After hearing Jade's words, Han asked, "I'm assuming that this thing is going to be outside of our abilities?" With the way Jade was talking, he could tell that she was stressed by whatever she was thinking about. Based on the words of the talking corpse, the deeper they got the direr their situation was going to become.

"Whatever you're imagining, it's several times worse. We call this thing the Enforcer, with how he's always carrying around chains all over his body and carries around a giant cleaver." To calm her voice down, she paused for a moment before continuing, "If this thing had appeared that night, none of us would be around."

Han was somewhat surprised by this news. "Isn't there enough players to take down one enemy? Or are you talking about in conjunction with the attacks of those things?"

Jade shook her head. "You're not getting it. That thing alone would have wiped us out in a matter of an hour, and the only reason why it would take that long is it being slowed down by how large it is and getting into the underground floors."

Even though Han knew that he would have been okay in such a circumstance, the idea still brought a chill down his spine. The concept of humanity having to face such a powerful foe in a non-fantasy setting was somewhat unbelievable. Though considering how they were suffering from zombie attacks, the idea was a tad bit more plausible.

They had moved away from the raving corpse, who was still yelling about how they were going to suffer beyond any imagining and for all eternity. Trying to talk about this topic was easier when it wasn't next to someone who wouldn't shut up.

Jade took the lead, going down the hallway. Knowing about what likely was waiting for them gave Han a better understanding of why the hallways were so large and ominous looking. Cages were hanging from the ceiling, some of them with bones of some poor soul or more mad ravings. Han was impressed with the large furnaces that were filled with scorching flames. Each firey opening looked to be the mouth of a demonic being, giving an overall impression of what to expect in lower levels.

Han heard scraping noises to his left, getting him to turn his head towards the furnace they were passing by.

"Shit!" Jade yelled out. "Get ready, Han! These things are the same strength as those creatures, so watch yourself!" Pulling out her dual blades, she faced the raging inferno.

Grabbing his sword, Han watched the furnace and listened to the sound grow louder. Initially, there was only one scraping noise, but now he could hear multiple sounds emanating from the fire. A nightmarish scene appeared in front of him, as skeletons dressed in armor and dragging a multitude of weapons emerged.

Each of the skeletons opened their mouths, though no sound emerged. As they moved, the armor rattled and scraped against layers along with hitting bone. Once they were out of the flames, the skeletons got their weapons ready though a few that had large scythes kept dragging them.

Quickly, the monster in front slashed with its sword at Han.

Raising his blade, Han met the attack head on. Upon impact, sparks appeared and Han was pushed back by the attack. One of his feet slightly raised up as he was skidding back.

"Those things are stronger than they look! Focus, Han!" Jade reprimanded him, her helmet facing towards the monsters. When one of them attacked her, Jade sidestepped the swing and successfully avoided it. She used her blades to lightly guide the attack away from her, causing sparks as her blade kept contact with the enemy's sword.

Han was forced to look back at the approaching skeleton, only occasionally glancing over at Jade to see if she was doing fine. This time, when the creature swung its weapon, Han tried to mimic Jade's motion. With such weapons, they had to follow through with the attack, not able to change its trajectory. Seeing the line it was going to travel, Han used his blade to meet the monster's.

There was a jarring sensation as the two edges met, causing him to grunt from the impact. "It seems like I need to practice this move more," Han grumbled as he clenched his jaw. Making sure to keep his footing, he slowly rotated his weapon as to guide the attack away from him. Using the base of his sword, he slammed it into the skeleton's helmet.

Receiving his attack, the monster slightly tilted but soon regained its posture and looked to get ready for another attack.

While this was happening, Han saw that the other ones were slowly surrounding him and getting ready to target him. Jumping back to give himself more room, he looked to see Jade doing the same type of movement.

"These things are nearly immune to slashing type attacks being skeletons. The added armor makes them even harder to fight against since their weakness is usually brunt force, like a hammer." Jade explained, breathing heavily.

