//** Continuation of chapter 19. (From 19.1) **//

Next day she woke up at eleven with pillow on which she slept, as well as her eyes were wet from tears. It was not because she had a nightmare. Rather, it was the complete opposite, she dreamed of best possible thing for her. Despite that though, her body automatically reacted on its own to those dreams, resulting in tears every time she slept, even during short naps. There was nothing else she could do about it apart from wiping them out and move on with yet another day.

She dressed up in her clothes and left her house right away. She already had everything needed for sixteen tomb try. Truth to be told she didn’t plan to visit her house yesterday. It was because Wizard took too much of her time.

On the way to southern gate she visited one shop where she bought something to eat and a newspaper. She bought the second item as it was always a good entertainment on the way to the tomb.

After leaving city’s walls, she started reading it. The whole issue was dedicated to event that happened nearly two weeks ago but only now it reached to the western provinces. The title was [Triangle, no longer with us]. It turned out that one of major cities in the game was destroyed. Details were as follows. [The Guild ‘Legion’, previous rulers of the city was attacked by two unknown players. Because those players were powerful enough to deal with thousands members of Legion, their defeat was unavoidable. Although there was a lot of destruction that occurred during the fight, all could be repaired with time. But there was one thing that couldn’t be repaired anymore. No one know for sure how did it happened but what was once the heart of the city is now a large crater of mud. We think that guild Legion which was about to be defeated, released some kind of magic bomb that exploded and created that destruction. Everyone who lives in the city says that it was definitely them and it was not the first time that they did something to obscure other players. That is why we believe that this version is correct. Leader and few other high rank officers of Legion were caught by single Silver Hand’s knight who was in the area. He did it ten days after the accident after they respawn. Currently there is no information about other side of the conflict right now but we will uncover the truth.]

“I hope no one will blow up Karma.”

Those were Rin’s thoughts after reading the article. It didn’t matter to her what happened outside of her playground which was Karma and surrounding areas. She knew where city of Triangle was. It would take her more than a mouth to get to there, but there was no reason for her to go there just so she can see destroyed city. She wouldn’t leave Karma city anyway, at least, as long as her quest wouldn’t force her to it and even if it did, she would probably return here after completing it.

While walking at some time Rin equipped her brown cloak and hid completely within it. She had to live up to her legend after all, although on her way to the tomb she didn’t encounter anyone and now without any interferences, she was standing right before the tomb of Edward Third the Great.

“This time I will definitely manage.”

Rin gave herself words of encouragement like she always did, but even she herself didn’t believe those words. She didn’t have any new ideas as to what could change the outcome. She came here today rather because of routine that she followed for some time now. Even if she was 5 levels lower than usual, she didn’t plan to go back to her hunting grounds just for that amount. Her mindset was already prepared for defeat and what to do afterwards.

Rin entered the tomb and walked the stairs which lead underground. There were quite a lot of them as they covered three meters passage. At the end of them, there was a single entrance, a rectangular opening in the wall. Rin couldn’t see anything inside as the sun rays didn’t reach there. There was no other source of light inside. Still, Rin didn’t bring any light source either. She also didn’t have any kind of spells or ability that would make it. Still she entered without the worry.

Even if she was not very comfortable in dark places, she still was walking inside without any reserve.

After reaching a certain distance from the wall something sparked in front of her and three lines of green flame scattered in three directions. They were first moving on the ground and then up the walls. They ignited wood pieces that were put on the walls. The fire was now burning in three different places inside the tomb with its green unnatural light. The wood that kept it would not extinguish until at least one person remains inside.

Rin could now see the inside although she knew it by heart already. The tomb was rectangular area with radius of 5 to 6 meters. ‘Why did someone bother to build something so huge under the earth?’ Rin did not know. There were no pillars that would support the weight of the roof but so far it never collapsed. In the opposite of entrance at the other side there was a large sarcophagus but apart from that, there was nothing else on the ground. In comparison walls were filled with coffins that were put in wall openings. There were also paintings above those coffins and they presented the profiles of people, sometimes the whole figure. There were twelve pairs of coffins and paintings.

-muhahahahahaha…

The tomb was filled with empty laugh. In midst of it something came out from the sarcophagus. The cover was not moved but something came out of it through the cover. At first it was green, transparent mist but it soon changed into another form. The form resembled that of a human but it was still transparent and green. Only the contours were rough. It was about two meters high and while it was floating over the sarcophagus it nearly touched the ceiling. The build of the ghost was very slim and the face looked like from someone who hadn’t eaten for years. The ghost spoke the words.

-who is thee that disturb the sleep of me.

-skip the introduction and let’s start already.

Rin cut the talk right away. She talked with ghost of the king before but he never remembered her and couldn’t recognize her afterwards. Rin believed that conversation itself had no other purpose than creating a climax before the fight so she did not bother with it anymore as she didn’t see any changes in the fight.

First with both hands Rin took down her hood and took out her red hair from her clothes. Then she fetched her left hand to the front. In that hand a two meters long ruby spear appeared. She summoned this weapon even if two one-handed swords were still equipped on her right side under the cloak.

