The giant skeleton approached the platform where Kayden was on, and each step it took caused small tremors that could be felt all the way from Ezekiel’s side. It seemed that the skeleton was unaffected by the illusion spell judging from how it shambled right toward him. Unfortunately, Kayden couldn’t spare a single glance at the approaching giant.

‘0047…, 0048…, 0049…'

For each time he turned a ring, he had to attempt to pick the lock, over and over again until he got the correct combination. It was an incredibly massive hurdle to cross, and the looming titan behind him only made it more stressful.

Every once in a while, he could see bright orange lights glow at the edges of his visions, together with the sound of explosions that followed. Kayden couldn’t tell how effective his party’s attacks were against the skeleton, but they definitely looked cool. It was a shame that it was very distracting however, The blasts of the explosions threw him off constantly, and more than once he had broken his tools due to sudden jerks and blasts of wind that happened.

‘Good thing I’ve prepared many spares… Damn that Alice, can’t she control the force of the explosions a bit?’

Of course, that was a bit too much to ask of her, considering the situation. However, there was nothing else he could blame, not even himself. If his hands moved any faster he would be breaking his tools even more frequently than he currently is.

‘0104…, 0105…, 0106…'

He could hear shouts and curses come from the other side of the room, and it helped him kind of gauge how the fight was going. The more frustrated they sounded, the more likely that things weren’t going well. As of now, he guessed that things hadn’t hit rock bottom yet.

‘0150… 015—’

“Kayden, watch out!”

He could hear Cathy’s voice ring loudly inside his head and for a split second, Kayden could see a large shadow loom over him and cover the entire platform. Without thinking, he hopped and rolled out of the way, only to find a massive bony foot crushing the spot he was in just moments before.

It blew clouds of dust in every direction, and he could see his lock-picking tools scattered all across the platform. Luckily, the chests were unharmed.

“How—?”

The undead swiveled its head to stare at Kayden with its deep, empty eye sockets. One glance was enough for Kayden to be dead sure that his illusion spell doesn’t work on it. Of course, it wouldn’t! It didn’t even have eyes! There was most likely another way it used to detect him.

Kayden so badly wanted to see what happened to his party, and how they could let such a huge thing approach him with such a late warning. The skeleton did not give him a chance to do so, however. With its left foot anchored to the platform, it began to raise its other leg.

Whoosh!

With a speed too ridiculous for its size, it launched a roundhouse kick which Kayden barely managed to dodge in time. The foot flew by the top of his head, the surge of the wind that followed causing his clothes to flap around violently.

It quickly retracted its foot and two fists came flying towards him right after, forcing Kayden to skid left and right to avoid the blows. Each fist struck the air with a sound like booming thunder, making his heart nearly burst with fright, but it wasn’t done yet. With its right hand, it balled into a tight fist that swung wildly upwards, performing a very exaggerated uppercut.

By this point, Kayden had already pulled out two knives, which he used to immediately deflect the uppercut to his left. Unfortunately, the consequences of doing that were instantly apparent, both blades had already become blunt just from the impact.

Cursing, Kayden sent the knives sailing towards the skeleton, and reequipped himself with new ones. The fight was off to a bad start, and it was about to get much worse.

The skeleton waved an arm, easily swatting the two knives away like it was swatting a fly. Much to Kayden’s horror, the skeleton opened its mouth and the clattering sound of bones ensued, almost as if it was laughing. The sound was absolutely bone-chilling.

“This… it’s actually laughing?”

The skeleton didn’t reply and instead opted to adjust its position. With both arms outstretched and its two feet planted firmly to the ground, it proudly showed off a fighting stance before facing towards Kayden. It then taunted him with a gesture, and Kayden could almost hear the words its behavior implied.

“Come.”

“M-m-martial arts? Taunting? What kind of undead is this?”

***

“Okay, it turned! Louis, get ready!” Ezekiel ordered while firing off multiple arrows at once. Thanks to his and Alice’s constant attacks, the skeleton had shifted its attention to them momentarily. Like the beating of a drum, it took slow, yet sturdy steps, approaching them with a threatening aura.

“I’m on it!” Louis yelled back in reply, before swiftly dashing towards the approaching giant. “Time to show you the full extent of my power!”

Pools of water began to form at his feet, and he began gliding on the ground as if he was skating on ice. Holding his greatsword with one hand, he dragged the tip of his blade across the ground as he ran, simultaneously allowing the weapon to absorb the water that he had left behind.

It was thanks to the one singular enchantment he had placed on his blade, which allowed him to fire a projectile made of any absorbed liquid. Like Kayden, he had to take a backseat in any goblin fighting on their journey due to Alice’s targetable mass destruction, and he was glad to finally have found a worthy opponent to use it on.

It didn’t take long for the blade to become fully charged. The weapon began to emit a low-pitched hum, and Louis could feel the slight vibrations that came from the sword and shot up his arms.

“Wavebreaker! Release!”

He made a wide vertical slash with his blade which subsequently sent a sharp crescent blade fully made of water. Louis smirked as he looked up at the skeletal giant.

“Hah! How do like the taste of my great weapon? I paid ten gold for the repairs, I’ll have you know!”

The skeleton defended itself with its forearm, which proved effective in stopping the blow. A small crack formed where the bone had been impacted, and the water splashed all over the skeleton.

Ezekiel didn’t miss this small detail and immediately began to inform the party.

“This skeleton is significantly tougher than the ones we faced before. This will likely end up in a battle of attrition! Conserve your mana!”

As he prepared to launch another volley of explosive arrows, the unthinkable happened. The skeleton raised both of its hands and began rubbing its body thoroughly, especially the joints and neck area. The sight momentarily stunned everybody that was present. It was a ridiculous sight, like an enemy taking a bath in the middle of the battle.

