[Lancelot]

This creature's stat was abnormal, its spells and skills even more so. Did it kill Maverick with [Subsume], but even if it didn't use its skill, I was so sure it could one-shot all of us here.

Good thing that the cooldown of its skills was high. But one hit from those spiky bones was still a sure death.

It was probably the most powerful monster I had faced so far. Even that Old Hag couldn't hold a candle against it.

My eyes went to Rodrick. Could he defeat it . . . the answer was a big fat NO. I could feel it in my bones. It was an entire entity altogether.

All we could do was run for it.

However, the fear was eating me alive. It was making my bones numb. It was like the situation of the Old Hag all over again.

That familiar bit of biting fear made me feel like everything would swallow me whole. I felt like I had not grown at all. I was back to square one again, faced with a bigger threat.

And this time, I didn't know if I could escape alive.

In a blink, the fighting had started, whether I had liked it or not. I didn't know if I was lucky that my ATP was low, for the aggro of the monster was onto Rodrick and his group.

If I wanted to escape, now was my chance while they were busy engaging the Bone Splinter. I bit my mouth, drawing blood to wake my nerves, and activated [Blink] to get away as far from this place as much as possible.

[WARNING! Blink and other related skills and spells don't work in this domain!]

What? Domain?

"It won't work."

I heard a voice say and found Soarsie right beside me.

"You're not in your shadow?" I asked, surprised. I thought for sure she had hidden in the darkness as she had always done. I thought that she had escaped already.

"This thing prevented anything that escape its domain. We're trapped here unless we kill it," she said, face grim.

"Or it kill us."

"I'm not about to die here," she said, voice hard with determination. She stared at me seriously, eyes clinging desperately to life.

What made her wanted to live so badly? I was drawn to her will to survive and curious, at the same time, even if I didn't want to be.

"We don't have much time. If you don't want to die, then protect me at all costs. Just for five . . ." she shook her head, "no . . . even just three minutes."

"What are you going to do?"

"Kill that thing," she said and hopped back as far away from the fighting as much as possible. "Remember to keep it away from me at all costs. Our life depended on this."

And she was gone into a corner. I got to admit that I was surprised that she had asked my help, but this wasn't exactly the situation where I had the luxury of time to ponder and ask what she was doing.

For now, my best bet to survive was to trust what she said, even though all she had ever done was to hide in her shadows.

Nonetheless . . . her words were my last hope.

Soarsie was enveloped with dark shadows, seemingly sucking the darkness around her until she was covered with hazy black fog that appeared like silk around her.

"Lance . . ."

A gurgling voice shifted my attention to the battle ahead. If the Bone Splinter wasn't hard enough, now it had summoned bone underlings. Two of them.

"Lance . . . lot . . ."

I was confused when one of the bones spoke my name, and then it struck me . . .

"Gina . . .?"

The bone's teeth rattled. "Your . . . fault . . . I died . . . If not that I . . . thought of you . . . I never . . . would have come back . . ."

My skin crawled. "So you're dead."

| "Y-your . . . fault . . . ," said another. 𝒃𝙚𝙙𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝒍.𝒐𝙧𝒈

"Felix," I said to the other. "You died too . . ."

I didn't have any friendship with the two. Since day one, I have already guarded my heart. Still, I felt sad for them.

"Don't worry," I slashed my sword against the air, "I will free you two as soon as I can."

I had to be quick since Rodrick and his group were struggling against the Bone Splinter. Instead of them using us as cannon fodders, it was the other way around now.

While the Bone Splinter was busy with Rodrick, I swiftly dealt with Gina and Felix. The good news was the two lost their skills and spells and were reduced to nothing more than skeleton underlings, so this would be quick work.

Without warning, they attacked, lunging forward with their bony claws.

I drew my sword and deftly parried their blows, my blade flashing in the dim light of the hall. With each strike, I could feel the power coursing through me, imbuing my attacks with even greater strength and precision.

This was one of the skills that I unlocked. [Hot Blooded]. This passive skill allowed my STR to increase by +1 at every ten seconds. The skill level was still low, thus the low STR addition and high time interval.

Despite their supernatural speed and agility, the bone skeletons were no match for my skill and stat.

I deftly dodged their attacks and struck back with a flurry of blows, sending bone fragments flying in all directions.

As the battle raged on, I could feel my victory at hand, and finally, I struck the final blow, shattering the bones of Gina and Felix into a million pieces.

They let our piercing shrieks and burst into particles.

I catch my breath and when I blinked, the particles formed Gina and Felix's image, smiling at me and mouthing the word 'thank you,' before they were gone completely.

I stretched my hand out, feeling the warmth of scattered thousand pieces of their remains before the shards disappeared.

I hope your fate isn't this hard in your next life. I prayed.

AaArRgH!