New Magic Brothers: A scholar and a tattoo artist walk into a tavern…

Elrith paced back and forth in front of her comrades. The party was standing outside of Jorteg's Dungeon and about to enter. However, Elrith was currently both frustrated and perplexed, and the source of these feelings appeared to be a certain wizard.

"WHY can't you be like a normal mage!? Normal mages have spells like Fireball, Lightning Strike, or Mana Shield. I know because I've been in parties with normal mages. THESE are the spells we bring to a dungeon! Now I admit you were not entirely useless yesterday. BUT STIIILLL…" Elrith's mouth ended wide open with an expression of mad uncomprehension. She looked genuinely dumbfounded for a moment, before her mouth shut – and she exploded. "WHO… MAKES… A SPELL… FOR BEFRIENDING… SKELETONS!?" Her small hands pulled at her own hair in an overt display of insanity. Rum had to admit to himself that his arsenal of spells was a bit unconventional, but why is she so mad? This spell will actually work against the skeletons. She should be glad! "Will the spell–" Elrith continued, while trying to calm herself and act more compromising "–at least let you take control of the skeletons, to use one against the other skeletons?"

Rum stroked his beard thinking, and looked into up into the blue for a second. "Nnno, not precisely." He began, carefully formulating his reply. "The point isn't power, I have no desire to take power over anyone – that's not me. In fact" he raised a finger, "I want to LIBERATE the skeletons! However–" he added as Elrith's eyeballs were about to fall out from the intensity of her stare "–there is a chance the skeletons, with the help of time, will seek to defend us against other non-liberated hostile skeletons. This is because the spell gives them a special relationship with other intelligent sentient creatures, such as us. You could say this special relationship is akin to love. And like most creatures with this capacity, I believe they will defend those for whom they love." He smiled.

Elrith looked at Rum like he was not just an idiot, but an idiot of the highest caliber. He may even have been a champion of idiocy among the world's idiots, that's what her expression communicated.

"YOU" she pointed at him and yelled the word out with accuastion, "are about to enter a dungeon! AND A DUNGEON–" the yelling grew fiercer, "–is a literal warzone! We are LITERALLY part of an army entering into hostile territory to wage war, against the dungeon lords! And you talk about not wanting power!?" She flung a pointing finger at the dungeon. "Would you rather we walk into the lair of this dungeon lord to talk it out with his evil highness!? You don't see the need for power in this situation? In our job here!?"

Rum continued stroking his beard, feigning what he thought a real mage's confidence would look like, while inside he was actually starting to feel rather stupid and nervous. But the Heart-Piercer was fortunately finished. She just shook her head and turned around, looking at the dungeon entrance, mumbling "Bony Love", before shaking her head some more. Then, almost as if nothing had happened, she turned back to her party. "Alright, enough about that. I… I'm out of yelling energy. Yesterday worked out fine, so at least this day shouldn't work out any worse. Unless we are in for some bad luck." She glanced meaningfully at Rum, as if suspecting him to be hiding some. "Light the torches and let's just get on moving. If today turns out profitable we might just call this trip to the dungeon right here, and head home with the loot. If it turns out bad we'll stay one or two more days until we got enough valuables to sell. Everyone on board?"

"Aye!" responded the party, with the dwarves shouting loudest, Darmon speaking normal, and Rum hastily adding his after everyone else had already made theirs.

And so the party moved into the dungeon. Though it didn't take long before they came to a very familiar, very large door.

"Oh shit" Darmon let out, "the damned dungeon lord repaired the door."

"Hah!" Rulli smiled. "That man really doesn't like us walking into his lair, does he?"

"Can we get through it today as well?" asked Gilda. "The same way we did yesterday?"

The party eyed the door in front of them. The repair wasn't aesthetically pleasing, but the hole after Elrith's Mana Bomb had obviously been put back together since yesterday, and considering a weirdly chaotic melted shape for the new wood, the only logic explanation woulds be magic.

