I'm not a necromancer...

This writing prompt was taken from Reddit (you can see this story there as well)

https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/1r91k2f/wp_everyone_at_magic_school_picks_on_you_for_your/

[WP] Everyone at magic school picks on you for your creepy skeletal minions. One day a trio of bullies has you cornered. "What now, necromancer? There's no corpses or bones around to save you." You sigh, "Actually, I'm an osteomancer. The skeletons don't have to come from corpses."

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I was accustomed to my fellow “Gifted” students being weary of me but these three took it upon themselves to make my life here at Gillgum and Zeffer's School for the Gifted an absolute nightmare. After months of narrowly escaping their attempts to fight me I found myself trapped by these three imbeciles because I made the mistake of getting distracted by a particularly good set of mouse bones that Hero, the school cat, had left of one of his pray.

“What now Necromancer? There’s no corpses or bones around to save you.” said Saluk the leader of the group. He was a tall slender boy with shoulder length black hair, and a very off putting face, well at least to me. In actuality, most of the girls in the school and a decent number of the boys thought he was gorgeous.

Despite my repeated attempts to correct their misconceptions about the focus of my particular magic skills these three in particular continued to insist that I was a necromancer which I most definitely was not.

“Actually, I am an osteomancer, as I have told you before, now please leave me be.” I calmly replied with no small amount of distance in my voice.

“What’s that difference?” Villsa retorted nastily.

“Yeah, what’s the difference?” Halbert echoed more inquisitively.

Villsa, was a girl of medium height, and angular features that made her look a bit like a bird. She was definitely second in command but only barely as she was probably the smartest student at school despite only being in her second year. Halbert on the other hand was probably the dumbest student and looked it. He was short, had a round faced with a permanent look of slack jawed confusion and as a fifth year was supposedly going to graduate at the end of the year.

“Really Villsa, I expected it from the other two but you are smarter than that.” I sighed “A necromancer raises the dead as a whole entity. I on the other hand am an osteomancer which means I can control and manipulate bones.”

“Yeah, dead bones which makes you a necromancer.” Saluk spit, his hands starting to radiate a faint dark gray glow. Villsa and Halbert followed suit by stepping back into a typical fighting stance their hands also starting to glow light green and white respectively.

Saluk, was a Petromancer, meaning he could control stone which was dangerous pretty much anywhere but in the middle of a deep body of water, and considering we were standing in a school court yard filled with gravel and surrounded by stone walls he was definitely the most dangerous. Villsa was the next most dangerous with her botanymancer skills giving her control over almost all plant life including fungus. Luckily there was a limited supply in this mostly stone courtyard. Halbert on the other hand was an anemomancer which gave him the ability to control the literal air giving him an unlimited resource for his magic. Luckily he was as unskilled in his magic as he was stupid and the worst damage I had ever seen him conjure was stiff breeze making him the magical equivalent of a large box fan.

I was out matched at magic against magic when it came to both Saluk and Villsa but luckily for me magic was controlled through concentration, meaning if I can distract the spell caster I can stop their ability to cast spells.

Saluk was already gathering gravel, building a golem, Villsa had taken control of some ivy growing up one of the walls and was rapidly growing it towards me. and Halbert hand unleashed his full power, a stiff breeze whipping my cloak and hair and slightly drying my eyes. Poor Halbert.

“We are on the same side guys, we don’t need to fight.” I said in an effort to avoid the inevitable.

“I will never be on the same side as you necro-boy!” Saluk shouted.

Resigning to the fact that I was going to have to fight I quickly reached out with my mind and found the skeleton of the dead mouse. I quickly plucked the three largest rib bones on the mouse straightened them into tiny bone needles and sent them hurtling toward my attackers. Each one found its mark in the left hands of Saluk, Villsa, and Halbert. They each called out in pain grabbing at their left hands nearly in unison. The wind stopped, the ivy stopped growing, and the golem crumbled into a pile of gravel.

I started to make a run for the gate at the far end of the court yard but just as I grabbed for it the stones of the wall warped around the edges of the gate locking it in place.

“I was just going to beat you up a little bit, but now… Now you are dead necro-boy!” Saluk was seething with anger has he pulled the mouse rib from his hand. 

“You should have just taken your beating, but now we are going to have to make an example of you.” Villsa was staring at the mouse bone in her own hand as she said this. And without another sound she reached up and pulled the bone free.

“Just let me go. You attacked me and I stopped it. This doesn’t need to go any further. Let’s all just walk away from this okay. I really don’t want to hurt any of you.” I tried one last attempt to avoid my fate but to no avail.

“Hurt any of us? Ha. Looks to me you just took your best shot and now you know what’s coming next.” Saluk took a step forward as he looked to Villsa. “Bind him spread eagle.”

“You got it.” Villsa said with a sadistic smile. Her hands glowed green and the ivy rushed at me as I tried in vain to dodge it. Within seconds I was bound by my ankles wrists and neck being held flat agains the back wall of the courtyard.

