In just over an hour I was back in front of the dilapidated church. I stood alone, the rest of my companions already in their assigned positions. Eva had wanted to be the bait, saying that she was faster. We were about even when it came to dexterity, but her armor was lighter. I had refused though, her role in the fight too important to risk. That made me the disposable one.

With that cheery thought, I knelt to light my Molotov cocktail. It was just a bottle of cheap spirits with a rag coming out of the top. It probably wouldn’t do too much damage to the bone golem, but I was confident it would piss it off. As soon as the rag caught, I stuffed my flint back in my pack and headed for the church basement.

I didn’t bother with stealth, just rushed down the stairs, burning bottle lighting my way. The basement chapel was as I remembered it, stone pews and shattered altar. I hurried down the center aisle, gaze fixed on the back room. The door was open, but the room beyond was too dark to see if the monster was in residence.

As I approached, I could already hear the susurration of rustling bones. Another step and I could see movement in the dim light. That was plenty of confirmation for me. I threw the Molotov at the back room and hesitated just long enough to see it smash against the doorframe. The cheap bottle broke with a musical tinkling and a Hollywood worthy fireball. Far from a perfect throw, but judging from the cacophony of bones, I definitely got the thing’s attention. As the first few bones spilled out of the doorway, I cursed myself for a fool and sprinted for the exit.

Dust rained from the ceiling as the entire church shook from the beast’s thrashing. I pounded up the stairs, not looking back. I might be faster than the last time we had faced the bone golem, but I wasn’t going to take any more chances.

I burst out of the church at a full sprint, vaulting over the handful of entryway stairs. The road was badly torn up and I had to watch my footing carefully. The last thing I wanted was the cliché, and probably very painful, death by tripping while running away.

As the ground blurred past, I snatched brief glances at my target; an alleyway just up the street. The sound of rattling bones behind me was replaced by rhythmic crunches and I knew the golem had taken its pantherine form. The cadence picked up quickly, playing a counterpoint to my racing heart.

I dove into the alleyway, slamming my shoulder into the brick wall and careening off, just barely staying on my feet. The golem skidded past the opening just behind me. The fire must have really pissed it off, I didn’t remember it being that fast. Still, in the narrow alley I managed to lengthen my lead. The golem’s pantherine form was too big for the alleyway, and it had to transform back into a whirlwind of loose bones. That made it slower, if no less deadly.

I reached the end of the alley and turned, gasping. I turned and drew my weapons, waiting for the golem with more than a little trepidation. I didn’t bother with the pistols, just readied my shamshir and buckler as I tried to catch my breath.

Movement to my left, and Adam Woods stepped up next to me. “So far so good,” the tall man said affably, watching the whirling bones rapidly approaching.

“Yeah, no problem,” I responded weakly. The plan had seemed so reasonable ten minutes ago. I glanced at the Lieutenant, his halberd readied. I was still surprised that the Halberdier had decided to join us. He had only gotten a few hours of sleep, but seemed no worse for wear.

I snapped back to the bone golem. It was approaching quickly, a wave of bones almost five feet tall and dozens long. I glanced up, looking for any sign of Gerald. The wave of bones was only a few yards away when the Crusader dropped from the roof, two stories up.

He stuck a heroic figure, montante held in one gloved hand, rope in the other. The image was tarnished by him sliding down the rope just a bit too fast. I winced as he hit the ground hard, legs folding to take the momentum. He had timed the drop well though. He landed just behind the trailing edge of the wave of bones.

“Now!” Sarah called from above. The signal that we were all in position. The wave of bones almost reached us when Adam activated his skill.

“Hold the line!” the Lieutenant called. The Halberdier, Crusader, and I were surrounded by blue light and I felt my feet lock in place.

The wave of bones crashed into the aura, coming to a dead stop. It still felt like getting hit by a battering ram, but the skill held and we weren't just swept away. Even more importantly, the individual bones halted in front of us instead of spilling through the gaps.

The bones piled up, the built up momentum pushing the wave to almost ten feet tall. For a moment I was afraid the bones would push over the top edge of Adam’s skill and surround us like an aquarium tunnel, but the bones crashed back down, reverberating towards Gerald. The less forceful wave hit the Crusader, but again was repelled.

The beast must have realized it was trapped, because it stopped trying to engulf us and began forming limbs to attack with. Claws and lances of bone formed out of the mass and shot towards us. The limbs struck with bone jarring force, and it was all I could do to turn them aside with shield and blade.

Next to me, Adam swatted away attacks with both ends of his Halberd. He struck out aggressively, shattering bone constructs before they could reach him. He wasn’t as fast as me, with my multiweapon Multi-Weapon Chain Acceleration, but much faster than I expected for a two-handed polearm.

