Chapter 50

They came to a clearing where they saw several dozen skeletons walking around. Some of the bony figures were simply skeletons, others carried weapons, but there was also another who one who stood on top of a stone. It wore a full suit of armor and seemed to be commanding the skeletons. Hiro decide to analyze them to get a better since of how the group should attack.

Name: Skeletal Champion

Hp: 15,000/15,000

Weakness: Holy, blunt weapons

Mp: 1,000/1,000

Strengths: Fire, Lightning, Earth, (Immune to Ice)

Skeletal Champion: A re-animated corpse of a once living being. It is now able to move as it did when it was alive. It has retained its’ skills and abilities from when it was living and is a formidable opponent.

Name: Skeleton

Hp: 7,500/7,500

Weakness: Holy, blunt weapons

Mp: 0/0

Strengths: All elemental magic

Skeleton: A re-animated corpse of a once living being. It is now able to move as it did when it was alive but it lacks the memories, emotions, and logic it once had. It has been given a dark cunning which allows it to make decisions in battle as well as wield weapons and armor.

The champion must have been what was giving off the the strong aura.

All of a sudden the skeletal champion let out a howl and all of the skeletons turned towards Hiro and his group.

It saw us and has turned the skeletons on us with that crazy howl.

The group split up into 2 teams. Scarlet jumped on Taka’s back and the attacked from the sky using Scarlet’s holy arrows and Taka’s wind gusts. The gusts knocked down the skeletons making them easy targets for Scarlet. Meanwhile, the skeletal champion jumped down from his perch and joined the battle. He carried a long blade that looked like it should be wielded with 2 hands but he carried it with one. In his other hand he carried a large tower shield. On his body he wore a thick black armor that covered him from head to toe. It looked like it would be difficult to pierce with any weapon. His aura was like death itself. He charged through the rest of the skeletons and tried to attack Hiro.

Hiro was using his Sharingan and his prediction ability so he easily defeating the skeletons by smashing them to pieces with his sword. He would dodge their attacks with the least possible movement and then slash them with his blade or deal a crushing blow with the hilt of his sword. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the movement of the skeletal champion.

“Guys you finish the skeletons then join me with the champion”, said Hiro.

The stage was set. The skeletal champion charged at Hiro using a barrage a shield bashing attacks combined with deadly slashing attacks from the the long sword. Hiro was able to see all of the attacks and was not under very much pressure from this very powerful foe.

No matter how strong the opponent is if he can’t hit me the power is useless.

Hiro cast his healing spell on the skeletal champion and it took some damage but continued with its onslaught. He had not realized it yet but the champion was backing him against a large stone. Then it happened. Hiro was backing away to avoid the skeletal champion’s shield bash and hit the stone behind him breaking his concentration and losing his balance. He was unable to avoid the attack. The skeletal champion’s shield smashed against Hiro’s body causing him to massive damage to his torso even though Hiro tried to stop the attack with his sword and his ki. The skeletal champion continued by pushing Hiro’s blade aside and attacking the arm that held it. The skeletal champion used a series of refined sword thrusts and slashes. The final attack chopped off Hiro’s arm and blood ran out from his wounded.

“AAAAHHHHHHH!”, screamed Hiro as his armed fell to the ground.

He had taken massive damage. Hiro dropped down as he was beginning to lose consciousness from the pain and loss of blood. The situation was dire.

Suddenly Scarlet swooped down with Taka and shot arrows at the champions back. They did not pierce its thick armor but they did get his attention. At this time the rest of the group had finished with the skeletons and saw Hiro lying on the ground bleeding badly from his severed arm. They all ran full speed and stared down the skeletal champion. The skeletal champion let out a scream and began attacking them. The mix of the group members’ training and abilities let them all avoid his attacks. Each of them waited for an opportunity and like a flash it appeared.

Leo attacked using his ki strike. It smashed the skeletons arm that was holding the shield to pieces. The shield that seemed almost impervioius was no longer able to to be wielded.Without the tower shield, the skeletal champion was now vulnerable to more attacks. As it began to attack again Learra used her special ability to vanish. The skeletal champion was confused but then immediately focused his attention on Leo. He began attacking Leo. The speed of the blade had increased since the skeletal champion no longer had the heavy shield. Leo had difficulty keeping up with the blade and even though he dodged he began recieveing shallow cuts from the skeletal champion’s blade. He was able to avoid fatal blows but he was getting slashed over and over.

