Chapter 59

Mausoleum of the Arsonist, Etson - 10:58 AM

The Scorched Skeleton ignited in a flash, fire lining every bone. As the temperature in the room rose drastically, the mountains of bones began shaking violently. Several pieces flew towards the flaming enemy in the center, clacking loudly as they adhered to the mid boss without taking any damage from the flames. I calmly walked forward and waited as more and more bones interlocked with each other.

Now that I had exited the hallway, a gate dropped from the ceiling to seal me in with the undead monstrosity. Light dancing on the walls slowly disappeared as the Scorched Skeleton became more and more armored. The clean white bones were surrounding the charred ones, creating armor to protect its body, leaving only a few holes where the fire inside seemed to intensify. Not just seemed to; they were becoming much brighter inside of the armor. Once it was done, the armor was very close in structure to the yoroi samurai used to wear.

Light intensified behind the skulls it wore as a helm and its mouth opened. “What, no witty banter?” I asked cheekily.

A burst of flames erupted from its mouth and joints in the armor, though only the fire from the former was directed at me. I dove out of the way. Rolling to my feet, I continued running around the room as the Scorched Skeleton spun to track me. While the room was rather spacious, I made sure to stay away from the bones on the outskirts. Even though they weren’t moving now that the mid boss had its armor, the hands jutting out of the piles would still reach out to grab me or the feet to trip.

Tossing the Vague Stick, I Pushed it towards the armor plating on the skeleton’s legs. Between my throw and Push, it slammed against the enemy with enough force to cause the mid boss to drop to one knee. The constant stream of fire jerked upwards at the sudden shift and I ran towards it. Pulling the Vague Stick back, I grabbed it in both hands and swung towards the Scorched Skeleton’s head.

My strike connected and caused the bone armor to shatter, revealing the skull underneath and the hairline fracture I had caused. Even without the protection, the Scorched Skeleton was much tougher than the others I fought already. Heat licked at my face and I backed away as the bone armor extended outwards. Flames erupted around the new holes it created in a terrifying area of effect skill.

I emerged from the fire burning but alive almost five feet away from the creature. Reaching into my inventory, I grabbed a bottle of water and Spun the top off before drenching myself in the liquid to quench the flames. The bone armor on the Scorched Skeleton returned to its normal form to trap the fire within. Piles shifted as more bones from around the room flew in to recreate the helmet I had just destroyed.

The Scorched Skeleton began moving. Despite the heavy armor, it was within striking range in less than a second. The femur it carried was large, nearly half as tall as I was and as thick around as my arm. The mid boss needed both hands to swing it properly, and that’s exactly what it did. I shifted my staff to catch the club and redirect it to the ground. As soon as it hit, I spun and aimed for the same spot on the helmet I had struck before.

The helmet shattered again, though I couldn’t see a change in damage. As the skeleton staggered backwards, I went on the offensive with a series of ferocious jabs towards the head. It continued to backpedal as it dropped the oversized femur. I Pushed it's weapon back towards the center of the room, but I knew it wouldn’t try to grab it yet.

Bones flew in from a nearby pile to interlink ribs and pelvises together to form a shield. Whether by skill or luck, the Scorched Skeleton caught one of my jabs in an opening on the shield and twisted. I lurched with my Vague Stick, but planted my feet firmly on the ground so that I wouldn’t be thrown off balance. A clawed hand slashed at me as I tried to forcefully free my weapon, but it raked against my shield and shaved off nearly half of its hit points.

I willed the Vague Stick to retreat once it became clear that I wasn’t going to be able to get leverage good enough to break the shield with, and it pulled free. Backing off, I Pulled the oversized femur towards me. I couldn’t help but wince as it burned my hand once I caught it; despite looking fine, it felt like touching a campfire. The heat around me suddenly felt overwhelmingly hot as the Scorched Skeleton’s bone armor started to shift and clack like the world’s most macabre wind chimes. Sweat already beading on my forehead began to cascade down my face, threatening to fall into my eyes if I wasn’t careful.

Underhand tossing the oversized femur, I Pushed it directly into the center of the mid boss’ armor. It sailed between the bones and lodged itself inside the chest cavity. With my now free hand, I threw my Straw Hat of the Seer into my inventory before the heat could cause it to catch fire despite the protections afforded to it as a magical item. It could still be damaged and destroyed, and it was too soon to get a comparable item to occupy my head.

Despite both my wisdom and willpower dropping by three due to losing my hat, I was still in this fight. The femur had stopped the mid boss’ supernatural skill to make the room hotter and would prevent its other fire attacks from being so powerful since the armor couldn’t close around it.

At least, that had been the plan. The bone shield completely dropped away as the Scorched Skeleton started tugging the femur free. I surged forward, bringing the Vague Stick up on my side to attack. I was able to strike with powerful swinging blows twice before it put up its arm, but the damage was already done. Its chest armor on the side opposite where I shot the oversized femur crumbled to the ground. The armor on its arm wasn’t safe, either, as it cracked under my third blow.

