Scale of Reality

Cave of the Vanquished: Part 12

Muji POV

I looked back briefly and seen Mya collapsed, she wasn't in a puddle of blood so I could only assume she was alright.

"Jax!"

Jax jumped out of the way and threw his axe to me as I caught it, swinging it at the skeleton before me. I clashed against a mana barrier as I clicked my tongue and jumped back, throwing the axe back to Jax.

I looked at our enemies, one of them had half of their upper body and face. This seemed to be thanks to Mya's attack earlier, and as helpful as it was, Jax and I were still in trouble.

The main reason being these three skeletons could use some type of mana. I don't understand how a dead being could use life energy, it was just against the laws of the world.

Unless there's something I didn't know.

Regardless, magic or not, an enemy is an enemy and we had to prevail to survive.

"Be careful Jax, it's not just regular mana."

"I can tell Muji. Let's go."

Jax and I rushed at the mage skeletons, I observed them as I got closer. One of them cast a large fire ball and launched it at me, causing me to jump out of the way.

Jax swung his axe when he was close enough, clashing against the mana shield the skeleton had up.

"You think this shield is going to stop me?!"

Jax increased his mana output and began to try and overpower the shield. As he was doing that the other skeleton mages fired lightning and ice at him.

I dashed over and deflected the attacks with my mana, standing in front of Jax defensively. I turned around and also attacked the barrier, the thing finally breaking.

Jax and I jumped back as more spells of lighting and ice were being fired at us. We ran together whilst avoiding the attacks.

"We need to break the ice skeletons barrier, but not yet. The lightning one is already damaged thanks to Mya, so we need to prioritize taking them out one by one."

Jax nodded as we both swung our weapons and clashed against more spells.

"So which one are we going after? Do you even know if we can kill these things?"

"No I don't, but for now let's just go for the fire one."

Jax nodded and dashed in, swinging his axe upon getting close. The moment he swung it, a bolt of lightning came flying at him. I ran over and pulled him back, successfully avoiding the attack.

However before we could recover the ice skeleton was firing some type of ice spears at us. Jax threw me into the air and slammed his axe down, an orb of darkness forming around him and blocking the ice.

"Muji! Here!"

Jax tossed his axe up as I caught it and brought it down on the fire skeleton, managing to cut its arm off. Before I could get away it grabbed me and began to cast fire, burning my arm.

I grit my teeth in order to not scream as I kicked it back and broke free of its grasp.

"Jax!"

I tossed the axe above me as Jax came zooming by, grabbing his axe in the process and slamming it into the fire skeleton. I rushed in to follow up but an icicle hit my leg, pinning me down.

I sensed mana as I looked up, seeing a lightning cloud forming above me. Darkness formed in the shape of a tent above me, blocking the various lighting strikes from hitting me.

"You alright?" Jax asked as he ripped the icicle out of my leg. I nodded while stepping on the ground a bit.

"Hurts like crazy though."

I looked at Jax, he looked to be thinking about something.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, it's just, every time I hit the fire guy he feels weaker than before. Do you think...maybe when they use magic it weakens them?"

I hummed and looked at him with new eyes.

"You're smarter than you act."

"Shut up."

I cracked my neck and drew my daggers.

"Alright so, if we just survive long enough they'll kill themselves. That is, if we survive."

"Let's do it then."

Jax and I both ran out in different directions, heading towards the fire skeleton. Lighting bolts came flying at me as I flipped and dodged them, landing on my feet and jumping at the fire skeleton.

I slammed my leg into the skeleton, sending it flying back into the wall. When icicles came flying towards me, Jax pulled me in with darkness and threw me back towards the fire skeleton.

I flew into the skeleton with a punch before I began to bash its skull in, preventing it from casting anything for the time being. A cloud formed above me as lightning came down to attack me.

Jax dashed in front of me and deflected said lightning with his axe before grabbing me and throwing me towards the lightning skeleton.

"Time to switch!"

I clicked my tongue and slammed into the lighting skeleton with a knee, digging my daggers into its chest area and dragging them down. An ice boulder hit me as I was sent into a wall with the ice still on top of me.

A raging lighting bolt was flying towards me, but I couldn't move due to the ice.

"Jax!"

Jax lobbed his axe towards the ice and shattered it, now free I barely managed to dodge the lightning bolt. After barely dodging it I found a fire ball in front of me as I was hit once again.

Jax dashed in front of me and blocked an incoming ice spear, but was shot by an arrow of lightning in the back. The ground beneath us began to glow as we jumped out of the way, fire rising out of the ground where it was.

Jax and I found ourselves landing on a ground of ice, which quickly changed into water.

"Jax, jump!"

The two of us jumped once more as lightning hit the ground that was covered in water. I looked up and quickly brought my arms up, blocking a pillar of fire that was sent at me.

Jax quickly dashed and grabbed me out of the fire, the two of us standing against the skeleton mages while breathing heavily.

"Hey Muji...is it just me...or are these bastards getting stronger?"

I nodded.

"You're right, I noticed it too. As time goes on, they're getting stronger for some reason."

Jax laughed nervously and spit out a bit of blood.

"That makes surviving a whole lot harder."