Chapter 54: How Can a Gray Bone Skeleton Use It?

Lu Se slashed through the armored warrior in front of him, casting a wary glance at the smiling knight nearby; with his strength, killing a single armored swordsman wasn’t hard—it was doing it amid this many enemies that was difficult.

To be fair, these armored swordsmen’s defense was absurdly extreme; even the heavy armor itself wasn’t the worst part—Lu Se had tried blunt strikes with no effect, and if this were an ordinary person, a single blunt strike would’ve caused internal bleeding.

The blade couldn’t pierce, the blunt strikes couldn’t break it; finally, Lu Se kicked at their lower limbs, repeatedly striking their knee joints until he shattered the kneecaps, then found the gap behind the neck, slashed with a palm-strike, and let his battle aura surge in and explode, finally felling the armored swordsman.

Their defense was astonishing, but their combat ability was actually low—they only ever used diagonal slashes and horizontal sweeps, showed no fluctuation of battle aura, relied entirely on brute strength; such enemies were deeply strange, and combined with the faint, lingering stench, Lu Se strongly suspected the thing inside the armor wasn’t human.

With this suspicion, Lu Se naturally wanted to verify it—he kept watch on Li Ao Na De, preparing to lift the armored swordsman’s helmet.

Tika-tika… the horse beneath Li Ao Na De lifted its hoof and stepped forward, nearly charging in one burst straight to Lu Se’s face, as Li Ao Na De swung his sword.

Lu Se had been alert to him all along, yet the horse’s speed still caught him off guard—he barely parried with a clumsy swing, then retreated over a dozen steps in quick succession, putting himself beyond the danger zone.

“What kind of horse is this!?” Lu Se exclaimed. The horse was motionless as stillness, but moved like thunder—clearly no ordinary beast.

The horse actually curled its lip, revealing a look of contempt: “Horse? What horse? Your whole family are horses. Uneducated fool—look closer: it’s a unicorn. Lightning.”

Lightning raised its massive hoof and slammed it into its own forehead—thud thud thud—with such force it nearly knocked Li Ao Na De off its back.

Lu Se’s jaw nearly dropped. “Where’s your horn?”

Though this world had no such thing as unicorns, Lu Se had read books—he knew unicorns had horns. Yet this so-called “horse” had a completely bald forehead—where was the horn?

Lightning clearly anticipated this question and answered bluntly: “Lost it. Hmph!” Then it turned its head away and ignored Lu Se entirely.

Lu Se’s gaze returned to Li Ao Na De—riding a horse that moved like thunder, and himself no weakling: “You’re a Grand Sword Master. Who are you?”

A single exchange revealed all—Lu Se had already gauged Li Ao Na De’s strength from that one strike: at least Grand Sword Master level.

Though one rank below Lu Se, the mount changed everything: a unicorn wasn’t just fast, it was intelligent, easily achieving more than double the power. And Li Ao Na De could cast magic—clearly of the Holy Knight tradition.

“You truly are a barbarian from the Abyss—no manners at all. When asking someone’s name, shouldn’t you state your own first?” Li Ao Na De pulled a whip from his saddle, snapped it to the ground, coiled it around the neck of the fallen armored swordsman, and hoisted him up.

The armored swordsman dangled by his neck, limp against the unicorn’s side, as Li Ao Na De summoned holy light with one hand and pressed it onto the wound at the back of the neck.

“Lord of Hanying City, Saint Swordsmaster Lu Se Lofen—who are you!?” Lu Se, eager to learn the man’s identity, refused to waste time arguing—he quickly stated his own name and pressed for an answer.

“What a short name. No surprise for a barbarian from the Abyss,” Li Ao Na De smiled, shaking his head elegantly: “I am Commander of the Holy Blade Army, Divine Knight, Conqueror of the Abyss of Rest, Li Ao Na De Sheng An Tuo Ni A Si A Mu Si Luo Ke A Mu Shi Te Lang…”

Li Ao Na De recited a name eighty-six characters long—Lu Se nearly yawned.

“Enough, enough, Long-and-Foul-Mister—you’re not saying this ‘Abyss of Rest’ refers to right here, are you?” Lu Se pointed down at the ground, stunned.

Li Ao Na De didn’t grow angry—he smiled: “Call me Li Ao Na De. I’ve conquered so many realms I can barely remember them all; to you, they’re meaningless. Only this place matters to you—call it the Abyss of Rest. It’ll be forgotten by me soon anyway—what’s in a name?”

Lu Se stared blankly for a long while, then finally managed: “Has anyone ever told you your speech is asking for a beating?”

“Perhaps. But who listens to the voice of ants? First, defeat my servant.”

The armored swordsman, still tethered by the whip around his neck, shook his head and stood upright on his own power.

After releasing the whip, Li Ao Na De immediately shook his hand in disgust, then pulled a clean handkerchief from his saddlebag and meticulously wiped it. Once done, he casually tossed the obviously high-quality handkerchief onto the ground.

Lu Se frowned. Already healed? No—even if the neck wound was mended, what about the knees? Why could he stand?

The armored swordsman’s undead-like resilience, combined with the faint stench, made Lu Se suspect the thing inside the armor was an undead creature—especially since the neck wound hadn’t bled after being cut.

Yet now it didn’t seem so—the armored swordsman wasn’t repelled by holy light, and could even be healed by it.

The armored swordsman shook his head again, clearly unaffected by his injuries. He picked up his longsword and strode toward Lu Se.

“I killed you once—I can kill you ten times,” Lu Se grunted, sidestepping the armored swordsman’s slash, then striking backward with a palm-strike into the gap behind the neck, driving battle aura inside to tear open a gaping wound, before chopping down with his sword and severing the head.

Now that he knew the weak point, this iron can was easy to deal with.

“See how you fix this now,” Lu Se spat angrily.

“Heh. How do you know I can’t bring him back? But it’s been ages—you’ve only killed one. My other servants have nearly leveled the battlefield…” As he spoke, he glanced outward—and what he saw made his eyes bulge.

A gray-white skeleton was swinging a massive scythe across an armored swordsman’s body—the scythe passed through the armor like intangible matter, yet snatched away a faint soul flame.

“Reaper’s Scythe!? Impossible—that’s a Golden Skeleton’s skill! How can a Gray Bone Skeleton use it!?” Li Ao Na De’s elegant smile vanished, replaced by shock.