"You going to be okay?" Han asked.

Jade made a growling sound in annoyance. "Says the guy who's also breathing weirdly"

Han ignored her retort, feeling the suit decreasing the temperature and increasing airflow as he began to sweat. A few times, he had to blink away salty sweat that got into his eyes painfully.

Even though the two of them were falling back, the enemies were still aiming for them. There was no sign of the monsters getting tired as they dragged their weapons.

"Even though I know that I won't die, I still feel dread as those bastards are heading our way," Jade said.

"At least those things can't change us into something similar to them, too," Han added.

"We need to watch it. If we back away too far and go deeper into this floor, we may attract more enemies," Jade explained. "We're lucky that those things are slow moving."

Seeing the creatures getting close, Han turned to Jade. "I'm going to try and attack one of them, the one near the edge that's a little further from the others. Could you watch my back? When we retreat, let's aim for the entrance to the first level."

"Okay. Just make sure you don't take up too much time. I'll only be able to block one attack before I'll need to retreat." Jade said.

Nodding his head. I charged towards his target. Instead of swinging downwards, he tried an upward slash. Considering the skeleton wasn't ready to receive his attack, he was successful at getting within close quarters of the monster. Slicing upwards with his current strength, Han hit the monster between its leg. He knew that such an attack wouldn't do damage, but he used the blade as a lever to launch the monster several feet back.

As the skeleton fell back, a little ways from all the other creatures. Han wasted no time jumping into the air and positioning the sword with the point down. With the built up momentum and added weight of his blade, he aimed for the skeleton's neck.

He felt a crunch and snap and quickly positioned himself away from the monster. Seeing that he had been able to decapitate the creature, he lifted up his weapon and swung down at its right arm that held a sword. Making sure to aim at one of the bones, not a joint, he saw it break in half with shards spreading out.

"Get out of there, Jade," He yelled out to her.

Without acknowledging his call, she jumped back towards him. As she launched herself, one of the skeletons was able to hit her with a sword. Twisting to the side from the blow, she had to quickly hop back.

"Are you okay?!" Han asked her.

Jade held her left arm on her bicep, nodding her head, saying, "Yeah. It just nipped me, but fortunately, the blade didn't pierce the suit." She cursed, "That little shit! Feels like my arm got hit by a truck."

"Are you going to be able to wield your weapons?" Han asked, watching as the other monsters were heading towards them.

She shook her head, "I just need a minute. We have a little time before we need to do something crazy like that, again." Her helmet looked towards Han before saying, "Good job with that thing."

"Thanks. I didn't think it would work as well as it did, though it takes far too much time to set it up." He confessed.

"No. It's good. We never thought about doing that. All our attacks were based on swarming those things." Jade explained.

Considering how Jade was still recovering from the attack she received, Han nodded his head towards he and prepared to face the monsters heading towards him. Seeing the monster that only had one arm and no weapons, the best bet would be to aim at that one. Even though his target was the one he faced earlier, it was currently positioned in the middle of the group heading towards him.

"Does it know that it's defenseless and positioned itself in that manner?" Han asked himself.

With little time left, Han knew that he was going to need to draw all the aggression of the monsters towards himself. "I've never been good at drawing agro, especially when playing online games in groups," he groaned.

Jumping into the group, Han quickly swiped at several skeletons. He could feel that the attacks didn't do hardly any damage, but based on their movements he succeeded in drawing them towards him. "I need to get out of here," Han quickly navigated his way occasionally using his weapon as a shield. The blows were heavy and made him grunt at the effort.

Escaping from the monsters onto the other side, moved away from the group to evaluate the positioning of the creatures. Seeing another one slightly away from the group, he dashed towards it. Using his blade, he swung his weapon like a blunt object. "I'm just going to think of this thing as a tree that I need to chop down."

With each blow, the skeleton was pushed away from the group. This helped him to feel more relaxed and gave him more time. His flurry of attacks directed towards the same spot kept making the skeleton go off balance. It was unable to regain its posture to attack him.

