8 Given Choices

The guy, who got his chest stabbed in a mere one second, dropped down his ice spear and looked down at the hand, which disappeared inside his body.

After a while later, the skeleton pulled out his hand, holding a bloody heart, which was still beating, but in the next second with a sudden move, it simply crushed the heart.

*Thud*

The guy's body, whose heart just got crushed like nothing, fell to the ground lifelessly.

Watching this scene, the bearded man moved before Joe and Greg, while he raised his hammer in a defensive position, however, the other guy with the firepower reacted differently.

He turned around and wanted to run away, but just as he took a step forward, the skeleton appeared behind him, and with a smooth chop with its blade-like hands, it cut the guy's head off.

*Plop~Thud*

Like a block of soap in a bathtub, his head, which still showed the horror on it fell onto the ground with the headless body.

Huge sweat drops appeared on Joe's, Greg's, and the bearded man's face after witnessing how mercilessly and fast did the skeleton kill the two Manifester rank fighters.

Just as the bearded man wanted to say something to Joe and Greg, suddenly a strange scene happened before them.

The skeleton in the golden armor started to scrape its disgusting and bloody fingers on its own armor.

As this occurred, the bones on the grounds, even from the two dead bodies, started to move and connect to each other.

Legs, knees, pelvic, spine, ribs, arms, and head. In a mere instant, hundreds or more skeletons appeared in a circular shape, trapping the three in the middle.

"Okay, now we are f**ked.", said the bearded man as he looked around. With a deep breath, he said, "Take your stances! We need to fight with our life on the line!"

Of course, he was talking to Joe and Greg, so Greg summoned his twin daggers, while Joe summoned a glove, which was sparking from time to time.

A while later, the skeleton scraped again his fingers on the armor and in an instant, the hundreds of skeletons started to attack the trio.

Joe raised his hand and in an instant several lightning bolts hit the skeletons in front of him, turning the skeletons into fried bone pieces.

The bearded man swung his giant hammer all around the place, breaking the skeletons into nothing.

The two were fighting well, however, this couldn't be said about Greg.

He was staggering here and there, barely dodging the attacks from the skeletons. He didn't even have the chance to attack back. There were just too many of them to do so.

"Damn. I should have learned some moves at home, if so I wouldn't be this helpless.", thought Greg.

Greg learned the basic fighting skills from school, but that was all. He wasn't rich enough to get a tutor, who would teach him fighting skills.

As he was deflecting the attacks, he was pushed back so much that in the end, he hit the bearded man's back.

Feeling as Greg bumped into him, he looked back and saw him barely dodging the attacks.

"He is hopeless. He not only has a black Soul Stone, but he can't even fight properly. I don't even know what Master Joseph thought when he brought him here."

As they continued to fight for their life, the golden armored skeleton moved finally.

Just like before, it disappeared and appeared in an instant before the bearded man, ready to plunge his heart out.

"I saw your trick. You won't surprise me a second time.", shouted the bearded man as he swung his hammer to hit the monster, however, something strange happened, making the man's eye constrict in shock.

Just as the hammer was about to hit the skeleton's side, the whole body of the skeleton twisted in a nonhuman way, dodging the attack in the end.

After the hammer flew away above it, the skeleton pushed it's hand toward the man's chest, ready to put a hole in its enemy's chest.

The bearded man couldn't move the giant hammer fast enough to defend against the attack, so he was wide open to any attacks.

"I'm done for!", thought the man, however just before the hand reached his chest a bolt of lightning appeared making the hand miss the target.

The bearded man looked where the lightning came from only to see Joe finished off the skeletons on his side and he was the one, who helped him.

"Thanks!", said the man and focused back on his fight.

"I will help Greg, you deal with the monster David.", said Joe and ran toward Greg's direction.

Hearing this, David only nodded.

The skeleton monster only looked toward where Joe went, but the next second it twisted its head back to David.

"Yeah, I will be your opponent!", said David angrily. He was mad, because he couldn't believe he almost died, because he couldn't swing his hammer faster

"Next time, I will be much faster!!"

As he thought about this, his grip tightened on the hammer's hilt and jumped toward the skeleton with a loud roar.

On the other side of the field, Greg was dodging and deflecting the skeleton's attacks, however, he couldn't kill it and just simply run away every time, when there started to be more that he could handle.

