The skeleton starts choking Alb tightly, wrapping its thin bony fingers around his neck with great force. Alb tries to push it away, but despite being just a skeleton, it's frighteningly strong. Alb finally grabs his iron rod and hits the skeleton's skull until it lets go and falls to the ground. Alb, gasping heavily, tries to catch his breath, but then he hears the sound of the skeleton moving, which makes him ready himself again, gripping the rod and striking the skeleton repeatedly until he completely breaks it. He keeps hitting and hitting until all the bones are shattered. Once he's done, he collapses onto the ground.

But suddenly… a black light emerges from the remains of the skeleton. It starts gathering and swirling around itself, like a black soul escaping from the bones. Alb steps back in fear and tension, watching the light with his yellow eyes filled with anxiety.

"What is this?" Alb mutters to himself nervously.

The black light finally fades, revealing a new form—an ominous figure with arms and legs, but its eyes are glowing with that same black light. The creature stands about 150 cm tall, and its eyes lock onto Alb like prey. It steps toward Alb in measured steps, but at the same time, Alb steps back, preparing himself to both attack and defend.

Then suddenly, the black entity stops advancing, standing still for a moment, staring at Alb in silence… before vanishing just as mysteriously as it had appeared.

"What the hell was that? A spirit or something?" Alb mutters anxiously to himself, looking around. He recalls what Bilo told him earlier about being attacked by a black spirit that took over her body...

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

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"Annoying, annoying, annoying! Everything here is annoying. The humidity is unbearable," Bilo mutters to herself as she looks around. She had entered a place filled with moisture dripping from the ceiling. Even worse, the ceiling is so low and the darkness overwhelming, the only source of light being the lamp she’s holding. The only sound is the squelch of her footsteps in the dampness until suddenly, she hears a creaking sound… It’s coming from a door at the end of the hallway she’s walking down, slightly ajar.

"Is someone inside? It’s probably another kid looking for a file like we are, right? Not a monster… or worse, a spirit… or a zombie… or, or, or…," she thinks nervously, approaching the door until she’s right in front of it, the creaking growing louder. Bilo steps inside slowly, spotting someone wearing a black coat rummaging through the area.

"Freeze!" Bilo commands, shining her light on the person. The figure turns around, revealing the face of a boy with blue eyes, red hair, and pale skin. He’s also a kid, with a tattoo on his neck marked with the number 17. The boy looks startled at first but quickly regains his composure, assessing her. Then, calmly, he says, "Flashlights aren’t exactly threatening weapons."

"Oh, right. But it’s all I’ve got for now, resources are pretty limited here, you know," Bilo responds playfully with a smile, but the red-haired boy remains stoic. He pulls out a gun from his waist and says seriously, "Yeah, but I have one."

"Whoa, whoa, calm down, kid! I was just joking. How about we reset and start from zero?" Bilo says, trying to stay calm but keeping her smile.

"I don’t like zero," the boy replies flatly, pointing the gun at her. In an instant, Bilo uses her shadow magic, tendrils of darkness emerging from her hands and wrapping around the boy’s arms, causing him to drop the gun.

"What the—!" the boy exclaims, startled as he looks at what’s happening. Bilo grabs the gun and smirks, "Never try to mess with witches like me."

The boy pauses for a second, then gives a small smile. "Oh really? Then… didn’t anyone warn you not to mess with a sorcerer too?"

"Hmm? Wait, what?" Bilo barely has time to process this before a blast of red magic hits her. She dodges quickly, but the force of the spell reverberates through the corridor, shaking everything.

Coughing from the dust, Bilo looks around in shock, but the boy is already gone… and he’s taken the gun with him.

"...Well, that was unexpected…"