His charge had been rushed, and Ronan missed the pelvis of the battleaxe-wielding skeleton giant. His mace blasted through its left femur, shattering the bone into a hundred fragments and a cloud of white dust as he passed.

The giant stumbled, its swing faltering in the cradle. However, through an effort of sheer will and exceptional balance it managed to remain upright on its remaining leg.

Even though he'd failed to defeat the giant, Ronan was satisfied. It had been pressuring Howard and Jenna, and now it was focused entirely on him. That went for the sword-and-shield skeleton too.

Alyssa was running circles around the one with a warhammer. Her shortsword wasn't suited to fighting a skeleton, but she was gradually chipping away at its thick bones while evading its lumbering blows.

As for the Zweihander skeleton, Jenna and Howard had worked together to eviscerate it before it had taken more than three steps. A few crumbling bones were all that remained of the poor giant, as well as its oversized sword.

Ronan was caught out of position after his charge. He still had his momentum, as he'd obliterated most of the thigh-bone, but not gained much due to missing his actual target. The sword-giant lunged forwards, stabbing its blade towards his head.

Ronan sidestepped, but the mismatched size made it awkward. The giant only needed a slight shift in its wrist to adjust the blade to continue on a course to pierce his forehead.

Grunting, he swung his mace at the flat of the blade. The two weapons rang like a misshapen bell on impact, but the sword was sent flying to one side.

The giants were nimbler than their size might suggest. The sword-wielder was thrown off by his parry, but the axe giant sliced down in the momentary gap. A bolt of black lightning screamed overhead, striking the giant's wrist.

A chunk of bone was blasted away, and the axe bit into the stone right in front of Ronan, rather than cleaving him down the middle. A shadow loomed overhead, and he realised the other giant was smashing its shield down towards him.

Pivoting and adjusting his feet, Ronan used magic strike as he slammed the bonecrusher mace against the flat of the shield. For a moment, the two weapons were equally matched. His arms trembled, and he felt as though he'd been overpowered.

Then, the shield flew backwards, and the skeletal giant flew with it. The creature was off-balance, about to tumble backwards. Ronan saw it was going to right itself, and he refused to let the undead regain an advantage.

A second charge of the juggernaut saw him explode forwards, and his mace crashed through the top of the giant's pelvis. It shattered, bringing the monster to his feet, where a second smack burst its skull into a dozen larger fragments. The notification that followed confirmed its true death, but Ronan ignored it in favour of the ongoing battle.

Somehow, the axe-wielding skeleton was still on its remaining foot. Jenna was pelting it with spells, and Howard was tossing a near-endless stream of knives at weak spots in its joints, but it adamantly refused to fall.

That was until Ronan began to batter its shin with his mace. He didn't use skills, as he had a better plan. His first hit left a crack in the bone. The second deepened it.

When the third smashed right through the bone, the giant could no longer stay on its feet. Ronan was forced to leap and roll out of the way as its torso fell onto him, barely avoiding the freefalling axe as it smashed against the stone.

A bolt of black lightning smashed into its dominant arm, almost breaking it off. Ronan brought the head of the bonecrusher mace down on the thin bone, finishing the job.

Weaponless and legless, the giant painted a sorry picture as it desperately scratched at the ground. Ronan had struck it four times, bringing it to his feet. With a roar of satisfied exuberance, he raised the mace high overhead and then slammed it down on the skeleton's skull.

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He was knocked back as the mace bounced off the stone and over his head, but he soon wrestled control of the errant weapon. He didn't need to read the kill notification to know he'd earned the bonus from critical experience. A portion of the tiled floor under the skull had been eviscerated along with it, which his regular blows had failed to do.

Alyssa had made great headway in fighting the final skeleton while they took down the other four, and there was a large gash in its right leg. Darting under its hammer, she delivered a two-handed thwack into the cut, and the last piece of the bone was cleaved in half.

