was wrapped in exoskeletal armour with two arms that ended in oversized pincers and a tiny head protruding from its bulky carapacial shoulders. They were a dark turquoise that contrasted against the red dripping from every ridge on their bodies except for one part of them.

“Stay away from the pincers,” Surge said sending a spike of annoyance through Warden. Those scarlet graspers were the size of his head; of course he would keep away from them. “No, I mean those grippers are full of Chi; the entire lake must be a reservoir.”

“What does that mean then,” Warden said aiming at the first creature that had started slowly loping towards him. He took a step back maintaining while keeping his sights on the small head.

“Nothing much,” Surge said. “They might be a bit ahead of you in their respective path. This isn’t really much of an improvement yet. It does mean that lake might be valuable though.”

“Great we needed the money,” Warden said squeezing the trigger and was rewarded as the by the sight of the place where the head was exploding in a burst of red. Contrary to expectations the creature didn’t topple over immediately but instead went berserk thrashing about in a mad attempt to close the distance between them. As soon as the bullet impacted the six remaining creatures started moving quickly towards him in a lurching stride that sent shivers down his spine.

He squeezed the trigger five more times aiming at the already damaged creature but the creature raised its arms blocking the head and Warden got a better look at the red pincers as bits of them were blasted out of existence by the powerful weapon. However it wasn’t enough.

“Their arms are infused with Chi,” Surge repeated still sitting on the ground. “They should be the hardest part of the body. It’s a testament to the craftsmanship of that weapon that they can even damage them.”

They had done quite a bit more than damage the graspers; as the two massive pincers were now almost stumps after five shots. One final shot landed on the hole where the face used to be and there was a muffled explosion before the creature slumped over still twitching. That was seven bullets to kill a creature and nothing done so far against the other six that were rapidly closing upon him. Warden made a judgement call and turned on his heels and ran across the hard ground.

The noises didn’t disappear however and there was a constant sound of tail slapping and scuttling showing the generalised location of the creatures indicating very obviously that they weren’t giving up. He chanced a look backwards and squeezed the trigger twice at the closest creature but only one shot hit as the other went wide and he had to focus on running again.

“You can’t win just by running away,” Surge said appearing directly running backwards about two metres in front of him as soon as Warden looked back causing him to almost stumble and fall.

“I’m trying to stay out of their reach and chip away at their defences,” Warden said trying to get the words out between breaths. “I have a strategy.”

“Then why are you out panting already,” Surge replied before he answered his own question. “It’s because you’re sprinting, Mate. There’s no way you’ll be able to sustain that. I didn’t do that much to improve you.”

Unfortunately Surge’s words were correct and he could feel it. Already his limbs were getting heavier and the oxygen just wasn’t coming leaving him with nothing in the tank. His running petered out and he forcibly prevented himself from doubling over instead turning around just in time to see the nearest one lunging at him. He panic-squeezed the trigger and the shot exploded against the carapace giving him a brief glimpse of an explosion of blue before one of those massive claws, larger than his head, impacted his chest with a jab done with more momentum than skill. Nevertheless all the skill in the world wouldn’t be able to defend against that terrifying momentum and with a sickening crunch he found himself flying backwards through the air in an uncontrolled tumble before he hit the ground hard.

Blackness formed around the edges of his vision and he opened and closed his mouth desperate for oxygen that just wouldn’t come. A shadow fell over him and he tried desperately to roll out of the way, to move or to do anything.

“Relax,” Surge said before he felt a sharp prick in his chest and then mercifully he could breathe again. “Hmm, Black Bones are still not fully integrated with your body but they held up okay. No signs of any breakage. There is some serious bruising and minor damage to the muscles but nothing that should take you out of the fight. You got the wind knocked out of you, Mate. It looks like he grazed your Solar plexus but nothing major.” He reached down to grab Warden’s hand before helping him to his feet. “That was a bit of an unlucky hit you took; the kind my mom would call a learning experience.”

“Doesn’t feel like I learnt anything,” Warden said standing up on shaky legs to see the remaining six creatures each encased in cages of bone. His jumpsuit was once again torn and his chest ached and despite whatever his doctor did he still felt it was a bit difficult to take large breaths but he was still alive as promised. “Besides not to get hit with hands that are bigger than my___. What is that liquid?” Warden said watching as Surge pulled out a bottle of vermillion liquid from his pocket. It was a very specific colour and Warden found himself glancing towards the lake.

