I picked out two tusker leg bones, squat and powerful and shorter than their massive arms, and also broken cleanly in two. “Teeth marks.” I handed them to Camwise and Mizaya, who inspected them critically. I bent down and retrieved two arm bones, but these had been split open lengthwise. “Teeth marks.”

  “They are different,” Camwise said instantly. Mizaya nodded, and they passed the bones over to the others to inspect.

  The Mick studied them side by side. “These be tusker teeth, crunching an’ cracking, an’ breaking the bones with brute strength. These… be sharper, filed teeth an’ claws, digging into the bone fer the prize o’ the marrow, splittin’ with time an’ patience instead o’ crackin’.” He looked at me. “Heard tales o’ cannibals who eat folk like this, file their teeth sharp so they can gnaw at the bones. But… that means there were human survivors?” He didn’t sound too certain of himself.

  I slowly shook my head, tapping the side of my nose. “The brimstone from the volcano is hiding it some.”

  Everyone had their Masks down, but not all of them had taken the Whiskers of the Wild, and especially the Scent advance for it. They noted I had my silver on black Whiskers up right now, and could only sniff carefully.

  It was Milee who first said, “There’s a smell of rot lingering under the spoiled eggs that isn’t the same.”

  The Mick and Politia both nodded, the others just shook their heads and accepted it.

  “What be we lookin’ at here, lass?” the Mick asked softly, turning around to survey the dark room ahead of them, strewn with bones. Now the trails between the bones took on more ominous meanings, more than heaped bodies stuffed out of the way.

  “Well, we’ve all been spoiled by the undead of this world,” I said quietly, studying all those bones. “Go back to Ispar, and the tales there. Of the graveyards, and the battlefields, and what is called the punishment of the gods for eating the flesh of your fellow man.”

  “Ghouls…” Hundig murmured softly. “The eaters of the dead…”

  “Gor,” murmured the Mick, as everyone else nodded slowly. “Never saw such a thing at home, an’ not here, either. They be real?” he had to ask, not doubting, just surprised.

  “They are rare in Aluvia, far more common in warmer lands. Milantos specifically has a problem with them, especially the more outlying islands of their archipelago.” I considered the bone in my hand, let it fall, and flicked up my Darts. “Run it through your Visual File. The bones outside were gnawed clean, too. Too clean, but the char and the dust covered it up.”

  They all swore softly. “Can they leave the crater?” Selena asked quickly, blue eyes now looking up and around sharply.

  “I don’t think you’ve seen a single living tusker on the northern island yet, have you?” Their silence was an ominous reply. “We didn’t do a circuit of the rim or the caldera wall, because we came down on Disk and lightfoot. There’s probably a way up some nice bony claws could dig in and use to get out of here.”

  “Would they come back if there’s no prey?” Rogar asked, his wide brow furrowing.

  “Cursed undead are usually bound to their place of origin. They might go wandering out at night, but they come back to their graves during the day,” I replied.

  “They know we are here then, killing all these Summons nice an’ loud as they die,” the Mick mused, and we all kicked ourselves for not putting up Sound Bubbles. “What’s the main danger? Aggressive biting, clawing?”

  “Paralytic attacks. If you don’t resist, your muscles will lock up and you’ll be totally helpless.” They all stared at me. “The old tales speak of it, the dark poison of the grave that locks up your bones?”

  A chorus of affirmations at the old ghost tales followed. “Got a solution, lass?” the Mick grinned, confident in me.

  “Mass Free Action,” I said, a holy Silver Light spiraling around Crown, the Lost Light dancing energetically around it. “Which won’t stop them from biting off your face, so be careful.”

  “Us be careful?” the Mick responded, as the spell swept out to cover them all. “They be undead! Ye’re going to kill them where they cower in the shadows!”

  Well, that was totally true. Rose gleamed on my finger, totally ready to put her power to the test.

  I fished out my Baneskull to Undead, fit it on over Crown, and said, “Alrighty, let’s see where they are waiting for us.”

  Detect Bane was the newest addition to Crown, automatically looking for whatever it was Bane to at the time. As I could Infuse a Bane as well as use a Baneskull, this was a pretty effective way of my Staff keeping watch for me in dangerous places against a known type of enemy.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  The Rune-carved skull of the Dericostan lord lit up with black Baneflame to the Undead in its eyesockets, and slowly turned to scan the area, locking on the tunnels leading off to the west.

  “Nothing precise, but they are in that direction.”

  “Mmm.” The Mick studied the ground, trails broken through the bones by Summons and much, much worse things. “Think they be like Eaters, chewing on the Summons what they slay?”

  “Undead can eat all kinds of things. Ghouls are never full, however,” I replied. “They embody unclean hunger, after all.”

  “Clear the road o’ bones ahead of us, just to set the mood. I’m bettin’ we’ve lots more Summons t’ kill, an’ furthermore, the ghouls are going to be tough enough t’ kill those Summons fer some munchies on demand.”

