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In the plaza at the center of the town, Caim and Millicia faced the Bone-Eating General, who was inside a giant skeleton.
The giant skeleton swung its arm as an eerie cackle could be heard from inside it. The creature aimed at Caim and Millicia, who were moving midair thanks to Suzaku.
Caim clicked his tongue and leaped from his mana foothold to avoid the blow. Millicia yelped in his arms, still clinging to his neck.
“Just let yourselves be crushed! I’ll suck your bones and keep you as my playthings once everything is over!” the Bone-Eating General shouted.
“The hell are you saying? Don’t get cocky, old man!” Caim yelled back, then vanished. The next instant, he was right in front of the giant skeleton, thrusting his fist at it. He had just used Houou, the other Basic Stance technique from the Toukishin Style that allowed one to move in midair with Suzaku. This skill propelled its user with a burst of compressed mana under their feet.
“Whoa?!” the Bone-Eating General exclaimed as the giant skeleton tilted back, but it didn’t fall. Its chest bones hadn’t been destroyed—they hadn’t even been damaged.
“It’s tough... Even tougher than steel!” Caim lightly shook his hand. Even though he had used Mana Compression, he’d still felt a sharp pain. The giant skeleton’s bones were far more durable than normal ones. “Have they been enhanced by magic? Or did he increase their density by compressing a lot of bones together? Either way, that’s a freaking pain.”
“It’s useless! No matter what you do, it won’t work!” the old man cried. The giant skeleton swung its arm at Caim, who once again quickly dodged with Houou. “This is the secret weapon that took me a century to make—my Giant Marionette! It’s undefeated, indomitable, and invincible! You’ll never be able to beat it, brat!” he declared, cackling madly.
“Leave this to me, Caim. O great light that travels the stars... Strong, noble, white emperor of the heavens... May you encircle these lost lambs with your mighty hands—Holy Circlet!” Millicia quickly chanted, using her Sacred Arts. A circle of light spread out with them at its center, reaching the giant skeleton. “An undead controlled by necromancy should be purified by this light. O cursed soul, may you return to the side of the angels!”
“Your faint light won’t be enough!” the Bone-Eating General sneered.
“Huh?”
“Take this!”
However, the giant skeleton wasn’t affected by the purifying light. It simply threw another punch at them. Caim avoided it in time, but it smashed the building behind him into pieces.
“How could the Sacred Arts possibly fail?!” Millicia exclaimed, shocked.
“Maybe it just wasn’t strong enough... No, wait, maybe...?” Caim observed the giant skeleton as he moved through the sky, carrying Millicia. The skeleton had to weigh dozens of tons—and looking at it more carefully, Caim noticed its surface was coated in a silvery-blue metal. He immediately understood what it was thanks to the Poison Queen’s knowledge inside his brain. “That’s magic silver—mithril. No wonder your Sacred Arts aren’t working!”
Mithril, also known as magic silver, was a special alloy created by master alchemists. While the blue-tinted metal was difficult to process, it was very tough and resistant to magic. It was considered the natural enemy of mages—some even called it a magic killer. The metal repelled not just offensive spells, but also special magic like the Sacred Arts.
“He’s using a metal specifically to counter mages... It’s only a thin coating, but it must have been pretty difficult to get enough to cover everything,” Caim noted.
“Mithril... Then my Sacred Arts will not work...” Millicia’s expression contorted in vexation.
Naturally, that meant Caim’s Purple Poison Magic wouldn’t work either. Of course, that was only the case for the giant skeleton, not the Bone-Eating General inside of it. Caim just needed to strike him directly.
But he’s protected by those bulky bones... Maybe I could use a poison gas that would pass through the gaps, but I’m not sure that would work. Poison Flare hadn’t harmed the Bone-Eating General. While the giant skeleton could have protected him from the explosion, it shouldn’t have been able to guard him from the toxic gas and the lack of oxygen.
“Wait... Rozbeth said the old man was more than two hundred, so maybe he’s an undead too?” Caim wondered if perhaps the geezer had used necromancy on himself to become immortal, making him a lich... No, he had a body, so a living dead. In that case, Caim’s poison couldn’t kill him.
The Bone-Eating General laughed madly as the giant skeleton threw one punch after another.
“He’s a far more bothersome enemy than I’d expected... Now, how can I defeat him?” Caim muttered to himself, annoyed, as he avoided the blows.
“What’s up, brat? Can’t you do anything but dodge?!”
The giant skeleton’s attacks were powerful and fast, but it still wasn’t a match for Caim’s combination of Suzaku and Houou.
“He’s right, though. I can’t beat him just by evading...” Caim noticed that Millicia was out of breath. “You okay?”