-thee came here for fight. Very well I will grant your wish…

Although he said that, ghost would not fight by himself. Even if Rin asked him for it specifically he would not accept. She did ask for a fight once before. To her challenge the ghost replied that kings do not fight with every ‘plebian’ that ask them for it as it would be too great of honor for that ‘plebian’. Even though she did not fully understand what that world meant, Rin didn’t want to be called ‘plebian’ again so she never asked that question again.

-hear me my soldiers! Hear me my knights! This one wants to feel the might of our empire. You promised to serve me even in death, now it’s the time to fulfill that promise!

“It’s starting.”

After the fight started Rin started scanning the ground with her eyes and soon she saw a single skeleton arm that made its way through the ground. Without waiting a second, she ran over there. Just when the second skeleton hand appeared out of the ground, Rin pierced through the ground with her spear. Right away she started to look for other similar looking hands.

Rin was using every advantage that she could get so as long as there were no skeletons that came out, she would repeat the same process. That was also the reason why she summoned spear at first even if she was slightly less familiar with using it. Still she would be able to repeat that process only for first 10-15 skeletons as rate at which they come out would increase. At the start there would be two at the same time but soon after there would be more and more.

Seeing that there are already three skeletons out, Rin let go of her spear. Still, rather than falling to the ground the spear started to fly and destroyed two skeletons. Rin finally unsheathed her two swords that she always had on her right side. Like any other weapons she used they were red in color. She had tons of red weapons at least one of each type. She usually wasn’t using them directly but she needed them for her skill unlimited blade. Even if she could create numerous copies of the same weapon she would still need to have one original to copy from. The cost of those weapons was rather big as they all were of high quality. The gold that Rin earned on arena went exactly on them but if she had knew that she wouldn’t be done with this quest after so much time she wouldn’t even bother with it. Currently she didn’t have any items that she could buy with gold so it piled up. From time to time, she would buy something for higher level but only if it was a special unique item that you can’t buy every day.

‘Why did she even bother to equip weapons normally in the first place?’ well there were few reasons. First, it would calm her down and remind her of the times in the real world. Second was that she got used to that weight on her right side as she always had them there before she got her extra skill. Lastly there were weak points of summoned blades. Copies were not as good as originals and sometime they broke in middle of combat. That usually was no problem for her as she could summon them back instantly. It also didn’t happen that often but under today’s circumstances it was different. Rin had to manage a long fight, summoning blades even if it cost just a little it would still drain her mana after amounts that she will need to create later on.

Simple ‘skeleton soldiers’ looked like simple skeletons. They didn’t wear any clothes or armor. They were the creatures made of white bones. Each of them had a weapon in their hands. Mostly swords, but also axes and spears. First they would get out from the ground like zombies. Then they would pick up their weapons out from the hole they came from. The underground must have a lot of space to hold all of them, although, in the first place skeletons would come out from the same places for hours so it wasn’t really realistic. Also later on, they would jump out from the holes made by previous skeletons with ease as they didn’t need to force themselves through the ground.

Funny fact was that some skeletons tried to pick up their shields as well but when they lift them up, their arm would fall off from their body as it couldn’t support the weight. That was how skeletons with only one arm were created.

From now on, Rin would move slowly and let skeletons come to her instead of running after them. Even if it ended in situation where she would fight against multiple enemies it was less tiring to fight against few of them than running after them.

At this point it was still one skeleton at the time.

A skeleton with a short sword tried the piercing attack. Rin moved just a little to the left and by hair dodged the strike. Skeletons movements were quite fast because their bodies were not obscured by flesh. Of course in reality, bones can’t move on their own, they need flesh and muscles for it, but resurrected soldiers were doing just fine without those parts. Still even if they were fast, they were nowhere as fast as Rin. Dodging enemy’s strikes was her specialty, especially against the enemies that she fought so many times before. Those moves however weren’t something that she learnt from sword fighting training but rather hand to hand combat. Rin already had a long experience in fighting against monster in EOA but still her main fighting skills came from the real world where she learned under greatest fighting master. Her master was teaching a lot of styles and combined them into one ultimate form. Even without any talent after five years of training under him and another four years inside EOA, Rin become a person who really deserved the title Queen of Blades, despite the fact that she hated that title.

After the dodge, she stroke with right sword and chop of the head skeleton head. The attack itself was really weak but destroyed skeletons nevertheless. Skeletons mostly died with just one hit but it was not the reason why Rin attack was weak. In the first place Rin class was based on agility and speed, rather than strength and force. No matter her fighting skills she wouldn’t be able to match strength of pure warrior class. Still that attack was weak even for her and it wasn’t fast either. That was because Rin was holding herself back to not waste any unnecessary energy. When most players would go all out from the start, Rin knew that she would need every bit of that energy later on.

Another skeleton swung his sword horizontally at her. Rin crouched down and from there she delicately attacked spot that connected upper part of body with legs. Even if she couldn’t fight like this later on, for now when number of skeletons was still small she could use this style. Not strength or speed but finesse and attacking into right spots, was what she was doing. From the outside it may looked not that strong but doing it required a lot of skill.

