The Bearers in the distance had only just produced some grey mist when Ernites forcibly drew it over before it could drift his way, feeding it into several skeletons. Though the amount was pitifully small, it still made them more nimble.
An exceptionally burly skeleton drew a Bone Sword and scraped it hard across its bony eye sockets. Grey mist leaked from the corners of its mouth as its jaws opened and closed, and the ghostly blue fire inside its skull flickered. With a roar, ghostly blue flame engulfed the longsword.
Some of the shorter skeletons had larger masses of ghostly blue fire in their skulls instead. Strange patterns were inscribed on their hand bones, arm bones, skulls, and even ribs. Those on their arms were the most intricate, resembling some sort of altered magic array. It was precisely these skeletons, no taller than ordinary people, whose hands radiated magical fluctuations.
The skeletons rose amid a clatter of bones, and the flames in the Bone Lanterns dwindled by more than half. Though burning a stream of grey mist made the ghostly blue flames surge again, they were clearly dimmer than before and lacked their former crystalline clarity.
The ghostly blue flames had previously resembled a flowing work of art, full of beauty. Even Ruger, their enemy in a fight to the death, had found them both dangerous and beautiful.
Ruger's eyes darted aside. Without explosive flames or strange spellcasting, he abruptly charged at a human-sized skeleton that had just stood up.
The long-unused Lesser Sharpness was applied to his hands.
More precisely, it was applied to the spirit furs on his hands. He had not cast it himself. The great God of Spirit Fur, Stray Hair One, had directed them to cast the so-called divine spell he had bestowed.
Crack!