While Bobby had gone with the gang, Gary was sent to gather their army and convene with them at the base of the Jameson Jockey Jedi (location kindly provided by one of the men). Bobby had decided due to their harassment of Lucinda that it would be better off for him to dismantle the gang. So while holding a Derek who was trembling with rage at gunpoint he got them to lead him back to where they had come from.

  It took them roughly an hour to walk to the old hospital building, faster than they would have managed with cars due to the most direct roads being blocked off. Gary even managed to catch them up just before they got to the base as he came jogging by with around two hundred skeletons following him.

  Bobby had decided to reveal this trump card, he felt it was worth it, though some small part of his mind was telling him it might be a bit of a rash move. The men who were with them had originally raised their guns at the skeletons and almost began firing, but Bobby had stopped them via putting a bullet into the ground just under Derek.

  It was weird, the men didn’t seem to fear Derek at all, but they most definitely feared him being hurt in any way as a result of their actions. Bobby couldn’t quite figure out why this was.

  Soon the group convened on the old hospital, the old car park had been walled in with rubble, and there was now a barrier twelve feet tall. “Where’s the entrance?” Bobby asked, gesturing to one of the men who had been accompanying Derek.

  The man seemed to hesitate, but Bobby raised his gun towards Derek's face, prompting him to talk, “It’s round the other side, where the cars used to enter.”

  Gary interjected, “How well guarded is it, what does it look like?”

  “Twenty men at all times of day and night with machine guns and a large metal gate which can fall into place with a pull of a lever.”

  Bobby frowned, but then had an idea. He handed the gun to Mcgunkin, who was all too eager to take over the job, then concentrated his mind and began weaving the magical threads into the spell that had become second nature to cast over the last month. He should probably have been practicing others too, but this was one of the most destructive spells he knew and he could now cast it in just under ten seconds.

  When his fingers had finished blurring around, the radiant white orb bloomed into existence, but this time Bobby fed it more magic, enlarging the orb to about the size of his head. There were gasps from the men around him as they watched the magic, although Bobby saw a few shake their heads at what they thought was some kind of trick.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  Eager to baffle his spectators further, Bobby approached the wall, holding the ball out and then like it was a magic eraser he began removing material from existence. It was a slow process, as the ball was connected by magic filaments to the midpoint of his two fingers, so it couldn’t dig very far into the wall.

  After around a minute of not much progress, Bobby curiously released one of the tethers allowing the ball to drop down onto just the one string like a yoyo of death. Then very carefully he began swinging it in circles. The ball swung faster and faster until it blurred into a ring, then Bobby touched the ring to the wall. Like butter the wall began vanishing, and quite quickly he managed to cut a gaping hole into the wall.

  Bobby let the ball stop spinning and then discarded it, watching it just vanish underground as it erased all matter in its way. Then he turned to the rest of the group and briefly tallied the numbers.

  The twenty men that had come with Derek were looking at him with eyes wide of mouth gaping, he could not use them for the hostile takeover he was about to perform due to their potential loyalties, Mcgunkin would need to remain behind to keep Derek and them hostage.

  Besides the men there were rows upon rows of skeletons spilling out into the streets behind, ordered into ranks and groups by Gary. They were instrumental in the upcoming takeover, due to how expendable and borderline unkillable they were. Bobby felt a faint connection to the skeletons and figured he could probably control them remotely somehow, but it was not really the right time to figure that out and Gary already had them in hand.

  The rest of his personal group were interspersed, Gary leading the skeletons, Mcgunkin still pointing a gun at Derek and Bobby caught sight of a skeleton wearing a scarf somewhere across the street, which was probably Michaela. Rho Dent he could feel in his shirt pocket, her small body radiating warmth.

  Clearing his throat Bobby addressed his people awkwardly. “Right, I have never really performed a military operation before, but Gary can you direct the skeletons how to take down and knock out people most effectively, then we will bulldoze in and catch them by surprise, working our way to whoever leads the gang and using them to stop the conflict before it escalates.”

  “Not a bad plan at all,” said Gary, before interrogating one of Derek's men about the internal layout of the base and any other vital intel.

  Once they had found out all they needed, they began passing through the hole in the wall before someone stumbled upon it from the inside. Bobby let several groups of skeletons go first before coming through the hole himself. Then once all two hundred and one of the skeletons had passed through, which took a few minutes they began the operation.

  Silently as possible a white wave spread through the periphery of the base. Originally the skeletons were silent, but when the guards at the gate began shouting and shooting they began to rapidly clack their jaws. The clacking slowly synchronised over the army until it became a unsettling beat like an ominous war drum.

  +++++

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