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“No one is allowed to insult me like that, not even you!” As expected, the black-robed skeleton reacted to my taunting. It raised its hands and clapped them. Beneath him, the giant skeleton mimicked his movements and tried to capture me with a clap as well.

“Smack!”

A massive shockwave, followed by an explosion, shook the surroundings. The air pressure alone would have been enough to send an ordinary man flying away to his death, if the fear it instilled hadn’t already sent the man running.

Unfortunately, none of these worked against me. Beating my wings, I nimbly avoided the strike with a swerve to the side, zipping around in an S-shape to reach the black-robed skeleton for a quick slice!

Cloaked in an aura of fire and ice, the Epic-grade Icy Inferno was sure to split its bony appendages apart with ease.

Yet a mere moment later, a gigantic bone shield appeared before me, blocking my entire field of vision. Blinded, I continued swinging my sword around in hopes of a hit.

The bone shield was immediately destroyed, only to reveal that the black-robed skeleton was no longer on the giant’s head.

Crap!

I realised I had been tricked and tried to fly away, but before I could do so, a gigantic hand clawed out of the otherwise barren skull of the giant skeleton. With fingers that could easily trap an adult-sized human, it reached for me while I hastily performed an overhead chop to hack off one of its fingers before ducking backwards. However, more bone arms sprouted forth from the giant’s skull, creating a forest of bones in the process!

“Enough of these games!” I performed a Revolution Slice, slicing apart the nearest hand, and clearing out a path for me to fly away in the process.

I quickly purchased a large potion of SP recovery, in preparation for summoning an inferno lion.

“O Lion’s Majesty… By my command, bless thy emissary with new life… Come forth… burn all that stands before me to nothingness!”

Once more, the gate of flames opened up, and a lioness made purely out of flames strode forth.

Because it did not die during my previous summon, I only needed a fraction of the SP to call it forth from reserve. A single potion was all it took to finish this summoning.

After finishing the first summon, I called forth the three fire elementals for help. Hopefully, the four of them combined could hold back that skeletal giant while I tried to capture that black-robed skeleton.

Even if it was quite clear, based on its own words, that this skeleton was most likely the mastermind before this tragedy, I still had to capture it to be sure, and ascertain what its motives were at the same time.

The moment my team of fire summons appeared, they promptly launched a withering barrage of attacks on the giant skeleton. The inferno lion galloped on the air, spitting flames at the skeleton from time to time.

Compared to the nimbleness of its majestic strides, the skeleton’s swipes were heavy and lumbering, failing to hit its target.

At the end of the day, this giant skeleton was merely a composite of dead creatures. Its weaknesses were bare for all to see.

On the other hand, my inferno lion was no ordinary creature. It was extremely agile, thanks to its elemental nature. By making use of this advantage, it flew circles around the undead giant, striking at areas it couldn’t react to, all the while dodging the giant’s clumsy flailing.

Because the giant was made up of countless smaller bones pieced together, a swipe of the inferno lion’s claws were enough to break off a sizable chunk, due to its relatively lower defenses.

The three fire elementals acted more like arrows of fire as they dove at the giant, pulling up and circling around the undead creature once they had delivered a severe blow. Had it not been for those smaller bone hands sprouting from the giant’s surface, they could have skipped the latter step entirely.

Just like the giant’s swipes, these grasping hands failed to catch my elementals.

Safely above the battlefield, I silently watched the fight unfold beneath.

The black-robed skeleton was nowhere to be seen. I had no idea as to where it went, but if I had to hazard a guess, it probably hid in the same way as that tri-coloured hoodlum by applying its ability to meld with the giant itself.

So it’s basically a bone version of an exosuit?

As I pondered how to force that skeleton out of its hiding spot, my fire elementals launched another diving volley at the giant. And again… but no matter how many times they tried, they were unable to deal a decisive blow against the giant, though wearing down the giant was still possible.

Yet the next attack had me shivering despite the lack of coldness..

The fire elementals morphed into an arrow-like shape and dove at the giant, weaving through its bony hands like before to strike at the giant’s chest.

But if this was anything like their previous attempts, they would have been able to duck away immediately to avoid a counterattack.

However, they did not back away as I had expected…

Because of my vantage point, I was blocked from seeing what was going on down there. Curious, I changed positions to have a better look, only to be shocked by what I saw.

The fire elementals had successfully hit their target, but the giant was emitting a mysterious green fog that was corroding them with unbelievable speed. The fire elemental desperately tried to break free but were dissolved into nothingness in a few seconds…

Impossible! Those elementals are made of pure fire, how can acid even dissolve fire?

At the same time that the elementals disappeared, my inferno lion leapt into the fray, clawing at the back of the giant’s head, flames bursting to life in a deafening roar.

But just like those elementals, it wasn’t able to retreat in time before that strange green fog gushed out and encircled it…

The inferno lion ducked and weaved to try and avoid getting caught in the fog, but it was only a matter of time before this spiderweb closed in on it. Bit by bit, the fog snuffed out its flames… But how! It’s fire, for crying out loud!

It’s over, that fog is too strong, what am I even supposed to do against that?

Icy Inferno is strong, but that’s 50 meters worth of bones I need to slice through! And there’s still that green fog to contend with. Plus, that black-robed skeleton is probably skulking somewhere, waiting for an opportunity to strike… there’s no way out… unless there’s something in the Marketplace.

That’s right, I still have the Marketplace!

“Sigh…”

Just as I was panicking mentally, a voice sighed within my head. However, this wasn’t the system’s voice, but it still felt familiar to me. It gave me an inexplicable sense of security.

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I hate this novel.

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