Spirit Soul

Several days had already passed since Kyle had entered the giant maze that seemed to be endless.

In these days he had encountered dozens of more or less deadly traps.

Not just traps but he had also come across hundreds of Skeletons and Ghouls at the Low and Mid Fortification stage.

Thus, by now he was accustomed to his surroundings.

Not many things had changed during the last few days. Yet what had happened when the first change occurred was not something Kyle had expected.

First, he had entered a small open patch of land in the middle of the maze.

It was more than a hundred meters in length and width.

There was no nature at all, and everything was made of the same stones as the maze's walls.

However, there were a few particular things that were easily discovered.

On that piece of land, he could see several collapsed and ancient-looking houses.

Time seemed to have degraded them and the once tall houses were merely reduced to pillars and broken pieces of walls.

But, what caught his eye amidst this desolation was that there were gigantic black boned Skeletons.

Their soul flames were fiery red.

This combination looked deadly and eerie at the same time.

By, using his Nurture ability as well as his perception, Kyle could determine that the Skeletons were at the Late Fortification stage.

He assumed that they were weaker than the Undead Giant too because they didn't release the same dangerous death aura.

To his relief, the pressure weighing him down in the presence of the Black Skeletons wasn't that high.

Thus, he was able to retain his calm as Arashi jumped from his shoulder, ready to fight by his side.

There were a total of four black Skeletons.

And, each was in front of one of the small field's entrances, blocking the advance.

He was not sure if there were more Black Skeletons lurking on the sides of the pathway.

But to do that, he would have to leave the safe path and inspect the entire field thoroughly.

But Kyle simply assumed that there were a total of six opponents at the Late Fortification stage.

However, that didn't bother Kyle at all. Instead, he was quite glad to see a change which made him feel more excited than he was supposed to be.

During the last few days, he had always grumbled about the repetitive challenges and undeads that bored him to death.

He found it annoying to not spot even a single living being yet.

Thus now even deadly traps in addition to masses of opponents made him feel excited.

As such, it was only obvious that Kyle was happy to encounter the first big change in front of him.

Kyle knew that his behavior was a little odd, but loneliness had begun to eat away at his heart, trying to break through the walls of sanity.

So the excitement of finding new challenges was an attempt to keep his mind occupied.

Furthermore, it didn't hurt him, rather, it helped him advance.

After all, he had to become stronger to defeat even stronger, and a large number of opponents.

Through this, Kyle could fight even more intense battles than the ones against the Undead Giant.

It had been dangerous, but at the same time, he had learned a lot.

This included the importance of subtle movements and perfect control over his body.

By having perfect control over his body, Kyle knew that he could release and utilize more than 30% of his strength, even if his cultivation base wouldn't change.

This was terrifying, and also the reason why combat masters were able to fight against stronger opponents that used the same martial art technique.

There were still many other factors that came into play while deciding the winning side.

But attaining perfect control over one's body was already an important achievement.

Kyle had yet to achieve this feat, but he had told himself that he would practice more often.

Unfortunately, this was not as easy as it seemed.

He was yet to become proficient in multitasking.

Thus, practicing his martial art techniques while being focused on the maze's traps was not easy.

He could not even continue walking while practicing at his current stage.

Because of that, Kyle was on the lookout for an ideal place to rest for a few days.

And after combing through the space for some time, he seemed to have finally found it.

It laid right in front of him, and the only hurdle was the presence of approximately six opponents at the Late Fortification stage.

Smiling brightly, he eyed the opponents as excitement spread through his body. Kyle had already been waiting for stronger opponents to test himself.

He had been practicing moving without any extravagant or wasted steps.

The previous Skeletons had been too weak of an opponent for him to train against.

Their Undead core had been shattered even before Kyle could test something.

Thus, he unsheathed the Tiola machete, while exerting the Swift Steps movement technique.

After that, he pushed his foot away from the ground, rushing towards the Black Skeleton that was guarding the pathway in front of him.

It hadn't noticed him yet, but the moment its undead eyes fell on Kyle, the fiery red soul flames flared up.

In order to intimidate him and establish its dominance, the Skeleton bashed the longsword it was holding in its right hand on the metal shield is held in the other hand.

It made a loud clanging noise that echoed through the surroundings. But it did little to slow Kyle down.

Seeing that its attempt had failed, it rushed towards Kyle, who was unaffected by the Skeleton's act.

Rather, Kyle had become even calmer, astonishing himself with this as he released his soul force.

After that, he circulated it through his body to attempt accelerating further.

This worked partially, but it was still less efficient than using the same amount of soul force to use the wind affinity with.

