“Lady Eleutheria, protect us!” Olivia’s soft prayer broke the silence that had gripped us, right after the massive undead had formed. It was both, mundane plea for help and magical incantation, causing a golden light to settle around us, bolstering our courage against this dangerous foe. And a dangerous foe it was, the aura spreading around it, absorbing some of the Power still gathered in the valley made that obvious, and even without it, the suit of dark, dull plate-armour and the massive glaive from the same metal in its hand would have given it away.

Rising from my throne, I mentally got ready to fight and not just bomb enemies from afar, quickly realising that running was not an option, not from this foe. In just the few seconds we had watched in stunned incomprehension, it had started to move and crossed half the distance between us, moving at speeds that would make an olympian sprinter consider if they really needed all that flesh or if skeleton was the way to run.

“Cover me.” Sigmir softly asked and I realised that our normal formation of Sigmir being up front, with Adra and Rai supporting her flanks wouldn’t work, not in a situation where Adra had no real way to threaten our foe. Despite the situation, a happy grin spread on my face, any opportunity to help and support my love was a welcome one.

Behind us, Adra started to softly chant her own magic, her casting speed a lot slower than Olivia’s or mine, but at the end of the day, magic just wasn’t her focus. Her spells would help, but her ability to impact the battle was greatly limited due to bad compatibility.

In the few seconds we had before the skeleton could reach us, I placed a hand on Sigmir, quickly drawing a set of Blood Magic runes on her, using my own Blood to empower them even more. The connection between my blood and myself would fade, especially as I hadn’t channelled Astral Power into it with Blood Magic, but it would take a bit of time.

The skeleton was still completely focused on me, charging right ahead, the rough slope and uneven ground barely slowing it down. When it was a mere hundred metres away from us, a distance it would cover within a second or three, Sigmir let out a howl of anger, the crimson aura of her Rage settling around her, a soft, gentle echo of it springing up around me and I felt my own physical strength rise. Ylva, having rested next to Sigmir, joined the howl, her body swelling to her full size, her shoulders drawing level with Sigmir’s and there was a hint of golden and red lights springing up around her, not quite forming into an aura as Sigmir had it, but there was something there.

Surging forward, Sigmir and the skeleton clashed and for a moment, I was stunned. Sigmir had accelerated downwards, letting her reach top speed with a few steps, my own buffs, her own aura and the buffs from Olivia, all stacking up and empowering her even more, turning her into someone who could split mountains and cleave the sky. Well, almost. And yet, in the clash with the Undead, weapon striking weapon, she had been defeated, her own weapon smashed aside, leaving her open to a lethal follow-up strike by the Undead.

In the briefest of moments, Lenore and I communicated over our connection and Astral Power flooded into the crown adorning my head, Wind and Ice mixing together to give us a blizzard of power, carrying forward the Blades of the Northern Wind. The trails they drew glittered with the light of the aurora, snowflakes forming in their way as the air around them froze. Guided by our combined will, driven by the need to defend my loved one, the blades struck, not even trying to destroy the undead but simply attacking its arms in an attempt to delay and deflect the Glaive, before it could strike Sigmir.

At the same time, Rai stepped through the shadows, his goal similar to my own, flanking the undead and forcing it to deal with him, so it wouldn’t be able to focus on Sigmir. His blades, the ominous shadows of Darkness-magic forming around them, hunted for an opening in the armour, a place where they could penetrate and cut the vulnerable magic beneath. Not that I had high hopes that he’d be able to break apart the magic, the sheer volume radiating outwards made it nigh impossible.

As my blades crashed against the armour, frost spreading around the joints of one arm and the wind carrying my attack pushing the massive figure off balance for a moment, I snuck in a quick Observe, curious what the skill would give me.

Skeleton Lord - Level 156

The blue box informing me was welcome, even if the news really weren’t. It was one thing to clash with foes just above our level, but a beast that had almost fifty levels on us, with no surprise on our side and no obvious vulnerabilities that we could exploit? That was a challenge and thus, a danger. But what was it they said about a crisis being composed of danger and opportunity?

Sigmir and the undead clashed again, this time, Sigmir didn’t even try to push things, instead simply using her axe to parry the glaive away and doding aside, letting it pass her by harmlessly. Still, she was being pushed and even with all the buffs heaped upon her, the undead was stronger and faster than she was. In the momentary opening after its strike had forced her aside, the undead didn’t even try for a follow-up, allowing her to get a quick strike in as it suddenly moved, using the opening she had left to get past her. Charging right at me.

