First Fight in the Catacombs (Part Two)
Nathaniel's movements had become stiff after the pygmy skeletons showed themselves to the light. A moment ago, he was totally fine, but when he saw the monsters, his body suddenly came to a still as if he had become a frozen statue.
They were about to fight with monsters with just bare hands. To him, the crumbling bones in their hands weren't a weapon.
His thoughts became cloudy as he kept thinking about it. No matter how he tried, he couldn't imagine himself fighting against these ugly creatures with just kicks and punches.
As these lines were coming through his mind, he looked at his fellow teammates.
'What's wrong with these guys? How can they be so calm?'
Dante had a weird smile on his face, sending cold chills to his spine as he kept looking at him.
On the other hand, Ulfred had long been ready for a bloody fight. He was relaxing his fingers and neck muscles at the moment.
He has never thought himself as a coward. However, he didn't know what he was feeling now. From the inside, a voice kept calling him a coward, but as it did so, he continuously denied the voice.
Unknowingly he took a step back. Was he actually a coward?
Then he looked at the blonde girl. She was shivering all over from fright. Her legs were hardly supporting her.
However, she was firmly holding the bone torch without moving an inch. Her brows were furrowed. Somehow, she knew, she had to do this no matter what.
The instant that Nathaniel had laid his eyes on her, intense shame invaded his heart. He knew the reason for her behaviors was due to her being frozen from fright, but he still had felt the shame.
He was shameless, but he was ashamed of himself now. He wasn't a coward, but he was acting like one. Knowing these facts brought a big shock to him.
It was unknown to the rest, but something eternally changed inside of Nathaniel at this moment.
A serious and determined expression spread onto his face slowly. He clenched his fists tightly and found the strength to move forward!
However, he stopped after taking two steps.
Currently, Dante and Ulfred were ferociously fighting against skeletons. The torchlight was not enough for a decent illumination in this dark cave, and the heat of battle further reduced the two's awareness of the environment.
However, Nathaniel was a different case.
There were six skeletons. Five of them were rather fast. They had blindly run toward the party, and one by one, they began to die under the duo's brutal hands.
Dante had had a hard time killing the first one, but the second one died relatively easily.
Nathaniel didn't watch the fight after the death of two skeletons. His eyes moved to the back, to the sixth skeleton.
It was also a pygmy skeleton, but there were also some differences.
The sixth one was around two feet taller than the rest, almost as tall as a normal human. Its bones looked tougher than normal, and they had purplish lines on them.
It was casually walking toward them. Nathaniel didn't have a doubt. This one was different.
'A high-level pygmy skeleton!' He thought.
Nathaniel kept looking at the blonde for a while and moved backward slowly, disappearing into the dark under the confused gaze of the blonde.
"It's alright." He said with a gentle smile on his face.
...
After killing three skeletons in succession, Dante's breathing became heavy. On the other hand, Ulfred had a little better condition than him.
Despite Dante having a 6.5 points stamina stat, his unnecessarily big moves and the loss of HP had drained him quickly. Especially the last one. Smashing a skeleton to the cave wall, and destroying it thoroughly… it was a hard thing to do at his level.
The duo was facing toward the sixth skeleton now, watching it get closer to them casually.
They had discovered that this skeleton was a higher level one.
"Old man Ul. Do you have any idea about how should we deal with this guy?" Dante asked while wiping off his sweaty forehead.
"I may look wise, but I'm not a tactician."
"Heh, my eyes fooled me. You are just a savage!"
"Then I suggest that we should use savagery!"
As soon as the old man had spoken, he pounced onto the skeleton, throwing a full power punch while crying out like a beast!
"HAAAH!"
"It seems like I don't have a choice but to agree!"
Dante followed the old man and gave the skeleton a vicious kick that aimed at its knee-joint!
Ulfred was almost as strong as Dante. He was able to crush other skeletons with his bare hands! His full-powered punch should be devastating too!
However, a different scenario played before their eyes!
The skeleton grabbed Ulfred's fist, causing his eyes to widen!
A moment later, Dante's kick landed on its knee-joint! It wasn't enough to break the joint but, the skeleton lost its balance and fell on one knee, setting Ulfred's hand free at the same time!
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Ulfred landed another punch on its misshaped head! This time it landed perfectly on its ugly face!
*Crack*
Its chin broke from the joints and fell to the ground! Due to the power of the impact, its head was facing toward the ground now, but it slowly and a little shakily turned its head toward Ulfred!
Ulfred's and the skeleton's hollow eyes met for a moment! Anger was evident in its empty eye sockets!
"Oh sh*t, we're f*cked!" He said with eyes like saucers!
The skeleton instantly rose to his feet and kicked Dante ruthlessly, sending him flying all the way to the blonde girl's side!
*Pu*
Dante vomit blood! As he flew toward the blonde, a long streak of blood left its trace on the marcasite ground!
[You lost 15 HP!]
He protected himself from the kick with his arms. Otherwise, he would have broken ribs instead of a fractured arm!
However, he was lucky compared to Ulfred! After sending Dante flying, with a slashing attack, the skeleton left three deep scarlet marks on Ulfred's chest!
[You lost 20 HP!]
The old man felt like his life was about to leave his body! His vision started to blur, and his legs felt very weak!
He was about to fall to the ground, but the skeleton had not finished with him yet! It caught Ulfred by the neck! It couldn't raise him into the air because of its small stature, but if it could, it would definitely do it at this moment!
It dragged Ulfred into a dark corner, away from the torchlight!
The old man was struggling as much as his remaining strength allowed him to do! However, it was futile!
The skeleton pushed Ulfred to the cave wall and put its palm on his bloody chest! It slowly increased the strength that it was applying on the old man as if it was preparing to do the same thing to him! It was going to crush his chest, just as Ulfred had done to the other skeleton monster!
Dante got up while holding his chest with his still OK arm.
"Don't you dare!" He yelled. After spitting his bloody saliva, he darted on the skeleton monster like an arrow!
However, on the halfway, he saw a big piece of marcasite rock in the air! It was reflecting the torchlight!
*Bang*
A moment later, the rock struck on the skeleton's back, just right on its spine!
The skeleton's body snapped from the middle!
Its startled upper body tried to adjust its position on the ground! It swung its claws randomly, but the only thing it had slashed was the air!
The marcasite rock continued to crash on it over and over again, reducing its bones to smithereens!
"You are not so tough now, huh? How dare you kick my boss? How dare you raise your hands to an old man? Die you piece of trash! Die! DIE!"
Nathaniel's angry voice came from the marcasite rock. However, Dante couldn't give a response. He just stood there and watched the performance of the marcasite rock with a big O shaped mouth.