Chapter 143: Bone Craftsman
On Knight Road at late night, outside Door 26, with a series of gunshots, the conflict that was supposed to subside suddenly erupted again, making a fierce battle inevitable.
Stimulated by the belief that the Hunter was determined to eliminate them, the gang louts grabbed their weapons, howling as they charged towards the surrounding Hunters.
Knight Road was narrow to begin with, and the distance between the gang louts and the Hunters was very close. The Hunters had just fired their rounds and hadn’t had time to reload when the gang louts charged in, forcing them to draw their blades for close combat.
Although it was a melee, the Hunters were not afraid of these louts. Typically, the Hunters were outstanding individuals selected from police forces, trained professionally, and had high combat qualities, far superior to these gang louts. Even if outnumbered, the Hunters were still confident they could take down all the louts.
Under normal circumstances, the Hunters would typically annihilate the louts easily, but the current situation was far from normal…
The ghostly, intangible specters in the Hunters’ bodies surged again, and the Hunters were shocked to find their movements slowing down. Faced with the charging louts, they were unable to execute sharp counterattacks and could only passively defend themselves, being forced to retreat and gather back-to-back to avoid being surrounded by the larger number of louts.
“Haha! These guys are all just empty shells! Brothers, k*ll them!”
Seeing their once formidable enemies being pushed back, the louts gained even more momentum, swinging their crude weapons indiscriminately at the Hunters. A few of the Hunters, affected by the ghosts and struggling to defend themselves, were injured by the inferior weapons. Fortunately, their uniforms were specially made to be lightweight yet somewhat protective.
Watching from the fourth-floor window of a nearby building, Godfrey manipulated his specters, stirring up the battle below. He wanted the louts to defeat the Hunters, threatening Anna, and then compel a certain Extraordinary Being, possibly existing behind Anna, to make a move. That Extraordinary Being might be the target he was looking for.
“Just hurry up and d*e, Black Dogs… That brat won’t take action unless truly threatened…”
Observing the scene below, Godfrey muttered, hoping for some extraordinary power of “Stone” to descend upon the battlefield.
The melee continued, and the situation for the Hunters was dire. Just at that moment, a swift figure burst onto the battlefield. Wearing an iron mask, Gregor wielded his blade, taking down three louts in just a few strikes. The blade, imbued with “Shadow,” effortlessly severed the louts’ bodies, and bl**d gushed forth, frightening the previously aggressive louts to the point that some nearly stumbled.
Originally, Gregor thought these were just small-time thieves and did not personally intervene, leaving his capable subordinates to handle them. However, he did not expect them to perform so poorly, forcing him to step in.
‘Something’s off… This battle is very strange… Something must be wrong. But never mind; first, I need to cut them down.’
As he thought this, Gregor kept swinging his blade forward while Godfrey, concealed above, watched his actions.
“Shadow Cloaker? Heh, it’s normal to have an apprentice leading a team, but he’s just an apprentice…”
Muttering to himself, Godfrey waved his bone artifact, and soon three ghosts emerged from the fallen Hunters’ bodies, all entering Gregor’s own.
Suddenly, just as Gregor was about to slice a lout’s head in half, he felt his body cease to obey him, coming to an abrupt and immobilizing halt, as if frozen in place. He tried to move, but his muscles painfully protested.
‘This is…’
Faced with this scenario, Gregor widened his eyes in shock. The lout he nearly killed saw Gregor suddenly rendered immobile. After a moment of hesitation, his expression hardened as he lunged at Gregor with a small kn*fe. Gregor, under the ghost’s control, could not move and could only watch wide-eyed as the kn*fe approached him unimpeded.
“Bam!!”
At that moment, a large iron hammer smashed into the face of the lout holding the kn*fe, crushing his skull, knocking out teeth, and sending him crashing to the ground, spewing bl**d and lifeless.
Gregor, saved from peril, stared in astonishment at the scene. He turned to look at the holder of the hammer, who appeared bl**d-soaked and muscular; this lout, with vacant eyes, gripped the bl**d-covered hammer and, after a glance at Gregor, swung it wildly at a nearby comrade, cracking another lout’s head open.
‘What’s happening? Are these guys turning on each other?’
Watching the chaos unfold, Gregor was somewhat stunned. He surveyed the chaotic battlefield and saw several bloodied louts suddenly attacking their comrades.
“d*mn it! Barry, what the hell are you doing?!”
With some louts suddenly attacking teammates, others started angrily retaliating, causing louts to turn against one another, deepening the chaos.
…
‘What’s going on… Why are those people suddenly turning on each other? Is there someone pulling the strings? No… This doesn’t seem like the extraordinary ability of “Stone.”’
Watching the new developments on the battlefield, Godfrey pondered. He then extracted two more ghosts from the Hunters, attaching them to a lout attacking his teammate, intending to slow its actions. However, upon doing so, he realized something was off.
“This is… a Flesh Puppet? The one interfering isn’t ‘Stone,’ but ‘Cup’?”
Godfrey muttered. He could now sense another hidden extraordinary force influencing the battlefield below, controlling pieces against him.
…
At that moment, on the opposite side of Knight Road, on the roof of another building, Doro was watching, also gazing down at the chaotic battlefield.
Using the Zombie Puppet ring, Doro quietly manipulated the bodies of the fallen louts in the brawl, continuously backstabbing them while rescuing Gregor. Utilizing the Zombie Puppet ring, she began to subtly intervene in the melee.
“A wielder of ghosts, huh? Turns out working overtime really pays off…”
…
Returning to the battlefield, the situation had begun to change dramatically. The once overconfident louts were thrown into disarray by their inexplicable attacks from their comrades. In contrast, to seal Gregor’s actions, Godfrey had injected three ghosts into him and then used two more ghosts to stop the Zombie Puppets. Godfrey could control a maximum of five ghosts, so the Hunters suddenly found themselves free from ghostly interference.
Wounded, the Hunters gritted their teeth and launched a counterattack, quickly taking down several louts. Seeing their comrades begin to fall in droves, the louts quickly lost their confidence; already disorganized, they screamed and scattered, unwilling to continue fighting.
“Hmph, useless trash…”
Watching the chaos below, Godfrey scoffed, then with a wave of his bone artifact, he extracted all the ghosts from their hosts, allowing Gregor to regain full control of his actions.
‘Don’t think this is over… My goal hasn’t been achieved yet…’
Quietly reflecting on this, Godfrey waved his bone artifact, commanding the five floating bone blades rapidly toward a single direction.
The direction the blades were heading was a flowerbed, and among the grass in the flowerbed lay a briefcase that Godfrey had hidden in advance.
Under Godfrey’s control, the five ghosts surged into the briefcase, which then opened automatically, revealing what was inside under the nearby streetlamp.
It was five bone blades, about half a meter long, made of bones and lacking grips, each serrated.
Now, the five ghosts attached themselves to the five bone blades, which floated in the air, pointing toward the battlefield not far away.
“Witness… the power of the Bone Craftsman…”
Muttering, Godfrey controlled the five floating bone blades from a distance, launching them toward the Hunters and Gregor.
