"It couldn't be…..."
Owen investigated the bone buccaneer's behaviour and couldn't help but show bewilderment in his expression.
He blinked weakly and moved his vision upward, glancing at the apparitional elf hovering above the enlarged arena with inquiring eyes.
"It's the elvish princess...of-"
The bone buccaneer continued crookedly, clear uncertainty expressing in its voice and stopped mid-sentence of its incomplete, cryptic words.
Subsequently, the bone buccaneer shook its head, indicating abstruse sorrowfulness. Ultimately, the bone buccaneer motioned its jaw open and reluctantly mumbled few words with a lowed head, inarticulately.
"Even…...even the gods wanted your transcendental voice..."
"Who is she?"
In a straightforward manner, Owen asked keenly, to unravel the mystery behind the ghostly beauty and the bone corsair.
However, the bone buccaneer remained unresponsive and glimpsed Owen with illuminating coruscation, scintillation screening on its raised dagger, reflecting from the illumination of its voided eyes.
"Why should I? Such informative truth is irreverent to a corpse such as yourself."
Owen lowed his brows at the bone buccaneer's sniffy words and sighed deeply.
"Interesting words coming from a walking corpse such as yourself..."
"...Come now, let's finish our duel and go by our business."
Owen shrugged heedlessly and began to stretch his left shoulder with a hidden smile.
"Sure."
He answered carelessly with a light expression, which alarmed the bone buccaneer tardily. Afterward, it asked Owen a question, in a warily tone.
"Owen H- "
Owen interjected,
"Just call me Owen."
While flashing a cold visual perception which caused the bone buccaneer to become silent. However, shortly after, it continued its inquiring question.
"By the referential usage of 'Figurative Monstrosity Designation' as a comparative reference, may I inquire your rank?"
"Ahem, what?....My rank?"
Owen raised an eyebrow while expressing an unknowledgeable expression on his face. Witnessing such a reaction, the bone buccaneer also became bewildered by the half-witted Owen.
"Owen, you...you don't recollect the monstrosity designation of monsters?"
"Well, yes?"
Owen nodded and asked earnestly,
"What is the 'Figurative Monstrosity Designation', exactly?"
Pausing, the bone buccaneer pondered while scratching its chin with the dagger and eventually glanced at Owen's direction.
'Peculiar...…how is it possible for someone to have a divine insignia but unknowledgeable about the world, it derived from?'
The bone buccaneer thought while examining Owen's facial expression with a menacing stare.
Owen noticed the menacing gaze and unconsciously tensed his body.
'Sigh…'
"Alas, to comprehend the fundaments of such a system, you need to understand the rootage of its history and the reason for its creation because.... without them, you will surely die an early death."
Circumstantially, several light chuckles sounded softly in the amplified arena. However, Owen unconsciously ignored their existence, on the contrary, he relaxed his tensed body and listened to the bone buccaneer's words earnestly.
"In a period of acquired peace called the 'Procession Amelioration' (PA) Era, there lived a renowned historical figure by the name of Kian Pierce, who was also known as the 4st Saint Paladin of the Wind Goddess, Aura, by title,"
"Furthermore, Saint Kian was a brainiac scholar who researched in 'Allathan Rune Logodaedaly' and atop employee of the Former Continental Guild called the Racial Bureau of Global Palladium, RBGP, which aimed to protect all races from global threats that cause planetary extinction. This is when Saint Kian formulated an appellative classification for mythical abnormities, which allowed humans to identify and judge the magnitude of the given threat in an area,"
"This is called the Figurative Monstrosity Designation, as you already know. Which by the way, has seven categories in its own field....?"
The bone buccaneer paused and examined Owen, making sure he was following the short but astuteness explanation.
His eyes were narrowed, seemingly in deep thought but he shorty nodded his head at the bone buccaneer to continue.
"...…The Figurative Monstrosity Designation has three main field branches. Firstly, Monstrosity Threat Category (MTC), Monstrosity Difficulty Predicament (MDP) and lastly, Resultant Casualty (RC)."
"Altho, to remember this more easily, just think of these words; Rank (MTC), Threat (MDP) and Damage (RC). Regrettably, I won't focus into detail of all the three branches, rather, I will boil down to (MTC) because it concentrates on the most important aspect...Identification."
Owen couldn't help but sigh in agreement with this decision because he knew trying to grasp the entire explanation, at once, was an impossible feat, so narrowing down the most important of the aspects for now was a good decision.
Besides, who is stopping him from learning this later.
"Here are the rank categories in (MTC),"
The bone buccaneer then raised a finger and said,
"The first rank is Inferior Anomaly,"
Then another finger,
"Second rank, is Metier Oddity"
Another,
"Third rank, Terrestrial Lusus-Naturae,"
And continued to the rest.
"Fourth rank, Arch-Fiend. Fifth rank, Primordial Sentient. Sixth rank, Continental Myth. Then the Final rank...Celestial Bequeath."
