BXBX NOVEL Chapter 555 554: Bone Fortress (3)
The high speed winds made the debris around us shuffle around as bones smacked into the walls, shattering further, while snow began to layer the earth and paint it white as the deep chill of winter settled into place, further bogging the undead construct down as it had to deal with both the warriors and my Domain.
Runes began to intertwine as I constructed my Ritual Circle, my understanding of this magic system bearing fruit as I created something new and complex on the fly, my previous understanding of science from my own world mixing with this impossible ability to alter the material world with such frightening ease.
When presented with such a deep cold like we have here - especially one imbued with mana on its own - metal could in theory become more brittle than normal, and with the temperature continuing to drop as my Domain took effect, and the undead construct having a thin sheet of Metal Mana around itself was perfect for me.
Despite the Fire Mana trying it\'s hardest to counteract the chill, the constant fluctuations were perfect for me as well, and there was something else that I learned about metal - or any solids in particular, anyways.
With enough pressure, and enough of a sharp edge, you can cut practically everything, and I just so happen to have access to a rather bountiful, incredibly sharp element.
Not Wind, nor Ice, but Water; with enough pressure, compression, and direction and power, water can be used to cut most of anything, and when I add in the fact that it isn\'t just water, but magical water, well...
I am not the greatest at theory, nor at numbers, but I do believe that the stats of the water I was about to use were far greater than the stats of the Metal Mana around the undead construct.
So with a smile on my face, I pushed more mana into the Ritual Circle in front of me and shot out a highly pressurized jet of water straight at the undead construct, inside of which were small crystals of ice to further damage it should this fail to kill it outright.
The jet sliced cleanly through the armor that the construct had created for itself and cut into the bone, leaving a deep gouge that made it shriek in anger as the bones were weakened, giving more openings to the two warriors to exploit.
Impacting the shoulders of the construct, I began to cut through the joints and force it to drop its weapons, before I shifted my focus from its weapons or its body to the sarcophagus, my intuition telling me to do so.
It was protecting that too much for it to not be important, and there was little chance that there wasn\'t something linked to the construct inside it, be it a controller of some kind - like a heart - or another entity altogether that the construct was meant to protect.
As the jet inched closer and closer to the sarcophagus, the construct began to shriek as it dropped its blades and covered the bronze coffin with its body, willingly letting the beam of water cut through it if it meant that the sarcophagus was safe.
Not letting this opportunity go to waste, Jahi and Nirinia leapt forwards and began to break the construct apart, tearing its bones away and revealing the sarcophagus beneath as we butchered the construct, which I confirmed with a glance at the System notifications.
Before they could reach the sarcophagus, and before I could begin to cut into it, we all jumped back as mana burst from beneath the lid, shattering the metal in an explosion and leaving a red light to spill from its interior.
Potent mana roiled off of the metal, and a skeletal hand clenched at the edge, pulling the undead inside out and revealing itself to us.
Metal chains were wrapped around the undead\'s arms, while a metal chest piece forged for a woman adorned its torso, intricate runes engraved into its surface.
A serrated longsword hung on the skeleton\'s hip, while the chains dangled loosely from its wrists, jingling around as it stood up to its full height.
Nearly Jahi\'s size, the skeleton wore a tiara of dark black metal embedded with a large ruby, which shone dangerously in the snowstorm as it unsheathed its blade, igniting it right away.
What stood before us looked like a warrior queen long dead, its bones browning with age and pockmarked with previous injuries, while its dark red orbs were ablaze with fury as it stared at us.
Not letting it get the first blow in, Jahi lunged forwards and slammed her great sword down, intending to cleave the undead in two with a single strike, only for sparks to fly as her dual metal sword impacted the undead\'s serrated fiery blade.
Nirinia rushed forwards to join her as well, while I deactivated my spell in fear of hitting the two warriors with this smaller target now being enveloped between them, instead opting to draw my rapier and join the fray as well, surrounding the undead and attacking its joints.
It moved far faster than all of the other undead, while the blows from its blade made even Jahi and Nirinia wince as it beat it\'s flaming sword against theirs, trying to overwhelm them with power and speed.
Deep gashes appeared in the earth as it tried to cut me in two, its flaming blade popping as it cut through the snow and battled against the cold, filling the air with steam as flames began to lick at its chains, enhancing its power.
If we thought the construct was tough, this undead warrior queen was on another level, but with three of us here it should be doable.