The city of Meridia, once a glorified utopia for travelers, tourists, and the rich, now just servral hours through the night it lays as a dystopian ruin actively ravaged by the turmoil within it.
Skull minions cleaved through squads of soldiers and rammed into mage towers. Wisps weakened and confused the defenders, allowing thralls to tear into flesh and devour what remained, along with thralls horses adding to the chaos by tearing into soilders. All the while, bone walkers fueled the assault as the main force, hacking and slashing at any enemy within reach.
Spells exploded through the air while dust clouds erupted across the city, screams echoing from every quarter.
Then...
A large cloud of dust and debris exploded outward.
Skull Lord zipped out of it, bounding from place to place across the city, leaving crumbled ground in his wake.
Five lite aunt solders ran after him—three mages dashing toward him in short bursts of wind, one older, the other two younger, and two fighters keeping pace behind them. One was a orc who wielded a large diamond-shaped mallet with runes glowing on its face, the other was a elf who wields a sword with a single long rune wrapped around his blade.
The moment Skull Lord landed, he casually ripped a large building from its stone foundation and hurled it one-handed toward the squad.
The fighter with the mallet shouted, "I got this one!" He leaped up to meet it, teeth gritted as the runes on his mallet pulsated blue.
He swung hard. On impact, he roared, "Shock!"
Mana rippled through the building, making it collapse inward from the blow before imploding outward in a spray of rubble.
"Everyone advance now!" the older mage commanded from below.
Skull Lord already had another large building hoisted on his shoulder, arm cocked and ready.
Before he could throw it, the older mage thrust both hands forward, sending a widening wave of mana toward Skull Lord's arms. The force made his grip waver for a second, the two younger mages began charging a spell in front of the older mage.
The two fighters rushed in, ready.
Skull Lord tried to create space and regain his grip by leaping into the sky.
"No you don't!" the sword fighter shouted, plunging his rune-covered blade into the ground. Spectral chains in the shape of his rune erupted from the earth, snaking around Skull Lord's skeletal ankles and yanking him back down.
Skull Lord kept his grip on the building as he slammed flat onto the ground.
He immediately rose again like nothing had happened, but suddenly—
"Fireball!" the two younger mages shouted in unison. A massive fireball, charged and fired together, hurtled toward him.
Skull Lord jutted out all six of his arms, grabbing each side of the fireball and stopping it as they clashed.
Everyone stared in disbelief—not only had he stopped the fireball in its tracks, but he whirled it around and sent it hurtling back toward them.
"EVERYONE GET OUT OF THE WAY!" the sword fighter screamed, looking behind him.
Everyone managed to dive to the side, narrowly escaping—except the two younger mages, exhausted from their attack. The fireball flew through them, leaving only ash sculptures of their bodies.
Then it zipped to the other side of the city, erupting in a giant fiery explosion.
Skull Lord widened his stance and screeched. The sound filled the entire city.
All of them had to cover their ears against the deafening screech. As he returned to his normal stance—hunched over, black smoke curling off all six of his hands—
Skull Lord's middle head peered down at the sword fighter, its blue eyes fixed on him as he stood stunned at the sight of his burned comrades.
He lifted both of his main arms, balling them into fists in the air.
The mallet fighter on ground, looked around—he saw the old mage stunned and breathing heavily, then looked over at the sword fighter and saw the skeletals giant readying its attack.
"Malcom!" he shouted.
He jumped on his feet and ran over as quickly as possible.
The sword fighter—Malcom—turned around.
The mallet fighter pulled him out of the way, switched places with him, in that same motion drawing his weapon and intercepting with his mallet as Skull Lord's skeletal fists descended, slamming down.
He shouted, "Absorb!" A pulse of mana travelled from the mallet.
"Shockwave!" But the mallet began to crack instead.
Dammit, the amount of force that giant produced was too much for the rune to give back—it's cracking! The mallet fighter's thoughts raced.
