Chapter 25 - Correct Decision
According to the mission, there were roughly 8,000 to 10,000 enemies within the Flesh Golem nest, and Han Wu knew that a full-on assault with just 1,000 skeletons wouldn’t be close to enough, so he decided to employ the use of hit-and-run tactics to slowly wear the numbers of the Flesh Golems down. The Flesh Golems weren’t very intelligent; they wouldn’t see through such an obvious trick.
Han Wu instructed one of the Iron Skeletons to openly flounce around the nest to lure the Golems out. The Flesh Golems easily fell for such an obvious provocation, and about a hundred of them ran out of their nest, relentlessly pursuing the Iron Skeleton. The Iron Skeleton heeded Han Wu’s instructions and immediately fled towards a place Han Wu had designated for an ambush on the Flesh Golems.
The ignorant Flesh Golems did not notice the trap until a thousand skeletons jumped out from their hiding spots, aiming to eliminate them. Each Flesh Golem was forced to contend against ten skeletons, each equipped with quality equipment, so it was no surprise that they were very quickly overwhelmed.
After the skirmish was over, the Skeleton Knight approached the fallen Flesh Golems and used its skill, Skeleton Summon, to add them to their numbers. The Flesh Golem skeletons slowly detached themselves from their corpses and joined the skeleton army.
Han Wu had to admit that the skeleton army’s method of replenishing their numbers was very effective. He utilized the same method several times until his skeleton army was 7,000 strong, which meant there were at most 3,000 Flesh Golems left in their nest.
Han Wu finally decided to launch an all-out attack. Before that, however, he gave out a few more Bone Stones to his recently added skeletons, successfully transforming 800 of them into Elite Iron Skeletons.
With their newfound strength, they charged into the Flesh Golems’ nest for an all-out, full-scale war. In just three hours, they managed to completely annihilate all the Flesh Golems.
After the battle, the Skeleton Knight retrieved a still-beating heart from the nest, handing it over to Han Wu, who regarded it with disgust. The heart was actually a Rank 1 Sacred Object, the Flesh Heart, known for improving the physical resiliency of any race when incorporated into a Core. Though it was useless for the locusts, Han Wu had no real reason to discard it either, so he just held on to it.
He submitted the mission and obtained 60 points for clearing out the Flesh Golem nest, raising his position to 108th.
Since he wasn’t in a hurry anyway, Han Wu patiently waited as the Skeleton Knight slowly converted all the Flesh Golem corpses into loyal skeletons; he would soon command a powerful army numbering ten thousand. With an army that size, he could easily breeze through the rest of the missions later on.
***
Back in the eerie black forest, where the Skeleton Fruits used to thrive, Zhang Xiaolong, in the form of a Demonic Drake, ordered his 200 Hellhounds to sniff out Han Wu’s scent, but they still hadn’t found anything. The only clue he found was several locust eggs on the ground.
“Damn it! Where is that bastard?” He fumed.
Just then, as he was going through the chatroom to find any trace of Han Wu, he noticed that Han Wu’s ranking had increased by 60 points. He closely scrutinized the mission list to detect any recent changes, finally deducing Han Wu’s new location.
Han Wu, you most likely used your locusts’ innate devouring ability to consume the Flesh Golems, successfully clearing the Flesh Golem nest mission. You might be incredibly intelligent, but your luck has run out this time! There’s no way you can escape me!
After hastily checking his map, he sped towards the location of the now extinct Flesh Golems’ nest.
Upon arriving at the nest, however, he paused in confusion at the sight before him. Didn’t Han Wu exterminate the Flesh Golems with the help of his locusts? Why then is there a skeleton army here instead?
After giving it a bit of thought though, he quickly realized what had occurred, especially after seeing Han Wu in the form of a Skeleton Lord.
“Han Wu, you sneaky little bastard! I did not expect you to secretly raise skeletons just for this test. No matter. You die today!”
Zhang Xiaolong immediately ordered his Hellhounds to attack. Hellhounds were innately strong demonic beasts, and with the nourishment they had obtained from the demonic energy, their bodies had grown stronger than regular Elite life forms.
Before the Common skeletons could even react, the Hellhounds moved with incredible speed and decimated their ranks, ripping through hundreds of them before finally launching themselves at Han Wu.
Nevertheless, the remaining skeletons had finally regained their composure. Knowing their leader’s safety was paramount, they quickly rose and created a massive bone barrier to deflect the assaults. The Iron Skeletons and Skeleton Knight inside the nest, having heard the clamor outside, hurriedly emerged to protect their lord.
Zhang Xiaolong was astonished to see thousands of Elite Iron Skeletons pouring out from the nest, with even a Unique Skeleton Knight in their midst. It was only the second day, and yet Han Wu had already amassed such a force! Convinced that Han Wu’s power would become insurmountable if left unchecked, he resolved to eliminate him by any means necessary.
Personally descending onto the battlefield in his massive Demonic Drake form adorned with thick, protective scales, Zhang Xiaolong effortlessly overpowered the Elite Iron Skeletons, leaving the Skeleton Knight to face his onslaught alone. Unfortunately, the Skeleton Knight’s body had reached its absolute limits; its bones were already fracturing under the immense pressure.
