The second horde

'BAD.'

'THIS IS VERY BAD'

Those words repeated themselves over and over again in the skeleton's mind, his arms swung wildly as he bounded from each foot, hoping to escape the torrent of pale green bodies chasing him.

Behind Cal were approximately 30 goblins, each nastier and stronger than the last, each with a hunger for vengeance. They had seen the skeleton murder their brothers, so they lay in wait, hoping to ambush the puny bone monster, yet somehow, an ugly bright rectangle shone a light on them and forced them to go out and fight. Even before the skeleton had killed one of their kind, alarm bells rung in each goblin's brain, telling them to be wary of that creature.

The skeleton however could not care less about what was going through the goblins' minds, his only goal was to avoid being the goblin's victim for the second time.

The boy lamented his situation, lately, it seems like running for his life was as natural for to as breathing.

'HOW'D IT END UP LIKE THIS??!!?'

---

20 minutes ago

---

'Huh?'

While Cal was clawing inside the goblin's chest for its core, he was surprised by another message from Chimey.

<<You have taken an innocent life, 1 Anarchy Point recieved>>

The interface was sharper than Chimey's regular ones and lacked the quirks that the system usually had, Cal quickly understood that this was another one of its 'sneezes'.

At this point, Cal was numb to new information. He had questioned every aspect of Chimey's existence and the introduction of "anarchy points" and mentions of him taking an "innocent life" didn't surprise him nearly as much as it would've a few days ago.

'Chimey, what are anarchy points?'

[Eh... I don't know!] the chime sounded a bit embarrassed, after being asked so many questions from Cal, the system was a bit upset that its answer was usually that it had no answer.

'Even weirder than that, did that just mention that a goblin was innocent? As if!'

Being born into a world where strife and war between monsters and humanoids were as common as the sunrise, he had no qualms with killing as many monsters as necessary, regardless of how "innocent" they may seem. Many of Cal's friends and acquaintances had met their end at the hands of such creatures, why should he give them the time of day?

Basically, this new alert was nothing to Cal, nowhere near as important as the sounds he heard.

*pitpat, pitpat*

'One... maybe two?' Cal heard the sound of small feet tapping on the dungeon's floors, instinctively he connected those sounds to more goblins.

Before long, Cal's hands clutched 3 cores. Although the increase in the goblin's strength did worry him, the increased DP he got from it alongside the fact that killing them was much easier with his new borrowed weapon, he didn't feel the need to complain.

After each kill Cal got from then, he got another Anarchy point, he tried to use it to improve his stats but Chimey quickly shut it down, apparently, only DP had that ability.

Cal knew that the mysterious system wouldn't give him points which had no use, but as of right now, they could be ignored with no loss.

'Hehe! My lucky day!'

*pitpat, pitpat*

'Oh!'

Cal heard some more pitter-patters from beyond the darkness.

'Here Chimey! There's gonna be more food for ya! First, eat these cores and then lets g-'

*pitpat, pitpat, pitpat, pitpat*

'Wow, sounds like there's at least 5! It'll be tough to take them all on at once, maybe I should hide for no-'

*pitpat, pitpat, pitpat, pitpat, pitpat, pitpat, pitpat, pitpat*

Soon, the pits and the pats turned into a cascade of sound, the goblins' presence and numbers becoming larger the more time Cal listened in.

'Chimey... go forwards and light up the deeper part of the cave...'

Without needing to be asked twice, Chimey drifted forwards into the darkness, illuminating the dark cave as it did so.

[Oh boy! Cal look! Lot's of cores!] A loud chime echoed through the cave.

'Cores? What do you mea-'

"Hoogyah?! Tcheek!?" a mysterious sound emanated from beyond the darkness, shortly after, the owner of the sound was lit up. Owners, to be exact.

A mass of green bodies, some small and wry, some large and stocky, were holed up with their backs pressed against the cave; they had shrouded themselves in the darkness.

Cal almost dropped his cores in fright.

They were waiting for him.

The goblins sensed him and lay in wait.

'No way... an ambush?!'

Cal knew goblins were only dim-witted creatures, the lowest of the low in terms of capability, strength and smarts... yet they were now making an ambush? Those idiots?

"HOOYYARHBFAJAAA!!!"

Enraged by being discovered, the goblins let out an unholy screech, the voice of each monster building atop the others to create a grating sound that would make one's ears bleed, luckily for the skeleton, he had none.

Cal instinctively pumped Chakra into his legs, knees and ankles, bounding off into the darkness away from the goblins; Chimey quickly followed, the orange screen was surprisingly fast.

Soon, the dungeon was overcome with a barrage of *pit pats* and ugly screeches, the lonely *clink *clanks* of a skeleton were quickly drowned out by everything else.

If Cal still had a bladder, it would've been working overtime right now.

The skeleton leapt from rock to rock, passing over the place he died, running through caves and tunnels, all of it stemming from his desire to escape. Yet from the sounds Cal heard behind him, the number of goblins hadn't decreased.

