[Lv 10 Skeleton Knight]

[HP: 100/100]

The skeleton that fell from the ceiling faced Buster and I. We were stuck in the hallway so there was no reason for me to fight at all. There was no room for me to maneuver so there was no reason for me to fight at all. I stepped back and took the rear as Buster moved towards the skeleton knight.ined

“I got this.”

“Right.” I nodded.

The skeleton’s bones rattled as it marched towards us. It’s worn out armor shook with every movement. The sword it held was dragging on the ground. With the door behind my back, I could only watch their fight.

“Cross Strike!”

Buster yelled out from what I could assume to be a sword technique. He went from his slouching stance into a crouching one. His body moved on its own as he swayed his sword twice. First from the right side in a diagonal line then diagonally from the left. The skeleton took the first hit but then parried the second.

“Not again,” Buster whispered.

The skeleton knight struck Buster, dealing a small amount of damage. But it was significantly more than the regular skeleton’s attacks.

[Lv 9 Buster]

[HP: 80/115]

From the corner of my eye, I could see his health bar under my own in the party tab. He took a big hit. He was able to level up by grinding but it wasn’t enough. Ugh, if only I could help out. We could take on the skeleton knight together. I analyzed the skeleton knight’s attacks. Buster kept doing the Cross Strike sword technique but his timing was off. He was just blindly attacking as he pleased without pattern. He was able to bring the skeleton knight’s health down but Buster still struggled. He was about to die.

“Wait till he takes a step back. That’s when they wait to attack,” I whispered behind Buster. “But only before the animation plays when the skeleton adjusts its helmet. There’s your window.”

“I see.” Buster made his move. The skeleton knight took a step back and then Buster yelled, “Cross Strike!”

He successfully connected both hits which brought down the skeleton.

As we celebrated, the door behind us unlocked. It opened into a new area that seemed to be a laboratory of some sorts. The lighting was pretty bad as none of the torches on the walls were well lit. So, Buster and I took a torch from the previous room and started lighting up the room. We got a better look at the room itself. There were dusty bookshelves, tables with vials of various shapes, a table in the center with books all over it, and a cauldron in the middle of it all. The strange part was that the room itself was large. The ceiling was pretty high and the walls were far apart. There was enough room to fit plenty of people to do research or whatever it was they wanted to do here.

“Something’s not right.”

Those words escaped my mouth. This was a dead end. There was no other exit in this room. Not a single indication of any rewards or reason to be here.

I wandered through the room. I looked through the books. They were dusty as I handled them. It was impossible to read as they were written in a language I didn’t know. It was probably made up.

Buster looked through the empty vials on the tables. He picked one up and almost dropped them.

“Hey, watch what you’re doing.”

“What? It’s not like anyone’s going to use these.”

“Wait, do you smell that?” I asked.

There was a faint smell in the air. It smelled like something rusty and powdery. As we finished lighting up the room, we finally noticed something.

There were piles of bones and knight’s gear all over the ground. The strange part was that it was swept away towards the walls. It was how Buster and I avoided stepping on them in the first place.

The ground started rumbling. I noticed it came from the hallway. A number of shadows started to march towards us. They were more skeleton knights. What stood in between us was a number of tables in the center of the room.

“You take the left, I take the right,” I said to Buster. He just nodded and followed my instructions. There were three skeleton knights in front of me. This time, I had the room to fight. But defending myself against three monsters at the same time? I admit I was a bit inexperienced here.

[Lv 10 Skeleton Knight]

[HP: 100/100]

They were the same as the skeleton knight in the trap we encountered in the hallway. They were tall and slim with longswords. Their armor was dusty and with cobwebs hanging from their bones. Their faces were barely recognizable as a skull. They clearly have been fighting knights like us for some time. Then turning the knights into the undead.

“Cross Strike!”

This time, I yelled it out. Of course, there was no window that popped up showing that I activated a sword technique. I had to use something other than a slash sword technique as it wasn’t as effective against a single target. I mimicked Buster’s attack from what I’ve observed earlier. It wouldn’t be a perfect replication but I had to try anyway. I swayed my sword from the right then from the left in an x shape. I did my best to keep a proper posture. I defaulted to the stance whenever I did my manual slash sword technique. It seemed to be effective. But it barely scratched the first skeleton.

The skeletons just rattled as they moved. The one in front of me sprang backward and adjusted its helmet. It then stepped forward and swung its word. That was my queue to dodge. I wasn’t paying attention to the other skeletons as they struck me immediately after. Taking some damage caught me off guard.

[HP: 50/100]

In the corner of my eye, I noticed my health went down by half. This was not good at all. I retreated away from the skeletons to keep distance to rethink my game plan. The situation was not optimal for me. I was fighting three Skeleton Knights while Buster was only fighting two. I’ve only practice fighting one on one against slimes. Not monsters with weapons in hand. Buster should be finished with his fight sooner than I would. I glanced in his direction and noticed something going wrong. He kept swinging his sword but nothing was connecting. All of his attacks were being blocked. Did he forget how to read their attack patterns? Or maybe he was panicking? I looked under my health bar and noticed Buster’s.

