Jazmyne walked over to the sofa, her heels clacked along the wooden floor and sat down. She crossed one leg over the other, summoned a pack of cigarettes in her hand then lit one up. She took a few puffs, then turned to Liam.

“Do you have it here?“

“Boss?” Liam replied confused.

“Come now. I’m asking about that thing made of bones you found.”

“Ah yes, I have them here with me.”

“All of them?” She asked. Liam nodded and then four spider-like constructs made of bones appeared on the floor in front of Jazmyne. She reached for one, picked it up then held it closer for an inspection. Liam watched in silence until he couldn’t keep quiet anymore and asked: “Are they…puppets?”

Jazymne gave him a glance, then shook her head. “No. I know what you think but it isn’t him.”

“How can you be sure?” Liam asked doubtfully.

“Because I’ve seen puppets from Harold “The Puppeteer” and these are not it. Besides, why would the third tier bandit leader attack us? If he did, we would already be dead by now so relax!”

“What you say makes sense, it's just that, the rumors - I heard he uses real corpses to make his puppets…”

Jazmyne frowned. She didn’t want to even mention the bastard’s name. Each and every third tier under the Bandit King is a sick, twisted, ruthless fu-.

“So what are these? They were hidden pretty well and were hard to find.” Liam interrupted her train of thought.

“Hmm… I’d think they are the constructs used for spying sent by this Jones character. Seeing what they were made of… I’m thinking Bone Manipulation.” Jazmyne said out loud.

“Then, a Bonemancer? We did think the party was made of a warrior, a rogue and possibly a mage. But a Bonemancer? I’ve never seen one before!”

“Me neither. I heard it was uncommon for humans to be Bonemancers because we lack the talent for manipulating bones. Most of them injure or even cripple themselves by accidently shaping their own bones. A bunch of idiots!” She laughed.

Liam winced, then said they will find out soon enough if it really was a Bonemancer. Jazmyne smiled and returned to observing the spider construct.

Outside, under the heavy rain, Murdok leaned with his back against the wall and crouched. Bones took a running start, then with a boost from Murdok jumped on the rampart and over the wall. He dismissed the golem, then looked around. There seemed to be no one in close proximity. He saw a pair of bandits patrolling with torches in the distance and another pair on the other side.

Not a lot of activity tonight. The others must be in the barracks. Good, I’ll have time to retrieve the spiders!

Bones didn’t see where his constructs hid themselves, but he felt the general location from their last activity. Two hid somewhere between the barrels and boxes stacked outside, each on the opposite side of the camp and the other two inside. One beneath one of the beds in the barracks and the other somewhere in the fort in the middle of the camp. Bones circled along the wall, making sure not to draw the attention of the bandits atop of the ramparts and slowly heading toward the first location.

The infiltration and the progress he made so far went as planned, very suspiciously so. If anything Bones learned over the years was to trust his instincts and they’re telling him something is amiss. While things have gone back to normal, the amount of patrol he was seeing was too low.

Am I overthinking things? At least half of the bandits went back to rebuilding the outpost so I expected to see less men … but just four of them patrolling? They can’t be all in the barracks, sleeping, can’t they? I better approach with more caution.

Bones continued sneaking while a group of bandits, not far off, impatiently lay hidden in ambush. Whispers could be heard between the men. Bored and out in the cold, they didn’t see the point in going so far for a couple of adventurers. They were used to working outside, waiting behind hills or hidden in canopy of trees while awaiting their target but never within their own camp.

“This is ridiculous! Do we really have to be here? No one’s gonna attack us here!“ Someone said.

*sshhh* “Not so loud, fool! You’ll lose your head if the lieutenant hears you. This is a serious matter! Liam even put out the formation to conceal us!“

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*sshhhh* “Both of you shut up! I think someone is approaching.“

The whispers quieted and from the darkness a faint silhouette of Bones became visible. He stopped and looked in the direction where the bandits laid in ambush. He stared intently and felt that something was clearly out of place.

“What is he doing? Why did he stop? Can he see us?“ One of the bandits panicked.

*sshh* “Quiet!“

Odd. It’s definitely odd! Bones thought. His mana sense wasn’t picking up anything strange and he couldn’t spread his senses any further in order to avoid getting noticed. It could be due to the heavy rainfall, distracting him and making him lose focus but in the dark, his vision was showing something different.

Just ten meters away from him, he saw the slight distortions in the air in front of him, like the reality was shaking, breaking, falling apart. He had experienced a familiar distortion back when Silva found him at the inn and it didn’t work out so well for him.

There is a great amount of mana I can’t feel, being manipulated in the area in front of me. It doesn’t seem to be an attack. What is it then? Who’s doing it?

Bones was curious. The last time the condensed ball of mana blew up in his face and sent him flying, so - without taking another step forward - Bones summoned a golem core in his hand and tossed it toward the barrels. The core didn’t bounce or roll due to the wet ground, but it did land with a thud. The merry bunch waiting in ambush all turned to the circular object that landed just a meter shy of the nearest bandit crouching and hiding behind the barrel.

“B-b-bomb!” The man yelled the first thing after seeing the core, then jumped right out into the open and charged Bones with the weapon drawn. Bones watched in surprise as more bandits started popping seemingly out of nowhere. The veil of mana that was hiding them dispersed, no longer creating an illusion of barrels and boxes stacked together and providing cover. There were just a few of them actually and the illusion recreated dozens more, making it seem like a holding area.

