Chapter 138: Fighting a Skeleton

Ishiki’s heart hammered against his ribs as he stared at the skeleton standing in the bedroom doorway.

The creature moved with a terrible slowness, each of its motion was precise despite having no muscles or tendons. Actually it had nothing but only bones held together by something that Ishiki couldn’t begin to comprehend.

The purple robes swayed slightly as it took a step forward, the golden embroidery catching the lamplight and throwing strange reflections across the walls.

’This is insane,’ Ishiki thought, backing away slowly. ’Absolutely fucking insane.’

His mind raced through options. The main entrance was sealed again—somehow it was repaired even after he cut through it, trapping him in this massive room with whatever this thing was.

Fighting seemed like a terrible idea given his still-healing wound, but running wasn’t an option either.

The skeleton tilted its head, a gesture so human and so wrong coming from something that lacked eyes to see with. Those hollow sockets seemed to track him anyway, following his movement with unnerving precision.

Then it raised one bony hand and pointed directly at him.

’Screw you… creep,’ Ishiki decided, and grabbed the nearest object… it was a small brass cup used for drinking vine or something maybe.

He hurled it with as much force as he could manage.

The brass cup flew straight and true, It caught the lamplight as it arced through the air in front of the open door. It struck the skeleton square in the chest with a satisfying thunk that echoed through the room.

The skeleton staggered back one step.

Then it straightened, brushed at the spot where the cup had hit as if removing dust, and continued forward.

’That’s one sturdy skeleton…’ Ishiki thought bitterly, already reaching for something else.

Ishiki activated [Ghost Blade] and slowly moved towards the large wall covered with the bookshelf.

Having lost the sight of its target suddenly, the skeleton stopped and looked around in astonishment and then it snapped its boney fingers.

Out of nowhere, yellow and orange luminance filled the dark space, illuminating every corner of the large hall.

Ishiki was already behind one of the couches and trying to pick up a large book from the book shelf when suddenly he saw light.

It was bad for him, he had no problem being in darkness. If he used ghost Blade, he could perceive even without light. But the skeleton it seemed was more comfortable in light.

’Actually… why the hell does that thing even want light. It doesn’t even have eyes.’ He lampooned inwards.

He grabbed a book from the massive shelf—It was a thick tome bound in leather that felt like it weighed as much as a brick. He threw it, the skeleton saved itself with its boney hand.

Then a decorative vase that shattered against the skeleton’s shoulder without slowing it down.

The creature kept coming, methodical and patient, each footstep clicking against the marble floor like a countdown to something Ishiki didn’t want to experience.

His eyes fell on the glass table in the sitting area and the obsidian pot resting on its surface.

The pot with the everlasting crimson flower.

’Its such a shame.’ He picked up the obsidian pot, it was a lot heavier than he expected.

The flower inside swayed in its impossible water, petals catching the lamplight.

“Sorry!” Ishiki shouted, to whoever had created this thing—and hurled it at the skeleton’s head with everything he had.

It struck the skeleton’s skull with a crack that sounded almost wet.

The skull detached cleanly from the spine, tumbling through the air in a lazy spiral before hitting the marble floor with a hollow tok tok tok as it rolled away. The flower scattered across the floor, petals separating from stem, the water spreading in a dark pool that reflected the lamplight like blood.

The headless skeleton stopped moving for a long moment as Ishiki’s eyes sparkled with the thought that he has won.

Then the skeleton moved to the skull and bent down slowly. Then it picked up its own skull.

Bone fingers gripped it gently and lifted it back to where it belonged. There was no visible connection… but somehow the skull simply settled back onto the spine as if it had never been displaced.

The skeleton turned its head and those empty sockets fixed on Ishiki once more.

And this time, Ishiki could feel an emotion radiating from the hollow boney creature…

Anger.

The skeleton’s lower jaw moved despite the lack of tissue or muscle. It was trying to speak, Ishiki realized.

But no sound emerged. Obviously. The thing had no tongue, vocal cords, or even lungs to push air through a throat it didn’t possess.

The silence was somehow more terrifying than actual sound would have been.

Then light began to gather in the skeleton’s outstretched hand.

Several motes of light swirled like water circling a drain, faster and faster, until it solidified into something.

A sword?

No—not just a sword.

It formed a lustrous jian. Straight double-edged blade with an elegant guard and handle wrapped in silk.

The entire weapon glowed with a strange purple light, and from the pommel hung two tassels that writhed like living things, moreover they were burning with dark flames that gave off no heat, or shadows.

’A vestige,’ Ishiki thought, his blood running cold. ’The skeleton has a vestige.’

Which meant this wasn’t just some animated corpse. This was—or had been—a player. An awakened according to the people of this world.

It was someone who had survived a system Trial and maybe even a scenario. It had once lived and fought, then died still bound to the system that turned people into weapons.

’How long has it been here?’ Ishiki wondered. ’How long has it been dead?’

But there was no time for answers because the skeleton moved with inhumane speed.

It closed the distance between them in a flash. Ishiki gritted his teeth and summoned [Aether Blade] but the tachi would take time to form so until then Ishiki had to do something.

The jian came down in a diagonal slash that would have split Ishiki from shoulder to hip if he hadn’t thrown himself sideways at the last possible instant.

He rolled, came up next to the massive desk, and grabbed the first thing his hand touched—an ornate letter opener with silver handle and a blade no longer than his palm.

The skeleton’s next strike came horizontal, sweeping through the space where Ishiki’s head had been. Ishiki ducked and raised the letter opener in a desperate parry—

The jian struck the tiny blade with a clang that sent vibrations up Ishiki’s entire arm. The letter opener held for one moment, then shattered into three pieces that scattered across the floor.

The jian seemed to leave afterimages of purple flame behind as if it was setting the air on fire.

Ishiki kept moving, using the desk as cover, his mind racing.

Pain lanced through his left side as the half-healed wound protested the constant movement. His vision blurred for an instant, and in that instant the skeleton was there. It raised the jian raised high, purple light painting shadows across bone.

The blade descended.

Ishiki threw himself backward desperately and his leg slipped making his balance falter.

His head struck the massive bookshelf behind him. At least the double edged jian hit the ground instead of him.

But something unexpected happened at the last moment… he should have stopped after hitting the bookshelf but he didn’t, it felt as if his body was going backwards.

He looked back in a daze and found that it was not him that was moving.

Instead, the shelf was slowly moving.

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