Despite bearing minor injuries, Zhang Xiaolong remained perfectly capable of combat, swiftly incapacitating the Skeleton Knight and subsequently charging towards Han Wu.
Han Wu, on the other hand, had finally recognized the Demonic Drake to be Zhang Xiaolong, his classmate.
“Zhang Xiaolong, we aren’t enemies, and there is no bad blood between us, yet you’re attacking with lethal intent. Why are you doing this? Is there a misunderstanding I am unaware of?”
Zhang Xiaolong replied plainly, “I don’t have a particular reason; I guess I just don’t like you. What can you do about it? Nothing. So, just die.”
The Demonic Drake’s muscular tail possessed extraordinary power, transforming stones into dust with a mere sweep across the ground. Han Wu did his best to block the attack, but his jade-like skeletal form shattered into pieces in the end.
Assuming Han Wu’s skeletal body had been destroyed after his bones were crushed, Zhang Xiaolong waited for Han Wu’s real body to manifest on the spot. However, even after a couple of minutes had passed, Han Wu’s real body still hadn’t materialized. Zhang Xiaolong naturally concluded that Han Wu was afraid of true death and so had chosen to withdraw from the test. He was so delighted by that thought that he howled loudly in excitement.
The remaining skeletons, visibly furious at having lost their leader, which was obvious from how intensely their spiritual flames flickered in their eye sockets, recklessly charged at the Demonic Drake in an attempt to take him down. Though they were skeletons, they possessed unwavering loyalty, and their leader’s spirit could only be appeased by the death of his killer.
Though Zhang Xiaolong wasn’t afraid of them and could easily annihilate them, he had no reason to. They weren’t part of any mission, and he would gain nothing from killing them. He effortlessly broke through their defenses, his destination unknown, with his Hellhounds trailing closely behind through the opening he had created.
The skeletons who had failed to kill the Hellhounds after pursuing them, slowly returned to the nest. The Skeleton Knight sat quietly, as if mourning for Han Wu. Its faith in him remained steadfast, even though it had served him for just a brief period of time. After all, no other Skeleton Lord would ever distribute resources like Bone Stones so freely to their subordinates.
As the skeletons were observing a moment of silence for their departed leader, Han Wu’s bones rattled and slowly stitched themselves together after using the little skeleton’s Reanimation Skill. As he reassembled his body, he reaffirmed his satisfaction with his initial decision to assume the form of a Skeleton Lord upon entering the Demonic Civilization.
The Skeleton Knight, still deep in mourning, was utterly frozen by the bizarre sight, its nonexistent eyes nearly falling out from shock.
Han Wu, now completely reassembled, shrugged. “Stop staring and rally our forces. We need to leave, right now.”
Recognizing that he was too weak to defeat Zhang Xiaolong’s Demonic Drake form straightaway, he resolved to go into hiding for a while in a location inaccessible to his killer, severing all forms of communication while quietly focusing on strengthening his forces. When he had finally amassed enough, he would then find Zhang Xiaolong for revenge.
“Zhang Xiaolong, I will make sure our next meeting will be your last.”
***
Having managed to shake the annoying skeletons off, Zhang Xiaolong found a quiet place to open the ranking board. Students who had perished or surrendered would have their names colored grey as an indicator. Upon checking the ranking list, he discovered that there were about ten students who had already either died or surrendered on the second day alone. This was mostly due to either having a weak core race or accidentally encountering a strong foe they could not defeat.
However, Zhang Xiaolong failed to spot Han Wu’s name even after going through the list multiple times. He felt a sense of foreboding, he scrolled the ranking board and found Han Wu’s name at the 163rd spot. Han Wu was still in the exam! But how?
Zhang Xiaolong realized he had been tricked. The reason Han Wu’s real body didn’t materialize was that his skeleton body wasn’t dead!
Shit! Was he pretending to be dead?
Zhang Xiaolong hurriedly sped towards the nest, vowing to himself that he would wipe all the skeletons out this time if it meant Han Wu wouldn’t survive. While it felt like a waste of time, it was an unavoidable necessity.
However, when he finally arrived at the nest, he found it devoid of a single skeleton. It was too late. There was nothing left, not even a piece of bone on the ground.
“Search this place! Do not let go of any skeletons you find in a 50 km radius!” Zhang Xiaolong roared. The Hellhounds followed his orders faithfully, but not a single skeleton could be found.
Understanding that Zhang Xiaolong would return when he realized he had been fooled, Han Wu had long since fled over 50 km away with his skeleton army by the time Zhang Xiaolong returned to the nest.
Nearly half his army of skeletons had been lost in the fight with Zhang Xiaolong. To help them recover, he begrudgingly brought out more Bone Stones from his divine realm.
Their injuries slowly healed after absorbing the energy from the Bone Stones, with many of the Common skeleton soldiers mutating into Iron Skeletons, and even one Iron Skeleton transforming into a Skeleton Knight.
With two Unique Skeleton Knights protecting him, Han Wu felt much safer. His army, however, was still too weak, and his present performance was inadequate to achieve a high enough score on the test to attract the Imperial College’s attention.
“I need to find a way to expand my army of skeletons,” Han Wu concluded.
Chacha's ThoughtsIron Skeletons
Comments
Top