"I should have another charge of Mana Bomb today. A pity I'll have to spend it on this door though. It's almost like the dungeon lord planned for us to waste our only offensive spell, on opening the damn door" she glanced over at Rum, and the two held eye-contact for a brief two seconds of silent accusation. However Elrith didn't waste more time talking. In a repeat of yesterday's shot she fired a crossbow bolt filled with condensed mana that magically detonated upon contact. After an explosive moment of splinters flying everywhere, a hole in the door was once again open for them. Curiously, they discovered no skeletons on the other side though, and as the party moved further into the dungeon, back to the river and the short bridge they'd left off at last time, they still encountered no enemies of any kind. So the party just continued, onwards into new territory.

It turned out that from the mountainous space with the river, there was another tunnel which they didn't have to walk far into before they entered a tall grand space. In front of them, and perpendicular to their tunnel, was a hallway-shaped cavern, along which multiple tunnels led into all kinds of other spaces, some of which looked like carved out primitive housing, others like caves and grottos. As far as the party could initially determine though, all of these holes were mostly empty. That meant that they were probably in for another trap, they could all more or less feel it, Rum included. Some of these holes and tunnels would likely contain skeletons or other enemies waiting to ambush adventurers.

"Look out, they could be coming from anywhere" Darmon stated, his shield raised as if expecting some of the higher up holes to suddenly spring forth with enemies. These higher up holes were only reachable by what appeared to be recently made rough wooden ladders. A general type of ladder was used to bring things both across horizontal gaps, like improvised bridges, or at an incline, like poorly balanced stair steps, and of course straight up vertically like ordinary ladders. Fear snuck up on the party, as they were all up against someone whom they by now could fairly guess was aiming for a successful sneak attack. That made all of them potential targets for assassination, a fact that raised everyone's stress to visible paranoia. Darmon in particular kept casting glances at the caves and tunnels as if he was seeing glimpses of an invisible foe.

They decided rather arbitrarily to take a left along the cavern, with Darmon taking the lead, and everyone else on edge behind him. They progressed slowly, and as they did, a few of their eyes came up to notice the tall mountain ceiling. It was dotted with dark holes too, making it resemble something akin to a cheese. "Why is the ceiling porous?" Gilda asked with a puzzled stare, and the rest looked up. Nobody answered. Nobody could probably answer. For what purpose the ceiling would need such holes was a mystery none could prioritize thinking about. After all, there were too many other directions to worry over. Tunnels or gaps went everywhere, although the party stuck to the open space in front of them. Here, they may be more vulnerable to attack, but at least they'd have a chance at seeing the enemy coming, and the ground was remarkably close to flat rock, as if someone had tried to actually construct this very space, yet only mostly succeeding.

As the party moved down the path, or at least what Rum came to think of as a path, the wizard tried to count all the different directions their enemies may appear from. The exercise was made difficult by the general darkness of the cavern and the limited reach of their torchlights. He started to feel a slight panic when he realized there were somewhere between 30 and 40 different tunnels and holes that he could discern, and from which archers could rain down arrows, or waves of skeletons with swords and spears could pour out from to storm their position within seconds.

"Anyone else feeling like we maybe shouldn't be walking here?" Rum wondered aloud, and a bit nervous.

"We are adventurers" Elrith responded, "it's our job to take risks."

"I'm just thinking" Rum continued, "that if we suffer a sneak attack, and there are a lot of skeletons, our chances of making it out alive are starting to look dangerously slim."

Elrith was quiet for a few seconds, while everyone else looked about a bit more frantically, Rum having raised their danger senses to a new level. "If they are too many" she started replying, "we could retreat into one of the tunnels to secure our front."

WOOOSH! A sound flew passed their position, and was followed by the clacking of wood against rock. WHAT WAS THAT!? Rum's eyes cast about in alarm, and so did the others when they realized he was panicking.

Rum saw Gilda walk up to a spot with her torch to pick something up. As the object was lifted into the torchlight, Rum saw it clearly.

"ARROWS!" Darmon yelled, recognizing the object. "Everyone get near me! See if you can spot the archer!"

Everyone did as Darmon asked. Rum cast Skin Toughen on himself, and touched both of the dwarves to do the same. He was about to do it to Elrith too, but even in her fear she was quick enough to smack away his hand before he could even touch her. For the longest moments, they all scanned the vastness about them, eyes going from barely lit holes to other even darker holes.

