Bone Forger walked towards the distant Ash Spider Queen slowly while activating his various skills.
Bone Puppetry!
All the Ash Spider Lord corpses that had not been reanimated by Kaius began to move in a stiff manner. Over 70 Ash Spider Lord puppets had gathered around Bone Forger.
Bone Forging!
The exoskeletons of a dozen Ash Spider Lord puppets were ripped off by Bone Forger. Their bodies got torn into pieces, causing green blood and guts to splatter all over the ground.
HAAAAAA!
Bone Forger breathed out blue flames from his mouth and smelted all the exoskeletons. His bony hands expertly tempered with the melted exoskeletons and molded them into the shape of a six-meter-long halberd.
FUUUUUU!
Bone Forger breathed out a breath of cold air and dispelled the smoldering heat from the halberd. He gripped the halberd with a satisfied expression and ran towards the Ash Spider Queen. The remaining 60 Ash Spider Lord puppets followed behind him.
Skree!
The Ash Spider Queen noticed the incoming Bone Forger and shot out her reinforced spider silk from a distance.
Clank! Clank! Clank!
Bone Forger wielded his halberd with great proficiency and deflected the lightning-fast attacks of the reinforced spider silk without stopping.
Seeing Bone Forger come closer, the Ash Spider Queen inhaled deeply and breathed out massive amounts of dark green gas that blew towards him.
Bone Refinement!
Bone Forger cast the skill on himself. The pale blue flames inside his eye sockets expanded and wrapped around his body. His entire being was slowly getting tempered and refined by the pale blue flame, growing stronger every 15 seconds. With his entire body cloaked in flames, Bone Forger charged into the Poison Bog without hesitation.
Sizzle! Sizzle!
The pale blue flames that covered Bone Forger’s entire body burned away all the poisonous gas that came in contact with him, rendering its harmful effects useless. With large, powerful strides, Bone Forger quickly sprinted across the 1km radius of the Poison Bog.
Thump!
Taking a heavy step, Bone Forger leapt into the air and emerged from the poisonous gas. He gripped the halberd tightly with both of his hands and hacked down at the Ash Spider Queen with all his might.
Bam!
The halberd struck the empty ground and created a small crater with its destructive force. Grass and dirt flew everywhere. The Ash Spider Queen managed to jump back at the last second and evaded the heavy strike using her superior speed.
The two rank 2s stood only a few dozen meters away and stared at each other with a solemn gaze.
Bone Forger examined his opponent closely and taunted, “A queen that let her brood die first is no queen… You… are a weakling and a coward…”
SKREE!!!
The Ash Spider Queen let out a furious screech upon hearing Bone Forger’s provocation. She produced another strand of reinforced spider silk and whipped it at Bone Forger with lightning speed.
Slash!
The reinforced spider silk was too fast for Bone Forger to react to and sliced through the crimson armor on his body. However, with much of its force reduced by the armor, the reinforced spider silk only left a shallow mark on Bone Forger’s body.
“Hmph! Get over here!” Bone Forger snorted coldly and grabbed the reinforced spider silk with one hand. With a forceful pull, he sent the Ash Spider Queen into the air and caused her to fly towards him.
Skree!
The airborne Ash Spider Queen let out a vicious screech and aimed her legs at Bone Forger, ready to pierce his body.
Bone Forger held up his halberd over his head and swung down at the incoming Ash Spider Queen.
Boom!
The Ash Spider Queen’s legs clashed against the halberd, but she lost out in the exchange and was sent flying. She stabbed her legs into the ground and skidded backwards dozens of meters before she came to a stop.
Skree!
The Ash Spider Queen stared at Bone Forger and let out an angry screech. She rushed towards him, hoping to use her superior speed to her advantage.
When the two were only a few meters away, the Ash Spider Queen leapt at Bone Forger and struck out with her razor-sharp legs.
Bone Forger slashed horizontally with his halberd to meet the incoming attack. However, while his attention was focused on the spider legs, the Ash Spider Queen snuck out her reinforced spider silk and wrapped it around his ankle. With a forceful tug, the Ash Spider Queen caused Bone Forger to lose balance momentarily.
Clank! Clank!
The Ash Spider Queen deflected Bone Forgers halberd attack with her front four legs. Since he was pulled off balance, the Ash Spider Queen crashed into Bone Forger and pinned him down with her other four legs.
