Saintess Summons Skeletons

Sofia ran all the way back up to the roof of the station, where she knew for sure that nothing could ambush her from behind. It felt safer even if it meant there was a possibility she might get cornered there. Of course she could always use the graveyard to escape, but if she was left with enough time to do that, the thing probably wasn’t dangerous enough to warrant her escape in the first place.

At least for now it did not seem like that creature had detected her.

How do I deal with this thing?

In this place with no sound, the unlife rune hid most of her presence, she was still visible of course, but the thing might have not been able to see, or it would have undoubtedly noticed her. Or maybe it did but it still did not chase me.

Let’s test the waters a bit.

The book of skeletons made its entrance, Sofia decided to send the one dog on a hunt, the same one which had been an elven kid’s temporary guardian in the trial. For only twenty mana, it was cheap and efficient. One couldn't underestimate the damage a level 226 hound could do.

The skeleton dog departed, followed by Pareth. Pareth wouldn’t fight, he was just there to stand safely at a distance and relay the image to Sofia.

I should have done that from the beginning, I really need to start acting like a proper necromancer. I’ve been taking too much risk until now.

Pareth and the dog found the creature on the floor right under Sofia, it had gone up the stairs.

Somehow I hoped it wouldn’t… What is this even? Some kind of parasitic mushroom? It looks a bit like one with the honeycomb structure that opens up when it breathes… The iridescent thing inside of the elf kept dilating and contracting. When it dilated, it filled everything, spilling out of the mouth, ears and eyes and well as the broken back of the head, before contracting again. When it was contracting, the elf looked almost normal, should a walking corpse be considered ordinary.

Sorry dog, you have to go. Attack!

The skeletal hound charged forward, swiftly closing the distance, it lunged at the creature.

The body of the corrupted elf reacted with an unnatural motion, swatting away the attacking dog, sending it crashing into the walls of the station. The wall held, which was a testament to the durability of the station rather than the power of the creature, because Sofia had felt the tremor it had sent through the station from where she was.

Sofia had expected the dog to die on the spot but it was unharmed.

Ahahah, yeah, right. I don’t know why I didn’t do the math on that, but we’re completely in a place with sunlight. Bookie’s blessing is pulling its weight.

Sofia’s moment of relief was short-lived. The elf, in a single strong movement, grabbed the dog. It moved like it had too much strength and no finesse in the control of its body, resulting in exaggerated actions. It made the scene even more unsettling. The elf brought the dog before him. The skeleton fought back, clawing and gnawing at the monster, but no visible damage was inflicted at all.

The iridescent parasite inside the elf inflated like never before, it grew and grew until it took all the space in the corridor. What the fuck is happening?!

Sofia ordered the dog to attack the thing rather than the elf, but the result was the same, and it couldn’t free itself from the elf’s iron grip. As the iridescent parasite grew, its empty honeycombs filled up. All at once, they released their contents, a swarm of hundreds of bulbous spider-like iridescent blobs fell to the ground and started climbing back up the elf’s legs, up to his arm, crawling on it and onto the dog.

I’m losing the connection! Dispel!

The dog disappeared in a cloud of mana mist before she completely lost her link to it, that was the good news. On the other hand, the hundreds of parasites were now skittering in the direction of Pareth after having lost their prey of choice. This was terrifying enough, but to add insult to injury, they grew tendril shaped wings and started flying.

Shit! Jump off!

Without any hesitation, Pareth leapt over the guardrails and jumped out of the station. As he fell toward the sun, the flying bulbous things followed him.

Sofia’s eyes were glued to Pareth’s health bar. As he flew closer to the sun, there was no doubt the rising temperature would start destroying him, but it still couldn’t hurt him if it counted for less than 10% of his health at once. The instant his life started falling, he teleported back to Sofia.

She ran to the side of the floor, looking down to see if the flying things came back up, but she couldn’t spot them anywhere above the sea of plasma. Hopefully they’re dumb enough to keep going down into the sun.

‘You have probably defeated [swarm of ???]’

Probably? You don’t have to say anything if you don’t know, it’s fine…

But damn… I your enforcer things are fucking terrifying, Ormoncleth.

