Sorry, The Only Power Left Is Alteration.

The tank felt claws rake over his back as if he wasn’t wearing heavy steel armor. A playful giggle rang in his ear accompanied by a warm breath against his lobe. Soft whispers in his head that only he could hear enticed him.

“Aww, look at that, he’s gone. All those years of friendship, the parties, the road trips, the heart-to-heart conversations, all gone. You didn’t even lift a widdle bitty to finger to help him despite being such a strong strapping man. Oh, my poor little itty bitty arms are so tired! I still see forty-nine on that stamina bar. Someone is just too scared to fight. Or maybe... he’s fratricidal.”

The sword and the shield dropped to the ground as the others watched. Mike put his hands to his ears and pressed his head so forcefully that his face became red. He spit.

“Shut it! Shut it! Shut it! Shut it! Get out oi me bloody edd!”

"Aww, but we made a deal. The offer you couldn't possibly refuse. Remember?"

Slick clotting blood coated Ralph’s fingers as he bent his knees and retrieved his gnarled wooden staff. He hadn’t used his main attack yet, perhaps that could save them. He got to his feet as the wounds to his shoulder and thigh ached.

The chainmail armor worn by Derk kept pushing upwards with iron and bone spikes piercing the links. Then finally it got sucked downwards. CLINK! The snapping of metal could be heard as the arrow head skull snapped a hole in the back of the armor by eating the chain links. It rotated as it flew upward. Derk’s body flung with it ragdoll style. A misting of eviscerated innards and one kidney dropped out. As the skull forced its way through the back of the armor, the body dropped in a new spot about half meter from the grisly pile of blood soaking viscera.

Yull force cast restoration on Derk despite mana depletion, which made him cough.

The attempt failed.

The armor he wore had something to do with mana, but he had no idea how to utilize it properly or if it was not charged, defective, or both. Yull pounded his fists against the legs of his armor, which stung his fists slightly.

“I should’ve- I think I should’ve saved my ace card.”

The arrowhead skull coughed, gagged, and made a clinking sound something like the coils of a chain. It jumped up and spat a small skull out of its mouth. The newly summoned skull had a collection of pointy jagged teeth housed in its burnt looking jaw. A chain hung down from the base in exchange for a spinal column. As the skull grew to normal size, it took to the air and slithered around like a small wyrm. The chain did not drag on the ground but remained level behind the hovering skull.

Seeing this development, Mike struggled to get it together and grabbed his weapon and his shield. He felt too separate from the others and began to side step toward Ralph. The shield, the armor, the sword, was all really heavy and the pierced burn on his hand hurt badly. But the voice was right about two things, one of which was he’d been afraid to do much of anything throughout this entire battle.

The chain skull gazed upon them lazily until it approached Ralph. As it rose to meet him at eye level it let the chain dangle. Ralph looked to his companions for help. The archer sat on her knees, dry heaving and sobbing so violently she had the hiccups. Not good! Yull stood watching the skulls with a blank expression; his face had become pallid and his mouth hung open.

Shik, shika, shika, sheeek!

The skull wouldn’t wait for the party to rally. It tilted right, tilted left, and whipped its chain. Ralph lifted his wand to cast a wind spell, which failed to push it back. The chain wrapped around the meat of his upper right arm. It restricted. The radius and ulna squeezed together before snapping. It restricted again, this time tearing through flesh.

Ralph’s hand slightly relaxed its grip on the staff as they tumbled to the floor together. The bloody chain of the skull coiled, then unfurled. It dripped Ralph’s life fluids as the mob returned to its company and the skulls continued their dance. Ralph stared at the miniature blood spout where his arm used to be and struggled to gather his resolve.

There was a scratch of tearing fabric as Yull used an arrow head to tear a strip from the bottom of Ralph’s robes. He tied the strip around the wounded arm as tightly as his strength could manage so that the flow of blood abated somewhat.

“You g-guys, I’m s-sorry. I lied. About g-graduating. I dropped. First year. Pathetic, I kn-know, r-right?” Ralph said, “Give me th-that s-staff... back. Idea.”

Yull crouched down and pulled the staff from the still warm limb. Then he placed it in Ralph’s remaining hand. The wizard had lost too much blood and looked anemic. Mike jumped in front of the arrow head skull. Bone and iron arrowheads rained upon his shield. The chain skull lashed at his ankle to dent the armor plate boots. With his left arm, Ralph raised the staff.

