Misadventures Incorporated

Chapter 389 - The Frozen Flame II

Claire was the first to move. Tightening her grip on Boris’ tail, she kicked off the ground and flew across the ring. There was a flash of silver. Her hair, her scales, her weapon’s frame. They blurred together into a single projectile that closed the gap in the blink of an eye. She was so fast that she shook the volcano. A roar echoed through its halls, running up the side of the tunnel before filling the shuttered, skyward dome.

And yet, the skeleton parried.

It caught the headlong rush with a sweep of the blade, a perfect deflection that threw her weapon aside while it shifted into a second strike. The follow up was performed with equal precision. Its fiery muscles were not just for show. They performed all the right motions, guiding the undead’s bones to deliver a textbook attack that was nearly impossible to avoid.

Claire was capable of none of its textbook precision, but she twisted out of its path by magically reversing her momentum. Another slash followed without delay; it was a horizontal swing meant to catch her mid-recovery, but continuing to ignore the laws of physics, she shifted her arm in the opposite direction without a moment’s notice.

There was a metal ring as Boris’ spines stopped the undead’s blade. Again, she was able to deny the initial attack. And again, it trumped her in a contest of strength. Claire was thrown a full ten meters back and made to defend as it closed the distance.

She moved her body just enough to evade both the overhead smash and the quick front kick that followed, but she failed to anticipate the accompanying punch. The bony fist crashed into her ribs, and with a twist of the wrist, sent her flying again.

The skeleton gave chase again, but it was more of a confident walk than a hasty rush. It plodded towards her destination, its steps as practiced and graceful as its swordplay. In life—though it probably never had one, given that it was a dungeon monster—it was likely some sort of knight, perhaps even a member of some elite force or other.

It didn’t seem the slightest bit surprised when Claire suddenly stopped in midair. It simply raised its weapon and stared, even though she was upside-down and sideways.

She charged it again from the seemingly awkward position, but the knight was just as ready as it looked. It smacked her hand away when she reached for its wrist and denied her thrust by parrying her with the hilt of its blade.

For a moment, it looked like the knight had finally shown an opening—it didn’t push her weapon far enough away to prevent another attack, and its own weapon was still displaced—but it denied her the opportunity and continued its offensive with a quick shoulder bash. 

Claire tried to lift Boris to intercept the bare-boned strike, only to find the lizard-shaped mace stuck in its previous position.

The skeletal knight had hooked her weapon in place with its greatsword’s guard.

A fist flew towards her face as soon as her eyes drifted, but she danced just out of his range and smacked its wrist with her tail. It was hardly the most telling blow, but she was satisfied enough. The clear disparity in their technical skill made it a decent accomplishment, and the rapid exchange had more than warmed up her body.

Claire seized the skeleton with her vectors and lobbed it into the air. Chasing after it, she gave Boris a twist and caught the undead with its stance completely broken. She magically grabbed its weapon as well when it prepared to parry her attack and dragged Boris across its open chest.

The lizard was clearly in position to bite into the monster’s ribcage. She transformed his face into a blade and extended his length to bolster the weight of her strike. And yet, the knight emerged unscathed. A hand crafted of ash and smoke extended from the skeleton’s chest and caught Boris before he could land on target. She shrunk the lizard down, narrowing his width to that of a needle, but even then, she was unable to break him free. The incorporeal hand maintained a perfect grip on his body regardless.

The skeleton’s brute strength far outclassed her own; she struggled to move its ashen fingers even with her vectors at full force. Its weapon closed in. She had no choice but to release the lizard to roll past the incoming slash. And yet, he was back in her hands by the time she twisted her dodge into a spinning blow. The skeleton couldn’t have possibly foreseen the ridiculous attack, but again, it was outright denied.

Guiding her movements with another set of vectors, and briefly locking the skeleton in place with the very same ability, Claire smashed a foot into the greatsword’s guard and drove an axe towards her opponent’s giant, froggy face. By all means, it should have landed on target, but a sudden pain shot through the side of her body as she was displaced again. It wasn’t the ashborn fist that had caught her. She had accounted for its motion and twisted out of the way. Nay, it was the very sword that she had stomped out of the skeleton’s hands just a moment prior.

She nearly clicked her tongue as she stopped herself short of cratering the wall. The skeleton’s stance revealed the reason for her failure. It was gripping its weapon by the blade. And in her prior position was its bloody hilt.

Part of her stomach had been gouged away, even though she had only been struck by the bluntest part of the weapon.

Gnawing on her lips, she approached the skeleton again and slammed Boris down towards its head. The overhead smash was nearly met with a parry, but she suddenly changed her weapon’s trajectory and transformed the smash into a sideways slash.

