The skeleton looked at him. Gael felt the creature was looking through him, almost as if everything that made him could be seen by it, he felt shivers down his spine and almost became paralized only by the creature’s gaze.

“I finally have a visitor after so many years...” A voice resonated inside Gael’s head. He flinched for a second and raised his glaive. He had faced many enemies, but none of them ever gave this feeling to him. He breathed slowly, the mana inside his body became agitated. He threw the backpack at a corner while looking at the creature.

“There’s no need to rush things…. It’s just you and me in this room…”

Gael could swear that he saw a smiling flashing through the bony face of the skeleton. He looked back at the creature and said. “You are intelligent enough to know the reason that I came here. There’s no need to beat around the bush.”

“At least you have a firm will…” The skeleton got up from the throne, blowing the dust that was accumulated over it, a small gray cloud surrounded the creature. “Let’s fight then. Give your best. HAHAHAHAHA” A creep laugh resonated through the hall, and dark energy began to surround the skeleton. Without waiting, Gael dashed toward the creature.

The skeleton waved its hand, and just before Gael’s glaive hit him, a dark shield appeared around the creature. The shield repelled Gael, making him slide a few meters backwards. He glanced at the shield and saw that there was not even a scratch on it. “This will be a tough fight…” He thought.

The skeleton waved its bony hands, and arrows appeared all over the ceiling. The arrows were made of a dark energy. “Fuck!” Gael cursed loudly before using shadow steps to evade the rain of arrows. The rain was so thick that he had to use his glaive to deflect the arrows some times. He danced through the arrows while going toward the Skeleton. He saw that the creature was preparing another attack, and by how things were going, he couldn’t let it complete it.

He used shadow steps to appear before the skeleton, and concentrated twenty percent of his mana in the attack. His veins were building and even blood vessels burst from the effort. “My soul is not strong enough to manipulate this much mana!” One of the prerequisites to manipulate mana was the soul. The stronger the soul was, the easier it was to manipulate mana. Because of that, Gael could only use some simple techniques that didn’t require that much control. Forcefully manipulating mana was too strenuous on his soul, making the toll on his body much bigger.

His attack succeeded in bursting the dark bubble that was defending the skeleton. Seeing that its defences were breached, the skeleton stopped casting its spell and hastily raised a shield in front of it.

“BOOOM”

The skeleton was thrown away like a ragdoll. The arrows stopped falling from the ceiling, and dust rose from the place where the skeleton landed. Knowing that this kind of attack was not enough to kill the enemy, Gael ignored the pain coursing through his body and jumped back to rest a bit, calming the chaotic mana that was coursing through his body.

Gael even thought of taking the opportunity where the enemy was on the ground to do a follow-up attack, but he lacked the field of vision because of the dust that was raised. He didn’t want to throw his life away by attacking the enemy in a disadvantageous place.

The dust soon began to settle and silence reigned on the hall. The skeleton was already on its feet, looking menacingly at Gael. He ignored the cold look he was receiving from the creature and concentrated on controlling his mana.

Pressure slowly began to suffuse from the skeleton, the pressure didn’t come from mana, or anything physical, it came from the soul. “ARHHHHH!” A heart wrenching pain suddenly overcame him. Gael felt a pressure trying to destroy his soul. The skeleton was obviously using a soul attack on him.

Gael saw countless battles in his visions, but in none of them someone had suffered a soul attack.

He used his iron will to resist the attack, and after a few seconds the pressure disappeared. “Oh… You have a weak soul, but your will is so strong that you stopped it from dispersing… Interesting…” The skeleton said.

Gael gritted his teeth and dashed toward the skeleton once again.

The skeleton saw Gael's intention, it knew that he would try to attack him, trying to destroy the shields it created. Darkness swallowed the skeleton, and it flew. Gael was startled by the change and retreated a few steps, he knew that the real fight would now begin.

Gael had no way of attacking the skeleton while it was flying, making the endeavor of fighting the creature virtually impossible. He wanted to run from the place and get away from there, but the only entrance was sealed and many zombies were waiting behind it. And of course, the enemy in front of him wouldn’t simply let him run.

Gael danced from one side to the other of the hall, avoiding the lances of darkness that the skeleton threw from above. Avoiding the lances was impossible sometimes, and he had to endure the attacks with his armor.

Holes appeared on the armor as soon as the lances hit him. They were soon closed. However, the damage done to Gael was still there.

