Merchant Crab-Chapter 225: Fumbling the Bag of Bones

The archer, the swordsman, and the fighter all stood at the ready in front of the group, their expressions tense as the sound of erratic steps approached, accompanied by something heavy and metallic dragging on stone.

“Come on, come on…” Jack whispered, his right hand over his shoulder, hovering above the hilt of his Sword of Heavy Might. “Please be worth it…”

Finally, something stepped into the halo of orange light created by the group’s torches. A humanoid skeleton, its old bones yellow and covered in a layer of dust, stopped in front of them. It wore what looked like an old burlap sack, torn and open on the sides, leaving most of its ribs exposed. In its right hand it carried a long scimitar, the blade chipped in several spots and partially eaten by rust, and on its face it was wearing something black covering its eye sockets.

Leah pulled her head back in bafflement. “Are those…”

“Sunglasses?” Rye completed, just as befuddled.

The undead roamer stood there, skull tilted in complete stillness, jaw hanging slightly open, as if it was just as surprised by their appearance as they were by the skeleton’s.

“You have got to be kidding me,” said Jack, taking his hand off his sword and stepping closer to the dusty skeleton in sunglasses. “This was what we were all so on edge for? One old, raggedy skeleton? Look at him. This cool guy isn’t a threat. But hey, at least imma loot myself some nice shades!”

As the young man reached for the piece of eyewear on the skull, Balthazar pulled out his monocle and quickly checked the skeleton.

[Savage Skeleton - Level 31]

“No, get away! That’s—”

With a mad swing, the skeleton threw the full weight of his sword at the adventurer reaching for his sunglasses.

“Jack!” Leah yelled with a gasp as she rushed forward.

The scimitar had struck the swordsman from above, the blade connecting with his forehead. Jack stumbled back a couple of steps before slowly turning around to face his group.

“Ouch!” the young man said, rubbing the dented area of his horned helmet. “He hit me! Not cool at all!”

The skeleton looked down at his scimitar with a hint of confusion on his otherwise expressionless skull. The part of the blade that had connected with the helmet was chipped, bits of its rusty metal now spread on the floor below.

The savage undead opened its mouth and screamed a blood-curdling shriek. Perhaps it was mad at the human for being unharmed. Or maybe it was just upset that its favorite sword had been damaged. Whichever the case, the skeleton was determined to not fail a second time.

Stumbling forward, the bone fiend prepared to take another swing at his target, this time aiming for his completely unprotected midsection with enough force to cut the human in two.

An axe blocked the strike just as it was about to slice the naked adventurer.

“Damn it, Jack, get away from it already!” exclaimed Leah as she struggled to deflect the skeleton’s attack.

“Alright, alright! Calm down! I’m going,” said her friend as he scampered back to the group.

At the same time, Rye stepped forward, pulling back the string of his Dragonslayer Greatbow while nocking a regular wood and steel arrow.

“Give me an opening so I can shoot it!” the archer said to the fighter.

“I’m trying!” the young woman yelled back.

As soon as she ducked, Rye let the arrow loose.

With a whistle, the projectile flew straight at the skull, hitting the sunglasses and knocking them off into the darkness.

“Raaargh!” wailed the undead, its empty sockets turned to the archer now.

“Aren’t you going to help them?!” Balthazar said to Jack, who had come to stand next to him with hands on his hips.

The adventurer looked down at him, a cocked eyebrow visible through the openings of the iron helmet.

“How many times do I have to explain it?” he said, pointing at the greatsword strapped to his back. “It. Gets. Heavier. With. Every. Use! I can’t just go swinging it around at anything. It has to be worth it!”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Helping your partner isn’t worth it?!” exclaimed the crab.

“Pfft! She will be fine. Leah has gotten out of way stickier situations without my help,” Jack said as he crossed his arms and turned his attention back to the fight.

Seeing an opening from Rye’s shot, Leah came at the savage undead from the side with her axe. frёeweɓηovel_coɱ

“Got you now, you—Oh!”

The blade of her weapon slid horizontally right in between two ribs, lodging itself inside the ribcage of the increasingly angry skeleton.

With a sudden snap of its skull, it turned its attention back to the fighter, who was desperately trying to pull her weapon free.

The skeleton raised its scimitar to strike down the human pulling at its ribs when Rye yelled again.

“Hey, look over here, you old bag of bones! I got something for you to see!”