Her foe shifted his blade in time with her movements and nearly caught the second attack as well, but a new set of erratic movements threw it completely off base. Boris danced through the air, twisting, turning, shrinking, and growing before suddenly assuming the part of a bladed whip. He dodged the ashen hand with ease and struck the skeleton in the back of the neck.

His shape changed again as soon as the attack landed on target. Suddenly losing his length and becoming a shortsword at his point of origin, he evaded the skeleton’s hilt and found the bottom of its chin.

Both hits only left chips in the bone. But damage was damage. And as evident from the way its empty sockets suddenly began to glow, any amount was enough to annoy it.

It drove a foot into the ground with enough force to leave a crater. Using said leg as a fulcrum, the knight spun his body around and delivered a quick, heavy blow—a blow that Claire evaded in advance by escaping the range of its sword.

It was that exchange that confirmed her suspicions. The longer she fought it, the more obvious it became. The skeleton was fighting with a traditional, orthodox style. And though she couldn’t read its body language—it had no eyes to follow, and the flames that served as its muscles were difficult to interpret—she simply didn’t need to. Attempting to read it was a mistake. It was simply a machine that turned the most obvious inputs into the most obvious outputs.

A sigh escaped her lips as she threw up her guard. She made it in time even though it had tripled its speed, and she angled Boris just perfectly enough to ward off the strike in spite of its similarly tripled strength. The sparks that accompanied the encounter nearly masked the punch that followed, but she avoided even that. Reading its moves was simple as soon as she dismissed its capacity for thought. The feeling of seeing her predictions play out was like a runner’s high, and it was only bolstered as she slid beneath the greatsword’s hilt.

She closed her eyes to evade the next two attacks. Neither the monster’s sweeping blade nor its flying knee were able to touch her. She even twirled past its ashen fist before opening her eyes and smashing her halberd into its face. 

The ash erupted from the skeleton’s orifices and guarded it again, but Claire was long ready for the inevitable nonsense. She pushed the seemingly incorporeal mass away with a vector and exposed the monster’s bare bone. 

Boris tore through its face. His blade split the front half of its skull right down the middle. She stepped forward to finish the knight off as it staggered backwards, but a second magical hand sprouted from its ribcage and shot towards her throat. It refused to budge when she tried to magically displace it; she barely managed to block it by matching the skeleton’s pace and summoning a second Boris.

Unlike its first phantom limb, its second was made more so of fire than burning ash. And yet, it was entirely corporeal, just like the artificial muscles that enveloped the skeleton’s body.

The punch itself was its heaviest so far. She could feel Boris’ body groaning beneath the colossal weight, but the iguana held true. She was more concerned for herself; her bones creaked like an old door hinge and the accompanying reverberations echoed straight into the back of her head.

Still, she managed to ward it off without sliding too far. She raised both halberds immediately, expecting the skeleton to close the distance, but when she raised her eyes, she found it standing in place.

It had taken up a regal stance with the tip of its blade buried in the ground and both its hands resting on top of its bloody hilt. Its back was straight, and though it didn’t have lungs, its chest was heaving like it was out of breath. Though it almost looked the part, it wasn’t simply awaiting her challenge. It had simply left its magical arms to do the heavy lifting.

The fiery arm had, at some point, acquired an equally fiery book, while the ashen arm was quickly flipping through it with an orb in hand.

A grimoire and a catalyst. Equipment specialised for spellcraft.

From the amount of mana gathering in the space between them, she could tell that its magical abilities were just as great, or perhaps even greater, than its efficacy in close quarters.

The magical energy formed a massive fireball. It was a brilliant, white-hot flame that melted everything in the caster’s vicinity. The fire whooshed past her and melted a hole in the side of the mountain. Her resistance was absurd, but it wasn’t like she was entirely immune. The skeleton’s magical fire was so hot that it toasted her scales, even though it had barely touched her.

The skeleton immediately prepared another similar attack, but transforming Boris into a whipsword, she sawed right through it and sapped enough mana that it completely fell apart.

Claire flew through the gap and, planting both her feet into the ground, swung a second, hammer-shaped Boris with a twist of the hips and landed a strike square on the skeleton’s ribs.

But there was no satisfying crunch.

All she found instead was the world in shades of grey. She couldn’t move. Her body refused to budge as she watched the skeleton slowly step back from the point of impact.

It wasn’t until the frog-knight took up a stance that she finally started to move. But even then, she had no control. It proceeded without her input and forced her to raise her weapon precisely as she had when the battle first began.

A number appeared in the space between them as she finished preparing for combat—a distinct, legible three.

And then a two.

And a one.

Only after a loud bang did everything regain its function. Both fighters kicked off the ground as soon as the timer vanished, but right away, Claire found that something was wrong. The vectors that she had manifested to propel herself knightward had completely failed to serve their purpose. In fact, despite her systemic privileges, they didn’t manifest at all.