Caesar stepped in and stopped the attacks with his massive hammer. While the Skeletal champion tried to force Caesar to the ground with the sheer weight of his attack, Gori managed to move behind it. Then suddenly the skeletal champion realized that it had massive Gorilla arms around its waist placing it into waist lock type hold which then was was used to give the Champion a vicious german suplex to the ground. Gori bounced up and the Champion stood with his neck completely crooked. The champion grabbed his skull for and turned until it was straight again. It let a loud scream that forced everyone to cover their ears.

“What the heck was that?”asked Caesar

“I don’t know but keep on your toes”, said Foria

The Skeletal Champion began to walk forward brandishing his massive sword. Then suddenly, Learra who had been concealing herself, attacked and tackled him to the ground. The skeletal champion was face down on the ground. Leo and Amaterasu took the opportunity to bite down and they tore the skeletal champion apart. Scarlet and Taka came down and Scarlet removed the armor from the monster and then the beasts ate the corpses of the skeletons so that none re-animated.

Hiro gained 2 levels

Leo gained 2 levels

Learra gained 4 levels

You gained the passive ability greater cold reistance

You are now resistant to all but the highest level cold or ice spells.

Your summon the undead ability improved

New summon available: skeletons

Scarlet began casting her healing spell on Hiro. His bleeding had stopped and his arm had already begun regenerating. He grabbed the bracelet off of his arm that had been severed and put it in his bag.

“You guys did great! I’m sorry I got injured like this. I will be more careful next time.”

“You better be. I almost had a heart attack when I saw you laying their in a pool of your own blood”, said Foria

“I’m sorry. Can you be mad at me after we leave here?” said Hiro as he winced with pain.

Foria nodded and said, “Let’s get out of here.”

Leo put his head down underneath Hiro and lifted him onto his back.

“Thank you old friend.” Hiro said as it pated Leo with the good arm. The group agreed that it was time to get out of the forest for the day.

They went out of the forest and found that it was still light out. Leo placed Hiro down so that he could rest at the place where they decided to camp.

“We need to find some food. We have only been finding undead enemies so our food storage is empty”, said Hiro.

“Ok can you find something using your sensing ability?” asked Caesar.

“Yes. Give me a second”, Hiro replied.

Hiro closed his eyes and used his sense energy ability.

“I sense that there are some enemies a few hundred meters north of our position. There are about 20 of them.”

The beasts told the Hiro, “We will take care of the hunting. “

Hiro gave Scarlet his magic bag and told her, “Place the meat in the bag and I will skin them and cook the meat when you return.”

“Skin them? How the hell are you going to do that when you only have one arm!”, yelled Foria

“It will regenerate. I gained the ability from trolls and some lizard men. I am confident that it will grow back.”

“It better”, said Foria.

“Oh don’t worry even with one arm, I can still do plenty of other things”, said Hiro with a lecherous grin.

“I bet you can”, said Foria as her face turned beet red.

The beast went with Scarlet to find the food. They found the creatures that Hiro had sensed. It was more of the horned stallions that they had previously encountered. The group quickly slaughtered them showing their great improvement in strength since they had entered the forest. Scarlet did as Hiro instructed and placed all of the carcasses in the magic bag. Then they returned to the campsite.

You gained 12 points towards your weapon skill.

When they returned Hiro was sitting still meditating. He had decided to practice taking in the natural energy around him.

Using the natural energy should increase my natural regeneration ability.

Hiro was right. In the short time that they were gone his arm had fully regenerated. They were all amazed at the outcome of their commander’s recuperative ability. Hiro opened his eyes and clenched his fist on the newly regenerated arm. He was glad his arm had returned and it felt even stronger than before. This must have been due to his ability.Then he greeted everyone and began to skin the carcasses of the animals that his group had killed.

You gained 16 medium leathers and 4 medium hides.

Leo started a fire and the beasts ate the raw carcasses of 6 of the horned stallions. Scarlet and the rest of the group patiently waited as Hiro cooked the meat. They ate and talked for a while then everyone slept soundly.

