Ray of Hope

What would Dante do now?

Their odds at winning the battle were already low. On top of that, now they couldn't access their inventory. It made the situation even more disadvantageous for them.

Of course, Ulfred had no idea what was going on. Therefore, it was only Dante who suffered a severe decline in terms of morale.

"Is there a problem, Dante? You're acting strange." Said Ulfred.

"No… Nothing! It's nothing! *Cough* *Cough* It seems like it's about to attack. Don't get distracted." Dante wiped the stupid expression from his face and said.

Dante couldn't tell Ulfred that he could not access his inventory right now. Somehow, to Dante, it was as embarrassing as it was foolish to not say it.

The grey glow, which was intensified around the metallic skull, headed towards the skeleton creature and instantly covered its entire body. That sinister atmosphere began to spread again from the creature.

However, the creature did not attack immediately. It stared at Dante intently, watching him carefully as if there were only two of them in this crater.

Then, it suddenly raised the metal rod of the flail into the air, and at the same time, the striking head of the flail that was the metallic skull also went up into the air with the same speed.

While the chain that connected the metallic skull and the rod of the flail was growing longer, the voice that it produced was resembling a song from a calamity howler.

Without waiting, the creature swung the metal rod of the flail down.

"Here it comes! When I give the signal, we'll dodge and run to opposite directions!" Said Dante.

Naturally, they need to be able to predict where the metal skull would fall in order to survive the attack. Otherwise, when a single attack was strong enough to guarantee their deaths, randomly running around would make them just headless flies.

"Now!" Dante cried out and jump to the side with all of his might. On the other hand, Ulfred did the same in the opposite direction.

*BOOM*

The metallic skull fell to the spot where Dante had been at with great speed. Alongside the pieces of rocks, blood and flesh pieces also splattered around.

Dante had barely dodged the attack. He looked at the metallic skull from where he fell at and swallowed all the fluids in his mouth in one go.

The metallic skull had been almost completely buried into the molten rocks. Since there was no deeper hole in the crater such as this one, there was no doubt that this attack was the strongest attack the creature had ever done.

'What the hell was that attack power?! Do you have a grudge against me?'

Without stopping or resting, the creature immediately pulled the metallic skull to itself and repeated the same attack.

The skull was again speeding towards Dante.

*BOOM*

Dante had just got up on his feet, but he again had left but no choice to throw himself to the side.

And the same thing continued to repeat itself again and again.

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

…

'Why do you always attack me? What did I do to you?'

"Stop staring me from there, old man! I think… you have plenty of time in order to do something!" Dante said a little angrily.

After dodging a couple of attacks, Dante's breathing had begun to quicken. He was using all his power to survive the attacks. If he hadn't done so, even if he had used a little less power while jumping around, the rock pieces that were scattered around or the shockwaves from the attacks might have injured him. And in the situation he was currently in, having injuries was not so different from dying.

On the other hand, Ulfred was really just staring at him. He had waited a cutthroat battle, but the creature has been ignoring him so far. For some reason, this red colored creature that resembled an exoskeleton has been attacking only to Dante.

Hearing Dante's scolding, Ulfred immediately took action. He darted towards the creature.

He didn't have a weapon and couldn't use his skills at the moment. He wasn't sure about what he could do with his bare hands, but Dante wasn't in a situation to do something other than dodging the attacks of the creature.

The attacking force of the duo was only Ulfred himself.

The old man didn't attack the creature immediately. When he approached to a distance that he could make an attack, he reduced his speed and maintained his speed until the time was right.

The creature had used his strange roaring ability just before Dante woke up. They had to end this fight before it could use the same ability again. Otherwise, the finished thing would be their lives.

Therefore, they should not prolong the fight by making inconclusive attacks.

Just the metallic skull was about to fall on Dante, Ulfred's speed rose explosively. With the momentum he had gained, he jumped into the air from ten meters away from the creature.

Since this creature could swing the flail with great strength, an attack without it using a weapon would also be with great strength. But, at this point, a counterattack that could come from the creature wasn't something Ulfred would care... although this was against 'Dante's war plan'.

All he cared about was being able to inflict damage on it.

"Haah!"

*Bang*

Ulfred's right fist met with the creature's skull.

The creature's scary-shaped skull was thrown back with the company of cracking sounds of bones, and it also took a step backward. Now, one of its feet was out of the blood pond, and there was a slight but visible fluctuation on its aura.

Even though Ulfred wasn't able to use his skills right now, he still had the absurd stat points of a skald. However, despite being able to land a clean hit on it, he had not been able to leave visible damage on the creature.