WOOOSH! Another arrow landed close to the party, passing narrowly between Rulli and Gilda. WOOOSH! WOOOSH-WOOOSH! Three more arrows in quick succession. Their leg muscles tensed for a dodge, while their eyes kept scanning frantically for a hint of the enemy, all of them feeling this build-up for an all-out attack.

Then came the distant sounds. CLACK! CLACK! CLACK! Bony feet against rocky ground. Within seconds, these first few faint sounds came to reach a massive orchestra of clacking, growing towards what felt like an ominous and vastly echoing march of death. Rum turned to look in the direction of the noise. A phalanx of skeletons marched out from one of the side-tunnels, barely at the edge of light. The force, some 20-30 skeletons strong, had a first row of short spears, shields, and sheathed swords dangling at their hip bones. Two dangerous rows of long halberds – part spear, part axe – followed behind the first. The sight of so many skeletons, and so organized, struck new terror into the hearts of the party. Breaths ceased for a moment, faces bleakened, and grips grew damp around weapons.

Elrith was right, Rum's jaw hung. We are in a war! That's not hunting party. That's not a band of bandits. That is a BATTLE FORMATION!

As he took in this first phalanx, a dread began to spread inside of him, only to be justified as his eyes took in two more phalanxes exiting off two other tunnels in the same direction. When he heard a faint clacking coming from behind, he turned immediately to see another two phalanxes creeping up on their rear, far away in the dark. Each phalanx, though the darkness made it difficult to determine, was about same size of 20-30 skeletons, equipped for fighting and tactically overcoming an army. Meanwhile, the arrows from above hadn't stopped. On the contrary, like the skeletons on the ground, the arrows only multiplied as time rolled onwards. WOOOSH-THUD! Rum staggered back. He glanced at his right shoulder. A straight stick with trimmed feathers stuck out, while a trickle of blood was quickly soaking his robe. WOOOSH! Rum dodged narrowly, and the arrow clattered against the ground. He pulled out the one sticking from him easily. Due to Skin Toughen it had barely penetrated his skin, and left but a trivial wound. However, as outnumbered as they were, even a hundred little wounds would kill anyone in the end, and there's certainly enough skeletons to make that a reality.

"You know Elrith" Rum let out fast, "if we retreat into a tunnel right now, we might escape the rain of arrows. But if that tunnel is a dead-end, we will lose any further opportunity to escape all these ground skeletons, and I'm confident in saying we are looking at a minimum of 100" he paused for one single anxious second, "possibly up to 150. What do we do?"

CLICK-WOOOSH! The Heart-Piercer's bolt shattered the skull of her first enemy far awy and well above them, just as the undead was loading its arrow outside a grotto.

"There are three groups of enemies to our front" she thought out loud, "two in the back, and also the tunnel we came from is in the back." She thought for brief pause. "We should retreat to the tunnel we came from! We'll just have to destroy any skeletons standing in our way."

The party momentarily glanced at each other as all of them, Rum included, came to an understanding regarding their new plan. The wizard cast Muscles Grow on himself, and as he grew he began to walk along with the others, considering their situation. I can't just charge into all their spears and halberds, they'd skewer me. He looked towards Darmon, who was walking beside him, with all of the party cautiously approaching the phalanxes standing between them and their retreat. Darmon has a big shield. If he used it to break apart their formation, could I get an opening to start rib cage tossing?

"Hey Darmon?" The voice wasn't Rum's. It came from behind, and the wizard had to glance to see Rulli there, the dwarf's attention on the tank's back.

"Yes?" Darmon responded with turning.

"Your shield is the only thing that can get past those spears." Rulli gestured with his axe, though Darmon didn't see as much. "You have to try and break their spear wall. If we don't break that spear wall, me and Gilda may be stabbed to death before we can get up close enough to whack 'em."

