Ring of ambush after ambush after ambush

Sorry for no chappie yesterday, I'm kinda panicking a little.

Well who am I kidding, I'm actually panicking a shit ton.

For some god damned reason and for devil knows why, my one drive account has decided to recind all of my documents.

In other words, all of the future plot line has been lost to the rivers of time

So if you don't mind, I'll have to drag things out alot in this mini desert arc.

Thank God and damn the Devil that I remember everything for this current arc.

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'Well damn'

Eyeing the floating white ghost that had several white tendrils connected to its bottom while dripping lava, I eyed it's red eyes.

And it's red eyes eyed me.

*KHWAA

'Nope'

Flipping backwards into a barrel roll, the large fire ball of flame blasted against the ground, creating a small crater.

Staring at the small crater, I realized one thing.

Despite the rather imposing size of this ghast, it's firepower had much to desire for.

Hell, the Eye of Cthulhu had more power than this thing.

Recalling the gaping maw of red teeth that led to nowhere but death, I silently adjusted my collar, letting the air into my abdomen.

But is it just me? Or is it getting really hot here?

Looking back up at the ghast that had left the confines of the earth and now was mingling with it's fellow clouds, I was taken back.

Since when did the desert that always rain in the presence of clouds suddenly just gain normal clouds that didn't rain in the slightest?

I mean, the last time clouds had appeared, there was so much rain falling from the skies that I was fifty percent confident that if there wasn't a horde of insects moving over their fellow Antlions corpses, then I would've continued to shoot at the corpses.

The amount of rain just made it that bad.

Even after it had ended, the desert was so caked in mud that it helped me notice we left the walls in the first place.

Still no idea how I got onto the carriage in the first place though.

And that was with magically induced rain that was made by tons of mana.

So, when I stared at the Ghast mingling with it's clouds, upon closer inspection my expression changed.

And by taking a quick glance around at the convoy, it seems that everyone had noticed it as well save for a few staring at the red lake of fire.

'Wait a minute, why are you guys staring at the lava lake?'

Forcefully tearing my eyes from the cloudy sky filled to the brim with ghosts screaming at each other, I now finally noticed what it was that had been generating so much heat.

[Blazes]

'Well damn, out of the fire into the lava.'

Made out of several threateningly spinning moving parts, there were two more notable ones.

Much like the Ghast that I had mistaken for a pale rock before, these blazes had lava drip off of their round orb like heads.

Rotating around said orb with bone melting zeal, were several rods.

And they definitely weren't normal rods in the slightest.

Creating balls of fire from their tips, the orange red rods of blaze fire slowly rotated threateningly.

And that wasn't all either.

Jumping slightly from the sound of an arm bursting out of the ground.

Surrounding the convoy in the quickly growing number of bursting arms.

Following each black bone arm that had surfaced from the patches of scorched black gravel, grinning black skulls of several wither skeletons emerged.

Black ribcage and all, they emerged from the ground like the living dead they were while towering over normal people in height.

And I hadn't noticed it before, but now that I was looking at it properly, held within their rib cages was a long sword which they unsheathed menacingly.

So currently counting there are three races currently ambushing us right?

The Ghasts in the sky.

The blazes in the lava lake ahead of us.

The Wither Skeletons flanking us.

Yeah, this was an ambush.

Thankfully things couldn't get worse from here.

And again, thankfully these guys seemed to be following some sort of order from their leaders otherwise we would've been besieged from all sides as they were emerging.

This gave us time.

Enough time for us to create so many makeshift barricades out of carriages, earth and shields.

It was honestly impressive how fast it had happened as in the brief moments that we found out the clouds in the sky that had appeared out of the distant mountains were Ghasts, carriages had already been positioned in such a way that they would absorb the first line of fire.

All I did was blink and walls were surrounding us.

So in manner of speaking, positioning ourselves at several choke points to focus fire all the monsters that would no doubt bite at us, I held my bow up.

*SKREEEEE*

'Wait a minute, why the hell do I hear Antlions?'

Eyes widening, I guess I was really optimistic when I said that this should be the extent of the forces from the ambush.

Quickly dashing to the back, just as quickly I saw a fragment of the Red king dash by and explode at our rear.

Consuming it in a pillar of fire, almost simultaneously, the sound of explosions serenaded the battlefield as more fire fell from the heavens.

'Oh damn'

Holding my Ice bow, several arrows appeared in my fingers.

And just like that, the battle began

---

Flitting atop the wide top of the carriages to the thin stone walls that surrounded the convoy, flames of all kinds covered the battlefield as I put out fires wherever they appeared.

Literally.

Mind overheating from the strain, ice shards moved as if they were alive to strike at the flames created by blaze rods and ghast balls.

Forming large ice crystals in place of the fire pits, they also served as a sort of defence.

And seeing as the flames were primarily outside, they were very good at defending.

But yeah, seeing as we were literally surrounded on all sides by a moat of fire, our situation really wasn't optimistic.

