Skeleton Knight in Another World Vol. 5

by Ennki Hakari

  Changing direction in mid-air was one of Sasuke’s special techniques. It was almost unnatural how he pulled it off.

  One of the shuriken missed Goemon and made its way straight toward Chiyome’s chest.

  “Instead of throwing it at the target, think of it like extending your arm toward the target.”

  These words echoed in Chiyome’s head as she remembered the day when Sasuke had taught her how to properly throw a shuriken. He’d trained with her until late into the evening.

  The image of young Sasuke sprang to mind as her eyes focused in on the man coolly dispensing death. The clang of metal on metal resounded in the air, and Sasuke’s shuriken tumbled off the roof, down to the stone path below.

  The shuriken had bounced off a woman’s long blade, her white hair whipping in the wind.

  “Step back, Chiyome! It’s too dangerous. Goemon and I will take up the fight.”

  Ariane turned her gaze toward Sasuke, stepping between him and the young ninja girl.

  Unfortunately, two dark giants chose that exact moment to make their presence known. They let out an awful shriek that echoed throughout the town.

  “Greeeeaaaaauuw!”

  Both of the giants had their eyes fixed on Sasuke as they brought their massive stone axes down in his direction.

  The roofs shook violently whenever the giants ran, making it difficult to move. The giants, however, paid this no mind, and swung their axes with reckless abandon into the surrounding buildings. They relentlessly crushed homes beneath their feet, causing a landslide of bricks all around them.

  The giants lost their footing on the ruins, tumbling to the ground and taking Goemon—his body still encased in metal—down with them in the wave of destruction.

  Ariane used her earth spirit magic to create a platform beneath her feet to escape the destruction, while Chiyome dove to a nearby roof just in time.

  Sasuke, who, only moments before, had been fighting against the three of them, leaped high into the air, flipped around, and glanced down at the destruction with disinterest. After landing on another rooftop, he bounded off again to make his escape.

  Before he could, however, several metal, star-shaped disks flew through the air and embedded themselves in his foot. Sasuke lost his concentration at the sudden pain and lost his balance, crashing hard into the roof and sending a cloud of dust high into the air.

  “Chiyome…”

  “Chiyome!”

  Goemon and Ariane turned toward the person who’d thrown the shuriken, the surprise evident in their voices.

  “Are you all right? You don’t need to push yourself.”

  Chiyome just shook her head, brushing off Ariane’s concern. “I’ve got this. I’m Chiyome. When I accepted the role that came along with that name, I knew it would be my job to see my allies off. Ariane, can you hold the giants back?”

  A stiff smile came to Chiyome’s face as she glanced toward the two giants struggling to stand.

  “No problem. Not only will I hold them back, I’ll put them down while I’m at it!”

  Ariane shot a confident grin toward Chiyome before bounding down the mountain of rubble. She practically glided, not getting caught even once as she drew her sword and held it high, her golden eyes locked straight ahead.

  Her body began emitting a faint, scarlet glow as she quietly recited a chant.

  “Holy flame, heed my call. Rise up, rain down, and return everything to the dust from whence it came.”

  Multiple red balls began forming around Ariane as she chanted. They took off like glimmering butterflies, dancing about, as if they had minds of their own. The flaming butterflies obeyed Ariane’s command and fluttered toward the dark giants.

  One of the dark giants let out an immense roar and swung its axe toward Ariane. The axe struck the pile of rubble below, sending pieces of debris flying everywhere and momentarily obscuring its vision in a massive cloud of dust.

  The dark giant tried waving the cloud of dust away. Instead, however, its hand erupted into flames, looking like a giant torch.

  “Grauuuuuwl!”

  It held its burning arm tight and fell into the pile of rubble, smashing more houses as it thrashed about.

  Despite the giant’s efforts to quench the flame, it only grew stronger as it burnt its way up the giant’s arm.

  Moments later, a pillar of fire burst out of the dark giant’s mouth, eliciting an unearthly scream of agony. Its massive eyes went blank as the flames began eating them as well, burning butterflies floating out of the now-empty sockets.