"Understood" Darmon said firmly, and took in a deep breath, before a cold-blooded determination firmed and focused his expression. Darmon's walking began to pick up, and the armored man started to move passed Rum, ahead of the party. The rain of arrows grew ever more dangerous on their position. Nine shots filled the space around Rum in quick succession, and he swung, and jumped, and leaned backwards, dodging about wildly as his motions turning into some sort of improvised dance, finally leading to a breather. Upon which he pulled two arrows out painfully from his chest and leg. Meanwhile, Rulli and Gilda tried to keep the defenseless Elrith from being struck by arrows by using themselves as shields, deflecting as many incoming arrows as possible with their axes. The Heart-Piercer for her part managed to down three more skeletal archers away and above. However, it was but a drop in the bucket.

Having closed in near the skeletons, Darmon's metallic form sprang forward into a charge, his shield and spear held high and ready with a "waaaah!" of a warcry. Never-mind the fact that skeletons don't have feelings and can't be scared by such, but Rum couldn't bother decipher the psychology around that decision. He contacted the enemy by pulling back his spear and spinning the shield in at an almost horizontal angle, pushing away spears and halberds. Next, Darmon jumped back in and struck at his first skull, cracking straight through it with his speartip. Rum watched the skeleton fall while he himself walked towards the scene. Only 100 to 200 left to go, he noted mentally. In front of him, the tank didn't wait for the skeletons to reform, instead his shield swung aside another set of spears, and he followed up, fracturing his second skull, and thus creating an opening. Wasting no time, Darmon immediately exploited it. He pushed in to the second row of skeletons, where halberd-wielding skeletons stood uselessly, their weapons too long to pose a threat. He continued straight forward, pushing into them with his shield and forcing the skeletons to stumble backwards, and in so doing, intentionally surrounding himself.

"AAAH!" Rulli cried behind Rum. "I'M COMING FOR YOU, CALSIUM PUPPETS!" Battleaxe on high, the dwarf charged passed Rum and straight into the action. As he came upon the hole in the phalanx, Rulli only met a few halberds vaguely pointed in his direction, and was easily able to knock them aside, along with a couple of spears, before he opened up his real attack by latching the blade of his battleaxe onto a skeleton's shield. The dwarf janked at, and the skeleton stumbled forward. Rulli then raised his axe, and with the skeleton trying to find balance, swung it down diagonally, cutting and splintering the skeleton's skull.

With her husband successfully having joined the battle, Gilda abandoned Elrith and ran to join towards the developing brawl. Passing Rum she yelled "Protect Elrith!", and Rum looked back at the Heart-Piecer, not quite sure how he would do that.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"I'll try?" he said to the universe in general, and moved over to her.

Over the next two minutes, and to Elrith's great frustration, Rum pushed and pulled on Elrith's body as he desperately tried to keep the arrows raining down on them from hitting her. Meanwhile, his own body was quickly developing such a dense pattern of protruding arrows, he vaguely resembled a hedgehog. In-between dodging, pushing, pulling, and self-sacrificing, he would try to pull some of them out and desperately attempt to heal himself. But it was difficult, and given that the rain of arrows never stopped, he would only find himself with two new protruding arrows every time he managed to pull one out.

At the other side of the battle, Darmon, Rulli, and Gilda were surviving, but not doing good, as they their position was surrounded by two phalanxes that were actively trying to hack halberds down on them, pierce them with short spears, or slash at them with swords. However, just like Rum and Elrith, these also had to contend with arrows, which were raining down on them almost as much as on Rum and Elrith. This wasn't much of an issue for Darmon, who was largely protected by his armor, but Rulli and Gilda were starting to suffer from arrows getting passed their own leather, creating multiple wounds leaking with blood. The battle, which had started with mere bad odds, was increasingly looking desperate. Rum knew he had to do something. At the very least, he had to abandon Elrith's firing position before the rapidly approaching phalanxes behind them would surround them both and make any crossbow firing nigh impossible.

So, Rum charged towards the brawl and in his charge yelled "Body Thicken", turning himself from a tough-skinned heap of muscle into an outright juggernaut. He flicked away the spears and the halberds as best as he could with his free hand, and entered into the scene grabbing for skeletons, one after the other. As he'd done at the bridge, but now brazenly surrounded at the front, he reach in to rib cages, lifting them up, and throwing their whole body of bones into the formations. The initial throws disorganized the skeletons who'd been trying to besiege the trio, now group of four. However, besides creating chaos and seizing the attention of dozens of empty sockets, Rum's intervention wasn't actually dwindling down the sheer numbers of undead.

