“Damn! Why is this thing won't come off!” Calbot was still trying to take the staff when the remaining skeletons got more aggressive again. The knights were guarding him from every side.

Jared was still busy with the skeletons. Also, the skeletons emerged from another location, filling the room fast.

“Prince! We will hold them off as long as we can! You should focus on the staff!” one of the knights was holding multiple skeletons at once.

“Of course! We’ve come this far! There's no way I'll be going home empty handed!” Calbot won't give up the staff.

Below them, Cain landed safely from the height. The huge skeleton hand released his leg when he was still in mid air.

The place where he landed was dark. When Cain walked a few steps, Some of blue fireballs lit up on the wall. Revealing another spacious hall. But the feel was different from the room above.

“Where am I?”

The wall here was different from the wall in the temple above, it appeared to be made of high grade materials with artistic engravings on it. The builder clearly knew what he was doing.

Cain was amazed by what he saw. The blue fireballs were beautifully floating along the wall. The engravings shone when illuminated by the fireballs. There were pillars with a strange shape. There were also weapons hanging on the wall.

Strangely, no Hanea’s family crest in this hall.

Cain stopped his step when he saw a skeleton stood there. But it just stood there and looked at Cain with its empty eye socket.

Two more blue fireballs lit up, revealing an army of skeletons with vast number.

“So this is where the skeletons came from? But why are they just standing there?”

“BECAUSE I TOLD THEM SO.”

A loud heavy voice replied to Cain followed by a trembling footsteps.

The skeletons moved away, giving a path to what was coming from behind.

Two blue fiery eyes could be seen. The eyes were high. Judging from the footstep sound that made the ground trembling, Cain knew it was no ordinary creature.

Finally, the creature walked into Cain’s vision. It was an enormous skeleton, it stood with its lower half made of four-legged beast bones while its upper half appeared to be humanoid bones, plus horns on its skull. With its height that about 12 meters tall, anyone would be intimidated by its presence and aura.

But not for Cain, he stood there without any fear on his eyes. Instead, he was fascinated.

“MOST CREATURES WOULD BOW DOWN OR FLEE WHEN THEY SEE ME," said the creature. It crossed his two hands on its breastbone.

“Who are you? Or rather, what are you?” Cain calmly replied. This creature seemed to have a soul within, unlike the undead skeletons.

The creature stared at Cain.

“I SEE NO FEAR IN YOU, FLESHBEARER. I AM DELMOURGA, THE LORD OF MYSTICBONE.”

“Delmourga? Mysticbone? Are you Hanean?”

“YOU CAME HERE TO TALK, FLESHBEARER?”

“Uhh… no, I just fell here, we are trying to take a staff above.”

“THIS IS MY DOMAIN, NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO TAKE ANYTHING! UNLESS YOU CAN PASS MY CHALLENGE!”

“Challenge?” asked Cain.

Delmourga took the pillars with his hands, and swung them around. Wind blew over the hall with the swings.

That moment Cain realized, those were not pillars, but huge spears fit for Delmourga.

With a spear in each hand, he pointed one spear at Cain.

“THIS IS THE CHALLENGE! BEST ME, AND YOU SHALL TAKE WHATEVER YOU WANT FROM HERE!”

“I have to beat you so Calbot can take the staff? Alright, I’ll take you on!”

This was Cain’s first time fighting a creature like this, right from his first treasure hunting. Instead of being intimidated, he was rather excited. Even with his fatigue after he summoned the Northfire Serpent.

“GOOD! YOU CAN USE ANY WEAPONS FROM HERE!”

Cain took a large sword from the wall. Although the sword was dusty, it was still in its peak condition.

“IT’S BEEN THOUSANDS YEARS SINCE SOMEONE WALKED INTO MY HALL! ENTERTAIN ME, FLESHBEARER!”

With a trembling roar, Delmourga cast a spell on his spears, the sharp edge of both spears were enveloped by blue flames.

Delmourga raised his spears and swung them down at Cain.

Cain dodged sideways, the ground was crushed by the spear. Cain got close to Delmourga’s left front leg.

“Heaaaahhh!!!” Cain swung his sword horizontally and hit Delmourga’s leg.

The sword was bounced back. The place he hit didn't even had a scratch on it.

A spear came towards him from his left side. Because of the recoil after hitting the leg, he was too late to react to the incoming spear.

“Shit!” Cain desperately swung his sword with both hands.

When his sword hit the spear, the spear was deflected to a different direction.

Cain held his ground and took a stance to prepare for another follow up attacks by Delmourga.

But Delmourga stopped his attack.

“YOU DEFLECTED MY ATTACK, FLESHBEARER? INTERESTING!”

“Heh, said the one who deflected my attack first without doing anything!”

That attack might kill even a prepared fighter, but that kind of attack was what Cain received every day in his training days with Igo.

Cain looked at the sword. Amazingly the sword was still in good shape, despite after those two hard blows. Ordinary sword like the sword from the Sun Knight Order would had cracks here and there.

He’s more convinced that this place had nothing to do with Hanean’s Rest. Or this place was more ancient than he thought.

“Hey, Delmourga! Is this place also part of the temple above?”

