Swoosh— Swoosh—
I placed my hand gently on Yeon-hee’s head and softly patted it a few times.
Yeon-hee unknowingly closed her eyes, and the people around us stared with widened eyes, seemingly fascinated by our display.
‘Should I make the pact usable even outside?’
It was comfortable to have slightly lowered restrictions on my actions in front of everyone.
Swish— Swirl—
Yeon-hee has a lot of hair.
Her thick, lush hair was packed full.
Once I started touching it, I found it hard to stop because it felt so good.
‘Hmm…’
Something felt hot down there.
Is it because I’m a perverted skeleton that feels excited even just brushing her hair aside?
I don’t know.
The way my libido spikes even in my skeleton state clearly shows I’ve lost it.
[Cool] What are you doing? Let’s get to work.
… [Cool]
It felt like [Cool] activated with a delay, as if questioning whether I should step in even at this level of emotion.
“I’ll go!”
Suddenly, Noh Ha-yoon, who stood behind Yeon-hee, shouted out of the blue.
Had his competitive spirit against monsters sparked? He looked at me with glinting eyes.
“Let’s go smash them! I’ll freeze them, and you—”
“Clap, Clap.”
But that was not an option.
After being pinpointed by Nargul and the Skeleton Knight at dawn, the number of monsters had drastically increased. Removing the most powerful sorcerer in a situation like this would be akin to suicide.
“Tsk… Fine… But if you level up to C-rank, we’ll have one more party! No, we should have several!”
‘Didn’t think he’d throw a tantrum about going together? He really has calmed down since the first time…’
I had no idea why he was behaving so demurely. Not particularly curious either.
And proposing that Ha-yoon stay back to defend actually benefited our party.
We had already teamed up twice, so there shouldn’t be too much trouble doing it a few more times.
Considering the unstable dungeon situation right now, it seemed we ought to be the ones making the request.
Anyway, I could only finally move my feet after calming down Yeon-hee and Ha-yoon.
The party leaders gathered around Yeon-hee and began strategizing for base defense.
Leaving them behind, I dashed forward without a second thought.
Since the monster was positioned at the end of my sensory wave, ‘Ran’ couldn’t accompany me.
This would be an exclusive fight of my own.
As I organized my thoughts and soared directly toward the monster, I unexpectedly encountered a party of nine battling a massive Giant Skeleton.
To be precise, they were being unilaterally attacked.
Boom— Crackle!
The giant fist, capable of flattening an elephant with one blow, hammered them mercilessly.
‘This is terrifying.’
No matter how high my defense was, a solid hit would likely shred me.
Looking at the party, two members were already down, with a healer rushing to provide healing. The other six were setting up barriers.
It was a rare and peculiar mix to see.
There were as many as three Barrier Mages and three Sorcerers.
Noticing, the two fallen were close-combat types.
‘Uh oh… one of them looks like he won’t survive.’
One person’s life force was rapidly waning. Something was oozing from their head.
At that level, even Irmana’s water would struggle to recover them.
But since you never know, I handed a brown bottle filled with water to my cute minion, ‘Gori,’ and sent him off to them.
‘Gori’ took the bottle in his mouth and wobbled toward a rock rising next to where they were setting up their barrier.
Once the barrier would drop, he could deliver Irmana’s water.
Boom— Boom!
The monster’s attacks grew fiercer.
Six members uniting to form a protective barrier were barely holding against that massive force, but it was only a matter of time.
‘Are you guys out of your minds?’
They must not have been able to abandon their injured teammate, but in a situation like this, leaving the injured behind is the unwritten rule. Such odd folks to encounter.
But I heard rare species need to be protected.
Hooosh—
With the 2nd-stage activated cloak and [High-speed Flight], I gained tremendous acceleration.
I was just seconds away from closing the distance to the monster.
‘Let’s throw everything I’ve got at it.’
“Clap, Clap, Clap!”
– The warrior’s shout resonates across the battlefield! Strength increases by 5!
Having decided to fight alone or perhaps meeting hunters who had an unusual camaraderie, my focus peaked.
As the giant’s head filled my view, everything around me turned white.
[Fireball] [Skeleton Bomb] [Dagger Throw]
Boom boom boom boom boom boom—!
The Fireballs and Skeleton Bombs detonated simultaneously over the monster’s head, creating a catastrophic explosion.
– Boooooorr?!
But did it just tickle him? It only scratched his head as he appeared to merely scratch it with a hand. Despite the skull being significantly cratered, the thickness of that head was hard to fathom.
‘Wow— Is that all even my condensed fireball does?’
But it wasn’t entirely pointless.
I saw a tiny fissure forming in the skull. Of course, the Fireball couldn’t have had no effect.
[Penetration] [Fierce Claws] [Stagnating Sneaky Drain] [Flame Cut]
I coated my club with every skill I received from Ddung-i and gripped it tightly with both hands before slamming it down on the creature’s crown.
Kwaaaaang────!
– Kreeeek—!
The giant monster’s head, as big as a truck, swayed, causing its upper body to crash down.
‘Head! Head! Head! Head!’
Bang bang bang bang!
I must not let up.
The monster instantly covered its head with its hands, but by then, I had already stacked five Flame Marks on it.
– Wh-what…?
– Is that… a D-rank like us?
– Is that a human…?!
