The cloak's enchantment formed a non-elemental barrier that shielded his body from the hurricane's impact, but it didn't block the darkness laden air. His skin was rotten and much of his vitality had been robbed. The ponytailed mage had done the same, but he hit his head against the wall and fell unconscious.
The blond mage was trying to get a healing potion out of his pocket when he heard the sound of footsteps and weakly lifted his head to look up. The black skeleton arrived in front of its unconscious companion, before lifting its foot and stomping hard on its neck, crushing it.
"You filthy undead...!" The blond mage stood up shakily after drinking a superior healing potion. The darkness drained most of her strength and the healing drained the rest.
He felt exhausted and hungry, but he got up anyway.
"If I'm going to die, I'll take you with me!" He yelled, raising his left hand above his head and activating two magic rings. The first created a pulse of orange light that spread across the ceiling of the hideout, before the ceiling began to shake and crack, collapsing under their heads.
The second formed a dome of water around it, which quickly froze. Despite his brave words, he wasn't really willing to die. Against his expectations, the skeleton ignored the collapsing ceiling, and lunged at it.
Black lightning flowed through his bones and he accelerated, reaching the edge of the dome in an instant. The black skeleton crossed the dome of water before it froze and raised its left hand, conjuring black flames into its palm.
"WHA-" The blond mage yelled in surprise, but the black skeleton quickly sealed his mouth with his hand, turning the flames into a ball of black fire inside his mouth before detonating it, blasting his head to pieces.
The dome froze completely seconds before the cave collapsed, trapping the black skeleton underground.
*******
The mage leader was checking the receiver he received from the mage slayer for the seventh time in the last 15 minutes, when he felt a sudden tremor in the ground.
"An earthquake, in this region?" The leader asked himself confused. As far as he knew, earthquakes were not common in this region. He pushed the matter to the back of his mind, thinking it was just an unusual situation, before abruptly standing up, pale as a ghost. "The corpse!"
He began to run hurriedly, ignoring his confused subordinates. The subordinates around didn't understand why he suddenly ran, but followed him anyway.
When the leader reached where the underground hideout was, he gasped in terror. A crater had formed within a radius of approximately 20 meters. The leader searched desperately, but found only rocks and downed trees that had fallen into the crater.
"Shit! Ricley, help me dig them up! I don't see our mates, nor the ice coffin." The leader yelled, summoning his familiar, an earth mole, while using earth magic to dig.
"O-Okay, got it!" Ricley responded as he helped him. One of the mages created a fireball and left it floating in the air, lighting up the surroundings. The leader and Ricley, the only magic users on earth, continued digging desperately hoping that the ice coffin or one of the mages guarding the coffin could save the corpse.
The mole emerged from the earth and began to make noise, drawing the wizards' attention. The leader understood his intentions and began to dig around him, finding a barrier of ice.
"It's them! Quick, we have to melt the ice!" The leader yelled as he pointed his wand and started releasing flames to melt the ice. The other fire mage also helped him, while the rest watched anxiously.
When the ice had melted enough for a body to pass through, the leader ordered the fire to stop and tried to look inside, to confirm the state of the mages. He also released a small fireball to light up the dome from within.
"Hi, are you all right?! We'll help you-Cogh!" The leader gasped mid-scream, an arrow of black fire buried in his throat. He tried to throw himself backward, but a bony hand came out of the hole and grabbed him by the neck before twisting, killing him instantly.
The ice exploded, throwing ice shards everywhere. The 4 mages retreated in panic, watching with horror their leader instantly die.
"What the fuck just happened??" one of them asked in panic.
"How am I supposed to know??" Another mage replied.
"Talk less, conjure more!" A female mage yelled, interrupting the argument.
"..." Ricley didn't say anything, but stayed behind the three of them, wanting to use them as meat shields for whatever attacked them. 'I refuse to die like a dog in this shitty little town!' That's what he thought.
A ten-foot black fireball was launched from the hole, quickly flying towards them. The female mage conjured up a barrier of wind to block it, while the other mages hurled spears of fire, stone bullets, and lightning into the hole.
The black fireball destroyed the ground as it advanced, before hitting the wind barrier and detonating, blowing a hole in the wind barrier. A black skeleton leapt through the crack in the barrier, surprising the mages. He had moved along with the fireball to approach the mages undetected. They were above him in numbers, magic items, and even individual strength. His only chance was to separate them and kill them one by one, or catch them off guard like the leader.
He had already noticed in their previous interaction that mages were strong but inexperienced and could only use one spell at a time. Their wands could only draw one stream of mana at a time, and unlike him, they could not change an attack spell to a defensive one, forcing them to rely on their magic items to defend themselves.
The black skeleton raised his hand and activated a magic ring, creating a dome of black water around him, isolating him and the mage. The corrupted mana that fueled the magic ring created a dome of water mixed with darkness. The darkness corroded the ring's magical runes, destroying it from within, and rendering it useless after a single use.
The black water froze as his companions screamed and attacked the dome, but the mage female paid no attention. She backed as far away from the black skeleton as she could while hurling beams from her wand against him. The black skeleton had the same idea, shooting black bolts from its hands.
The rays met in the center of the dome. The mage was in the second layer and the power of her magic reflected that, pushing black lightning slowly backwards. But the darkness within the black rays could absorb the air element in the enemy's radius, increasing their own power and weakening it, forcing the female mage to spend even more mana to maintain the spell.
As if they were hungry snakes, the black rays devoured the energy in the rays, getting closer and closer to the mage.
"No, no, no!" The female mage screamed in horror, seeing the black rays getting closer and closer. The lightning struck her wand and raced throughout her body, before blasting her against the ice wall, into a charred corpse.
The black skeleton wasted no time, seeing the dome being bombarded with spells. The darkness reduced damage taken, but enemy magic would break through in a matter of seconds. He activated a second magic ring, causing a dark orange wave to spread across the floor.
Outside, the mages attacked the dome with their best spells, determined to kill the undead while he was busy with his mate. Suddenly, a small-scale earthquake started knocking them off balance and causing them to fall, breaking their concentration. The earth beneath them sank before darkening, corroding anything it came in contact with.
The mages groaned in pain, feeling their skin sizzle as it made contact with the ground. Ricley was especially powerless, unable to use earth magic. The darkness mixed with the earth and he became unable to use it, reducing his fighting power and cutting off his escape route. One of them created a platform of pure mana and climbed up, the others quickly followed him, avoiding the toxic ground.
A part of the dome melted and the black skeleton leaped out of it, black rays coiling around its arms like snakes. He stretched his hands in front of his ribcage and the beams pooled into a sphere, before firing.
Ricley conjured a non-elemental shield to protect themselves while one of the mages conjured a spear of fire at the black skeleton, but the ball of lightning was faster. The sphere of lightning hit the space between the three of them and exploded, the lightning spreading out and electrifying them. The platform collapsed and they fell to the ground in spasms. The black rays spread darkness throughout their bodies, draining their strength as it paralyzed them.
But the black skeleton was not unharmed. The fire spear was thrown at him, but luckily the mage lost consciousness, causing the spear to explode before reaching him. The black skeleton was thrown and crashed into a tree, chipping the bones in its spine. He quickly got to his feet, feeling no pain from an injury that would normally be crippling for an ordinary human.
The black skeleton ran until it got in front of the mages, before spitting out a jet of black flame, incinerating them alive.