Kenny felt every bone within his body rattle as he skipped across the ground a few feet away from the monster. When he finally came to a halt, he let out a groan, and coughed. Even though his health didn’t take much of a hit, the pain that coursed through him felt like he had taken a lot of damage.

He wanted to just lay there and let his body rest, but when the Skeletal Knight Commander let out its piercing battle cry, Kenny understood he didn’t have the luxury to do that.

Kenny pushed himself up off the ground and glared at the armored skeleton. He was caught off guard with that attack because he wasn’t expecting it. All the monsters he had fought so far hadn’t been that…smart when it came to their physical attacks.

He had been scratched, bitten, body slammed, hit with magical attacks, but hit with a planned kick like that? That meant this creature had some sapience and could potentially be the hardest fight yet. Worse than the Mid Area Boss duo they had fought not too long ago. He needed to find out how intelligent this skeletal monster was in a fight.

“Val,” Kenny started as he kept an eye on the Boss monster but had just enough vision to see her. “Were you able to land your Slow Debuff on this guy?”

“No,” Val answered as she looked at Kenny. “It failed due to the creature’s high resistance and the armor its wearing.”

Kenny nodded. “Okay. I have a bad feeling about this guy, but I need to test some things out to see if maybe I’m just being paranoid or not. Keep trying to land a Slow on it before using Pain.”

“A bad feeling?” Val questioned. “What do you mean by that?”

“Its…it’s hard to explain,” Kenny replied. “Just let me know when you are able to land a Slow Debuff.”

Before Val could reply Kenny raced back towards the already moving skeletal boss monster. The tip of the sword scrapped against the stoned floor as its right hand dragged it. Before Kenny reached the creature’s sword reach, it stomped its leading foot down and lifted the sword from behind over its head and tried to chop down as fast as it could.

Kenny leaped to his left dodging the sword as it slammed into the ground. Before the creature could do anything, Kenny stepped in and threw a right punch right towards the middle of the monster’s breastplate.

As his fist slammed into the armor he felt his knuckles heat up with a blinding pain. He then rolled to the ground to his left to dodge the sword once again as it came swinging at an upward angle, barely missing his right arm.

As soon as Kenny rolled back to his feet, he balanced himself enough to throw a roundhouse kick with his left leg right into the shin guard to try and sweep the monster off its feet. Once more a blinding pain exploded where he struck.

Kenny ignored the pain as he dropped down by bending his knees to duck a horizontal sword strike. As soon as the sword fully passed over his head, Kenny stood back up and tried throwing a one two punch combo.

Kenny felt his knuckles throb with more pain. He bit back the grunts he wanted to let out as he tried to push past the pain and threw a powerful right punch in the same spot he had thrown his right punch moments before.

Pain washed up his arm spreading like an electric web. That brief moment of pain was enough for the skeletal monster to catch him off guard and backhand him across the face.

Kenny felt his body spin around and fall backwards from the sheer force of the attack. He felt his head collide with the ground without warning causing his head to spin and his vision darken for a brief moment. He lifted his head up and tried to look around. His eyes felt like they were swimming as his sight brightened back up. It moved around like the world was moving every which way.

Even though his vision swam and his head felt like it was on the verge of a concussion, Kenny didn’t give in to the pain begging him to stop moving. He couldn’t tell where left was from his right, but when he heard Val shout to move out of the way he rolled.

He kept rolling as he heard metal stomping close to his body. From the sounds he was hearing he could tell it was the creature’s foot he was hearing. The foot stomping was accompanied by another sound that was probably its sword trying to stab or slice him. Kenny kept rolling around trying to avoid getting hit, but he was also using this time to regain his equilibrium.

Val had watched in horror as Kenny got rocked off his feet and fell to the ground. The sound of his head hitting the ground made her grow even more concerned as she could see his eyes spinning around from where she stood. She believed his equilibrium must have been messed up as he looked like he couldn’t tell where his up from down was.

When the Skeletal Knight Commander went in to attack him and he didn’t instantly move, she did the only thing she thought she could do. She yelled at him to move.

She was thankful that he wasn’t completely taken out of the fight as he started rolling across the ground to get away from the monster while it stomped its foot and slammed its sword.

However, she was growing concerned for her partner. She had seen him get thrown around, thrown into a wall, receive a point-blank blast of Pain, and more and come out with barely any scrapes and bruises. Yet here he was not only getting his ass handed to him, but every punch or kick he threw looked like it was doing more damage to him than the monster.

