The skeleton lord stood tall, its 7’2” stature almost unhindered by the numerous chains of gold wrapped around its metallic armour. It didn’t roar, but the waves of spellforce emanating from its remains howled through the halls. The stone floor and walls cracked all over as the chains attempting to bind the boss started to snap off one by one.

  Drawing its arms across its chest, the monster's chains became slack. Then, the undead threw its arms outwards, another burst of power emanating from its frame as its greatsword fell to the floor, digging its tip into a crack. The chains flew off, and several copies of the lord appeared from its body. Each copy grabbed onto the greatsword and picked off a shadowy replica from it.

  Five shadowed lords now guarded the lord’s rear as he picked up his weapon, its skeletal face gazing down at Cassius.

  “Barriers!” Cassius called out.

  In reply, the casters all brought up large walls of blue hexagons, the melee parts of the teams returning to the protective areas of their allies. Logan jumped back too, landing by both Marcus and Amalia. The Spellthief brought up his Barrier to protect his friends.

  This new protection was in opposition to the shadows above. What was once thought to be too tall to see its heights showed it was more of an illusion. The darkness fell like hail, battering the barrier spells and armour of the raid team. Tinking and scraping, the dark hail clung to the adventurers like oil.

  Quickly, the dots connected like a colouring book, and everyone was enveloped in black.

  Blinking, Logan opened his eyes to see himself in an almost black void. Shifting grey smoke painted the area like a dingy bar, while the colours of his clothing, and that of Marcus’s fought back against the dreary sight. Amalia turned to look at her partner and Marcus, face full of fear.

  “What happened?” Amalia asked hurriedly.

  “Some form of teleportation? Or illusion, maybe?” Marcus tried to answer.

  “It’s some form of Shadow Shift. That spell can target unwilling targets. This might be the boss’s desperation move”, Logan added as he looked around as much as he could.

  “If everyone else is in packs of three, I worry for their safety”, Marcus spat as he stepped around to find a difference in the floor.

  “What should we do?” Amalia asked.

  Logan knelt to feel the floor, it was like melted wax. “Spell Absorb”, Logan mentally commanded, but it returned no result. “We’re not in a spell, this is another plane”, he explained.

  “If only the heroes were in this one”, Marcus chuckled, referring to the heroes trapped in the demon realm.

  It was a good point to make if only Logan had levelled up enough to gain access to portal magic. Teleport was close, but it didn’t allow for inter-planar travel.

  Standing, Logan explained, “There are six opponents in total. If my guess is right, its power split is meant to fight against ours. We were close enough together to appear as one unit, but Cassius is probably fighting solo. We most likely have to defeat the boss clone assigned to us to leave.”

  “Cassius should handle it readily. But us? I don’t know”, Marcus worried, his confidence shaken a little from usual. He shook his head quickly as if to throw off his previous cowardice. “Logan. Any S-Q?”

  Logan shook his head, there was no System quest given to this task. “The lord was level 35. In the boss room he was counted as a raid boss. The clones, if they work like the other types of skills that do that, will be weaker.”

  “A boss 6 ranks above our strongest? Easy”, Marcus said sarcastically.

  Logan was about to reply but was interrupted as he noticed an enemy approach. Using Dimensional Jaunt, he appeared in front of Marcus and erected a Barrier in front of his blood-brother. The greatsword used by the original lord collided with the blue hexagons, turning them red in response.

  Pushing off the protective spell, the lord landed on the dark floor without any sound, as if it wasn’t even there. Bringing up its greatsword to its side in a piercing stance, the lord spoke, “Logan Hall. My creator wishes to know. Have you obtained a quest to hunt anyone recently?”

  Logan raised an eyebrow. “What?” he thought to himself. “No. Only monsters”, Logan answered confidently.

  The lord stood in its stance for a few seconds, processing the answer. “The second question. What is your intention with the Cult of Alaska?”

  “Should this not be an exchange? Do I not get to ask questions?” Logan put forward strongly.

  The lord stood again, ruminating the request. “Ask.”

  “Who made you?”

  “Placido Barato. Now, answer my question.”

  “I don’t think I have ever heard that name. It sounds Spanish, nothing from this world at least”, Logan thought. “I intend to deal with a portion of the cultists who have been scrying on myself and my guild. They are using that information to sell to traitors to attack us. If I could talk to Alaska to oust those members, that would be enough for me”, Logan explained truthfully.

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  The lord lowered its stance. “Your next question?”

  “Why have the below PCs been targeting me?”

  “Their quests from the pantheon instruct them to do so. Either through personal means, their creations and underlings, or third parties”, the lord replied quickly. “Do you know of any other above PCs?”

  “I do not want to answer that question.”

  The lord nodded as if that was in itself an answer. “You have sated my creator’s request. We do not need to go further here.”

  “What about the raid team and Gauntlet?”

  “Those who fail will die; those who succeed will live. You thwarted our attempt at releasing the members in the guardhouse, and the protections covering Gauntlet will make reattempts unreliable. I, at least, have not been asked to retry it.”

  “Will you take my answers back to your master?”