“AGAIN WITH WORDS? FINE, BECAUSE YOU MANAGED TO DEFLECT MY ATTACK.”

“THE ANSWER IS NO, THOUGH THERE WERE SOME COMMOTION DECADES AGO. WHEN I SENT MY SKELS, THEY ALREADY BUILT SOMETHING ABOVE MY HALL. THAT’S WHY I TOOK CONTROL OF THAT PLACE. ALSO, MY JAW IS TIRED!”

Delmourga thrust his spear.

Again, Cain deflected the spear. And he rushed towards the left leg again.

“Let's see if this weapon survive!”

Cain held his sword with both hands, then, with a short leap he unleashed a heavy upward slash at Delmourga’s left leg.

The force of the swing made Delmourga’s left leg stumbled backward.

Cain used Giant’s Swing, a technique from the Book of Gomara that would push immovable objects backwards as long as the target was heavier than the skill user.

“It survived!” Cain glanced at the sword.

“HUH!?” Delmourga didn't expect his foot would get pushed back.

Cain swung another heavy slash to the leg. This time, it was Tigra Fang, a slashing technique. He slashed on the same spot. When the sword hit Delmourga’s left leg, it broke to pieces, but a crack also appeared on Delmourga’s left leg.

Cain quickly let the sword go and rushed to the wall, to take another weapon.

But Delmourga didn't just stood there waiting for another attack from Cain. He threw one of his spears at Cain.

Cain dodged the flying spear. It hit and broke down the wall, the hanging weapons fell down to the ground. Dust rose up around there. Then, Cain ran out through the dust but another spear was heading at him. His body was sliced by the spear, but he turned into flame and vanished. The spear broke down another wall.

“HUH! CHEAP TRICK!”

Delmourga raised his two front legs and stomped the ground.

The ground was shaking, and the shockwave blew the dust.

As the dust cleared, Cain stood there with a sword in each hand.

He had to use the weapons well, because the weapons here clearly didn't go break immediately after he used one of Gomara’s techniques.

"(Thousand years smithy product was no joke!) thought Cain.

“COME, FLESHBEARER! SHOW ME WHAT YOU’VE GOT!”

…

“Damn! These skeletons are endless!”

Jared already took down hundreds of the skeletons. His armor had seen better days. But he’s far from tired. He was still swinging perfectly fine.

“Where is Cain!? I didn't see him after the explosion!” Calbot wiped his forehead.

“Prince! There’s a hole from where Cain was! I’m afraid he fell!” one of the knights pointed into the hole direction.

“What!?... But there are more of tremors and roars since then! Probably he is fighting the source down there!” Calbot didn’t want to believe Cain would just die from falling. Besides, the tremors and roars were getting frequent meant something must have happened.

Calbot guessed right.

Dozens of broken weapons were scattered around the hall far below them.

Cain’s clothes had thorn here and there. Panting, fatigue was seen on his face. But despite of that, he’s smiling.

Delmourga was not in good shape either, small and wide cracks covered his bones. But as an undead creature, fatigue did not mean a thing for Delmourga.

“KHUHUHU, FUN ISN'T IT? FIGHTING TO YOUR HEART'S CONTENT!” YOUR FACE IS TELLING ME THAT!”

“Indeed!” Cain laughed. “By the way, what's this place name?”

“AS A GIFT BECAUSE YOU HAVE SURVIVED UP UNTIL NOW, THIS HALL’S NAME WILL BE REVEALED TO YOU, FLESHBEARER! THIS PLACE IS CALLED MYSTICLORD BONEHALL!”

“I see… but, if it's called ‘Bonehall’, why it isn't made from bones? And my name is Cain by the way.”

“FOOLISH QUESTION! DO YOU FLESHBEARER BUILD YOUR HOME FROM FLESH? I DON’T THINK SO! AND YOU ONLY HAVE THE PRIVILEGE TO TELL YOUR NAME WHEN YOU BEST ME, FLESHBEARER! AS THE CHALLENGED, I DON'T HAVE TIME TO LEARN THE NAME SOMEONE I WILL CRUSH!”

With a roar, blue flames were blazing out from Delmourga’s bones. Then the skeletons that just stood there were starting to run towards Delmourga. The skeletons were covering the cracks on Delmourga’s bones with their body, then the blue flames melted them, filled up the crack.

In an instant, Delmourga’s body healed up, no more cracks were seen.

“NOW, FLESHBEARER! THIS IS THE TIME TO END YOU!”

“Damn! That's cheating!” said Cain.

Delmourga took his spears that pierced the wall.

“TAKE YOUR WEAPONS, FLESHBEARER! IT IS A BAD TASTE TO CUT YOU DOWN IF YOU’RE DEFENSELESS!”

“You don't need to tell me that," replied Cain.

Cain inhaled a deep breath, and exhaled it slowly. Then, with eyes closed, he raised his hands.

Pebbles started to float around him with a small scale of tremor.

A huge pair of stone hands appeared from thin air above him. The stone hands were bigger than Delmourga’s bone hand.

The hands did a fist bump to each other, mimicking Cain’s gesture as he opened his eyes.

“Now I’m ready to take you down!”