Anya mounted her crossbow onto the top of a weapon rack and took aim.
*Pshew!~ Phoonk!~*
The bolt effortlessly pierced into the side of the statue's head with a critical hit, cracking its head sideways and almost causing it to stumble.
All the skeletons took advantage of the statue's brief state of pain to move in closer and do some easy damage.
They managed to get a few hits in but the statue quickly recovered, and before its head was even upright, it was lucid enough to defend itself.
The floating swords started to whirl once again, but not quickly enough as Blue and Sweeper were able to pass through and deal heavy damage.
The two skeletons within the whirling swords forced the statue to alter its sword technique. It promptly thrusted its stone swords back and pierced Blue and Sweeper, however, this just meant that Red was able to hit it from behind.
This was the least of the statue's problems though, as the threat of the heavy crossbow was still present, shooting it from somewhere in the darkness among the weapon racks.
It seemed annoyed as it suddenly grabbed Red with its gauntlet and tossed it into the path of one of its floating swords before marching towards wherever the crossbow had fired from. The helpless skeleton bounced off and landed in a pile of debris.
The statue was closing in on their location.
“Here we go.” Jay said, raising his shield.
Anya nodded, after reloading her crossbow she mounted it on top of a weapon rack and fired again.
*Pshew!~ Tring~*
The statue somehow blocked the bolt with one of its floating swords.
“...was that on purpose?” Jay squinted.
It was hard to tell in the darkness and the chaotically spinning swords, and Jay could only hope the statue wasn’t that much of a sword master.
Still, they technically outnumbered it seven to one, so master or not, it would not remain in this world much longer.
As it drew nearer, the weapon racks were more dense, which proved to be an issue - it couldn’t spin its swords around its body anymore. The racks did act as barriers on either side though, so for it now had a sword defending its back from the skeletons while one was at its front.
“Tell me when you’re about to fire.”
“Ok.”
Just before Anya shot, Jay made the decision to charge an unstable tooth spell and cast it.
“5 seconds... ... 3..2..” Anya counted down while taking aim again.
*Boom!~ tat tat*
*Pshew!~ Phoonk!~*
[8]
The statue didn't anticipate the small tooth to explode in its face, as it actually just seemed like a small rock. This allowed the second bolt to follow without interception, which it was now pierced through its cracking stone helmet.
“Nice.” Jay smiled and nodded.
Now that the statue was directly in front of them, Anya pulled out her orb so they could see more clearly throughout the battle.
The statue finally reached them; it would deal with the biggest threat first, which it believed was Anya - it still hadn’t connected the skeletons to Jay.
*Clang Stab Clang!~*
[-2][-10][-2]
“Argh!” Jay gritted his teeth, he didn’t expect it to attack so ferociously.
The floating sword knocked Jay’s shield away and stabbed into his shoulder before he could block again.
“It does piercing damage.” he raised his shield as he backed up a bit.
Jay wondered why the skeletons weren't assaulted as aggressively as he was, but after observing them, he soon understood the trick.
He rushed forwards with even greater violence, his zeal only surpassed by the skeletons as he started to strike furiously after taking his final spare hammer from his inventory.
[-2]
The foe had to use its swords for both attacking and defending, so Jay would merely force it to defend. Its tactic was like a double-edged sword. He deflected one blow as he charged in, but his plan was starting to pay off.
*Doonk!~* *Clang!~* *Dong~*
Neither the statue nor Jay were scoring any hits at this point, but that’s exactly what Jay wanted.
The only thing it could do was deflect his hammer away with a hovering sword before it could smash its body up. It remained stuck here as long as Jay swung his hammer at it wildly; at least, it would be a stalemate until Jay became too fatigued.
However, Jay wasn’t alone.
*Pshew!~ Phoonk!~*
Another bolt landed on the statue; a critical hit right in its face.
*Crack!~ Chip~*
Pebbles and flakes of stone broke away.
The skeletons were attacking from behind, and since there were five of them they were able to land a few occasional hits too.
Unknown to Jay, the statue was actually trying to go for Anya, the highest damage dealer, but he managed to block its path - he just naturally assumed he was the target.
The statue would probably have launched a few swords at both of them already if all of them weren’t destroyed by the troublesome skeletons. It was a fearsome opponent before, but now it was just a matter of time before it fell in battle.
Out of its seven hundred hit points, it had been whittled all the way down to only one hundred and thirty now.
“Not much longer now...” Jay smiled, knowing that the enemy's demise was drawing closer.
Already, the statue's armour was crumbling. Deep cracks and missing chips of stone were all over its body - not to mention the three bolts sticking out of its head.
Jay didn’t need to check its health to know it was almost finished.
As its health went below one hundred, the statue suddenly changed.
“Oh?” Jay wondered what was happening.
The feel of the fight suddenly felt different, more surreal. He felt like he sensed something he couldn’t quite grasp.
The statue shook its body and its stone armour all came off - not that it was helping it much anyway.
Suddenly its long claw-like gauntlet gripped the air; it was like the statue was trying to remember something as its focus was heightened.
The atmosphere changed completely, despite the flying blades whirring around and the skeletons continuing their attack, the battle went completely silent. It was like all the air had been sucked out of the room; no sound could pass.
*Crack!~*
For a fraction of a second, a transparent, ghostly sword appeared in the statue’s hand before disappearing again, replaced by a strange thickness of air.
“Sword... visualisation? Sword summoning?” Jay guessed. Whatever it was, it felt wrong.
That was Jay’s only thought before it suddenly swung at Jay.
*Vrrrr~ Boom! Boom! Boom!*
There was no sword in its hand, only a strange dense air, almost like a mist or a shadow.
Jay was knocked into a weapon rack after it slashed its arm sideways, while a trail of ethereal swords followed straight after.
[-5] [-5.3] [-5.5] [-5.7]
“Fuck...”
Jay quickly rolled out of the way, knowing each of the ghostly swords hurt more than the last. Somehow it activated one of its sword skills.
“It’s not even a real sword and it hurts that much? Fuck.” Jay raised his shield, getting back into his natural defensive style again.
[-2] [-10] [-5] [-5.3]
“Grah!” he yelled as he was stung and pierced.
Immediately he was punished for going on the defensive, as the floating stone sword could attack freely now - it was Jay’s offence keeping it busy after all.
*Phoonk!~*
A bolt from Anya landed right in its chest, causing it to stagger for a moment.
This gave Jay an idea.
A mastermind tactical decision, which is what he would call it later.
The statue was playing checkers while he was playing four-dimensional chess.
He turned and quickly ran back to Anya.
“Let’s just fuckin’ run.” he laughed maniaclly as he dashed towards Anya.