And if I read my blessing correctly, I’m pretty much the only person capable of seeing them.

Yeah, I think I understand why no one ever comes back from the deep now. Also these things could fly with no air and no mana, because of course they would be able to do that.

I need to keep an eye on that monster, I can let myself get cornered.

Sofia summoned her best crow out of the book, it was likely it wouldn’t be able to fly but she wanted to be sure of it. As expected, poor crowie couldn’t leave the ground, so Sofia grabbed it and sat it on her head. Just be a danger alarm like you were in the spirit forest, alright?

Next she summoned a rat, but the smooth surface of the station’s walls prevented it from being able to climb down; it fell into the sun as it tried to reach the lower floor by the side wall. Sofia dispelled before it could really get there. For some reason she felt like the blessing wouldn’t be enough to actually protect the summons from the sun itself. She even felt that if they did fall in there, they might be gone for good. Perhaps it was just her imagination going a bit wild, but she still didn’t want to try.

I could scout with the graveyard but I don’t want to send too much mana through the walls, considering why the time limit is what it is…

What else do I have…

The giant ice spiders!

The waste of 50 000 mana was a bit of a sting, but the skeleton spiders could thread webs and walk on any walls without issues, so they would be perfect for the unusual environment of the orbital station. Their ice magic would be useless considering how hot the area was, but it didn’t make them any less useful.

Even with the five giant spiders appearing around Sofia, the roof was still very spacious. She sent a spider down. Hanging on its thread, it confirmed the position of the shambling elf, it was slowly walking forward, at this rate, it would be on the roof where Sofia was in a few minutes. At least there were no signs of the swarm anywhere it looked.

Alright, not too bad... hang in there, keep track of its progress, try not to let it see you.

She kept one of the spiders with her and sent the other three to the other sides, their job was to stretch a web from the roof to the three small pyramids. The spiders spread out and came back, leaving two threads of magically reinforced spider silk between each platform.

Now if I take a bit of silk, tie myself to one thread for safety and walk on the other…

Sofia used her silken tightrope to walk to a side pyramid. She wasn’t really skillful enough to perform such a feat, though she might have been able to if she really tried, but she just relied on [Way of the Fool]’s anti-fall function to walk on there as if it was regular stable ground. Just like that, she landed on the roof of the side pyramid without going through the dangerous corridors further below.

She turned around at that point to see the elf finally stepping out of the stairs onto the main roof. Too late, honeycomb monster!

That’s a good five hundred meters separating us now. I doubt it would be able to follow me on the thread considering how imprecise its movements are, but I need to be careful of the flying swarm.

Though maybe it can’t use it again so soon? That would be helpful if it worked like that.

In any case, I should be careful not to give my position away.

Sofia crouched to hide behind the guardrail. She thought it was weird how this roof had one even when apparently no door or stairs led up to it, but who was she to criticize elven architecture. The spiders were spread out, hanging on the walls of the main and side stations.

I should take advantage of this thing being in an open area and not the sidewalks.

She cast [Skull Choir] with thirty human skulls in the orbital array formation. They appeared around her, but before she could even send them to attack the elf, she frowned.

They won’t actually work, will they?

She ordered one of them to attack, aiming at nothing. The skull opened its mouth, and nothing happened. No air… Of course air attacks wouldn’t work. Just my luck… So much for trying to blow it off of the rooftop and into the sun.

And in this empty space, they can’t even sing either, completely useless!

Trying in vain to sigh, because there was no air left in her lungs, Sofia dismissed the skull choir. I need to wait for the three minute cooldown to try the worm skulls now…

And if they don’t work I’ll just bolt the damn thing!

Sofia was making her plans to try to take out the monster when the spiders became agitated.

All of them? What’s going on?

Sofia’s head peeked over the guardrail, to her great dismay she saw that the parasite inside the elf had grown large tendril-like wings just like a scaled up version of the ones its swarm had grown before.

She very quickly crouched back down.

The lack of air stifled a bout of nervous laughter.

Ah, yes. Just what I needed.

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