  The butterflies continued multiplying and returned to Ariane, who carefully orchestrated their movements with her sword, like a skilled conductor. They gathered below her, the red glow growing even more intense. Even her snow-white hair looked as if it were ablaze as it fluttered in the wind, reflecting the swarm of fiery butterflies. Whether the remaining giant was sentient enough to understand true fear was up for debate, but if it could, that had to be what it was feeling now.

  The giant started reversing course on its stubby legs.

  “Your fear of fire proves that you’re nothing but an animal!”

  A sadistic smile graced Ariane’s face as she sent the swarm of butterflies after the fleeing giant.

  While Ariane was busy creating hell on earth, Chiyome shuddered at the thought of how her companion must look when angry.

  Ah, right. She’d told Ariane that she would stop Sasuke on her own.

  The dark giant was now burnt to a crisp, filling the air with the unmistakable scent of charred meat. She could feel the unnatural heat wafting off the giant-turned-torch.

  Chiyome took a deep breath and slowly let it out, trying to clear her senses. Suddenly, everything around her began feeling much more vivid. Goemon stood a short distance away, blocking Sasuke’s escape route.

  A loud clang broke the silence as Chiyome blocked a shuriken flying out of the dust cloud straight toward her. It was the shuriken she’d thrown at Sasuke.

  A split second later, Sasuke came diving out of the shadows after the shuriken. Chiyome anticipated this and coolly deflected the first blow with her short sword before striking out with her own horizontal slash. She easily ducked out of the way of Sasuke’s second thrust.

  Sasuke parried Chiyome’s strike with one of his own blades before bringing the other down toward her undefended torso, hoping to cleave her in two.

  Right at that moment, two water shuriken flew straight toward Sasuke’s feet from out of the rubble. He bounded into the air and twisted around, dodging one of them, but he wasn’t quite nimble enough to avoid the second, which struck his already injured foot.

  Undead were generally incapable of feeling pain, but that didn’t mean they didn’t suffer from the physical limitations imposed by an injury. Just as one couldn’t grasp anything with a broken arm, it was impossible to move deftly on injured feet regardless of whether or not you felt pain. Though he didn’t show that he was affected at all by the injury, in either his expression or movements, the impact on his endurance and stamina were clear.

  Chiyome held up her short sword and locked eyes with Sasuke.

  A feeling she couldn’t quite put into words began welling up inside her. But no matter how much she knew that she couldn’t afford to think about such things, her thoughts kept drifting back to them.

  After shaking her head to clear her mind, Chiyome began performing several gestures with her hands.

  “Body to water, liquid wolf fang!”

  Water began pooling at her feet, forming into two mounds that slowly took the shape of wolves. However, these wolves were a fair bit smaller than the ones she’d used during the assault on the capital of the Rhoden Kingdom.

  Sasuke pointed one of his swords and drew the other back in a well-practiced move that could strike down a foe in a single, powerful strike.

  Chiyome unleashed her two aqua wolves on Sasuke, following close behind them while keeping an eye on Sasuke’s movements.

  The wolv
es dove toward Sasuke just as he swung.

  Sasuke’s initial blows went straight through the first aqua wolf, though his second attack blew it away.

  Sasuke’s swords began glowing as a gust of wind whipped around them, making his attacks all the more powerful.

  Chiyome and the remaining aqua wolf flanked Sasuke on either side, and she pressed in on the attack.

  The remaining aqua wolf dove at Sasuke’s back, only barely missing as Sasuke ducked away and swung his sword toward the beast.

  At the same moment, Chiyome closed in from the other side. Sasuke missed the wolf and launched another strike at Chiyome. She dodged, and let loose with another shuriken.

  Sasuke avoided the shuriken this time by twisting his body out of the way. He thrust his sword up into the neck of the remaining aqua wolf as it dove in toward him.

  Suddenly, he felt another wolf, this one smaller than the first two, bite down hard on his arm and thrash about.

