[Skell]
Two crimson lights illuminated the cave ahead. Sand-colored bandages layered their wearers from skull to toe, only revealing stray slivers of taut grey flesh, rows of jagged, rotted teeth, and wholly yellow eyes that studied us in a way unlike the husks and skeletons above.
"Mummies…" Penelle uttered to herself. Her tone suggested infamy and danger - not that their red collars weren't telling enough.
The mummies spotted us and split apart, snaking around the stalagmites jutting from the ground, breaking up the cave into stony avenues. As their footsteps and inhuman snarls echoed off the walls, I noticed something was off. Linen bindings coiled tight around their bodies, but thick strips dangled loosely off their wrists, dragging along the floor. I figured them to just be excess bandages.
The rightmost mummy jerked its arm to eye-level. Following suit was the dangling bandage, levitating like it'd grown a mind of its own.
Then it launched at me.
I threw up my staff in startled defense. Somehow the bandage kept flying without uncoiling the mummies' linen and wrapped fast around my staff.
Whew. Just in time, I relaxed. Before a sudden force tugged at my weapon.
I fought back against it, straining to keep the staff within my grip. I was winning. 'Til its other arm's bandages latched onto my staff too. Quickly I found myself being overpowered. I dug heels into the earth, channeled all my strength. Still the mummy pulled me closer one inch at a time.
A flash of steel ripped the wrappings apart, freeing me.
"Skell," Penelle drew back her épée. "I've heard tell of these monsters. Necromancy allows them to manipulate those bandages like extensions of their body. Rumors say they've torn even Knights limb-from-limb."
"Knights?" my eyes widened. "Then there's no room for mistakes here."
In the corner of my gaze, I noticed her fingers fidgeting at the handle of her weapon. "Thinking of running?"
She stood taller, staring down the mummies that slowly crept closer. "We've fled long enough. Victory here will put us on the verge of advancing."
That's right. Two red collars equals six points. That plus three puts our needed ten at the edge of our fingertips. We just gotta grasp 'em.
"Couldn't have said it better myself," I pointed my staff. "Then I've got your back!"
"Likewise!"
The mummies had enough of our presence; their extended wrappings floated around them like malevolent snakes - poised to strike.
Penelle made the first move.
Racing toward them, the fencer made considerable ground. I followed close behind. Our enemies immediately shot bandages at Penelle.
She countered with two words. "Second Intention!"
An off-color copy filled her original position - while the real Penelle sidestepped to avoid the incoming attack.
Nice one, Penelle!
Problem was, her image was just that: an image. Bandages passed through like an arrow through breath as it dissipated. And I stood right behind.
With a split-second to react I ducked aside, avoiding most of the bandages. But one caught my arm, clinging tight. The others retracted like elastic bands. This one, though? I couldn't get it off no matter how hard I tore and pulled.
"Skell!" Penelle called from my left. She sprinted to me. A bandage flew for her leg on the way.
The fencer flipped away from it, landing on a handstand, then her feet, as the mummy that didn't grab me rushed at her. Its wrappings jabbed at Penelle, retracted when they missed, then jabbed again. She evaded the attacks. But they kept her busy.
As for my mummy, its bandages tugged me sideways. Resisting almost seemed to work, 'til its other bandage got ahold of me too. My body rose airborne against its will. Wind rushed past as I swung helplessly through the cave. Then the wrappings let go and I hurtled into a thick stalactite.
Pain stormed through my back as it collided with stone. I hit the ground groaning, but I couldn't stay there. I staggered to my feet.
Nothing felt broken. I could still move.
Thanks, Shroud.
Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough. As I rose, two bandages wrapped cruelly around my neck and yanked me off the ground. This time it didn't throw me. Instead its grip tightened.
While I was being carried closer, Penelle dueled on the other side of the cave. Practiced footwork and agile maneuvers kept her out of harm's reach. But its tireless attacks wouldn't quit coming. On the surface, it was a stalemate. Then I noticed her eyes:
Waiting. Watching…
The mummy sent both bandages at her chest. Time slowed; inches separated them. A hard pivot at the last moment drove Penelle twisting around the attack.
Then striking.
Kicking off with a powerful stomp, the fencer propelled herself forward. The mummy tried to retract its bandages to defend itself. Too slow.
Sweat flew off the fencer's face and into the wind behind her. "Rapid Redoublement!"
Penelle's épée reared back. Then dozens of lightning-fast thrusts impaled the mummy's body. Organs ruptured. Flesh sundered. The creature recoiled violently.
At first.
Partway through the attack a bandage latched onto Penelle's arm, interrupting her assault.
It didn't come from the mummy currently strangling me - or the one Penelle left to fall wounded on the floor. From behind the darkness of a stalagmite slithered a third, unknown mummy: the culprit. As it took steps to approach, its grip on the fencer's arm tightened, lifting her into the air as she squirmed to escape.
