Eternal Rest

Bones monitored the battle's progress through the Soul Link he had with his golems, frequently shifting his focus between them and relishing the experience. While he would have preferred Murdok not to serve as a perpetual practice target in every battle, he acknowledged the outcome of their skirmish. Both Skully and Murdok performed as instructed, and the lone adventurer left wouldn’t be a challenge for the two of them. It was the confrontation on Harmony's end that truly astonished him.

The two adventurers pursuing her were melee fighters, displaying impressive mastery over their weapons. Their coordination was strong, each careful not to interfere with the other while synchronizing their assaults. After the initial strike, Harmony took a defensive stance, skillfully using the trees for cover and the slick ground to narrowly evade their attacks. It was an unforeseen misstep on her part that caused her to stumble, prompting Bones to focus entirely on her and her actions. The adventurers lunged at her like wolves seeking their prey. However, just as their strikes were about to connect, she vanished in an instant, reappearing three meters behind them, with bolts of lightning crackling around her and violently arcing at her vicinity. The adventurers remained poised to attack as seconds dragged on until one of them crumpled, convulsing, with lightning coursing through his body. The other adventurer slowly turned, straightening his posture. A burn mark marred his chest, and blood dripped from his mouth.

"You witch. How dare you!" he shouted in a furious outburst but remained still. He was unable to move. Simultaneously, Bones collapsed to the ground with a heavy thud. As he observed the unfolding scene through Harmony, her unexpected movement technique disoriented him, leading to his fall. He quickly got back on his feet and made his way towards Harmony while swearing and futilely trying to shake the mud off his clothes.

A distant clanking of weapons echoed for a moment, followed by anguished cries that were suddenly silenced.

"It appears they wrapped things up over there; it’s just you now…" Bones remarked as he halted next to Harmony and faced the last surviving adventurer.

"I can make this quick, or would you rather struggle until the very end?" Bones suggested.

"That's not much of a proposition. They call me 'Ironhide,' and I believe I’ll choose my own fate," the adventurer retorted with a smirk, wiping the blood from his mouth.

"What’s the significance of your name if you’re going to die any second… now?" Bones trailed off as Skully sprang from the side, launching a surprise attack with a swift thrust.

"The reason I'm known as Ironhide," the adventurer began, and in what seemed like an incredible display, he pivoted and seized the spear’s tip just as it was about to strike him.

"—is because my skin is as tough as iron," he finished, then delivered a punch to Skully’s face, sending him sprawling. With the spear still in hand, Ironhide turned back towards Bones, the arm gripping the spear turning grey along with the rest of his body.

"What? Iron body?" Bones inquired, eliciting a hearty laugh from Ironhide. "That’s right!" the man affirmed, then proudly proclaimed that weapons would be ineffective against him!

"The only one I need to watch out for is that one," he indicated towards Harmony before adding, "but I won’t be caught off guard again!"

"Sounds like a challenge! We'll see about that." Bones embraced the new obstacle and promptly commanded his golems to tackle the emerging threat as they deemed appropriate while he turned and moved towards the fallen bodies. As he advanced, Murdok rushed past him, charging at Ironhide with his weapon poised to split him in two.

clank

"I suppose he wasn't exaggerating about weapons being ineffective against him," Bones remarked, but remained unconcerned. His golems possessed more capabilities than just wielding weapons, and Ironhide would soon realize that if he chose to flee instead of making a last stand, he might have lived.

The confrontation began with Murdok lunging forward, swinging his enormous greatsword in sweeping arcs. While his strikes may have lacked precision, the sheer power behind each blow forced Ironhide to retreat, all the while parrying the formidable attacks with Skully's spear and his bare hands. Harmony darted to the side, strategically positioning herself within Ironhide's blind spot, and drew back her bow. The air crackled as she formed a lightning arrow and then released a flurry of arrows, targeting the now-vulnerable areas created by Murdok's swings. The arrows crackled as they soared, hitting their target, but Ironhide managed to shield his body at the last moment, sacrificing his arm to absorb most of the impact. The two golems attacked in unison, not allowing Ironhide a moment’s respite, drawing attention away from Skully, who circled and waited for his moment.

When Harmony's arrows found their mark, he made his move. Silently and on all fours, Skully crept up from behind, using a sweep of his tail to knock the man off balance. As soon as he hit the ground, Murdok poured all his strength into a colossal swing, generating enough force to slice through the spear Ironhide had hastily positioned to block, as well as his iron arm. The man's screams were abruptly silenced as the lightning arrow struck his side, stunning him momentarily, while Skully clawed at his face, leaving a trail of scratches.

Once the stunning effect faded, Ironhide desperately swung the upper portion of the spear in an attempt to regain his footing and assess the situation. With great effort, he managed to break free, cracking a few more of Skully's bones as he punched his face. The situation appeared dire for him. He panted, incredulously watching his severed arm lying on the ground, then glanced at Murdok, who was brandishing his weapon and preparing to charge again, and at Skully, who circled on all fours like a predator. He had no idea where Harmony was, but he could hear the crackling sounds of her arrows as she continued to fire after repositioning herself.