[Lv 9 Buster]

[HP: 19/115]

He was going to die. I had to do something. There was nothing I could do since I was occupied with three Skeleton Knights of my own. I could only watch as the knights Buster was fighting raised its sword and struck down Buster. His hit points went down to zero and then he vanished into a million pixels. He would obviously respawn but now I have to deal with five skeleton knights.

What do I do? I obviously have to fight. I could give up but that wasn’t an option. Not to me. It’s not easy for me to just give up.

I took a deep breath. Relaxing my nerves so I could move more efficiently. I twist my neck and cracked my knuckles. I then raised my sword, ready to fight, and charged at the Skeleton Knights that caught up to me. I dodged his swing and went for a counter attack. I repeated, “Cross Strike!” in my mind and went for the cross attack. Two attacks in succession connected. I was able to bring one of their hit points down to half.

The fight continued like a dance. With every step made following a rhythm. My feet moved forwards and back while watching the other dancers’ moves as I followed suit. I crouched and leaned away from each predicted attack. My swords matched with theirs in some occasions as I did my best to avoid contact. The only time I did was when my sword struck them.

At this rate, I should be able to win. But what will prevail? My concentration or death? My reactions would dull as time passed on. My mind started to numb after the constant repetition. My body moved as I commanded but my reactions had slowed down. I relied on my predictions based on what I saw. I anticipated movements and their attacks. Before I knew it, I was surrounded by the Skeleton Knights. I need to come up with a plan.

I was able to jump in between the Skeleton Knights and was able to keep them chasing me around. I moved the tables to create a circular path around the room. The AI wasn’t smart enough to move through the tables. I juggled between each skeleton knight as they took turns attacking me. Using the strategy of circulating around the room, I was able to pull them around to avoid being surrounded.

“Fire!” I yelled. I cupped my hand and I waved my hand as if I was throwing an invisible ball. But instead, a fireball was tossed. I used magic until my mana decreased to zero. Magic was useful but it barely did much this time.

The first Skeleton Knight went down by my last fireball. But at the cost of half my health bar, I couldn’t make another mistake. Four left to go. I lost track of which Skeleton Knight was which. They all averaged thirty hit points out of a hundred. I was a third of the way for each of them.

My mind screamed, “Slash!” and so I followed with that attack. This time, I held the sword on my left side as I then kneeled as I swung my sword. I was able to hit all four of them as they surrounded me. My attack knocked them backward which allowed me room to back off and pull them around the room. I glanced behind me and noticed one of them on the ground. They weren’t dead as their bones were still intact.

[Critical Hit!]

Did I hit a weak point or something? I guess critical hits caused a stun to monsters? I might find out in the future so I didn’t put much thought into it. I shouldn’t worry about that now as there were two of them still chasing me. Running and attacking was a good strategy but since I could barely do damage to them, it took a while. Which in turn made me mentally exhausted. I did my best to take a break as I kept my maximum distance away from them.

The fourth skeleton stood up. I could only watch as they surround me. I made up an attack on my own. I tried mixing the slash attack along with the cross strike. I swung my sword like a slash sword technique, this time only slightly diagonal in a wide swing, hitting all four of them. Then I followed up in the opposite direction, hitting all of them once again.

One of the Skeleton Knight’s started to quiver and then fell apart easily. The other three had their bones starting to fall apart. They were all around five hit points left.

I jumped at them as I waited for the opportunity. I blocked an attack from the left, then dodged into the swing from the knight in the middle. Then swayed my sword in a wide horizontal swing, taking down the remaining Skeleton Knights.

[You gained 250 Experience Points]

I ignored the window that appeared in front of me. I started breathing hard after dealing with this clutch situation. My mental exhaustion was catching up to me. After a long battle, I collapsed as I sat down on the ground.

I looked around and noticed the mess I had made. Broken bones, weapons, and armor were all over the ground. Their weapons and armor were so dull and worn out that I doubt it would be effective to wear, even if I had the ability to do so. I picked each one up and dropped it in my inventory menu.

They didn’t drop a single crafting item like the Bones I got earlier. But there were two drops that caught my attention. The first was a piece of paper that had a number of fancy pentagrams drawn on it. Holding it in my hand made a window pop up above it.

[Mysterious Charm]

[Quest Item: A mysterious charm found in Astor Manor]

I stared at the piece of paper until another window popped up.

[Quest Completed]

[Quest: Investigate Astor Manor]

Apparently, I was supposed to find this. I put the paper in my inventory and looked over at the other item I found. It was a dagger. I knew I couldn’t use it as I looked at the description.

[Astor Dagger]

[Req: Lv 10, Str 15, Agi 15]

[Str 10+, Agi 10+]

[Dagger of the Astor Family. Used in rituals and holds the family crest.]

I sighed at the level requirements. I could probably sell this somewhere else. I put the dagger away into my inventory. But before I could leave, I saw one last thing.

[Server going into maintenance in ten minutes]

It was already day one and the server was going to maintenance. What kind of company was running this game? Maybe something went terribly wrong. Maybe they solved my problem. It was already really late at night when I read that message. It was then I decided it was time to call an end to this session.