My small army was positioned around me. Nine Skeleton Soldiers held their swords with both hands, while the five Ghost Wizards stood just behind them with their staves.
Across the chamber, Golden Captain Laufus stood motionless—as though honorably waiting for me to finish my preparations.
His deep white eyes glowed through his helmet's visor. Then he took a single step forward.
Clang!
The sound of his armor's metal boots hitting the floor echoed through the hall.
His sword scraped against the stone floor as he slowly raised it. His bearing was calm. He wasn't just any monster—he was a veteran warrior. I swallowed hard and raised my hand.
"Wizards, begin. Except you, Morgath."
Four Ghost Wizards raised their staves and began to murmur incantations in an ancient language.
Magic circles appeared in the air in front of their staves, which quickly fired balls of fire.
Boom!
A hail of fire headed toward Laufus, engulfing his body in an explosion of red flames like the Ghost Wizards' eyes. The impact shook the walls. Then, a figure cut through the smoke.
Laufus emerged from the flames like a bolt of golden metal. His armor was intact — at least on the outside.
He raised his sword and, surprisingly, threw it at me.
My eyes widened. "Son of a bitc–!"
The blade spinning through the air was too fast for most of my skeletons to react in time. Well, most...
CLANG!
The sword pierced one of my skeleton warriors, who had placed himself in front of me to shield against the blow.
Unfortunately, the result was that the Skeleton Soldier in question was split in half. However, that was enough to deflect the sword's trajectory, which stuck into the wall to my right.
[Your summon called 'Ban' has been destroyed!]
My entire body went on alert. 'He threw his own sword?! And how did he manage to throw it with such precision?'
I didn't even have much time to understand what was happening when I felt a chill.
I looked back over my shoulder and saw the sword, which was stuck in the wall, quivering on its own.
I threw myself to the ground, and the sword detached itself from the wall and made the same movement it had made before, following the trajectory until it returned to Laufus' hands.
"How cool!" I thought with a big smile.
Laufus wasn't done with the surprises. He held his sword with both hands and, with a mechanical sound, transformed it into two swords. Each of these swords had a single-edged blade, like katanas, and I knew that an enemy with two or three swords was always dangerous.
[Watch out!] the system warned.
[Laufus has unlocked the Bloody Captain's fighting style: "Golden Warrior's Twin Swords."]
"Defend me!" I shouted to my Summons as I stood up.
The eight Skeleton Soldiers advanced at my command, forming a front line.
Laufus rushed forward, turning into a complete blur before my eyes.
His speed was far superior to that of any monster I had encountered so far. His long blade sliced through the air in a low arc, and three skeletons were instantly torn to pieces.
['Summon 4' has been destroyed by Golden Captain Laufus.]
['Summon 5' has been destroyed by Golden Captain Laufus.]
['Summon 7' has been destroyed by Golden Captain Laufus.]
But my warriors weren't just fragile dolls. One skeleton— the last in Laufus's line of attack — managed to parry the blow with his sword. His bony legs trembled under the brute force of one of Laufus's blades. Another skeleton took advantage of the opening and attacked from the side of Laufus.
For a moment, it looked like this other Skeleton Soldier was going to hit him, but Laufus twisted his body in a movement impossible for normal beings, practically breaking his own spine, and his other blade pierced my soldier's head as if it were paper.
['Summon 8' was destroyed by Golden Captain Laufus.]
"Wizards, now!"
The four wizards finished a second spell, and black lightning bolts were launched toward Laufus, who again failed to dodge the magical attacks.
The bolts struck his armor, making him stagger backward.
Laufus used his two swords for support and quickly regained his balance.
My hands were shaking. Even with the Summons, this was the most dangerous enemy I had ever faced, and by all indications, I couldn't defeat him with just a large number of allies.
"Soldiers, retreat! Mages, keep attacking, but keep moving and spread out!"
Everyone obeyed at once.
Laufus moved his head quickly, as if processing the change in formation. That action made me realize that even though I had lost many Summons, I had managed to convince him that I was not the danger — my Summons were.
So, at that moment, I went on the attack myself.
My muscles were stronger than ever after investing the Soul Fragments. I grabbed one of the swords that had fallen from a destroyed soldier and threw it at Laufus to draw his attention.
He noticed me approaching and swung both swords in a brutal attack, but after seeing him take out a small group of my soldiers with that same move, I was already expecting it.
Instead of trying to block, I dove under the blow, slid across the floor, and passed straight behind him between his legs.
At that moment, I used the sword I had taken from a Hollow Knight to stab Laufus behind the knee, right at the joint of his golden armor.
The strike made a sharp crack, and Laufus's knee gave way.