Clank! Clank! Clank!
The Ash Spider Queen stabbed violently at Bone Forger. His crimson armor was being shredded at a rapid pace.
Bone Forger tried to deflect some of the attacks with his halberd, but two hands were no match for four legs.
“Annoying bug…” Bone Forger defended the fierce attacks calmly while cursing the giant spider. A large part of his crimson armor had been ripped off, revealing his skeletal body underneath.
The Ash Spider Queen focused her aim and stabbed down at a single point on Bone Forger’s skeletal body. Bone Forger tried to deflect the concentrated attack with his halberd. At the last moment, only two of the Ash Spider Queen’s legs struck the halberd, the other two legs were a faint and struck at his arms instead.
The Ash Spider Queen stabbed between the two bones in Bone Forger’s forearm and pinned both arms against the ground. Raising her two other forelegs high up, she slashed down with all her might, wanting to severe his skull from his spine.
Right when the Ash Spider Queen’s two legs were inches away from Bone Forger’s neckbone, she felt numerous touches against her body. Looking back, she saw dozens of strands of spider silk had stuck to her body.
The 60 Ash Spider Lord puppets had quietly surrounded the Ash Spider Queen while she was busy attacking the Bone Forger that got pinned down under her.
All 60 Ash Spider Lord puppets pull hard on the spider silk that were stuck to the Ash Spider Queen, sending her tumbling backwards along the ground.
Not giving her a moment to stabilize, the 60 Ash Spider Lord puppets rushed towards the Ash Spider Queen without any regard for their own lives.
Skree!
The Ash Spider Queen let out an infuriated screech mid-tumbling and whipped her reinforced spider silk around.
Slash! Slash!
Over a dozen Ash Spider Lord puppets got sliced in half in the blink of an eye. However, their half corpses continued to crawl towards her. The remaining Ash Spider Lord puppets continued to rush forward and managed to get into close proximity to the Ash Spider Queen.
The Ash Spider Queen felt something wasn’t right and did a full sweeping motion with her reinforced spider silk. Dozens of Ash Spider Lord puppets couldn’t dodge in time and got bisected in half.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The surviving Ash Spider Lord puppets finally got close enough and pounced on the Ash Spider Queen. Behind them, they had shot out spider silk and dragged the half corpses of their fallen brethren with them.
Alarm bells suddenly rang out inside the Ash Spider Queen’s head as she witnessed the odd actions of the Ash Spider Lord puppets. She wanted to jump away from their encirclement, but she was a split second too late.
Corpse Explosion!
Boom!
A huge explosion engulfed the Ash Spider Queen. The devastating destructive force from 60 rank 1 corpses sent a huge mushroom cloud into the air. Even Bone Forger, who had retreated quite some distance away, got pushed back dozens of steps by the shockwave.
Some time earlier, while the Ash Spider Lord puppets were executing their commands, Kaius took a risk and snuck his way into the battlefield to explode all their corpses.
As Kaius waited for all the smoke and debris to clear, he further enhanced Bone Forger with his buff spells.
Nether Lord’s Aura!
Corrosive Nether Domain!
Seconds passed by like hours.
After a short while, half of the smoke had finally cleared. A blurry figure could be seen lying motionlessly on the ground.
Kaius frowned at the lack of System notifications and retreated. If the Ash Spider Queen had truly died, he should have gained enough experience to level up.
After waiting for a while longer, all the smoke had finally cleared. The hollowed husk of the Ash Spider Queen could be seen.
A strong wind blew past and scattered the hollowed husk into a cloud of ash. The wind coincidentally blew the cloud of ash towards Bone Forger.
Bone Forger tightened his grip on his halberd and heightened his vigilance towards his surroundings.
The cloud of ash floated slowly and harmlessly past Bone Forger. All of a sudden, a portion of the ash cloud condensed and formed into the shape of a large spider leg. The spider leg hacked down swiftly at Bone Forger’s back.
Bam!
Bone Forger couldn’t react in time and got sent tumbling face first into the ground. A long cut could be seen on the crimson armor that was protecting his back.
While Bone Forger was trying to get back up, the rest of the ash cloud continued to condense and solidified into the shape of the Ash Spider Queen. Her entire body was hollow. The shimmering light of a small round core could be seen inside her head through her empty eye sockets.
