Hello, Mr. Bones!
Leo stood atop Adventour's eastern watchtower while gazing out onto the burning battlefield.
"Man, it looks like they're having fun," he chuckled.
He glanced over his shoulder to where Agatha sat in her chair while looking over the floating mirrors they'd brought over from the arena's control room.
This new setup put them closer to the action right where Leo needed to be just in case the two teams they'd sent out failed their mission. For in the event of total failure, Leo would be forced to rely on the remaining guardians of Adventour. He'd even resolved to fight alongside them despite only having the power to conjure minor illusions. Obviously, this was a worst-case scenario he hoped wouldn't come to pass.
"Evil Eyes' three and four will stick with team Alpha," Agatha instructed. "While Evil Eyes' one and two will follow after team Beta."
Agatha glanced over her shoulder. She found Leo looking back at her and sent him the thumbs up.
"This battle is proving even more exciting than you promised, Game Master," she said happily. "Argonaut's team has proved particularly violent in their attempt to reach Mr. Bones."
"You think they'll break through all of the enemy's remaining forces?" Leo wondered aloud.
"Depend on their resolve, this battle will," Leo's other companion answered.
Leo turned his gaze on the vampire smith who was watching the ongoing battle on the screens from over Agatha's shoulder.
"Need us, I believe you will not, Leo," Masamune commented. "Strong, these warriors are."
"Well, I'll need you and the other Guardians to be ready just in case, Masamune," Leo answered. "Any word on Crimsonback? How far away are they?"
McCloud, who was standing on the north-facing balcony of the watchtower, checked his administrator window for an answer to Leo's question.
"Crimsonback, Yojimbo, Argos the Ninth, and her Wilding Hunt are past the Dark Forest," he reported after a while. "They should arrive in Adventour at about the same time as Mr. Bones' forces."
Leo turned his gaze back on the battlefield in the east. Fire and smoke blanketed the landscape, and the sight of it caused his brow to furrow. He realized that there was a possibility Adventour would soon be sporting a similar look — burning roofs and smoke spreading across the town's streets. He didn't like that image at all.
"We just have to believe in the heroes we sent to fight this battle..." They were words of encouragement he'd spoken out loud more for himself than anyone else. "They've got this."
---
Ath3na and the rest of Team Alpha had a rough time chasing after their rivals for enemies swarmed them from every direction, and each step they gained was a challenge paid in blood and death.
In a post-battle interview with Donatella, Ath3na would come to describe the chase as, "Like swimming against a red tide of madness… It was so bad that we didn't even bother picking up any of the soul stones the fallen enemies dropped. It was more important to keep moving…"
She would also claim that they might not have made it if Oh!siris hadn't been part of her team.
"His timely healing kept the rest of us from exhausting our own abilities," she explained, and in an undertone, she added, "Kept me sane too…"
Their plan was simple, charge through the spots on the battlefield that were still burning from their watchtower's fireballs. These hot zones offered lesser resistance for it seemed undead shadow beasts were quite weak against the element of fire. The one flaw in this plan was once they went past that thirty-yard line they would lose their fiery cover. Despite this complication, they pressed on.
"Don't you wish we had Thorminator fire breathing on these tossers for us," Lyghtning commented after she'd slain her seventh reanimated shadow beast. "Would make this battle loads easier."
"Quit your griping, Lyght!" Liberty Belle replied. "I reckon we're pretty close."
She'd just finished bashing the head of the skull knight who was in her way.
"I can see the top of that Argonaut's pretty little head just a bit further ahead," she hollered. "They're surrounded even worse than we are!"
"Keep going! We can't get bogged down in one spot," Ath3na ordered. "That means you, Bully!"
"I killed you!" Bully yelled just as he assassinated another cairn wraith floating not ten yards from their location.
He fired a burst of bolts at a cairn wraith that had tried to sneak up on him from behind. But [STRAFE FIRE] and [RAPID FIRE] put him out of harm's way while slaying his would-be attacker.
"I killed you too!" he yelled with glee.
"It is time to make our exit, Bully the Kid!" Oh!siris yelled after him.
He and the others were already moving forward.
"Alright alright, I'm coming," he called back. "Ruin my fun, why don't you…"
They were close enough now to see that team Beta was putting up one hell of a fight against Mr. Bones, his three vampire bodyguards, and half a dozen skull knights and cairn wraiths.
Krak-a-boom!
"What the bloody hell was—"
Lyghtning's words died in her throat for they could all see what had just happened. Mr. Bones had summoned a powerful lightning bolt from the sky to crash down on team Beta.
"Holy… are they dead?" Ath3na asked.
A cloud of dust covered that part of the battlefield and only a peal of loud cackling laughter could be heard from inside it.
Mr. Bones was first to surface from the dust cloud. He stood atop his carriage and continued to laugh out loud while two of his vampire guards laughed along with him.