Three deft hops took her back and out of the fall zone as the giant tumbled to the ground. Its hammer bounced off the ground and into the air, almost crashing into her side. Ronan was on the move before she landed, and shattered its arm at the elbow. Weaponless, it couldn't resist as Alyssa rushed back in to deliver the killing blows.

As the final giant was put to rest, a rattling clap sounded out. The party turned back towards the throne, where they saw Tharaxes clapping his bony hands together. His staff was resting across his lap, and despite the five giants lying destroyed at their feet, the lich seemed unbothered.

"Marvellous performance! You've given me some wonderful data to improve those things in the next model. Clearly, size isn't everything." As it finished speaking it lifted the staff and ran a bony finger along the smooth shaft. "I wonder if this old thing is still functioning properly. It's been a while since I made it. In any case, playtime's over."

The lich suddenly flew into the sky, robes billowing behind it. The orb at the tip of its staff began to glow and crackle, and it came to a halt right above the pond in the centre of the room.

"Shit!" Howard yelled, before sprinting as far away from the pond as possible.

Ronan wasn't sure what the man was hoping to accomplish, but he was a ranged fighter, so he wouldn't begrudge him gaining some distance. Jenna was watching the staff with fascinated envy, while Alyssa was mirroring Ronan—they observed the goblin lich and waited for it to make its move.

They didn't wait long.

As the crackling mana reached a crescendo, Tharaxes stared down at them from above, and its hood was blown off its shining skull. "This vessel lacks true power, but I doubt you can resist. Adventurers rarely can."

A bolt of greenish-blue lightning shot out from the orb, striking the centre of the pond. Ronan couldn't help focusing on Tharaxes' deformed skull. It reminded him of a goblin berserker, if its skull had been caved in.

The moment the lightning struck the pond, Ronan winced. A deafening hiss permeated the room as the entire body of water evaporated in a flash.

Misty droplets sprayed outwards, each one glowing the colour of the lightning bolt. An eerie cloud of fireflies. Then the first droplet splashed against his skin, and melted the flesh.

"Fuck, watch out for the steam. It's corrosive!" he yelled out to his allies, but it was too late for Alyssa.

A cloud of the corrosive mist struck her. She turned to the right, and only suffered damage down one side of her body, but that didn't make it any better. Her screams filled the cavernous room as her left arm began to melt.

Ronan watched her sprinting, but her left leg dragged in a limp. Howard and Jenna avoided the worst of the attack, but still had a few patches of melted clothes and skin where errant droplets struck them.

Ronan suffered the worst. He'd been too caught up observing the impact of the spell to bother escaping it.

By the time he began to run away, almost the entire front of his body had melted away, revealing the muscle beneath the skin. It burned and stung simultaneously, and the edges of his vision were blurred, and fading fast.

If this is the damage with my resistance mutations, I'd hate to be on the receiving end if I was one of the others. The thought sent a shiver down his spine, but motivated him to get moving.

Glancing up at the lich, he saw that Tharaxes was simply floating there. The staff's glow was much reduced, and given that it wasn't charging up another spell, Ronan guessed there was a substantial cooldown between casts. That or it simply didn't have the mana to repeat its opening strike.

He wasn't sure if he could leap high enough to hit the boss. "Jenna, Howard, can the two of you try to knock the bastard out of the air? If I can get a direct line, I can end this!" Ronan yelled.

"I'll try, but that little lich is a small target," Jenna replied, already launching a mana bolt towards Tharaxes.

"Little!? LITTLE!? You bitch! I worked hard on thi—" The lich spat and raged at her offhand remark, and its staff suddenly floated in the air in front of it. The orb began to glow, and then shattered. Ronan suddenly felt all the mana in the room flowing towards the goblin, and cursed Jenna's potty mouth.

"I'll show you little," the lich finished, and as it did, all of the bones, bone fragments, and even the dust scattered around the room started to shake. When the first bit of rib shot towards its body and glued itself to Tharaxes, Ronan felt his stomach drop. This was going to be a lot harder than anticipated.

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