The three of us were heading up to the sixth floor of the tower. The first five were for my use as the keeper. Which I found both wonderful and odd. I hadn’t had floors to use before, and so once we got past the third floor, which had already been built, everything was just blank.

The building was currently the same diameter as it had been. But I knew that would change as the tower got bigger. It was going to keep on growing too. The location that the outpost had been set on was only normal mana. It wasn’t a mana well like my waterfall, but that didn’t mean that the place wouldn’t grow.

Nope, once people knew that there was a dungeon here that was low-level, people would come from everywhere. Which meant that I needed to figure out if I was trying to hold the place as mine or just let others treat it like a normal dungeon.

As we got to the door on the sixth floor, I asked. “Ready?”

Renfry pulled his sword. “Yes.”

Kasidy took a deep breath and let it out, and nodded. She wasn’t going to use her instruments this time. Her class let her just sing, and she wanted to work on doing that while watching the battle. There wasn’t a bard-class armor that she liked when looking through everything. It seemed that the things the tower had for bards were mostly for men and mainly flamboyant. There were a few armors that were all black for the bards that tended to be more thieves. However, those were all men’s armor.

Renfry pulled the door, and we stepped in. He was first through the door, not that he was our tank. I was acting in that capacity, with my standard. As I came through next, I saw that we were in a dark hall.

I glanced over at Kasidy and said. “Light.”

She nodded and drew on one of her abilities. I wasn’t sure what the name was, but it created a bright area of about ten feet around her. The nice thing was that her magical light acted like normal light and kind of spread a little.

Unlike the lower floors, there weren’t doors or windows here. The hall was just wide enough for two people. So with no other place to go, we started forward. I wanted to turn on my Stone Air. However, we were holding off on that for the time. Since it cost mana to keep going and Renfry was in medium armor.

As we moved forward, Renfry said. “I don’t like this at all. I can feel the undead in front of us, and there are more here than should be for a first encounter.”

I whispered forward. “How many?”

He just shook his head and kept moving forward. Soon the passageway turned like it hit the edge of the tower. Then it opened up so that we could be four abreast. As soon as we made the turn, Irwin was hit by two armored figures.

Neither one of them triggered my standard, so I did. As it flared to life, it was hit by more undead. I focused on one of the two that Renfry was battling.

Skeletal Lancer (Human) Level 8

Undead

HP 275

Mana 25

Weight between 25 lbs

Armor rating 6

Weapons

Bone hands blunt 1

Bite blunt 1, Magical 1

Mace

It was a stronger fighter than what I had faced before. I wanted to engage, but this was mainly to let Renfry fight. It was also to let Kasidy get used to having an active role in our battles.

Renfry pushed the one on his left back with his shield. Then he kicked the one on the right in its chest. He slashed down with his sword and chipped off the bone near the neck. If the skeleton had been a human, that strike would have ended the fight.

He was good with his sword as he danced around both. His movements were much faster and more graceful than anything I could do. I didn’t know how much of that was his stats and how much of it was training.

The problem he was having, however, was the same that I had the first time I fought skeletons. Blades just didn’t do very much to bone. Sure, he was breaking a few here and there, but he wasn’t doing much. With just the two, he would win; the question was how long that would take.

As I was watching, I saw that he had come to the same conclusions that I had. I smiled as I watched him half-sword and dropped the crossguard across the skeleton on his right. Then he blocked the blade on the one left, dumping the blow to his right. He stepped in, used his forearm like a club, and knocked the head off the second one.

Then he stepped back, breathing hard. I asked. “You okay?”

He laughed and gasped for air. “It’s been a while since I fought skeletons I forgot that they just don’t take damage from swords that well.”

I smiled. “Yeah I learned that the hard way. It’s a short sword but you can use mine for a while to see if you like it. It does added damage to undead.”

Renfry stood and nodded. “We might try that in a bit. The shorter blades act differently. Let me finish these two off fully before their heads get back to them. I need to try some other skills.”

“My standard can hold for a minute or two here like this. But they are getting aggressive out there. So sooner the better.”

Renfry slid his sword back into his scabbard and then flexed his hands. I had never seen his claws. I thought that he might have them with the skills he had, but I wasn’t sure. They were short black claws that seemed to grow right out of the tips of his fingers. He reached one hand down to the first skeleton and then pulled.

I watched a blueish light get pulled right from the skeleton, and then he pulled it toward his mouth. As it got close, I saw where Renfry’s teeth once were was a void, and the blue light went in.

He shook his dead and kind of spit. “Ugg that doesn’t taste good. It feels off.”

Kasidy asked with a slightly shaking voice. “What did you do?”

He replied as he reached for the next one. “That was my skill Devour, it said that I would eat its soul and grow stronger but I got a message saying that these weren’t true undead and so were soulless.”

The second one he grabbed with both hands and tore. As he did, the blueish light broke and scattered. He smiled and said. “Rend”

He looked back at me. “Can you let a few through? I need to test my claws see if they are as bad as normal claws vs skeletons.”

I dropped the Stone Air for just a moment, and four came through. Renfry was on them at once. He charged forward with his claws ripping the skeletons apart. Between his high strength and his use of claws, he was in and between them. With his sword, he looked like a true knight. With his claws, he was savage.

The four skeletons fell before him quickly as his use of his claws seemed to include almost a complete unarmed combat skill. He grabbed and yanked bones as he took on all four. Where his last fight took about two minutes, this one was over in seconds. He turned and looked back at me with a smile.