"Penelle!" I shouted.
My eyes darted down to my mummy. It waited patiently as I "choked" to death, unaware that it and I were equally deceased. That wouldn't spark any sympathy in me. Not when Penelle's life hung in the balance.
"Hand of Decay!"
Ghoulish green magic ignited in my left hand, snapping to a section of the bandage leading to my throat. They might've been too durable to tear without something sharp, but in the end, there was nothing I couldn't destroy.
Turned to dust, there quickly became nothing to hold me up. I dropped through the air, boots landing directly in front of the mummy.
That was the second-to-last thing it expected. Beaten only by the palm thrust into its face, iron-gripped and brimming with destructive energies. I shoved the mummy to the ground, refusing to let go even as it tossed and writhed. It wasn't long before I felt my hand delving past bulging eyes into flesh, dust and dried viscera.
Part of me winced. Dead or not, flesh decayed and disintegrated beneath my fingers. Just like before. Just like Velora.
"L-let me go!" Penelle dangled in the air, lifted much higher than I'd been, yanking against the wrappings around her wrist.
No!
Thoughts were abandoned. Frenzied emotion pressed deeper into the mummies face. I pulled away my hand, leaving on the ground a dusty, pulpy cavity in the monster's silent skull. Finally, I could start toward Penelle.
Something stopped me short.
A bandaged hand, clutching onto my ankle with the mummies' last grains of unlife.
"Wha-" I turned. "Shade - get off!"
In that very same moment, a scream plummeted behind me.
My body spun back. I was too late.
Too late to stop them from lifting her. Too late to stop her fall. Too late to catch her.
But just in time to hear the snap.
"Penelle!"
The half-slain mummy still kept its grip, bandages crawling circles up my leg. I couldn't reach it with Hand of Decay. So I deactivated the art and raised my staff.
I hammered down, and down, and down and down and down, each strike the hardest I ever delivered - each strike harder than the last. Bones crunched and flesh muddied into mush. But between swings, I couldn't help but glance back.
Creeping closer, the mummy that dropped Penelle snaked bandages to her still body, while the other undead she almost killed started to regenerate. The bandages coiled around her arm, heaving her just off the ground. Blood trickled from the fencer's pink hair to her pointed chin. Her eyes were hazy, swimming between consciousness and darkness. My partner was dying.
I slung down one last gore-damp thud. Three points lit on my bangle. An afterthought.
Kicking off the mummies' arm, I faced the two others. The regenerating one had risen - opposite side of its kin - attaching its own bandages to Penelle's other arm and hanging her between them by the wrists.
They both started to pull. Penelle's limp arms quickly stretched wide, extended as far as they were meant to go. Then they stretched further.
My mind scavenged for a solution in those critical seconds. Attacking one - even if I forced it to release her - would just leave the other free to keep hurting her. That couldn't happen. But then, what could I do? Even if I somehow released her from both mummies, she was in no shape to fight on.
With her last vestiges of awareness, Penelle drifted eyes to her bangle. More specifically: its button.
The fencer did her best to reach for it with her other arm. She didn't even get close. The mummies refused to let her.
…It was then that I realized the right call.
"Shadow Form!" I delved into the cave's darkness. With unrestricted speed I blazed for Penelle.
After closing the gap I leapt from the shadows, my eyes meeting Penelle's. She blinked weakly past rivers of red, barely registering my presence, arms stretched to their breaking point like a tormented doll.
No more!
I sent an airborne thrust at her exposed bangle. It struck the button dead-on.
Like the man Hyland ejected, stark white flashed across Penelle's form, originating from her wrist. Her body faded into transparency. The linen around her arms dropped emptily to the ground, then retracted out of sight.
A rational man would've moved on. Fought on. I didn't. I just stood there.
We were doing so well. Scraped by everything before, close calls, sure, but we forged our way through. Then, just like that…
And I had a hand in it all.
I was too slow. I led her into this fight. Abyss, I kept her here!
Bandages latched around my motionless limbs as my mind refused to quit running. I didn't care.
She saw through me. Realized this role I've been playing… was all to keep myself safe. And it felt like I was beginning to understand her, too. Rely on her, even. That animosity we first had, it almost seemed to fade into-
Pain snatched my mind back to the present as those same rotten monsters constricted my body, coiling further and tighter. My head dropped as bandages wrapped around my mouth. At this rate, they'd crush me.
Again, I didn't care. Not about the points. Or even survival.
I just wanted them dead.
Wrath burned my eyes as they flicked to the mummy on my right - the one who dropped my partner and broke her.
Anger and regret swirled around my mind like a cyclone. Pain, too, poured into the concoction. I let them build. Mix. A growing darkness inside The Dross' own endless black. Bottom of the depths emerged a revelation: why stop at sliding under doors and along buildings? Unlike Selem above, there was no shortage of shadow to exploit. Nothing restricted me anymore. In other words…
I was at my most powerful.
