The skeleton suddenly arced backward on his spine as if it had suddenly found something funny to laugh at. "Hahahahahaha." It paused for a bit to calm down before continuing.
"Garut, it's me, Argar!"
Hearing this name, he immediately recalled a certain young elder back then who was determined to take everything by force. A natural-born tyrant, but had met its demise on the way here with the caravan.
He had seen it in his dreams back then. A future where the owner of this name has died a deadly death. His eyes widened, and Garut gulped in a breath of cold air as his heart was shaken by this revelation.
"Argar? That Argar?! You! Your alive?" The skeleton named Argar clearly doesn't like the way Garut has called him just now as he snorted annoyed. "Garut, have you seen my death since the start right?"
Indeed, Garut saw that he died back then with his future-seeing dream ability. That's why he was truly shocked to see the dead people back then come back to life, albeit not as humans anymore.
However, Garut would surely not reveal it. Who knew if those who died back then would turn angry from fury and decide to forgo anything else just to release their pent-up anger?
Although it's not his fault. Anyone would still feel angry knowing that their deaths could have been avoided if Garut had just helped them back then.
"Nope, I didn't know," Garut denied, to further make his lie more truthful. He followed up with what happened after they left. "After you and the caravan left to exchange back then, we have been attacked by those kinds, which we now call slimes specifically."
The angry Argar was silent after listening to Garut's story. He didn't know if the latter was telling the truth or not, but he could always ask anyway. Furthermore, since they were already dead anyway,
There's no need to be overly dramatic. Whether it's the truth or not, he can't be showing any cowardice. It's just that Argar can't stop the feeling of anger in his heart and was in need of a target to release it upon.
"Ha! As if I would believe that. If you want me to really believe in your story, then how about you receive three punches and kicks from my minions? The one who calls himself Accepter Garut should be able to do that, right?"
As if he would do that! Garut narrowed his eyes at him. From the tone of his voice, Argar really didn't care about the truth. What he feels more obligated to follow is the anger he has been keeping in his heart.
In short, he just wants to beat up the self-righteous and might old man who calls himself Accepter Garut with pride. Almost no one will envy the strength and ability of an acceptor.
Even Argar desires such strength too. With strength, he can dominate everything. Just like how Garut could influence the village's decisions back then. Garut frowned as he readied his spears.
"Tell me if you want to talk or not." Garut's meaning is clear: if you don't want a peaceful conversation, Then this whole fiasco, no matter if they were from the same village back then, would be finished in battle to the death.
After all, they aren't humans anymore but more like monsters in Garut's eyes. At this moment, Argar, who was about to fight using their mouths, was stopped by the one below him. He looked at the skeleton below him, who had stepped forward towards Garut.
"Stop it, Argar. Long time no see, Accepter Garut, it's me, Bador!" Bador made a slight nod to Garut after saying that. Then he stepped forward and continued, "We know that we had change and turn into what you call monsters, but."
"I believe we had a common question seeking answers, right?" As Bador said this, he didn't wait for Argar to chimed in or the other man as he walked nearer Garut and sat down on the grassland with his tattered clothes.
"Can we talk now?" he asked, seeing Bador once again, an experienced hunter in their village back then. Although he had become an old bag of white bones. His attitude never changed. Garut sighed inwardly as he nodded, though he was wary of the stone in his hand.
"Tsk, Bador, at least let me have a fight with this old man!" Argar, who was in his sedan, also motioned with his bony hand to move onward before the corpse and skeleton put the sedan beside Bador.
"Hey, hey, hey. Wait for me! I'm also here, Accepter Garut, hello." The other man who had been hiding behind all along, playing like the other dazed, not moving skeletons, followed the two and sat down on the grass too.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
"Hmm?" Garut followed the noise of the sounds and saw a lower-half skeleton body walking around him as though it were examining him around. Then, as though he understood something,
He kicked that skeleton butt. Argar, who saw this, also returned the kick. Baam! Air-blasted in the air, Garut felt a force almost the same as his kick.
At the same time, Argar's eye lit up. The lower half of the skeleton immediately ran besides him as though it were a dog who had been bullied just now. "Old man! Why did you kick my lower half?! Do you want to die?"
Garut didn't know why, but he felt like Argar had changed. "Did you become more childish? Your mouth has been spewing nonstop since a while ago. Can you shut up?" Knowing Argar wasn't the only one who could talk here.
It doesn't matter if he provoked Argar a little by loitering around and making him feel tense. Who knows if he was suddenly kicked in the head and died a very miserable death?
Would he trust his back on an annoying enemy he has disliked since he was alive and now has returned to a new life as a monster? Garut would never do that. Or he can say that no sane man would do that.
He sneered, but he still displayed a confused expression as he replied, "Ah? It's yours? I thought it was another monster who doesn't know how to sit." Clearly having the feel of Garut's mocking gaze
Argar gritted his teeth, as he truly felt angry this time. Although he acts like he was lashing out with anger at Garut. That was just him teasing him after not meeting for so long.
After all, no matter what he and Garut did indeed come from the same village, and he had done nothing to hinder his many plans. But now, that teasing has turned into anger that burns his nonexistent heart.
"Damn it! Old man, stand up and have some fist fight with me! You thought you were the only one who became an accepter, right? I became one too! Let me show you!" With a hop from his sedan, he used his hands as his feet, and his lower half immediately dashing around Garut's back, ready to attack.
Bador was silent; he seemed to be emitting a tired aura. Did Argar give him too much stress lately? Garut found it understandable, knowing Argar's personality. He stood up with a spear in hand, calmly looking at this eerie upper skeleton body making it's way towards him.
"A one-on-one huh. Argar, you've grown bold to think you can fight me with just your white bones left." Garut naturally noticed the words 'become an accepter too' and immediately searched for the acceptance proof but found none.
He sneered, "Don't make me laugh, Argar. Where's your proof? I see none at all." However, Argar instead laughed as he pointed at his head. "We aren't humans anymore after all. How can we have the necklace around our neck?"
Narrowing his eyes, Garut observed Argar and immediately understood, "You mean yours was inside your head? How about you let me see how it looked? Let me help you?"
"I, Argar, am a Living Dead Accepter, and you, Human Accepter Garut, do you accept my challenge?" Argar lifted up a stone with one hand as he used the other for support.
"Enough with the chit-chat. Let's do it!"
On the side, the other skeleton beside Bador somehow appeared near the latter as it asked somewhat nervously. "Should we stop them?" However, he received Bador's shaking head.
"Why?" looking at the two, ready for a fight to break out. Bador calmly said with his inhuman voice, "Let them be; they will stop once any of them is defeated anyway."
"But would the old man Garut stop?" After all, they changed so much that they looked unrecognizable at all. Who knew if Garut even believed their self-introduction back then?
The place not far away covered by fog they had came from was the only thing that has semblance with the place they came from. It's thorny and the ground although grassy was filled with cracks and a little sunken to the ground. There are big rock spurs growing around.
"About that, we will see it for ourselves. After all, we aren't prepared for this." Bador's eyes shone with an unknown blaze as he looked around him and the verdant grass below his buttocks. "Isn't this too much of a coincidence?"