Was this what he meant by the bad feeling he had? Val thought to herself. Was he unable to do any damage to this Boss monster? If that was true then we’re screwed.

Val shook her head clearing the doubt away. Her facial features hardened as she refused to think anything negative. Her partner was risking it all facing this armored skeleton. She needed to put in the same energy he was showing her.

Val focused as hard as she could readying another attempt at landing her Slow Debuff on him. She let out an irritated growl as she attempted it once again only to receive a failed notification.

She was starting to get really irritated receiving the same notification over and over. She was better than this. She was getting better at landing her Debuff before this fight. Even the Wandering Skeletons that were hard to get debuffed had started getting easier after she leveled up and focused on them.

She could use her necklace to fill her Runes so she could empower her Slow Debuff. It would probably help her in successfully landing it better, but a part of her didn’t want to keep relying on it. Especially since she would have her mana drain quicker. Sure, her Mana Pool had grown, but that didn’t mean it would be fast to replenish when she drank a mana potion. Those things could replenish only so much since they were low grade.

Val watched as Kenny was finally able to get back on his feet. He then rushed back in, dodged an attempted strike by the boss monster with its sword before trying to punch the monster twice. She could hear the sounds of fists hitting the metal armor. She could see the painful look on Kenny’s face as his fists hit the metal.

Did he receive some sort of recoil whenever he punched the armor? That must be the case. A memory of a discussion they had once surfaced for a brief moment. He had mentioned that even though his Endurance was high it didn’t mask the recoil his fists and legs felt whenever he hit something hard.

Most of the creatures they had been fighting had soft skin. Besides the Wandering Skeletons that is. However, he had been able to land punches against them and defeat them. So, what made this skeletal monster different from those others? Was it the armor it wore? Then why didn’t he just try to rip the armor off?

Val watched as Kenny ducked as the sword whirled over his head in a horizontal angle. She then watched as he jumped back in to attack the monster once more. She watched as he attacked the monster and noticed something. His attacks seemed…weaker.

Like he was holding slightly back for some reason. Why? Not only that, but he was attacking the same spot over and over. Why wasn’t he going for the limbs? Was there some sort of issue he was having that made him keep attacking the breastplate over and over?

Val tried once again to try and land a Slow Debuff. Her frustration was starting to grow to its breaking point as she received the same damnable notification telling her she had failed. That was it. She needed to say something. Not holding back, she screamed out, “What the hell are you doing Kenny?!”

“Trying to survive,” Kenny responded as he rolled out of the way of a sword strike that came from over the Skeletal Knight Commander’s head and down where he was no longer standing. “What does it look like I’m doing?”

“Holding back is what it looks like,” Val commented as she stomped her foot and glared at him. She didn’t understand why, but the way he was flailing around, not attacking where he should be attacking was making her believe he wasn’t fighting the monster seriously and it was irritating the ever-loving shit out of her.

“Hold…holding back!?” Kenny replied, annoyance bleeding out into his own voice now as he leapt in and tried to punch the breastplate of the monster once again.

Pain thrummed throughout his knuckles and shins sending cascading waves of pain up his arms and legs. He was starting to feel a warm liquid squishing between his throbbing knuckles and hand wraps and that feeling sent a new type of irritation throughout his mind.

“Great. Just fucking great, I’m bleeding,” Kenny muttered before he jumped backwards enough to create some distance between him and the Area Boss before growling at Val, “I don’t know if you see, but this monster has fucking armor that is hard to get past.”

“Then why are you attacking the armor instead of the bones and its joints?” Val countered with a raised brow. Kenny’s brazen annoyance at her only made her even more pissed.

Kenny paused for a moment. He looked at the monster and grew confused. The confusion on Kenny’s face only confused Val as she wasn’t sure why he was looking at the monster like that. His next words only confused her even more as he stated, “Bones? What do you mean? Why would I attack his bones? This is a person not a skeleton.”

Val stood frozen as she stared at Kenny puzzled and genuinely concerned. Did he hit his head so hard he thinks this creature is an actual person and not a Skeleton Boss? What the hell is going on in his mind right now. Then carefully she asked, “Kenny…You do know we’re in the middle of a boss fight and that is a Skeletal Knight Commander right?”

