Red was able to distance himself from the ghoul and the reanimated skeletons around it quite quickly. Unfortunately for him, whatever was happening with the bones started to extend ahead of him. In fact, he could feel the ground beneath him tremble, as even the bones he was stepping on started to move.

Soon enough, dozens of reanimated animal skeletons were blocking the way ahead, in a collision course with the youth.

Red frowned, but he didn’t stop running. A mere second later, he was about to clash against what looked to be a skeletal bear, barring its exposed fangs at him, and that was when his sword moved. With a flash, he sidestepped the creature’s lunge and cut upwards, easily splitting off the skull from the rest of the bones.

To his surprise, however, this didn’t cause the skeletal bear to collapse. Instead, its decapitated skeleton turned around, swinging its claws at Red and forcing him to dodge away.

Aurelia’s voice reached his ears. “This is not a zombie, Red! It won’t stop moving until most of its bones are shattered!”

Red’s frown deepened. Before he could follow up with another attack, more skeletal creatures charged at him from the sides, forcing the youth to dodge away from his position.

‘What do I do?’

It was obvious that his sword would have a limited effect here, as it wasn’t a blunt weapon made for shattering things. Even if he had a mace, though, with how many enemies were around him, he doubted he could destroy them as quickly as they were being raised.

As if on cue, the skeletons he was outrunning before started to close in. They opened their maws as if to roar, but made no sound other than the rattling of bones as they moved. It was an unsettling visage, as these creatures behaved like the animals that they were in life, but now completely stripped of flesh.

Boars, bears, wolves, foxes. Skeletons of all kinds charged at him. To his luck, however, none of them belonged to monsters, which made the task of dodging each individual attack an easy one. Things got trickier for him, however, when there were dozens of them pouncing at him at the same time.

Red made use of every step, spinning out of attacks and swatting the skeletons aside with his weapon when he couldn’t dodge them, sometimes even jumping over a few of them. A deadly dance, but one he was used enough to partaking in.

Still, with every passing second, the area he could use to move in was diminishing. He moved past the monsters in front of him, looking to create more space for himself, to no avail. For every skeletal monster he left behind, two more were raised in front of him, up to the point where there were likely more than a hundred skeletons of animals of various sizes trampling over each other to reach him.

It was horrifying to even think what would happen if he were to be caught up on it.

“This formation is too big!” Aurelia said. “You won’t be able to outrun it!”

Red frowned, and he searched around with his crimson sense. The ghoul was no longer at the center of the bone sea, but it was also not heading towards him. Instead, it was running in the opposite direction, seemingly drawn over by something else.

‘Domeron.’

Red couldn’t see the situation over the bone animals, but he assume the swordsman made his move. That being said, he didn’t fancy the man’s chances against a ghoul all by himself.

An idea crossed his mind.

Red spoke out loud. “Help me destroy the formation!”

The youth was a budding formation specialist. That being said, he knew just the basics, and more importantly, he couldn’t sense spiritual energy. That was to say, he couldn’t tell where the formation nodes were beneath all the bones.

“You don’t need my help!” Aurelia said. “The core of the formation is where the ghoul was standing!”

Red frowned. He suspected as much, but he wanted to be sure. The center of the formation was a rather common spot to place the core, but it was there for a reason. It was the best way to ensure ideal distribution and control of Spiritual Energy to all parts of a formation, and even if it made for an obvious target, it was often the only way to make a formation work properly.

In this case, the ghoul was probably there to guard it in the first place. The real question was, why place a formation here in the first place?

Red didn’t have time to think about it. He looked over in the direction of where the ghoul stood, still dodging and weaving through a horde of skeletal animals eager to trample him.

This was where the skeletal enemies were most concentrated, closing in on him like a wave. There was no easy way to go about this, so Red made the decision to rely on something he often avoided using.

Brute force.

He gritted his teeth and charged at them.

Aurelia’s alarmed voice reached his ears. “What are you doing?!”