"We have to escape!" The wizard declared to the trio as they all fought for their lives, with Rum throwing skeletons, Darmon and Rulli bashing and smashing, and Gilda mostly deflecting arrows and blows with her one handaxe, while trying to keep her lit torch up high for visibility. "I'll go get Elrith" Rum added, "and then you have to help me carve a path through to the exit!"

He didn't wait for a reply but simply abandoned his position, knocking over skeletons to run up to Elrith, who had barely been able to down any archers herself as she stood there, besieged by arrows, and about to be run over from approaching phalanxes behind her. As he reached her, he hurried "sorry Elrith, but we have to leave now!" and grabbed the woman, carrying her little body under his arm like a log of wood.

"Put me down, I have my own legs!" she angrily responded.

"Your legs are too short!" Rum replied, before correcting himself, "I mean – slow – you're too slow!" and ran back towards the phalanx brawl. There he put her down, and without comment or thought, threw himself into the mix of skeletons, grabbing and throwing them left and right to make a passage. He waved her over as the skeletonless path started to take shape. She was trying to give him an insulted expression, but time was critical and so she followed, trying to rearm her crossbow as Rum cleared their way. The duo soon reached the center of the battle, where they were met by a rapidly tiring Darmon, Rulli, and Gilda. "We have to make a path – NOW! That way!" Rum pointed towards where they'd come from, and pulled Elrith over to stand in the midst of everyone, where he judged she'd be the most safe. "Okay, Darmon" the wizard began ordering, "protect the rear plus Elrith! Gilda, Rulli" he pointed to them in succession, "you should help me carve the path ahead!"

As he grabbed a skeleton to start making their way, he glanced back quickly, and saw that the three other phalanxes had arrived and that they would soon be surrounded by not two, but five phalanxes, an upwards of 100 skeletons. Unless he could progress faster than they could surround them, of course. And so skeletons began to fly: left, right, even up and over towards the approaching phalanxes, all at an industrious pace.

The motions became a quick and brutally simple act of repetition, and they stepped forward at a steady state. As they started to reach the end of the phalanxes however, Rum's glance to the ledges and holes up high caught something curious. High above, next to a skeleton wearing a dark red robe and drawing a bow, there stood a man. A tall man, by the looks of it. He too wore a dark red robe, but this one had an exquisite design and was open at the legs where Rum identified black pants. He also wore black shoes and dark red gloves. By his sides were at least four, but could be more, women in dark red robes and pointed hats.

Jorteg? Rum allowed himself a moment of distraction, which was punished with a sharp halberd axe-blade crashing down on his neck, creating a deep, blood-gushingly bad wound. Rum stumbled, falling to a knee. "Rethore Pothy" he gurgled, and cast the spell with enough of a pronounciation to function. He threw in as much mana as he could, closing the wound with speed. Rulli, seeing the state of Rum, charged forward to push back the skeletons, giving their mage the necessary respite.

As Rum spat out the last remaining drops of blood from his mouth, he got back up, mostly healed now. He glanced up again. All of the robed human figures except for one woman was gone. Staring up at her, Rum saw her walk up to the robed skeleton with the drawn bow, and cast a spell. Is she casting it on the skeleton? No, the bow? No… the arrow! The arrow gleamed bright, and the skeleton looked ready to fire it at their party. But who was the target? The bow skeleton released the string and the arrow sprung into flight. Rum quickly traced its arc and it was flying against Rulli. Rum rushed in to push the dwarf out of the way. However, the dwarf was stout and a difficult to move fella, and so Rum at the last second put his own body in the way, and got to experience the arrow pierce him – straight into his lung.

The effects of having his lung pierced was immediate, as Rum began to feel strange, with the first signs being his breathing. He realized the fact just as he dodged a second halberd trying to repeat the attack from before. Completing the motions away from the blow, Rum quickly retreated to let Rulli take the lead. The dwarf saw the arrow and understood.