Kenny moved out of the way of a frontal sword thrust as he jumped to his left, he was now with his back positioned to Val before he jumped forward and tried to round house kick the creature in the chest.

He felt a reverberating pain race through his leg that made him let out a grunt of pain. He barely made it out of the way as the sword swept the air in front of him as he threw his hips back enough to create enough space for the weapon to barely miss grazing his stomach.

Val’s anger blended with the confusion and concern she was starting to have for Kenny’s strange behavior. If he honestly thought, and it really did seem like he did, that this monster was a human and not a monster then there was some explanation why he didn’t seem to be fighting to kill. However, she would think that if someone was trying to kill them that the target of the killer would fight to kill back; especially since they were in the Trial Grounds.

Deciding she needed to do something, Val aimed her wand at the skeletal monster. When she locked on to the target she was aiming for, Val released a blast of mana. The ball of mana flew from her wand fast and true.

It whizzed pass Kenny and slammed hard against the helmet of the boss monster. However, instead of hitting the helmet like she wanted the blast of mana crashed against the monster’s forehead and made it snap back.

“Val!” Kenny panicked as he turned to look at her. Before he could say anything another blast of mana flew by him and hit the monster. This time it hit the helmet making it spin around the monster’s bare skull before flying off its head.

“Look!” Val pointed at the creature behind him. “That is not a person! It’s a Skeletal Boss monster that is seriously trying to kill you and me!”

Kenny turned to look at the monster. However, he hadn’t realized how close the monster was until he turned. He felt a heavy metal foot slam against his stomach with the force of a bull, sending him flying off his feet and skipping into an empty weapons rack.

“Kenny!” Val screamed as she watched his body crumple after crashing into the once sturdy wooden rack. She wanted to run to his side to check on him, but the sound of heavy metal boots making their way towards her made her snap her attention back on the monster.

She understood she couldn’t run towards Kenny and decided to have faith he would be fine. Instead, she needed to keep this monster distracted long enough for him to snap back to reality or out of whatever funk he was currently in.

Before Val started to move she readied a Slow Debuff and threw it at the monster. To her surprise, it had finally landed. She didn’t have time to question why it had decided to land now as the monster was almost within striking distance with that sword it was dragging behind it.

She may have landed the Slow on it, but the amount of speed decrease it received only decreased it by a small amount. The right amount for her to be able to keep a certain amount of distance away from it as she started to run.

She tried to focus on throwing a Pain Hex on the skeletal creature, something she learn she could do with the Wandering Skeletons, but failed each time since she could stand still long enough to prepare it. It didn’t cause them to feel any pain, but the damage over time still affected their bones. She didn’t understand how it worked, but she wasn’t going to complain.

Since she couldn’t get enough time to throw a Pain Hex on the Skeletal Knight Commander, Val tried to stack her Slow Debuff on the monster. The first few failed, but the moment the first Debuff she was able to land had disappeared she was able to successfully land it again.

This happened a few times causing a wave of anxiety to bloom as the skeletal monster would gain a short burst of speed for the faction of a second before she was able to land another on it. The sudden burst would bring the creature almost the few inches it needed to be able to strike her. Each time this happened she grew more and more worried. However, the creature getting closer wasn’t her only cause for worry.

Another cause of her worries? Her small pool of Stamina. The more she ran the more her stamina dropped. Not to mention all the mana she was using trying to land a successful stack of her Slow Debuff. Each fail when she tried to stack ate away at her remaining pool. She couldn’t keep this up for much longer. She needed Kenny and she needed him now.

She went to turn her head to see if she could see how he was doing, but when she turned her head she didn’t see the timer of her Slow Debuff disappear. The skeletal creature took this brief moment to jerk forward and throw a gauntleted punch right into her back.

Val felt the force of punch slam right into the middle of her shoulder blades knocking the air out of her lungs and sending her flying face first into the stoned ground. Val felt her body slid across the ground and let out a painfilled groan as she finally came to halt. As her body came to a stop the only thought that swam through her head was, How has Kenny been putting up with this pain?

A couple of notifications suddenly appeared in front of her vision making her both confused and suddenly gain clarity on what was going on with Kenny.

[Debuff Confusion has been placed on you.]

[Runes of Absorption has absorbed the Debuff Confusion.]

[Debuff Confusion has failed to stick to you.]

