Superior Monsters (I)

Magnus had Restiel continue battling, having him rack up on Divine Energy for future wide-area purification attempts. Magnus also gave Restiel a large portion of his own memories so that the man could be capable of thought. Although he was awfully similar to the original Magnus, the fact that Vow of the Angelic was there, really changed his image.

He was a lot purer and more majestic, while the original Magnus was devious and rather barbaric.

While Restiel collected taxes, Magnus and Klaris were fighting skeletons, trying to absorb their knowledge and techniques. Magnus avoided any use of his Blessing and kept to his stone knife.

He wanted to feel his opponent's strikes up close and personal.

Klaris was the one who observed from afar. He was in charge of taking mental notes using their shared brainpower. Calculations, memorisations, and the like were being processed through Master of the Hivemind.

It was an interesting feature of the Blessing, to say the least. With every member in the Hivemind, the stronger their collective thinking capabilities become.

"Isn't this enough?" Klaris finally asked after the eighth day. "We still have to find and kill six more monsters, you know? We only have two weeks of the month left."

"...Good reminder," Magnus said as he wrapped up for the day. Restiel was flying to him to be unsummoned and Klaris had been busy practising what they had observed.

Overall, the gains were great although intangible, as Magnus finally had a technique to utilize for his spear, currently-broken sword, and knife.

He no longer swung his weapons around randomly, and he had a set of footwork he had faith in. Although it wasn't the best, it was better than before.

He just lacked better scythe techniques to use for Restiel.

None of the skeletons used a scythe, after all. They only used the most common of weapons.

"Then, tomorrow, we will head deeper into skeleton and zombie territory," Magnus said as he beckoned Klaris to come to him and be unsummoned.

"Alright. Make sure to summon me. I want to stretch. Being in the Hivemind feels... stuffy." Klaris nodded as he disappeared.

Magnus chuckled wryly as he turned around and walked into the sunrise. He was going to sell his loot for the night and have a good sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a thrilling day.

Just looking at the details on the guidebook made Magnus excited.

"I've been bearing the boredom for as long as I am able to," Magnus muttered to himself with a smile.

"Finally time for something fun,"

.

.

.

[[ Skeleton General ]]

[[ Blessing and Curse: N/A ]]

[[ Physical Attributes: 2.9-stars ]]

[[ Spirit Attributes: 2.3-stars ]]

[[ Skeleton Generals like to designate territory amongst themselves as they command thousands of troops. Killing at least 40% of the skeletons in the area will draw the attention of a Skeleton General. When that happens, run. ]]

[[ Skeleton Generals have weaknesses based on their weapons of choice. They are also significantly weaker than their superior monster counterparts such as the Ghoul Gangster and the 4-line Zombie. ]]

[[ Skeleton Generals are strong because of their command over troops. If you are an assassin, it is your duty to take them out whenever they come to our city. ]]

Those were the details written down on the handbook that Magnus had memorised as he walked. He used the map in town as a reference to see where he could go:

The edge of the city was an area where a Skeleton General set up camp. If he loitered around the area and killed a few hundred skeletons by himself, he could attract its attention.

At the same time, Magnus could try sneaking into the camp itself and acting as an assassin.

Magnus wanted to do the latter.

He placed a bag of Powder of Undeath that he had bought, on the ground.

"I can use this to mask my scent," Magnus mumbled to himself as he invoked Master of the Hivemind and switched with Javelin.

In his cat form, Javelin dove into the smelly powder after a little hesitation.

Achoo!

Javelin sneezed.

A bit of powder entered his nostrils. It took a few moments for it to adjust to its stuffy nose, but eventually, he began his run into the depths of the darkness.

He ran passed toppled buildings and piles of rubble. Through abandoned streets where skeletons roamed mindlessly and swung at whatever was in front of them. Over cracks in the ground, and holes in many random places.

He scampered around, hiding like the mice he was supposed to catch. Up until he arrived in an area where the skeletons all walked in twos and threes.

In the distance, the sound of battle rang out as bone sparred against bone.

Javelin tilted his head as he licked his paw for a moment.

The fog of the undead here was thick. A shard of bone had cut into Javelin's paw, forcing miasma into it.

Restiel appeared after a meowed invocation, shining a light on Javelin's wound.

He then burst out with a massive aura of light. Divine Energy surged like a high tide.

The skeletons in the area were instantly drawn towards the angel. They raised their weapons and charged in a line as a rain of arrows whistled through the dark sky.

