Gacha Gacha Hero

“What are they?” asked Councilor A.

THEY ARE SKELETONS

“I can see that. But what do they do?” the Councilor asked.

THEY ARE SKELETONS

Councilor 1 leaned back in his chair. “I’m going to be honest, they're not that scary. I was expecting them to be scary.”

Councilor A tapped a pencil against his desk. “I know what you mean. The idea of a walking skeleton is scary. But the actual effect is… somewhat bare bones.”

Councilor 1 got up from his chair. He walked over to the collection of Skeletons that were standing in the middle of the Council Chambers. A dozen flawlessly white and handsome Skeletons that looked like they had stepped right out of an anatomy textbook stood at attention. The hollow recess of their empty sockets stared straight ahead. Councilor 1 crouched down and looked into one Skeleton’s ribcage.

Councilor 1 frowned. “They’re just bones. You can see right through them to the other side.” He stood back up. “And the face, there’s no expression, no malice. Maybe if they had some flesh still on them. Eyebrows or noses and the like. Something to give them a bit of emotion.”

“Like a dead body?” Councilor A chimed in.

“That’s right.”

“A Skeleton with a little bit of skin still on it. Sort of a freshly decaying corpse.”

“Exactly. You get it.”

“That would be scary.”

“We could call it a Corpsie or something.” Councilor 1 stroked his chin.

“They could slowly shamble towards you.” Councilor A raised his arms. He mimed a slow shuffling gait, rocking from side to side.

“I’m getting chills.” said Councilor 1.

Councilor A turned to the Demon Lord. “What can these do? Can they walk?”

The DEMON LORD barely nodded.

Councilor A sat back. He waved a hand. “Let’s see it then.”

The DEMON LORD turned their attention to the Skeletons. The DEMON LORD’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

The Skeletons lifted their right legs in unison. They took a step forward.

*Clatter*Clack*Clatter*

As a single unit they marched to the wall, turned, then marched back to the center of the room.

Councilor 1 put his hands over his ears. “This is horrible. They sound like a line of billiard balls.”

“Like someone shaking a bucket of chicken bones.” Councilor A agreed.

Councilor 1 paced back and forth. “People are not going to be scared of this. I’ve heard geese that sound more threatening than these things.”

Councilor 1 slumped back into his chair. He rubbed his temples. “How are we supposed to terrify an entire kingdom with an army of these.” He pointed to the Skeletons. “These things couldn’t terrify a playground.”

Councilor A chewed the end of his pencil. “If we stacked them on top of each other they could probably be a playground. Or a bone yard.”

Councilor 1 flicked his fingers. “Get rid of them.”

GET RID OF THEM?

(There was the slightest inflection on the end of the mysterious message.)

“That’s right. We have no use for them. Magic them away or however you do it.”

The DEMON LORD barely nodded. It wordlessly raised an arm. The center of the room was empty. There was no sound. No flash of light. The Skeletons were simply no longer there. The DEMON LORD lowered its arm. And waited.

#

One hundred kilometers away.

The Skeletons didn’t make a sound as they materialized in the middle of the forest. But they did *Clatter* a little as their boney feet landed on the ground. A flock of birds was startled by the sudden appearance of the humanoid shaped creatures and scattered from the trees. The Skeletons didn’t see or acknowledge the birds. The Skeletons didn’t see or acknowledge anything. They stood completely still, in the middle of the forest, like morbid statues.

Then, three days later, for a reason the Skeletons were incapable of explaining, they started to march.