“…What is it doing?” Ezekiel hesitated for a second, temporarily lowering his bow for a better look at the sight before him.

Alice exclaimed in surprise and quickly waved her staff. The fiery serpent whirled through the air and crashed right into the back of the skeleton, singeing the edges of the bones black. Unfortunately, whatever she was planning to do, it was already too late.

“What—”

“Ezekiel! It’s… oiling itself!”

His eyes grew wide at the implications of those words. Indeed, the giant skeleton had moved quite unlike the little ones they had met before. Bones clattered and scraped against each other as it walked, and it moved around as if they had stiff joints. Ezekiel had assumed it was due to its massive size and weight, but skeletons do not need to care about that. What moved them wasn’t energy or muscle tissue, it was pure magic. Necromantic magic, at that.

He began to fire an onslaught of arrows at the now laughing giant, desperate to bring it down as soon as possible. The small explosions that each arrow brought were effectively harmless against it, making him lower his bow in an effort to conserve mana.

‘My mana reserves aren’t very high, so I can’t afford to fire so many shots willy-nilly like this. I’ll have to entrust this to Alice and Louis.’

He pulled another arrow from his quiver and loaded his bow. This time, however, he did not choose to fire immediately, and instead spent some time getting a steady aim on his target. Additionally, he chose to fire only one arrow at a time instead of multiple.

“Louis! Alice! Both of you will have to deal with most of the damage. I’ll aim for the joints to slow it down!”

Alice nodded and began to conjure up another Blazing Serpent, while Louis began to charge up his blade once more. However, the skeleton was not going to give them that opportunity.

A ball of black flames began to form on its fist, and it swung at Louis at full force. It was unknown what these flames could do, and luckily, they didn’t need to find out.

“Dispel!”

And just like that, the ball of flames was snuffed out right before it collided with Louis’s greatsword. The force of the punch still pushed him a few meters back, but he stood steady on his feet. In retaliation, he sent forth another blade of water, which chipped some more fragments off the giant skeleton’s arm.

Not wanting a repeat of the accident from before, a jet of flames crashed into its bulky ribcage, followed by an explosive arrow that struck it directly in the eye. An orange glow lit up from within the skull shortly after, and smoke began billowing out of the skull’s orifices. Like the other attacks before this, however, it was ineffective.

It shook its head like nothing happened and continued its advance toward Louis. It tried conjuring the same black flames once more, but Cathy quickly put a stop to it. The giant skeleton took a wide step forward, only to find itself activating several runes beneath its feet.

A scattering of explosions lit up underneath and charred the soles black, yet it didn’t go as well as Ezekiel had hoped. He had set the trap in the very beginning as a precaution, yet it had been so utterly ineffective that in hindsight, was a complete waste of mana.

‘I don’t think we can win against this thing. Kayden, you better hurry up.’

He shot another arrow, this time right in the giant skeleton’s right knee. It briefly stumbled but regained its footing almost instantly, snapping the arrow in the process.

Another Blazing Serpent formed and sped towards the target, and in that split second before they collided, the skeleton struck the flames with black flames of its own, effectively canceling it out.

“S-sorry! If I tried dispelling it then, it would have canceled Alice’s spell too…” Cathy cried out.

Louis took this small chance to slide right in between the skeleton’s legs, using jets of water to propel him forward as he swung his blade upwards. However, before the blade could hit that sensitive area, it jumped, despite its massive size, making the attack miss by a hair’s breadth.

Small jets of water shot out of his arms with high pressure, and Louis quickly got up to his feet to jump away. Right before another flying fist struck the floor and punched a hole right into it.

“This… it’s getting smarter as the fight goes on!” Louis yelled, panic creeping into his voice.

The skeleton opened its mouth and clutched its belly as if it had heard an incredibly funny joke. It then sent a kick at Louis, who barely blocked it with his sword.

“No. I don’t think that’s it.” Ezekiel’s eyes grew serious.

The skeleton turned to look at Ezekiel with large white teeth that almost resembled a smirk.

“It’s been intelligent from the very start.”

Black flames sprung to life around a single finger which pointed straight towards him. Before Cathy could even dispel it, the finger detached itself from the hand and shot out with blinding speed.

Clang!

From his hip, he drew a shortsword and immediately deflected it, resulting in its immediate destruction. The sword was consumed by the flames, leaving not even the ashes. Even after all this, the impact still threw him completely off-balance.

With a running start, it began bulldozing towards him with a speed unlike before. Louis jumped in to block the charge but one slap was all it took to knock him aside.

Alice fired off another jet stream of flames that were so condensed together that it looked like a stream of light. Ducking to the side, it narrowly avoided the attack and resumed its stampede.

In a short five seconds, it had already closed the distance between them, and Ezekiel was forced to drag Cathy, who stood behind him, and jumped out of the way, lest he got tackled and split into bloody chunks.

The giant skeleton crashed savagely into the wall near the corner of the room, sending tremors and cracks throughout. Even more dust was kicked up, and debris was sent flying all across the room. The party didn’t skip a beat and quickly surrounded the massive figure at a safe distance away, getting ready for another combined offensive.

The dust began to clear up, once again revealing its hulking silhouette. However this time, it was different. A massive shape rested on its shoulder, held in the grasp of its bony hands. It was more than half the size of the giant skeleton, and while it certainly wasn’t the sharpest thing in the world, it had reached. Enough reach to render their ‘safe distance’ completely unsafe.

There was a sudden blur of movement, and the giant blade was raised to a jaw-dropping height before being brought down upon the person that the skeleton knew to be the only one among them that could deal substantial damage.

“Alice! Get back!”