The eyes of the bone buccaneer flashed a cerulean luminosity and pointed the dagger to itself.
"Currently, in my weaken state, I am at the lowest rank...Inferior Anomaly."
Owen looked at the bone warrior and sensed hidden ruefulness in its words.
"Weaken state? I guess you were stronger when you were human?"
The bone warrior opened its jaw slightly with surprise and chucked lightly.
"It seems your birthplace had racial discrimination if you automatically considered I was human."
"Oh…. ah, sorry. Which race were you?"
Witnessing Owen`s reaction, the bone buccaneer shook its head gently, clearly amused.
"No, no. It's quite alright, I was a human....in my prime at least."
"Oh, your prime?"
Owen titled his head slightly and asked with an expression of curiosity which the bone buccaneer nodded.
"In the Material Realm, my prime was bottleneck of the third rank, Terrestrial Lusus-Naturae and...my Allathan Rune Logodaedaly was rather good...if I could recall correctly...yes, mostly likely."
"I see, your previous strength was near Terrestrial Lusus-Naturae."
Suddenly silent, the bone buccaneer analysed Owen and uttered,
"The lack of amazement in your words are most likely because you are not knowledgeable about the 'Figurative Monstrosity Designation.... Afterall, Terrestrial Lusus-Naturae entities can destroy cities."
Owen opened his eyes with astonishment at the revelation. Honestly, he didn't think the bone buccaneer was such a powerhouse in its lifetime.
Furthermore, in theory, the bone buccaneer could have been one of the strongest humans Owen has ever met...yet such a person was Owen's opponent?
"I think our little break is finished; don't you think?"
Suddenly, the bone buccaneer pointed the dagger to Owen's direction.
"Oh, of course. However, may I ask, what is Allathan Rune Logodaedaly?"
"I will tell you everything when I win the duel. Afterall, that requires a lot of my time to explain which none of us has."
"I understand but can I ask one more question which won't take most of your time?"
"What is it?"
"How did you die exactly?"
"It's an average tale but I will tell you. In the days of blue, I undertook an expedition through the Baltsonic Ocean to reach a destination in the Southern Region of the Thorgim Dwarf Clan with my lineage to conquer a particular dream but met an unfortunate end at the claws of a Goliath Continental Myth which by the way, killed all of my crewmen, my loving family and my magnificent ship."
"I see."
"Don't be sober. In spite of that, you are here."
"What?"
"Owen, with your Divine Insignia, I can return home and conquer my dream. So...please perish, for I have much to fight for."
Owen became quiet and stared the bone buccaneer with an unsympathetic expression. In all honestly, he didn't care, Owen didn't care enough to sacrifice his life for a...…walking corpse he barely met.
Especially if that corpse tried to justify his death to some 'dream'.
However, at least he was able to create some time to catch his breath. Simultaneously, both figures made their battle stances and readied their minds and bodies for the final showdown of hand to weapon combat which would decide their fates.
'If I want to win this battle, I need to find an opening for devastating strike to end this duel…."
The bone buccaneer knew that Owen was very agile because he was able to dodge most of its critical slashes, so an opening was needed to end the battle quickly and decisively.
The bone buccaneer gripped the dagger tightly. Subsequently, seconds passed between the two, but suddenly, both entities dashed forward with murderous intent, showing irresponsive transitory stares.
Instantaneously, they met, and the bone buccaneer was the first to strike with a horizontal slash at Owen's chest.
However, Owen quickly dodged the diagonal strike and delivered a straight kick into the bone buccaneer's chest area and quickly followed up with another hit.
This was clearly a repetition of attacks which the bone buccaneer employed in their earlier exchange.
In tactical manoeuvrability, such a continuous assault from Owen was life-threatening for him because the bone buccaneer had good durability and could easily out last him. So, this tactic honestly bewildered the bone buccaneer and the cloaked figures.
Soon, as expected, Owen's continuous assault was slowing down. The bone buccaneer observed this movement and waited for a clear chance to strike.
Subsequently, an apparent opening appeared which the bone buccaneer directed without hesitation. The slash was aimed straight down upon Owen's head, however, if one carefully spectated, the attack was a fade and was positively aiming for his eyes, with a straight deep gash.
Nonetheless, Owen smiled as he moved his body off the line of the attack with planned ease and expertly parried with his right hand, while redirecting the attacking arm of the bone buccaneer to clear off his body.
He maintained control of the weapon hand and redirected the dagger to the bone buccaneer's skull and gouged it, forcing the bone warrior backward and almost causing it to fall off balance.
"It's over"
Owen passionlessly mouthed while making a central kick on the bone buccaneer's chest and created some distance between each other.
The bone buccaneer swayed a few steps backwards and looked at Owen's direction in shock, not able to comprehend such skilful movement.
"You may have a dream, you wish to conquer but for me, I don't intent on dying for the third time.... its rather annoying."