I activated my bone platform ability but manipulated it so it formed a bone bridge between the two rooftops. I ran across the bridge and everyone followed. I watched to see if it held up Haglor, her being larger than the rest of us. It held up fine, so I knew I could make bridges of the same size and she'd be ok.

  I changed my staff back from a sword to its normal white bone shaft with the pink heart-shaped healing crystal at the top. I don't know how the craftsman made it amplify my bone magic and healing magic at the same time, but it did its job well. I felt like I could cast spells much faster and with less effort and concentration than before. It didn't increase my mana, but it significantly improved my casting. Not that I needed much help with my mana pool being over 60,000 MP. An adventurer's base mana pool was their intelligence times 10.

  To use up my mana pool now, I'd really have to get into a bad position. It could easily happen, like if I got surrounded by a battalion of guards or something, but as long as we kept to the rooftops, no one could touch us. Or so I thought.

  Pain in my arm and leg reminded me I had a dagger through my arm and an arrow through my leg. I dispelled my bone armor and pulled the dagger out as we ran. I tossed it into the air and yelled, "Haglor, catch!" It was her dagger after all. I figured I might as well return it. Then I yanked the arrow out of my leg. It hurt bad, just like my arm, but both my wounds healed quickly. The stab wound in my ribs had already healed after the fall down the stairs dislodged the blade.

  With tremendous hesitation, I chose not to resummon my bone armor, to have better mobility running across these rooftops. It was more of a security blanket at this point. I was better off just going without it. Every time we came to the edge of a rooftop, I just summoned another bone bridge to get us across the gap. We were making good time in our desperate dash to get to the lower city, and then the undercity.

  I stopped when we got to the edge of the upper city, where the next rooftop was hundreds of feet away in the lower city. We had reached the barrier and aqueduct that separated the upper city from the lower city. I would have to make a massive bridge to cross this gap.

  I started making the bridge. It got to about 50 feet in length before a massive impact hit me in the back and sent me tumbling onto my bridge. As I slid backward down my bridge I looked up and saw someone carrying a massive bow running across the rooftops following the bridges I created. I looked down and saw a massive arrow sticking out of my stomach. I slid off the edge of the bridge and was caught in one of Abigail's bubbles.

  Abigail, Marcy, Nico, and Haglor ran to the end of the bridge and Abigail formed a bubble around them that flew over to me. Abigail started flying us over the aqueduct and to the lower city. I looked back and saw the archer come up to the edge of the last building in the upper city. He raised his massive person-sized bow and notched two huge metal arrows. He aimed in between Abigail and me, drew back the string with incredible strength, and let it loose.

  The arrows took two separate trajectories, one going for me and one going for everyone else. I formed a massive half-sphere shield on the inside of the bubble and looked over at Abigail and the rest. The arrows hit our bubbles, popping them. The one that popped my shield poked a few inches out of the other side of the multiple-foot-thick shield I had created. The one that popped the other bubble went straight for Abigail's head. It was just about to hit her when Haglor caught the arrow out of mid-air.

  With our bubbles popped, we fell into the aqueduct and got washed downstream. We disappeared around a corner before the archer fired again. I swam as hard as I could to meet up with Abigail, Marcy, Nico, and Haglor in the water. We were coming up on the drain. We needed to come up with something before we were plunged underwater and drowned.

  "Can you bubble us before we go under?" I yelled at Abigail. She nodded her head at me.

  A large bubble went around us all, just as we slipped into the drain and underwater. We were plunged into darkness for a time. It seemed to go on forever.

  "Is everyone ok?" I said. They all answered back yes.

  "I'm cold," Nico said.

  "I'm sorry," I said. "It'll just be a little while longer. This drain has to let out somewhere."

  We waited for several minutes before the drain opened up and plopped us out somewhere dark. Marcy lit something and illuminated the area. She was holding some sort of crystal-fueled torch. It revealed we were in a slum somewhere in the undercity. Metal shacks were stacked on top of each other, stories high, with only a ladder allowing people to get up and down. The water from the drain emptied onto a grate that flowed somewhere else.

  I removed the arrow sticking out of my stomach and healed myself. It took a minute, but I had a minute to spare. Marcy looked around her eyes wide with fear and alarm.

  "It's the stacks," Marcy said, sounding a little scared. "We're in the stacks. I never wanted to find myself back here again."

  "What are the stacks?" I asked.

  "It's where the crystal addicts go to get away from society. It's a very dangerous place! People can attack you at any moment with no provocation!" Marcy said.

  "Calm down, kid," I said. "I've got you."

  "How can you call me kid? You're like the same age as me. Is it cuz I'm short?" She said.

  "Yeah. Sorry. It kind of is. I can't tell how old you are," I said. "My apologies."

  "It's ok. It happens a lot," she said.