As such, Kyle did that and created a wind current that pushed himself ahead.

Just a moment later, he and the Black Skeleton were facing each other, only for a third party to intervene, appearing on Kyle's left side.

It was Arashi, who the Black Skeleton hadn't really noticed before.

Like all his previous opponents, even the Black Skeleton made the fatal mistake of not sensing Arashi's presence.

But, it was because the little fox had mastered the art of stealth and its small size let him suddenly jump out of nowhere, startling their opponents.

His unsuspicious appearance was completely different from his true combat prowess.

By suddenly conjuring several wind blades at once, Arashi wanted to test the black bones' endurance.

A moment after having been shot out, the crescent wind blades collided with the Black Skeleton's sword arm. Clangs and clamors echoed through the air once again, only to disperse shortly after.

Within a single glance, Kyle realized that the black bones were strong, but not comparable to that of the Undead Giant's, which was expected.

Because of that, Arashi's onslaught of wind blades would be enough to cut halfway through the human-like Black Skeleton's bones.

That was great and made many things much easier.

Fighting against a total of six opponents at once was now also less problematic.

Thus, Kyle didn't even grow afraid or nervous to see the approach of the two Black Skeletons he hadn't seen earlier.

His assumption about their total number had been proven correct as one appeared each from the left and right side.

They were also human-like Black Skeletons, holding a longsword and a metal shield.

Thus, all Black Skeletons were exactly the same, and even their mana fluctuations seemed oddly similar.

To Kyle, it felt as if they were the exact same existence, which shouldn't be the case.

According to him, each being had its own respective identity.

Owing to this, every single beast had individual energy fluctuations, which confused Kyle.

However, this confusion didn't last for long. It was easily overwhelmed by his steadily increasing excitement as he exerted the deadly assault technique.

Utilizing his extraordinary speed that was 30% faster than that of the Skeletons', he leaned forward.

Simultaneously, he attacked the Skeleton's sword arm that was already cut halfway through with his Tiola machete.

Yet, instead of focusing on cutting it off, Kyle's decided to do something else.

Seeing the Black Skeleton lifting its shield, he tweaked his attack by twisting his upper body and arm.

His lower body followed suit as he attacked the shield arm from the front.

The entire impact of a being whose physique was much stronger than the Black Skeleton's pushed its left arm back.

This would normally cause a strong impact and lead to tremendous pain, but that was not something Undead beings felt anymore.

Their entire being was just filled with wrath and hatred for the living.

Because the Black Skeleton didn't feel any pain, it attacked Kyle with the longsword it was holding.

Only then did it see that Kyle had already disappeared from the spot he had been standing.

Not even a fraction of a second had passed, but Kyle had already let go of the Tiola Machete that was embedded into the rusty metal shield.

Instead, a heavy, longsword manifested in his hands the moment he emerged below the shield that had been pushed upwards.

Without any delay, Kyle slashed with the longsword, ignoring the Black Skeleton's sword that was approaching him from behind.

In the end, the Black Skeleton was much slower than Kyle's attack, which meant that his longsword would reach the opponent even before the sword would hit him.

Nevertheless, he was still not alone!!

And with Arashi by his side, Kyle wasn't facing any kind of possible problem!

After he had shot the first batch of crescent wind blades, Arashi didn't suddenly stop his attacks and sat back relaxed.

Instead, the Spirit Soul had long since created the second batch of wind blades to attack the Black Skeleton with them.

He had only been waiting for the perfect timing that had arrived owing to the distraction Kyle had caused.

Thus, Arashi shot out the crescent wind blades which released strong energy fluctuations.

Cutting through the air, they pierced into the already injured part of the Black Skeleton's injured arm, finally severing it off.

Owing to this, the Black Skeleton was unable to deflect Kyle's attack that advanced tirelessly, destroying the Skeleton's entire right side as he reached the Undead Core.

The natural endurance of the black bones had lowered considerably because of the longsword's advance. But it was still able to cut into the Undead Core, and finally, defeat the Black Skeleton.

In a last-ditch effort to save itself, the Black Skeleton's fiery red soul flames flaring up, one last time. But, it had been in vain.

At this moment, Kyle turned his head towards the other two Black Skeletons that had witnessed their comrade's death.

This caused their speed to increase further as mana was being circulated through their bone marrow.

Suddenly, just as the Black Skeleton next to him collapsed on the ground, Kyle spotted something far ahead of him.

A pair of glowing, crimson-colored eyes had appeared out of nowhere, right in the center of the ancient houses.

They stared straight at him, only to vanish a moment later.

Silver hair floated through the air, distracting him for a moment before he realized that the two Black Skeletons were already right in front of him.