Sorry, The Only Power Left Is Alteration.

The three skulls continued their odd dance to the strange phonk music playing from the walls of the vast cavern. There was now a fiery skull, a wet steel skull, and skull covered with sharp gleaming arrowheads. Carrie notched another arrow with a slight arch of her back, but she relaxed the string and looked to the others for direction.

Mike looked terrified, Ralph looked puzzled, Yull looked tense, and Derk sweat with a red face in obvious frustration. The three skulls refused to do anything other than float around and make annoying noises while darting their eyes back and forth between the members of the party. Yet they refused to attack the skulls after their last attacks resulted in a broken sword, one less arrow, and the appearance of two new mobs.

This time, one of the skulls became exhausted of waiting. The arrowhead skull shot up in the air and spun around like it was in the center of a washing machine.

“YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

The screech pierced their ears. Mike couldn’t cover his without dropping his shield and sword, so he endured it. Only Ralph and Yull were able to cover their ears. Carrie endured it and Derk stepped back while wincing. Arrows pelted them.

Carrie used her skill, bow blocking, which allowed her to block incoming volleys of any size with her bow once a day. This saved her and Derk from the incoming fire. Mike hid behind his shield to remain unharmed. Yull was saved by his armor, as the arrows didn’t hit with much penetrating force.

Ralph, who had stopped to plug his ears, took two arrowheads; One stuck deeply in his left thigh and another lodged in his shoulder just above the collar bone. There was a scratch on the back of his right hand where another had grazed him.

Everyone glanced at Ralph as the skull dropped in return to the dance. Yull looked a bit dumbfounded before realizing he was the healer. He cast basic restoration. It didn’t work, at least not nearly as well as he thought it should. Ralph winced as he pulled out the bone arrowhead from his thigh. He felt a tingle as blood leaked from the wound and wet his jeans under the robes.

“Really effective healing magic doctor,” he groaned, feeling perhaps a mild pain relief from Yull’s best efforts, “Aren’t healers supposed to actually heal?”

“About as effective as your water spell! Aren’t mages supposed to mage!?”

“That doesn’t even make any sense! I’m doing my bloody best here! If you wouldn’t have parked us right under a land-slide we’d be in Inverness living it up at the pub instead of this horror of a place fighting skulls.”

“You have no way of knowing that for certain,” Yull said, “And everyone agreed to stop. It wasn’t my decision. You can’t go and blame me just because it happened to be my turn to drive.”

The points returned to the third skull, slowly extending, and sharpening as the skulls bounced around each other. The first skull jumped, opened its mouth wide and released a burst of bright blue flame that heated Mike’s steel shield. The handle of the already heavy accessory began to burn through his gauntlet. The shield clattered to the floor as Mike shook his burnt right hand, though he continued to wield the steel sword with his right.

The fire skull returned to the group with a harsh series of clicks and resumed bouncing. The steel shield glowed a bit red at the edge. Mike pulled off his hot gauntlet and felt skin separate to remain inside before he threw it aside. A thick burn wound stripped of the topmost layer of skin ran along the length of his palm over a centimeter wide. Yull darted over to the wounded tank.

“Restoration!”

The wound glimmered slightly as Mike felt a slight pain relief and a tightness in his palm. Sweat beaded on Yull’s forehead as he sensed his mana already approaching the first point of depletion. Why wouldn’t the wound just heal? Why was their magic worthless!?

“My restoration is at 99, there’s no way my powers should be this weak! I’m maxed out, it’s the highest it can go!”

Ralph pushed his hand into the bleeding puncture above his collar bone, “My water magic is almost as high and that water beam hit like a Pound-puller squirt gun. Maybe the stats aren’t capped at one hundred?”

“So basic attacks and magic are going to do absolutely nothing against these things? Our only chance is to use our special abilities?”

Carrie pushed her hair back, “Our regular attacks do nothing, swords do nothing, our magic does nothing. We’re not much better off with this gear.”

The steel skull bounced in the air with an open jaw. A splash of water hit Derk in the chest with the power of a garden hose. He stood fuming as he found himself soaking wet. Carrie began laughing and Yull joined her. The broken two-handed sword suddenly dropped from Derk's hands. It clattered in front of the bouncing formation of skulls. A slow trickle of blood dripped from both Derk’s wrists.

“I-I I can’t move my hands right!”

Yull stopped laughing and ran toward Derk without thinking, cutting through the formation of skulls. The skulls jumped at him for violating their space. Teeth clamped onto his mana-diamond infused carbon fiber armor. It fared better than the steel at first as it refused to submit to the pressure of the bites. He shook the fire skull and the arrowhead skull off his armor only to suffer scratches to the sheen.

The water skull bit down harder. A slurry like liquid drooled from its mouth as it varied the pressure on the armor over Yull’s upper left arm. He ran out of the formation so the other skulls wouldn’t attack him again, then punched the skull biting his armor. The steel jaw refused to unclamp. Instead, it bit down with renewed pressure. The withered tendon aimed the eye's gaze downward at the carbon fiber plate as a groan of protest issued from the metal.

Carrie readied an arrow and her aim proved true, but it simply bounced off the steel surface of the parietal bone. At the very least, nothing ate her arrow.

“I can’t move my hands! I can’t move my hands!”

Mike winced at his burn as he suffered Derk’s screaming. During the entire road trip, he had to endure Derk’s constant teasing and flirting with Carrie. He had to watch from a distance as they made out at every road stop, as one of his best friends kissed the lips and put his hand down the shirt of the woman who had promised herself to him eleven years ago. He picked up his cooling shield and couldn’t help but think that if Derk died here, Carrie could be his again.

The steel skull stressed the carbon fiber of Yull’s armor with its constant biting until carbon cracked over his upper left shoulder. A portion of carbon fiber was captured inside the steel jaw.

“YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

The arrow skull shot up and twirled with that high pitched sonic screech that caused the party pain. An arrowhead flew inside the jagged hole of the compromised armor to pierce Yull’s arm. A slender spray of blood flew into Derk’s face before the bleeding calmed.

Carrie suffered several arrowheads pelting against her chest, waist, and hips and got knocked over. Mike reached out for her even though she fell on the other side of the formation, only to have an arrow pierce the burn and lodge into his palm. Blood trickled down his side from being grazed by another arrow as he scraped the bone arrowhead over the edge of his shield until it fell free from his palm.

Ralph flinched behind his staff, squinting while breathing heavily. His left eye splattered into a bloody mess that leaked down his cheek. His scream released as he clutched his staff in tears. Three more arrowheads lodged into the meat on the back of his arm. The fat end of an arrowhead stuck out of his bloody eye socket.

Derk still wiggled his hand as he tried to make his fingers move. Something struck his knee. Pain burst from the injury as the arrowhead pierced the joint of his chain armor. He could still move, but only with severe pain and the feeling of a cracking pop in his leg. With an effort against a grinding pain, he remained standing in defiance of the skulls. Carrie groaned and retrieved her bow as she pushed herself up. The leather armor had at least blunted the force of the arrow heads even if she’d taken a pounding.

Two skulls clicked and clacked as if in celebration of their clever attacks. The steel skull made wet gurgling noises as it choked.

Another wet ball rolled on the floor. As the sludge dripped away, a small black skull infused with mana diamonds grew slowly. It joined a dance that became slower and steady like the ticking of a clock.

Clickity. Clackity. Clickity. Clackity.

Click.