The party of undead traveled across a rocky area which separated the fog below from the mountain forests.
Jay felt a little exposed as they left the cover of the trees, but above them there was nothing in the skies, and on this rocky green plain there was no movement other than him and his troops.
Just enormous rocks, many of which were covered in a thick layer of moss, almost forming a green carpet. It was a welcome change from the roots everywhere.
As they moved downhill, the two skeletons he had spinning twine were running out of ghost silk, and had a silk twine of about 5 feet (1.5m).
"Pass it." Jay ordered.
The throne stopped its march for a moment and lowered so the smaller skeletons could reach up and hand it to Jay.
"Hmm… how do I stop it from untwisting?" He wondered as he grabbed each end of the twine.
Yet as he brought each end together, it twisted onto itself, making a loop at one end.
"Hmm… that might work." Jay thought.
However, now at half its length, it was too short to be used as a bowstring. Jay gave the skeletons another clump of ghost silk and sent them to work again.
He stashed the silk twine and waited. He would need about three or four clumps to make a full-sized bowstring… perhaps eight if it continually snapped, but for now, two would be enough to make a miniature bow for the goblin-sized skeleton.
"As for a bow, I'll make it when I figure out the string." He nodded.
The throne lifted, and the party continued over the moss-covered rocks.
Jay patted the invisible parasite on his neck. "Natural form buddy." He whispered to his helminth.
The amulet around his neck floated, and similar to the necrotic gauntlet, it formed into a larger mass of bones which assembled into the helminth's body.
The bone worm was about to fall onto the ground, but Jay reached out and grabbed it, holding it so it could mostly lay on his lap.
Of course, it was getting quite large, so the lower parts of its tail hung off the throne, swaying below.
The helminth looked quite content being so close to its master, though Jay was a little uncomfortable with its rib bones poking his legs.
"When you get bigger, you won't be able to do this. So enjoy it for now." Jay said, patting it with his necrotic gauntlet.
The bone parasite pushed its head into his palm, lovingly accepting his pats.
Jay didn't expect to enjoy patting it, even as his gauntlet made gentle scraping sounds across its slender skull, but a part of him felt… wanted.
He had planned to learn the necrotic bolt spell off of it, but for a few moments more, he enjoyed his creation.
"Alright, it's time I learned this spell. I have a bigger mana pool with some regeneration now, so it will be worth casting some necrotic bolts every so often. Hopefully, it won't be hard to teach to a skeleton."
Jay picked a large mossy boulder about 54 yards (50m) to the right.
"Go on, fire at it." He said, pointing.
The helminth complied, charging its necrotic bolt.
Jay watched closely as its jaws opened and a ball of the chaotic energy glowed.
It concentrated the ball into a swirling orb, and suddenly the helminth shot it.
Its jaws snapped shut as the ball of sickly green energy shot out. And this was when Jaw noticed two things.
The closing jaws of the helminth compressed the concentrated ball even more. As they closed, it squeezed it the ball out of its jaws at a high speed, forming the bolt. A burst of green mana energy followed behind the necrotic bolt, and Jay guessed it must have pushed more behind it as its jaws closed, giving it an extra boost of speed.
The bolt shot off and hit the boulder he pointed at.
"Good. That's enough." Jay said, giving it a head scratch.
"It seems I'll need to compress the mana before firing… that will be hard without a pair of jaws."
Jay tried releasing a stream of mana from his hands.
At first he held the mana in his palm. He formed a ball, but as he tried to condense it, it began to warp and squeeze into different shapes. Small wisps of it escaped.
Jay continued anyway, and holding his second hand behind it, he released more necrotic mana and pushed, trying to throw it.
At a slow speed, the ball flew forwards about 9 feet (3m) before it lost its shape and burst into a cloud of necrotic mana.
"Not useful in a fight. Pathetic. But a good start." He nodded, knowing he would need to practice it more before he gained it as a skill.
Yet before he could try another, the skeletons suddenly paused. The throne stopped.
Each of them raised their weapons.
Suddenly, a rock shifted, falling off a boulder.
Jay looked around, seeing and sensing nothing. Nothing but moss-covered rocks.
A giant boulder suddenly tilted and slowly lifted, ripping away from the carpet of moss.
"Fuck, get us out of here!" Jay ordered. If something was slow-moving, it usually meant it was powerful. And the helminth had just woken it up.
The skeletons ran, carrying Jay and Asra as quickly as they could across the rocky terrain, not caring how much they were shaking them.
Asra was much faster as she had more of the smaller skeletons carrying her, and Jay's throne was much more unsteady, making it hard to look back.
Behind him, more giant mossy boulders raised.
"All my bones won't be able to stop that… even a wall of stone wouldn't stand a chance," he thought, seeing more rocks raising.
Jay remembered fighting the wood elementals, guessing these were some type of stone elemental he had never heard about.
Jay wasn't even close to getting to the fog below. The vast plain of rocks was about 7 miles wide (11km), and Jay had not even made it half-way.
Glancing back, he noticed it was the rock the helminth had attacked.
"Damn… it must have woken it up…" Jay pursed his lips.
"… but if they're stone elementals, how come they woke?" he raised a brow. "A necrotic bolt shouldn't affect stone?"