Red, of course, ignored her.

Before long, he met with this wave of attackers. The first handful he still managed to dodge, but before long, he needed to use his sword to ward them off. A few seconds later, even that wasn’t enough, as he clashed into the bulk of skeletons.

After that, it was all a blur. Skeletal claws and teeth struck at him, some of them just ripping his clothing, while more than a few drew blood from his skin. It wasn’t enough to stop Red, though.

He couldn’t even see the path ahead of him, but he kept heading forward, giving up on skill and finesse for a more brutish and forceful approach, swinging his sword and arms to batter skeletons out of his way. They kept piling up on him, some of them even climbing on top of him, but Red continued to grit his teeth and charge ahead despite his wounds.

“The ghoul is coming back!” Aurelia warned him.

Red didn’t need her reminder, as the ghoul and Domeron’s fluctuations were the only thing he could feel in his crimson sense. The undead creature was charging in the youth’s direction with renewed ferocity, clearly seeing through his plan.

In response, Red redoubled his efforts, trying to reach the core of the formation before the ghoul could reach him.

The skeletons bit and grasped onto his legs, arms, clothes - anything they could get a grip on so they could slow him down. Anyone else would have collapse under such a strain, but Red had opened twelve of his veins, and he was even more resilient than the average cultivator even.

Unfortunately, without the crimson mist’s regenerative powers, the wounds on his body were piling up, and his progress was slowed down as the reanimated skeleton jumped on top of him. There was not much distance between him and the ghoul, and even as Domeron chased behind it, it was clear that the man wouldn’t be able to stop it.

Red was considering another course of action, when the ghoul’s roar suddenly broke through the forest. Its fluctuation wavered, and it stopped moving for a second.

The youth couldn’t see what happened to it from beneath the pile of bones, but he didn’t let the opportunity go to waste. He continued charging forward, until he saw the corpse of the mercenary beneath his feet, indicating his arrival at the core of the formation.

“It’s beneath the ground! Right below the body!” Aurelia said.

Red dove down, ignoring the clawing at his back, and pushed the body aside, punching one hand into the ground while using the other to protect his head. He felt around with his fingers through, before brushing upon something cold and hard.

The youth grasped it, feeling its cylindrical shape, and, without hesitation, squeezed it with all his strength. It took him two seconds, during which he felt his back being flayed, but finally, with a final push, he felt the cylindrical object shatter.

Suddenly, everything went silent. Then, a second later, the sounds of bones clattering onto the ground echoed throughout all the area. A lot of them fell on top of Red, burying him beneath a mountain of bones.

The formation was destroyed, and Red was afforded enough time to feel the burning pain consuming his body. Yet, even then, he didn’t relax.

‘The ghoul.’

Red struggled to dig his way out from beneath the bone mound. A few seconds later, he succeeded, and the first thing he did was look in the direction of where he felt the ghoul’s fluctuation.

To his surprise, though, the only thing he saw was the beast face down on the ground. He saw a large diagonal gash in its chest, exposing its rotting inner organs, and almost splitting its body in half. What surprised him, though, was the dark-red flames sprouting from its wound, which were burning fiercely wherever its putrid blood spilled.

Red looked up, noticing Domeron standing over the ghoul. He had drawn his longsword, wielding it with his only hand, and looked at the undead with an emotionless expression. The blade was completely covered in a dark-red fire, similar to the one consuming the ghoul’s wounds, and Red couldn’t even see the metal beneath it.

The ghoul’s struggles didn’t last for much longer, and it fell still, even as the flames continued to burn around the gash in its chest. Seemingly satisfied with his work, Domeron twirled his sword around before sheathing it into its scabbard. The flames disappeared as the blade was covering, and once it was fully sheathed, there was no sign of the strange energy any longer.

Red stared at the scene in a daze.

Domeron looked over at him and smiled. “You should heal yourself. You still have your pills, don’t you?”