The phenomenon repeated no matter how many attempts she made. Her ice magic was, likewise, inert, and a quick glance at the skeleton revealed that it seemed to abide by all the same rules. Both of its fists were missing and the fiery glow that accompanied its body was gone.

Even without any magical muscle fibres to support it, it closed the distance in a heartbeat. Half delayed by the confusion, Claire barely managed to throw up her guard in time. But all she managed was to delay the inevitable. The combination of the skeleton’s perfect swordplay and overwhelming brute strength knocked her weapon out of its path and presented it with an easy follow up. Fully beholden to gravity for the first time in what felt like ages, she had no way of avoiding the attack.

Her one choice was to catch it with an open talon.

There was a tearing sound as a wave of heat ran up the length of her forearm. An icy blue object erupted from the back of her elbow. Though unbroken, the bottom bone had been completely knocked out of place.

But then, it suddenly returned. She suddenly found herself back where she was, before everything had turned black and white. The damage to her body was undone, and the skeleton’s position had reverted.

It looked like Boris would slam into the knight’s chest and break it wide open. But then, there was a sound, a piercing ring almost like that of metal on metal. And even though she struck the monster dead on, there wasn’t the slightest hint of damage.

The skeleton threw one of its magical fists towards the lyrkress’ skull in the confusion, but she avoided it with a twist and delivered another heavy blow.

And again, right as her hammer was about to touch the skeleton’s chin, she found the world returned to its monochrome state.

The numbers started counting down again—the skeleton’s strange skill had reactivated. From the extent of its functionality—the ability to outright suppress all non-physical phenomena—she could only assume that it was an ars magna. Or perhaps even an ultimate of some sort or other.

Whatever the case, the results were unchanged. Again, both fighters charged as soon as their mobility returned. The skeleton was the first to strike. It raised its weapon over its shoulder and delivered a heavy, downwards chop.

Parrying the blade, Claire countered with a horizontal slash that the skeleton ducked under, followed by a quick stab aimed straight towards its face. The master swordsman could have easily parried the blow, but it performed a suboptimal evasion instead and threw a quick jab at her gut. There was no power behind the hit. Its complete lack of form guaranteed nothing more than a light graze, but all the world’s colour suddenly returned again regardless.

There was another loud ring. She was certain that her hammer should have bashed the skeleton’s chin wide open, but it remained perfectly unharmed again, at least until the Boris in her other hand met the frog knight’s pelvis.

She still didn’t know how it worked, but for the third time in three seconds, she was placed within the skeleton’s domain.

But having half expected it, she was ready. Three, two, one, and she rushed the enemy down. She dodged the first blow with a careful sidestep, and then parried its foot before it could drive the limb into her shin.

Its next attack, a thrust with the hilt of its blade, was evaded with a quick hop, and the accompanying punch was denied by way of careful backstep.

It didn’t matter if she was stuck in its ultimate or not. She had fully internalized its kit. And no longer caught off guard by the sudden weight of her body, she refused to fall for its textbook tricks.

Still, its refined, orthodox style made it difficult to pin down.

She slipped past a pair of swings, brushed past an incoming fist, and even ducked under a headbutt before the knight finally made an obvious mistake. It picked up the pace and launched a salvo of quick blows—a salvo clearly accompanied by a loss of brute force.

Taking the strikes with her elbow, Claire smashed Boris into his arm and completely shattered the bones that held it in place.

The skeleton took the opportunity to throw a knee at her gut, but she leapt on top of it and used it as a platform to drive her foot through the bottom of its jaw. Fueled by all the strength her upper body could produce, Boris crashed into its head right after and crumbled its skull to bits.

Her enemy faltered. For a few brief moments, it tried to stand its ground, but its sword slipped from its grasp and its legs gave out beneath it.

And then, the monochrome world was gone. 

Back in reality, her war hammer cleaved through the skeleton’s chest and turned its spine to dust.

Log Entry 854918
You have slain a level 1178 Skeletal Ashen Primordial.

This feat has earned you the following bonus rewards:
- 381 points of agility
- 519 points of dexterity
- 9 points of spirit
- 48 points of strength
- 4 points of vitality
- 13 points of wisdom

Log Entry 854919
You have leveled up. Your health and mana have been partially restored.

Your racial class, Caldriess, has reached level 600.

Your titular class, Witch of the Seventh Tempest, has reached level 26.

You have acquired 3776 ability points.

Claire stretched her shoulders and looked down at the floor, expecting the massive door to open, but there was no such shift.

Still, the boss room was hardly devoid of events. Though one skeleton collapsed, two soon took its place.