"Shadow Form!" I roared.
Without a body to latch onto, the bandages fell. I was behind the mummy that hurt Penelle before they even touched the floor.
Neck bones snapped at the end of my staff. A sharp noise matched by the pained growl that flew from the monster's uncovered mouth. It spun and lurched away. Rage pushed me to pursue. Its bandages hadn't fully retracted and I wouldn't let it steal back my advantage.
My staff launched directly into the undead's razor-fanged maw - bursting several teeth on the way in. The weapon collided with the back of its throat and I lifted a fist and hammered down. That strike to the staff reverberated explosively at its other end.
Stumbling back in disoriented agony, the creatures' jawbone hung from one side and entirely disconnected from the other. My staff tore through its mouth.
A noise interrupted my payback: the familiar sound of moving wrappings. They didn't come from the one I'd focused on.
They came from the other mummy at my left. They caught my wrist and ankle. They tried to lift me. They failed.
"Shadow Form!"
Abyss! Gotta cripple one if I wanna finish off the other!
Zipping across the rocky floor, I reentered the physical world in front of the mummy and cracked it across the face. A yellowed eye popped out and whished into the darkness as it fell backward. Along its wrapped body, Penelle's bloody punctures still hadn't fully healed. Combined with my strike, the damage would disable it for long enough.
I became shadow again and headed for the other side of the cave. The mummy who caused Penelle the most pain had started regenerating there. When I materialized in front of it, my first move was to fix that.
Teeth flew as I knocked it backwards into a nearby stalagmite. Wrappings curved through the air to snare me. They came from high and low - their inconsistently spiraling pattern making evasion a challenging prospect.
I didn't even bother.
"Shadow Form!"
Reforming at the mummies' side, I whipped at its temple. Black blood spurted like a geyser of tar as it crashed against the stalagmite a second time.
Gazing upon the mindless undead, I felt my rage flaring. Killing this monster would quell my anger and regret.
It needed to.
Wrists. Knees. Eyes. Hatred fueled every blow of the merciless pummeling, and each further crippled the creature. Yet as its injuries piled up, my pain intensified.
How long did the violence continue? How long had I struggled to beat the guilt into submission? Long enough that I was striking gore-stained stone before I noticed nine pips fly by my eyes.
Ruptured grey organs. Pulpy flesh shed like snakeskin. Black blood splattered everywhere. What a bludgeoned mess I'd made. I never knew my fingers could paint a scene so brutal, whether the subject was alive or undead.
No. Need to move on. Put the other one down.
Circling the stalagmite, I locked eyes with the last remaining mummy. It was already getting close - mostly healed.
Without warning I charged at at the creature. Predictably it attacked with bandages. They soared at me; my mind defaulted to the words that'd steal me victory.
"Shadow Form!" I incanted.
My body sank. For a half-second. In the next I was running again.
The bandages didn't give me a chance to wonder. They were around my stomach and then I was off the ground.
"Wh-what!?" the question spilled from my mouth before I could even think. "Shadow Form!" I tried again.
But nothing happened.
Noticing my own slipping composure, I evened my voice and repeated the incantation. Once. Three times. Five. No dice.
I was several feet high now. This situation became gravely familiar.
It keeps sounding wrong - is it my pronunciation? I've been saying it the same way since the start! No stutters, slurring - nothing!
…Wait.
I clutched the part of the bandage holding me up. "Hand of Decay!"
Again it didn't work. An icy horror dawned on me. The problem was simple:
I was completely tapped out of mana.
In the moment, I was so furious I didn't even consider keeping track of it. But the math made perfect sense. And with my mana effectively empty, I could feel my Shroud petering out, nothing left to fuel its power. My body rapidly weakened, returning me to the physicality of a regular skeleton. Meaning this fall wouldn't just hurt. When I hit the ground… I'd die.
There was only one route to survival: my button.
With that thought came instant aversion. I decided a long time back that I'd face anything - even certain death - if it meant I could live again. But reason countered: there was always next year. A time I'd never see if I died today.
A torturous year as a numb corpse that had to pretend to be like everyone else. Oliver would be gone. Amara would likely give up on me. Karthwyn might even find a way to bar me from ever applying again. A lonely, hopeless year.
My finger hovered hesitantly over the button as I hovered at dizzying heights. The decision wouldn't wait for me.
I felt the wrappings loosen. Then-
"Pyro Lance!"
A fiery yellow illuminated the cave, same in color as the flaming lance that singed through the bandage connecting me to the mummy. Nothing held me up. I fell. Wind rushed by as I fell back-first. In my shock, I didn't even think about the button.
My entire body jolted suddenly. I hadn't hit the ground - I could tell because I was still conscious. And because I was still mid-air. And… because warm arms held me close.
I looked up at a colorful visage of fire-orange hair and eyes that regarded mine with playful intrigue.
"Havin' a rough go of it?" Soleil grinned.