Two skeletons were coming at her from the front. One of them swung the axe. With small back step Rin moved out of range and attacked axe holder while deflecting sword of second skeleton. With empty hand skeleton tried to catch here. Rin spin of foot and with momentum destroyed the second attacker.

Another opponent came, this time with large two handed axe but before he even managed to swing it, Rin quicken her two last steps and finished him off. She then turned around and saw four skeletons coming her way. ‘Leading one’ thrusted his spear from maximum range at her neck. Rin moved down to avoid it and spear flew right through her red hairs that couldn’t keep up with her. They weren’t cut this time although it was actually common for her hair to get cut in fights. Still changing the hairstyle was something that one could do only in ‘barber’s shop’ so even if Rin lost some of her hair in battle, they would regrow right away after some rest. Even if you cut your hair with purpose of changing your hairstyle, you couldn’t do it unless you learn hairdressing skill. Rin hairs were really long, to the point where she herself wanted to cut them sometimes. Still there were no barber shops in Karma and with time she got used to them being this long.

Rin moved pass skeleton while spinning. Ruby swords made contact with enemy and skeleton was gone in seconds, still she didn’t stop there. She continued the spinning like hurricane and finished of another two that came, also instantly. One would think that it was some skill that ‘system activated’ and not her movements. In fact Rin even had a skill that had an effect like that still after using it for some time she could reproduce the effect of skill without use of stamina. Damage and speed was not on par to while using the skill but it was more than enough to fight against skeletons.

The moment she stared spinning signaled that playtime was over. Right now, it was 3 skeletons at the time that came out from the ground but soon it will be 5, before that moment Rin needed to clean up all remaining skeletons.

Two were coming from behind. Rin ran to them while keeping her body down. After reaching the enemy she lunched two attacks upwards, skeletons lost their head right away. Rin turned around and while doing it, she slashed backwards destroying yet another skeleton. This one was on instinct. The biggest advantage of skeletons was their numbers. Later on every inch of the 6 meter diameter area would be filled with them. Still even at the early stage they would surround Rin every time they attacked because they were quite fast at their feet. Speed didn’t help them later on as they are grouped next to each other but at start it was their strength.

-Shieldbearer! Show defensive power of our empire!

Suddenly the voice of the ghost king echoed inside the tomb.

‘Crack.’

A cracking sound came from the coffin in the wall’s opening. The first one on the right looking from the entrance. The cover of the coffin was thrown down to the ground and the new enemy appeared.

The Shieldbearer was the only skeleton that could use shield. His strength was way different from other skeletons and not only that, his look was also different. White bones were surrounded by green coating that was similar to that of ghost of the king. The coating took form of the person from the painting that was above the coffin. His weapon and shield was also covered by this green mist.

-you shall not pass!

The skeleton said while lifting his shield up.

Naturally the same time, normal skeletons kept coming like they used to.

“I have no luck today.”

Though Rin seeing her new opponent, still that was not because she could not deal with him, rather it was the opposite. The shieldbearer was rather easy to deal with for her at this point. But that was actually the problem.

Tomb of Edward Third the Great ‘encounter’ focused on fighting skeletons. With time, their appearance rate increased to 15 at the time but if it was only that, Rin would complete it long ago. During the encounter from time to time a “super” skeleton would appear or rather green ghost that would take control of bones. Rin knew the exact timing of first five skeletons by heart so she wasn’t surprised by his appearance. Still there was no order in which those skeletons came. In total there were 12 super skeletons. Every one of them was different, had different weapons, abilities and characteristics.

Rin categorized those super skeletons in three groups. First group, ‘those that are easy for her to deal with’. For example shieldbearer was part of this group. She knew exactly how to attack to finish him off quickly without any problems. Second group was made of ‘those skeletons that would be hard to deal with should they appear at given the time’. An example for that group would be super skeleton ‘horse-rider’. That skeleton was summoning a ghost horse and ride on it around the crypt with his lance. Should he appear at the beginning when number of skeletons was low, he would be hard to catch as he could ride without interference. On the other hand should he appeared later when room is filled with skeletons, he would be slowed down by them because while riding he would have to ride through skeletons, naturally killing them in the process. In that time he could even be quite useful. Rin sometimes left him alone so he can do some havoc on the battlefield. Other example from this group would be skeleton commander who increased abilities and coordination of normal skeletons. Should he appear later on, there would be a problem as number of skeletons that receive his buffs would be high but should he appear right now it would be easy to deal with him as he wouldn’t have any skeletons to command. Then there was the last group of skeletons. Rin called them ‘those that will probably kill me’. Currently this group contained only two skeletons. First one was Female skeleton with title Wind-walker. Her speed was on pair with Rin and she was really good at avoiding Rin’s unlimited blade skill. She was also fighting using two short swords and also had few skills that should Rin do not see them before, they would be impossible to survive. So far Rin’s score against her was six losses, one draw and two wins. That was not something she was proud of but at least she knew that skeleton name. Upon receiving finishing blow, green ghost would leave the bones and reveal his or hers name. Then it would fly away and take its place next to the ghost of the king and stand there till the end of the fight.