Saluk slowly stepped forward magically picking up a single piece of gravel with each slow step and hurtling it at me. Striking my chest, legs, hands, and face. The last rock hit my outstretched left hand and I felt the familiar snap and pain of a bone break. It was my ring finger.

“You don’t have to do this” I said with a strangled, pained voice.

“Oh but we do.” Saluk said back, with a calmness that made my skin crawl. Saulk took another step forward this time launching a stone at my face hitting just above my right eye. My skull didn’t fracture but it was close. The skin had burst open and blood now freely poured down my face.

“Please stop.” I said one last time. “I Don’t want to hurt you.”

“Give it up necro-boy you can’t hurt us. You’er done.” Saluk was enjoying this, he was actually enjoying seeing me in pain. The next stone Saluk picked up was no piece of gravel it was a stone the size of my head, he had pulled from the ground, moist dirt still clinging to it. With his hands fully enveloped in the dark gray of his magical power he flung the rock at me striking me in the thigh. I heard the crack and felt the searing pain of my femur being pulverized into shards of bone. My leg gave out and I slumped against the vines keeping me up but also now choking out my air ways as I struggled to breathe. I took as deep a breath as I could and centered myself. I have been breaking and distorting my own bones for years to practice my craft and this pain was nothing new. 

Saluk slowly levitated the large stone he just used, on my leg, once again, his right hand outstretched glowing gray, the stone started to move toward my face, then “Ahhhhhhh!” Saluk streaked as the stone dropped and rolled to my feet. His right hand was no longer glowing and all the fingers were pointing in opposite directions, unnatural directions. Both Villsa and Halbert gave a “OHHHHHH!” in revolution as they looked at Saluk’s hand. Halbert continued to stare and Villsa turned back to me and tightened the ivy around my neck completely cutting off my oxygen. Snap! 

“Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!” Villsa screamed as she hunched forward and grabbed toward her now broken left forearm. 

“Shit, shit, shit!” she continued to scream. The vines slackened and I dropped to the floor. I sprawled out flat and took a desperate, deep breath, grabbing at my shirt collar in an attempt to get more air into my lungs. This brought the searing pain of my finger back into focus. I took another deep breath focused and reformed my finger bone. I then turned my attention to my leg willing the individual shards back into place and to nit back together. Though the pain was still substantial my bones were back in functioning order.

I slowly stood wiping the blood from my face, only to have Saluk draw back his functioning hand into a fist and start to swing. Snap! His humerus broke just below the shoulder joint. He let out another pained howl and fell flat on his back trying to hold his broken arm with his broken hand. Villsa tried to stand up straighter, short breaths coming through her clenched jaw. Her hand started to glow faintly green as the ivy slowly moved toward me.

“Really?” I asked shaking my head but also slightly impressed she was able to control her pain enough to still use some magic.

“Gawwwwww! she screamed and fell to her back next to Saluk, her left leg curving to the left not broken but curved like a bow. She abruptly stopped shouting as she passed out from the pain.

“How… you can’t….necromancers can’t…” Saluk sputtered out as I went to work fixing Villsa’s forearm and leg.

As I worked, I calmly responded to Saluk. 

“Though I prefer to use bones of dead animals that came to that end through no intervention on my part I can technically control any bones. I just prefer not to harm the living.” I finished with Villsa and turned my full attention to Saluk. “Necromancers can only control the dead. I as an osteiomancer can control all manner of bones living or dead, mine or someone else’s. Also after years of practicing on myself, I have built a pain tolerance that most people can not even begin to fathom so I very rarely lose my ability to control my magic. Do you understand now?”

“Fix me!”Saluk demanded.

“Sure, just answer one question, what am I?” I stood over him looking down at him.

“Screw you necro-boy!” He spat.

“Very well, another demonstration then.” I slowly started to bend both his legs as he screamed.

“Osteomancer! Osteomancer! Your an Osteomancer!” I stopped bending his legs as his yelling died to heavy breathing. “Now fix me please, it hurts so bad.” Saulk pleaded starting too tear up.

Without a word I reset Saluk’s fingers, arm, and straightened his legs back to normal though, I did it quickly so the pain was enough for him to pass out and piss himself.

I looked up and met eyes with Halbert as I started to walk out of the courtyard. Unprompted he just said “Osteomancer, your and osteomancer.” He was still holding he left hand with the tiny mouse bone in it. 

With a quick flick of my wrist the mouse bone quickly slid out of his hand causing him to wince and jump.

“When your friends wake up be sure to remind them to leave me alone from now on.” I didn’t break stride as I walked past Halbert.

“Yeah, of course, sorry man.” Halbert actually sounded apologetic. I walked a bit further and just as I was about to round the corner Halbert called to me.

“Hey man what’s your name?”

“My Name?” I paused for a moment taken aback by the question. “Zerrin.” I called back.

“That was some seriously badass magic Zerrin.” Halbert said with all sincerity.

“Ugh.. Thanks Halbert. See ya.” I said as rounded the corner pretty certain I was rid of those bullies for good.