  “My creator hears what I do.”

  “Does that go both ways?”

  “Yes.”

  “Alright, then. Are we ending this on a peaceful note?”

  The lord stood still for several seconds, causing the team to become anxious at the delay. “For now. I shall attack the others, however.”

  The lord began to turn but was halted by Logan shouting, “Wait! ‘We’ may be ending peacefully, but I won’t let the others have it harder because of that.”

  The lord looked at Logan. “Either I leave to fight the others, or you destroy me.”

  “I won’t be the reason people die!” Logan shouted in his mind as he got into a ready stance with his daggers.

  The lord got back into its piercing stance and lunged at Logan with incredible speed. Before the tip of the greatsword could hit Logan, however, it was blocked by an apparating Amalia with her shield in front of her. The lord was coated in a white netted aura, constricting its movements.

  Logan placed a hand on Amalia’s shoulder and vaulted over her. With both hands in a rotating manner, Logan let loose two Fire Blast 2 salvos.

  Warping too high in what could have been called the sky, Logan dropped close to a hundred daggers from his cloak. Moving both hands, Logan controlled thirty of them with Telekinesis. The blades flew around the lord, many getting deflected with insanely fast sword swipes, others scratching across its armour.

  Entering the fray with a heightened aura, Marcus landed solid blows into the lord’s blade and armour. The loud banging noises of metal and metal failed to leave the plane the trio had found themselves within, but it at least let them know not everything was silent in there.

  Amalia flanked the lord and attempted her swings with her shortsword, though she mostly concentrated on defence against the lord’s counterattacks.

  The team’s attacks on the lord weren’t causing him to falter. With undeath, it lacked any sort of fatigue; its only limiting factors came from the volume of spellforce it held and the durability of its gear.

  Landing far from the melee, Logan darted his four eyes across the plane. Identification didn’t return much of use, the place was mostly barren of ambient spellforce. He couldn’t rely on Spellforce Blast to win this fight, at least not from the environment.

  The lord was so large it didn’t need to worry about two-handing its greatsword, or more aptly, its power meant it could wield something so large as deftly as a dagger. With this power and that of being able to clone himself, the lord placed its other hand on the handle of its weapon and separated from it another shadowy replica. Dual-wielding greatswords, the lord increased its offensive might.

  Marcus went onto the backfoot, trying to defend against double the attacks as before while still trying to get in as many hits as he could. The metal of his current gauntlets began to crack under the pressure.

  “Amalia, take over for a couple seconds!” Marcus asked as he jumped back.

  Amalia roared, bolstering her attack on the lord. It wasn’t as strong as either of her allies, but she just needed to buy time. Sword hit sword, while two hit her shield. The same cracks formed over her gear.

  Marcus ditched his gauntlets on the floor, let his rings fall to the floor with them, and dove his hands into the shared inventory of Logan. Coming out, Marcus had adorned ten new rings and slipped on two more gauntlets. With a flick of his wrist, the two armaments shined yellow as Marcus activated Infuse Blest on them.

  Running back into the fray, Marcus let out his own Fire Blast 2 from his right palm and Lightning Cascade 2 from his left. The imitation of his close friend had spread even into the casting of spells a Devout didn’t have access to. Or, perhaps it was to cover gaps in his spell access. Either way, the roaring elements coated the lord, but it guarded with another dark aura around its body.

  “We need to run out his skill uses”, Logan formulated in his head.

  The light-boosted gauntlets that Marcus now wielded certainly showed more damage on the lord, but its bones seemed to renew themselves, and its armour kept bending back into shape. Some form of regenerative ability to restore its gear, as well as its undeath.

  Logan continued to pelt the undead with his flying daggers but quickly changed into Skystrike versions of Flame 2. They dealt more damage against the resistance of the lord but were fewer in number, meaning it didn’t have to defend against as many projectiles. It was also far more draining on Logan’s resources.

  As Logan pulled back from another flaming cast, he realised something. The lord was seemingly ignoring him. Yes, Marcus and Amalia were an issue, but the spellcasters should normally be the main target if they were an issue. It had also ignored the casters in the boss room before.

  “Something isn’t right”, Logan thought. “Fol, check the skeleton lord’s skills for anything relating to spells cast against it”, Logan commanded in his head.

  “Done”, Fol responded in a second. “Spell Resistance, Tier 3. It grants the lord a chance to ignore spells cast against him. Spell Subjugation, Tier 2. It grants the lord a chance of absorbing spells cast against him and turning them into skill cooldown reduction or spellforce for his spells.”

  “Damnit. What spell level do I need to cast to ignore those?”

  “At least fourth, fifth has a much higher chance.”

  Logan sighed. “I’ve only done this a few times before, and normally aided by the proper items”, he thought to himself as he brought out more of his daggers, vials of liquid, and crystals to the floor.

  Throwing out both hands, fingers spread apart, thumbs touching, and palms aimed at the confrontation ahead of him, Logan began to chant, “Oh, ancient powers. Grant me the strength to fight back the night. Deliver unto me the sacred might. Bone and rotted flesh controlled by string and rope.”

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