Just before Ulfred had fallen to the ground, for the first time since the fight had begun, the empty eye sockets of the creature turned toward him. Then, on his back, he felt a heavy impact that born out from the creature's slap.

"Puhhack!"

The old man flew towards a dark part of the crater, accompanied by a blood strip gushing out of his mouth. It was unclear if he was dead or alive.

"Ulfred!"

"Ulfred!?"

Dante called the old man's name several times, but he couldn't get a response in return.

He had no opportunity to go and look at Ulfred's condition. The metallic skull was approaching him again.

'Alright! Calm down. Watch carefully. Although its attacks are very strong, this skeleton is always attacking in the same way. If it goes on like this, it won't be able to hit me before I fall out of power. Think! There has to be a way!'

Dante was looking for a ray of hope while overcoming the attacks.

There were many strange things about this creature. Alright, this creature was very likely to have a portion of Dante's memories, but why was it always attacking him and ignoring Ulfred until the last moment?

…

'Just now, Ulfred's punch caused a slight fluctuation on its aura. For a very short time, the gray glow around it decreased. Was that happen because of the damage Ulfred has inflicted?'

*BOOM*

'This is getting really frustrating!'

…

Five minutes later.

'It's bones have red color… Blood pond… Yes! It must be blood!'

'So that's why it doesn't move from that spot. The blood pond on the middle must be giving it some sort of energy. Just now, Ulfred's punch must have taken it out of the blood pond for a very short time. If we can get it out of there completely…'

'But how will I do that alone? Dammit!'

"Ulfred! Hey, Ulfred! If you're OK, listen to me carefully! It's the blood pond! You need to force it out of the blood pond! Do you hear me? That's the only way!"

…

*BOOM*

"Come on, old man! Get your shit together already!"

…

"Are you sure that… you want to do this?" asked Ulfred. His voice sounded very worn out.

"We can't let Iona do a stupid thing like this, right? Stop chit-chatting about it, and do your thing. Threw me already. The Boss can't hold on much longer."

Nathaniel held The Bonesword with both hands and took a ready position in front of Ulfred.

The blow Ulfred had received on his back was severe enough to cause him to lose consciousness briefly, though not life threatening. If Nathaniel hadn't come to his help and hadn't tried to wake him up, maybe he would have still been out.

Ulfred was surprised to see Nathaniel in this place because he had thought they weren't in Yelling Peaks area anymore. And he was also happy to see him well.

"Haaa!"

There was a distance of about thirty meters between Nathaniel and the giant skeleton, but this was not an insurmountable distance.

The distance was closed in the blink of an eye, and Nathaniel landed on the creature's head. He started to whack its head with The Bonesword like a monkey would have done.

He seemed like he was giving vent to his anger while he had the chance.

"Killing all those newcomers was an easy feat for you, huh? What happened now? Are you having a hard time? What are you waiting for? Use that skill of yours already! No… Don't! Just die already, you stupid son of b*tch!"

Although Nathaniel was not as badly affected as Ulfred, he had heard the strange roar of the creature several times. He still has the mood for saying such things. After all, he wasn't the one who hid for half an hour under shredded corpses.

Obviously, this alone was a stupid and fruitless act… but if it were really alone.

As soon as he threw Nathaniel onto the creature, despite his wounds, Ulfred rushed to the creature as fast as he could. However, this time he did not jump into the air. This time, his target was at further down.

*Bang*

Ulfred slammed his large body into the creature like a cannonball, and then, he grabbed one of its legs and pushed with all his might.

The creature staggered backward, it even pulled its other leg out of the blood pond and widened the distance between its legs in order to not to fall to the ground.

"Haa! Fall!"

Ulfred was using all his strength to push the creature out of the blood pond. However, the physical strength of the creature was much more greater than a skald at Ulfred's level.

The creature was a giant skeleton that was five meters tall. This was also one of the factors that had created the deadlock they were currently in.

Normally, such a cheap tactic would never work on a creature of this level, but the creature's full attention was still on Dante. It was reacting to the other factors only when it's absolutely necessary.

The deadlock seemed to it wouldn't last too long. The creature's attention turned to the duo who had attacked itself, and it reached out its hand towards Nathaniel, with the intent to squeeze and kill him. In its eyes, he was nothing but a buzzing fly.

"You have forgotten me too quickly!"

Dante's kick landed on the creature's chest, and the deadlock was immediately broken.

It finally fell outside of the blood pond!

Even though it didn't completely dispersed, the blackish-grey glow that covered the creature's red bones quickly declined.

Now the only question was whether they could kill the fallen creature.