The skeletons that were running towards the walls had shields with swords, while some had spears and axes.

Their bones rattled as they ran and chattered their teeth.

They soon reached the bridge and started running on it.

"Shit, I can’t let them cross the bridge."

I sheathed my katana, picked up my bow, and threw three arrows towards them. My hands were moving at a fast speed as my bow launched more and more arrows, each one of them aimed at their cores.

I had never used a bow before, but with [Calm Mind], I was quickly learning how to use it.

A cloud of black arrows rained upon the running skeletons.

The skeletons didn’t just watch as the arrows fell down—they moved with agility as they dodged the arrows, while others cut the arrows that were moving at a fast speed.

They moved like veteran warriors despite being long dead. It showed how great of a warrior they had been when they were alive.

The way they used their shields to block and weapons to cut down the arrows was beyond impressive.

What was amazing and also terrifying was how they kept running forward despite the deadly arrows that kept falling upon them, without any hesitation or fear.

That was another thing that I didn’t like about them—apart from having infinite stamina, they had no fear nor would they hesitate. They couldn’t feel anything.

They were dead after all.

What better warrior would there be than the one who doesn’t have emotions?

An opponent that couldn’t feel anything was nothing but terrifying. That meant that you couldn’t manipulate their emotions at all, and they wouldn’t fall for any emotional bait.

I kept throwing arrow after arrow. They sliced through the air, leaving black streaks under the moonlight.

My aim was still kind of bad, so I was still missing their cores. But even when an arrow was close to piercing their core, the undead skeletons would just avoid the arrow from destroying their cores and let it destroy other parts of their bodies instead, which would quickly heal back.

Realizing that I was just wasting mana, I stopped launching arrows and let the bow crumble to darkness. Same with the tentacles.

I had to face them and do my best to kill some.

I would definitely kill one of them.

With a smile on my face, I jumped over the wall and landed on the ground.

At my will, darkness wrapped my hands—it was the same gloves with sharp nails, but this time the knuckles had sharp spikes.

Then I let the mana run wildly inside my body like a beast, and with a burst of speed, I dashed forward, leaving dust behind me.

I dashed through the bridge and met the skeletons in the middle. What I wasn’t expecting was that a skeleton was already in front of me, thrusting towards my face, about to pierce my skull.

I didn’t panic and tilted my head to the side. The spear failed to impale my head and thrust into nothing but air.

My right hand flew towards the hilt of my katana and drew it in a wide arc, the blade slicing towards the skeleton’s neck—the reason I was aiming towards its head was that skeletons can’t move with their head cut off, until it’s attached back.

The monster wouldn’t be able to dodge, and its head would be flying in the air.

At least that’s what I thought when suddenly I sensed arrows coming from above.

"Tsk. What a pain."

I pulled back my katana and jumped—arrows pierced the spot where I had stood seconds ago.

I didn’t get time to rest, when the rest of the skeletons attacked me from all sides.

A sword attack came from the left, aimed at my stomach. I twisted my wrist, lifted my blade up and blocked the strike. Sparks flew up in the air.

The skeleton spun on its heel and kicked me right in the chest with a perfect roundhouse kick, which I had managed to block in time, but I was still sent back a couple of steps.

Two came from the left—one slamming its axe down, wanting to split my head, while the other undead skeleton which was quite bigger, swung its greatsword that had two holes horizontally, aimed to slice my legs off.

My hand gripped the katana tighter and stabbed it through the hole in the greatsword and pierced the ground, stopping the attack.

With quick foot movement, I stepped to the side and avoided the axe, which cut nothing but a few strands of my hair.

"Watch out for my hair!" I used that opening to curl my fingers into a fist. I pulled back and then punched the undead skeleton’s chest with so much strength that my fist broke through the ribcage, hit the red crystal inside it, which was its core, and broke it into pieces—my hand came out of its back.

[You have slain a Low Greater Monster, Undead Skeleton]

The monster turned into white ash and fell to the ground.

Then I lifted my foot up and slammed it down on the greatsword that was about to be lifted by the big skeleton undead.

Using the greatsword as a solid platform, I launched myself forward and drove my knee into its skull.

Crack!

The skull of the undead skeleton cracked and caved in. Pieces of bone fell down on the ground.

Before the undead skeleton could regenerate, I had already jumped behind it and thrust the sharp nails of my gloves through its back, grasped the core, and crushed it to dust.

[You have slain a Low Greater Monster, Undead skeleton]

Another one fell.

The remaining eight skeletons rushed from the front and then split into groups of two and covered all my sides, circling me.

I pulled my katana from the ground and held it with both hands, ready for them.

Then, without waiting any longer, they lunged.

An axe came from the left. I parried it away before redirecting my blade behind to block a sword attack from slicing my back.

A punch came from the left. I let one hand off the katana and blocked the punch with my palm.

Damn, they were really strong.

I closed my hand over the skeleton’s wrist and then pulled it towards me, lifted it up over my shoulders, and slammed it on the floor.

My blade was already descending towards its chest, but a kick to my left side sent me flying and then rolling over the floor, from which I quickly got up.

The undead skeletons surrounded me again and attacked me with relentless vigour.

Metal clashing and sparks lighting up the night.

The skeletons fought like real people. Whenever I blocked their attacks, they would rapidly change to new ones.

Not only that, but some of my attacks were not working anymore because they started memorizing my patterns.

But I was a box full of surprises. When they thought—that is, if they could even think—that they could block an attack that I had already done before, I punished them by changing the attack mid-swing.

The fight kept going on and on until one landed an attack on me.

And a curse took effect.