Ash
This whole thing felt strange to her. It had, from the moment they reached the other side of the shore, she knew her dad probably felt the same, but it was still unnerving to feel like something was watching everything you did. It had been a lot weaker when they were inside the house, but that was the only time.
The fact that these people had been out here alone, fighting for their lives desperately, had almost made her cry. It hit at something she did her best not to think about, and that was just what was happening to everyone who didn't have someone like her dad to protect them. The same thoughts worried her about her mom and her brother, even if her dad had assured her they were okay.
She hated what this world had become. She hated the fact that she was only alive because it had become this. It was a rage she wasn't sure she'd ever come to terms with. At least this new world had been kind enough to give her literal monsters to fight, to release some of that built-up pressure.
“What up?” Ash asked, looking towards Ralph as she followed Floof to the other side of the house. She didn't like leaving her dad alone with Noah, but she also wasn't going to question his orders, at least in the middle of a fight.
Before Ralph could answer, Ash realized how pointless her question had been. A loud growl from Floof drew attention to the dozens of forms marching through the woods towards the house. Given their strange form, she now understood just what her father had meant by strange goat-like skeletons.
“Be careful. There's something directing them, hidden out there. Can't quite tell where it is, though.” Ralph said, scratching his beard, his eyes narrowing as he scanned the woods. There had been no fear in his words, just a sense of confusion.
“Floof wreck all the little guys. I'm gonna see if I can draw anything out,” Ash instructed.
She swapped her aspect to the Minor Acid Slug, with a plan to blast several lines of acid into the woods. There was the strong possibility she found no target, but she was hoping to at least rattle whatever was out there watching them. It was only fair considering what it was doing to them.
***
Adam
“Why aren't they fighting back?” Noah called, one of the skeletal bears collapsing under his attack.
“I don't know.” That answer annoyed me far more than I was willing to admit. I should have understood what was going on out here. There was something in the back of my head tugging at something that I could only half remember. That was one of the problems with a long life. There were so many memories that some just struggled to come to the top when they were needed.
Three more fell before me as the image finally broke to the front of my mind. I had fought something like this before. The reason they weren't attacking was that they weren't true undead. This was the work of a Bone Caster.
“Noah, stop attacking them. Don't touch a single skeleton unless it moves,” I ordered him, taking several steps back toward the house to reassess just what was going on.
The feeling of something watching me intensified. A scowl crossed my face as I second-guessed the Bone Caster theory, but no, that fit too well. It had to be one of them, absorbing all the energy of our attacks back into their own Manafire and using it to fuel bigger spells.
It was just something else as well. The feeling of being watched didn't fit with the Bone Caster. Neither did the giant red skeleton that I had seen so many times lurking by the river. There was something out here working with the Bone Caster, or, probably more accurately to say, the Bone Caster was working for them. A true necromancer, perhaps. It would explain a lot of the mana types.
“I'm tired of this game! How about you just show yourself so we can get this over with already!” I yelled into the forest. The only response was the sound of battle from the other side of the house.
“Fine, then we're leaving!” I continued, but before I could make my claim true, all of the bones began to swirl into the air, as though in a tornado.
“Adam?” Noah said nervously.
“They're just trying to scare us, Noah. It's nothing to be worried about,” I replied, finally putting most of this together in my head.
It wasn't just the energy of our attacks that was backfeeding into them. They were absorbing fire more than that. It was the real reason that the monster kept appearing near the shoreline, and it was the exact same reason that everyone inside that house was still alive.
Something out here was feeding on fear.
The fact that it was powerful enough to get any sort of sustenance from the neighborhood all the way across the river was mildly disconcerting. I'd only ever faced a few creatures that could rival that level of empathetic range. And that did actually worry me, sadly, for whatever it was watching us, though, it did little to scare me. There wasn't much that could do that anymore.
As the ripping wind finished its transfiguration, before us stood something I could only describe as a Bone Titan. Unlike the motionless bears, this one had a spark of un-life in its eyes. It was oozing with necromantic mana.
It charged forward as it raised its giant arm, preparing to swing it like a club. I had just seconds to stop it before it destroyed the entire house. Even if I knew we were fighting out here now, I still did not want to risk transporting those people through the night. Things would only get worse when the sun finished setting.
“Noah, tell Ralph that there's a Bone Caster and something out here that feeds on fear, and then I want you to help Tom inside!” I screamed as my sword clashed against the thing's arm, chopping deeply into the bone and knocking it backward off course.