Rum turned back to look up at the skeleton, but was surprised. The robed woman had disappeared, and beside her vanishing point, the skeleton that had just struck Rum began to lean forward. Quickly, that leaning became a descent over the ledge, and the form of the skeleton fell to the ground, shattering in a sight blocked by the army surrounding them, and barely heard among the noise of battle. Rum turned. The Heart-Piercer was reloading her Martin.

He didn't have the energy, nor the time, to try and thank her. Instead, he zoned out of the battle and focused in on himself, his consciousness converging on the arrow lodged inside him. I cannot go on like this, I must heal. He stopped and mentally, magically, reached for the object. It felt strange to him, not simple, not ordinary. It analyzed it. He found a trace of magic, seeping from the arrow in his lung. What kind of magic is this? Rum couldn't immediately tell, but as he stumbled on with the rest of the party inching towards the entrance, he joined in with Rulli to continued clearing their path, though a diminished rate. In between grabbing a skeleton and throwing it onto the others, he tried studying the magic inside himself. It was some kind of necrotic rotting magic, and it was spreading quickly, rapidly eating at his organs.

Scared and without knowing what to do, Rum tried the only thing that he did know how. "Ueeh" he moaned in pain, before saying the spell. "Filter Body". As the magic erupted, he tried to will the rot magic out of himself. However, here's the question: where was all that rot magic supposed to go? Rum pulled up his robe, and launched the most bizarre sight that any of his party members may ever come to witness on a battlefield. Rum, walking forward while the others continued fighting, pissed a beam of necrotic urine. The piss drenched the nearby skeletons, and pretty much everyone else who were unfortunate enough to be in the half circle space in front of him, which included Rulli and Gilda. Rum would've preferred to just hit one target, but it was difficult to aim with an arrow sticking through himself. Unbeknownst to Rum though, the only one who noticed Rum peeing on anything and everyone, was Elrith, who was so stunned and flabbergasted by what she saw, that she had no words to comment on what was going on. Instead she gawked, and so as such, at least for a little while, no more bolts came from Martin.

Finishing up his exorcism, Rum let his robe drop again, and decided to do something which he knew he shouldn't be doing. It went against the number one rule about getting shot with an arrow, but he was too bothered not to do it. He condensed his mana and latched it onto the arrow inside him. He then forced the mana against the arrow, a trick he'd used once before long ago, and pushed the arrow, sending it out of him in a too quick yet also painfully slow process, that just as expected made the arrowhead cut his insides on its way out. Finally though, it fell to the mountain floor, clinking against the ground. Rum dosed himself with a powerful "Restore Body", and, while slightly lightheaded, repaired most of his internal damages. Not all the damage could be repaired though, and as he finished up he still felt considerably unwell. But at least I'll be able to go on. Soon after, Rum rejoined the fight, and the party broke through the skeleton encirclement with the big wizard in front, and they all ran towards the tunnel from which they'd come, arrows flying on their heels.

They hurried through the tunnel, coming into the cavern with the river and the short bridge. Almost as soon as they'd crossed it, Rum fell down on both knees, drained, pained, and light-headed. Elrith stood, but was short on breath. Darmon looked exhausted, his armor not made for running but to stand and fight. Behind them the first few skeletons arrived shortly, coming in at light jog with their short spears, shields, swords, and halberds. They reformed their phalanx quickly upon entering, and together as the formidable force undeath that they were, marched on the short bridge, filing into it in a narrowed formation. They're not going through the water? If they'd crossed the river in full we'd be surrounded again. This is actually good.

Spiting his sickness, Rum steadied himself to his feet, and walked up to the exhausted Darmon. "This should give you the strength to fight" he said weakly, and put fingers under onto the back of Darmon's neck. "Muscles Grow". Darmon quickly stood up straight, as if all his stamina had been returned to him. Of course, that wasn't the case, it was only that his total stamina pool had been temporarily expanded, but it was all the same. Darmon went up onto the short bridge, casting his short spear aside and pulling out his sword. He positioned himself to defend it. Rum went to Rulli and Gilda and gave them both enhanced strength as well, and the two dwarves quickly got up, their heavily breathing forms refreshed as they joined Darmon from behind for a last stand. With Rum's spell-casting duties feeling like they were over, he lay down onto the ground again, unable to do much as his damaged insides continued to make him nauseous and weak.

