39 Ancient Battlefield (Part Two)

There was no trace of war tactics on the side of the monsters. The whole army proceeded directly and recklessly toward the opposite side.

On the other hand, there was no movement on the ranks of humanoid beings yet. No sub-army has broken their ranks, and they have only watched the advance of the monsters.

After a while, the monsters had begun to enter the killing distance of humanoid army, and when that happened...

Fire fell out of the sky as if a volcano was gushing it out. Water swept away everything in front of it. The earth was split open, and a giant mouth pulled monsters that couldn't behave in time, into the dark corners of the underworld. Like these ones, many astonishing scenes played one after the other in front of Dante's eyes.

Even though the number of monsters that were lost could not even be counted as a hair on nine bulls compared to the whole army, it was equal to the combination of several sub-armies, and this was nothing but the casualty of just a few seconds.

Each of these magical techniques was not the work of a single person. Unlike the ranks of monsters, there was a certain order on the ranks of humanoid beings.

As the monsters flocked upon them, all the soldiers that formed a sub-army were using the same magical technique in harmony. This was true for all the sub-armies with sufficient expertise in magical techniques.

For a short time, similar scenes continued to occur. Now the land of the battlefield was a chaotic hell that was hard to describe.

Mr. Skull was too agile to be hit by these magical techniques. Without even a single graze, he reached the ranks of the enemy army along with other monsters.

Magical techniques, martial arts, and summoned creatures... Swords, spears, and all the other killing tools that had been invented to this day... Bare hands, claws, and bloodthirsty fangs... All of these met with each other at once.

Now, in this war, the value of individual strength had considerably reduced. For many souls on the battlefield, the most crucial factor that determined their survival had become luck.

Dante was experiencing an indescribable feeling.

Life has never been so worthless. To him, this wasn't even a war. There was a depth in wars. This place, on the other hand, was now... pretty simple.

It would be more appropriate to call what was happening here as a mass massacre, not a war. It was as if every soul had come here to die, not to fight.

Dante was unaware of it, but the brutality of this war was slowly making a place for itself in his re-forming personality.

There was a sub-army of fifteen-meters-tall giants opposite the thirty red skeletons. These humanoid beings had giant clubs or greatswords on their hands, and tattoos on their backs. None of them had armor on them, but their stupendous muscles were not much different than armor.

Their race was one of the races that Mana did not bless. Instead, they developed physically in the stages of evolution.

One of the giants in front of the army set his eye on this small group of skeletons. He swung 'his tree' that was of his own length with enormous force. He didn't need a target. One shot was enough to turn more than half of the skeletons into bone dust.

BOOM!

The ground shook and large cracks spread in four directions. However, this blow was too slow to cause damage to the group of agile skeletons. All of them, including Mr. Skull, evaded the attack.

The giant's attack was too big. Therefore, his huge body was left completely unprotected against the incoming attacks. There was no opportunity to make the next attack. Right now, he had to protect himself from the thirty red colored skeletons that flocked over him.

All of the skeletons moved in unique harmony. The big ones of the group were attacking the giant's limbs and immobilize him with their magical techniques. On the other hand, the smaller ones were looking for softer targets.

Pshhk!

Blood crazily spurted from the giant's both eyes. He started to scream in pain. However, despite his strong body, he could not fight back. Somehow, in just a few seconds, the giant was in a condition that he could not even lift a hand.

The decisive blow came from Mr. Skull. Dark red colored Mana gathered around his claws, made his already sharp and long claws even more deadly.

Then those claws hacked the blood vessels in the giant's throat. After he had collapsed on the ground, blood moved slowly over the dead soil like a small flood.

This fifteen meters tall giant was dead before he could offer a proper fight.

Red skeletons headed to the next target without waiting, and the same scene repeated itself several times in front of Dante.

Dante could not understand even one of the magical techniques that the skeletons had used. In this false reality, he could not feel the flow of Mana. But, there was something that he was sure of. These red skeletons knew the body of the living very well. Their knowledge made them perfect killers when it came to kill the living.