As he struck the armor, there was a ringing sound, and initially, the breastplate was able to hold up, but slowly there were dents that began to form. Under his blows, the armor slowly warped and bent which he found to be encouraging. Slightly increasing his strength, there was a crack that appeared and soon the bones underneath were broken.

Changing from a horizontal attack, Han rained down strikes on the skeleton. It took many blows before the skeleton's spine was broken and caused the monster to fall apart. Han was left speechless at the sudden turn of events. "What just happened?" He asked.

"I believe the spine is the weak point for this category of monsters," Julia said.

"Are you serious?!" Han laughed.

Seeing the others, Han grinned maliciously. "Let's see how much longer you're able to stay alive." He was tired of being on the defensive but didn't want to increase his abilities. Learning about such a weak point improved his mood materially.

Rushing towards another skeleton that was slightly apart from the others, Han tried his tree-chopping strategy again. Once he saw that the enemy was stunned, the opportunity to go around the monster presented itself. Before the others could get to him, Han chopped at the back of the breastplate. It took him quite a number of attacks before the armor cracked enough to allow him access to the spine. Striking the exposed spine as hard as possible, there was a satisfying crack though it took him a couple of more swings before the skeleton fell apart.

Turning his helmet, Han noticed that Jade was engaging with some of the creatures. She expertly dodged the attacks and kept slashing at the sides of the armor. It took him a moment to realize she was aiming for the parts that held it together. Even though this was a game, the armor was realistic making breastplate to be put together in parts and not one solid piece.

He soon saw the plate fall off in halves, revealing the bones. Making her way around the monster, she began using the hilt of one of her blades to smash the spine. In moments, the skeleton fell apart and Jade jumped away to avoid the other monsters heading her way.

"Nice job with finding the weak point of this type!" Jade yelled.

"You were quick in using the method I found out," he laughed.

Jade went at another skeleton to repeat the process. "Who do you think I am? I'm a pro, so spotting a strategy is a basic thing for me." She didn't take as long as the last to defeat the creature. "It feels like it's becoming easier to face these things," she called out to him.

Seeing the way Jade was moving around and attacking, he did notice a difference in her strikes and speed. Out of the corner of his helmet, Han noticed another monster ambling towards him. Now that Jade had improved, he figured it would be okay to increase his abilities.

----

Han and Jade were standing in the middle of a pile of bones. Both of them were breathing hard, especially after finishing off all of the monsters. Inside of the pile, he could see bronze and silver coins scattered throughout. There were even some weapons, like a giant hammer.

Glancing at the hammer, Han groaned, "That would have been nice to have earlier."

"At least we were able to beat all of them," Jade said sounding exhausted. "That group would have typically required a full party, with one of us drawing a skeleton away and ganging up on the monster."

"This game's realism is over the top. Hopefully, the other monsters have a weakness we can exploit." Han sighed.

Jade was silent as Han talked. Before Han had a chance to ask what she was thinking about, Jade said, "I'll need to inform the others what we figured out. This type of common sense we should have figured out, but we got used to overpowering our enemies due to the competition grounds."

Han listened to what she was saying, not wanting to interrupt her chain of thought.

"I think Star and Moon knew that we would get used to such tactics and built this game to get us to think outside the box, in order to improve our abilities. We were thinking too simply, seeing this as a way to get better at fighting for competition while ignoring strategy development." Jade whispered.

"Such a train of thought somewhat makes sense, considering how it would get boring for the audience if we kept on using the same tactics," Han answered.

Jade looked at him. "Though Star and Moon couldn't have guessed that we'd be facing against enemies stronger than other teams across the world." Her voice brightened as she said, "At least we may have a better chance at moving deeper into this game, gaining strength and developing strategies that we can use against them."

"What's the plan? Do you want to exit and talk to the others?" Han asked.

Jade looked down the hallway where more enemies were likely waiting for us. Shaking her head, she said, "No. We'll keep going and see how far we can go with this new strategy."