For the next nearly ten minutes, the trio, plus Elrith firing from the back, fought off wave after wave of skeletons. Then towards the end the trio began to slow down, becoming sluggish, as their new strength was depleted. They'd disposed of nearly forty skeletons and had achieved supremacy of the bridge, yet the skeletons just kept coming – incapable of losing morale or even tactically retreating. The whole thing was turning into a war of attrition, and in such a war, there was a limited supply of energy to keep pace.

"I'm running out of bolts" Elrith commented matter-of-factly. Meanwhile Darmon, Rulli, and Gilda were all wheezingly exhausted.

In his near slumber Rum had been thinking about what to do during these nearly ten minutes. Rum had cast "Clear Mind" on himself to try and overcome the lightheadedness. Using his mana he had been reaching out and searching through the skeletons' magic, and he thought he might have confirmed the possibility of an answer to the situation, an answering stemming from something he'd noticed in his studies of the skull the night before. To confirm his freshly and barely developed theory, he tried analyzing and probing with his magic through the mass of skeletons, lined up on the other side of the bridge, all of them waiting patiently to fight. As he scoured them all, he thought he might've found a way. Some manner of disruption.

Now, was Rum going to be making a spell in the midst of combat? Nooo. Rum told himself. Or, maybe. This could work. No, it should work! Standing up, a slightly refreshed Rum looked out across the small sea of skeletons on the other side of the river. He reached out with his hand towards one of them, feeling for its magic. He searched through it, finding the little hole, or perhaps it was a mechanism, either way, it seemed to influence the skull, to a degree greater than its other magical parts. He latched onto the spot, seizing it with his magic.

Inside the skeleton, Rum began a motion to pull and squeeze at the vulnerable spot he'd discovered. "Mana Ghost!" The exhausted fighters glanced at him. The mana ghost he created wasn't for the soul of the skeleton though. No. Rather, the mana ghost followed him, observed him, as Rum finalized his squeeze, crushing spot in the skeleton. Within a couple of seconds, the skeleton went from standing upright, waiting with its weapons in hand, to collapsing straight forward, its bones making a SPLASH! as it became submerged in the river.

It worked! Rum was astonished by his own work. Quickly, he took the mana ghost and pulled into his mind. There, he cast a highly overcharged "Clear Mind" on himself, before hastily going to work at assembling a spell, his brain racing to complete it. Within under three minutes, the spell was finally stored inside of Rum's mental spellbook. But what do you I call you? Rum raised his hand again, and pointed it in the general direction of the mass of skeletons. As he prepared to cast the spell, its name came to him in a moment of inspiration.

"DISRUPT SKELETON!"

Slowly, one after the other, the skeletons fell over at a various angles. Forwards, backwards, sideways. Within a minute of channeling the spell, nearly half the remaining skeletons were dealt with. Rum fell to the ground and almost lost consciousness there and then, the nausea and mana expenditure taking a toll on him. The fighting continued though, but ever getting slower, as Darmon, Rulli, and Gilda were all spent, and despite Rum's powerful spell, they were now on the defensive, only trying, desperately, to stay alive against the bundle of death-seeking, reanimated bones.

"I'm out" Elrith said after a little while, putting aside her Martin with quiver empty of bolts. The cling and the clang continued on the bridge. Rum closed his eyes, trying to relax. After a while, he opened them. Darmon was sitting exhausted on the skeletonless part of the bridge. Rulli was kneeling, exhausted, bleeding severely from his side, and dripping with sweat. He was rummaging weakly through his backpack and trying find a potion it seemed. Gilda was the only one to still stand, but she was pretty exhausted too, and there were still at least a dozen skeletons left. Even bleaker, she wasn't cutting any of them down. Instead, she stalled them, tricking the skeletons to take steps backwards by feighning wild attacks. It was working, but draining her.