In the morning Hiro awoke as usual before dawn. He decided to begin executing his plan of diversifying his close range combat skills. He would practice in 3 phases, movement, strengthening his physical defense, and then offense. He decided also to aid his training by using his gravity equipment at the same time. He sat down on the ground and gathered as much natural energy as he could.

This feels like it is more than I had been able to gather before and it is gathering much faster. I must be improving. My improvement is amazing but it is not enough. That skeleton took my arm so my skin needs to be stronger. I have to go back to taking those hits somehow to strengthen my body.

He then activated his body strengthening ki technique something strange happened. It felt as if his muscles increased in size. He felt more powerful than ever before.

Due to your training of your body strengthening skill, it has improved.

You are now able to increase you strengthen up to a multiple of 5 times your normal strength.

Hiro smiled and was amazed at how much his hard work was paying off.

He stood up and said, “80 times gravity” the gravity equipment activated.

He felt the weight but it was not heavy enough. He decided to push himself even more.

“100 times gravity”, he said and the equipment glowed again.

He was now carrying several tons of weight. He felt heavy. It was difficult for him to run but he could make some small movements. Now it was time to train.

Hiro summoned the ghouls as they were much faster and more agile than the skeletons. He summoned 3 of them and told them to attack him. They came at him trying to kill him from the very start. His sharingan allowed him to predict where the attacks would come from and the path that they would travel to hit him. He was able to avoid all the attacks with subtle movements. The ghouls became enraged and their speed increased. Hiro continued to avoid the attacks as he got used to their movements he was even able to parry them with his hands taking the power from their attacks and redirecting them away from his body.

Due to your unarmed combat training you have created a skill tree for more learning martial arts. Each different art has new skills and bonuses that will allow you to improve your fighting technique

What is that icon that is blinking in the top right of my HUD. I can’t worry about it right now. I will wait until after I finish training to learn more about this.

Hiro became excited his plan was already bearing fruit. He continued to practice moving and parrying the attacks from his ghouls until the ghouls could no longer touch him. He then began to destroy them. As the ghouls attacked he used attacks that perfectly countered theirs. Using his Sharingan he was able to determine where they would move to before attacking and he met them at that spot and attacked. The force was doubled as their momentum was countered by his. The attacks were devastating. Indeed his ability in martial arts was improving because it now only took him 2 strikes to kill the ghouls unlike before where it took him over 5 attacks per ghoul.

You’ve gained 3 points to your martial arts skills.

Next, he summoned a skeleton. He told the skeleton to attack him. Hiro wanted to practice his defensive skills. He stood still as the skeleton punched and kicked. Each time Hiro let the blow hit his body. His body strengthening technique allowed him to take the blows and only take a little damage.

This is still too much. These guys are weak and they can still do some damage if they land attacks. I have to strengthen myself even more. Until I am stronger I need to find a way to protect myself. I have to find a way to take nearly no damage from the attacks. Hmmm…Maybe I’ll try to move my ki to the point of the attack to try and negate the attack altogether like I had practiced with Snow.

It was a success. The attacks did no damage at all when he moved his ki to the point of attack. He continued to practice because he had to be able to do it in battle on instinct. With no shield or armor to protect him, he would not be able to make mistakes. He decided to step his training up some more so he summoned another skeleton.

Now he had 2 skeletons attacking him. At first he had difficulty because he could only move his ki to one place at a time so he was taking damage when they both attacked simultaneously.

Moving my ki is not a good enough solution. I will have to strengthen my entire body so that it could negate low level attacks without me having to shift it to protect myself.

He increased his body strengthening technique and began to take the attacks. The attacks to less damage but his ki was draining a lot faster because his whole body was strengthend.

This is not an option either. My ki is draining too rapidly. It would be even worse during battle with a more powerful foe and then I’d be defenseless like this. I’ll try something else. What though? All over is too much and I can’t move in time. That’s it. I’ll place the strongest ki on his arms shins and back. With these parts of my body covered, I should be able to defend myself against any incoming attacks.

Hiro began taking the hits on his forearms, shins, and back. It was a success. He took no damage from their attacks as long as he defended in this way. He sparred with the skeletons for a while then told them to stop. He then decided to begin the final part of his training which was to imbue his attacks with ki and elemental magic.

My group healing spell is the only holy magic that I know so I guess I will try to use that.