“Got it,” I heard Noah yell back as I dodged around the creature's other arm. Large skeletal fingers brushed against my back as I only just managed to avoid its grip.
If a damn Bone Caster was working with an actual Necromancer, that made this all the more annoying. Normally, when an undead creature like a skeleton is destroyed, most necromantic magic requires the person to properly arrange the bones before they can again raise the creature back and place it under their control. With a Bone Caster in play, it could just as easily find the proper ritualistic layout for them, which is just what that damned tornado had actually been doing.
It was possible this was still just a single powerful person out there controlling everything, but that was much less likely than there being two or three or even more. Having more than one class was a rarity and, as far as I knew, a damn near impossibility for anyone below level five hundred. But as I was quickly learning, there was a lot I didn't actually know. It was possible I was wrong.
The big question, though, at this exact moment was, how did I put down an undead creature for good with all of these forces in play? The obvious answer was destroying the bones beyond the ability to be used, but I didn't have the power to do that just yet. If I just had access to some of the elemental orbs in the higher levels of the sword, this would be child's play.
I slammed my shoulder into the thing's left knee, feeling its balance shift as it tried to compensate. I spun and forcefully swung the sword into the opposite knee. With all of its massive weight resting on that singular joint, the one my sword had just dug deeply into, the skeleton crashed back to the ground, bones exploding in every direction.
Wasting no time, I leaped onto its chest and brought the sword down repeatedly onto its skull. It was the center of where most of the necromantic magic had been housed, so destroying that would at least buy me some time. As it cracked and finally shattered under my onslaught, the noises in the deep woods dramatically increased.
The feeling of something watching me shifted. No longer was it an idle gaze. Instead, it felt angry for the first time. That answered another question. Whatever emotional control ability it had went both ways. The annoying feeling of being watched was exactly how it was taking in our fear.
The only reason it could possibly be angry, though, was that I had done something that was hard to undo. I'd thought this skull was unique, and in pulverizing it like this, there was no realistic way they could reuse it. So that meant there was a way to put these things down for good.
Making a dash for the other side of the building, I called my daughter. “Ash, destroy their skulls. It's the only way to keep them down.”
“Somehow, Floof already figured that out!” She called back.
***
Floof
The scent of corruption had permeated this forest. Floof had known this from the moment they had stepped out of the boat. He had already detected the scent many days ago when he patrolled near the river, but he couldn't be entirely sure where it originated before now. But now he knew these foul corruptions of the natural order were the source.
How I knew there were corruptions against nature, he didn't fully understand. But that thought had dug deep into his brain that these were things that should not exist. The fact that they were here, plaguing his family, those he had sworn to defend, proved that feeling correct.
More so, Floof was angry that these monsters would dare attack innocent citizens of the kingdom. Even if they hadn't known this house was out here, these were still people who deserved protection. And now that the king had declared this part of the Neighborhood, Floof would make sure these monsters understood what that meant.
As he tore into the first one, bones scattering to the wind, he again knew something that he wasn't sure why. The energies within these things originated in the skulls and spread from there. Floof knew about brains and how most creatures died if you destroyed their brains, so this made some sense to the large dog. Even if so much of the world was still strange, he did understand the concept of hunting.
Grabbing the thing's skull in his jaw, he bit down hard. While he had chewed on bones in the past, he had never tried to just bite through one in a single go, and this was no easy feat, but he was a knight in the kingdom and unwilling to give up. Forcing his jaw muscle all the harder, Floof felt the bone give way under his teeth. One crack turned into many as it fell away, destroyed.
Somewhere behind him, the King called out to do exactly as he had just done. The Princess laughed. Floof wasn't entirely sure why it was funny, but humor was a concept still far beyond him.
But there was one thing he did understand above all. There were monsters in these woods. He knew how to kill monsters. And that was just what the king had asked him to do. Floof spun back towards the remaining undead creatures and let loose the loudest howl that had ever escaped his mouth.
The sound transformed into a wall of force as it crashed into them. Each monster hit by the devastating impact had its bones crushed to powder. Floof stood his ground and did it again.
It was time for the undead beasts of this forest to truly know that Sir Floofington, First of his Line, sworn knight of the Miller Dynasty, dedicated defender of the Neighborhood, was here, and he was not afraid.