Rum got up, still sick, but deciding it was time for him to help finish this, any way he could. Elrith was standing helpless next to Darmon, a short sword in her hand and the crossbow lying on the ground a couple of meters away. She looked like she wanted to help, but had settled for protecting Darmon, as she probably realized she'd not be of much use against skeletons who won't go down from a simple stab at her height.

Rum shambled over to the bridge and Gilda, the dwarf attempting to dodge multiple spears lunging at her. "Disrupt Skeleton!" Rum pointed his hands at the skeletons. One after the other, they fell, as Rum continued walking, eventually passing Gilda by. Then, finally, as Rum's neusea was reaching its highest, there was just one left. Rum looked at it, at this one last skeleton. It stood alone, a shield and a sword in its hand, weighing its new tactical situation, while Rum turned away from it, slowly. "Don't kill this skeleton, okay?" he said weakly. "Leave it alone."

Rum turned back to it, and shambled over. The skeleton charged at him with a sword aiming cut straight down. Rum wasn't in a state to dodge easily, so instead he settled for grabbing the sword as it came at him, letting the skeleton slash open a small wound, but stopping its momentum. With his enhanced strength, Rum pushed the blade aside with force, forcing the skeleton to stumble from the unbalacing before it could withdraw the blade itself. He sprinted forward, grabbed the skeleton's shield to bring it closer. He got up close, so very close, and there, put his hand firmly against its skull. He whispered at it. "Bony Love." His eyes closed and focusing on the spell. The skeleton froze in its movement. As the spell finalized, Rum, being completely spent, fell down backwards, landing hard onto his butt, skin against rocky ground. Yet, he did not cry out. He was too tired. Too tired to be hurt, too tired to moan. He just sat there, breathing, letting himself recovered. After a few seconds, he managed to bring his legs together, and took on a meditative pose, resting.

The skeleton dropped its shield and sword. It looked around for a second. Then it looked down, at Rum. It knelt to him, on both its legs, and embraced him. Rum had barely enough energy to respond. Yet he opened his eyes, smiling weakly. "Well. Hello there."

The skeleton retracted its embrace and stared wondering at Rum. Rum couldn't do much but smile back. "What should I call you?"

The skeleton didn't respond. It had no means to respond either. Skeletons, after all, didn't have a larynx, a voice box. One of the downsides of being organless.

"Oh right, you don't speak." Rum nodded sagely. "I suppose I will have to name you?"

The skeleton tilted its head to the side, looking deeply into Rum's tired eyes. At least Rum felt sure it was doing so. Having only a couple of eye sockets from which a glimmer of blue magic shone faintly, there was only guessing to be had at where its eyes were really focused.

Time passed quietly between them. "What about… Rose?" Rum smiled faintly again, thinking about the name. The skeleton pulled back and put a bony finger on its bony cheek, as if thinking too, its skull looking a bit down and away from him. Rum's face went upwards, eyes in the ceiling as he thought to himself, mumbling. "Rose… Rose… Rose" he tasted the name, slowly. "Roses are pink or red, mostly" he looked back at the skull. "But you are white, aren't you?" He gazed into the eye sockets. "Or white-ish?"

The skeleton looked at its bone fingers, then shrugged. It was white, but also had a layer of yellow and brown all over. Though if that was because the skeleton was just dirty, or if that was their natural color, neither Rum nor the skeleton knew.

"So what about White Rose?" Rum took out his hand, grabbing the left bony hand. "Nice to meet you, White Rose." He shook. "My name is Rum" he added, and shook some more, the skeleton seeming very interested in the handshake, staring at it like it was the most curious thing. "What do you think of your name, White Rose?" He leaned in a little, and whispered. "Is it okay?" He looked at the undead with as much concern his remaining strength allowed him to express. He did not want to impose upon the skeleton a bad name, even if it couldn't currently name itself.

The skeleton responded by shaking Rum's hand back, rather clumsily, but soon enthusiastically. The wizard's smile widened, his spirit warming. "Is that a yes?"

The skeleton shook some more.

Rum broke out into a laugh. A hearty, warm, laughter.