Flesh & Bone

Tzipora scoffed at Urmu's declaration. "Don't you have bigger concerns right now?" She gestured to the conflict of gods tearing apart the surroundings of the Armazel Academy tower. The brand new lecture hall was already debris.

Urmu turned his worried gaze towards the battle of high powers.

Lisma's complexion appeared to be growing sickly even as she avoided attacks with her luck magic and fired her bow through the never-ending hosts of undead soldiers and creatures. The undead who do not feel pain, do not fatigue, and regenerate wounds rapidly were showing their value as Rygald's forces. Even as scores of undead were reduced to ash with the divine weapon in Lisma's grasp, scores more would emerge from below. Long shadows stretched up from within the fissures, now glowing a necrotic green due to the mystical foggy energy that flowed in and out of them as it passed over the street surface. The shadows seemed to crawl like snakes along the surface onto the street above, sliding Lisma's way under the cover of the low-lying fog.

"What did you do, Rygald?!" Lisma called out in desperation, feeling herself weaken as she danced evasively through the field of fog swarming with strengthened undead.

Rygald floated above his forces, issuing commands. He gloated with no small amount of pride, "Do you like them? They are my progeny. Rather, they are minor inheritors. I made them by giving certain more intelligent undead special necromantic knowledge, then imbuing them with enough necrotic energy to mutate a hundred planet's worth of living things into undead. What you feel now is the physical manifestation of my personal domain, via my secret weapons here." Rygald looked to his creations with a beaming smile.

"You would have been wise to keep that to yourself." Lisma cryptically warned with a malicious smirk. The robed, floating undead suddenly began screaming in ghostly wails of pain. From their eye sockets, the green brilliance exploded outwards, before they dropped to the ground motionless, no more than corpses.

"Necromancy was it? Did you think I, the god of magic, would permit your tools to wield magic against my aims?" From above, Osk floated down, his hair and beard fluttering in the wind that had picked up considerably since the emergence of the dark clouds above.

Rygald scowled with immense displeasure as he watched his proud creations fall in agony. Without their grasp on necromancy, they couldn't withstand Rygald's power within them. "God of magic, Demon King's lapdog. What's the difference right?" Rygald held Osk's watery gaze with a passionate glare.

Sneering, Osk stood by Lisma's side, who was beginning to regain her composure after the source of the necrotic fog was vanquished. "Your own stubbornness will get you killed here, while I will only grow in power and ability. Do you truly feel superior?"

"Only mentally." Rygald answered simply, before making a sudden gesture with his hands, and a sphere of solid bone raised itself around him in an instant. As soon as the barrier was made, Rygald loudly invoked a series of mystical verses, preparing for a lengthy necromancy. Above the sphere, high in the skies, green and blue fog permeated the dark clouds, causing electrical flickers of necrotic energy wherever it made contact.

"Lisma, quickly! Break it!" Osk ordered, aware of Rygald's plan. He could prevent lesser beings like undead from using magic, but not a fellow god. They had to kill Rygald before he could complete his rite.

Lisma drew her bow, loosing an arrow in its tumultuous elemental storm of wind and fire. However, upon striking the smooth bone sphere, it merely glanced off. Lisma stared at the barrier in shock, "Even my divine bow can't pierce it? How? He barely used any effort to form it."

Osk growled, "This is not a barrier formed by magical energy. It's a divine tool, like your bow. It needs more than just a single shot. Keep firing." As he spoke, Osk withdrew his own artifact, seemingly plucking it from nothing in midair. It was a shining, silver wand with a golden, spiked ball at the tip resembling a star."I will assist."

Together Lisma and Osk fired their respective projectiles at the bone-sphere shield, Osk's fiery bolt exploding in a glorious blossom of multi-colored flame against it's surface, even As Lisma's bolt once again ricocheted off the hard shell. The smoke clearing, Rygald's shield showed only the slightest blemish from the explosion, and even that damage rapidly regenerated.

Osk paled at the sight, "A defensive tool with undead properties..."He shuddered thinking about it.

"Get it together. It's not impenetrable." Lisma scolded the unnerved god of mischief. "We need a continuous barrage of sustained powerful strikes to break it." She advised with her usual incisive analysis.

Osk looked back at the regiment of enchanted soldiers under Urmu's command. He smiled deviously to himself. "Hey! Urmu!" He called for the young commander's attention, "Time to prove your worth! Take your men and help us break this down. Use everything you've got!"