Back when the Ash Spider Queen got caught in the middle of the massive explosion, she activated her innate ability at the last moment. She gathered all her life force and condensed it into a tiny core. At the same time, her flesh body transformed into an entity that was made entirely out of ash. Layers and layers of thick ash had solidified around the core during the explosion and protected it. As long as the core was intact, the Ash Spider Queen would be indestructible.
The downside was the core burned the life force of the Ash Spider Queen as fuel. Once all the life force was used up, the Ash Spider Queen would die; however, she had the ability to transform the core back to her original flesh form anytime. It was a last resort innate ability that harmed oneself in order to take down the enemy.
Bone Forger got up and turned to face the Ash Spider Queen in her new form. Then he spoke in a mocking tone, “The final struggles of a dying bug…”
The Ash Spider Queen became incensed by the taunt. She transformed her body into a cloud of ash once more and flew towards Bone Forger.
Bone Forger readied his halberd and slashed horizontally across the incoming cloud of ash. Thick layers of ash obscured the location of the core, causing Bone Forger’s attack to pass through harmlessly.
The cloud of ash surrounded Bone Forger completely and condensed into the Ash Spider Queen’s spider form.
The Ash Spider Queen curled all eight legs around Bone Forger’s body. Her razor-sharp legs pierced through his tattered crimson armor and tore its remaining parts into shreds. With nothing left to protect Bone Forger, the Ash Spider Queen’s legs tightened around his body and began to dig into his spine. Tiny cracks were starting to appear on Bone Forger’s skeletal body.
“Paltry bug… get off!” Bone Forger felt threatened by the Ash Spider Queen for the first time.
Bone Forging!
Bone Forger acted ruthlessly to himself and snapped off one of his own ribs. Within seconds, the broken rib got forged into a small dagger. Bone Forger reached behind and stabbed the dagger straight into the Ash Spider Queen’s head.
Poof!
The Ash Spider Queen’s body turned back into a cloud of ash in order to move the core out of harm’s way. Taking this opportunity, Bone Forger quickly leapt forward to create some distance from the cloud of ash. Turning around, Bone Forger threw his dagger at the most condensed part of the ash cloud.
Clank!
The dagger slashed through layers of condensed ash and revealed a small portion of the core. However, countless specks of ash quickly refilled the opening within seconds.
Bone Forger stared at the cloud of ash and frowned deeply. On the one hand, his speed was not fast enough to be able to hit the core in a frontal confrontation. While on the other hand, he was not confident that he would be able to last until the Ash Spider Queen’s life force ran out.
“Master… I request a slight distraction…” Bone Forger shouted at the faraway Kaius. However, before he could speak further, the cloud of ash was already floating towards him at breakneck speed.
Instead of fighting back, Bone Forger chose to retreat. However, the cloud of ash was closing in on him rapidly.
The cloud of ash condensed parts of it into spider legs and stabbed at Bone Forger from odd angles.
Sensing danger, Bone Forger turned around and tried to block the attacks with his halberd.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Several attacks slipped through Bone Forger’s defense and sent him tumbling along the ground. Small bits of bone could be seen flying off from his body, causing the tiny cracks on his body to become slightly larger.
Just when Bone Forger was about to get up, he felt danger descend upon him from above. He quickly ducked and rolled to the side.
Whoosh!
Eight spider legs slashed the spot that Bone Forger was at just half a second ago.
Bone Forger looked up and saw the cloud of ash had transformed back into spider form. Without hesitation, he picked up his halberd and threw it towards the spider’s head with all his strength.
The halberd made a sharp whistling sound as it soared through the air at lightning speed.
Poof!
The halberd penetrated the spider head and caused it to explode into a million specks of ash.
Bone Forger got excited and thought he had finally hit the location of the core when the specks of ash reformed back into a spider head once more.
“The core… it’s not in the head this time…!” Bone Forger realized he had been tricked by the Ash Spider Queen since the start. She purposely displayed the core in her head in the beginning to make him think the core was there. Then, she further reinforced that line of thought when she scattered her body to avoid Bone Forger’s dagger attack earlier.
The spider form of the Ash Spider Queen pounced on the weaponless Bone Forger.
