Skia's POV

"Listen up, no one says a word about the undead to the general or all our heads will go..." I made a swishing noise and moved my sharp wing across my throat. I was sure they understood what I mean. "We will depart immediately after I've made the report. Let's meet up here in an hour. Those who fail to do so won't receive this month's salary. Understood?"

"Yes, Commander Skia!" the troops yelled in unison and scattered.

I smiled, nodded and looked at each and every one of them as they went. However, as my eyes landed upon one of the wolves, I felt a rage burning inside. There were a mouse man and a dogman sitting on the wolf. The mouseman was shaking from top to toe as he sat behind the dogman and the dogman himself was constantly glaring and baring his fangs at the mouseman.

Useless trash. I wouldn't let them off lightly when I got back. Not only that cowardly mouseman, I would even have to silence the dogman. I was able to trust my squad to hold their tongues... but them? A mere scout troop that was almost completely wiped out? I would just have to report to the general that they had been killed by a stray party of undead later on. It wasn't unusual and far better than to let the general know that we had allowed undead come here.

"Vice-Commander Manja," I called.

The lionman saluted and hurried over to me. I had noticed how infatuated he was with me over the months our squad had been together. I didn't mind it, though. Having a subordinate who was in love with you was not only a token of beauty and respect but also a valuable tool in combat. It was possible for him to sacrifice his life for me when I was in danger.

"Follow me and meet the general," I told him and entered the camp. He scrambled behind me.

John's POV

The two creatures advanced toward us without a shred of sympathy in their eyes. I looked at Ezra. He shrugged his shoulders and said. "I don't know what they are but I suspect can only handle one at the time. " he pointed at the one to the left." If you can hang on until I finish off this one. I'll help you with the other one. Don't die."

The vampire unsheathed his sword and ran toward one of the living statues. The other statue locked target on me and strode toward me with an indifferent glimpse in his eyes. I knew what to do. It was just like when I fought the mouseman. This time was different though. Since the statue was slow in itself, I had ample time to prepare. I pulled up my character menu and put ten points in stamina and five points in intellect.

Just as I expected, my bones grew rapidly. My health bar increased by a hundred, and my mana pool became larger as well, reaching seventy. This allowed me to use the quick draw seven times before running out of mana. Additionally, I felt my mind thinking a bit quicker. As if my mind was able to move and make decisions. I decided that putting more points in intellect was definitely something I had to do later on, and not only because of my increased mana pool.

I entered the stance Ezra taught me. It allowed me to regain my cool and calmly gaze ahead without too much fear.

"Scanning complete. Intruder is neither dwarf nor dragon. Extermination procced." the statue said and swung his halberd. I felt a chill through my bones and threw myself down on the ground in reflex. A swish sounded as a gust of wind passed me and crashed into the wall behind. I looked up and my body shook. The statue's swing had produced a blade of wind. Maybe if I hadn't put those five points into intellect, I wouldn't have dodged that. Yet another reason for increasing my intellect.

The statue didn't stop its advance. I retreated and looked at it wearily. Luckily, I was a lot faster and if I decided to run around it wouldn't reach me. At least this made me calmer than the situation should allow em to be.

"First probe failed to kill the intruder. Initiate Second Phase." The statue began to shake and I felt an ill premonition as its wings extended. It grabbed the halberd with two hands and crouched down. I understood that if it would spread its wings and fly, it would undoubtedly catch me. I quickly unstrapped my bone sword and stake shield.

Would I be able to slash thr– the statue suddenly shot toward me like a fireball from a skeleton mage's staff. I dodged to the left and fell to the ground. The statue flew up into the air and circled above me. My bones were rigid from fear as I scrambled to my feet. Every attack it did was close to killing me and it would probably succeed if I did nothing.

As the statue flew down, halberd ready to slash at me, I put my sword in its sheath and held the shield with both hands. BAM! I felt the collision in my toes. Both of my legs broke upon impact and I felt a sticky, copper-tinted liquid flow down over the edges of the shield, dripping onto my face.