Now that they were out in the open, half of the bandits charged toward Bones, and the other half ran away looking for cover. All of them were slipping on mud and the first bandit reached Bones started sliding - face first in the mud.

“Huh. What is all this?“ Bones said while driving Bone Lance through the man’s head. The “bomb” burst open but instead of an explosion, Murdok appeared. Shortly after, the bandits regretted that it wasn't an actual bomb.

The bells started dinging, the alarm was raised. The unnoticed infiltration failed, and so did the bandit's ambush. Jazmyne rolled her eyes at Liam.

“Didn’t you set up a concealment formation?” She asked, annoyed at the sudden turn of events.

Liam stroked his beard and replied that he did.

“Then what happened? This is literally what you do! You set up an ambush site! So why did it fail?“ Jazmyne asked through clenched teeth.

“I-I don’t know. The disguise isn’t perfect but it should've worked. I swear! It must be because of the rain. I’ll head there myself and fix this!”

“No, I’ll head there by myself. I have had enough of this. You stay here!“ Jazmyne growled, jumped off the sofa, walked over to the window and squeezed through the narrow opening, her slim figure allowing her to do so. Liam watched her disappear, gulped hard, then left the chambers, heading outside too.

Jazmyne landed without making much impact, almost as elegantly as a cat. She looked around but it was too dark to see. All the torches were put out but she could hear the commotion, moreover, she sensed the fluctuation in surrounding mana in the distance. None of her subordinates, apart from Liam, could cast spells.

East? I swear I’ll start breaking heads after all of this is over!

The camp had become a battlefield of sorts - dark, muddy and messy. Darkness made it difficult for anyone to see, the ground was slippery and the constant downpour affected everyone’s senses, Bones included. He had Skully and Murdok both out and fighting while he retreated from close combat and picked targets one by one from a distance. It seemed like, despite the comotion, things were going his way until a thorny thong of a whip wrapped around Skully’s leg, pulled him down to the ground and dragged him away.

Bones barely followed up on what happened and quickly ran after the golem, but stopped after just twenty meters when he saw Jazmyne firmly holding Skully by the neck while yelling profanities. When she glanced his way, Bones sensed the shivers. Not even the heavy rain could cloud the feeling he got from the bandit leader. Strength like that in a warrior, the flexibility of a rogue and a mana pool comparable to a mage.

What is she? Bones was stunned.

“What the hell is he?” Jazmyne blurted then turned to Bones. “This is… not an adventurer but a mere puppet? One of yours?”

Bones frowned. Skully, a puppet? “Something like that.“ He grumbled.

Jazmyne grinned and with a crunching sound twisted Skully’s neck, then tossed him to the side like a ragdoll.

“You came alone?” She said with mixed expression. There was a surprise, disdain, even disbelief written on her face, following a sudden realization. “Don’t tell me, the other two party members were actually puppets, just like this one?“

Bones didn’t respond. The rest of the bandits reached his location in a few seconds they spent talking and encircling him. Murdok stayed behind, awaiting orders while Bones assessed the situation. Any hesitation on Jazmyne's side disappeared once she realized he really was alone. What her next move would be, Bones could only guess and he thought she would definitely come after him but Jazmyne suddenly turned back to Skully. Her whip moved like it had a mind of its own. It slittered toward the golem, wrapped itself around him and left him up then brought him closer to her.

“Say, the core should be either in its chest or a head, right? Let’s start with the chest!“ She gave a taunting snigger at the end of the sentence and Bones sort of lost it when he heard her.

“Don't you dare!” He shouted. But Jazmyne dared and pierced through Skully’s chest with the pointy end of her whip. The rest of the bandits stood still, snickered and threw remarks his way. Not that any of it bothered Bones as he was too focused on Skully.

“You’ll regret this! I can easily rebuild a new one. The same cannot be said for your men!”

Jazmyne sensed the sudden influx of mana around Bones and her expression changed to anger.

“Everybody leave this place right now!“ She yelled but dozens of bones already manifested in a whirlwind with Bones in the center. A few of the bandits managed to put distance while the other few ran into the forgotten Murdok and found death prematurely. Not that any of them managed to really get away.

At the end of the spell, when bone spikes reached their maximum size and capacity, Bones did something he didn’t do for months. He tightly drew in as much mana he could within himself, and in one deep breath released it all at once. The Mana Blast created a small crater as a result and sent bone projectiles around him flying in a nova, hitting every bandit. Jazmyne released Skully from her clutches and spun the whip around herself, expertly deflecting every projectile coming her way. Bones didn’t stop and immediately started casting another Bone Storm while he had Murdok, who was also an unfortunate casualty of his own spell, go around and finish off the wounded bandits.

Bones didn’t use Mana Blast again. Once was enough and it made such an impact that the rest of the bandits started leaving the barracks and heading his way.

“Good, good! The more the merrier!“ Bones shouted, cackling like a mad man. The next set of bone spikes he focused on Jazmyne but the bandit leader was as capable as he sensed her to be. She remained spinning her whip like a defensive tool and - with great flexibility and precision - she knocked down every spike Bones sent her way.