He closed his eyes and tried to manifest the healing magic on his hands. At first it was only a small fleck of the magic. He tried with greater focus on the feeling of the healing magic again and the spot got larger. He tried again and again and again until finally he was able to cover one entire hand with the healing magic. Suddenly, a mini explosion occurred nearly destroying his hand!

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”, Hiro screamed out.

What the hell was that? Was it some kind of reaction of mixing my ki energy and mana energy? Maybe I have to mix them a certain way. Hmmm… I have to try again after healing my hand.

I cast the healing spell on my hand repeatedly until it was completely regenerated. I tried my experiment several more times. Each time he performed the combination of energies, he could feel when the two energies mixing together became volatile. When that occurred he simply let them both dissipate. He tried this experiment numerous times until he finally got it to work. His ki and mana mixed perfectly forming a white shroud around his hand.

You have learned the passive skill magical ki.

With this skill you are able to freely mix any magic you know with your ki to strengthen any part of your body

Now it’s time to test my new power and put everything I have practiced into one sparing session.

He summoned another skeleton. Now there were 3. He told them to try and kill him. The skeletons let out a scream that woke up everyone in camp. They looked over and saw him battling the skeletons with no armor. Hiro was evading their attacks and attacking them with his bare hands. Each time he struck a skelteton with the hand imbued with the healing magic it was destroyed. His skill definitely had power. He now simply needed more practice. He quickly dispatched the remaining 2 skeletons.

You have gained 3 points to your martial arts skill

Hiro took a deep breath and said, “1 times gravity” the equipment glowed and went back to its normal weight.

His body felt so light. It was like he could almost as the world was struggling to hold on to him. With this his combat practice was finished.

Your training has yielded the following boosts to your stats: strength +20, speed +20, vitality +25, and wisdom +15.

Now let’s investigate more about his unarmed combat skills.

He clicked the blinking icon on his HUD and a spiraling image appeared. It had seven circles that were red. He also noticed that there were some other circles that were greyed out. It looked a lot like his weapon skill tree. There were 6 different martial arts styles that he could learn and apparently each had different bonuses that went along with it. The first red style was labled “Tai Chi”.

Hmmm…I remember Tai Chi involves manipulating ki and using circular motions to attack and defend.

He also saw karate, Muay Tai, Boxing, Krav Maga, kung-fu, and Wrestling He looked at the bottom left corner of the display and noticed that he had 29 points to allocate.

These must have been some that accumulated from when he fought bare handed against the kobolds. Anyway I guess I will start with learning Tai Chi as it is the first of the martial arts and it only cost 3 points.

He clicked it.

Confirm you want to learn Tai Chi?

Yes

No

He confirmed and clicked yes. Immediately Hiro’s mind was filled with hundreds of poses and movements from Tai Chi. He truly had learned the art form.

You have learned the basics of Tai Chi.

You can now freely use soft motions to disrupt the flow of your opponent’s attacks. You can also use this soft flow to attack your opponents using a variety of blows that disrupt their internal energy.

After the Tai Chi button turned green two other small bubbles were available. Hiro read them. One was improved breathing technique and the other was natural energy manipulation. Each of them cost 3 points. Hiro learned both of the skils.

You have learned the passive technique improved breathing.

With this technique your vitality will be increased and your stamina will increase due to your body’s new ability take in oxygen. This will allow you to use all of your physical abilities more efficiently requiring you to use less energy.

You have learned the passive ability natural energy manipulation.

This ability allows you to take in natural energy while moving. You will have to begin with simple movments but with practice and time you will be able to accumulate more energy doing more complex movements.

I know that this method of practicing will continue to increase my abilities. Now I will need to continue to improve my martial arts skills. Tai Chi is an excellent start. I will also need to round it out with some striking forms of combat. Maybe I could learn some by watching warriors at the the tournament. Well for now this is good enough.

He went to the group and they all greeted each other.

“Hey Hiro is that the skill you got from the necromancer? Can you summon more for me to fight”, asked Scarlet?

“Yes if you would like.”

“Absolutely.”

Hiro agreed with Scarlet and thought that they all could benefit with some non-life threatening practice. So Hiro summoned 3 skeletons for Scarlet and watched as she fought them.