As the bonewalker glanced back, a second arrow came flying toward its skull, this time hitting it directly in the eye socket.

Which was vacant of any eyes.

“Grargh?!” sputtered the skeleton as it effortlessly removed the project from its empty eye socket and tossed it aside.

Giving up on getting her axe free, Leah tried to get away from the savage skeleton when it suddenly grabbed her wrist.

“Hey! Let her go!” Rye yelled as he desperately readied another arrow.

The skeleton brought its scimitar up over the fighter’s head and her eyes widened as she attempted to pull herself free without success.

Jack bolted from Balthazar’s side, his hand pulling the greatsword from his back.

“Oh, for the love of gold!” the crab exclaimed, throwing his pincers up. “How have you guys survived this long as adventurers?!”

The archer struggled to find a clear shot.

The naked swordsman fumbled his way forward while trying not to fall under the weight of his own weapon.

The fighter desperately tried to dislodge her axe from the ribs it was stuck in.

Meanwhile, the skeleton howled as it prepared to cut down its victim.

“Baaarg—”

A loud crunch exploded out of nowhere as broken bones and dust were sent flying everywhere.

A giant stone fist now occupied the space where the savage skeleton had been a moment before.

“Friend,” the owner of the fist that crushed the skeleton said, smiling down at Leah.

She looked up and then slowly back down at the severed skeletal arm still holding on to her wrist.

“T-thanks,” the girl said, shaking the bony hand off herself with a disgusted expression.

“Oh,” Jack said as he skidded to a stop. “Well, there we go. I knew it would all be fine. We got it in the end.”

Balthazar skittered to where the three humans were, with Druma and Blue following behind. He stopped in front of the naked adventurer, who was slowly placing his greatsword back on the holster strapped around his torso, and scowled at him.

“We got it?” the crab said. “You three were fumbling to handle a single skeleton until Bouldy came in and saved your butts!”

Leah and Rye looked at each other and then at the floor, visibly embarrassed. Even Jack was looking unable to come up with a retort.

“Seriously, what kind of adventurers are you?” the miffed crustacean continued. “Attacking an undead—a skeleton, even—with bladed weapons? With arrows? Even a level 2 adventurer should know better than that! Come on!”

The archer sighed and Leah put her hands up.

“You’re right,” she said. “We fumbled that pretty hard. Maybe it was panic, the being in this darkness for too long messing with our heads, or just not being used to working with each other, but we did. All we can do now is try to do better next time.”

Balthazar placed his pincers on the sides of his carapace. “Yes, well, maybe next time—”

“Shhh!” Rye exclaimed, raising a finger back while staring at the darkness around them.

“Hey, don’t shush me while I’m chastising you!”

“Quiet! I hear something coming,” the archer whispered.

The crab listened for a second. “I don’t hear any—”

He cut himself when the sound of creaking steps reached him. Lots of them.

“They’re coming in big numbers, from all sides,” Rye said, grabbing his bow again as he spun around.

“They must have heard their friend being exploded by the big guy over here,” said Jack, his hand back to the hilt of his sword.

“We can’t fight a horde of skeletons here,” Leah said. “We’ll be surrounded. We need a choking point.”

“Not like anywhere else we’ve passed would be better,” said Balthazar. “We can’t seem to find the edges of these halls!”

Rye pointed to their right. “This way. It’s the only area I don’t hear any skeletons coming from. Maybe there’s a wall or something there we can use.”

Wasting no more time bickering, the seven explorers ran into the dark area the archer had pointed.

A minute passed without them reaching anything, not even a pillar, just more empty darkness. Meanwhile, the horde of running skeletons kept coming, sounding closer and closer every second.

“They must be following the light of our torches,” Leah said.

“Yeah, but it’s not like turning them off is a better option, is it?” Jack said between ragged breaths.

“Look! I see something ahead,” Rye exclaimed.

Balthazar squinted, trying to make out what the archer was pointing at.

As they kept running toward it, the small dot grew. Something orange that seemed to be glowing or at least reflecting light.

“Is that a torch?” Leah asked.

“No, I think it’s… hair?” said Rye.

The crab’s eyestalks jumped as he finally realized what they were running toward—or rather, who.

“Mr. Baaaaaalthazaaaaar!”

Oh, hell no!

Updat𝓮d from freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.co(m)