“I c-call upon the all-consuming power of entropy to wither away my foes!” he shouted as clearly as he could.

Entropy Novice 01: An area of effect attack that will weaken opponents by causing them to whither. The effect can be enhanced by increasing mana consumption.

A cloud of dust formed above the staff and shot forth into the dance of the skulls. They began to whither, jaws creaked as they clicked and coughed. Tendons withered. A dried eye fell to the floor, followed by another, then another until all the skulls had lost their eyes. They wobbled and thrashed about blindly.

The withered eyes bounced, absorbed the dust, and grew. The dust solidified into five mummified skulls with dried tightly shut eyelids. With a series of four clicks, a new eye popped into the left socket of each original skull. The ten skulls hovered around each other frantically.

The black skull studded with mana infused diamonds jumped out of the dance to hover in front of Ralph.

“Heeeeeaaaaaaling!?”

The golden red glow centered over the eye socket with the embedded arrowhead. The stump of his right arm and his left shoulder glowed along with several other smaller wounds. Sickening cracks and pops heralded the splitting of his arm. It was as if some invisible hand had grappled both sides of the wound by the bone, pulled top and bottom to split everything apart lengthwise. Flesh stretched as bone shards punctured out through skin. The left shoulder cracked, resulting in the left arm listing before it gave up the oaken wand.

The wounded eye spurted a mix of red and viscous yellow puss. The arrowhead stuck inside fell from the widening wound. Ralph shuddered as intense pain filled his head. Then he felt nothing. The mage fell backward as the flow of blood leaking from his body subsided.

Ralph Ratliff: Drop-out Mage: Hitbox Zero:

FATALITY!

Yull knelt besides the collapsed wizard and started doing compressions. Mike shook his head.

“Yull, no, look at his face. It’s over.”

The wound to his eye had gone deep. The skin had become a jaundiced yellow and the wound smelt putrid, rotten. He looked between the eye, the arm, and the spilt blood as he realized it was hopeless. He pounded Ralph’s chest and put his head down on it. Then he stood, turned, and faced the skulls.

“Don’t make fun of my best friend!”

He ran forward and punted one of the mummy skulls with a strong a kick. It went flying a long way until it landed in the midst of another group. It shattered into dust upon landing. The other skulls did not like this. But Yull wasn’t finished. He pivoted and aimed to give the flame skull a good rugby style punt as well.

It dodged and countered by bathing his legs in a large blue and white flame. The carbon plates of his armor glowed red. Flesh burned, sizzled, and produced a sickening smell as his legs cooked, then burnt under the armor. First came intense pain, then loss of sensation.

The arrow skull flew up and tilted, then rammed Yull in the head. An unreleased arrow broke his upper front teeth and sent a lower front tooth into his throat. Red spurted down Yull’s chin as he swatted at five skulls swarming him. The struggle ended as the chain skull rose, snapped its chain back, and whipped it forward to coil Yull’s neck. A sickening crunch followed a headless body swatting aimlessly one last time.

Ulysses Hudson Moorehead: Knee Fetish Surgeon: Hitbox Zero

FATALITY

Meanwhile, the four remaining mummified skulls floated over to Carrie. She threw her bow at them, turned, and started running as fast as she could. They laughed as they gave chase.

“Shi! Shi! Shi! Shi! Shi!”

Dust swarmed around the woman. She raised her arms to block it and covered her lungs. All sense of direction became meaningless. The skulls floated around her, trapped her, pelted her with wicked laughs and harsh sands. Her skin felt dry, her lips felt cracked.

“Carrie!” Mike shouted, reaching for her.

Both his shield and his sword fell. The skulls pelting Yull’s body with abuse ignored him as he walked past. The mummified skulls vanished as dust settled around Carrie. She turned around, her hair white and frazzled as skin sunk over her face. She coughed, her voice came out dry and withered, barely audible.

“What’s happening to me?”

“It’ll be okay, it’ll be okay, you’re going to be fine.”

Mike hugged her into his armor, her withered form felt like it might crack from the slightest force. Her skin dried, lips vanished as they stretched into nothing. Eyes closed tightly. He raised a dry wrinkled hand against his chest.

Mummified flesh crackled as he stroked her lengthening locks of white stringy hair.

“I’m going to take care of you. You’re finally mine. Praise Azoria. You're finally mine.”

Carrie Winston Hooley: Eager Matriarch: Mummification:

FATALITY