“Y-Yesh...” she answered, her face pale. She wasn’t fine at all, though. Partially this was due to her fear of the giant skeleton, but the main reason was the damage to her inner ear from moving at high speed in the sky.
“You’re going to faint at this rate. I should put you down somewhere... No, that’s a bad idea.” Caim shook his head.
It would make things easier if Caim could fight without having to carry Millicia. True, she wasn’t heavy, but carrying her still restrained his movement. Moreover, he couldn’t get serious and use a powerful technique, as the impact might harm Millicia.
I can’t leave her alone, though. There could be skeletons hiding nearby. They could be inside buildings, underground, or even in the garbage dumps. Who knew where there could be a skeleton in hiding? No, Caim couldn’t risk Millicia’s life by leaving her alone.
“I guess quantity is really a quality of its own... You can’t take an army of small fry lightly.”
“C-Caim...” Millicia panted. “I should be fine on my own if I cast a purifying barrier around myself...”
“No. We don’t know what the enemy could do,” Caim refused. True, Millicia’s Sacred Arts were effective against the skeletons—but the opponent was sly enough to take an entire town hostage. They couldn’t let their guard down. “He could have a skeleton shoot an arrow at you from outside your barrier, or even force one of the hostages to attack you. It’s better you stay with me.”
“Yesh...”
“Hold on tight. If you drop, you’ll die.”
Millicia tightly embraced Caim’s neck. While this was necessary to do, somehow it almost looked like she was cuddling up to her lover.
“You damn brats! Don’t flirt right in front of me!” the Bone-Eating General shouted indignantly. The giant skeleton grabbed a nearby building and threw it at them.
“Oops...”
“Caim!”
The attack had been unexpected, and Caim had been a little late dodging it. Millicia wasn’t harmed, but a pointed piece of lumber had deeply gouged his cheek.
“Don’t worry. It’s not a big injury.”
“No! Let me heal you!” Millicia used her Sacred Arts on Caim. White light entered his body, spreading a comfortable warmth through him as the wound on his cheek was healed. “...And done. Thank goodness there is no scar...” She heaved a relieved sigh.
“Come on, it’s fine for a man to have a scar or...” Caim started to answer with a wry smile but suddenly stopped, struck by an epiphany. “Wait...”
“What is it?”
“I just had an idea. We may be able to beat the old man,” Caim said, still moving in the sky as the giant skeleton continued to attack. He thoroughly considered his idea. With this, he might be able to win even while carrying Millicia. “Yeah, it’s worth a try. It’s a fitting way to teach that cocky old geezer a lesson.”
“Um, Caim?”
“Listen, Millicia...” Caim whispered his plan into her ear.
“I see... I never would have thought of this.” Millicia was a little surprised by the idea, but she immediately approved it.
“Would you just stop running away already, you damn brats!” The giant skeleton had caught up to them as they talked. “Just get crushed already and join my army of servants!”
“Hard pass, you shitty geezer,” Caim spit, suddenly stopping on a mana foothold in midair just in front of the giant skeleton. “As if I’d want to serve a necrophiliac old man like you. If you want to play with dolls, then do it in your grave once I’ve killed you,” he provoked the Bone-Eating General, giving him the finger.
“What a cheeky brat... Don’t get carried away just because I’m being modest!”
You call that modest? Caim couldn’t help wondering as the giant skeleton moved its arms to crush him and Millicia between its palms, just like it would a fly.
“Houou.” Naturally, Caim didn’t stay still, and instead immediately propelled himself with a burst of condensed mana, quickly drawing closer to the giant skeleton’s chest.
The old assassin groaned at Caim’s sudden approach, but there was no panic in his voice. He was certain that his masterpiece made of compressed bones and coated with mithril would never break.
Unfortunately for him, Caim and Millicia had a plan to bypass its defense.
“Now, Millicia!”
“Yes... Holy Circlet!” Millicia used her Sacred Arts, still clinging to Caim, even though they already knew it wouldn’t work on the enemy. “I shall put everything I have into the purifying power!” Moreover, instead of creating a circle of light around her, she focused the power of her spell on one point and injected it into Caim. The white light soaked into Caim’s body, and it made him feel uncomfortable, as though he had swallowed a lot of something he couldn’t digest.
“It’s different from Healing Magic... It’s kinda sickening.”
“Wh-What?! You were the one who wanted to do this!” Millicia retorted, nonplussed.
“Well, yeah, but I didn’t think it would feel so weird... Anyway, it should work! Toukishin Style Basic Stance—Ouryuu!” Caim shouted, launching a palm strike at the giant skeleton’s sternum while pouring out a large quantity of mana.