Drawing back my flying Blades, I didn’t even consider using my own, physical weapons to attack, I had my butterfly-blades in hand, but using them would be a last resort, and even then, only to parry.

“Avatar!” Lenore gasped, the single word conveying her idea over our mental connection, and we both pushed, not to enter a Hallow but to merge together into the Raven’s Shadow. If it wanted to attack us, let it try.

With a contemptuous caw, we spread our wings, soaring upwards, while the Blades of the Northern Wind, driven by our full power, struck against its armour, causing it to stumble. With utter contempt, we laughed at the undead on the ground, mocking it for its inability to fly, as our blades struck again, the frost on its armour thickening.

Our laughter almost got stuck in our throat, when it, instead of chasing after us on the ground or attacking Sigmir, simply pointed its glaive at us and suddenly, a massive, crackling beam of deadly green energy shot out and only a quick, unceremonious drop got us out of the way. Unable to stabilise our fall, we dropped all the way to the ground, only desperate strikes and blocks with our Blades of the Northern Wind and the continuous attacks from Sigmir and Rai letting us dodge the follow-up attacks of the chasing undead.

Abandoned was any thought of counter-attacking or trying to take advantage of openings, not with the way it recklessly went after us ignoring anything Sigmir and Rai were throwing at it. It was obvious that it would happily take any punishment we could dish out, if it could sink that glaive into our flesh in turn.

Strike after strike came at us, forcing us further and further back, our wings helping with balance whenever necessary and allowing us to glide for brief moments, never long enough to motivate it pulling out those deadly beams of energy again. A few of our dodges hadn’t been as fast and clean as necessary, leaving us with bleeding gashes all over our form, especially our wings had suffered some punishment, black feathers scattering around the area.

But for every strike it had thrown at us, Sigmir and Rai were hacking into it, its complete focus on me leaving it wide open to them and they were striking with similar fervour. Adra and Olivia were doing their own part, golden shields springing up around me, only to be quickly shattered while the sparse vegetation around us was animated, trying to snare and trip the undead, only to be ripped to pieces by a casual exertion of its strength.

Yet, it didn’t look like they actually managed to damage it, its armour looking only slightly scuffed, despite the massive blows it had taken from Sigmir, one of them even ripping off its helmet, and even the strikes Rai had managed to sneak into gaps in the armour and into its exposed skull hadn’t evoked a response.

A sudden spark of realisation sprung up in our mind, and our magical perception sharpened for a moment, leaving a brief opening that the undead instantly capitalised on, adding yet another wound to our body. But the brief glimpse had been enough, allowing us to realise that it wasn’t immortal, that it was taking damage constantly, each strike leaving a mark. Only that those marks were constantly regenerated with the power floating around the valley, our earlier magic, the magical remains of the numerous undead we had destroyed, it all lingered and was absorbed.

“That’s our power!” Anger rose up within our mind, that thing wasn’t just trying to kill us, it was stealing our power in an attempt to do so, the Astral Power we had used and even the power we had rightly won from its predecessors, that, too, was ours by right on conquest.

The earlier spark of realisation provided a crystallisation-point, a nucleus around which our anger could coalesce, forming into a dense and hard matrix of vengeance. And from that matrix, an idea was born. If it wanted our power, if it wanted to absorb what was our, let it do so. We would gladly help.

For once, instead of dodging, we took the strike, blinding pain ripping through our body as the glaive bit into our hip but in turn, we could strike. Wreathed by energy, Darkness- and Death-Magic crackling around our claw, we struck forward, our talons digging into the skull of our foe and with a loud shriek of outrage, we exerted our power, magical energies far outstripping any physical strength we might have. We even managed to pull on the lingering connection we maintained with all our Astral Power, allowing us to push from the inside of the monster, not just pull from the outside.

For a moment, there was a balance, the undead trying to keep its head attached while we did our very best to take it for our own. Finally, something started to give, as the magical energies we had inserted managed to dig into the process we had aimed for, the absorption effect, and the skull came loose.

Holding it, we laughed again, as we fed the absorption-effect all the power it could ever want, pushing it to drag in as much energy as it could, but at the same time, we changed what that energy would do, using it to funnel power into the skull. Not to maintain an undead monster, but to create something new. Something… interesting.