Bam!
Bone Forger got knocked down onto the ground. Two razor-sharp spider legs went straight for his skull, trying to split it apart. Bone Forger managed to grab onto the two spider legs at the last moment and was struggling to pry them away.
However, two hands could not beat eight legs. The Ash Spider Queen’s other legs got free rein to wreak havoc on Bone Forger’s body. Small bits of bone were being hacked off every second. The small cracks on certain parts of his body fractured even more under the relentless attacks. The helpless Bone Forger could only take a beating on the ground, suffering more and more damage to his body.
While the Ash Spider Queen was tunnel visioning on breaking apart Bone Forger’s body, several reanimated Ash Spider Lords were sneakily making their way towards her. Once they got close enough, they launched themselves towards her back without regard for their own safety. Sensing danger, the Ash Spider Queen immediately transformed back into a cloud of ash and condensed layers of ash around the core that hid in its abdomen.
Corpse Explosion!
Four of the reanimated Ash Spider Lords that were the closest to the Ash Spider Queen exploded their bodies and engulfed the cloud of ash completely. Although Bone Forger also got caught in the explosion radius, the cloud of ash took on most of the explosive force.
The reanimated Ash Spider Lords that were further away sprayed out spider silk at Bone Forger and dragged him away. Then, they continued to make their way towards the explosion and threw themselves inside.
Corpse Explosion!
Corpse Explosion!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
From far away, Kaius continued to explode the corpses of his reanimated Ash Spider Lords as soon as they entered the ongoing explosion. Although he knew it wasn’t enough to harm the Ash Spider Queen in her ash form, it was enough to buy some time.
Under the cover of the continuous explosions, a severely injured Bone Forger finally retreated to a safe distance. The pale blue flames inside his eye sockets had turned dim and he struggled to pull himself up. He knelt on one knee and watched as one Ash Spider Lord after another gave up their own lives in order to provide him this small window of opportunity. Bone Forger calmed himself and began to chant an incantation.
I am the forger of bones.
Bone is my body and bone is my blood.
I have forged over a thousand bones.
Bones in Death,
And Bones in Life.
Have withstood pain to forge many bones.
Yet, these bones will never hold anything.
So as I pray, Unlimited Bone Works!
BOOM!!!
The loud rumbling of thunder reverberated across the sky like the ear-shattering roar of an enraged dragon. Lightning crackled and danced around the clouds, as though trying to tear apart the very fabric of reality. The illusory image of a world of infinite bones appeared in the sky. As it descended upon the earth, it brought with it the resentful wailings of countless souls whose bones were devoured by this merciless world.
The illusory world of infinite bones imprinted itself onto the earth and became a reality. An impenetrable dome of bones rose up and blocked off everything from the outside world within a five-kilometer radius. Bones of all sizes were embedded halfway into the ground and spread out as far as the eye can see. A gigantic forge could be seen in the far distance. The sound of a hammer striking an anvil echoed endlessly across this desolate land.
Inside his own world, the dim flames inside Bone Forger’s eye sockets started to burn with great intensity once more.
Infinite Bone Control!
Bone Absorption!
Countless bones that were embedded into the ground flew towards Bone Forger through telekinesis and merged with his body. His damaged skeletal body began to heal up at a rapid rate.
Feeling his strength restored and then elevated to its peak, Bone Forger slowly stood up and faced the Ash Spider Queen that had just endured the final Corpse Explosion.
The thick layers of ash that had perfectly protected the core from all the explosions had transformed back into spider form.
Feeling threatened, the Ash Spider Queen turned tail and fled in the opposite direction. She wanted nothing more than to escape from the boundaries of this infinite bone world.
Bone Forger did not give chase; instead, he casually strolled forward.
“Foolish bug…”
The pale blue flames inside Bone Forger’s eye sockets burned brightly. Ten thousand bones shot out from the ground and hovered in the air around him.
“The only way to escape my world…”
Bone Forging!
The ten thousand bones were instantly forged into replicas of famous weapons such as Ea, Gae Bolg, and Excalibur.
“Is through death…”
Bone Forger waved his hand towards the fleeing Ash Spider Queen.
“Now DIE!”
Ten thousand bone weapons soared through the air at lightning speed and poured down on the Ash Spider Queen like a torrent of blades.