  “Ten pyreal there’s a boss monster, it’s a big undead tusker ghoul, and fighting it will suck!” Rogar said gloomily.

  “Now ye’re getting in the spirit of things!” the Mick agreed cheerfully.

  ------

  The copper-armored Annihilator with fur like black iron was a foot taller than the Devastators, even heavier and stronger, and we engaged it on open ground. It came at us after four of the Devastators failed to stop us, and happily focused on our Shield-users, so we could spread out around it and Wolfpack it down fast.

  When it spun around to focus on Milee and Mizaya suddenly, something Summons never did, I knew there was going to be a problem.

  The Fastcast Shards blew into its chest and, if they didn’t kill it, at least they knocked it flaming off its feet and backwards before the massive ape could tear into the lightly-armored archers.

  It never made it back to its feet, the Wolfpack going apeshit on it as Lord Mick, Rogar, and Hundig chopped it flaming apart, while Selena shifted everyone back to the passageway, Bows out and covering the hall in front of us.

  “Watcher six o’ clock high,” I murmured, and everyone’s eyes snapped up to a pair of feral, gleaming yellow orbs barely visible above, before they vanished behind the wall of the oversight opening up above.

  “Them be not tusker eyes,” the Mick growled. “Yet it could command the Summons…”

  The bones were piled up here, even more Isparians among them, but they all gleamed very white and clean in the dim ambient magical lighting.

  I set them all en vivus, aiming to Seal the spawn points. The undead knew we were coming already, no reason not to make the setting more hostile to them.

  “Three o’clock high. Something just crawled out of the other overlook and onto the walls or ceiling there, just around the corner.”

  “Ladies, shoot it down,” the Mick growled at the four on their Disks, while Camwise and Rogar backed up him and Hundig. Bows and Autobows were lifted high as we proceeded towards the corner there. The Mick stepped around it, Clan up, Hundig taking the corner, Rogar’s Glaive Accent hovering over top of them, Camwise set and aiming with his Autobow, and Selena, Politia, Milee, and Mizaya all aiming high.

  I dropped the Fire Vuln V on both Annihilators standing there poised at the edge of the room, on either side of the passageway out. Bows thrummed and snapped, and a precise volley of flaming missiles flashed upwards at the ceiling forty feet above.

  There was a yowl and a screech even as deeply impressive bellows sounded from the two Annihilators, and they turned and came pounding toward us.

  The Mick immediately stepped out, giving both tuskers room to hit the front of us, Kiss up and locked in Stance, as Hundig’s Saber Qamar did the same… and Camwise was pumping his Autobow Target as fast as he could, while Rogar was braced with Accent above Hundig’s head as well.

  The once-human thing that dropped burning down the wall was impossibly thin of arm and body, only its belly distended and swollen unnaturally, the very picture of starvation… except for the foot-long purple tongue whipping from its mouth, hands and feet grown to twice the size of any human hands with bony claws, and all its teeth more like fangs than anything human. Its nose had rotted away, and it only had scraps of hair left… but it was still wearing the remains of an off-white robe, patched together tediously and with great care, despite lack of materials.

  Oh, and the fact it was on fire.

  It hit the ground, rolling and flailing, and the girls promptly shot it again, fixed on their target, just as the Annihilators slammed into our Shield-users.

  Hundig would have been driven a lot further back, except for the fact the Annihilator had a flaming Glaive in its neck and two burning quarrels in its face, and Qamar had also slid up neatly into its trunk of a throat and set it ablaze, all of which combined to allow the rangy Gharundim Scout to only be forced back about three feet and maintain his footing as his boots bit and crunched on the stone.

  The Mick had likewise withstood his opponent, Kiss long and straight and up into its throat, levering it to one side and away from the rest of us, keeping himself and Clan between us and it as he forced it away to the side.

  Both tuskers were Fire Vulned, and the Firephased Weapons left massive burning paths behind them as a result. Huge paws crashed against the Shields, and then the first one put its paws down, swung out with both feet, and slammed them into Sul together. Mass and power did their thing, tearing Hundig free of the ground and sending him flying backwards before he could compensate.

  All four women locked their Bows on that Annihilator, and before it could charge into the midst of us, Rogar was in the way with Accent following up on Qamar, and five blazing shafts were clustered to the feathers around the Glaive in its chest.

  All the Archers pivoted around to target the tusker whaling on Lord Mick, while Rogar levered the dying Annihilator off to the side, its neck almost reduced to bones and the vivus sparking off as the Summons died, just as something big and fast leapt out from up above at that watchpoint, directly down at us.

  Featherweight got it before it fell five feet… which left it thirty feet of space to fall through at one foot per second. Even with its incredibly long limbs, there was nothing for it to grab and hold onto to change its fate, suspended in midair and falling as gently as a leaf down upon us.

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