  "Well, when you're done lamenting your social faux pas, we really should be getting out of here if it's as dangerous as Marcy says," Nico said.

  "Right," I said.

  "Hey! Only I'm allowed to be mean to Tom!" Abigail said.

  "Can you all stop arguing for one second and listen?" Haglor said.

  "Listen for what? I don't hear anything," Nico said.

  "Exactly," Haglor said.

  "This place gives me the creeps," I said. "Let's get out of here."

  I led the group between massive stacks and through large tunnels. All seemingly abandoned. We walked around a corner and I almost bumped into someone. I stopped abruptly and looked around. There was a huge crowd of crystal-addicted people standing in this one square. They all looked similar to Miner Carl from the dungeon.

  They had crystals growing on their faces and bodies, and they were dressed in rags. None of them were wearing shoes. They were staring at a wall where rays of light were shining on it from small holes in the ground overhead. This must have been some form of entertainment or recreation for them. They were still able to see the sun, even if it was just in this limited form. This must be where everyone disappeared.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  We had to get past them to get back to our base. "Let's sneak past them," I said. Everyone nodded.

  The crystal addicts were saying random things as we walked past them. "Yes, I did the laundry dear." One said. "Theodore, why is your mother living with us?" Another said. "Whose underwear is this?" A third one said. "It's my underwear!" Another said. "You wear thongs now, John?" The third one said.

  We were halfway through the crowd when the dust got into Abigail's nose and she sneezed. The noise was deafening in the cramped space. It echoed off the walls. All of the crystal addicts turned to look at Abigail.

  "Bless you!" They all said at the same time. And then they attacked.

  They all jumped onto Abigail. She got dogpiled. I was afraid they'd hurt her until the pile started growing inexplicably larger. And larger. Until a bubble revealed itself tossing people off it by rapidly expanding. But then they started passing through the surface of the bubble. Something about their crystal growths interacting with the magic of the bubble. Their crystal growths sparked and fizzled as they pressed their way through the bubble.

  I struggled to push my way through the crowd of addicts. I didn't want to hurt these people who didn't come up as evil on my Evil Eye, but they seemed like they were trying to hurt Abigail. Abigail kept making bubbles, but they kept passing through them. She tried to hold them back by generating bubbles faster and faster, but it only slowed them marginally. They eventually got to her and grabbed her. They all started pulling on her in different directions. It was like they were trying to pull her apart. When Abigail started screaming I couldn't take it anymore.

  I summoned bone armor around me, but this time it had weapons. Spikes shot out in every direction, impaling and stabbing people. The gauntlets ended in long blades that I used to slash and slice my way through the crowd. Still, it wasn't enough. The addicts were too strong. It was like trying to fight hundreds of Carls all at once. And even Carl took teamwork to take down. I couldn't easily kill him by myself. I could kill him, but not easily.

  The rest of the group tried to get to Abigail too, but it was futile. I watched Marcy disappear under the crowd immediately. Then Nico. Then even Haglor got dragged down by the endless sparking and fizzling crystal addicts and their overwhelming strength. I was the only one left standing and I couldn't take hearing my girlfriend scream in terror and pain any longer. I heard her bones crack and pop and break as they continued to pull her in different directions.

  [You have leveled up! Your bone grimoire is now level 8! You have gained the abilities, Bone Field and Marrow Enhancement]

  [Bone Field: Allows the user to instantly create bone formations from any surface within range. Can create spikes, walls, barriers, weapons, shields, platforms, and any other simple shape one can think of. Cannot be used to create complex weaponry such as crossbows, ballistas, and catapults]

  [Marrow Enhancement: Passively infuses all bone constructs with magically enhanced marrow, drastically improving their durability. All constructs become 100% harder and more durable. Constructs can still break, but they are far more reliable]

  I summoned a circle of spikes from the ground around Abigail and raised them high, lifting away and impaling most of the addicts pulling at her body. I pushed out and extended the circle of spikes to push everyone away. I made a hole for me to slip through as the ring of spikes reached me. Then I turned the spikes into high walls and ran towards Abigail and the few remaining addicts grabbing at her.

  I summoned two swords and sliced their heads off one by one until they all fell to the ground. I picked up Abigail and carried her away from the bodies and set her down on the ground. She screamed in pain as I moved her. I looked at her as I ran Advanced Diagnosis on her. The bones in her arms and legs were broken multiple times each. Some of them were sticking out of her skin.

  "It hurts!" Abigail said tears pouring from her eyes. She began to sob.

  "I'm sorry, baby. I'll heal you as quickly as I can," I said. I put my hands on her stomach and focused on healing all the fractures and then sealing the broken skin. She screamed as her bones moved back into place and fused back together. I started crying because of how much pain she was in. After I was done healing her, I hugged her and said, "No one will hurt you like that ever again."

