Chapter 54: The bridge [14]
I stepped to the side, where a sharp spike made of bone rose from the ground.
There was something special about this undead skeleton — it was that it was copying the way I manipulated darkness to create constructs, to create his own bone constructs.
Earlier at the beginning of the fight, he wasn’t able to create anything at all, but after seeing me create a wall of darkness for the first time, he learned and created a wall made of bones, and then he learned how to create spikes made of bones as well.
He was learning with me, despite not having a brain inside his empty skull.
It was impressive that he was learning and would be terrifying if it were an opponent that I couldn’t defeat. After all, opponents that are able to copy you are terrifying.
I felt something collide with the wall I had set up behind me — it seemed that the other skeletons were here and were now trying to break through it.
That was my cue to kill the giant skeleton faster.
I dashed towards the giant undead skeleton. When I got close to him, his giant axe was already descending on my face, but just before it could split my face, I ducked and slid under his legs.
Doing so, I raised my katana and slashed at his right leg — my blade was enhanced with mana and wrapped in darkness energy, so it met no resistance and sliced through the leg cleanly.
The leg was cut, and the undead giant skeleton fell on his remaining knee. Despite that, he still swung his giant axe behind him to cut me, but I dodged easily by stepping to the side.
I couldn’t let him heal his leg, so I kept attacking.
The undead giant skeleton threw spikes of bone at me, some coming from his body while others came from the ground.
I moved forward and didn’t back down. My blade flashed with a dark aura as I cut every bone spike that came in my direction, splitting them in half and cutting them to pieces.
Once I got close to the giant undead skeleton, I summoned dozens of darkness tentacles that rose from the ground below him and wrapped around his body, keeping him in place.
Even though the tentacles were keeping him in place, the giant undead skeleton was still so strong that it tore some of the tentacles apart, so I had to create another one to replace it.
Once I got him still, I moved behind him and stabbed my katana right through his core.
The core released a cracking sound and then broke into pieces.
After that, the giant undead skeleton became still and stopped fighting the restraints, and then his whole giant body turned to dust.
[You have slain a Mid Common Monster, Undead Skeleton.]
The system confirmed my kill.
"That was easy." I sheathed my katana.
’That is because you’re learning from me.’ Ezio flaunted himself.
I just shook my head and then looked at the wall I had created, still standing.
At one moment, it was still standing, and the next, it was broken down, revealing a large number of undead skeletons that looked at me with nothing but malice and charged towards me.
A bow of darkness formed in my hands with three black arrows already loaded. I pulled the string and aimed the arrow slightly up.
"Hopefully, this time I kill at least one." I let go of the string, and the black arrows launched into the air with speed and fell upon the skeletons.
From the three skeletons I had aimed at, two of them had raised their shields and blocked the arrows, while the third was unlucky and was pierced right in his core.
[You have slain a Low Common Monster, Undead Skeleton]
Not bad, I got a kill out of three arrows, but I still had to improve my archery skills.
I loaded three more arrows and launched them again at the charging group, then I let go of the bow, which crumbled into a cloud of darkness and then took the shape of a long spear, at least a meter long.
The arrows were completely blocked this time, but it was okay; they would not be able to block this.
I held the spear with a strong grip, and then I proceeded to infuse mana into it. I infused so much that the spear hummed with power.
Once I was done, I took a few steps back, pulled my arm holding the spear back, then made a little run forward and threw the spear.
The spear tore through the air like a missile, and it crossed through the cave like a black streak and reached the charging group of skeletons in a blink.
The spear hit the middle row of the group; it didn’t matter if they had their shields up to block. My spear just broke through them, impaling every skeleton on that row and kept moving forward until the last one.
Broken bones were scattered in the air.
[You have slain a Low Common Monster, Undead Skeleton]
[You have slain a Low Common Monster, Undead Skeleton]
[You have slain a Low Common Monster, Undead Skeleton]
[You have slain a Low Common Monster, Undead Skeleton]
[You have slain a Low Common Monster, Undead Skeleton]
[You have slain a Low Common Monster, Undead Skeleton]
"Ooh, that was a good throw, don’t you think, Ezio?"
’5 out of ten, I can do better.’
The archers were already launching arrows at me.
I didn’t wait anymore since the undead skeletons were already very close, so I infused mana into my legs, turned around and dashed away to where I had come from.
My figure left a black streak behind as I ran through the cave tunnels and since I had memorized the tunnel paths, I didn’t need to make a stop, so I kept running.
I could hear the clattering of bones from behind — the faster skeletons were chasing me. But unfortunately for them, they would never catch me.
I picked up my speed and ran faster than before, cutting through sharp turns like a Formula One car.
I could hear the noise of some skeletons crashing against the walls because they failed to take a proper turn.
I guess I had broken their ankles.
Soon, I saw the two exits — the one on the left was where I had come from, which was longer, and the other on the right was the shorter one that connected to the left tunnel.
So I took the right tunnel and ran through it, and after a few moments, I was able to see the light at the end of the tunnel, so I dashed faster.
My figure shot out of the tunnel, and I only stopped when I was out of the shadows. My feet skidded on the floor, raising dust as I made a hard stop.
The light from the sun, piercing through the gap in the ceiling, washed over me. That meant that it was still afternoon.
I looked behind me, where I saw the undead skeletons coming, which abruptly stopped under the shadow and never stepped out.
They chattered their teeth as if in frustration that they couldn’t get me right now.
"It must be really irritating not being able to walk in the sun." I smirked.
The archers behind suddenly lined up in front of the group.
"Oh shit."
I turned around and ran away, crossing the bridge as arrows pierced the place where I had stood.
Once I was on the other side and the arrows stopped coming my way, I finally stopped running.
The undead skeletons just stood there under the shadow staring at me while chattering their teeth loudly.
For some reason I felt offended, they seemed to be cursing at me or something.
They stood there for some minutes before heading back inside the cave where they came from and disappeared inside.
I checked my pocket watch and it was 12 o’clock in the afternoon, I had spent more than 4 hours inside the cave. I had intended only to stay there for a maximum of four hours but I couldn’t do anything about it when there were unknown variables.
Ezio came out of my shadow and leaned his left arm on my shoulder.
"Impressive, this time you didn’t get hurt at all, not a single scratch." He said.
Throughout the whole time I spent in the undead skeletons’ territory, I had managed to avoid getting hurt.
I didn’t want to get cursed since I didn’t like the feeling of it at all, so I did my best to not get hurt.
That showed how well I was controlling the fight against the giant skeleton that was twice my size. He could’ve injured me so many times with that huge axe of his but with my reflexes, he never touched a single hair of mine.
"Hey, you know if you didn’t distract me, I probably would have slain more of them, right?" I looked at him from the corner of my eyes.
He shrugged. "As I said, it’s not my fault you get distracted so easily."
This shameless bastard of a guardian.
We remained silent for a few moments, looking at the bridge.
"Hey." I said.
"What?"
"You’re heavy."
"You’re calling me fat?" He raised an eyebrow.
"No, get your arm off my shoulder." I said.
"Don’t want to." He replied lazily.
"I will stab you."
I didn’t wait for him to respond — a black dagger formed in my hand and I stabbed his stomach.
Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to stab this guy, I failed because his body suddenly turned incorporeal like a shadow, causing my blade to miss.
Ezio just laughed at my failed attempt.
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