Marcus readied himself, taking in deep breaths and clearing his mind before he began his battle.
Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a skeletal archer as it drew back its bowstring and take aim at Marcus, firing it quickly after.
Marcus leapt sideways, jumping out of the arrow's path, before landing coolly on both feet and leaping towards the archer who had just fired.
A second archer aimed at the mid-air Marcus and fired as he landed on the ground, but this was all to Marcus's expectations. He leaned sideways, letting the arrow whistle past his ears, and listened to the satisfying plunk as it hit the first archer.
One down, nine to go.
By now, the skeleton with the greatsword and another with a hammer had come at him, with two other archers taking aim and the last two, the unarmed seemingly the commanders, stood back and watched whilst the skeleton with the hoe prepared to back up the hammer and sword skeletons.
The hammer skeleton went first, swinging at him in a broad arc. Marcus leapt over it, placing his hand on the hammer as he flipped over, off-balancing the skeleton as he did so. As he span, he pulled out his knife and stabbed into the skull of the skeleton, knife cutting through the bones of its skill and entering the hollow of its eye sockets.
The life in its hollow eyes died down and became dull. The creature fell to the floor in front of Marcus, but the dead skeleton was no longer part of his thought process. He leapt at the skeleton with the sword, placing the knife in his inventory as he did and pulling out his scythe. His movements mimicked the ones of the [Shadow Minks], a reclusive tribe of warriors that fought by blending into the shadows, moving faster than their enemies could react.
He landed a foot before the skeleton, bringing his scythe round in an arc to behead it, but pulled back as he saw two arrows fired towards him.
He ducked the arrows, enjoying the whistling sounds of them passing over his head, before sending a mental message to Tiu to take down the archers.
Shortly after, Marcus heard explosions and saw a flurry of red runes flying in a state of chaos. He made time for a glance over and saw Tiu stood over a pile of bones mangled nearly beyond recognition.
He gulped, glad Tiu was on his side, before returning to the enemy at hand.
The skeleton brought down its broadsword in a vertical arc aimed at his head, but Marcus reacted in time, bringing his scythe up above his head and blocking the strike, pushing the attack off sideways in an attempt to throw the skeleton off balance.
It worked, and the skeleton went stumbling to the left, completely defenceless. In a swift, controlled movement, Marcus brought his scythe down to its neck, piercing its rock hard skull and sending it flying, ending somewhere in the endless void surrounding the Arena.
The skeleton with the hoe had just witnessed its teammates be wiped out and was now terrified of the human with an edgy hoe. It threw its weapon onto the floor and put its hand in the air, hoping for mercy, but when it saw Marcus approaching it, dragging his scythe across the floor leaving a horrible screeching sound, it lost all hope.
It turned tail and ran, charging up to the edge of the arena and placing its two fingers on its nose as if holding its breath. It leapt into the void, never to be seen again, dying in a rather comedic scene.
Marcus couldn't help but chuckle at the skeleton and turned towards the two bosses who had stood to the side watching the whole time. Now was the boss battle he had been waiting for.
He circled the skeletons, ending besides Tiu and dropping into a fighting stance. Tiu stood ready for battle, runes enflamed with energy and power.
The remaining skeletons were unarmed, but one wore a crown and the other a tiara. Marcus used his [Analyse] on them, being careful with the strengths of his enemies:
[Name – Skeletal King]
[Rank – Platinum III]
[Level – 15]
[Known Abilities]
[Deathly Screech – Paralyses those who hear with fear, and renders them immobile]
Their level was higher than his was, so the battle ahead of him would be difficult. He took a look at his system menu:
[Name – Marcus Vindictio]
[Species – Human / Inanis]
[Rank – Diamond II]
[Level - 14] [EXP – 0 / 100]
[Abilities]
[Call of the Void]
[Mastery – 11]
[Inventory]
[Rations (3 Months)]
[Ring of Speed x 28]
[Ring of Power x 32]
[Burst Ring of Strength x 7]
[Cursed Necklace of Charm x 1]
[Amulet of Intelligence x 25]
[Necklace of Amplification x 7]
[Platinum II Hunting Knife (Common)]
[Platinum III Shadow Steel Scythe (Retractable Blade) (Rare)]
[Platinum III Shadow Steel Reaper Robes (Rare)]
[Quilted Pillow of Comfort]
[Flamingo's Coat]
[Platinum Coins x 6]
[Skills]
[Void Blacksmithing (Intermediate) – lv 6]
[Void Rune smithing (Novice) – lv 9]
[Combat Mastery – lv 6]
[Missions]
[None]
He spent a moment reminiscing at how much stronger he had become, before snapping back to his senses. He took out a [Ring of Speed], [Ring of Power] and Amulet of Amplification] and put them all on, however, didn't use any more as the artifacts drained too much Vis.