“Liquid absolutely soaked in Chi,” Surge proclaimed clearly. “You can’t drink this stuff directly because you don’t have a Dantian; and even if you did you might explode anyway, but it’s got great rejuvenation powers. Plus if there are mutations I can just remove them later when I get better tools.”

“You have the worst bedside manner,” Warden said adopting a deadpan expression but he didn’t resist as Surge gently dipped a cloth in the medicine and rubbed it on the continuing source of his pain.

“I’m working on it,” Surge replied brightly. “You should have seen me when I started.”

“Yeah,” Warden said feeling the ache fade as a weird tingling feeling of sensitive flesh replaced it. “Actually never mind. If your medicine keeps working just like that you can adopt whatever bedside manner you want.”

“Well then let’s hope it will keep working then,” Surge said stowing the vial in his lab coat, or his skin now. Damn that was still a weird thought, did that mean he was technically naked all the time.

“Well then,” Warden said feeling the pain mostly gone only to be replaced by the tingling. He kneeled down to pick his gun up from the floor feeling a mild twitch in his joints and pain in the muscles of his legs but it was manageable. “Shall we go again?”

“It seems I misjudged you,” Surge said stepping back as he nodded. “You’re not as lazy as I originally thought.”

“Actually I’m too lazy to think of a better way to do this,” Warden said. “Besides I’m not sure I quite got the lesson here.” He started backing up as the bones that had trapped the crustaceans retreated to the ground and they milled around before spotting him and immediately charging. Warden pulled the trigger and the fight was on again.

xxx

“I think the lesson here is to watch your footing,” Surge said as he stood up from the bone chair that he was reclining on and the remaining five crustacean centaureans were instantly grabbed by skeletal hands a second before they were ready to pound his body into mulch. There was one remaining ungrabbed but it was bleeding on the ground and letting out gurgled death gasps so the Necromancer left it alone.

“I’ll keep it in my mind,” Warden said trying to struggle to his feet despite his twisted ankle. In an instant Surge was on top of him doing something to his ankle and he felt the swelling instantly start to dissipate.

“Again?” Surge asked as he helped him up. Warden tested his ankle before nodding.

xxx

“The lesson this time is to watch both hands,” Surge said from his space under the bone gazebo he had created. Warden had done better this time as indicated by the one fatally wounded crustacean and one crustacean corpse. Just because these creatures appear mindless doesn’t mean their movements should be predictable, in some cases you will find the reverse is true.”

“I get it,” Warden said clutching his stomach. He had evaded the worst of the damage this time but it was still an immensely painful blow and one that made him feel like throwing up. “Hit me with the juice, and then let’s go again.”

xxx

“You need to keep up your guard,” Surge remarked as he finished adding an awning to the gazebo. “A fight is not over until it’s over.”

“I got that, thanks,” Warden said clutching his arm that was dislocated. Confident in his victory and elated from killing the last of the six shrimp soldiers he had let his guard down at the end. “Still I feel like I felt something near the end; like a warning that I was in danger. Think that could be my precognition.”

“Quite likely actually,” Surge said as he forcefully relocated the arm before wiping more of the red liquid on the spot. “Recognizing the actual use of Psionics is one of the first steps of being able to use it manually. Do you feel any headaches coming on?”

“No I feel…My head feels fine,” Warden corrected. Truthfully he was a bit out of breath and there were a few places still sore that hadn’t been rubbed with the liquid. “Can you send out the next batch now?” he said pointing at the beach empty of all but corpses.

xxx

“Don’t let yourself get cornered is the lesson you can take from that,” Surge said having finished building his house of bone. Warden had lasted a long time in the bout but he had eventually found himself dodging to the left of one of the pincers into the path of another one.

“Still three is pretty good,” Warden said pointing at the three restrained and three dead enemies. “They’re faster than me but they’re not as agile so I can keep dodging. I still can’t tell whether it’s actual precognition or just good judgement.”

“Well, did you do any fighting before this,” Surge said finishing up his treatment of the wounds, caused by being gripped by those monstrous graspers, before he took a step back.

“I took up wrestling shortly, but I’m not exactly trying any wrestling moves against them,” Warden said pointing at the creatures madly struggling against their cages of bone.

“Your footwork is sloppy, but your reflexes are good,” Warden said. “Your hand eye-coordination isn’t bad but you’re a fraction of a second too slow in taking the opportunities. In addition you don’t know how to take a blow and continue fighting and you occasionally freeze when placed in bad situations. On the plus side your attacks all have a calculated viciousness to them. I genuinely believe that every shot you take has the goal of killing your opponent.”