Under the pressure of his mallet fracturing, he shouted, "Expel!" The mana depressed out of the mallet, hitting and breaking the ground beneath them.
This ruptured the earth, causing it to lift and tilt in different directions. Skull Lord stumbled slightly.
In that moment, the older mage pulled the mallet fighter back with telekinesis. As Malcom caught him, the older mage immediately yelled, "LET'S RUN!"—already leaving them behind slightly.
Malcom helped the mallet fighter up. "Damn mage. I knew he was as scummy as our Warden," the mallet fighter gritted through his teeth.
They both started running.
"You call him scummy, I call him decent," Malcom said.
The mallet fighter orc like features tensed while looking at him as he titled his head.
"I mean, come on, Brock—he saved you, didn't he?"Malcom continues lightly smiling
Brock looked forward his features relaxing, at the mage running ahead. "Yeah... maybe... maybe he's not all bad."
They ran, eventually catching up with the mage.
Malcom shouted, "Where are we going?!"
"No clue, but first we must put some distance between ourselves and that thing."
Both fighters nodded in response, focusing on running. But then...
Skull Lord punched the ground, breaking it and causing a thunderous dust cloud to explode outward.
The old mage looked back.
As Skull lord ripped his hand out of the ground, sending pebbles and stones hurtling at them.
Seeing them coming, the mage cast a thin mana barrier around everyone.
"Don't worry about those—just keep running!"
Both nodded with confidence. Malcom looked at Brock. They both gave each other a smile of approval.
New confidence surged through them.
Then it went quiet for a second...
The two fighters didn't realize it, but the older mage looked back again, curious why it had gone silent and as he looked, his face slowly grew terrified.
"BACK! LOOK! NOWWW!" he shouted in surprise
Everyone turned around mid-run, weapons ready—but Skull Lord was already there in front of them, lunging for an attack. Malcom jumped in, sword raised, and the older mage sent a fireball toward Skull Lord, both steeling themselves against the threat, while brock was still trying to figure out what to do.
He was the closest as Skull Lord's middle maw opened wide Infront of him.
Simultaneously, Skull Lord's right head looked at Malcom. His left looked at the older mage.
Skull Lord's shoulder claw arm slashed through Malcom's barrier and cut him in three stripes. Skull Lord's secondary hand smacked the fireball away—it exploded somewhere else in the city. Then Skull Lord's main arm wrapped around the mage, crushing his barrier allowing Skull Lord to close his fist fully causing blood splattered everywhere like popping a sauce packet in your hand.
Brock heard it all happen around him. His eyes stayed hopelessly traced on Skull Lord's gaping skeletal maw closing on his body.
Skull Lord chomped down on the warrior's torso, leaving his bottom half on the ground. As he stood up, blood painted one of his palms, one of his claws, and his entire mouth.
He stood tall—his twenty-foot necrotically reinforced body towering over the wreckage—as the second half of Brock's body fell from his throat all the way out of his sacrum.
Alana, overseeing from a distance, thought, Skeleton poop.
A chain rustled.
Skull Lord started walking through the city, his form shrouded in purple necrotic mist, his eyes blazing piercing blue to those on the battlefield below. His presence drained their morale—they could only see the bottom half of his body while the top half was silhouetted, his six eyes blazing blue. If you met his gaze, you would be smashed in the bat of an eye.
Until a large black iron ball of spikes came at him from the right. His right skull turned toward it, sticking his arm out and stopping the spiky ball in his palm.
All the soldiers who saw this from below shouted in celebration.
"The Head Captain!"
"He's here, finally!"
"THE MORNING STAR OF MERIDIA...!"
"GUNG!"
"Gung! Head Captain! He's here!"
Skull Lord's other heads peered in the same direction.