The name of female skeleton was Victoria. The commander was called Shepard. The horse-raider went by name Luffus.

The one that just appeared before Rin, ‘the shield-bearer’ was called Tanrer. He also once belonged to third group as Rin had no idea how to break through his defenses. She even once went all out on him and fired out hundred blades in his direction at the same time but he just took it all on his shield like it was nothing. Still that was in the past as right now she knew how to deal with him and he was moved to the first group. As the time went, the more times Rin tried complete the prequest, the more skeletons went to first group.

As of now Rin knew eleven names of skeletons which meant that there was still one skeleton that she had yet to defeat. The second one from third group, ‘The Champion’. Rin’s score against him was four losses. Number was lesser than with fights against Victoria but this one didn’t appear too often and when he did, it was always at the worst possible moment when she would be out of strength. Until try eighth, in which for the first time she reached seventh skeleton, he didn’t even appear once. The order of appearance of skeletons was random but somehow that one preferred to appear later, still it was not like he couldn’t appear at early stages. During try 13 ‘the champion’ appeared as second. But that happened when first skeleton was Victoria.

When Rin got Victoria as her first opponent she was incredibly happy. That was because to that point she only managed to win against her once and even if she did, five minutes later she fell to the ground from exhaustion and other skeletons finished her off. That was on try nine. Then at try ten, they reached a draw, which was killing each other at the same time. It was surely getting better but then at try 12 she once again got defeated by her. Until try 13 score was six losses, one draw and one win but in truth it was eight attempts in prequest stopped by Victoria as Rin never managed to continue to next skeleton after the battle with her. But then try thirteen, Victoria appears as the first and Rin was in best possible condition to fight her. It was still really hard but Rin managed to win and had a lot of strength and HP to manage another skeleton that would after her. That was also because new super skeletons appeared around 20 minutes one after another so even if she received damage from Victoria she would regain most of HP with use of potions that healed over time.

Getting Victoria as first skeleton was luck but with amount of luck she used on that time, the balance went off. It must have been grave in minus as the second skeleton to appear was the champion. Not only she never defeated him before but he appeared at the time like that. Not that should he appear first it would go better and Rin could win against him. He was her nemesis. Strong and precise attacks of two handed sword and unstoppable swings that would send Rin flying should she try to block them. His armor was impenetrable. Any attack would just bounce off from him. His guard wouldn’t show her any weak spots either. Rin could simply not stand against someone of that caliber and at the same time someone who was her antitype. Should she fight against players who use this style she would be able to gain advantage in some other areas and turn battle in her favor but the champion would not let her do it. Still, Rin believed that one day she will deal with him and find out his name.

Try 13 was the fastest loss of Rin. Her average from all tries so far was six skeletons defeated at single try, the record was ten. Try 14 was eight skeletons defeated and try 15 was also eight skeletons defeated. She met the champion at try 14 and the one to stop her last time was ‘the commander’. She didn’t meet Victoria since her last win.

Still all that was in the pass. Now it was try 16 and a new chance to finish the prequest.

Rin summoned two long-swords right behind her in the dead spot so the shieldbearer couldn’t see them. She started to run in his direction and two swords were flying behind her. The opponent was also marching forward towards her. Few normal skeletons were running in her direction. When shieldbearer was about two meters away from his coffin Rin speed up. There were five skeletons coming from all direction which didn’t involve shieldbearer.

Rin was already running but skeletons could keep up to this speed especially when two were coming from the way Rin was running to. The moment they were meter away from Rin used her maximum speed.

[Lighting speed.]

She bursted forward and left everything behind, straight into the shieldbearer. Second before she clashed into his already lifted shield she started to spin.

[Hurricane]

Rin was spinning with incredible speed. Her skill hurricane was based on movement speed which was greatly boosted by movement skill lighting speed. By combining two skills into single attack one could create something incredible.

Sparks appeared as swords were striking at the shield nonstop.

While maintaining the skill, Rin started moving around the shieldbearer to his right. Shieldbearer was keeping his shield high and followed Rin’s movement to block incoming attacks. His shield would not break from this attack though and Rin was well aware of that.

Five normal skeletons that were left behind started to make strange noises and the shieldbearer turned his head to them. Then he saw two large long swords coming his way. In this battle, even if Rin wanted to make surprise attack normal skeletons would inform others about such tactics, that’s why if she were to make a surprise attack, she had to make it so even if enemy find out about it, he can’t do anything at all.

Rin’s hurricane continued and two swords were coming from the other side. Shieldbearer wanted to bounce them off with his sword but they were flying in the way that it would be hard to do repel while maintaining his guard. Nevertheless he tried and managed to bounce them off but the second he did that, he was torn apart into pieces as Rin slip through his defenses. It was impossible to stretch in a way to keep up with her speed and block incoming swords. Should he ignore the swords he would get hit by them and either die just from that or he would stop for a second from the impact and would be torn apart by Rin anyway. There was a way for him to survive though and it was letting go of the shield and jump away from Rin but shield-bearer without the shield was an easy target and it wouldn’t take long to finish him off afterwards.