I threw the shield to the side looked weary toward my left. The stake on the shield was gone, and I knew where it was. The living statue got up from the ground without much difficulty. It looked down to the stake poking out from its chest and grabbed it with one hand before completing a jerking motion. The stake quickly exited the statue's body and I saw more copper-tinted liquid as it poured out. Was it blood? I had never heard of a creature possessing copper-tinted blood. Was this really a living creature? In the hole, there was a golden cube which slowly spun around. I frowned. Was that its heart?

The statue stared at me again, unfazed by the injury. I wonder if the injury even caused it any harm. Maybe only by stabbing that thingy that I saw in the hole of its chest would it die. Ah– could that be the way to kill it? It certainly was the easiest way to kill any other living being, had Ezra told me. Heart or brain. The statue's chest was already torn up so it would be easier for me to pierce its heart than destroying its brain. I nodded with determination. I would aim for its heart.

As I forged my will, the statue batted its wings and flew up into the air once more. A trail of golden was left behind on the ground. It was clearly wounded, a hole drilled through its chest, and yet didn't show the faintest signs of injury at all. If it was a living being, it certainly had to be one of the kind. I looked at the statue facing the vampire. Well, two of a kind.

SWISH. The statue flew down at me again. This time, I knew how it would attack. The difficulty in facing this statue lay in dodging and attacking in the split second that determined life and death. Everything was about waiting for the right moment. It was just like the fight with the mouseman. I had to wait for the right moment before dodging to the side and slashing toward its back. And this statue's attack was the same; straight as an arrow's march!

Now! I stepped aside using the Sidestep skill and then the Pierce skill. My bone sword lunged at the sta– a scream escaped the thin bones of my jaw. I had forgotten that my legs were broken. While I succeeded in sidestepping the attack, that was it. I fell over and missed the statue. Death rode the halberd as it embedded itself in the beautiful hall floor.

I crawled to my knees and clenched the bone sword. No way! A chance! This was actually a chance born from misfortune! The statue struggled to free the halberd and didn't even look at me. Now I was sure. This statue wasn't a living being at all. I didn't know what it was, but even a skeleton like myself would look at my opponent during a fight. Only someone who didn't care for his or her life would look away during a battle or show such an indifferent attitude.

Without hesitation, I crawled across the floor to the statue. Even in the end, as it almost got loose the halberd, it didn't leave a single glance at me. I stabbed at the rotating golden cube and heard a small pop. The statue finally looked at me. Its eyes were still as indifferent as before, and it showed nothing like a living being would upon death. A raspy sound crawled out from its fang-inflicted mouth. "In accordance you the king's last will, you have gained entry to his tomb."

There was no black screen coming up as the statue stopped moving. I asked Eve why.

[Only living beings will give out XP to their killers after death, John. The Titan you killed was made from the hands of a gnome and therefore cannot be called a living being.]

"Eh– What's a Titan? And what's a gnome?" I asked. Eve's words had piqued an interest in me.

[I'm sorry, John. That I cannot tell you, as per master's orders.]

"Fine." I huffed.

I crawled over and picked up my shield. I also fetched the stake which had been broken off from the shield when stabbed into the statue's chest. Maybe I would be able to combine the two again and remake the shield. On the other hand, the hardness of my bones had increased after putting points on my stamina so using a new bone would probably yield the best result. I strapped both of the objects to my back and looked toward where Ezra and the statue were fighting. The vampire fought it head-on and had grown black wings on his back. His claws were also longer than before.

"Ah– have you grown stronger? Hehe."

Ezra came over after having ripped apart the statue. He scratched himself behind is head, most likely in embarrassment for taking longer than me to finish the fight. I suppose he thought I wouldn't be able to kill the creature. What he didn't know was that my fight was over quickly because I was lucky when the halberd had been stuck in the ground. But his fight? It had only taken a couple of minutes, and that was while fighting the statue without tricks like I had used. They had even fought in the air. I now understood that those over hundred levels weren't there for fun. They were extremely real and I currently couldn't hold even a candle against the vampire if we were to fight.

He looked at my broken legs and then grabbed my torso. Then, as we walked down the staircase that I suspected was leading toward the dwarven king's inner tomb, I sat on his shoulders like a toddler