"Fuck this," he muttered before attempting to flee. Suddenly, bone spikes erupted from the ground, blocking his escape and causing him to trip and fall as he forced his way through, breaking a couple of spikes in the process.

"You missed your chance to leave. And to make this swift," Bones appeared before him, speaking somberly. He had never severed his Soul Link with his golems and had closely monitored the unfolding events while he indulged in looting the bodies. He anticipated that the man with Iron Skin would not fall easily, so he circled the battlefield, ready to intervene if necessary.

Ironhide looked up, his face caked in mud, roaring with frustration and rage, but his outburst only intensified when Murdok executed a leaping attack, slamming his greatsword into Ironhide's legs and shattering his bones. An arrow struck him while he was down, but what sealed his fate was Skully, who leaped onto his back from the treetops, claws finally breaking through skin and sinking his toothy maw into the man's neck like a ravenous predator. Before Ironhide's choking struggles ceased, Bones commanded his golems to stand down and crouched in front of him. The last sensation Ironhide felt was the chilling reach of a Haunting Touch as Bones placed his hand on his head in order to extract the information from him.

"Tell me who you are…"

Bones delved deep, invading the soul without any form of decorum. He sought to uncover the identities of the adventurers, confirm his suspicions from when he first encountered the party, and discover the skill that Ironhide used to obtain skin as hard as iron. The man's eyes turned vacant, with his pupils disappearing into the white of his sclera. A horrifying, wet gurgle erupted from his throat, and droplets of blood escaped the corner of his mouth, staining the muddy puddle beneath his head red.

"Not adventurers, mercenaries," Bones murmured. Ironhide's true name was Sullivan Posey, and he along with his group were members of the Exalted Riders mercenary company. Their arrival here was not for official duties or tied to a mercenary contract. They had come on their own accord, utilizing the channels that guildless adventurers often take, intending to gather merits, exchange them for rewards, and depart as swiftly as possible. This wasn't Sullivan's initial visit. During his previous trip, he traded merits for the Iron Skin skill core; that was the source of the ability.

ding

Bones withdrew his hand, causing Ironhide's head to drop face-first into the puddle, life slipping away from him just after Bones completed his extraction of information.

"Just as I thought, they were killing other adventurers for the fangs," Bones remarked while retrieving the storage ring from the lifeless body and peering inside. Sullivan possessed seven pairs of fangs, along with gold and mana stones. Bones collected all of them, ignoring the other items in the ring. Meanwhile, Harmony approached, carrying the rings of the other four adventurers and presented them to Bones.

Bones rose from his crouched position and examined the contents of the other rings. Each contained seven pairs of fangs among various other items. As with Sullivan's, Bones took what he required and dismissed the rest, storing the rings as well.

"Remove your chest piece," Bones commanded, and Harmony complied, removing her leather garment to reveal steam wafting from numerous fractures in her singed bones caused by lightning within her skeleton.

tsk

"I suspected as much," Bones clicked in irritation.

Her body cannot withstand the power she exhibited. Bones concluded, recalling the moment Harmony briefly vanished from view. The golem had enveloped herself in lightning, further enhancing her hands, which she then used to strike at the hearts of adventurers while darting past them. The display of skill and strength was an awe-inspiring sight, but the danger it posed to her body was evident. Fortunately, Harmony was an undead, a golem crafted from bones, and could be easily repaired.

Bones grasped her hands with his own, focusing on sensing the damaged areas, and began reshaping them right then and there, slowly mending the cracked lines that marred her body.

After completing the repairs twenty minutes later, he instructed Murdok to dig a hole, despite the difficulty of digging in the rain, and bury the bodies. Bones didn't want someone accidentally happening upon the scene and discovering that the adventurers were not killed by monsters. While Murdok attended to his duties, Bones addressed Harmony, emphasizing the importance of restricting her magical abilities unless absolutely necessary.

There was more to Harmony than the nuclei Bones had created and infused within her body; an unforeseen anomaly he had not accounted for. Her improvised actions surpassed Bones' expectations, leading him to believe that Harmony was fundamentally distinct from his other two golems, and he attributed this to the princess Avril's body he had used to construct Harmony.

"As long as it signifies a positive change, I have no reservations." There’s just one final task to complete before we depart," Bones remarked as he accessed his status screen. The recent battle had granted him a new level in the Bonemancer class, his forty-fifth, and after distributing his free attribute point, he concentrated on the newly obtained skill: Blastbones. This ability enabled him to target a deceased body, and after infusing it with mana, the body would detonate, scattering bone fragments in a nova around it.

Bones shifted his gaze to Ironhide's lifeless form, then extended his arm as if reaching for it while activating the skill. He sensed the mana flowing from him into the corpse until it expanded and, without warning, the body erupted, launching dozens of small bone projectiles of various sizes in every direction. Bones instinctively raised his arm to shield his head, and when he glanced down, he saw pieces of bone protruding from his clothing.

A faint groan escaped him as he surveyed his golems, each displaying the same non-threatening injuries.

"Extract them, we’re leaving," Bones ordered, irritation clear in his voice, though it quickly shifted to a prolonged 'hmm' as he contemplated the psychological effect the new skill could have on his foes.