Then he triggered Devour again, but this time he didn’t have to use his hands to pull them forward. All four soul parts of the skeletons floated towards him. The blueish-white blobs floated toward his chest and then slowly entered it. He frowned and then shook his head.

He pointed down at the skeletons. “I thought that perhaps the skill would work better in here bypassing me eating them. I still got the same message telling me they were soulless. What’s almost worse is they still tasted bad.”

I laughed. “Well, at least we know that your claws seem to work on them.”

He nodded. “It seems like I get a crush damage bonus using them against undead.”

“Ready for more?”

“Yeah, I want to try my Disrupt. I think it should break the ties holding them up. But that might be my weaken control.”

I shook my head. “No I think your weaken control is the claim that Necromancers have on their undead. There’s a spell Claim that is used to take control.”

I looked back at Kasidy. “I’m going to drop the shield again. You doing okay?”

Kasidy smiled and nodded. “I want to try out the new song. See how it works on undead. I don’t even know if it can work on them.”

“Well Dave seems to think it can so I am trusting him but yeah this is the best time to see how it works. Renfry, Kas is next up.”

Renfry nodded. “I’ll keep them busy while she tries the song out.”

I dropped the Stone Air again, and the rest of the undead in the room surged forward. If I hadn’t fought against the hordes in the south, I would have been shocked at the number. As we stood, it was only about twenty who came at us.

Dave had been right about needing a good bit to afford just one song. He had a ton of songs that Kasidy could learn that weren’t combat focused. However, the five that he had were mostly out of reach for us. The one, however, that we could afford we got.

It was kind of like Irwin’s Party On ability. However, it didn’t require the other person to have a level of inebriation. When she sang the drinking song, Stagger Away, her targets got a two-level increase in inebriation. They also had the urge to turn around. It wasn’t a compulsion but an influence. Which meant that the song/spell hit on directly on willpower without the benefit of compulsion resistance.

The song would work kind of in reverse of a taunt skill from the games I used to play. Where a tank would call the enemies to him. Kasidy would scatter everyone. When they got out of range, if they were intelligent or could, they would attack from there. However, if we were dealing with something like the undead, they would likely just charge right back into range.

Renfry had his sword out again. This time he wasn’t even trying to damage the skeletons. He was attacking the front four, which was keeping all the ones behind from moving forward as they just didn’t fit down the hall.

Then Kasidy’s song started. Unlike my spells that had a cast time, and then they showed up. Her song’s magic was more like my dance in that it built but would keep going as she sang.

I heard her singing something behind me, but I couldn’t make out the words. Then she hit what had to be the chorus, and her voice cut through the sound of battle.

Staggering around, not knowing where we're going

Laughing, joking, and our faces glowing

Drinking all night, until the sun is showing

We're living life, and we're never slowing

As her words hit the skeletons, they all started to flee. Not a quick run, mind you but rather a slight drunken stagger away. They didn’t all turn at the same time or in the same direction but looked more like a group of friends on a pub crawl.

When Renfry hit the close-by one, it lashed out not at him but at the nearest target. Then it turned towards Renfry and charged. Even for a skeleton that normally didn’t have perfect coordination, its attacks looked sloppy. Renfry blocked and hit it and pushed it away. As it staggered back, Kasidy’s words hit it again, and it turned and tried to catch up to the rest.

When the back skeletons got out of her twenty-foot range, they remembered that they were attacking us and turned to charge. Only they got mixed up with the ones trying to stagger away. The one’s not under the influence of her song didn’t attack the ones who were lashed out, hitting the normal ones.

With them being skeletons hitting skeletons, I didn’t expect much damage, but I was impressed with the traffic jam created. They kept pushing and shoving, acting the part of an angry drunk. I didn’t know if that was just what the Tower thought the skeletons should be or if it was part of her song.

Renfry looked over his shoulder at me, and I nodded. Then he charged towards the mess of drunken bones. As he did, he spun up his active skill, Disrupt. A wave of blueish-white light flew out from his hands and hit the skeletons. The closest of them fell apart completely while the rest staggered back. Some lost arms and other legs, then Renfry was in the middle of them, tearing them apart.

The battle if what he did to them could be called one was over in seconds. Then he turned and walked back to us, slowly shaking his head. When he got up close, he said. “So it turns out that the souls I pull in from Devour are used with Disrupt. The more I pull in the greater my ability to Disrupt.”

I gave him a quick nod and turned toward Kasidy. “How hard was the song?”

She gave me a smile and a wink, then sighed. “Honestly not bad but I don’t know how I would do with a longer battle. I have to keep singing to keep the song going. It won’t be until I get it leveled up to around 10 or perhaps 15 before I can hum it.”

Renfry asked, “Does it take Stamina or Mana?”

“Both. Less Stamina that fighters tend to spend on their attacks and less Mana than mages. However, I think combined it might be a little more.”

I pointed forward. “Finish the floor or head back down now that we know what is going on?”

Renfry smiled. “I’d like to run through the floor if it’s all the same to you. I want to figure this out a bit more.”

Kasidy nodded. “I can’t level this song outside of using on targets.”

I grinned. “Lets finish it then. Kasidy as soon as we see them start your song. Renfry once they start to stagger you pick the ones you want. I’ll be ready with my shield if needed. Otherwise I am just along for the ride.”

* * *