Thanks to the water spread all around, even the skeleton soldiers who didn’t take a direct hit from the lightning suffered indirect damage.
The skeleton soldiers scattered late, but many were already unable to move properly!
The lightning falling from the sky grew thicker and thicker.
The shallow water spread on the ground evaporated in an instant due to the strong lightning.
“Scatter! Scatter! Those who can move, run to the city!”
The movement of the skeleton legion began to get frantic.
The commanding skeleton could not move quickly because of the lightning falling from the sky.
It was evident that he was trying to keep himself safe, as even a slight brush would cause considerable damage.
“When will that technique end?”
“I don’t know either.”
The lightning spear ended when it dropped strong lightning nearby.
However, the magic used this time was something he had never used before, so he didn’t know how long it would last.
After a while, the skeletons that were struck by the lightning were seen merging back together.
They were truly desperate to escape the range of the Lightning World as their bodies broke apart.
A skeleton wielding a great sword crouched down using his sword and moved forward slowly.
Kira even showed the grotesqueness of crawling on all fours, lying flat on the ground.
The necromancer leading the legion spread a shield around him and made his way out quickly.
“That guy seems somewhat different from the others.”
The Demon King said while looking at the necromancer.
It wasn’t a technique focused on attacking one person, so its power wasn’t tremendous.
However, that guy was far too laid-back.
Most of the skeleton soldiers managed to escape the Lightning World and regrouped.
I summoned the lightning spear stuck in the ground again and flicked my fingers to release the magic.
The place where the magic had just fallen was in utter disarray, and the skeleton legion that escaped from there was a sight to behold.
The once white and clean skeletons rolled in the mud, now smeared with dirt.
If those had all been living beings, most of them would have already lost their lives in there.
The skeleton legion had now come quite close to the city.
They no longer walked quickly; they seemed to almost be running.
“Unfortunately, the preemptive attack ends here.”
“Then I’ll join the detachment in the city.”
“Okay.”
We couldn’t stop the skeleton legion from invading the city.
Up to this point, everything had progressed according to our plan.
The detachment consisted of capable individuals from the Demon King’s Royal Guard and the Knight Order.
They weren’t lacking in skill, but all had strong personalities.
They had never worked together in the field before.
I had no idea how well these individuals would cooperate with each other.
What was certain was that these people would survive even if dropped right into the middle of enemy territory on the battlefield.
The detachment was waiting in a shabby warehouse located behind the hotel.
There had been an order not to move until I joined them.
“Looks like the declaration of war is over?”
“Yes. The number of enemies has decreased significantly.”
“Oh, I can finally show my skills after a long time!”
“Oh. I think I will get along with you!”
The detachment consisted of five members, including me.
We didn’t know much about each other yet, but it seemed that the two had just cemented a camaraderie through their earlier conversation.
“Our goal is to eliminate the enemy commanders.”
“Let’s quickly take down one of them!”
There were three commanders in the skeleton legion.
One of them was a high-ranking officer who led the entire legion, so we decided to eliminate him last.
For now, the objective was to eliminate the commander with the highest chance of success to disrupt the skeleton soldiers.
“Let’s introduce ourselves on the way.”
Although it had been quite some time since we arrived in Laden, we still didn’t even know each other’s names.
The first to introduce himself was Jie from the Knight Order.
I was secretly glad to see a familiar face.
One of the two from the Royal Guard hesitated for a moment before speaking up.
“I’m Wikes. This is Salra.”
“Hello.”
The demon woman named Salra greeted us lightly with a smile, her yellow eyes sparkling.
While all the Royal Guard members were men, Salra was the only woman among them.
The other one remained silent and did not introduce himself.
“Who is that friend?”
“He’s my senior, Iwan.”
Jie provided that person’s name on his behalf.
“I’m….”
“I know.”
“I know.”
“I know.”
As I was about to introduce myself, the others simultaneously responded that they already knew.
Earlier, Jie and Wikes had spoken with a sense of camaraderie about how they thought they might get along.
The two were discussing the weapons they were good at during our movement.
“Since they don’t have flesh, we have to break them without fail, right?”
“Let’s try to break their heads first. They can still move.”
“Hey, everyone? You can easily take them out if you break their cores.”
“Then that wouldn’t be fun.”
Two of them tried to find fun in the midst of war.
I don’t remember seeing Jie like this before; it hadn’t been this kind of atmosphere the last time I spotted him.
Since we had been inside the capital, at the Knight Order headquarters, he might have restrained himself.
“What we are facing are the commanders. We must not let our guard down.”
