Red nodded its skull.

Jay used the host skill on Archers again, and analyzed the swamp woman who was still outside her shack. She was meandering about, collecting some ashes from an old fire pit, along with mushrooms near the waters edge. Jay couldn't tell what she was doing, but as neither of the ingredients were magical, it didn't matter to him

What was important was her current mana. It was still at zero percent.

A cunning smile appeared on Jay's face as he ended the [Host] skill and waited for the underwater skeletons to get into position.

Not long now… he thought.

Jay waited by Asra's side as he sensed the skeletons sneaking around the edges of the island, a lurking threat right under the swamp woman's nose.

He had put out a pile of bones for Asra to lay on, so she wouldn't get wet on the ground, and so none of the vile swamp bugs would get into her wound.

(Blue, wait till she gets close to the edge of the water.)

Jay gave the order as a sort of guidance, a recommendation, though he was sure the skeleton would've already had the same idea, and he left the rest in Blue's command.

Jay stared across the still-water, into the fog, and suddenly, he heard splashing sounds coming from the island.

Blue executed the plan.

Here we go, Jay thought.

He quickly used the [host] skill on Archers, and watching what was happening through its eyes.

Skeletons burst out of the dark waters, covered in slime and muck which didn't bother them in the slightest.

They surrounded the swamp woman who was shaking and barely able to find her feet. She gripped her mushrooms so tightly in shock that she crushed them.

She scrambled back to the safety of her hut, but another skeleton appeared, dashing around the side of the rotting shack and cutting off her exit.

She wouldn't have made it anyway.

Clawed skeletal fingers had clutched her ankle like a snare.

Two others grabbed her wrists, and pulled her to a stop.

"Help me you stupid things!" She growled, with her wretched raspy voice calling to the rotting shack.

Hmm… what is she called for? For a level twenty-seven, her strength is pretty weak. Maybe I've over-estimated her.

While Jay watched, more skeletons jumped on her and held her down, but something began to come from the rotting hut.

It didn't come out through the doors or windows, but was part of the hut itself.

The leaves… I was right. They're constructs?

A stream of floating leaves flowed through the air towards the skeletons, and after a moment the stream of leaves grew into a river, like giant flying curtains.

Each leaf was about the size of a thumb and seemed like a giant swarm of insects about to consume whatever was in their path.

The leaf swarm met the swords of two skeletons, and as the swords whipped through the air they didn't cut many leaves apart; they were simply too light. All they managed to do was bat a few away, but it made no difference to a swarm of hundreds, maybe thousands, of these sentient leaves.

I wonder, will Blue try to escape into the water? I suppose it depends how dangerous the leaves are.

Jay decided to let Blue make the decisions. He was curious to see what it would do, but also wanted to train its mind.

Through the eyes of Archers, Jay could see that many of the sentient leaves were dry and curled up into crunchy-looking balls, while others seemed plump, green and flexible. It was easy to tell they were old and gray or young and green, but most of them, about 90% were of the old and dried-out variety. They would not survive a little water. Angela's Library