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-I was Tanrer, knight and defender of Solaris and of my king Edward. It was an honor to fight against you.

With those words, the first skeleton knight was defeated. Solaris was the name of empire as well as of capital where Edward Third the Great once ruled. Right now there were only ruins left of that place. It was located far to the west from the tomb. It was not easy to get there. Rin went to the west once but it was a long time ago even before she got her unlimited blade skill.

“First one down.”

Although her head was still spinning with aftereffect of using combo skill, Rin started to fight against skeletons once again. The next super skeleton should appear in 18 minutes.

Five skeletons that were left behind finally catch up.

First one thrusted with spear the moment he got in range. Rin parried it with left sword and pierced with another sword into his the neck. The head fall off. Skeleton with large axe jumped from behind and lunched a downward swing. Rin moved back and the only thing that was destroyed by axe were bones of just killed skeletons. Another two skeletons were in range. They swung their swords from two sides at her neck. Rin crouched down to avoid it. Two swords clinched with each other while surrounded by Rin’s red hairs. Rin spin with her body near the ground and slashed both skeletons in half. Now there was a one handed skeleton right before her eyes. As his weapon he had his other hand that fell off. He attacked with it. Rin countered with left sword and destroyed both ‘weapon’ and the user. Then she summoned the red spear above hers head. It flayed to behind her back destroying on its way the leftover skeleton with axe.

Even after destroying those five there already were ten other skeletons out in the field. Their spawn rate was not something designed for solo play but that did not matter to Rin and she once again jumped in the middle of combat. For now, skeleton spawn rate would stay five at the time which would not fill up the space too quickly. Rin would manage to kill enough so the place will not be swarmed by them. At least, for now.

Time passed, number of killed skeletons increased but their number on the field increased as well, although not by much as Rin kept killing each without delay. But then the voice of the king filled the room once again signaling arrival of yet another skeleton knight.

-Assassin, there is a contract for you.

The cover fall from one of the coffin and skeleton emerged from the inside. In comparison to all other skeletons so far this one had clothes equipped. Black clothes completely covered skeleton’s whole body. One could think that it was still living human but if you looked in his eyes you could see characteristic green coating.

-you wish me to fight in a fair fight? … very well.

It looked like this one was not mood to fight fair and square. Still he had to obey the king.

“1/1 for now.”

For Rin it was good that this one come out now. He belonged to second group and should he come later it would be easy to lose sight of him. He was very good at hiding within groups of skeletons even though he was so different from them. If she did lost sight of him she could even be killed.

Black Assassin started to run in Rin’s direction. Before he even reached her, he threw five knifes in Rin’s five viral spots. Rin just move out of the way and also started to move in his direction. When in range, she struck at him with both swords. He out from nowhere had daggers in his hands and parried the attacks. From the middle of his clothes a three hidden knifes fired out. Rin made acrobatic jump upwards but only with lower part of her body. Knifes flew under her. With body weight she pressed down at Assassin’s weapons. Assassin moved back, Rin landed. She summoned few weapons around her and send them flying in various directions. Most of them were for incoming normal skeletons and one flew straight into Assassin. Still the Assassin was not moving for some reason and large red two-handed sword hit right inside his chest. This is how it seemed at first but the sword without any sound just passed through the body which soon turned into black smoke.

Rin looked around slowly but could not catch the glimpse of enemy. Assassin was moving out of her sight without any sound and was coming up closer and closer from somewhere. Rin stopped moving completely. When Assassin was about two meters away from her swords appeared in the space. Compared to previous ones those were flaying at full speed right away the moment they appeared. There were about six of them, Assassin had no chance to defend against them all, still something like that was really hard if not impossible so he took the hit from two swords. When that happened, Rin spinned around and with two long steps reached the assassin skeleton and finished him of with her real swords.

Assassin’s body fell to the ground and green ghost appeared out from it. His face was finally shown.

-it was a shame that I couldn’t slit your throat in sleep. I was Assad, for my king I could become even devil himself.

After saying that, the ghost of assassin took his place next to the king. Second ‘super’ skeleton was defeated without any troubles and Rin was in good form for now.

Because she just used unlimited blade, the number of skeletons dwindled a little so she could even take it easy for a moment. In the first place she shouldn’t be swarmed until sixth or fifth skeleton depending on who comes out.

While fighting, Rin could forget about all that troubled her. There were only her blades and endless amount of enemies to fight against. Even if it was hard, Rin got a lot of pleasure from fighting in this place. Even if there was no experience to get, even if after every defeat she would have to spend ten days in darkness, she really liked this place. Rin once wondered what she will do once she finished this prequest and then the whole quest after it. The only answer that came to her mind was, think about it later. After all there was no need to think about future that may even not come. Also even if she did not have the quest, she could still come back here whenever she wanted.

