Chapter 15

After several minutes of turbulent practice with him rising and diving like a billowing wave he was finally able to control himself to a certain extent, he shot towards a mountain peak, this was where the final battle was to hold. It was the highest peak within the demiplane and on top of it was a gigantic skeleton, it didn’t take any diviner to tell him that was the final boss, the bone general.

On his way he couldn’t help but marvel at the sheer number of skeletons that littered the terrain, it wouldn’t be wrong to call it a forest of bones, there were some bones that obviously didn’t belong to humans or any creature he could even recognize, on a normal day he wouldn’t even be able to fight his way to the top should all these skeletons suddenly animate, even if he were stronger, their sheer number was more than enough to overwhelm him and wear him to exhaustion, he glanced at the nightwalker cape that fluttered and undulated behind him with a smile, ‘I guess I’m really lucky’ he just couldn’t help but think to himself.

After a few minutes of flight he eventually reached the peak of the mountain but the peak wasn’t as pointed as one would expect rather it was flat like a great entity had used a sword to slice off the summit turning it to a flat land that spanned a few kilometres, the ends were visible since all it contained were just a few rubbles and bones but the most conspicuous object on the peak was the four meter tall skeleton that stood proud, this was the bone general, the entity he had to defeat to gain the spatial coordinates.

The Bone General stood imposingly, none of his momentum or aura of dominance had faded despite him being dead for an unknown number of years, his skeletal frame was cloaked in tattered, blackened armour adorned with rusted brass accents. A horned helmet sat atop his cranium, while a tattered cape billows behind him like a dark cloud. Bony fingers, tipped with razor-sharp claws grasped the hilt of a massive greatsword which was impaled into the earth, its blade dark red as though stained with blood. The stature and posture was as though the general of an army had died while standing and overlooking his men, almost as though not even death could bring him to his knees.

Aldrin took a deep breath and began to slowly approach diminishing the gap between them and when there was just about a hundred yards between them the bone general’s eyes lit up with a green flame glowing like embers from the underworld.

Aldrin landed softly and unsummoned his spirit before walking slowly towards his foe, despite the size difference between them he didn’t lose in bearing to the bone general with his crimson armour giving off an otherworldly glow from reflecting the light of the crimson moon up above, it also gave off a chilling aura of slaughter reminiscent of a battle worn general, his cape billowed behind him with each step he took.

‘It seems you can sense my presence, well that’s to be expected otherwise it would be too boring.’ Aldrin thought to himself as he kept moving forward in a stable pace that was neither too fast nor too slow.

When he was less than ten yards away the bone general finally moved, pulling his sword out of the earth, seeing the full length of the sword Aldrin estimated that it was around two metres long, with swords pulled Aldrin increased his pace to a jog and pulled out his sword, the bone general raised his great sword and slashed diagonally the moment Aldrin entered his attack range, Aldrin raised his sword to block the attack but a great force poured into his body knocking him back by several metres.

From that clash Aldrin came to a few conclusions, the first was that the bone general was stronger than him in terms of physical strength but it wasn’t to the point of being overwhelming. With a single thought the longsword in his hand dissolved to motes of light and was replaced by a great sword, his agility and stamina reduced but his strength increased closing the strength gap between himself and the bone general by a little bit, lifting the sword didn’t take as much effort as it did initially so he raised it and charged at the bone general again clashing for the second time, he was pressured but wasn’t knocked back like he was earlier, while his increased strength the special effect of the great sword also came to play.

[Brute Sword (great sword); Grade 3

+40 strength, 

Attached Skill: 

Iron Will: Grants temporary resistance to stun and knockback (3/minute) 

Comment: A weapon of great strength and barbarity]

The bone general raised his sword and they clashed again, with each clash Aldrin was getting accustomed to using the great sword especially when his opponent was using the same weapon, all he had to do was observe the opponent and improve himself, after about a minute of being embroiled in combat the ground suddenly began to tremble, the sudden tremor caused Aldrin to lose balance and took a bad strike which sent him sliding backwards.

The tremors was so great it was almost akin to the awakening of an ancient primordial beast, following the tremors was the sounds of bones clicking and clacking, a chill washed down his spine as he could imagine the entire skeletons on the demiplane awakening at the same time and reassembling to form a humongous skeleton army.

Aldrin’s senses tingled as he felt a huge wave of spirituality rise up around him, looking at the bone general his aura seemed to have become more refined, if before he was like a tiger without fangs and claws now he had grown steel fangs and metal claws, before he was a general without army but now the general had his army causing his bearing to change.

For a moment Aldrin was tempted to flee but he thought for a moment and decided against it, he made a quick mental calculation and decided that he could summon and maintain two spirits for around five minutes which lead to him deciding to summon Golem and Sylph.

He wasn’t very sure of Golem’s exact abilities but from the precedent set by Sylph and Salamander he was pretty sure it would be related to the earth and since there were in a mountainous region he felt it would be stronger, Salamander thrived in fiery regions and Rusalka was definitely a water creature so they weren’t fit for the current situation, the reason he summoned Sylph was to gain the ability to fly away if things go south while hoping none of the skeletons could fly otherwise it would be difficult to escape even if he wanted to.

The entire thought process barely took a second before he muttered “Summon Golem, summon Sylph.” And without checking the results of his summon he dashed towards the bone general who was already charging towards him and there was a clash of swords but strangely he felt stronger and wasn’t pushed back in the contest of strength at all, instead he felt as though he had an upper hand even if was a little bit and quite insignificant, from the corner of his eye he noted some information.

[Golem Earth Spirit (Spirit; Level 1) 

Abilities: 

1. Seismic Strike: Creates a shockwave that spreads through a 20*20yards area

2. Gravity Crush: Increase gravity in 20*20yards area by 100%

3. Earthen Regeneration: Regenerates damaged parts as long as Golem is in contact with the earth.

Special Abilities: 

a. Shared Senses: Shares senses with master

b. Giant’s Strength: 

        i. Increases master’s strength by 100%

        ii. Gives master resistance to all knockback and stun attacks.]

Seeing the information on Golem he smiled knowing fully, just as Sylph gave him a hundred percent boost in agility, Golem gave him a hundred percent boost in strength allowing him to contend with the bone general after including the bonuses from his equipment but that wasn’t enough something had changed in the bone general, he wasn’t as sluggish and stiff as he was earlier, his movement gained some level of fluidity had allowed him to suppress Aldrin even more than he had before.

Aldrin suffered from a barrage of attacks forced to passively defend as the bone general kept stringing chains of attacks, a few moments passed and Aldrin noticed that no skeleton had come to disturb their battle making him wonder if they were triggered by something else rather than being awakened by the bone general as he had initially thought.

“Golem, Sylph, go crush some dry bones for me.” Aldrin ordered without even looking back as he continued to endure the endless barrage of the bone general, slowly but surely his own skill was improving as he began to find it easier to block and evade the attacks of the undead general.

After blocking a downward swing from the skeleton its great sword suddenly turned horizontal and the bone general spun rapidly like a whirlwind emanating crimson aura from the edge of the blade sending Aldrin flying backwards.

“Now it can use battle techniques.” Aldrin was stunned for a brief second as he stood up with a groan.

[Killed level 27 undead warrior, absorbed 27000 spirit fragments.]

[All your contracted spirits are requesting to share spirit fragments. Do you want to share? Y/N]

He glanced at the notification for a moment and selected yes without a thought

[Spirit fragments obtains shall now be shared between hosts and contracted spirits.]

Without thinking much he dashed forward to entangle with the bone general once again.