  Due to its small size, it was hardly able to inflict more than a flesh wound.

  While Sasuke was distracted by the bite, Chiyome threw her short sword straight at his face. He deflected the blow, but she had anticipated that.

  After all the time they’d spent training together on driving an enemy back, striking when they least expected it, and feinting, Sasuke could easily read Chiyome’s intentions.

  With the blade temporarily blocking Sasuke’s view, Chiyome took the opportunity to close in on him and get within reach of his injured foot. Even she was stunned that she’d pulled it off.

  All of their training had led them here, with her hand on his foot.

  In that moment, Chiyome and Sasuke locked eyes—azure and red fixed on one another. Chiyome’s lips trembled as she stroked the foot of the man who’d once called her his little sister.

  His flesh was cold, as if blood had stopped flowing through it long ago. She gritted her teeth in determination.

  “Body to water, bloodstream hell needle!”

  A spike-shaped object formed in Chiyome’s right hand and drove itself into the wound in Sasuke’s foot.

  Sasuke’s foot began deforming and bloating as countless spikes of water tore out of his body, making him resemble a giant porcupine.

  The clear water took on a red tinge as it mixed with his blood. His body convulsed violently, then he collapsed, the spikes vanishing.

  Sasuke lay unmoving on the ground, his eyes closed. Chiyome looked down at him in silence as tears welled in her eyes. A single teardrop found its way down her cheek and fell onto Sasuke’s face.

  “Sasuke…brother. Why didn’t you use your ninja techniques and fight back?”

  Under normal circumstances, Sasuke would have undoubtedly relied more heavily on his wind abilities. And yet, he’d only used the most basic of his techniques. Even his sky-walking technique had felt…half-hearted.

  She never would have been able to beat the Sasuke she’d once known.

  Chiyome caught a glimpse of movement under the fallen man’s eyelids.

  “It…wouldn’t be right…to fight…against your sister…like that…”

  His voice was a hoarse whisper, barely audible over the flames crackling around them. But Chiyome recognized it as the voice of her beloved brother.

  An unrelenting stream of tears poured down Chiyome’s cheeks.

  “Sasuke! Hold on, I’m going to get Arc! He can heal you, I know it!”

  As Chiyome stood up, however, she found her path blocked by Goemon. She shot a defiant glare up at him.

  “Healing magic cannot bring back the dead. Say your goodbyes, Chiyome.”

  The young ninja let out a choked sob as she turned her gaze back toward Sasuke.

  “Don’t…cry, Mia. I’m glad that…it was…you who stopped me.”

  “Rowe… Rooooowe!!!”

  Tears flowed freely down her face as she pulled her brother closer, ignoring the wounds covering his body, in an attempt to catch every word.

  Sasuke’s face curved into a gentle smile at the feeling of her warmth. “Goemon, please watch after her.”

  The large man closed his eyes and nodded solemnly.

  Sasuke’s body drooped as the last remnants of energy left him. In a matter of moments, all trace of movement had ceased, as if he’d fallen into a deep, deep sleep. His body began turning into a fine dust.

  “Watch…the church…”

  “I don’t understand! Sasuke! What does that mean?!”

  Chiyome looked down in desperation at the scattering remains of her brother. Alas, he offered no answers as his disintegrating body was carried away by a strong breeze.

  Chiyome held tight to a red, diamond-shaped crystal as she watched the particles dance in the air. The gem in her hand was all that remained of him.

  ***

  I looked around at the town of Tagent from my rooftop perch and let out a sigh.

  “Where did you guys go? I can’t find anyone.”

  Using Dimensional Step, I teleported around the town, looking for my friends. But so far, all that greeted me were the ever-present flames, slowly eating away at the town.

  Whenever I ran across any skeleton soldiers, I destroyed them from the rooftops with a magical attack. But I quickly realized that there were quite a few of them. I must’ve destroyed at least a hundred already.

  I also slayed another dark giant while I was at it.