Time passed and another ‘super’ skeleton appeared. His title was ‘the Archer’ and as his name suggested he used the bow to fight. His specialty was sending numerous of arrows at the same time and those arrows were strong enough to crush the stones walls of the tomb. Still Rin’s artillery was way stronger and there was no reason to hold back her skill on one of the twelve. The range battle started but the number of Rin’s attack was ten times bigger than that of the Archer. Even though his attacks were stronger, Rin’s speed did allow her to dodge them which could not be called the same for the Archer and when it came to Rin’s skill, after one attack hit it was the game over.

In the end Archer got crushed in seconds and revealed his name Ronib. Although he was quite easy he was still in second group as getting him later on would result in hard time getting to him. Rin would still use unlimited blade there but normal skeletons would jump in the way and defend the Archer letting him do as he please. If Rin had to think about it, it was really good thing that skeletons didn’t possess bows with them. The only range ‘weapon’ that they used were their hand that they would throw at her from time to time. The reason for that might be because those soldiers were buried with their swords rather than bow as sword simply possessed more might to it.

After some time once again, the forth skeleton that appeared had title ‘the Paladin’. His name was Hargen and he was really hard to classify for Rin. He ended up in group 1 in the end but he was on level that was way different than the others.

Rin was spinning like hurricane destroying masses of skeletons that were in her way. Paladin with his large hammer started coming her way. She summoned one blade which without delay flew in his direction. Even though number of skeletons as of now was hard to count on one glance, she could see the green light around the Paladin. Paladin didn’t even bother to dodge the sword and just took the hit.

-your sorcery will not work against me as goddess Elssa will protect the faithful. Holy light. AAA…!

The moment Paladin was surrounded by yellow light he started to scream in anguish. He took a lot of damage not because of Rin but his own doing. After all, holy spells were the best way to deal with any kind of undead monsters which he now became. Paladin survived first holy light but he didn’t learn from it and tried to use it again and again until his bones turned into ashes. Green ghost said his last words.

-I must have lost your providence goddess Elssa. I was Hargen and I am the sinner. My king was more important to me than gods themselves.

Yes the Paladin was on way different level than anyone else in first group. All you needed was one hit. The problem for Rin to group him was because, should she even consider him as ‘easy to deal with’ or should she group him up with normal skeletons. There was also option of creating fourth group which would be called skeletons with special needs.

In the end the moral was that skeletons and Paladins just didn’t go the same way.

Now that the fourth ‘super’ skeleton was dealt with there was only one spot that would allow Rin to fight in rather clear area, after that the spawn rate would increase and before six one came out it would be half way full. There were still three skeletons left in second group and two of them were good on open fields. They were horse-rider and chain-wilder. If they don’t come out next turn they will be automatically moved to group one. Then there was one that was bad at open fields ‘the Commander’ but he was really troublesome should he appear afterwards.

“It would be good if I got Shepard before it goes out of hand. Still if I don’t get Victoria in next turn it will be bad to fight against her later. It would be good if she was next.”

Rin had quite hopes to her next opponent to be Victoria. Even if it was random, Victoria mostly appeared on fifth, sixth or seventh turn so Rin believed that she could expect her to be coming soon.

“I didn’t see her in the while so the chances should be high… no it is wrong, I want him. As long as I won’t defeat him I will never get done with this place.”

Rin manner of thinking was kind towards skeletons as if they were her friends. She didn’t use their titles but rather their names. Especially she liked Victoria the Wind-walker. Seeing a female knight with that kind of strength, Rin could sometimes imagine herself like that. Their fighting styles were also similar apart from the fact that Victoria did not have unlimited blade skill. Rin loved fights against her the most. She knew that it was impossible but if she could, she wanted to speak with her, not just listen to few ending words. Still it was impossible as Victoria was a ghost. Rin’s mission was to fight her but even that fighting was some kind of communication.

Yes, ghost of skeletons were like friends to her. She would even sometimes pity the Paladin for his auto destruction. She even liked the assassin who would say things like ‘slit your throat in a sleep’ or ‘put the poison into your food’. He just had some personality problem that all. Still there was one that she could not befriend.

“He is the enemy, the one that I have to destroy, no matter the cost.”

The one that name was still unknown, the one that was her nemesis, and the one that decimated her every time he appeared. The champion.

During those 18 minutes after the Paladin, Rin thoughts were only filled with desire to fight him. Fight against him would be the most precious experience she could get right now. This fight would lead her to victory over this challenge one day. The fight that would allow her to pass her limits.

Surrounded by skeletons Rin was slashing them left and right. Dodging incoming attacks and spinning like hurricane, but she was not focused on fight anymore.

“Come! I want to fight you!”

Another skeleton lost his head.

“This time I will win.”

Rin parried one attack and push the skeleton sword so hard that it detached his hand.

“Come! I want to fight you!”

The parried sword flew and destroyed yet another skeleton that was behind him.

“This time I will found out your name.”

Rin could fell that twenty minutes will pass soon.