The chains rustled again. The large spiked ball jutted downward, pulling Skull Lord down with it. The chains rustled again—bouncing off the ground, it struck at Skull Lord. He tried to block, but instead it forced his block away. The chain rustled again, this time swung around the city and hurled back at Skull Lord—but he dodged. It whirled back again, trying to slam down, but he dodged. Then, as the chain slammed into the ground, it rustled and diverted to side-swipe Skull Lord off his feet. Rustling the chain again, it hit him directly in the ribs, sending Skull Lord flying back into a square and crashing into a tall golden structure of the Shallow Warden.
Skull Lord landed at the bottom of the structure, destroying the bottom layer as it started to fall on top of him. His shoulder arm caught it.
Then, as he rose with a good swing, he flung it at Gung.
He crouched, then lunged—disappearing and leaving the ground cracked behind him.
Gung now appeared fully. He was a bald orc who stood nine feet tall, his form big, green, and massively stomach but he remained muscly with no Armor, showing the many scars and chest hair across his body. He also bore a battle-hardened smirk on his face.
His chain was thick and large—the same width as his big body. It was wrapped around his waist, stomach, and shoulder. There were two halves to his chain: the top half stemmed from the shoulder chain and ended in his spiked ball, which he was currently reeling back in. The bottom half hung from his waist and stomach—just a plain chain that extended longer than the spiked ball's chain.
He stretched his neck while pulling back his spiked ball. "Blasted monster, dare wake me up from my slumber? I will make it pay big time!" he said, grinding his teeth in irritation.
Something glinted in the distance. Gung immediately caught it.
"Tricks, eh? You'll need more than that!"
He flung the bottom side of his chain—it wrapped around the structure.
Then Gung swung it around and flung it back at Skull Lord.
But Skull Lord was already there, appearing in front of the structure and punching it. The impact squished it as if bending clay, sending it clanging off into a large group of soldiers and his own walkers.
The chains rustled as the spiked ball came at Skull Lord from the side, but he blocked with his secondary arm and shoulder arm, gripping it tight as he ran. The impact lodged the spikes through his reinforcement and into his palms.
Unbothered, Skull Lord continued charging.
"Get over here!" Gung shouted.
As the chains rustled, Skull Lord was pulled into the sky against his will.
The chains rustled again—he was slammed down through a big clock tower, crushing it.
Gung jumped back from the explosion of dust and debris.
He flipped his spiked ball behind him, leaving it there, and pulled the top half of its chain to rest on his shoulder.
As he spoke: "Boss man won't be happy about his statue at all... and I'll be the one blamed." He sighed briefly, shaking his head.
A smirk formed as the rubble started to be moved aside and Skull Lord emerged, unaffected.
"Well, at least I get treated to a fight I never would've thought to encounter in Viscura of all places! Haha!... Let's test how rusty I've gotten!"
Skull Lord's eyes burned blue. His three large maws sat open as cloud streams of dust and debris protruded from them.
They stared at each other for a moment
Until Gung whirled his chain toward Skull Lord, trying to bind his arms—but Skull Lord disappeared and reappeared in front of Gung, about to strike.
"Aha, nice try!"
Gung's spiked ball slammed onto Skull Lord's head, cracking the ground beneath them. But Skull Lord kept up, his eyes still glowing. Using his secondary arm, he went for a quick jab to Gung's face, sending him flying back, blood coming from his nose and face—but thin yellow mana flowed around his body.
"Heh, you pack a punch! Take this!"
Gung's chains whirled around, trying to encase Skull Lord's ankles, but Skull Lord blitzed past them, appearing behind Gung and readying a strike. Gung whirled his chain around at Skull Lord, but he disappeared again, appearing behind him. Gung slammed his spiked ball down—but Skull Lord had already disappeared again.
"Why are you so darn fast?!"
Skull Lord continued to blitz Gung as Gung swung both sides of his chain, whirling them around and destroying buildings and structures alike. Even the ground beneath them was scarring from the force of Gung's missed strikes.
Skull Lord appeared to the right of him and lunged, but Gung saw it coming.