The Scorched Skeleton’s mouth opened as it shot its fire breath at short range. I could only back up as it did, my movement limited by the fire spewing from the joints in its armor. It seemed to expect my movement and had shifted. The femur, which I thought was lodged firmly in its chest, shot out like a ballista bolt directly towards me. I dropped, taking the only movement option I could from the position I had put myself in, and it slammed into my shoulder.

“Alright, credit,” I hissed. Grunting in pain, I Lifted myself back onto my feet by my jacket and swung the Vague Stick one handed. I put as much desperate power as I could into the swing. The Scorched Skeleton raised its arm to block the blow, its bone armor already reforming, but I switched it up with Drop. The staff lowered and slammed through the mid boss’ leg.

Bones scattered everywhere from the force, including the charred bones belonging to the creature. I saw that its femur had been cracked in two, and I took some steps back. The bone armor shifted, releasing its short fire burst area of effect attack again, but I was already gone from the blast radius.

I took a second to assess the damage. Thankfully, my arm hadn’t been blown off by the force of the femur slamming into my shoulder. I doubt I would have been so lucky if my constitution wasn’t so high. What it did do was dislocate my shoulder. I Lifted the affected arm into the air by the sleeve and used Spin to get a good grip on it before slamming it back into the joint with Pull. A scream escaped my lips, but I got a handle on it quickly. While what I did was certainly one of the worst ways to fix a dislocated shoulder, with my healing capabilities it was definitely the fastest.

The arm wasn’t ready to move just yet, but that was fine; the Writhing Belt Whip would heal it soon. My attention returned to the Scorched Skeleton. It had just gotten back up off of the ground. The blackened leg bones were still scattered across the room, but the bones from the piles around us made up for its leg in the form of armor.

Spinning my staff, I willed it into the shape of an overly long club so that most of its weight was on the other end. I threw the weapon directly at my foe’s head and Pushed. The Scorched Skeleton ducked out of the way and lunged at me as I traded Push for Pull. I backed up to avoid its sharp claws, but stopped before I could touch the piles of bones behind me. Something was already tugging at my pants leg, though it couldn’t get a good grip.

The Vague Stick slapped the back of the mid boss’ helmet, causing it to reel forward. I sidestepped, letting it fall to the ground as it was knocked off balance. Once the boss was on the floor I began stomping along its spine. Bones creaked, cracked, and shattered under my efforts. Flames from inside the Scorched Skeleton’s chest furnace licked at my shoes. With one last stomp, my heelies went through the armor and damaged the spine underneath. I pulled my foot out and used another bottle of water to put my clothes out before the fire could do any irreparable damage.

Once it was free from my foot, the Scorched Skeleton reached into the bone pile and its upper half quickly disappeared into it. Due to the damage I caused, the bottom half stayed lying exactly where it was. The pile shifted and quaked before the mid boss rose up from it like some kind of messed up lamia. All around the room, the leftover bones began to hug the walls and travel towards their new owner.

It hurt, but I could feel that my arm was ready to use. Thickening the end of the Vague Stick even further, I grasped it firmly with both hands and began swinging. Over and over again I dispersed the bones propping up the Scorched Skeleton. To combat my attempts the mid boss lit up and aimed down at me with its fire breath. My Shield was enough to take care of that. Now that most of its bones were separate from the main body, its fire wasn’t nearly as powerful.

The more I swung, the more bones broke and were tossed to the side. My efforts were slowly being rewarded. The less bones it had to rise into the air the lower it got. I could tell that my Shield wouldn’t hold for too much longer, but moments before it broke the fire breath stopped and the Scorched Skeleton lunged at me.

I jumped out of the way, pivoted on my heel, and raised the Vague Stick high. My shoulder moving in such a way caused me to grunt in pain, but it was already my victory. I brought the club downwards, activating Drop halfway there, and shattered the skull of the Scorched Skeleton. Flames erupted from each charred bone as the necromantic energies ran wild and consumed the very pieces it animated.

And then there was peace.

[[Victory!]]

You have slain 1x Dungeon Mid Boss [Scorched Skeleton]; +100 points.

You have slain x33 enhanced skeletons. +165 points.

You have contributed in slaying x17 enhanced skeletons. +51(85) points.

“Woooo!” I screamed hoarsely. I wheezed from the overwhelming heat of the room as the doors on either side of the chamber opened. Flicking my eyes over the victory screen, I nodded to myself. The skeletons would have only been worth two points each if they had been stopped from joining with the Scorched Skeleton. This way was harder, but the rewards were much greater. After all, what was a little pain in the way of gains? “What a day to be alive!”

The Mausoleum of the Arsonist wasn’t a dungeon I took on often. In fact, I could count how many times I had on two hands and it had been several runs since I last attempted it. It just didn’t drop anything I really needed to survive. The rush of adrenaline coursing through my veins could not be argued with, however. I checked my stat screen to see that I had less than half of my hit points remaining and I was suffering from severe dehydration.

Opening up another bottle of water, I drank from it greedily before dumping the rest onto my head. Without a source the heat slowly began to leave the room, but I retreated into the hallway I had come from for a small reprieve. I’d give myself ten minutes to calm down, let the Writhing Belt Whip do its thing, and move on to the next stop on the undead train before we got to the ghost: zombies. No mid boss this time, but still a right pain in the ass.