Watching as the situation was getting worse and worse, Greg asked Alice, "Can you help me out a bit?"

Hearing Greg's voice, Alice only moved a bit in the Soul Stone, however, she didn't appear to help him.

"Amazing. I'm not only on the brink of death, but even my Guardian doesn't want to help me.", thought Greg bitterly.

*Swish*

Greg dodged an attack too late and a sword swept past his shoulder, making it bleed in an instant.

"Ah! Damn it! Alice, please! I really need your he-", Greg started to ask for Alice's help again, but unluckily, his leg stuck to a stone and his body fell to the ground.

"Auch!"

Greg put his hand on his head and looked up. However as he did, he saw as the skeleton raised its sword, ready to kill him.

"I'm dead!", thought Greg, but in the next second a flash of lightning came from behind him, killing the skeleton, which was about to finish him.

"Joe!"

Seeing Joe's figure, Greg sighed in relief and stood up.

"Are you alright?", asked Joe as he looked at Greg.

"Yeah, except that I almost got killed, I'm perfectly fine. Thanks for the help by the way!"

Joe nodded and looked at the remaining skeletons before him.

"Why didn't you use your Guardian?"

Greg looked at Joe and after a bit of hesitation he said, "It's a long story, but shortly, it seems I can't use my Guardian's abilities and I don't know why."

Hearing this, Joe was surprised. He never heard a situation, where the owner couldn't use his or her Guardian's abilities. It was really a strange situation.

After thinking for a while, Joe said, "Then stay behind me and dodge the attacks, which goes through me."

Greg just nodded and stood behind Joe, ready to dodge anytime.

Joe raised his hand and black clouds appeared above the skeletons. In the next second, lightning bolts started to fall from the sky, turning them into ash.

Watching this scene, Greg just stood there dumbstruck and thought, "You said that I deal with any attacks that come through you. But you don't even let them attack!"

In mere seconds, the fight ended, however, Joe suddenly fell on his knees.

Greg ran next to him to help him up, but Joe refused his help.

"I will be fine, it's just that I used all my soul energy for that attack."

As he stood up, something fell next to them making a dust cloud all around the place.

When it dissipated, Joe and Greg looked toward seeing David standing there looking at them with a bloody smile.

"I....*Cough~Cough*...I'm really... sorry. Please run...", said quietly David as he fell to the floor and behind him, the skeleton with the golden armor was looking at them creepily.

Greg looked at Joe who was looking exhausted and didn't know what to do. Just as he wanted to say something an unexpected scene happened.

The shadow below Joe started to expand and a pair of hands caught his leg.

"You will come with us."

A creepy voice rang through the shadow, making others scared in an instant.

Joe saw the attack, however because of the tiredness, he couldn't react fast enough and he started to sink into the shadow.

Greg seeing this, wanted to help, but just as he turned to the side, the skeleton appeared behind him, ready to slash his head off.

Luckily, he raised his dagger in time, deflecting the fatal attack, but the aftershock of the hit made him fly away in an instant and hit a huge stone in the distance.

*Boom!*

"Argh!!"

Greg after hitting the stone fell to the ground with broken ribs and arms.

"Blargh!..."

Greg started to vomit up a huge amount of blood, however, this didn't hold him back to look at where Joe was.

Joe was looking at him with shocked eyes as he was pulled inside the shadow. Greg raised his hand towards him, but just as he did, Joe disappeared into the shadow, leaving him all alone.

Greg wanted to stand up, however, he fell back instantly, because of his broken bones.

"Sh*t! Why am I so hopeless? Why am I such a loser??", shouted angrily Greg as he looked toward the sky above.

He saw as the skeleton above him looked at him with an expressionless face, while it raised it's hand up, ready to slash his head off.

"Will I really die here? Well, whatever. I was just a trash who couldn't even use his own Guardian... I deserve to die... Mom, Dad... Soon I can see you again.", thought Greg as he waited for his death.

However, just as the monster's arm was about to cut Greg's head open, suddenly the time froze still.

Greg saw this scene and didn't know how to react. A while later, his Soul Stone appeared before him and started to shine with a strange, colorful light, while a girlish voice started to talk from somewhere.

"You have two choices..."