Two Side

"Char, what do you want now? Don't tell me you succeed in creating a skeleton king?" Anne asked as Char called her to meet in private the next day.

They were having a holiday since the next day would be the reassignment test; the academy let them prepare for their first time out of the city.

Since they need to stay the night out, they would need to prepare camps, sleeping bags, food, and many more.

"No, it did not become a skeleton king for an obvious reason that such a thing needs to be baron at least. And before you ask, it did not evolve into a skeleton prince or anything that I thought it would be," he explained.

"Then you failed? All that money you spent was for nothing?" she asked.

"Well, it's not a failure. I did get something special, but I don't know how good is its potential since I never heard of it before or anything similar to it," he shrugged.

"Huh? Is it that unique? Let me see, let me see!" she got curious.

"How about a sparing? I asked you to come because I want to know how good this path is," he smiled as she got hooked.

"Fine, I want to know how good my Imp's improvement is too!" she grinned in agreement.

Both of them summoned their summoned creature, mana gathered forming two humanoid creatures. A tall red-skinned imp and what looked like a normal skeleton appeared.

Anne was confused as she thought the skeleton did not change, but before she could ask, a red glow came out of its eye sockets.

She could sense something strange from the skeleton but she did not know what, she could only see the faint red glow from its eyes but nothing else.

"Is that it? Red-eyed skeleton? Are you sure skeleton mage is not stronger than this?" she asked in doubt.

"The fact you can't see it makes it even better! Alright, since we are friends, I will give you a hint. There is more to the skeleton than what you can see, only under the moonlight will you be able to see its true nature," he told her.

"Enough with the riddle! Let us fight, I will find out later whether your skeleton is good or not through our fist!" she hurried him to fight.

"Alright! Don't tell me I didn't try to give you a hint when you lose," he shrugged.

The skeleton and the imp ran at each other, the fleshy counterpart pivoted, the moment the skeleton tried to cut at it with its longer reach.

The sword missed it by a hairbreadth; the imp did not stop and continued its momentum and counter with a spinning hook kick at the skeleton's head.

With the Imp's bigger body, it could easily aim at any part of the skeleton without needing to waste time by jumping.

The skeleton did not try to dodge and continue to attack, the kick suddenly blazed in fires as the imp activated its magic at the last moment.

It broke the skeleton's neck and destroyed half of the skull. Had it been a human, then it would have died right then and there.

But the skeleton didn't even flinch. It used the chance to counterattack and tried to cut at the Imp's outstretched foot.

Too bad that the imp pulled it back quick enough to dodge the sword. Its increased physical ability was no joke.

Char and Anne did not intervene as they wanted to test their summoned creature, their intervention might change the result of the fight.

"Eh? The red glow stays on the skeleton's body!" Anne remarked.

The glowing red eyes stayed in their place even if the skull was missing, had the location been darker then she would have noticed that it was not just any glow but part of the skeleton's astral body.

The astral body was not hurt by the Imp's kick, as physical attacks don't work against spirits.

"Spirits are a type of creature including nature spirit, evil spirit, and ghost. The characteristic of a spirit was their astral body, they could not be hurt by a physical attack and resistant to mental attack. From what I observe, the astral part of the skeleton works just like any spirit creature."

The headless skeleton attacked once more, this time it activated the physical boost and a magic tattoo that enhanced its speed.

The imp decided to block the attack with its feet; they turned into iron and stopped the enhanced sword; it was not sharp enough to pierce the foot.

The Imp suddenly screamed in pain and shock and pain course through its being, it stumbled backward which the skeleton did not miss; it pouched at the off guard creature.

The skeleton sword might be stopped, but the astral body's sword continued and cut a part of the imp's soul.

The Imp's actual soul never left the soul container and what was in the body was just a projection of its soul but it was still painful when the skeleton cut it.

With a quick move, the skeleton beheaded the imp, blood gushed out before the imp's body disintegrated into nothing.

"What was that?" Anne asked in confusion.

"My skeleton has evolved into a skeleton apparition, it has both a physical body and an astral body. Since there is so much light here, you can't see its astral body, but it is definitely there and could attack as long as it was not too far from the body," Char explained.

"You cheated! If I had known about it, then there is no way my imp loses so easily!" she protested.

"Well, I warned you before, but you shrugged it off," he smirked.

"Ugh... fine! let's have a rematch!" she did not give in.

After a few rounds of fights and some win and lose, Char understands more about the skeleton's new capability.

"If the physical body is completely destroyed, then it still dies even if its astral body is intact. The other way around might be true as well."

"Only 30% of the astral body could leave the physical body for a short amount of time, which means it can not be separated completely from the body and can only be used as an unlockable attack," he concluded.