Urmu snapped to attention at the voice of his god, and replied smartly, "As you command." Turning to his subordinates he commanded, "Fire up every power enhancer you've got, and follow my lead! We'll charge in close and strike hard! To battle!" Urmu charged at the sphere with a host of fervent and bellowing warriors at his heels. As they ran, sigils sparked up on the bodies of the soldiers, various in shape, size, and color. They all displayed similar effects, however. The body enchantments made these soldiers swell up in musculature, even as their speed increased to inhuman levels, and some even seemed to mutate into inhuman, monstrous forms.

In an instant, the powered up regiment arrived before the sphere, the circumference of it wide enough to accommodate the regiment of spear wielding soldiers surrounding it in a one-rowed circular formation. The clouds above, imbued with Rygald's necromantic power, twisted and began funneling downwards towards the sphere, green and blue electric crackles buzzing across the descending terror.

Urmu stood behind the formation, staff aimed high above at the vast upper curvature of the bony mass. "Ready!" Urmu waited a moment for his soldiers to prepare their attacks, then shouted "Strike!" As he bellowed out his order he unleashed a storm of fire and lightning from his gleaming, spear-like staff-head.

The soldiers under his command all thrust at once with their spears using all their might with a loud, "Huh!" They all felt violent reverberations travel through the spears, up through their arms and into their entire bodies. Were it not for the enchantments carved into their flesh that enhanced their overall physical prowess, they might have shattered bones and tendons. Their spears were made of flexible divine copper, and thus could handle the heavy strikes and swift vibrations.

"Don't let up! Strike!" Urmu shouted again shortly after the first wave of powerful attacks. The unit shouted out once more as they landed their blows, Urmu following up with another blast of the most violent elements. "Again!" Urmu put the soldiers through their paces, as he relentlessly pushed them to strike with their all, repeatedly and rapidly ordering, "Again!"

Watching on, Osk Gestured for Lisma. "Can you imbue them with a little luck?"

Lisma nodded wearily, "I've had to use 'Impossible Luck' too much today. But I can use a lesser spell." Turning to the powerful enchanted regiment striking the bone shield in unison, Lisma muttered, "Lykre il," waving her hands like she was sending dust motes adrift in their direction.

The funneling, flickering clouds at last touched upon the bone sphere's surface, even starting to pass through the rigid shell. Urmu bellowed once more, "Again!" and the soldiers, fear beginning to grip their hearts, struck with desperate might. Suddenly, as they struck, a few of the besieging warriors struck onto a minute flaw in the smooth surface, opening up the slightest of cracks. "Again!" Urmu ordered excitedly.

Even as the regiment landed another series of blows that spread open the cracks a little more, a sharp wind came slashing from behind. At each point where a crack had appeared an arrow sliced through the air, mangling soldiers in its way. They all embedded themselves deeply into the cracks, before a fiery explosion spread the rupture wide enough for a toddler to step through. Lisma smiled in satisfaction. "Osk, you're up!"

Urmu watched in horror as his men were killed under the bow of his goddess, tears springing to his eyes. He blinked rapidly and looked away to hold them back, unable to speak in his grief. Lisma flew swiftly in his direction, scooping him up and dashing away. "Why do you cry? You have proven your worth just like we asked. Do not shed tears for your inferiors, they lived only to die." Lisma whispered into Urmu's ears as he wept in her arms. "Even now, we protect you. You have no need to fear."

As she slowed to a stop, a massive fiery explosion erupted from behind her, gigantic shards of bone flying like shrapnel designed to shatter stars. Urmu looked into Lisma's swirling eyes. "Promise you'll never abandon me?"

Lisma gave Urmu a gentle smile, returning his gaze. She lowered him to the ground, bringing her mouth to his and softly caressed their lips together in a tender kiss, which he merely accepted in surprise. "I promise," she whispered, hair dangling over her face seductively. Lisma leapt to her feet vigorously. "I have to go fight. Wait for me."

Lisma held her bow aloft as she darted up into the air, before flying back towards where the explosion occurred. Urmu touched his wet lips as he stared at the distant speck that was Lisma flying into battle. "She kissed me?" He asked dumbly to himself. After a moment he smiled, "She kissed me." Laughing like a fool he sat up and dusted himself off. "I guess I truly have a goddess' favor."