When I approached the skeleton knight, he kept his gaze fixed on me. The bright red light emanating from his lifeless eyes conveyed no emotion, making it difficult to understand what exactly he was thinking. It was equally challenging to predict his next actions.
There were no heartbeats or breaths for me to anticipate his moves. All I could do was watch his movements closely and, based on that, try to anticipate his next steps.
With this thought in mind, I dismounted from Glasy and gave her a gentle tap on the head. In response, Glasy withdrew into my shadow and disappeared from the scene. Upon realizing this, the skeleton knight looked around, probably trying to figure out Glasy's whereabouts. However, unless he had some affinity for dark magic, this task would be practically impossible.
"It's time to begin"
Saying these words, I drew my sword from storage and advanced slowly toward the skeleton knight. As soon as I took the first step, the skeleton knight interrupted his visual search and focused his red eyes directly on me. It seemed he finally had my full attention.
"Shadow teleport"
As I uttered these words, my focus quickly shifted to the back of the skeleton knight. With a precise motion, I struck at him with my sword. However, to my surprise, his sword managed to intercept mine.
(How on earth did he predict that? Does he have eyes in the back of his head or something?)
Amidst my thoughts, the skeleton knight turned his head in my direction, but his body remained unchanged, creating a rather grotesque scene with his head twisted backward while his body stayed forward.
Afterward, I continued to use shadow teleport while striking at the skeleton knight: from above, from below, from the sides, diagonally, and from the front. However, all my strikes were thwarted by the monster. It was quite evident that he had much more skill with a sword than I did.
Biting my lip, I whistled loudly, causing the shadow on the other side of the monster to distort. Since his sword was still focused on me, his back was vulnerable. At that moment, Glasy leaped out of the shadow and bit the skeleton's arm.
Afterward, little by little, starting from where Glasy was biting him, the skeleton's arm began to freeze. In no time, his whole body would be frozen. All I needed to do was hold him off long enough for that to happen.
But as soon as he realized he was cornered, something strange began to occur. The horse, which had remained motionless until now, suddenly raised its head and opened its mouth. After that, the entire horse's body started emitting green flames.
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"Glasy, LET GO!"
Hearing my command, Glasy quickly stopped biting the skeleton knight and retreated. Thinking to do the same, I sheathed my sword and stepped back, but unfortunately, I wasn't fast enough, and one of my arms was hit by the green fire. Strangely, the green fire wasn't hot, in fact, I felt nothing in my arm that had been touched by the flames. It was as if the entire movement of my arm had been severed.
Glasy, on the other hand, seemed to have emerged unscathed. Meanwhile, the horse continued to emit constant green flames from its body. To be honest, this would make approaching quite difficult, as getting hit by those flames was certainly something I needed to avoid at all costs.
(But what on earth are these flames? Even with my healing ability, the movement in my arm doesn't want to come back)
But even with all the adversities, we still had a chance. Inside the armor that the skeleton knight wore, more precisely in the chest where his heart should have been, there was something pulsating and red, resembling a crystal. My awareness of weak points was constantly telling me to hit that spot.
(Even though I know his weak point, I can't get close because of the fire)
As I pondered this, Glasy was already back by my side, waiting for further instructions. However, to be honest, I was a bit lost on what to do next.
(Plus, it would be foolish to get close to him, aware that if I touched the horse's flames, I could end up losing even more mobility in my body)
While pondering this, an idea came to my mind.
(Actually, maybe it wasn't necessary to get close to him. After all, I didn't possess a perfect ability to deal with this situation?)
A smile lit up my face when this thought crossed my mind.
"Cloning"
As soon as I uttered those words, three copies of me instantly appeared. Each of them began to encircle the skeleton knight. Meanwhile, he looked around, staring at each of my clones one by one. Although it was hard to believe, it seemed like he could no longer distinguish which one of us was the real one, or maybe even suspected that all of us were real. In fact, this was perfect for me.
"Get him"
The moment those words left my mouth, the three clones sprang into action. One of them disappeared from the skeleton knight's view, causing him to turn his head and scan the surroundings. He may have thought that nothing would happen since his horse continued to spew flames, but he was completely wrong.
The second clone, using my Steel Thread ability, wrapped around the horse's feet, which promptly reacted by shooting its green fire through the thread. The attack hit my clone, but unfortunately for the horse, it had no effect. By pulling the thread downward, the horse fell to the ground, taking the skeleton knight with it.
With both of them on the ground, my clone that had disappeared reappeared, but its form was completely altered. An immense dragon emerged from the shadows, as if it had escaped from hell itself. As soon as its entire body freed itself from the ground, the dragon bit into the horse and began to chew on it. Even though traces of the green fire were still visible, it didn't seem to affect the dragon in any way.
In the end, the confrontation came to an end when my sword pierced the crystal heart of the skeleton knight. His eyes, which had previously shone intensely in red, lost their luster and became dark and dull as the skeleton collapsed to the ground.