The fact that the fire caused at our backs was done by our own ally didn't help in the slightest.

Holding the bow tightly, malaise sunk into the bow and arrow, infusing it so much sk that the ice bow started to mutate.

And J say mutate very lightly.

Now forming several grooves on its normally sharp surface, the ice bow slowly gained a sort of more primal look to it as teeth and bones that had come from the wither skeletons merged into the ice bow.

Slamming the bow straight into another black skulled warrior climbing the walls, strangely enough, I noticed that the bow hadn't cracked yet.

Normally underneath excessive usage they would crack by now.

But I guess the malaise was doing something to it that I couldn't tell since the bow wasn't breaking and was instead getting stronger.

'I guess I never found out my weapons could evolve like this since they usually would break by now'

Feeling strangely sorry to the weapons that had been broken into an unrecognisable mess from the stress I put it through.

I strengthened my resolve by firing a few more arrows.

Firing a volley of ice arrows int the blazes, each misty white arrow found their mark as they took the blood thirstiest option possible and struck at their cores.

Using a twisted intelligence born from the malaise, even if I didn't particularly aim well, they could find their target.

I even saw the arrows turn ninety degrees in the air once to attack a dodging Blaze.

Feeling a chill rise from the base of my neck, I rolled to the side and fired a frosty arrow at the enemy.

*BANG!

Eyes widening, I felt my heart chill and breaths quicken in the face of...

Something different.

Something terrifying, quickly looking at the enemy that had launched an incredibly deadly boulder at my position, I caught sight of an eye catching figure.

Covered in black stone armour that had several spikes decorating it, a chain made out of various animal skulls decorated its body.

Now I wasn't some sort of genius, but even I could tell that this guy was the leader of this ambush.

I mean, seeing as it was literally commanding a retinue of horse riding skeletons to near us...

Wait, horse riding skeletons!?

Quickly moving my gaze to the bone white skeletons charging forwards, flaming bow and arrows in their hands in unison with their ash black skeletons holding black stone swords.

With every swing of their blades, a black mist surged forwards, turning the surrounding blazes a sickly grey in a edition to heir vibrant orange.

But as if the state of their allies wasn't an issue, the monstrous steeds carried their deadly masters forwards.

Pulling the strings back, my hands tainted by the excessive chill the bow released with the more malaise I put into it, the arrows flew over with deadly accuracy.

Striking true to their targets, every single stroke rendered the struck skeleton useless as they were consumed by blocks of ice.

Grinning slightly, I was about to continue my reign of terror on the ambushers before having the grin wiped off my face just like that.

Twisting around, my foot which was about to slip off the wall found solid ground again as I looked at the cause of my tumble.

At the place where the black boulder had struck, a portion of the walls started to decay quickly, turning everything around it into a decaying black mess.

Rolling to the side once again even as the stone wall I was on slowly decayed into the same black dust the Wither Skeletons came out of, I felt a tingle in my hands and neck.

'?!?'

And acting on instinct, I threw the bow directly at the heads of the horse riding skeletons firing at me.

Taken back by the foolish actions of the annoying warrior throwing away their weapon, the Skeleton, not one to look the gift horse in the mouth quickly grabbed the ice bow before the others could react.

And oh what a bad decision it was.

"AAAAAAAAGGGGGHHH"

Slightly flinching from the sound of a scream that came out of a being with no vocal cords, I thanked the Gods that I threw the bow away when I did.

Twisting atop their mount, the ice bow in their hands manifested several black bone spikes covered in icy fragments.

Stabbing into the bone white skeletons, they twisted and turned in the skeletons body.

Even the skeletal horse wasn't an exception.

Letting out a painful whinny coming from the depths of its soul, the whole battlefield stopped to stare in a mixture of horror and wonder at the sight.

Wrapping around both rider and mount, the twisted ice bow monster let out shrieking laughter before continuing to morph the Skeletal riders into its liking.

And as if that wasn't enough, char black spikes twisted out of its body before stabbing at the group of Skeletal riders surrounding it.

Turning it's former allies into nutrients for its new evolution, the Wither skeleton leader coldly stared at its dying subordinate before raising its long sword.

Bringing the stone sword down, it was met with surprise as a shadowy grey hand coated in frosty fragments met the blade head on.

Clutching the deadly blade, the ghostly screams went away as the frosty mist and black bones dissipated to reveal it's full form.

Giving a ghastly grin, it's right hand seemed to automatically pull the string back as a bone spikes loaded itself onto the bow.

And me?

Well I was pondering over the thought of evolving my weapons through the malaise.

'Noted, weapons given sentience by the malaise want to consume everything to become a new being.'

'Probably an elite mob, but Idont think boss mob level can be crossed out'

'On that note, stop infusing so much malaise into the weapons'

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Tree that should be celebrating the commencement of a new arc if it didn't lose all the info for that new arc in the data storm.