  "Thank you, Tom. I don't know what I'd do without you. Oh yeah! I wouldn't be in any danger and I'd live in the castle being spoiled all day by maids, butlers, and guards," she said.

  "Would you be happy though? You're not obligated to stay with me. You can go home whenever you want and they'll accept you with open arms," I said.

  "No. I wouldn't miss this for the world," she said. She kissed me and I kissed her back. "I wasn't that scared anyway. I knew you'd save me."

  "Yeah, right. You were pissing your pants," I said.

  "No, I wasn't!" She said with a pouty face. "I don't wear pants!"

  I nodded. "That's true," I said smiling. She was the same old Abigail. Nothing had changed.

  "That still really hurt though," she said.

  "I can imagine," I said. I held her for a few moments longer, staring into her beautiful blue eyes and caressing her gorgeous blonde hair.

  I got up and helped her up. "We should see how our friends are doing," I said.

  I dropped the bone walls around us. They were about 30 feet away from us. A horde of crystal addicts rushed at us. I summoned ten circles of person-sized circling blades around us and made them alternate directions. The crystal addicts were instantly shredded to pieces when they entered the blades. You'd think they would know not to do that, or at least learn based on what happened to the people in front of them, but they just kept entering the blades until there were none of them left. I killed hundreds of people that way.

  I lowered the blades and saw our friends Marcy, Nico, and Haglor lying on the ground on their backs. I ran over to Marcy first.

  "You run to Marcy first?" Nico said. "I see where I rank."

  "She's the smallest and most fragile! Geez. Give me a break," I said.

  I ran Advanced Diagnosis on Marcy. She had many lacerations and a few broken bones, but nothing life-threatening. I healed her with Advanced Healing and got rid of her headache with Advanced Status Relief. "Thanks," she said getting up and stretching.

  "No problem," I said. "Are you okay?"

  "Not really but I just want to get back to base and take a nice long coma. Just a solid 16-hour coma. Nothing crazy. Then I'll be fine," she said.

  "I can't tell if you're joking," I said.

  "I'm joking, but only about this much," she said holding her hand up to my face with her index finger and thumb together.

  "There's nothing there! You literally have no space between your finger and your thumb!" I said.

  "That's how much I'm joking," she said and got up. She twisted her upper body and I heard every vertebrae in her back crack in sequence.

  "Geez," I said. "Nico, get over here."

  "I'm broken dude. I can't," she said.

  "What part of you is broken?" I said.

  "Everything below my neck," she said. "I can't feel my body!"

  "Ok, ok! I'll come to you," I said. I put my hands on her stomach and ran Advanced Diagnosis.

  She lifted her head up and said, "Hey, hey! What are you touching? Sure, I'll be 18 tomorrow, but today I'm 17! So hands off the goods!"

  "I'm not touching either of your goods, thank you very much. Just your stomach," I said. "Also, happy early birthday!"

  "My stomach is the best good! What, you don't think I work out?" She said. She paused and then said, "I'm not flexing am I?"

  I looked her in the eyes and said, "No. No, you're not. Sorry. Now let me focus and heal your ass so you're not a quadriplegic for the rest of your life."

  "What's a quadriplegic?" She said.

  "A person who can't move their arms or legs," I said. "Now let me focus."

  "Ok, ok! Genius over here wants to focus everybody! Don't breathe anyone!" Nico yelled to the rest of the room.

  "Come on," I said as I tuned in to her body. She had a broken neck and a few broken ribs but otherwise, she was fine. I mean, having a broken neck is bad, but at least she didn't have internal bleeding or she wasn't having a stroke. I healed her neck and her ribs and moved on to Haglor who was also still laying on her back.

  "Uh, what's wrong with you?" I said putting my hands on her stomach. "You're not going to file sexual harassment like the other one are you?"

  "No, not me. You can touch wherever you need to to heal me. You can even put your hand up my ass if you want," she said rolling her head back and forth.

  "I'm good, but thanks for the offer," I said. I ran Advanced Diagnosis on her. "Oh shit! You're bleeding internally. Your organs are all kinds of messed up. I got this though. Just give me a second." I focused on healing her internal organs and they were good before I knew it. I patted her stomach. "You're all good now. You can get up."

  "What if I don't want to?" She said.

  "Oh no. Not you too," I said.

  "What?" She said.

  "Don't tell me you're another Nico," I said.

  "I'm not," she said getting up and standing over me. "I was just saying."

  "Ok. You can just say whatever you want, but if you want to stick with us, you have to come back to base with us," I said. "That's non negotiable."

  "Fine. Let's see what ramshackle setup you have," she said.

  "It's pretty ramshackle, I'll admit, but it's our base, so you know. Deal with it," I said.

  I took one step forward and images of the mutilated and cut-up bodies of innocent people flashed through my mind. The sounds of their bodies being turned into meat and the stench of blood. I felt sick. I fell to my knees and threw up.