She moved with grace and power deftly avoiding the skeletons attacks and firing her arrows at them. She dispatched them in a flash and asked Hiro for more. He obliged and summoned skeletons repeatedly as soon as she dispatched them. She went on dispatching them quickly. Hiro noticed some windows come up but he ignored them for the time being as he was observing Scarlet’s fighting technique. She continued battling the skeletons one after another. As she dispatched them Hiro summoned more. She avoided their attacks with the slightest of movements, a roll of her shoulder, a subtle sidestep, a quick roll was all she needed. Then she fired arrows from impossible angles but each one hit the skeletons right between the eyes.

Wait a minute the skeletons are starting appear in greater numbers now. First it was in 3’s then it was in 4’s now they are coming out 5 skeletons at once. The skeletons that I am summoning are also getting stonger as a single arrow from Scarlet is no longer enough to stop them. Oh after summoning so many I must have gained some levels in my summoning skill. That was probably what those windows were telling me.

Taka eventually joined in to help Scarlet as the skeletons began to get the better of her. Hiro kept summoning the skeletons but the numbers would not go past 5 however the skeletons became faster and faster as well as having more strength and hit points.

These are definitely stronger than the ones they fought in the forest. I am getting stronger with summoning just by allowing my team to fight against my skeletons.

He looked up and Scarlet was panting. She was looking quite exhausted. She had killed at least 200 skeletons at this point so it was no wonder she was tired. Hiro told the skeletons to stop. He then cast his group healing spell on Taka and Scarlet. Their wounds began to heal. They sat down and ate some food.

“What about you guys? Do you want to give the skeletons a try?” Hiro asked Amaterasu, Leo and Learra. They all agreed.

Hiro began by summoning 5 skeletons. He then commanded them to attack the group of powerful beasts. They charged but the 3 beasts were extremely powerful and fast. Leo crushed one with his tackle breaking all of the bones in the skeleton’s torso. Then his powerful claws slashed another cutting its head completely off of its shoulders. Amaterasu was also just as powerful. She moved so quickly the the skeletons were unable to keep up with her movements. She instantly moved into there blind spot and raised up onto her hind legs and crushed them with her powerful paws. When the skeletons hit the ground they broke into small pieces. Then she turned to the last one. Learra had already crushed it by biting it with her powerful jaws. Hiro was impressed so he continued to summon more and more. They continue to crush the skeletons each time they came out.

Leo gained a level.

Learra gained 2 levels

This is perfect. I can train my companions and they could grow while my skill at summoning the undead would grow as well.

So their battle with his skeletons raged on and little by little the number of skeletons Hiro was able to summon reached 8. Hiro also was able to call out new skeletons that actually had some rusty short swords and a small shield. He analyzed them.

Name: Skeleton warrior

Hp: 9,000/ 9,000

Weakness: Blunt, Holy

Mana: 0/0

Strengths: Fire, Lightning, Earth, Wind (immune to ice, poison, and darkness) Piercing, Slashing

Skeleton warrior: A summoned warrior who has retained some of its battle instincts and skills from when it was still alive. It also has more hit points and greater offensive and defensive abilities than a normal skeleton as it can wield weapons and armor.

These skeleton warriors were able to put up more of a fight but they were still no match for the 3 beasts. By Hiro’s calculation they had killed nearly 400 skeletons without taking much damage. Each time they were slashed they just bit one of the skeletons and renewed their energy using their digestion ability.

You gained 298 points towards your weapons skills.

“Caesar do you and Gori want to join in?” asked Hiro

“Nah not this time maybe when they become more of a challenge” replied Caesar.

Gori beat on his chest in agreement.

“Oh ok”, Hiro replied.

He looked on the ground and some of the skeletons had left bones after being killed.

In many role playing games you could sell these a shop to earn money

“Everyone please to gather the bones and give them to me so I can put them in my magic bag.”

How powerful are Leo and Learra? My skill says that I actually have room for one more. What kind of beast could compare to these two? I can’t even think of anything that could fight equally with these two.

Hiro decided to stop the sparring session for now so that they could eat a meal before exploring the the southwest section of the forest. He used his energy detect ability and found that there weren’t any strong enemies within that section but he wanted to explore it none the less.

Because this section is relatively weak, I should have an opportunity to practice my new martial arts skills.