"MAGICIANS, NOW!"
This time, all five of my magicians cast their spells at once. Fire and lightning.
The twin spells struck Laufus directly in the head and torso, making his armor smoke from the heat.
I dropped the sword that was still in his knee and rushed to pick up the second sword — the one I had thrown earlier, which had failed to injure him.
Once I had the sword in hand, I jumped to strike with all my strength. With a roar, I drove the blade into Laufus's back.
The impact sent a shockwave through my arms. The armor was sturdy, but I used my weight to push it in.
A deep cut tore through the back of Laufus's armor, from the nape of his neck to his lower spine. I thought that would be the end, but he moved.
Laufus spun on his heel and smashed his elbow into my stomach.
The air rushed out of my lungs in a hoarse gasp, and my body flew across the hall like a rag doll.
I bounced three times on the floor and only stopped when I crashed into a small staircase.
The pain was so intense that my vision darkened and narrowed.
[CRITICAL DAMAGE RECEIVED!]
[Three Broken Ribs.]
[HP: 9/132.]
I coughed, and something hot and metallic welled up in my throat—blood, of course.
My muscles trembled, my lungs burned, and even the slightest movement worsened the pain. But I couldn't stop, because I knew if I died here, unlike Hunter Ruse who could return, I wouldn't have the system's favoritism.
Laufus turned to me, spinning both swords as he slowly approached.
"No... not yet..." I muttered, forcing my body to move.
There were still so many things I wanted to do in this world. I didn't necessarily have to change its fate, but I at least wanted to change the course of Brandon's life — and the lives of everyone in the Shibutani Family.
I wanted to fulfill, at the very least, what the original Brandon had tried so hard to achieve in every timeline of the original story.
Then, out of nowhere, one of my Ghost Wizards cast a spell directly at Laufus's head without me even giving the order.
I turned my head and saw Morgath with his staff raised.
That was enough for the rest of my soldiers to join the fight.
The Ghost Wizards launched fireballs at the same time, and the few remaining Skeleton Soldiers advanced in a last desperate effort to save me, with Foolish leading them.
I heard something like a sigh coming from inside Laufus's helmet, and he turned his body toward the small horde of opponents.
His first sword swing split one of my Skeleton Soldiers in two, and the second swept away two more soldiers as if they were sticks.
But my Summons continued forward. Even though their chances were slim, they had a single goal: to buy me time.
I had to think fast, really fast.
It was then that I realized where I was in the room. My gaze fell to my feet, and I saw a large shadow overlapping mine.
I looked up and saw that I was standing before one of the four thrones, and this one was not empty.
An insane idea popped into my mind.
"Hah... Hah..." I let out a low laugh mixed with a gasp, ignoring the pain in my ribs.
This crazy plan might work — or I could die trying.
I gained 900 Soul Fragments from killing the Hollow Knights and 120 Soul Fragments from killing Morgath. I spent 800 Soul Fragments before the battle began, but everything indicated that I wouldn't have room to make a reserve for the time being.
[220 Soul Fragments have been converted to 2200 Experience Points (EXP).]
[Congratulations! You have reached level 6!]
[Your HP has been completely restored.]
[Your MP has been completely restored.]
I felt a pleasant energy warm my chest. My vision returned to normal as my wounds were instantly healed.
But in the end, my real intention was not to recover my HP, but to recover my MP so that I could try my final move before deciding whether or not to flee this battle.
Standing in front of that first throne, I stretched out my hand.
'I think the ideal thing to do at a time like this would be to use a catchphrase, but I really don't have time to come up with something cool. So I'll just say the first thing that comes to mind...'
"Obey the call."
For a moment, the entire battlefield froze. Even Laufus, who was already about to throw one of his blades at me, stopped moving. The Ghost Wizards stopped casting spells, and the last Skeleton Soldiers stood motionless.
The throne in front of me began to shake, and the joints of that motionless armor in front of me began to glow red. An icy wind blew from all sides, bringing with it a distant wail. A mist formed in the cracks of the armor, and little by little, this mist solidified.
His eyes glowed bright red in a faceless head, and the creature moved to pick up the helmet next to the throne and put it on.
[Congratulations! Odran, the Forgotten Axe, has been reanimated as your summon!]
However, he was not the only one. On the throne next to him, the same phenomenon began to occur. The cracks in the other empty warrior's armor began to glow, and mist filled the hollow interior of the armor, forming something new.
[Congratulations! Selrik, the Shadow Assassin, has been revived as your summon!]
I turned to Laufus with a smile on my face.
"Selrik and Odran... Two of the four knights of these thrones are now mine. Soon, you will join them," I said as I pointed at Laufus.