But as fast as either of us cut and smashed apart the monster’s attacks, it reformed the limbs just as fast. Just like its abomination predecessor, cutting it apart didn’t do any permanent damage. Unlike the abomination, it didn’t have any ready weak points in the forms of hearts and brains. We were holding our own for now, but it wouldn’t be long before we were overrun.

Which is when the firebombs started falling from the sky. The large clay urns filled with flammable tar crashed into the bone golem, coating the creature in the viscous liquid. It burst into a roaring flame that put my Molotov cocktail to shame. Two more bursts of fire followed, Eva aiming carefully to distribute the burning napalm evenly over the golem.

Sweat from exertion and now heat, poured off of me. A, now burning, lance of bone speared my shield, penetrating the wood, but not deep enough to stab me. I dropped the shield as it started to smolder and quickly wiped my face before summoning my force shield. Hopefully the fight would be over before the spell ended.

I smashed away another lance before cutting through a claw. The cut bones scattered on the alleyway floor before skipping and rolling back to the mass. I took the opportunity to glance at Gerald.

The Crusader was slower than Adam or I, and by himself, but seemed to be holding his own. The looping cuts of his sword could knock multiple attacks off course with each swing. Even as I watched, a claw that would have smashed into the big man was hit by a flash of silver and fell to pieces.

Eva, out of firebombs, supported the Crusader with thrown knives soaked in holy water. I was pleased to see the combination harmed the bone golem, even if not as spectacularly as it did the abomination. The Holy Armory Contact 1 skill that gave me a steady supply of holy water was proving its worth, but I couldn’t help being jealous of Adam’s firebombs. The urns were cumbersome, but packed one hell of a punch.

I felt like I was getting cooked alive, standing next to the inferno the golem had become. We had expected the fire to die down as the power of the bombs was spent, but instead it only grew hotter. Bones glowed like embers as they began to burn in earnest. I didn’t think normal bones burned, but whatever magic held the monster together sure did.

It was almost a relief when a burning claw battered me out of the alleyway. I had caught the blow on my force shield, but the transfer of energy was still enough to toss me back. As I scrambled back to my feet, I realized that the blue glow from Adam’s skill had faded. The skill kept the monster from pushing us around, but had a limited duration. Now that the protection had fallen, the golem was free to exit the alley and retake its more deadly form.

Luckily, we had accomplished the main part of the plan. The alley had held the monster in place long enough for Eva to cover it in fire. Adam rapidly fell back as the burning wave surged out of the alley. It reformed on the street into a twelve foot catlike construct.

It lunged at Adam with a mouth big enough to bite the Halberdier in half. Luckily, the fire had slowed the creature and the Lieutenant managed to jump away from the attack. I rushed forward, intending to attack the monster while it was distracted, but had to fall back before the staggering heat.

It noticed me anyway and snapped its burning skull made of assembled bones in my direction. Seeing it coiling on its back legs, I rapidly backed away. I doubted my backpedaling would let me escape the monster’s pounce range, but I couldn’t look away either. My force shield dissolved back into nothing as its duration ran out. I drew my dagger, just to have two weapons to fight with, but doubted it would do much good.

As the construct lunged its back legs scattered into burning shards, robbing the pounce of power. It crashed to the road yards away from me, leaving a trail of blazing bones. Even from this distance, I could feel heat pouring off the creature.

The flames were not sticky and spreading anymore, the firebomb’s tar having completely burned off, but the bones were only burning hotter and hotter. I scrambled away from the golems' lethargic swipes and put some distance between me and the monster. I felt like my whole front side, but especially my face was sunburned.

It was an absurd distance away before I felt comfortable watching the fire. I glanced around, weary of zombies. We had cleared a good area surrounding the alley in preparation for the fight, but we hadn’t expected to get pushed out of position this far. Despite my worries, no zombies showed up to take advantage of my wounded disarmed state. Maybe the bonfire scared them away.

The bone golem lost cohesion, burning bones crashing to the road and kicking off a cloud of sparks. The fire was still getting hotter and I could hear pops as the stones in the road shattered from the heat. When I was sure the bonfire wasn’t going to get up again, I found another alleyway to lead me back to my companions.

I had to give the remains of the bone golem a wide berth, but I managed to meet up with my party on the other side of the alley we fought in. Not that we stood near the alley, the entire corridor radiated heat. Adam met up with us from the opposite direction I had come from just as Sarah managed to finish climbing down from the roof.

“Well,” the Archivist said before breaking off in a racking cough. “Damn smoke. I think that went pretty well, all things considered.” She had barely finished her sentence before starting another round of coughing.

I looked around at my allies. Adam and Gerald had either first or second degree burns on their faces, and even the girls were looking a bit red. There were blisters on my hands from where deflected attacks had still burned my exposed flesh.

“At least nobody died this time,” Eva put in helpfully.

I just sighed. “Let’s go check out the church.”