Miraculously... they didn't perish.

It was no easy fight.
The Skull had escaped within minutes of Leiken being able to stand up and blast it with a beam of light. He had collapsed shortly after, and the others had struggled to try and fight it after. Even partly melted and bristling with frosty spears, it'd managed to give them quite the fight. It was truly a miracle no one had gotten injuries worse than a few splinters and a cut up face and side like Leiken. Even when Solace had managed to get out of the Skull's jaws, xey'd been left with nothing but a few scrapes and a bruised rib. 

The miserable group of heroes hadn't even killed it. 

At some point, it had let out one final unholy shriek and disappeared.

None of them had seen where it had gone, but they knew, with a crushing sense of dread, they would have to fight it again someday.

With the weight of that thought on their heads, they staggered back towards camp, Leiken leaning heavily on Euele's shoulder as she limped along. Solace and Hawkes were basically using each other to hold the other up, looking as though they might drop if the other moved too far away. Everyone was tired, they just wanted to get back to camp and fall into a deep and dreamless slumber until the aftermath of that encounter eased away. But they knew better. The dungeon wouldn't let them just walk away from this. There would always be more to do, more places to go, and always, always there would be more danger to face.

"There's something up ahead." Solace coughed, xir muzzle twisting at the sudden agony of pressure against xir rib. 

Hawkes heaved a sigh. "Its not moving, whatever it is. I think we can get past it easily enough... though it does appear to be blocking our way forwards." They squinted, their expression slowly morphing into a scowl. 

Euele's eyelids fluttered, an expression like that on her companion could mean anything. And anything sounded bad right now. "Hawkes, what is it?"

"A skeleton." 

Leiken let out a single hoarse laugh, the sound grating through the air before falling like wet mud to the ground. "You're kidding. A Skull almost just killed us, and now there's a skeleton blocking our way back to camp?" Que echoed his disbelief with a huge yawn and a quiet growl, her tail limply wagging once behind her.

As the group got closer, it became clear it was similar to the skeleton they'd found before. The shape was completely different, longer with huge hinged fangs and strangely tall spines sticking up among the piles of vertebrae, its bones scored by weapon marks, and quiver fulls and quiver fulls of arrowheads scattered about it telling a story of a horrifyingly difficult fight. Much like the other skeleton, what looked to be a large sword was stuck deep into the bone of the skull, the one weapon behind the finishing blow it certainly had to be.

Hawkes ears pricked, and they picked up their pace, stumbling forwards interested. "What if... we got this one down? It's much like the one we found before." They glanced at the giant cleaver strapped to their shoulder. "It's hard to see from here but I think it probably has a similar enchantment to make it so strong."  

Leiken let out a hideous sigh, the sound like the very embodiment of exhaustion. "If... we must. I suppose." Euele glanced at him worriedly, gently nudging him with her head as he started to slump. He lifted his head and looked blearily from Euele to Que to Hawkes. 

"I think we'll have to go under the skull anyways to get past." Euele said softly. "And if we can get it out before having to run around under there, we'll lessen the chance of it dropping on our heads. I think we should try it."Both Leiken and Solace nodded slowly. To Euele, it seemed they just simply didn't have the strength to say no. She forced a smile. "While Hawkes is poking at it, I can dish out some medical attention." Both of her more injured comrades seemed to lighten a bit at that. She gave a little nod. Good. Might as well get something a bit better than first aid done for them. Clearly her first aid wasn't doing enough. And if it would make getting to camp easier, than it was more than worth a stop.

Hawkes wiggled excitedly at being haven given permission to get the other sword, grabbing his own cleaver and starting hacking at the bone to try and get at the blade deeply embedded in the skull.