He wasn't going to take any unnecessary risks in this fight and prepared earnestly. He started to walk towards the skeletons, wary of making the first move in case of a trap.
The skeletons stood there motionless, so he decided to test the waters a little, picking up the carcass of a skeleton and hurling it the skeletons, forcing them to be smacked in the face or move out the way.
Surprisingly, they stood still, but the bodies of the skeletons rebounded on their tough exteriors and were pulverised from the impact, leaving no signs of existence in the first place.
Marcus gulped, then picked up another skeletal body, throwing it at the king yet again, but making sure to charge Vis into his eyes before he did, enhancing his eyes and processing speed.
At the exact moment that the skeleton came close to it, a blade of energy appeared in its hands, slicing it to tiny pieces.
Now knowing what the Skeleton King's true abilities were, Marcus formulated a plan in his head. He activated the technique he had been working on in his free time, his [Call of the Void], and had been able to figure out how to form tentacles out of his back.
At his will, two tentacles made out of pure Void erupted out of his back, moving wildly as if they had lives of their own. They sprang forwards at the Skeleton King, leaving in a burst of wind and sharpening as they approached the Skeleton, prepared to behead it.
As expected, the Skeleton diced up the tentacles, but in doing so he fell for Marcus's trap. Within the tentacles, Marcus had hidden highly compact Vis inside of the tentacles, so that when the Skeleton sliced it up, the Vis was released suddenly and forcefully, exploding in its face and blowing it backwards.
Marcus followed this up, sprinting up to where it had fallen and swinging forcefully down into its exposed ribcage.
A large hole was formed in its chest, and after a few seconds of spluttering, the light in its eyes died out and it fell dead. The Skeleton Queen saw her King go down, and seemed to panic, frantically waving its arms before falling onto all fours and bowing in submission, begging for mercy.
Marcus spared no time for the antics, and beheaded her swiftly, ending the Arena battle. It was only now that he had done everything himself and hadn't let Tiu do anything, but after looking over his shoulder at her and seeing her juggle the bones of the dead skeletons, he chuckled and left her be.
His first proper battle had gone quite well, but he knew that there was probably a lot more he could improve on.
He let out a sigh of satisfaction, sitting down to rest beside the half-destroyed body of the skeleton. He shut his eyes to get some rest, before suddenly opening them again and scrambling to his feet. He had noticed the trap that skeletons were infamous and feared for, the skeleton's [Explosive Death]. Upon the death of their leader/king, every skeleton, including the King himself, will explode in an eruption of Vis, before imploding and absorbing everything around them into a [Serum of Rebirth], a liquid which increased the potential of the consumer. This was the factor which made skeletons so hunted and sought after, making them a rare sight in the Human Realm.
Marcus tried to leap backwards to evade the explosion, but was too late and was pulverised in the explosion, turning into ash. If he had kept his defences up, he probably could've evaded the explosion or even just defended against it, but he had gotten cocky and had paid the price for it.
A few minutes later, Marcus came to form again in the Arena, plopped in front of the Judge and Artemis, who was giving him a rather condescending look. Tiu looked fine, as she had simply absorbed the explosion that had hit her.
< "Well, we have a lot to talk about here, don't we." >