He softly stepped forward, and with a ghostly movement pattern, he crossed dozens of meters in an instant. Any skeleton that was in the range of his sword was smoothly cut in several pieces and fell to the ground. He had been here for a lot of time, and as soon as a change happened in the sea of skeletons, he noticed it. "The waves are moving…", he thought as he breathed while using the numerous pillars on the path to propel himself."No! They are reducing!" he exclaimed with excitement as he couldn"t take it anymore from the same actions he had been doing over and over. As he cleared the hundreds of skeletons that stood in the narrow path he had taken, he felt as if all of the noise in his surroundings disappeared. A deadly silence instantly took over the constant rattling that he had gotten used to, and the sudden change couldn"t help but perturb him.
He stopped in his track before looking at the sky; the same h.e.l.lish atmosphere appeared in his sight, and hanging in the middle of the reddish canvas was the bright blood red moon. He stopped himself from jumping in the air to get a better view of what was happening, but he stopped himself as he wasn"t aware of what was going. His leg moved as his figure flashed through a few streets. The more he moved, the more he doubted his eyes as he knew that there were skeletons in those places. His heart thumped through his chest as he felt that the matter was too strange, way too strange.
"I would have never thought that at some point I"d hope to find one of those white b.a.s.t.a.r.ds…", he exclaimed as he thought about the constant time he had to spend while surrounded by the continuous waves of white skeleton soldiers. His legs began taking him to the spot he had used the most, and before long, the plaza appeared in his sight. His eyebrow dropped as he turned serious. In the middle of the plaza where he had been fighting for days, not a single speck of bones or sc.r.a.p of skulls could be found by his eyes. He advanced forward a few more meters before he noticed that the construct that had been furthermore destroyed during the fights had been replaced.
"I know that this is a game… But I can"t help but find this odd.", as soon as those words left his lips, a vortex appeared out of nowhere. And from its sinister insides came out a hand, a skeleton hand to be more precise. Its color was dark like the vortex, and if Fell hadn"t sensed movement, he wouldn"t have even noticed the hand pop out from the vortex. Then a long string of laugher left the vortex and boomed through the plaza, Fell found the laughter eerie and couldn"t help but take a step back after hearing it.
The system"s notification that he had been waiting for finally appeared in front of him.
"Congratulation on enduring the trial by fire, endless waves!"
"To complete the trial by fire, the user Stroke only needs to defeat the boss!"
After swiftly reading the notification, Fell breathed out as he gazed at the boss that was being summoned by the vortex. He knew that although the individual strength of the skeleton soldier was ridiculously low, it definitely wouldn"t be the same for the boss. He filled his lungs from the surrounding air before expelling it and repeated the action several times. The action soothed his mind, and he soon resumed his focused state after a few breaths. He waited with his sword in hand as he couldn"t help but feel antic.i.p.ation while watching the boss get out of the vortex.
From the size of its hand, he knew that the skeleton would topple him when it came to the size of their body. Although it wouldn"t be a huge difference like it was with Karukobi, it might still cause him some trouble as he wasn"t sure about the boss"s movement speed, his strength, his range, and so many other variables. The fight hadn"t even begun but Fell was already gathering any useful information he could get. Soon enough, before the boss could even leave the vortex, he already had a fighting plan.
"Although I"m somewhat tired… I can"t afford to risk it by trying to end it fast! Lunging forward without thinking will cost me too much.", he thought while seeing the boss"s torso appear after his dark bony arm left the vortex. "I"ll fight him while avoiding overstepping inside of his range, during the fight I"ll gather enough information about his strength, speed and intelligence!", he knew that the system wouldn"t drop a dumb monster as a boss but still wanted to try and see if that was the case.
A few seconds pa.s.sed as the wind blew away the dust that laid on the plaza. Fell"s sight never strayed far from the vortex, and he was fully locked on the bony frame that was leaving the vortex. Soon enough, both of his legs fell on the ground; the ground shook as his weight cracked the fragile floor of the plaza. Then the vortex seamlessly disappeared into the void, disappearing as quietly as it appeared.
There stood a two and a half meters tall giant skeleton. A crimson colored armor was donned on his body, and on his waist stood two gigantic scimitars. His posture was relaxed and Fell could swear that he could see a smile on the skull of the skeleton. Fell didn"t dare to take a step lightly as he didn"t know the skeleton"s capacity, but that wasn"t the only reason. Although the unknown was scary, what truly made Fell unable to engage the boss was its posture. He stood there relaxed; he didn"t take any martial form and didn"t seem to be ready to fight. But Fell felt as if he attacked from any angle, the skeleton giant could punish him effortlessly.
"His defenses seem open, but this feeling that I can"t brush off… It"s as if I can"t attack him!?" Fell mumbled while clenching his sword tightly in his hand.