Sora happily danced around each of the attacks the skeletons threw at him, his only regret was that his guardians weren’t around to see this. They would be completely awestruck if they saw this level of martial arts skill. Sora was previously a slime – and being a slime is very different from being a skeleton.

As a slime, Sora was unfamiliar with its movements and so he could never bring out his full martial arts potential. Furthermore, as Sora had just received his new body then, it was still in the process of fusing with all his other body parts. It could only be considered a miracle that Sora was able to accomplish walking within the first day. Being able to practice martial arts with Maylon and Gustav would be on par with a miracle that happens in a hundred years.

Sora had always made everything appear so easy however he never once showed the pain his body kept giving off when he was in slime mode. In comparison to slime mode, skeleton mode was more stable body, less pain and its movements were identical to those of a human.

Sora let out a sigh – maybe next time he will let them see this skill. Sora knew his guardians had a low opinion of him (dead wrong) – he only wanted to show them (specifically Maylon) these skills to impress them (to get laid).

The four skeletons attacking Sora noticed him sighing. According to them, Sora had gone too far! To be sighing in battle – he was surely looking down on them. Almost anyone would give up after being humiliated ruthlessly for five minutes – but amongst monsters there was no going back. The four skeletons were so weak that they couldn’t even understand that Sora wasn’t just lucky – it was skill. In the eyes of these skeletons since Sora can only dodge and not attack back Sora was most certainly a weakling. However, they couldn’t be more mistaken, to Sora this was a mere tactic to get these four idiots to submit to him.

Realizing they hadn’t made any progress, the Shark-Man skeleton looked at his buddies and spoke “All of you step back. I am going to use it on him.”

The other three skeletons panicked and stepped back.

“But…Gladus!...”The Parrot skeleton stuttered.

But the shark skeleton, Gladus, ignored his comrade.

Gladus took a deep breath and began releasing a sinister aura. Some of the onlookers began frowning – this was going to earn trouble for everyone. The other three comrades were of the same opinion as they watched the onlookers disperse.

“Brother Gladus…” One of the human skeletons spoke, hoping to stop Gladus – but it was too late.

Gladus went full force at Sora.

Sora nearly tripped up as he tried to dodge the new attack. It may have looked like an ordinary punch but it was at least ten times faster than the previous fists Gladus had been throwing. Sora was more than startled – this had just turned dangerous. He could sense a vile aura engulfing Gladus but could not see it like the other monsters did. Gladus threw a few more punches and Sora continued to dodge albeit with great difficulty – suddenly the tables had turned on Sora.

Now one might wonder why Sora, who is capable of dodging lightening, is struggling to dodge a simple punch. However, it wasn’t as simple as it appeared – the technique Sora used came with strings attached. The jelly fishes’ attacks were straight forward and predictable. The lightening was fixed to be unleashed at a regular interval and would only move in a linear fashion (straight line) – as long as Sora could predict where the attack was going to land he could dodge it. The same logic applied to the skeletons – although the attacks were random and didn’t move in a linear line since the attacks were slow it was within his scope to dodge. However, things were very different now, Gladus powered up instantly – his ATK and AGI increased significantly. In this unpredictable environment, the gap between Sora’s AGI and Gladus’ AGI widened to the point Sora was dodging on pure luck and not on skill. Furthermore, although Sora could not see it – Sora knew if he was even 2 centimetres away from the punch he would be hit by the invisible aura. This is why it was more difficult for Sora to dodge now.

Was Sora afraid? Not in the slightest, he was instead more curious to know how Gladus became stronger. What was that sinister aura? On the face of it, it was obvious the aura was similar to the ones, one reads about in manga’s and sees in anime. However, Sora was not interested in this version of understanding – he wanted to learn about the underlying game mechanics of this world. Since he too is a skeleton then he too should be able to release an aura? For the first time in this game, Sora felt there was a clear way to become stronger. Unlike slime mode, which required Sora to gain unconventional skills (and a lot of time) to power up, skeleton mode seemed far simpler and straightforward.

Sora’s eyes shined with hope. It was at this moment Sora decided he would live the way of a skeleton! It was also at this moment that Sora got hit with a powerful punch. After taking the first hit, the other skeletons jumped in to disassemble Sora.

Needless to say, Sora passed out with the first hit. When he woke up he was back in the infirmary and the goblin doctor was not too pleased to see Sora again.

[Maybe I can get some more sleep] Sora thought as he snuggled up in bed – getting stronger can wait another day.

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Author's Notes:

1. This chapter is dedicated to Yesss for spotting the obvious error no one else did.

2. Once again reminding everyone, PR a thread (1/3rd a chapter) and be rewarded with an additional release!

3. I hope this chapter closes any open loose ends.