Alex watched a rotmoss skeleton sail through the air, spinning like a giant, unwieldy frisbee before striking the wall at the far side of the room and shattering into pieces with a loud clatter. The noise barely even managed to cut through the cacophony swallowing the room.

Buzzing magic prickled against Alex, mixing with the sweat beading on his skin. They’d been fighting for nearly five minutes now. That wasn’t a particularly long time in the grand scheme of things. It wasn’t even long for an average fight. The System had made all of them stronger. More resilient. Fighting a few minutes was normally no trouble at all.

But things got a little harder when they’d already spent a large amount of their magical energy just a short while ago — and their enemy just didn’t seem to know how to stay dead.

Alex had lost track of the number of skeletons he’d turned into bonemeal. He’d sent so many hurtling through the air that he was pretty sure he was owed a shotput world record. And yet, no matter how many they killed, no matter how many he destroyed, they always came back.

Even the adrenaline pumping through his veins and the fun of the fight couldn’t keep him going forever.

He dodged out of the way of a jagged bone claw. The armor floating behind his back brought both of its hands down on the attacking skeleton’s head, driving the monster’s skull down into its chest and destroying both a crunch.

It started to reform, but the armor grabbed it and launched it into a nearby crowd of monsters, sending all of them tumbling like bowling pins.

Claire blurred past Alex, grabbing a monster by the head and driving her foot into its chest. The bottom half of the rotmoss skeleton launched backward, leaving its skull behind in her grasp. She launched the head in the opposite direction, then spun out of the way of another monster’s attack.

The sounds of battle still came from the mass of skeletons gathered around the group that had been present in the room before they’d arrived. Flashes of painted magic tearing through the hordes of skeletons marked Alyssa’s presence. It looked like they were still holding their own — but it was only a matter of time.

No matter how fun this was, they were going to need to find a way to actually deal with the skeletons before they all got overwhelmed. They needed a lead. And, as far as Alex could tell, only one had made itself known so far.

“Have you noticed?” Claire yelled over the din.

“That we haven’t gotten a single lick of magical energy from killing these?” Alex called back, his voice warped by the bone mask. “Yeah. It’s annoying. Defeats the whole point.”

“We aren’t actually killing them.” Claire dodged out of the way of a skeleton, her wings flapping and launching her back so she could land beside Alex. “That’s the only explanation. Not one of these things has actually died. Breaking the skeletons isn’t doing anything.”

“It’s a hivemind,” Alex said. A skeleton lurched for him. His armor smashed a skeleton to the side, sending pieces of moss and bone spraying through the air. “And I’m pretty sure the moss is the bit that’s moving everything. But we’ve damaged it!”

“Maybe the moss is only a portion of the monster. Something unimportant.” Claire pirouetted past a skeleton. It looked more like she was in some fancy ballroom dance rather than a fight. That illusion was promptly shattered when she brought her elbow down on the back of the monster’s skull, shattering it. “It must have a core. A heart. Something that its hiding from us.”

“Seems like a safe bet,” Alex said. “But how do we find it?”

Claire’s brow furrowed for a moment. Then her eyes lit as an idea visibly took form behind them. “I think I know, but you need to swap roles with Alyssa for a moment.”

Alex nodded, spinning toward the mass of skeletons surrounding the group near the corner of the room. There was a veritable sea of monsters between them. At the rate they regenerated, mowing through them would be impossible. They’d just reform around him and he’d be surrounded.

He could only think of one way to make it to the group — and it seemed that Claire had the same idea.

Neither of them said a word. They didn’t need to. Both took off at a sprint. Claire fell in a step behind Alex, her arms wrapping around his waist an instant before they were upon the nearest skeleton.

There was a whoomph as Claire’s wings snapped down. Then the ground vanished from beneath Alex’s feet as they both launched into the air, sailing straight over the sea of monsters to hurtle toward Alyssa and the others.

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The monsters had almost entirely overwhelmed the defenders. Paint strokes shimmered in a cage around them, funneling the skeletons toward the front — but the strokes were damaged and weeping magic. They wouldn’t hold for much longer.

Alex didn’t have time to analyze the situation any longer. Claire released his waist. He dropped, angling straight down for the monsters pressing toward Alyssa. She spotted him coming, her eyes widening right before Alex’s feet crashed into a skeleton’s shoulders.

It shattered beneath him, crumpling to a mess of bone and moss. He barely even paused. His armor’s arms shot out behind him, grabbing two of the moss monsters and smashing them together, shattering both into pieces.