'No, if I listen closely... it sounds like there are more than before?!' that thought scared him to the bones.

'Did they see me kill the other goblins?! Or is this cause of that damned title?!'

Cal had a sneaking suspicion that beyond simply making all goblins distrust him, their aggression toward him would also increase, he encountered this quite often but never to the extent of having to run away.

'Either way.'

'BAD.'

'THIS IS VERY BAD'

Cal's right hand gripped the shortsword that reflected Chimey's reflection, oftentimes blinding a goblin or two for a second behind him, while his left was clutching a handful of monster cores. The smallest cores had started to slip out, internally shouting at the orange screen, the skeleton flung all the cores into its waiting maw.

'ALL TO CHAKRA CHIMEY! ASAP!'

[Hehe! Alright~! Say, there are a lot more potential cores behind us! Let's just fall back and fight~!]

'...'

If Cal had a third arm, it'd be swinging at that message on instict.

Cal had never wished physical harm on Chimey any more than he did right now. The moment Chimey proposed fighting the horde, Cal's eyes stabbed at the poor system with a glare that could cut diamonds.

[Ah, yes! of course, doing it now!] Chimey felt an ominous aura and decided to chill it with the core requests.

Cal felt a small surge in his Chakra storage, he quickly bolstered its effect on his legs and kept running. The boy had no idea how the goblins managed to keep up with him, goblins weren't supposed to be able to reach anywhere near this speed!

As he ran further and faster, Cal could feel his legs grow weaker, shaking after being abused for so long without rest. Unlike most other creatures, he didn't have the luxury of muscles or tendons, adding on energy such as Chakra to strenuous exercise would only be a recipe for disaster.

'My legs can't hold on much longer...'

He didn't need to look down, Cal could sense the small cracks forming along his bones as he thrust them forwards and back.

Cal had been weaving around the dungeon, taking turns at any point possible to keep the chase keep going in a circle, if he led them further down the caves, arriving at a dead-end would be inevitable.

By now, even the cheery system had become worried.

[Cal! What now?!]

'I...'

The boy had no answer.

Despair clouded his judgement, each time Cal had started to rise from his weakness, he was hammered back down to reality by a merciless force.

*Krkk*

Cal heard it.

His bones were breaking at the ends.

The boy's Chakra wasn't nearly as powerful as his Ki once was, but considering that the energy had nowhere to spread to beyond bones, this result was predictable. Cal used Ki extensively and never had any issues with it harming his body due to using too much of it, the energy evenly spread between bones, muscles, tendons, sinew and blood vessels, distributing it's effects in a wide area.

Even though the concentration of energy was much smaller, the energy had nowhere to go beyond weak bones whose constitution was extremely low.

'I didn't think that it would-'

'SHIT!'

Cal's metaphorical heart churned in his body. He could feel his soul sink as his situation got darker and darker, not even Chimey's usually bright body could light it up.

<<Will || Level ? (D) used>>

Cal's mind quietened down. All thoughts of despair and hopelessness were squashed in an instant. Around the boy the world grew vibrant and colourful, the murky darkness of the dungeon seemed to light up, inviting the boy to delve in further. Even Chimey looked brighter.

The cogs inside Cal's mind turned, grasping at straws to find a plan.

'...'

'Perhaps...'

As Cal begin to think, the screeching of the goblins seemed to melt away into the background. Harsh yelps and screams tranfigured into soft, mellow sounds.

'I have a sentient light, weak bones and a sharp sword. Nobody is coming to save me.'

Cal felt this statement wash over him, cooling his heated heart. Even though the words were harsh, the reality was a comfort compared to being inside his own mind.

'Reflections from Chimey and my sword can blind them for a second, but that won't be enough to get them off my trail. I have three options, I try to clear them out all at once, find some way to take one down at a time or find some way to escape them.'

'Option 3 won't work, I can barely keep myself from falling over and becoming their prey. Option 1 is impossible to pull off, furthermore, any damage which had wide enough range to catch all those goblin's might also affect me.'

'Option 2 is the correct answer. I must take them out one at a time.'

'Hm...'

Cal didn't realise it but his movements now compared to a few seconds ago were night and day, he moved his bones efficiently, bending at the knees to prevent his ankles bones from sustaining more damage, his strides were longer and his speed had increased.

Chimey tried to mention it's "sneeze" but the skeleton didn't even bother to look over despite Chimey's incessant dings. Unbenkownst to the system, Cal was formulating a plan, and it didn't take long to find one that worked.

'Ah.'

'Yes. That's the only way.' Cal glanced back at the horde, without even the need to think, he instinctively knew that there were 18, a larger goblin with a brighter skin caught his eye, he acklandledged it's presence and continued looking ahead. Eighteen was higher than Cal expected, but for his plan, that number was well within his reach.

'Chimey, I need your help.'