"HA!" he chuffed, swinging the chain—but Skull Lord clawed it away with his shoulder arm and continued his lunge. Gung readjusted his hands on the chain, then diverted it, whipping Skull Lord in the ribs and throwing him off balance. Then Gung started to swing his spiked ball. He jutted and redirected the chain again with one hand, smacking Skull Lord's middle skull and knocking him back a step.
"GET READY FOR THIS! HAHA!" Gung roared.
He gripped the spiked ball's chain with both arms and swung it at Skull Lord with all his force.
Skull Lord's side skulls' eyes burned. He went for a block with all six arms.
The impact knocked his block away. Then Gung spun sideways mid-air again.
"READY FOR THE SECOND SWING?!"
He swung again—but this time, with momentum, he let it go toward Skull Lord's sternum.
The spiked ball hit it, the force cracking his ribs while pushing Skull Lord far into the city. He crashed through multiple structures with only one foot keeping him connected to the ground as he skidded through the city.
"That'll do... now to make sure the chaos fiend stays down," he said while landing on a building.
As Gung landed on a big building, he swung the spiked ball skyward and away from Skull Lord, who finally caught himself after skidding a little bit more. Skull Lord stood there with both feet on the ground, hunched over, his skulls facing down.
Gung immediately unwrapped some of the chain from his shoulder and arms to give both sides more length. Then he threw the bottom side chain toward Skull Lord, trying to encase him—but Skull Lord put all his arms out, holding the chains from binding him completely.
"You may have resisted my chains from binding you completely, but you're still bound all the same! Ahaha!!!" He laughed for a moment before feeling a tug on the chain from Skull Lord.
He then pulled the chain, making Skull Lord fall flat on his face, still struggling.
Using both hands, he grabbed the spiked ball part of the chain.
"HERE GOES THE BIG ONE!"
A green rune lit up on the chain, traveling all the way to one big rune that spread across the spiked ball.
Then the spiked ball grew to an enormous size, its shadow spanning half the city.
He swung it down with all his might.
Skull Lord stayed persistent, trying to break the chains.
"Skull Lord, watch out!" Alana's voice rang in his head as she finally entered the battle.
Skull Lord's middle skull looked up while the others looked at the chains, trying to break them while still on the ground.
The spiked ball got closer.
Alana observed the full scene. "Need to buy him some time!"
She looked at the rune on the chain and flew into it.
Purple sparks travelled to Gung's hands, lightly zapping them.
He flinched, taking his hands off the chain. "Ahh!"
This allowed time for Skull Lord to completely break out of the chains as the spiked ball got closer.
Gung grabbed it again. "Take that!"
It hit him, smashing Skull Lord deep into the ground, his whole body now covered.
The very force caused a large wind of dust and debris to wash over the whole city.
"Hehe, how did you like that? I call it the Evening Star!"
One pair of blazing blue eyes shone through the night—blue-ish in color with white in the middle.
"It can't be?!"
A rumbling roar came from beneath.
The spiked ball slowly began rising. Skull Lord's shoulder arms and secondary arms held the spiked ball while his main arms pushed off the ground along with his feet.
Bone pieces slowly crumbled off him.
As he lifted it all up—
Alana's eyes focused on the rune across it. She yelled to Skull Lord, "Strike it with all your force, Skull Lord!"
He listened, his main arms striking the spiked ball and cracking its surface. But he wasn't finished—the impact pushed Skull Lord's hands deep into the black iron spiked ball.
Gung looked shocked. "What? No one has ever survived this!"
Skull Lord roared loudly and leaped high into the sky, higher than the spiked ball.
Gung looked up as Skull Lord went high, stunned—not realizing the chain was still wrapped around him.
"NO!" he yelled as he soared up near Skull Lord's form, holding the spiked ball above him.
In the sky, he looked at his chain.
"WAIT, I CAN FIX THIS!"