I could hear the hunters maintaining their barriers looking up and saying something, but I wanted to scream at them to get lost and let me concentrate.
As I tossed a Fireball next to the barrier, signaling them to back off, they jumped in surprise, hurriedly carrying their fallen comrade away.
And right behind them, ‘Gori’ followed.
He seemed to want to deliver it personally instead of just dropping off the brown bottle as commanded.
I have no idea if I’d end up dead for helping them out.
Hooosh—
As I briefly adjusted Gori’s command, the Giant Skeleton’s fist hit my side.
‘Grrkh—!’
I dodged back just in time, but its punch sent me reeling far away. Yet amidst flying away, I hadn’t forgotten my plan.
[Flame Explosion]
Geeeee—
Kwaaaaaang──!
With a horrible bang, black flames surged over the skull.
Simultaneously, I saw the cracks on its head transform into clear fractures, spider-webbing across.
But it seemed far from enough to subdue it.
‘No way! One hit isn’t enough!’
[Flame Explosion] boasts overwhelming destructive power, but one downside is its vertical range.
Thus, against a colossal beast like that, unless you hit a vital spot, there’s a limit to its effectiveness.
Having soared for what felt like ages, I cast [High-speed Movement] and flew back toward the monster.
I thought it wouldn’t notice me due to its massive size, but it tracked me precisely.
As I approached, despite its exploded head, it swung its arms toward me in a windmill motion.
From a distance, it might look absurdly funny, but for me, it was bearable only in death.
‘Whoa, calm down! Easy there!’
The wind pressure and intimidation were tremendous.
It had six arms, and the complete absence of delay meant it whirled them continuously, making it hard to dodge.
[Stealth]
I tried to hide and regroup, but as soon as I vanished, the small gems embedded in its head flared up and revealed my hiding location.
‘Uh oh! Nargul’s staff was part of that too!’
There were as many as four such gems.
With that many, there should be no cooldown.
Although I hadn’t even sensed any barriers, it seemed these gems were capable of clouding perception by clustering together?
Kuwuuung—!
‘Ugh! So heavy!’
Ultimately, I was struck squarely by its punch.
Though the monster was slower than me, with those enormous arms and fists, dodging becomes limited.
Thud thud thud—
– Sustaining damage surpassing defense, your health drops significantly!
‘I know that just by looking at my status window!’
I lost over 50 health in one hit.
Thinking back, had I lost health recently?
It seemed like ages since I’d last experienced something like that, probably since Tanya transformed into a golden Werewolf.
Crack—
My bone armor, which had been solidly attached to my chest, shattered, revealing the rough big boar leather underneath. It felt somewhat embarrassing, like being out in public wearing only my underwear.
Swoosh— Swal—
But that one hit was the last allowance I had.
As I got accustomed to its windmill attacks over time, I began to identify its patterns.
‘Here it comes!’
I knocked one of its arms high into the air with a condensed Fireball, then swiftly dove into its grasp with [High-speed Flight].
Swiftly slashing down with my dagger using [Flame Cut], I satisfied the conditions.
Kwaaaang─!
An explosion.
Since it was on guard against my head area, the annoying arm I targeted was blown off.
I intended to blow off just one, but the adjacent arm was also half destroyed, leaving the monster with only four arms remaining.
‘Hoo, it’s gotten a lot easier now.’
Not long after I gained some leeway in evasion, I blasted the opposite arm with another Flame Explosion.
I wanted to target its legs first, but the ground was overcrowded with Undead waiting for me to step on it, so it seemed too risky.
And once its arms ceased to be a threat to me, I unleashed another Flame Explosion upon its cracked head.
– Bwoooooo!
Did it sense the death threat? The Undead clinging to its body began wailing.
However, the Giant Skeleton suddenly changed direction and started sprinting away.
‘Huh? Running away at this timing?’
For a moment, I felt shocked but quickly caught up to it with [High-speed Flight].
Its head was blown apart, exposing its interior, within which a massive core throbbed like a heart, damaged but alive.
I jumped directly into its head, stacking five Flame Marks again before unleashing my last bit of magic power for a Flame Explosion.
Kwaang—!
This was the fifth [Flame Explosion].
I recalled reading that after five stacked Flame Explosions, one is destined for death.
I focused, wondering if anything was different this time, yet the deafening bang rang out just as it had before.
But the effects of this one were completely different, causing a dizzying display.
– The skill [Flame Explosion] knocked at the door five times. Fragments of a Great Being awaken from a deep slumber. [Annihilation] is triggered!
‘… What’s awakening?’
The ominous column of flames only flickered briefly.
From the tip of the fire column, blinding light split the sky, tearing the world apart as something profoundly massive started to emerge from the parted clouds.
And it began to descend, its mouth gaping wide.
‘Huh? Huh?! Aaaaah—!’
This mysterious entity swallowed the Giant Skeleton whole.
There was no escape.
Time stood still, but I could only perceive the situation.
Only that being in the sky was allowed to move.
Crack—!
I too was engulfed within the Giant Skeleton’s head, and an instant wave of chilling terror coursed through my body as bolts of lightning struck me thousands of times, knocking me unconscious.
– A minuscule portion of a Great Being, unrecordable in the [Akasha’s Tome], has temporarily descended into this world!
– Deities disrupting the balance of this world are startled and hurriedly conceal themselves!
– The balance of this world momentarily regains its footing.