  Though not ideal against multiple opponents, Sword of Judgement was the perfect attack for tearing through a single giant right at their weakest point. I tried not to think too hard about where I was stabbing them though.

  Minimal effort, maximum effect.

  “Kyii!” Ponta was trying to tell me something.

  “Huh, what’s that, buddy?”

  I glanced around, finally spotting a dark giant standing atop a roof.

  Seeing that hulking mass atop a building was a sight to behold. I had no idea how the building was supporting its weight.

  The vast majority of buildings in Tagent were around three stories tall, making it easy for the six-meter-tall giants to disappear in their shadows. Staring off at the sea of rooftops made it impossible to really see anything going on in town.

  Another issue I faced was the shoddy construction of the roofs, and the fact that I was wearing a full suit of armor. On more than one occasion, I’d fallen into a building as the roof gave out beneath me. At the very least, I could always blame the damage on the giants, although it had probably been a poor idea on my part to climb up here in the first place.

  I focused on a location behind the dark giant.

  “Dimensional Step!”

  In an instant, I was standing 300 meters away from where I’d been moments ago. I drew my sword as I stared at the giant’s back, preparing for a surprise attack.

  “Sword of Judgment!”

  A rune appeared under the giant, and a large sword of light appeared at the center, shooting straight up through the giant’s crotch and out its large, gaping mouth.

  As soon as the sword splintered and disappeared, the giant’s colossal body tilted to the side, and tumbled off the roof, hitting the pavement below.

  Looking down, I could still see signs of life as it struggled to breathe.

  Hordes of skeleton soldiers flooded the narrow alley and approached the fallen giant, thrusting their weapons into its body.

  “I’ve got no idea what they’re doing here…”

  The first time I’d seen them, the skeleton soldiers had been attacking the citizens and local guards.

  I’d already figured that the dark giants were led here by Sasuke in order to lay siege to the town of Tagent. It made enough sense that he would put together a plan to lay waste to the humans. However, that still begged the question of why and how he’d disappeared, only to return undead.

  Though, to be honest, a part of me didn’t want to be suspicious of Chiyome’s long-time ally.

  Assuming that he’d led the giants here to destroy the town, and was also responsib
le for the skeleton soldiers, it didn’t make sense that they would attack the giants.

  Things don’t always go as planned, though.

  If you released a tiger and a wolf on the same prey, it’s more likely than not that the tiger and wolf will end up fighting each other instead.

  Even more confusing, though, was the fact that the skeleton soldiers simply walked past the townsfolk on occasion, without bothering to attack.

  Perhaps some of them were human after all?

  All of the soldiers I’d destroyed so far had attacked either humans or mountain people, though, so I didn’t worry about destroying them. Still, I couldn’t wrap my mind around what was going on in this town.

  The giant ceased all movement after the skeleton soldiers’ assault. With that task complete, they marched off in search of another target.

  I kicked a roof tile down toward them. It hit the pavement below, shattering with a loud crash. But they only glanced at it before continuing on their way.

  It didn’t seem like there were any humans among them. Sure, they’d responded to the sound, but they made no effort to identify where the tile had come from.

  “This just keeps getting stranger and stranger.”

  Before I could give it more thought, I heard another giant’s cry off in the distance.

  It was already well into the evening, and the sun was hanging low in the sky.

  The dark giant screeched again, this time followed by the desperate screams of humans.

  Ponta turned in the direction of the sound, its tail wagging gently. I turned, too, trying to identify the source of the sound.

  Up ahead, at the center of the town, I saw a massive building that looked nothing like the rest.

  It was flanked on either side by towers that shot high into the sky. It had a rather unique construction to it, and looked remarkably similar to a building I’d seen back in Leibnizche, in the Holy East Revlon Empire.

  I figured they were both churches of the Hilk religion.

  The last time I’d seen a building like this was when I summoned forth a demon and pretty much reduced the church to rubble. Glancing around, I caught sight of several dark giants marching down the road, closing in on the church. At their feet, I saw little dots scattering out of their way—townsfolk running for their lives.