欧洲无人区天空码头IV

Ah, I can inspect it. Well, it is a common item, but still quite my luck.

[Common spear]

A slight boost to piercing damage, not super useful here.

Still, he was relieved.

There was a genuine world in which he could\'ve had those drops in order: Staff - Wand - Tome - Orb.

Whatever would drop next, his spear would be his fallback.

Happy with it, he walked toward the door, ready to get to the next room.

It was already opening as he approached it, leading to another passageway.

This time, however, it was slightly bigger, and had more torches.

After taking all of them —Why leave them there anyways?— he noticed that instead of the passage leading to yet another room, it lead to a set of big arching doors, with a design more intricate than the previous ones.

"So here we are. My first Boss."

Mori\'s fists still hurt, and his face still stung, but waiting wouldn\'t fix those issues anymore. That last encounter had really done a number.

He tightened his fists a few times, looking at them as he got himself mentally ready.

He pushed through the heavy doors.

They opened to a room resembling the one before, truly minimalistic, with the generic dark tiles.

Will the whole dungeon be this way?

In that room was a single enemy.

"I should\'ve guessed it," he said, exhaling.

How many skeletons will I face?

This one, however, was... different.

As Mori entered the room, more torches lit up, creating dancing shadows on the floors and walls.

The skeleton noticed him right away, turning right toward him.

It had two skulls, and way too many bones for it to be a normal human being.

It had four legs, four arms, and its chest had way too many ribs.

Mori lifted his spear toward it, slowly walking sideways.

"If I can\'t beat you here, then what\'s the point of even seeking vengeance this far? You\'ll be my first stepping stone to annihilating humanity, consider yourself lucky."

Mori\'s grip on the spear tightened. His resolve was burning through his eyes as they stared at his opponent.

The skeleton wasn\'t capable of understanding anything he said, but it did understand the resolve in his eyes.

It took a step toward Mori, the sound of bones hitting the solid floor gradually increased as it turned into a sprint.

It lunged at Mori, trying to punch him, but he had his spear ready, pointed at it.

However, a spear was truly a poor weapon against an opponent full of holes.

It went through ribs, getting awkwardly stuck.

Mori pushed back on the spear with all his might.

He then used his foot to try and leverage harder as the skeleton\'s fists swung in the air between them.

As it got unstuck, it stumbled backwards but quickly regained balance, thanks to its four legs.

Mori had already switched strategy, however, as he described a wide arc with the spear, hitting it sideways.

It was effective, making stumble again, sideways.

Without waiting for it to recover, Mori hit it again, describing yet another arc.

It wasn\'t too hard. Its reach and the momentum created by the wide arcs added a lot more force than his fist could do on their own.

The boss tried catching his spear, only to have its hands repelled and a few fingers shatter.

Good thing the four arms weren\'t on one side.

He hit it a dozen times.

He must\'ve been close to victory, he felt it.

Its movements were slightly more erratic.

They looked panicked as it tried to adapt to Mori\'s attacks without success.

"Thanks. You\'ve been a good stepping stone," said Mori as he was about to hit it again.

His hit should\'ve connected at that moment.

But his spear was cleanly caught.

The skeleton used all its hands by anticipating the direction the hit would take.

Several fingers, and many more bones in its chest area were broken, fallen to the ground.

As it held the spear, half the torches extinguished.

The ones remaining seemed to have a slightly redder hue than before.

Mori quickly looked around, surprised by the change in scenery, swiftly brought back to his opponent by the noise it was making.

The sound of bones hitting each other, grinding against each other.

"What the..."

The whole structure was changing, Mori didn\'t know what he was looking at.

Suddenly, one of its hands let go of the spear, and grabbed another hand.

Mori could finally get the spear out of its grasp.

Whatever it is you\'re doing, letting go was your final mistake.

Mori brought the spear backward again, getting ready to swipe forward.

The skeleton was still holding its own hand—

Wait.

It quickly launched forward the hand it was holding. It looked like an optical illusion; the skeletons had separated into 2 different entities.

As it did, no bones clashed with another.

It was cleanly arranged in a way that the separation had every bone easily slide out in-between others.

The thrown skeleton hit Mori in the face, making him stumble backward.

The first time he did.

He took a few steps to recover, but his opponent was already swinging again.

He quickly took a step back, but the other one was already upon him, hitting him straight in the face again.

A series of jabs shared by both opponents pushed him back several steps, his hp slowly depleting.

Their hits were weak, but his defense stat was low, paired with low base hitpoints.

As he tried to take another step back, Mori\'s back hit the wall.

He quickly ducked, dodging another punch that shattered the skeleton\'s hand on the wall.

Mori used that moment to get out of between the two of them.

He was now pacing sideways, circling around them, trying to force their positioning into a straight line.

He was already out of breath as he was walking.

He held his spear back, ready to sweep forward when the moment would come.

He was staring at them.

Nothing would make him look away.

He wasn\'t blinking, and barely even noticed his own pained breathing.

The moment they would line up is the moment he would attack.