It took her but a brief moment to understand where the Debuff came from. Apparently when the Skeletal Knight Commander landed a hit on you it also placed this Confusion Debuff. She remembered learning about Debuffs and how some didn’t inform you that you were hit with it unless you had a way to tell you.

Confusion was one of these types of Debuffs. She understood she was able to see this thanks to her Runes of Absorption since it informed her each time she absorbed any Debuffs or the like. As for Kenny though…he wouldn’t have gotten any notification telling him about this specific Debuff.

Since this monster punched him more than once he must have received the debuff and was getting it refreshed with every hit. That explained why he was so confused and thought it was a human…kind of. There had to be a story there she didn’t know about that made him hold back when he thought he was fighting a human being instead of a monster.

Val’s thoughts scattered as she heard the footsteps of the skeletal creature getting closer and closer to her. She quickly dismissed the notifications and went to scramble back to her feet, but the moment she moved she felt a searing hot flash of pain slicing through the right calf. The seething pain caused her to involuntarily let out a scream of pain that was swiftly cut off as a metal boot slammed into her side making her roll away upon impact.

Val rolled a few feet from where she was hit finally coming to a stop as she laid on her back and stared up at the ceiling. She coughed out a small bit of blood as she tried to take in as much air as she could after it was ejected from her lungs when she was kicked.

Her entire body burned with the pain from getting hit by the creature. She tried to move her arms and legs as panic started to fill every part of her, but her body instead refused to move. Her arms and legs protested as they worked against her need to get up and away from this spot.

A shadow suddenly loomed over her making her eyes fall upon the armored skeletal creature. Tears started to well up at the corner of her eyes before they rolled. She didn’t want to die here. Not after getting so close to the last area. Not after finally awakening all of her Skill Trees.

Her mind raced as images of everything she experienced flashed before her. Her excitement when receiving the invitation to the Trial Grounds. The look of joy and support her family gave her before leaving for it. Her struggles before being betrayed by her old teammates.

The Skeletal Knight commander loomed over Val and stared at her menacingly. It looked like it was contemplating something as it stared down at her. It didn’t take long to come to a decision as it positioned itself into a sturdy stance.

Her meeting with Kenny. Her confidence slowly returning after fighting by his side. Her trust in people slowly coming back thanks to him as they teased each other freely without fear of offending the other. The way he made her feel when claiming they were a great team and how her abilities compliments his fighting style. Even she was thinking he was right that they were a good match. Watching him rushing to protect her from attacks he could have just let her take.

The Skeletal Knight Commander slowly gripped its weapon with both hands before slowly bringing it up and over its head. It repositioned its aim as its lower body shifted to align with Val’s neck.

He strangely did always appear when she needed him to. Val thought to herself as she watched the boss monster start to move. She felt herself biting her lip hard at that thought. Frustration and desperation replaced the panic within her as she stared back at the monster defiantly.

Damn it! Don’t give me hope over and over again if you’re not going to keep your word. You already broke your word about not letting me get hurt. I don’t care about that though. Everyone gets hurt when facing monsters, it’s all part of the occupation. Val’s faced turned into a scowl as she stared at the creature position its sword above her neck. I know you’ll keep your word. You have so far. I know you’ll protect me. So where are you? Why aren’t you here? Huh…

Without realizing it, she took in a deep breath before screaming out, “Kenny!”

Before the Skeletal Knight Commander could swing its sword down, a loud enraged snarl filled escaped Kenny’s mouth as he demanded while swinging a thick piece of broken wood the length of a short sword and as thick as four by four post, “Get the fuck away from my partner!”

Val watched as the wood piece Kenny swung with both hands shattered across the Skeletal Knight Commander’s face. The force of the blow not only completely shattered the make shift weapon, but it had also sent the boss creature flying away from them to the other side of the room. The creature’s sword loosened from its grip as it was flying and bounced away from it.

Kenny kept his gaze on the down creature and said apologetically, “Sorry about that. I wasn’t quite myself.” He then added with an appreciative tone, “And thank you for yelling some sense back into me.”

Val stared up at Kenny and took him in. He was hunched over Val breathing heavily, one leg on both sides of her body in a protective stance. Even though he was shorter than her, staring at his back made him feel so much bigger. Tears flowed again down the sides of Val’s face as she stared at the short idiot. He really did appear when she needed him. She then said in a quiet whisper barely audible for even her, “You really are an idiot.”