A familiar round object escaped the dust cloud and slammed right onto Mr. Bones' forehead.
"Don't count us out yet!" Argonaut's voice came loud and clear from inside the dust cloud.
A strong gust of air pressure sent the dust cloud away and revealed the state of team Beta within.
Argonaut was still standing, and by the look of it, his outstretched blade was what caused the wind to dissipate. Don Coyote was also on his feet. And yet both men looked like they'd been through the wringer.
Wunderkid was kneeling over Iceheart who was unconscious on the ground. He was whispering into her ears with what could possibly have been a spell that might wake her up.
Narukami, who was down on one knee, was struggling to breathe. From the smoke coming out of his back and the arcs of teal-colored electricity flashing across his body, Ath3na guessed he'd absorbed most of Mr. Bones' attack. This saved his team from getting annihilated.
One of Mr. Bones' vampire guards was lying dead on the ground as well. That was at least one enemy Ath3na didn't have to worry about.
Wordlessly, Mr. Bones raised his hand a second time. Above him, the sky rumbled and arcs of lightning began to pool together.
"Come on!" Ath3na yelled.
She didn't know if anyone was following her but she pressed on for it was just a short hop separating her from team Beta.
In her head, Ath3na wondered why she was rushing to save her rivals, especially since one of them was Don Coyote. But a part of her — the calculating part of her mind — deduced that team Alpha couldn't beat Mr. Bones and the remainder of his forces alone. Also, the more compassionate half of her brain just didn't want to watch people dying in front of her — even if one of them was a despicable sociopath.
The sky was alight with activity. A lightning bolt so large it might have put the Decapitator's optic beam to shame was about to crash down on all their heads.
"Argonaut!" Ath3na yelled.
He turned around just in time to see her reach out to him with an outstretched hand. Ath3na wasn't sure if he'd trusted her enough to take it or he just didn't have another option, but he did.
"Everyone, grab onto me!" she ordered. "Now!"
Ath3na felt more than a few hands grab onto her, way more than team Beta's group. It seemed some of her own team had followed her into the breach too.
"And hold onto whoever's unconscious!" she added quickly.
The giant lightning bolt fell on top of them.
Ath3na managed to yell, "Spectral Aegis!" just in time.
Krak-a-boom!
After the dust had settled a long moment later, like a miracle everyone in Team Alpha and Team Bravo was still alive, although two of them remained unconscious. They all sported the same ghostly forms as Ath3na's spectral cloak.
[ATH3NA HAS ACTIVATED CLASS ABILITY [SPECTRAL AEGIS]. ALL SUBSTITUTE REAPERS WITHIN RANGE PLAYER CONSIDERS ALLIES ARE NOW INCORPOREAL. ALL DAMAGE IS NULL FOR THE DURATION. [ACTIVATION TIME: TWELVE SECONDS]], said the notification window that popped up in front of everyone.
"We have twelve seconds to end this! Go raise hell, people!" Ath3na commanded.
It didn't matter if they were with team Alpha or Bravo. Everyone followed Ath3na's order. In those twelve seconds, the players unleashed chaos on their enemies. It was not enough.
---
A minute and a half after Ath3na's [SPECTRAL AEGIS] lost its steam, the unconscious players lying on the floor numbered nine. Only Ath3na herself was still standing.
With Red Death supporting her weight, she stood before a broken carriage and two dead vampire guards. A number of carcasses and unclaimed soul stones littered the ground around her. But none of them belonged to the enemy she had to defeat.
Mr. Bones floated on the other side of the carriage, and he was laughing at her.
Ath3na stumbled forward. Her breathing was ragged. Black spots appeared over her vision. She was dying or about to blackout. Either way, game over was nearly upon them.
And yet all she cared about was silencing the mocking laughter that was slowly eroding her sanity. In fact, she would do almost anything to silence the bastard's taunt… anything.
Ath3na recalled her earlier conversation with the Game Master. Perhaps it was time she finally gave in. If not now, then when?
She pulled out a soul stone from her pocket, and the only response Mr. Bones gave her was the middle finger.
He continued laughing like he wasn't at all worried that Ath3na was attempting to replenish her soul core. It probably didn't matter to him.
"Yeah… F*ck you too," Ath3na whispered right before she inhaled the essence from the stone in her hand.
No, she wasn't actually planning to replenish her soul energy. Her soul core was already brimming with the energy Morgue had given her. No, she just wanted to activate the option to evolve.
[CONGRATULATIONS, SUBSTITUTE REAPER, YOU HAVE ATTAINED ENOUGH ENERGY TO EVOLVE YOUR SOUL.]
A second smaller window appeared over the first.
[DO YOU WISH TO LEVEL UP?]
A much smaller third window appeared over the second one.
[YES/NO]
Ath3na smiled. "Keep calm and carry on…"
She tapped on [YES].