Fortune favors the bold

Your evil nature gets the best of you and you laugh maniacally at her obvious fear.

"Which is exactly why we MUST go down! Bones, grab a torch. Come on," you say, fetching one off the nearby wall.

Abby hesitates but is compelled to follow you no matter her fears. Mr. Bones and one of the skeletons takes the lead, while a zombie brings up the rear, with you, Abby, and the crossbow skeleton tucked safely in the middle.

This new level is more a cave than a man made tunnel. It snakes this way and that, with rocks jutting out here and there. Burrowing creatures can occasionally be heard digging their burrows and chasing whatever prey such things eat. The air smells of long decayed flesh.

"Lord Vader, please. We're not alone down here. I can-," Abby says terrified, until you clamp a hand over her mouth.

"Not another word," you say.

You can feel the presence of another down here as well. And while you've never seen one before, you instinctively know that you've stumbled into the lair of the area's Boss. You were hoping to level up at least one more time before facing such a foe but here you are with the task before you.

Suddenly there is a great commotion up ahead. You hear the sound of weapons hitting armor, but can make out little else. You immediately send the rest of your undead forces on ahead. Then you follow a few paces behind with Abby in tow.

"Ready your spells, Abby," you whisper.

A skeleton drops its torch as a massive war-hammer catches it in the chest, smashing it to bone dust. Then you see the beast's metal clad back, a zombie clinging to a shoulder for a moment before a giant gauntlet reaches back and plucks it off, sending the hapless creature flying.

"Now," you order.

"Yes, Lord!" Abby answers and out of nowhere three sacred fireballs erupt and fly through the darkness at the creature.

They strike the creature, igniting both it and Mr. Bones.

"Holy hells, it's an armored oger!" Abby says in disbelief.

"More fireballs," you order.

"I only have enough MP for one more blast," she says.

"Have you no mana potions?" you say.

The oger swings its hammer again, crushing Bones like a nail into a board. The entire cave shakes and you feel dirt and rocks pelt your robe. Immediately you resummon him and he jumps back into the fight.

"No, sir. I seem to have come to the catacombs unprepared," she says, lowering her head.

"Damn it, useless hero! Hurry up and cast it now, and then go hide," you order before summoning Bones a third time.

The fire strikes the oger, finally knocking its health into the yellow.

"DOMINATE!" you cast on the oger.

Though the beast shrugs off your spell, its momentarily stunned, during which Bones is able to run up and bash it in the back of its knee. A piece of armor goes flying and the beast falls backwards. Its full helm is slung off as well, revealing the worm rotten head of a zombie.

Bones immediately crumbles and reforms atop the oger's metal chest.

"DOMINATE!" you cast again and again the beast is stunned.

Mr. Bones swings again and again, knocking its health into the red. But then it grabs him and slings him through the air at you. The skeleton plows into you, knocking you to the ground breathless, and robbing you of twenty HP. Worse yet, the oger seems to have figured out that you're the one pulling the strings.

"DOMINATE!" you cast furiously while simultaneously summoning Mr. Bones back.

This time the beast is unphased and simply stomps on Bones on its way to kill you. Then, out of the shadows a bolt lets loose from a crossbow. It catches the beast right between the eyes. It stumbles back and you summon Bones yet again. The skeleton companion falls down from the ceiling, catching the oger in the back of the skull with his mace on the way down. He's of course obliterated a moment later, as the oger falls on top of him, but the job is done. HP zero.

"I- Wow! I can't believe we did it!" Abby screams, running up to you.

"Yes, but who fired that bolt?" you ask, bringing thumb and forefinger to chin and looking back into the darkness.

There's a shuffling of bones and out crawls a skeleton, or rather two arms, part of a rib cage, and a cracked skull. It drags behind it a crossbow.

"Well, well, well...," you say, approaching the skeleton. It has one HP left.

You are in the midst of considering weather to go through the trouble of bringing the decrepit skeleton along when suddenly it's missing bones reform and it is made whole again. Similarly, your missing HP has returned. You've leveled up!

Name : Lord Vader

Class : Level 4 Darkkk*&@! (Evil)

HP : 50/50

MP : 15/15

STR : 3

DEF : 3

Strengths : -10% damage from dark magic

Weaknesses : +10% damage from devine magic

Special abilities : Barter II, Enduring Inventory, Diplomacy II, Artifact Specialist I- All bonuses provided by gear receives a +1 modifier while that item is equipped.

Shit! That's a pretty good deal! You concentrate for a moment and raise not one but two skeletal companions. One carries the mace you equipped it with. The other holds a crude stone axe.

Snatching up one of the still burning torches, you head over to the oger corps to score some sweet loot.