Collectively, the trio was surprisingly competent. Quick, varied in style, but lethal, Storm Veritas and the girl were able to hack, slash, and blast their way through the undead guardians despite a striking lack of similarity in style. The children began to sing, which instinctively sent the old wizard tentatively pacing away, focusing the dancing sword he gripped through bone after bone, mercilessly cracking and breaking the piles.

Singing to fight? Shit, now I’ve seen it all.

There was a great give and take with each bony opponent. There was no singular weakness in the stacked pile, but they weren’t particularly powerful either. In his movements, one managed to rake him across the right forearm. The clawless fingers scratched and left a heat behind in the wound, but there was no feel of poison or disease in the scratches, and the blood that flowed was minor.

The last bolt he eventually used to incinerate the persistent evil before him came about the same time that a bounding ball of magical energy was blasted down the path from the children. The rumbling echo answering them did not bode well for anyone.

“Nice job, but what in the blue f*ck is that coming up the bend?”

Tired and uncertain, the electromancer could see clearly over the head of the powerful young strangers as a new form began to lumber forward. The back came first; a large, hulking spine hanging over the road as impossibly wide ribs curved out and underneath the fleshless goliath. With a groan, a large, horrid skull bleated out at the three.

”BRRRWWWWEEEEEAAAAAAAA!!!!”

Mud and what looked like sludge hung from the thick bones marching at them, leg bones as thick as the mage’s thigh and picking up in speed. The head, or skull, or whatever it as, looked as a horned turtle’s shell; rounded to a beaked nose with spikes of bone emitting about the perimeter of the skull, no doubt effectively once protecting some pre-human neck.

Within the darkness of the awful head opened to glowing yellow orbs where eyes should have once peered out. The head bobbed up and down, leg bones effortlessly kicking large piles of earth before the great body as the beast appeared to stare them down.

“Hhh…” the words of the magician vanished from his mouth before he could form them. Perhaps the girl would have some more of these spectacular orbs to fire, or better yet the boy an ability to teleport. Based on the durability of the first wave, the adventurer found it unlikely a simple blast of electricity would save them.

Got it.

An idea came over Storm in a wave of inspiration, and he didn’t hesitate to fire a whopping bolt of electricity at trunk of a large, spread elm. Far less robust than the skeletons, the base of the tree was eviscerated, coring the base dramatically in a crash of splinters and char. With a mighty crack and groan, the heavy tree came crashing down atop the skeletal colossus, sending leaves, dust, and mud spraying through the air and about the ground.

”BRRRWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!”

The tree shook and snapped as the fiery golden eyes burst through at him. The great monster had not been stopped.