A small light show occurred as Restiel brandished his scythe, looking ready to confront the organised assault that chased after his life.

However, in the next moment, Restiel disappeared.

Magnus realised just how dangerous the area was.

'Well then,' He thought from within the Hivemind, 'I'm going to have to sacrifice an arm and a leg just to get this kill if I do it badly.'

.

.

.

In the darkness of the night, sitting atop a small hill of human bones was a Skeleton General clad in iron armour. She sat there, unmoving, just like all the many nights that she had spent governing her territory. Her army grew one step at a time no matter how slowly.

The humans in the city served as an excellent source of new bones and tasty souls.

She was able to make use of their presence to sharpen the swords of her soldiers and heighten the accuracy of her archers. Her spearmen learned what distance meant under her command, and her scouts learned how exactly to sneak around.

It was all looking up.

Once she attains greater strength, she could achieve a better form. No longer would she be stuck in the cage of a simple skeleton.

A better body was what she aimed for.

That was until a small group of humans bothered her.

A golden light flashed, coming straight out of the darkness and pulling Cryte's skull towards it. Caught with her guard down, Cryte reacted late as she hurried to dodge.

But the golden gravity sphere was a homing missile, swiftly hitting her with a loud,

DONG!

The flames in Cryte's eyes flickered, as the Spirit Energy within her body was strained by the great pull of gravity.

Whooooom!

A fierce light then shone from behind her. A giant scythe was making its way over to her neck, ready for some undead slaying.

"...Guards! To me!"

Cryte sent out her command, as the bone hill beneath her feet churned. Out of it came a squad of warriors with armour and weapons of bone.

Clang!

They met the scythe head-on and remained perfectly unfazed.

"Shit," A swear blossomed from Magnus' lips.

The squad of skeletal warriors pushed Restiel back in the blink of an eye, forcing him to retreat into the skies.

"Archers!" Cryte summoned more of her troops, and skeletons waddled out of the darkness, holding their bows.

"Fire!" Restiel was instantly in a perilous situation as all around him, arrows came flying in.

He flew towards the ground instead and then disappeared into a flash of light.

Restiel then appeared beside Cryte in the next moment. The flames in Cryte's eye sockets shrank in surprise,

"What?!"

Slash!

A good attack found its way into Cryte's defences, melting a small portion of her body. She was sent flying by the residual explosion of Divine Energy, and then the powerful pull of gravity acted upon her once more.

'I forgot about that!' She inwardly exclaimed.

"Help me!" Her next command rang out as the skeletons directly received her intent through their souls. They piled on top of her and dragged her down into the earth, nullifying the pull of gravity.

They looked like a mountain of ants from afar, all holding onto one object for dear life as it was pulled by a magnet that floated in the air.

"Assassins! Find them!" Cryte roared.

Several blurs of movement rushed forth from the darkness, climbing the mountain of ants and leaping off of it to make attempts on Restiel.

Some searched for the nearby Magnus, who rose higher into the sky to avoid getting hit.

Arrows and throwing weapons then followed after the assassins, they scaled the skies, and this time Restiel and Magnus only had each other to rely on.

"Conglomerate!" Magnus decided to leave Cryte be for now as his gravity sphere zoomed towards the rain of projectiles.

Whoom!

A powerful pulse of gravity spread out. Repulsion made the projectiles waver in their trajectories.

Magnus then turned the repulsion into an immense pull.

"To orbit!" He cried out as he exerted all his efforts on targeting all the projectiles in the area.

Ssuk! Ssuk!

Unfortunately for him, a few unseen throwing knives embedded themselves in his flesh, surprising him.

"What...? From where..?" He muttered but did not stop his current actions.

Restiel, too, was suddenly injured. His wings took on a few splotches of red.

Magnus was dumbfounded for a moment.

But he quickly shook his head.

The hundreds of projectiles began orbiting the gravity sphere at a growing rapid pace.

More projectiles joined the group, but at the same time, more knives embedded themselves in both Restiel and Magnus.

Magnus suddenly felt his head grow light. Breathing became hard.

He felt blood dripping from his chest and scaling up his oesophagus. A knife, or knives, had found themselves in his abdomen.

"Damn it," He swore.

He then let his gravity go wild. Another grand wave of repulsion made the projectiles shoot off at high velocities. They were a shower of attacks that killed many of the skeletons below.

Magnus' speciality as the Gravity Fairy once again showed its prowess today.