“Thank you,” Warden said looking at the three remaining crustaceans. He took a few deep breaths before readying his gun and inspecting the lion’s head that still glowed brightly under the sun. “Again.”

xxx

“Again,” Warden said after what felt like thirty minutes of combat. His breaths were heavier now as he stared at the three freshest corpses down in front of him.

“Catch your breath, Dude,” Surge said as he put the final preparations on the tower of bone that his house had become. “No injuries this time?”

“None,” Warden said. “I’m surprised more aren’t rushing out after all the disturbance.”

“They might come out when night falls,” Surge stated. “Let me just check how the lake water is healing,” he said looking over at the wounds mostly accessible due to how much of Warden’s jumpsuit was torn up at the moment revealing his newly acquired and partly undeserved musculature, it was hard for him to maintain well-defined abs while doing a desk job.

“You’re okay,” Surge said. “Whatever you’re trying seems to work out so keep trying I guess.” He snapped his fingers and a bone spear fired towards the water causing another explosion and causing another group of creatures to emerge.

xxx

“You were too inefficient with your movement,” Surge said. It was another forty minutes later and Warden had collapsed in exhaustion. In that whole time he had only taken down four more creatures before he was literally too tired to do any more and Surge stepped in to crush the remaining creatures. It was the price he had to pay for fighting defensively and only taking advantage of the easy openings.

“Yeah,” Warden said to himself as he contemplated his pistol, noting that the red light had begun to wane at the same time as the position of the sun crept lower and lower. “Hey do Necromancer’s ever have blood sports. You know like challenging animals to a fight to the death.”

“No,” Surge refuted as he finished off his castle, creating a massive bone gate with a wave of his hand. “Necromancer’s tend not to be fighters. There are only a handful that I can think of who actually go out into the wider multiverse and beat stuff up. We tend to over rely on our natural strength.”

“You just dropped the term Multiverse way too casually,” Warden said. “Yeah, we don’t have them much in my world either. My parents once took me to a bullfight when I was younger.”

“Oh how was it?” Surge said as he approached, this time not looking to fix him up but instead just to lie down next to him on the ground.

“Sickening, horrifying and technically amazing,” Warden replied. “The matador danced around the bull using his knowledge of the creature to avoid certain death and effortlessly toyed with a creature that was far physically superior to him. It was truly a spectacle matched with an appalling callous cruelty; a fight between disparate opponents forcibly turned into a long drawn-out execution. You know it’s actually possible to find something repulsive and impressive at the same time.”

“I’ve never been in that situation so far,” Surge admitted.

“For a brief period I actually followed the sport in an attempt to dissect it, excuse the pun. It turns out that once you work out how a creature will react it’s not that hard to learn how to defeat them,” Warden said gesturing at some imaginary enemy. “I raise my gun they cover their face. I backpedal they lunge. I duck they rear. I dodge to the side and they pause before they turn. They bump into each other and they lash out for around ten seconds before they calm down again.”

“Yet they have chi-infused pincers,” Surge said. “If that lands on you then it’s instantly over for you. Your species doesn’t have bad stamina for a class zero being,” he admitted before he looked upwards at the darkening sky. “But the sun is setting and your gun is soon going to be out of charge.”

“Time to retire for the night then,” Warden said. Now that the adrenaline was fading from his system he found that the out of breath tiredness was being replaced with the bone weariness that required sleep rather than oxygen or food. “Is that our accommodation?” he asked stifling a yawn as he pointed to the bone castle that had been created by the Necromancer wholesale.

“I don’t need to sleep,” Surge admitted before he stood up dusting his clothes/skin off. “I’m going to go check on Wendy while you do.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Surge said getting up to his feet after only two tries and trudging towards the castle. “Please tell me that the bone beds are at least comfy.”

“Hey I can only do so much,” Surge said hanging back and watching as his boss walked into the castle. “Maybe next time we need to bring a full camping kit. This was on rather short notice.” His last words were yelled as Warden gave him a tired wave before he disappeared into the castle.

The sun was setting behind the Celestial Being shrouding the crater in shadow and causing the lake waters to stir. The spots where he hadn’t aimed any of his bone spears: the more dangerous spots. With a gesture the gate snapped shut. Another gesture and the spikes of bone protruded from every inch of the castle. A third gesture and a cage of bone sprouted outwards enveloping the castle. With one last cautious glance towards the blood lake the Necromancer leapt forwards, clearing the crater in just three steps before he disappeared into the darkening night.