'I was surprised to find out that Mr. Skull was some kind of dog, but he was still as strong as I had expected. His other skeleton buddies are also as strong as he is. This war must not have pushed them too hard.' thought Dante.

When Dante first saw the ancient battlefield, he had felt fear and panic. However, at the moment, there was no trace from these feelings inside of him. After all, this place was a false reality that born out of memories, and now, Dante was fully aware of this fact.

On the other hand, excitement was slowly getting hold of Dante's heart.

He didn't know what exactly Mr. Skull was trying to teach him, but Dante still had a lot to learn from this battlefield. The most important one was the improvement of his battle sense. It was something that could only be achieved by seeing a lot of fighting and taking part in them.

The skeletons had taken care of dozens of giants until now. They were going to move to the next target, but at that moment, something unexpected happened. A white beam of light that came from another point in the battlefield hit straight to Mr. Skull!

It looked like an accident, and it was unclear where exactly the beam came from, but this beam was strong enough to destroy half of Mr. Skull's body instantly!

'Hah? What's going on?' Dante was momentarily surprised, but he was showing no sign of panic.

Although half of Mr. Skull's body had disappeared, Dante felt nothing.

This was a memory, and it was an indisputable fact that this battlefield wasn't the final memory of Mr. Skull. So no matter what would happen to him until the end of the war, he would survive in the end.

However, everything was not over. There was a huge mass of wood coming towards Mr. Skull who was in a condition to unable to move. When the skeletons' attacks were halted because of the beam, the giant who was once their prey had now become a hunter.

'Hmm... I wonder how Mr. Skull survived here.' There was no change in the mood of Dante.

'Whatever would have actually happened at this point, it should hap...'

BOOM!

The club hit Mr. Skull with unrivaled strength, and it shattered him into hundreds of pieces!

Dante's consciousness was absorbed by darkness before he could even complete his thought. There was a strange throbbing in his brain.

A few seconds later, he again experienced that same feeling of falling headfirst into a dark pit that he had experienced just before coming to this memory. Only this time, this feeling was really disgusting.

This feeling also lasted for only a few seconds. Then Dante saw the battlefield from behind the red curtain again.

'*Cough*Cough... W-what's this? Have I gone back to the beginning of this memory? No...' Dante felt like his real body had just finished vomiting in the real world. After all, dying couldn't be a good feeling in any way.

Before long, Dante realized what was going on. He had not returned to the beginning of this memory. The memory had not started over from the beginning either, and 'Mr. Skull' was undoubtedly dead.

Dante was looking at the battlefield through the eyes of another red skeleton. Somehow, when the skeleton dog died, Dante awakened inside of another red skeleton!

'What the hell is this supposed to mean? The skeleton dog wasn't actually Mr. Skull? Then... How...? Who...?' There were many things that Dante couldn't understand about Mr. Skull. This time the situation was no different. He felt like there was a riddle in front of him.

Was Mr. Skull a being that could seize other bodies? What was Mr. Skull actually? What kind of life-form was he?

As he watched the war, Dante was pondering over what had happened. After a few hours, the vague results that he had reached led him to these questions, and he hoped to find the answers to these questions before the memory was over.

Dante's new 'vessel' was a winged lizard. Although it was deprived of flesh, somehow it could still fly.

Bang!

Dante's new vessel was shattered again, and after a while, Dante woke up in the body of another red skeleton. The feeling of vomiting was still there.

'Mr. Skull! You're nothing but a crazy bastard. If the previous me were to really enjoy this nonsense, I would call the previous me as a crazy bastard too.'

Dante's annoyance was growing bigger as time passed. The feeling of this vomiting was by no means overwhelming, but Dante seemed weak against this kind of things. This was also the case with the unbearable itch that he had experienced during the metamorphosis.

...

Time has passed. As his vessels died, Dante was waking up in another one. At the same time, he also continued to learn and gain experience.

Dante was unaware of it, but in this piece of memory, he had spent a long time in this chaotic battlefield. Almost a month.