chapter 38

The players watched in horror as the Skull Reaper showed it true form before their very eyes, a monster completely made of bones with two razor-sharp scythes for hands, and strong enough to kill someone of their level with just a single slash.

"What are you standing there looking dumb for! MOVE IT!" Kibaou shouted at the stunned players who was rooted in their spot and snapped them out of their trance.

"ZassssshhhhH!!!!" The Skull Reaper let out a howl and began to chase the players that were unfortunate enough to be close to it and ready and scythe-like arms- aiming for another kill.

"Hiiii!!!!!!" upon seeing the giant skeletal centipede of going after them, the players who were the closest to the boss began to pick up and ran- "HELP!!! TANKS!!!" they screamed.

One unlucky man tripped over air itself and fell flat onto the stone cold floor as the monster was closing in on them, he tried his best to crawl away, however- it was too late as the scythe was closing in on him.

*CLANGGG!!!! - just when the scythe was about to take his head off- a figure in red armed with a sword and shield appeared right in between him and death itself, and managed to block the strike and countered back.

"Everyone! Attack! Shieldbearer- WITH ME!" it was none other than Heathcliff.

"For FREEDOM!!!" the shieldbearers shouted and charges over to Heathcliff side.

"Let go and do some damages!" Leonard shouted out loudly as he charges at the Skull Reaper flank with Vengeance on hand- glowing ominously in a dark aura before leaping up onto the monster back and repeatedly jabbed the glade into its spine.

"ZASSSSSHHHHHHH!!!!!" the monster tried to shake Leonard off but to no avail as Leonard sword was firmly embedded deep into the bone and he himself glued to the handle of the sword.

"Hahaha! So this is what doing a Rodeo felt like!"

While Leonard was having "Fun" on the back of the monster- the other was jumping at the chance of taking as much health point off of the monster as possible- with Kirito and Asuna breaking a leg or two- quite an achievement for the duo.

Of course- there's still some casualty that comes across the group of players once in a while, mostly the unprepared one who didn't stock enough health potions or emergency healing crystal for that matter.

The other one is just pure stupidity- standing in the line of fire and just asking to get hit by the bladed scythe of death.

"Die die die!" while still having Vengeance embedded through the spine of the Skull Reaper so that he doesn't fall off of it back, Leonard used his other freed fist and repeatedly pounded on the backbone of the monster- sure it might not do as many damages as that of Vengeance- but it is strong enough to get his point across that- "hey! I'm on your back and repeatedly trying to break your back- so pay attention to me!"

By doing that, Leonard skill in hand to hand combat was raised rapidly to the point that he maxed out at the level cap of 1000.

"Punch my way to VICTORY!!!" he screamed joyfully as he saw the notification that his skill has maxed and continued on pounding the spine.

As the monster health point was rapidly dropping from five full bar downed to four, it attacking pattern became more and more erratic- to the point which the players can no longer recognize or predict it.

Which then again, resulted in more casualty as the game of trial and error continued on well over half an hours.

"We need to increase the damage output!"

Klein shouted out loudly as his katana sliced off one of the monster ribs and then slashed onto one of the monster many legs.

"We're on it!" Agil then smashed hard onto the side of the Skull Reaper with his giant ax- taking a good chunk of health off of it in the process- however, the attack attracts some attention to their small group- which the Skull Reaper don't take kindly too and swung it scythe at them.

But thankfully Sachi managed to reach them in time and deflected the strike.

"Guys! Be Careful!" she warned them.

"Right! Thanks, Sachi!" Klein thanked her before he pulled back along with Agil to switch out with other members of their group- of course, it was none other than Kirito and Asuna to jumped into the fight to dealt some pain.

"Hey, are you alright down there?! Sachi?" Leonard shouted at the girl who was holding her own against the skeletal centipede monster.

"Yeah! It would be nice if this thing stops moving so much!" Sachi complained as she struggled to move to the monster attack zone and block its attack.

"Pinning it down maybe?" Leonard scratched his chin as ideas starting to flow into his head on what to do next.

He then grabbed the handle of the sword with both of his hand before twisted it a little.

"Charging sequence! Begin!" the blade of Vengeance began to howled as dark energy began to attracted itself to the blade and charges it.

The Skull Reaper who was feeling the pain had a bad feeling and began to struggle even harder as it notice Leonard action and it rapidly decreasing health point- which was down to two health bar left.

"Everyone! Move away!" Leonard saw that the monster has gone even crazier as it health point was on the decline and shouted out to warn the players from below.

However- as always, some didn't really seems to get the message and decide to stay- and it wasn't a surprise that they were completely obliterated by the monster enraged attack which did double the damages as it normal attack.

"Zaassshhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!" *Slash *Slash *Slash.

The Skull Reaper goes on a rampage, slashing left and right repeatedly and taking down a few more players in its warpath.

"Charge up already!!!" Leonard curses as his sword was still charging up power for an all-out attack- he began to curse at the skill for taking too long to power up for that guarantee one hit kill ability.

It was then that the sword blade howled out loudly and shine in a dark aura.

"Finally!" he roared as the Vengeance was fully charged and ready for a full power discharge.

"EAT THIS!" Leonard then pushed the sword deeper into the back of the Skull Reaper and unleashed his Demon Wrath inside the creature in an all-out discharge.

*BOoooooOOOOMM!!!!!!!!!

The Skull Reaper literally imploded from within itself as the dark power coursed through every single piece of bone that connected to itself.

"Zzaaaaassssshhhhhhh!!!!!" as it skeletal body can no longer hold itself together, the Skull Reaper howled loudly before it whole body began to fizzled and crack started to form.

That final attack from Leonard has brought its health down to zero from two nearly full health bar.

It was then that the Skull Reaper shattered and disappear, leaving Leonard to fall down from the empty air of which he landed gracefully.

[Congratulation!] a message then displayed high up in the air of the stone chamber for all the players to see.

[Last hit bonus has been deposit] another message then informed him, the one which he anticipated the most of course since the last hit bonus items usually have some decent stats attached to them and it is likely to be on par if not stronger than some items dropped by the boss.