Chapter 40: Skeletal Assassin (1/2)

The power of a two-star head imp combined with the newly refined weapons was apparent for all to see. With a simple shift of their arms, the colossal shields immediately covered the bulk of No.3 and Big 4’s body.

They lowered their bodies slightly as they stuck out their shields, and with a massive kick of their legs the pair of imp tanks rammed their way through the battlefield with the 22 guardsmen following closely behind. In a few seconds, the gap between the two armies was closed.

As they cleared a path through the skeletons, their shields perfectly deflected all of the incoming attacks as if the weapons in the every skeletons’ hands were nothing but harmless toothpicks. In contrast, mere contact with the massive tank-combination of bone and imp sent the skeletons flying. Behind them, the guardsmen rushed forward to clean up the skeletons that were knocked down.

Naturally the skeleton archers tried to stop these approaching imps, but compared to the refined round shields their arrows might as well have been toys. Merely crafting one of these shields cost me more than half of my mana and used up 25 sets of bones. The resulting shield wasn’t something any old skeleton could break through.

No.3 was the first of the pair to break into the archer squad. As his spiked mace swung through the air, any bones that stood in its way broke apart from the sheer force of the impact in an explosion of bone fragments and dust.

Soon, Big 4 joined in the massacre and within a few seconds, half of the 20 skeleton archers were reduced to a pile of bone shards.

Meanwhile the guardsmen were in charge of the cleaning up the other undead. Thanks to the considerable advantage of their refined equipment, they could easily dispatch any ordinary undead. Even the undead wearing armor were chopped apart like vegetables. Within those same few seconds, the melee undead were reduced to half as well.

With that unfair advantage in strength and equipment, No.3 decimated the opposition. He was clearing enjoying this, judging from his slightly arrogant laughter. Even his battle stance had become more careless. He began casually swinging his spiked mace without any regard to defense, confident in the fact that his attacks would definitely destroy the opponent.

This was the attitude he began showing towards the one-star archers as well; and this came back to bite him. Instead of the usual denseness showed by its fellow comrades, one archer decisively chose to abandon its short bow and swiftly back stepped, dodging the incoming mace.

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As its skeletal body leaped backwards, both of its arms reached to the back of its leather armor and drew out a pair of33cm long daggers.

Now that its uniqueness had been exposed, the fact that its bones were skinnier than all the other undead became obvious as well. Without even steadying itself, it immediately launched into an attack. It was now time for No.3 to pay for his bout of arrogant carelessness. Not even in his wildest dreams would he imagine that an archer would suddenly change into a nimble melee assassin!

In a flash of white, it dodged No.3’s mace once more, and in that brief window where he couldn’t move, the assassin sprinted past him. A brief flash of metal, that was all he could see before he felt a sharp pain on his right arm!

Thankfully, his hide was too tough for the tiny daggers. All the attack did was barely break through his hide, leaving a thin line of red. There was some bleeding, but not much. Given his regenerative capabilities it would only take a few seconds for this to close up.

“ARRHH!”

Seeing his bosom buddy No.3 get hurt, Big 4 immediately focused his attention onto the assassin. With a furious roar, he swung at the assassin’s back with a clear intent to kill.

“Stand aside, don’t interfere with this fight. This guy belongs to me.”

No.3 shouted amid his ragged breathing. This assassin had clearly incensed him and the only way to wash away this humiliation was to defeat it in a solo battle.

“…” Big 4 threw him a exasperated look before turning around to handle the other skeletons.

“Now, there’s only the two of us.” No.3 gave a cursory glance at his now healed wound before smacking his bone shield with his mace in a taunting gesture. Without even caring if the assassin understood him, he proceeded: “Let’s have a fair fight.”

The skeletal assassin turned to survey the battlefield. Right now, the skeleton army was on the verge of being wiped out. There were only slightly over ten one-star skeleton soldiers holding on. Without Big 4, they would probably be able to hold on for another few minutes; but with Big 4, this boss level mob, a few minutes was clearly not possible.

It turned back to face No.3 who was still standing there quietly awaiting its response. He wanted a fair fight and for devils of his age and tier, this was likely to be true. Most of the devils at this level were still innocent potatoes, so a fair fight really meant a fair fight; at least in No.3’s case.

With a casual flip of its dagger, it adopted a battle ready stance; wielding a reversed dagger in one hand and a normal dagger in the other. If it had been the initial No.3, he would’ve probably charged at it by now, but having been injured by the assassin, No.3 was aware of his opponent’s skill and didn’t dare to be conceited.

What else did this assassin have up its sleeves?