Clad in black armour, the mysterious being walked out of the church gates. With heavy steps, John could tell the difference between the enemies they had faced before and the enemy they were facing now. The man carried a huge black mace over his back, its hands and skin were a rough surface of a rock.
Was it a skill? Or Were they facing a demon?
They had the same question in mind but Oscar recognised that it was not a human at all but it was also not a demon. The monster was about to take out his mace to attack but suddenly skeleton hands grabbed onto his legs.
John sneakily swapped himself with a crystal behind its back and slashed down his sword, which was glowing in a golden hue. He muttered the name of the skill silently to activate it and cut through the armour.
Even though he successfully damaged the armour, there was no blood coming out of the monster. John moved at lightning speed cutting the monster from every place.
" Looks like speed's not going to work against it," John spoke and instead of attacking someone who didn't take any damage he created a distraction. Oscar summoned two more pairs of those hands, one pair grabbed the hold of the enemy's hand while the other controlled Oscar with strings.
Oscar's sword and shield glowed in a lilac glow as he dashed forward for a thirst directly onto the chest of the enemy.
" Skill Activate [ Dispel]"
Suddenly John activated his skill and dispelled oscar's attack.
" WHAT? What Are You Doing John?!!" Oscar shouted at his friend as he avoided attacking the enemy and stepped back.
However no response came from John, he fired the crystals at John and even swapped himself to attack. Oscar was shocked by the turn of events, the monster was also approaching him.
Oscar thought of retreating and abandoning the fight but he knew better than anyone that it was not possible. John was equally strong if not stronger than him in a fight.
" Skill Activate [ Ultra Sense]" Oscar shouted,
Everything around him turned black and white, except for John and the monster in front of him. Oscar spotted what was wrong with John, He glowed in a golden hue but there were some black markings over his body that showed that he was under the effect of a skill.
It had to be a work of an enemy leader, he tried to smell if there was anyone else around him but that wasn't the case. There was no other presence beside them where they were fighting. Oscar took a glance in the direction of where the monster came out and saw an ominous crimson-black smoke-like energy flowing there.
There was no way out of this situation as Oscar kept trying to fight back but John dispelled his skill again and again. The fight continued until Oscar's mana was drained, John had also run out of mana at the same time.
"...I didn't expect this," Oscar spoke ' That monster has higher physical stats and when did they take control of John.'
John landed on the ground as his crystal wings disappeared from his back. The monster didn't move anymore and instead, a few people walked out of the same place as the monster wearing the uniform of the black dawn.
Soon they were able to spot a man with a black overcoat, he had a long square face with dark circles under his eyes and was swinging a pocket watch in his hands.
The man walked towards both of them, and out of his hands, two chains crawled out and started to wrap around them, Oscar struggled but he knew that it was better to be a captive than a dead body.
"...Carry them." The man ordered the monster.
*****
Finally, Dave saw a light in the dark tunnel as he kept walking. That light was like hope to him as he reached for it, the ground below him suddenly started to shake and then transformed into a slippery slope.
Dave slid down towards the light, but he had a bad feeling about it. He punched the ground opening a crack and stopping himself from sliding any further. Repeating the punches he hung on the surface using his hands and slowly approached the light.
Once he reached the end of the tunnel, he saw a white hall with several red flowers.
' Is this a garden?' Dave thought and opened his map. He had moved from the place where he was stuck before and was very near to the treasure chest.
Dave jumped into the garden over the flowers, however, what he thought was the ground turned out to be a swamp as he was being sucked into the hole.
" Activate [ Walker]" Dave activated his skill and found himself walking over the surface without any problems.
He then reached the other end, facing another tunnel but this one ended soon and Dave was once again in a special room. This time there were stone statutes inside the dungeon room and as soon as he entered the statutes moved and initiated their attack.
" So typical for a trap." Dave chuckled, he guessed that these things were going to attack as soon as he will enter.
The statues were moving as any normal human would, they were carved to look like soldiers and were carrying different weapons. Only thier weapon was not made of stone, they were real and could potentially harm him.
[ You have killed A Stone Monster Soldier]
He received the notification once he shattered one of the statues.
' These are monsters, great I have no problem killing them. I am sure they would have some decent item to give me.'
The fight started to get difficult once all of them started to attack at once. If Dave had to compare himself to these monsters, he would have been helpless if not for [ Metal Body].
The stone monsters were skilled but nothing compared to what he witnessed John doing in a battle. Regardless the situation was chaotic because there seem to be more than a hundred of these monsters.