Saintess Summons Skeletons

Before Zarrow could reach the passed out Alith, the girl had been covered in a ray of bright divine light falling from the heavens.

That was more than half her health in a single hit! I almost shat myself! Thank god I can watch her health points real time. Fucking pirate gonna hear me out about what a killing blow is!

“You ok, girl? Didn’t mean to hit you that hard,” the big man said to Alith who was struggling with opening her eyes. He seemed ashamed of his performance.

“It’s okay, don’t worry, Sof’s healing’s no joke. Good match, Zarrow. Can ya help me up?”

Alith sounded a bit disoriented, even with Zarrow holding her she could barely stand straight. The healing had maxed her HP in seconds but her senses were still swaying from the shock.

Sofia had rushed through the ring to reach them.

She wanted to talk but Zarrow who had been looking at the light around Alith that had also touched him was the first to open his mouth, “Your healing skill is single target?” He pointed at the weapon still completely stuck in his leg, not a hint of the blade was showing.

“It only heals the heroes I summoned myself. Can’t even heal my own wounds. But you’re free to try standing in the light if you don’t believe me,” Sofia almost spat at the bearded man.

“I’ll heal myself then. No need to sound so angry, you drab Saint. No one’s dead, like. Ay.”

“You hurt Alith a second time and I burn down your ship and everyone aboard. Mark my fucking words, you oaf pirate!”

“Hey it was you who said I shud wrestle her, nah? You her mom or what? Calm down. It’s not like y’all won’t have to tank harder shit in the tower so no need to make it such a big deal,” Zarrow answered. He looked torn between different emotions, and eventually focused back on his leg that was still losing blood.

It turned out he had a wood related skill that let him close wounds by turning his blood to a thick sticky sap. That wasn’t enough to prevent making a mess when he took out the sickle and he cried out in pain. The girls let the pirate crew help him with that while Sofia carried Alith to their cabin.

 

“Did you bet on me?”

“…”

“Shit… Well, I got a better feel for [AvoiDance] with the new weapons, so it’s not all that bad. That last hit was painful but I’ve been through worse. The armor helped a ton, didn’t even cave in. You overreacted a bit out there.”

“Clearly you haven’t seen your face if you think I overreacted,” Sofia justified her previous outburst, if anything she felt like she went too easy on Zarrow. She grabbed a handheld mirror from her bag and showed Alith her own bloodied face. She had bled from the seven orifices, and not a few drops.

Alith was shocked at how bad she looked. “Okay… I still think you overreacted but I’d have done the same if you came out looking like that. Woah. I look like an actual banshee for once,” she remarked while observing her head from every angle she could.

“Well, there’s something very important I learned today,” Alith continued after she had enough of gawking at herself.

“What would that be? Don’t get hit?”

“Hoy stop acting like I’m dumb. But not far. Though it’s more about you. Or our group, I guess. What I mean is, we need to have a real front-line. Someone who can really take a hit. Our health points are too low. Pareth is brittle too. Even with good armor you saw what happens when I get hit. So we need your next summon to be a big tough undead or something like that.”

Sofia was considering Alith’s input. “I was hoping for some sort of a caster next since you ended up going close quarter combat like Pareth… If we manage to get Pareth a larger skeleton…”

“That’s an option too but what about fighting in small spaces? Just indoors in general would start being a problem then.”

“True, well, I can only hope to get good keywords, also we’re bound to get some good things with level 100 so the problem could also solve itself. Looking at the keywords I have left anyway…”

Available Active Skills :

[Dispel ] : Dispels [ mist] : in a thick mist. [ soul] : to the necromancer’s lifeforce. [Mass ] : Dispels all magic in a

 

“I suppose [Mass ] could be twisted into making a potential summon bigger. That’s a bit far-fetched for making it a good front-line. We can only wait and see,” Sofia concluded, unenthusiastic about her odds of ever getting the skills she wanted.

“You don’t have any more insight on other necromancer skills?” Alith suggested.

“Not really, the book wasn’t all that rich in knowledge and most pages were missing or partially torn. Out of everything mentioned, the last two were [Aura of Death], that’s what I got at level 80 I imagine; and [Necrotic Pulse], which won’t help us much here.”

Their discussion got interrupted by Crane knocking on the door. He was bringing a small bucket of clear water for Alith to clean herself with. It was a nice gesture considering how little water there was on the ship. The duo didn’t come out of their cabin all day after that, eating some of their pre-packed food that was already starting to go bad instead of joining the crew’s meals. What had started as a serious talk about party composition and skill management devolved through the hours. They ended up in the hammocks, sharing stories of their past, cradled by the rhythm of the waves, under the thin ray of moonlight piercing the room’s only window.

‘A soul has been harvested: Soul Value +1’

What?

Alith was surprised at Sofia’s sudden silence, “Something happen?” she whispered.

“Yeah, uh. Remember [Avatar of death]? Looks like I reaped my first… you know.” Sofia whispered back.

“Right now? Didn’t you have to actively do the thing?”

“Guess not.”

“Someone died on the ship right now, then? Are we under attack?” Alith wondered, she tried to listen for any signs of unrest but all she heard was the crashing waves below.

“Let’s prepare and go check what’s happening. Do I summon Pareth?”

“Don’t risk it unless we’re sure there’s something, the armor should be enough for now, can you help me get that on?” the short girl asked as she struggled to get in her breastplate for the second time today. “I’m really jealous of your armor skill.”

“Yeah, well, please do get one too if you can. I never signed up to be your squire.”

“Uh? You’re the one who insisted I needed plate armor aren’t you?”

“Shut up.”

It took a few minutes for Alith to be ready to go. Two fully armored women snuck out of their cabin.

It was quite late, and the inner corridors of the ship were unlit, a lot of the pirates would be sleeping right now. Alith activated the light bracelet on her gauntlet, it was one of the few magic accessories they had bought in Drakron in preparation for the trip. Much better than carrying around a torch or relying on Pareth’s sword’s glow.

Alith pointed at the exit to the main deck, she wanted to check there first. They took caution to make little noise, which didn’t work much. As they reached the deck, they found nothing out of place. About half the crew was still up to keep the boat moving through the night, in fact, they were the weird ones, showing up on the deck in armor at this hour, prompting a lot of curious looks from the sailors.

Unabated, they made their way to the captain’s cabin and knocked on the door.

“Don’t just stand out there, hay, come in.”

They weren’t even through the door as Zarrow kept talking. “You better now, girly? Didn’t permanently damage you, did I ?”

“I’m aight, Captain.”

“You knew it was us?” Sofia asked, closing the door behind her.

“Good to hear. Eheh, no one in the crew would knock before barging in, I have no privacy on my own vessel, deplorable.” Zarrow was sitting kicked back behind his desk, he had been writing something before they interrupted. “So, why the armor? What comes?”

“So you don’t know either… Someone died,” Sofia coldly announced.