Before the skeletons could bring a corpse of the flame-beings back, Red gave Jay a signal with a nod.
Archers saw the swamp woman leaving her shack, and alerted Red. In a few seconds, Jay was looking through its eyes, using the host skill.
(Archers, make sure you hide your eyes) Jay commanded, while seeing the world in its black and white vision.
As the green glow from Archers eyes dimmed down, he noticed that the world seemed to get darker, and he couldn't see as far through the fog.
Huh, so there is a trade-off. The more their eyes glow, the better their shade vision works… fairly similar to luminous orbs.
Yet Jay didn't dwell on these thoughts as he had been waiting for this woman to leave her shack.
She didn't seem alarmed in the slightest, so he was sure the presence of his skeletons and himself across the swamp were still undetected.
The woman yawned and scratched her belly as she looked around her island, not noticing the hidden skeleton that Jay was hosting to analyze her.
[Hegatha - Level 27]
[HP - 100%]
[MP - 0%]
Dammit, level twenty-seven?
It was concerning as she would be much more powerful than Jay, but something seemed odd.
Zero mana? Hmm… If she wasn't just resting, then what was she doing? She either used up her mana, or perhaps… something is wrong with her mana? Jay wondered, deciding it needed further investigation.
I wonder if he has something to do with the fog or the lights.
He ended the [Host] skill, leaving Archer's body.
In case Asra was watching or listening, Jay walked up to Blue and began to whisper his orders to it.
Blue, recall Dark, Lamp and Handy. Surround the island with Archers and Sweeper, but stay under water… and leave Red with us.
Red, bring your guardians back to guard us.
I'll keep Blue's five sub-skeletons out to keep hunting those lights, Jay thought.
In the meantime, I'll wait to see if her mana goes up. I'm pretty sure I saw her controlling the leaves before, but… I can control the skeletons even when I have zero mana, so there's a chance the leaves could be some kind of constructs… or even sentient? Jay wondered.
Or maybe she's just low mana, at least that's the simple explanation, he thought with a nod.
After a few moments the skeletons returned. A few had scorch marks on their bones while others were untouched, but none of them had any corpses to present to Jay.
He had not received any exp notifications either, so it seemed they were unsuccessful. Perhaps the lights were avoiding them now after realizing their flames couldn't really hurt the skeletons.
Jay would have done the same thing, and thought the fog lights probably had as much intelligence as the skeletons, if not more.
Under Blue's command the skeletons assembled, and formed a singe file line as they crept into the water.
If they're in a line, only the one at the front will cause swamp bubbles to release, Jay thought, nodding approvingly.
He was glad that Blue had been watching and thinking for itself while he sent Sweeper and Archers across the first time.
I wonder just how much Blue picks up as it watches me and carries out my orders? Jay watched Blue's body slowly disappear into the dark swamp waters.
(Red, is she still outside?) he asked.
Red nodded its skull.
Jay used the host skill on Archers again, and analyzed the swamp woman who was still outside her shack. She was meandering about, collecting some ashes from an old fire pit, along with mushrooms near the waters edge. Jay couldn't tell what she was doing, but as neither of the ingredients were magical, it didn't matter to him
What was important was her current mana. It was still at zero percent.
A cunning smile appeared on Jay's face as he ended the [Host] skill and waited for the underwater skeletons to get into position.
Not long now… he thought.
Jay waited by Asra's side as he sensed the skeletons sneaking around the edges of the island, a lurking threat right under the swamp woman's nose.
He had put out a pile of bones for Asra to lay on, so she wouldn't get wet on the ground, and so none of the vile swamp bugs would get into her wound.
(Blue, wait till she gets close to the edge of the water.)
Jay gave the order as a sort of guidance, a recommendation, though he was sure the skeleton would've already had the same idea, and he left the rest in Blue's command.
Jay stared across the still-water, into the fog, and suddenly, he heard splashing sounds coming from the island.
Blue executed the plan.
Here we go, Jay thought.
He quickly used the [host] skill on Archers, and watching what was happening through its eyes.
Skeletons burst out of the dark waters, covered in slime and muck which didn't bother them in the slightest.
They surrounded the swamp woman who was shaking and barely able to find her feet. She gripped her mushrooms so tightly in shock that she crushed them.
She scrambled back to the safety of her hut, but another skeleton appeared, dashing around the side of the rotting shack and cutting off her exit.
She wouldn't have made it anyway.
Clawed skeletal fingers had clutched her ankle like a snare.
Two others grabbed her wrists, and pulled her to a stop.
"Help me you stupid things!" She growled, with her wretched raspy voice calling to the rotting shack.
Hmm… what is she called for? For a level twenty-seven, her strength is pretty weak. Maybe I've over-estimated her.
While Jay watched, more skeletons jumped on her and held her down, but something began to come from the rotting hut.
It didn't come out through the doors or windows, but was part of the hut itself.
The leaves… I was right. They're constructs?
A stream of floating leaves flowed through the air towards the skeletons, and after a moment the stream of leaves grew into a river, like giant flying curtains.
Each leaf was about the size of a thumb and seemed like a giant swarm of insects about to consume whatever was in their path.
The leaf swarm met the swords of two skeletons, and as the swords whipped through the air they didn't cut many leaves apart; they were simply too light. All they managed to do was bat a few away, but it made no difference to a swarm of hundreds, maybe thousands, of these sentient leaves.
I wonder, will Blue try to escape into the water? I suppose it depends how dangerous the leaves are.
Jay decided to let Blue make the decisions. He was curious to see what it would do, but also wanted to train its mind.
Through the eyes of Archers, Jay could see that many of the sentient leaves were dry and curled up into crunchy-looking balls, while others seemed plump, green and flexible. It was easy to tell they were old and gray or young and green, but most of them, about 90% were of the old and dried-out variety. They would not survive a little water.
But how are they dried out in this thick, humid swamp? Jay wondered.
The two skeletons were above to be engulfed in leaves while the other four held the swamp woman down.
She has low strength, so she must be a mage… but what kind of mage? And how dangerous? … And what will you do if she is dangerous, Blue?