He grabbed the chain. The rune lit up again, traveling to the black iron spiked ball. But as it reached it, the rune only lit up half of it, stopping at Skull Lord's hands, which were embedded inside.
"How did he know how to disrupt a rune?"
Alana's form beside Skull Lord smirked evilly as she shouted, "Go, Skull Lord! Now!!"
Skull Lord roared, pulling both his hands out. He stretched back, gripping it with only his main arms, and threw it with all his might straight at Gung.
Gung looked down as the spiked ball headed toward him, the top crumbling slightly.
"I won't survive that fall..." He gritted his teeth.
Gung looks up embracing it a light smile on his face.
"Well, it's always been victory or death for me... but who would've thought it would be to my own beloved Star?"
The black iron spiked ball hit him, crushing him. As they hit the ground, another large gust of dust and debris exploded outward. The long chain fell to the ground too.
Then Skull Lord landed.
Both of his side skulls were crushed again.
His skeletal body was cracked in many places from the fight. He took a moment to look at the crumbled black iron spiked ball.
The city itself had gone quiet too.
"Well done, Skull Lord. You have definitely improved."
She commended him, rubbing his skull. But Skull Lord remained looking at the bottom of the spiked ball.
"Skull Lord, he should be completely dead now. Let's get a move on. Come on."
Skull Lord left as they headed to the square.
They saw a magic circle in the middle of the square and undead bringing bodies and stacking them.
"Wait, what? Is Zero here already?"
Alana looked at the magic circle, confused.
As she inspected the magic circle and the surroundings, a voice spoke from behind her.
"Well done, Skull Lord. I saw the last bit of your fight—you did great."
Alana turned around, surprised.
Skull Lord was kneeling, his head bent all the way down in front of Zero, who had a light smile on his face as he restored Skull Lord while rubbing his head.
"Oh, Zero..."
She looked to the side of him. A dead warrior lay there with one big wound in his abdomen.
Who is... oh, it must be the check-in. Wait... Her thoughts bubbled.
"Where did you find the check-in?... I couldn't find him anywhere..." she spoke aloud.
Zero replied softly, "I was walking by and saw him bleeding out in a destroyed arena while leaning against a pile of thralls and bone walkers."
He turned around after restoring Skull Lord.
"Get what you desire."
Skull Lord left quickly.
Alana looked at Skull Lord's missing heads. "Ha, did you just realize that he's stronger without those skulls?"
Zero replied again, "No, I always had a theory that he would be stronger when all three of his souls were combined."
"Then why didn't you do it the first time?"
"Because he looked cooler with three heads, obviously!"
Alana looked uninterested.
Really? You have to be joking? she thought.
Zero now looked at the body with a face full of disappointment. "Thought his soul was strong enough for absorption, but he was just another weak one. Barely gave me any mana... It's pathetic, honestly."
Alana was still thinking.
I don't think he's joking.
She facepalmed, shaking her head.
Zero sneezed, then kicked the body, changing the topic. "Shadow cloak has its benefits, but it definitely doesn't keep you warm."
"Oh yeah? What happened to your old cloak?"
Zero glanced at her, then walked past and started drawing a magic circle.
"Zero?" Alana pressed.
"Just fought someone."
"Who?"
"I'll leave that where it is."
Alana looked confused for a second.
As Zero finished the circle, he opened his mouth to speak—
"No need to say it. I know what to do," Alana cut in confidently.
Zero looked away. "Alright then. Bye."
Alana looked at Zero's face—his eyes slightly weary and detached—as he teleported away.
"Mmmm, what was that about?"
He looked pretty exhausted too...
Skull Lord appeared behind her with the chain tied around his shoulder.
She looked back at him. "What do you think, Skull Lord?"
He shrugged.
She then saw the chains he had hooked on his shoulder. "Ohhh, they could be useful. Nice catch, Skull Lord."
She inspected them.
Alana chatted through the night.