“I won’t let my guard down.”
He said that, but it seemed clear from his face that Wikes couldn’t help but be excited.
Sounds of weapons clashing were coming from the cobweb-like alleyways.
I took out the Last Ape and transformed it into the shape of a sword.
“What is that?”
“My sword.”
“It changes shape.”
Wikes looked at the Last Ape with an expression full of curiosity.
“I don’t want others to meet it. You shouldn’t touch it even if you find it lying around.”
“What? Where does it say that? All swords look the same.”
As Wikes reached out to the Last Ape, a weak current of lightning surged towards his hand.
Zing!
“Whoa! Is that thing alive?!”
“Well, it’s somewhat similar. Unauthorized users cannot touch it.”
At my words, the others turned to glance at the Last Ape and then quickly looked away.
Finding the skeleton commander was proving more difficult than expected.
I only had to locate the large, talking ones, but they weren’t communicating through speech.
Searching the vast city on foot would be highly inefficient, so we decided that one of us would fly low while looking for them.
The ones who could fly were Salra and Iwan, but for some reason, Iwan didn’t seem interested in flying.
Instead, I decided to do the flying, while Salra and I split up to survey the surroundings from atop the buildings.
Laden was fundamentally a city with many tall buildings.
The skeletons’ height was at least 4 meters, and if they raised their weapons, you could easily see them near buildings of about 2 or 3 stories.
Considering that their silhouettes were currently not visible, they must be hiding among even larger structures.
“How’s it over there?”
“Nothing. Those big guys suddenly shrank…”
Suddenly, a memory flashed through my mind.
On the day of their initial ambush, they had reduced their body size by about half.
If they weren’t planning to rampage through a city full of large buildings, it would be much easier to shrink their size.
“It seems pointless to search from high up.”
“Why?”
“They can shrink their body sizes.”
In the end, we had no choice but to run around the vast city on foot.
We started walking around the city at a slightly quicker pace.
Then, I saw our allies burst out of an alley.
“In narrow spaces, we have the disadvantage! Lure them outside!”
I had definitely told them to utilize the alleys to the best of their abilities during the battles with the skeleton soldiers.
In urban warfare, the defending side is generally at an advantage.
However, the soldiers who burst out of the alley were doing the opposite.
Creak!
The skeleton soldiers crawled out from the alley, and among them, one walked out slightly larger than the others, wielding a great sword.
I recognized it as the great sword made a buzzing sound as it spun.
“That’s the one!”
“It looks similar to an ordinary skeleton, doesn’t it?”
Jie and Wikes each drew their swords and charged at the creature.
Using the gap created by the rotating great sword, both of their swords pierced into the skull and the chin.
“What are these guys?!”
“Even with a broken head, he’s still talking?!”
“Can you still speak even after having your jaw shattered?”
The skeleton commander clacked his dislocated jaw.
“Regenerate. New bones, arise!”
As he chanted something like a magic spell, the body parts that had just been damaged by the attack were restored completely.
Previously, he hadn’t been able to regenerate the parts that were attacked.
Instead, he seemed terrified of receiving attacks and desperately tried to defend himself.
Even when Jie and Wikes continuously shattered various parts of his body, he showed no sign of wanting to evade.
“Break, shatter, fall apart! Kukukuku!”
Despite being attacked, he remained unnaturally calm.
“I am the commander of the legion of doom, Fron!”
Clang! Bang!
The moment the swords of Jie and Wikes collided with his bones, they both pulled back simultaneously.
Bones that previously shattered or broke from the impact showed no further changes.
“I need to pull out my sword.”
He pulled out one of the bones from his left arm, shook it a few times, and it transformed into a sharp sword.
The lost left arm grew back with a new bone, and this time he replicated the action with his right arm as well.
With a bone sword in each hand, he crouched his body down.
The creature, which appeared to be over 2 meters tall, began to shrink until it was similar in size to an average human.
“You’re such good boys, waiting for me to transform.”
It was not intentional waiting at all.
Just now, he had realized his ordinary attacks were ineffective, which is why he decided to observe the situation.
“Let’s dance with our swords!”
He brandished his bone swords in an odd manner, closing the distance with Jie and Wikes, dealing a blow to both of them.
The event unfolded so swiftly that they realized they had been attacked only after they had been injured.
In a rush, they pulled back, and Salra and I joined them.
“He’s fast.”
Fortunately, their wounds didn’t appear severe, so they seemed capable of moving.
“We mustn’t be careless.”
“I was definitely serious.”
The four of us surrounded him in a standoff.
