In the bedlam that had erupted about him, the wizard was grateful that at least the two impish little would-be children didn’t attack him directly. He had expected at least one of the little monsters to come at him with some sort of blind-sided attack. Were it going to be one of them, it would have to be the girl, as the boy had proven himself absolutely useless.

Like tits on a bull, boy; I’d slice you open and throw you to these walking bone piles like a porterhouse to the hounds if I didn’t think the girl might be able to get away and yap about it.

For his frustration with the bundling heap of wasted steel, the magician found the girl to be quite competent. Her sword was obviously touched by magic, and it seemed to chant some foreign song when she pulled her blade from the sheath. Looking down at the simply-somewhat magical Rat, the traveler felt a pang of jealousy at the inferiority of his own device.

Fire out ghost rats and glow. Real f*cking useful YOU are.

The deep burning stench of death was all about them now, and at last that boy produced a simplistic sword and came to stand as a trio amongst Storm and the girl, both of whom had continued dueling against a wave of the undead. From here, one quick pivot and twist and either one of these strange kids could drive a sword between his ribs before he could so much as turn to witness his own death. In fairness, they had given him the same level of trust, a decision that would have served to end days for many before them.

“Welcome to the shit, boy. Glad you could join us. Let me give you a hand with your smiling couple over there.”

The skeletons wore no metal, but the finally emboldened lad had plenty of buckles, snaps, and armor components about him. The possibility of throwing the boy with a quick electromagnetic pulse by his metal adornments seemed to Veritas a reasonable strategy, but this one would be a more effective meat shield closer to his hip. For the duo of approaching horrors, Storm would resort to his oldest trick.

“Stand down, try not to stare. Mind your ears.”

A simply outrageous pulse of twisting electric hate flashed from the sorceror’s palm towards the approaching skeleton. The blast was targeted at the spine, and took root there, completely incinerating the stack of little, biscuit shaped bones that the old fool failed to know as “vertebrae”. The long chain of black biscuits crumbled, the horrible smell of burning bone and marrow dramatically trumping the pre-existent smell of human decomposition. In truth, the adventurer felt his eyes water involuntarily as that burning bone attacked his nostrils with anger. When the now disorganized limbs fell to the earth, this particular pile looked as though it had become indifferent to the three intruders.

Shit, overdid it a bit there.

Storm could feel his fingers numb and tingling, the unmistakable buzz of his magic being exhausted. For all of his mystical might, a mix of fear, frustration, and fury had coerced him to expend entirely too much lightning at the first skeleton. He would need a few moments to recover this, and the now-lone skeleton from the tandem came at him, swinging angry hands like a thin rake.

PANG!

The sword was stopped dead in its tracks as the elder statesman failed to destroy the oncoming appendage. With the complete absence of fear on its side, the empty skulled terror continued flailing at him.

PANG! PANGPANGPANG!!

He was able to block most of the attacks, a bony string of fingers scratching mercilessly at his hand on one of the deflections. Blood instantly poured down his right forearm in twisting streams of oil as he struggled to keep up with the fast and indefatigable opponent. With wild and wide eyes, he turned to the boy once more.

“Kill the spine! Any time now![/i]