(Written while listening to: "Until the Day We Die" by Pagan Fury on YouTube)
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Laito was very busy with trying not to get killed.
"If your plan is a battle of attrition, then you are dumber than I thought…- It's a damn skeleton! You can't tire it! What are you doing, just dodging? Attack it back!" The gloomy Ascendant Marigold, Laito's combat instructor, was instructing the reincarnator through his duel.
Why was he gloomy? Apparently he and many other Ascendants and their cohorts had to man the walls during yesterday's party, as both Saint's of the Incandescent Order were "busy".
The flamboyant Master hated to miss these parties. And now, he had to babysit a kid's first "real" fight against a monster, first thing in the morning.
They went to the catacombs. Found a skeleton and…- begin the battle!
"I'm figuring out its attack patterns!" Laito, dressed comically in a makeshift armor made from cooking utensils like pans, or trays…- and a pot for a helmet, responded to discontent Knight
"Whatever! Just finish it off!"
"There! Happy now?" Lato turned smugly towards his teacher.
"..." Ascendant Fang just raised sceptically an eyebrow at him without saying a word.
—
'Oh! There was no Spell announcement!'
Laito turned and right in front of his eyes the skeleton started to reform his frame from scattered bones.
"Can!"
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Restless Skeleton.]
–
'Aha. Normal mob on my First Nightmare. A fucking Awakened Beast instead of Dormant one. Great!" Laito thought sarcastically.
'No wonder it was so tough. If I had any weaker weapon…-' Laito shuddered.
"Finally" Master Fang grumbled while recovering a soul shard from the creature's remains.
"Okay. Now look." He showcased the shard to Laito.
"Gather as many of these as you can before noon. Depending on how you fare we MIGHT consider Knighting you soon. Oh! And by the way, as of now, you are on your own. So try not to die. That would be an enormous waste of my time. I will wait outside. BYE!" And with that…- he just vanished as if he was never there.
—
"Ah yes. Obviously that would be precisely what he would do." Laito sagely nodded to himself.
'Can't do nothing about it, time to work-work!'
"
[2 hours later]
Laito was hiding in the shadows inside the burial crevice tightly gripping the handle of his sabre. He tried to keep it at the right angle, so it would not reflect any light that would alert his "target".
One of the Awakened skeletons was "patrolling" the catacomb tunnel the boy was waiting at.
At the calculated moment Laito held his breath and ceased any slightest movement.
The sound of measured steps of the skeleton moved past Laito's hideout.
After a few more of its steps Laito slowly and quietly exhaled the air he was holding for that moment.
He silently left the crevice and carefully shortened his distance to the monster's back, while keeping his posture low.
He prepared his blade for strike and…-
With a clean slash he detached skeleton's skull form its spine and before it even hit the ground he started assaulting it with strikes until it caved in…- this time without making unnecessary shouting.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Restless Skeleton spearmen.]
"
'Now that was lucky. Had I wasn't checking ahead what's behind every corner I would've run righto into its damn mug. The lessons been pay…-' He thought while securing the shard into his satchel, but suddenly turned on his heel as something he saw in the corner of his eye has attracted his attention.
In front of him was a three way intersection from which two more skeletons just came out.
Their skulls turned at him just as he looked at them.
–
'Nope!' And he turned away sprinting as quietly as he could, while trying to shake them off within seemingly endless catacombs. Thankfully, earlier this day he was given a map of this section of the massive tomb, which was charted by Incandescent patrols. He didn't had a lot of time to memorize it, but it was still better than nothing.
'Not losing in the "strength in numbers" game. Even duelling one of these is too risky…-' Laito thought as he passed a lighted torch he had put on the wall earlier. He turned a corner and then he stopped and waited behind it while listening and observing shadows casted by the torchlight..
Just as the skeleton's shadows appeared which signalled they had passed the torch, Laito has cut the rope that was strung right next to him.
And with that his "brilliant" mechanism he prepared has let go of the stone coffin lid he fastened above the space before the corner he was hiding behind. In split second the heavy lid has gained momentum and crushed right into unexpecting creatures.
It didn't kill them obviously, but it has scattered all their bones in various directions.
And Laito capitalized on it.
He quickly located the skulls and lunged for the closer one. Before he managed to crack it though, the other skeleton was already half-way to restoring itself. Because of that he left the first skull and swiftly slashed the second one, sending it flying away from its frame. Laito then, quickly finished his job on the first one and only after that he could bash the second one in peace.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Restless Skeleton.]
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Restless Skeleton Crusher.]
[You have received a Memory: Boner.]
[You have received an Echo: Restless Skeleton.]
Without paying attention to the Spell's announcements he quickly gathered the shards and left the the perimeter, not risking getting more "company" after causing all this ruckus.
'4 Soul Shards up and my guts tell me that I have more or less 3 hours left, let's see how many I can get...-
–
–
–
–
'...-The fuck you mean an Echo!?!'
–
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[4 years left until MHA plot beginning]
[Chapter End] The story is not over yet