“Come! I want to fight you!”

[Hurricane]

She started to spin once again. Using it as skill, gave her more speed than if she just copied it, it also created a tornado effect around her that replied all attacks. With it she cleaned about twelve skeletons that surrounded her in manner of few seconds.

“This time…”

Her thoughts stopped and turned into the words just a few seconds before ghost of the king spoke the name of next skeleton.

-this time I don’t feel like winning. Please don’t come out!

-the mightiest champion of our empire, your king calls for you.

The cracking sound came from the coffin on the right side next to the king. The cover fell down. The knight in full crimson plate armor came out from it. Just like Assassin this one was completely covered in armor. There was no sign of green mist from him. On the helmet there was linear opening at the high of the eyes but it was completely dark inside. On his back, the champion had large crimson two handed sword. For the note, Rin’s weapons were also in similar color and she even had two handed sword in her collection but if someone were to compare those two weapons, Rin’s one would at best be called a toothpick.

-I will not fail you my king, never again.

Rin took out a purple potion from the inside of her clothes. She drink it up and then.

[Unlimited blade. Stage three. Golden Gate]

Golden gate appeared behind Rin. That was how skill described it. It’s true form however was just golden colored mist with range of two meters in each direction from Rin. It was filling the tomb up to the celling. Also it covered most part with its width.

The last stage of unlimited blade that Rin could use ‘Golden gate’. It allowed her to summon way more blades the previously. Their speed when they fire up from the inside would increase. Their durability would become just as the originals. Controlling the gate was also easier than summoning weapons in a normal way. Still using it cost a lot of mana and Rin wouldn’t be able to keep it up for too long but that wasn’t important at all.

Rin would sometimes use this skill to completely clean up whole tomb. With this skill it took no more than five seconds to destroy every single skeleton inside even if there was thousands of them. Right now there were about twenty skeletons out in the open and there were also another five coming out but there was no need to deal with them. They would not interfere in the fight any longer, they would just stay and watch sometimes even go back, that was because ‘he’ did not need help.

Even after using her best ability and using best stat potion available on the market Rin started to shiver. It was shiver caused by ‘fear and despair’ that was coming her way, he walking slowly with two handed sword already in his hands. But it was also shiver of excitement. After all it was the first time she fought against him in situation like this where she was in quite good condition. Last skeleton was Paladin the easiest of all super skeletons. Previous ones also didn’t give her much trouble. Also this was only her fifth opponent so far. Little more than an hour passed so far, she couldn’t ask for better condition than that.

-even if I didn’t want you to come, you still did that. You will regret this decision.

The champion did not respond to Rin’s words and continued to walk slowly. He was still about five meters away from her but Rin didn’t plan to wait for him.

Ruby blades started to pour out from golden gate like rain. All weapons had just one target and that was the nameless knight.

Seeing this knight started to move quicker. He didn’t go forward in Rin’s direction but he run in large circle around her. Even if he was running while holding his sword he could repel incoming attacks. Should Rin try to change their direction, he would see through it and change his direction as well. Still he would not be fast enough to avoid all of those attacks, only Victoria could manage to do it and Rin knew it. What was champion doing right now was learning how the ability works and how to counter it and he was doing it from the save distance of five meters. Rin definitely didn’t want to let him do that. It was she who started to move in his direction and the golden gate followed her body.

As the blades were falling on the ground with incredible speed, seconds after they made damage to it they would disappear with a sound of broken glass. There was no reason to maintain them and there were others that would take their place second after.

Seeing that he will no longer be able to dodge them all, the champion stopped running and took defensive position with his sword. Even if it was a large weapon it could not bounce that amount of weapons that were fired at him but the champion had a technique to counter Rin’s storm of swords. He started spinning his sword and while it was spinning it was making the illusion of large shield. It also started cutting down the ground as well as the celling. At start it was destroying every weapon that come in contact with it but that was just the beginning. The full effect came soon after and the spinning sword created a wind that started to destroy Rin’s weapons even before them came in contact with the sword. Some weapons would lost their momentum and fall on the ground instead of breaking.

Rin continued to send the swords flaying. For Rin it was not scary that he had a technique like that, she seen it before and she even knew that it will end in few seconds.

“It’s not scary that he can perform something like that.”

Just as she knew it will, the skill stopped. With last wind burst the swords gave the champion some breathing room and this time he went straight for Rin after just two fast steps the swords that were endlessly pouring from the gate finally catch up to him and hit right into his body. But the effect was nothing.

“The real scary thing is that you even bother to use that. You go around maintaining the distance. You avoid getting hit. When it stop working, you have incredible technique to counter hundreds of blades coming your way. But why do you bother if you can do this.”

The knight was coming her way and nothing could stop him. The red blades that hit him either bounced or disappeared with a sound of broken glass. Rin was moving backward to greaten the distance. Even if there was no effect to be seen, the swords were hitting him so he should take some damage from it. In comparison to level under 100, monsters from ‘land of fighters’ did not show their HP. Same went for player, he could not see his hp mana or stamina any longer. Player had to rally on what he sees and feels. That system made it especially hard for healers which in previous games in every fight were focused on bars of people hp rather than what was really happening around them.

