Noticing the glow from her hammer was starting to fade, she sighed and stood up. Limping on her wounded leg, she leaned out through the spikes until she could place both hands on her maul and re-cast the light spell on it. She then tried to lift it up, but found it securely wedged between the pillars of stone.

  Damn my fat ass for jamming it in there! She joked dryly. Then she resigned herself to needing to get back in amongst the spikes in order to have any chance of extracting her weapon.

  Her health was slowly ticking back up so, as long as she took it slow and didn’t injure herself further or strain any of her bandages, then it should be more than worthwhile to take the time to extract the thing. Especially as without it in her hands she could not defend herself. Well, that was aside from pushing things away from her a bit.

  I do need to remember I am still a mage that can do some non-damaging things without my weapon. She thought. Perhaps after this I can ask Hestia and Lance if there’s anything more like the ‘kinetic push’ they can teach me. She resolved to follow up on the thought, then returned to retrieving her weapon.

  With great care and difficulty, Ash clambered her way back through the spikes, the gaps at the top were just wide enough for her body to squeeze through. She also did her best to break off the points of any spike nearby, to mixed success. Some only lost the tip, while for others a whole chunk of the top snapped away, giving herself just enough space and purchase to manoeuvre her way through to her trapped weapon.

  Alright, I got myself free, now it’s time to get you out of this trap. She thought to her maul, realising she was already growing fond of the weapon and would definitely hate to lose it in such an annoying way.

  Unfortunately, it was certainly tightly stuck in there. She could even see the wood slightly bending from the strain of being wedged deep between the sides of three spikes. One of the spikes was the one that had stabbed through her leg and was therefore still coated with her drying blood. Gross.

  She got as close as she could, hefting up to no success, then attempting to push on the weapon from below. She got one side to budge upwards slightly, but then her leg slipped and it was all she could do to stop herself from falling and getting herself wedged between the stone pillars. Now that would be an awful way to go. Ash grimaced. Plus, the bandage on her leg had snagged and she saw the bleeding status flick back to life. Damn.

  Finally, feeling the time pressure again, she decided to give her magic a go.

  “Push!” She called out, projecting the force as tightly up into the weapon as possible. Instantly, the handle popped upwards, the heavier head now freed as well, and the hammer slid down to rest almost vertically between a deeper set of spikes.

  You have reached Kinetic push level 2. Your casting multiplier increased to 1.05x.

  You have gained level 2 affinity with Kinetic magic. More Kinetic abilities are now available.

  Ash dismissed the welcome notifications, finally progressing with her kinetic magic. It seemed she was actually able to advance that skill and affinity without needing to do damage. Still, something else was more important right now. Ash grunted with effort as she leaned over to reach her maul, fingers slipping around the handle and slowly lifting it up from the spot it had nestled. With great care to not aggravate her wounds further, she guided herself and her weapon backwards and out of the spike pit. Each movement she felt the blood dripping down her leg, ticking away her life with each droplet. But finally, it was done. Both her and her club were extracted safely.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Ash slumped back against the wall, panting from pain an exertion and clutching her Great-hammer to her chest. Then she refastened her bandage and checked her health.

  It looked like she had lost another 2 points to bleeding from her slip-up, but otherwise had regenerated 9 during her rest and extraction of the hammer, leaving her with 9 Hitpoints overall.

  Then she checked the maul, relieved to find it was only slightly scuffed from the rubbing against the stone. Her inscriptions were untouched too. Overall, the sturdy wood was holding up well and would merely need a small bit of maintenance and re-waxing when she got back.

  Well, that’s one good thing about this mess. But what now?

  Ash looked down the corridor she was now in, noting the sharp bend after a few paces.

  Literally anything could be around that corner. Frankly, I’m lucky something hasn’t emerged to attack me too.

  Just at that moment, something began to emerge around the corner, presumably to attack her.

  “Shit.” Ash cursed as soon as she noted movement, scrambling to her feet with her glowing club held defensively in front of her.

  The movement solidified into a dirtied pale shape, sliding across the floor. It looked to be a hand. A skeletal hand of yellowed bone, followed by an pale bone arm.

  Another skeleton! Ash cursed, stepping forward to deal with the threat.

  Then more of it emerged and Ash paused with confusion and mounting horror. The arm connected directly to an eerily grinning skull. Another arm followed, the creepy combination turning and focusing its empty sockets on her. Its jaw swung open, dropping disconcertingly quickly and hanging wider than should have been physically possible. Suddenly a strange, grating cry emanated from it.

  Ash’s assess creature skill told her the thing wasn’t necessarily that strong but, as injured as she was, she definitely didn’t want to risk taking any damage. Just one strong attack could end her right there and then.

  The cry continued and Ash decided that it needed to stop and finally moved. She quickly darted forward and smashed her hammer down on the grotesque thing’s head, infusing an ice touch into the blow for good measure.

  The skull exploded into frozen shards of bone, the disjointed arms scattering as the monster was obliterated instantly.

  You have slain 1 level 2 bone amalgam. You have received 5 exp!

  Okay, so… it was pretty weak. But that scream… Ash thought worriedly That sounded like an alarm or distress call to me. Hopefully I stopped it soon enough?

  Indeed, now that the amalgam had been silenced, Ash could make out the sounds of clacking and scraping from around the corner. Clearly, the cry had indeed signalled something. Ash couldn’t help it; she stepped up to the corner and peeked around.

  By the light of her club, she saw it. Ahead of her stood the largest chamber she had seen in the ruin so far. At the centre stood a large stone square, surrounded by four pillars. More notable however was the source of all the strange sounds. Behind the pillars lay a great mass of discarded bones, shifting amorphously as various clusters jumbled together.

  Each cluster formed into strange, disjointed amalgamations of bone, each one a different disconcerting combination. She used her assess creature skill, and noted several were similar strength to the one before, but yet others were larger and more dangerous. One by one they lurched forwards, crawling disjointedly out of the pile. Ash let out an involuntary gasp and, as one, they all started advancing - straight towards her.