“Shit!” one of the defenders yelled. “What the—”

Claire landed beside Alex and grabbed Alyssa by the shoulders. “I need you.”

“Wha—”

That was all Alyssa managed to say before Claire’s wings beat the air once more. The two of them launched into the sky, tearing away from the sea of skeletons pressing ever closer. Alex took a step back, joining the ranks of the other humans standing against the horde.

He couldn’t help but notice that two more had joined the dead. There were only three of them left. Hazel, the woman that had called for help earlier, and two men that wore the same blood-splattered colors that she had.

Monsters surged toward them. Hazel swept her hand forward and a wave of ice tore out through the air, driving into them in a sea of spikes.

The zombie skeletons stumbled backward from the force of the magic, but it didn’t do anything but slow them. Claws raked against Alyssa’s faltering defenses, tearing into them ravenously.

A claw reached through a gap in the paint and grabbed onto Hazel’s still-outstretched arm. She cursed and started to gather magic before herself, but Alex’s armor moved before she could. It pulverized the skeleton’s arm and she yanked her hand back to safety.

“Who are you with?” one of the men yelled.

“Does it matter?” Alex called back. “I’m just here for a good time!”

“A good time?” the other asked, unleashing a wave of fire from his hands. An explosion rocked the air as a dozen of the skeletons were blown to pieces, but still they came. “Are you insane?”

“Why does everyone keep asking me that?” Alex demanded. In a moment of distraction, a skeleton’s hand shot out and grabbed him by the neck. Pain seared against his skin as its claws dug deep into his throat. He reached back, grabbing the monster in the same manner, then yanked it down and drove his knee up into its chin.

The monster’s head popped right off its neck and sailed straight up into the air. Alex’s armor drove a fist down into the skeleton’s body and pulverized it into the ground, buying him a chance to step back while it reformed. Black liquid bubbled at his neck as Princess’ magic healed his wound.

Out of the corner of Alex’s eye, he spotted the skull plummeting back down toward him. His knee shot up, shattering it into dozens of fragments on its decent. Another skeleton leapt for him, but his armor grabbed it before it could close the distance. It sent the monster hurtling into its brethren to knock a large number of them back to the ground.

“What manner of magic is that?” Hazel muttered. “I’ve never seen it’s like. It’s… bizarre.”

Alex’s head snapped around to glare at her. “Why are you saying it like that? Less talking, more fighting. We’re buying time.”

“For what?” Hazel asked, defeat passing over her features. Exhaustion toll was clear in the tremble in her arms, and her companions weren’t in better shape. She sent a weary look out at the horde pressing toward them. “We’re all dead. There’s no way to kill these things. Nobody’s coming to save us.”

“That’s quitter talk,” Alex said as his armor threw a skeleton to the side. “You can’t throw a hissy fit and give up the moment a game doesn’t go your way.”

“What are you talking about?” Another blast of fire tore from the fire-wielding man’s hands. He turned to Alex, confusion creasing his weathered features. “What game?”

“What about a bet to spice things up? I say we’re going to have a way to kill all of these things within a minute.”

“What’s the point of a bet like that?” the other man demanded. “We’re all dead!”

“Then you should be able to bet without feeling any regret. Raise the stakes! Why not, right? Sell the house! Hell, sell the kids! It’s 2012 all over again!”

“He’s mad,” the first man said. “Ignore him. I won’t die like this!”

“I’d give you the clothes off my back and whatever else you want if we get out of this alive. You could have everything in my damn Spatial Ring at that point,” Hazel said desperately. “But false hope isn’t going to do shit. Your allies already ran and left you to die with—”

A squeal cut through the room. It sounded like some poor pig had abruptly located the bottom end of a cliff.

Every single skeleton went stiff.

Then the moss within them withered. They collapsed as one, dry bones clattering against the ground. Only a single pair of people remained standing aside from those in Alex’s group, now visible with the army of skeletons gone.

Claire stood beside Alyssa, her claws impaling a dog-sized mossy humanoid. It was the exact same color as the rolling hills all around them. Strands of plant matter ran from its fingers and into the ground. They, along with the creature, rapidly withered until they were a dry, gray ball of vines in her hand.

A flow of magic poured into Alex, straightening his back and pulling a satisfied sigh from his lips.

The others all stared in disbelief.

“What?” one of the men whispered. “What is that? What happened?”

“Found the heart,” Claire said with a grin.

Alex turned to Hazel, his lips splitting into a wide smile behind his mask. “Well then. That’s that. You can keep your clothes… but what was it you were saying about your spatial ring?”