Rin could not see HP of Champion going down but she had to believe that it was. Even a small amount would be fine with numbers of hits she dealt him. It would eventually lead to his death.

Still the Champion was moving forward like nothing, he wasn’t even slowed down by all it.

Even if unlimited blade was a great skill Rin’s own fighting skills that she learned in real life were her best weapon but she would not use it here not against him. She long lost willpower to stand and fight against him again with her own hands.

Rin was trying to make more distance by walking back but Champion’s run was faster than her moving backward. Even if blades still continued to pour from the gate it was time for melee combat.

Rin’s focus was entirely on dodging right now.

“One hit from this large sword and I am dead.”

Even though fear dulled her movements, Rin was still expert of dodging and it was hard to find anyone better than her in it.

First attack, champion thrusted his sword forward, Rin dodged it to the left by hair. Before the sword even stopped it change its position and the blade was again coming in Rin direction. Seeing it Rin read incoming attack and bent backward the sword flew right before her eyes. After quick bend back she could see that it was not the over yet. Another attack from the same position was about to happen.

The sword spin around the Champion but he did not spin himself. Never losing his eyes from opponent while it was about to get behind his back he let go of the sword with one hand and with seconds he switch it in a way that sword did not lose any of its momentum.

This time attack was coming at the legs. It was about three seconds after the previous on. There really was no delay. Without alternative Rin jumped up and the sword went above her. But that was the moment the Champion waited for. His gigantic sword became surrounded by dark energy. When it went backward, the Champion stopped it for a second. More and more energy was gathering. Even if he stopped there still was no enough time for Rin to even land back.

With all accumulated energy the Champion swung his sword through the ground cutting while cutting it like butter. Seeing this Rin, still in midair thrusted her swords into the ground and pulled them to get out from attack range. Master of dodge title was not for nothing and the sword filled with dark energy did not reach her.

Rin landed on the ground. She didn’t fall but managed to land on knees. She pulled out the swords from the ground and looked back to where the champion was.

The sword was no longer covered in black energy but that attack was not for nothing. Even if it did not cut Rin it cut something else.

“That cannot be true.”

She though after seeing what happened. The last attack cut through her golden gate. Blades stop coming out from it and golden mist was slowly disappearing starting in the place where the cut was made.

The golden gate, the last stage of unlimited blade known to Rin, even she herself could not touch it and when she tried her hand just go through it and appear at the other side. If it cannot be touched it should be impossible to destroy it, that were Rin’s thoughts and yet the Champion managed to do it.

Rin lost all ways of reasoning at that moment and started desperate attack.

[Lighting speed]

[Hurricane]

She started to spin and was coming in champion direction. He however just swung his sword with one hand. The moment his crimson sword came in contact with Rin’s combo skill, Rin was sent flaying to the middle of the tomb where she felt on the ground. With simple swing her combo skill was broken.

Even though there was no serious damage, Rin could no longer get back on her feet. Storm of blades from golden gate was her only idea to defeat this enemy. The moment it was broken she realized that she has no chance of winning. No, rather she knew it even before fight started or maybe even before she entered this tomb.

Rin was still holding her swords but her legs did no longer listen to her. They were shivering in fear and despair.

The champion was slowly walking towards her, dragging his sword on the ground with right hand. Even though there were few debts in his crimson armor signaling that her skill made some damage she could not see it.

-don’t come! Stay away!

Rin shouted in desperate voice but the crimson knight did not listen and continued his march. With last inches of will Rin summoned few blades above her and send them flaying one at the time to stop him but what could have that done if thousands of others did not help. Blades disappeared in sound of broken glass the moment they come in contact with Champion’s armor.

Now he was staying right in front of Rin who was sitting on her knees but still holding two ruby swords in her hands.

The champion bended down and catch her by neck with his free hand. He lifted her up like this.

“-let me go!”

She tried to shout but the voice did not come out from her throat. At the same time she swung with her right hand. The sword made contact with enemy helmet but it just bounced off. This attack had not strength behind it at all.

With this Rin finally let go off her swords in both hands they both fell to the ground.

“So that’s how it feels, having nothing in hands.”

Since she switched from spear to swords at the start of fight she was holding them hard nonstop up to this point. Her hands forgotten their natural state even after letting go of swords, they were still in position like if they were still holding them. But there was nothing left she could do now.

Champion’s sword went into her belly and appeared at the other side. The crimson sword emerged from her scarlet hairs. From afar it would feel like it was its most natural place to be in. Like that sword was destined to go through this body.

Although she could feel incredible pain right now she did not scream. She could not even do it as her throat was already destroyed by Champion’s grip. Now she was just looking at the opponent that just killed her. Even if his Armor had few dents the helmet stayed the same. Inside the vision line she could finally see the green mist, a characteristics of skeleton knights. After all, he was the same as them, he also had a name but she would not find out what it is. At least not today.

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