Two hundred or so low-level unarmed skeletons were coming for us. Renfry was heading to the right, and I would take the left side of the advance. Irwin and Kasidy would be under the standard’s dome, protecting them while they provided support to us.

Our battlefield was a slight slope toward our left. The ground was rocky, and the grass was low. To our right was the mound of piled stones and half-dead undead. Behind us, the ground sloped up as it followed the road around the mound.

Renfry drew his sword, gave me a salute, and advanced onto the field. I flashed a grin at Renfry and moved away from the dome by about ten feet. I needed to be far enough to move around, but not so far I couldn’t get healed.

When the skeletons were about five feet from us, I heard Renfry shout and watched as about twenty fell apart. Then I triggered my Skeleton Death Dance and began to slaughter the dead.

I could use the skill by following the urges. It would let me dip in and out of the dance and pay more attention to what was happening. However, with a single type of enemy and, by all accounts, low leveled at that, there was no reason. So I gave myself over to the dance.

I leaped forward, feeling my Running kick in as I sprinted forward. Then I was among them, my sword dancing through their bones. If my blade hadn’t been leveled through fighting the undead, it would have been next to worthless against them. However, since it picked up the trait Bane of the undead, with added crushing damage, it was more than capable of shattering bones. When the Burning desire’s burn damage was added to the damage mix, my passage through the undead was like a scythe.

I lost myself in the dance giving over the full control it would take. The fusion of my skills and equipment was something that I still couldn’t do on my own. As I fought through the horde of skeletons, my steps built power. The Death Dance used my ki focus to power my fire strikes to be delivered through my Taekwondo. My feet lashed out in back kicks and hook kicks, and when they closed too tight, my elbows impacted skulls.

One of the skeletons grabbed my left arm, trying to slow me down. Its sharp bones tried to dig into my arm as I sliced through its forearm and head-butted its skull, sending it staggering back.

Another one that I had kicked its legs out reached up from the ground under my armor. As it grabbed my leg, my dance had me jump. Fire built on my foot as I landed on its chest, breaking its bones and setting it on fire.

A slice of the sternum slid into my foot through my moccasin. As my foot took my weight, I felt pain run up my leg. Then as I shifted, I felt a new spell land on me, and the shard of bone was pushed back out of my foot.

My dance picked back up without me missing even a beat. The steps kept building power for the fire strikes. They also were building a second spell. I was only partially aware as I moved through the bony hands grabbing at me. Then I felt the spell complete.

I hadn’t weaved a grand spell since the first battle with the undead in the south. It might have been where I was and how I fought after that. However, this time the dance took me through the steps of Lay-To-Rest and another.

As the spell powered, my brain caught up to the action. I was no longer riding behind the skill that was dictating my actions. I knew that the first steps I had taken were to lay the outer edges of the ritual. Then my steps after that were used to build the power inside. Each strike I did was used to move the skeletons out of the way for my feet as I created a massive rune on the ground through my movements.

It was the first time that I realized that not only did my dances for my spells draw power in from the area around me, but they also created the runes for the spell on the ground. My movement became the paintbrush as I laid trace amounts of mana through the air.

With a pop, the spell flared up, and the grand spell took effect. I knew what it was right when I knew I had traced out runes. The first activated. It was the rune I had carved into the trees to draw the undead. I watched as over a hundred skeletons rushed to the center of where my dance was. Right to where I was standing.

I couldn’t move out of their way as I was already in the middle of them. But it wouldn’t matter in a moment. As they crushed in trying to get into the ten-by-ten area of the spell, I felt the second part of the grand weave go off. Drain Mana activated, and the press of the skeletons fell to the ground. They weren’t dead yet, just unable to move. Then the draining mana from the bones funneled into me. I grinned as the mana flowed in and then out of me into the rune. The third and final stage triggered, and Lay-To-Rest washed over the skeletons blasting out thirty feet in all directions.

Those drained of mana or broken already were fully sent on their way. Those who hadn’t were hit with damage over time that started to weaken their bonds. They would be far harder to repair by the lich if we left them now. However, my dance wasn’t over as I leapt over the bones of my enemies and into a roll.

While I had dropped dozens, perhaps even a hundred, we weren’t done yet. So I charged back into the fray. I stepped forward to cut into a skeleton when it just collapsed in front of me.

My skill dropped as I looked around. Standing a few feet from me was a grinning Renfry.

He laughed and said. “You almost had me, but I think I was able to still come out on top.”

I looked around the battlefield and shook my head. “Nope, I think that I beat you on this one. My area clearly has more.”

Renfry shook his head and pointed toward the mound. “I had more since I had to finish off the ones from the mound over there.”

I grinned and shook my head slightly. “Only one way to figure this out. We need to ask the others.”

We turned back to the wagon, and I called over to them. “Who won? Renfry or me?”

They both answered at the same time. Irwin said. “You did, my lord.” While Kasidy laughed and said. “My lord, surely you know it was Renfry!”

I threw up my hands and walked back toward them. “Whatever, Renfry, you want to fill up with the ones still here? We can loot the ones on the mound. I think I saw some casters up close to the top.”

Kasidy shook her head. “I doubt there’s much of anything at the top of the mound worth keeping. With all the char, it’s likely all damaged by the fire.”

I shrugged. “Maybe, but the only way to know is to check.”

Renfry moved around the mound’s base, pulling in the undead’s soul fragments. As he did, we climbed to the top. Kasidy was mostly right about not finding anything worth keeping.

As we made our way to the top of the mound, we noticed that whatever had caused the fire damage also seemed to have shattered many of the items. So what once would have been a half dozen mages’ staffs were reduced to kindling.

Then when we got to the top, we all stopped and looked. This first mound had blocked our vision, but dozens of other mounds were ahead of us. Of the twenty or thirty other mounds, each the same size, each looked like something massive and angry had visited destruction upon them.

Irwin was the first to speak. “I hope never to meet what did this, and if I do, I don’t want to anger them.”

Kasidy just nodded slowly before saying. “I don’t think we could have fought our way past all of these mounds ourselves.”

I just stood there shaking my head. I couldn’t imagine what caused all of this damage. Skeletons smashed, zombies burned, and weapons shattered; it was almost too much for me to think about. One mound was a powerful enough statement, but all of them were like this.

I sighed. “Okay, we aren’t going to loot everything. We need to get going and find Blink and then try to take out the lich. I just hope that Blink doesn’t run into whatever did this. She would likely try to fight it just to see if she could win.”

* * *