A battle of attrition was inevitable at this point. Time quickly passed, and soon, half an hour went by. Blood was flowing through his whole body, and he was about to collapse on the ground, while his enemy was floating in the air showing no signs of exhaustion.

He only had about thirty percent of his mana reserves left, and escaping was also not an option right now. He knew that as soon as the giant doors were opened, countless enemies would be waiting for him on the other side. The only shot he had at surviving was killing the skeleton.

Hundreds of thoughts began to flash on his mind. How could he kill such a creature? The skeleton could raise a shield in order to protect itself, so normal attacks would not suffice. And the skeleton was floating in the air, making hitting it even harder.

Even if Gael throwed his glaive from the ground while using the attack he used to kill the two skeletons outside, the skeleton mage would have enough time to evade the attack, considering the distance between them.

Seeing as there was no other way out, Gael took a deep breath and made up his mind. “Without risking my life there is no way I’ll get out of this hell hole.”

The magic done by the skeleton was truly powerful, and although he had the ability to evade them, he couldn’t keep going forever. There were two main ways in which the skeleton attacked. By raining projectiles at him, or by throwing darkness bombs. And from what he saw, the way the skeleton attacked 80% of the time was projectiles, that gave his plan a better chance of working.

Gael began to circle the hall, evading the attacks and positioning himself in a better position to attack. He couldn’t show the enemy he was brewing something.

He took one pill from his pocket and swallowed it. It had an instant effect on his body, closing the wounds and giving some energy back to him. He was just as energized as when the fight began, however, he didn’t let it show. He kept acting like he was wounded to have an advantage over the skeleton.

Slowly evading the attacks, he began to get closer and closer to one of the pillars. His ragged body almost didn’t want to obey his orders, but after some time, he finally arrived where he needed to be.

The pillar was just to his right, and the skeleton was floating a little to his front. He crouched down and rolled to behind the pillar, obstructing the skeleton’s vision. Just as the skeleton was about to maneuver around the pillar, Gael jumped with all his strength. He looked like a bolt being released from a crossbow, he was jumping directly at it.

Seeing the enemy approaching, the creature didn’t lose time and flew backwards while taking the opportunity to rain down some darkness arrows on Gael.

He looked up and saw that he was finally close enough that the creature wouldn’t have a chance to evade. Gael concentrated all his mana on the glaive he was holding, not caring for his body. He knew that killing the skeleton was his only shot at surviving, and holding back was not allowed now.

A guttural roar came from Gael throat, he felt his soul almost burning by the exertion. The mana shone brightly around the glaive, he concentrated all his strength on his right arm that was holding the weapon, and threw it with all he had!

The glaive left his hand just as the dark arrows were about to hit him. He only had the time to place his arm before his face before being hit by the attacks.

He looked over his arm, and saw the weapon sailing through the air like a star that was about to fall on earth, zooming toward the skeleton like a guided missile.

The skeleton tried to raise a defence to take on the blow, while trying to get out of the way. Unfortunately, the attack came from too close, not giving it enough room to evade. The glaive easily ripped through the hastily erected defenses of the skeleton, and finally destroyed its head.

BOOOM!

The impact resonated through the hall, making everything tremble.

Gael fell to the ground, feeling the burning pain on the new wounds that were opened on his body. Although the armor he was using was great, and could tank the attacks from almost all the monsters in the tutorial zone, it was not made to receive the attack of the skeleton. It didn’t have any runes or enchantments on it to defend against magic. The skeleton was not a foe meant to be challenged by someone participating in the tutorial, at least not in the middle half of it..

Gael laid on the ground like a beaten dog. He looked at the paintings that decorated the ceiling and thought to himself. “Where did I put myself in?” He laughed, and spit some blood.

Just as he was about to calm down, he heard a noise coming from where the skeleton fell.

Gael didn’t waste time and got on his feet. He looked toward the creature and saw that it was missing half of its head, and was struggling to get on its feet. He saw that his glaive was laying behind the skeleton, and ran at it. Because the skeleton was not invoking any magic, he jumped above the creature while it was trying to get up, and before it could recover he picked the glaive from the ground and killed it.

He had underestimated the challenge that the skeleton would provide. The enemy in front of his was powerful enough to steamroll through the tutorial, killing all the humans on it. The only reason that he could kill it at the end was luck. If the skeleton had raised a shield while it was flying Gael’s plan would have no chance of working.

“Finally!” He said while taking deep breaths, seeing the shattered skull of the undead.