Saintess Summons Skeletons

“Student, salute,” the Master ordered, demonstrating with a short, polite bow, and Sofia followed suit.

The challenge officially started. The Master stood about three meters away from Sofia, straight like a rod, arms behind his back, waiting.

Since the only item Sofia still had was her scepter, she would use it. I imagine a warrior getting there and having their weapon taken away for this challenge must be quite aheartbreak. Silently, she activated the bone armor and started to channel an Angel’s bolt.

I need to use it before I lose any health. Since I cannot heal, using a full power bolt would be disastrous…

After a few seconds, Sofia waved her staff as if she were going to launch the attack. This was entirely useless as she could release it whenever, but why would the Master know that?

This was when Pareth appeared right behind the Master, already stabbing with his trident, which was the limit of the bone armor storage's range. Sofia let out the bolt simultaneously, aiming not at where the Master was but over his head at Pareth’s sternum. Due to the height differential, Pareth had to stab low, which meant that jumping was the optimal way to dodge.

The Master side-stepped Pareth’s surprise backstab with ease and hopped forward to get out of the bolt’s explosion radius. He landed right in front of Sofia, who chained the waving of her staff into a downward strike that only hit thin air.

It was like Sofia was the one to get hit by the trident as the Master poked her thrice in the back, his finger leaving round holes in the armor, relatively painlessly subtracting exactly one percent of her health each time.

Pareth, bolt, staff. Three attacks, three percent. Got it; attacking with a swarm of skeletons is likely a direct pass to the actual graveyard. I shouldn’t be surprised he managed to feel Pareth behind his back, but he’s so fast. How am I even supposed to hit him exactly?

“All things considered, it is, in fact, a lot,”

Pareth teleported to Sofia as the Master spoke, but his spear strike missed. The Master jumped this time, landing on the tip of the spear and poking Sofia, who was still nearby on the same occasion. He did not even interrupt his sentence, “so be not discouraged, student. You still have up to ninety-six attempts.”

“Can I know what the fewest number of attempts was for someone to win?”

“Comparing yourself to others will only lead to pointless thoughts. Now focus, and try again.”

Well, the issue is, I don’t have so many things I can try. Or rather, I do, but not many have even the faintest hope of succeeding. His reaction and movement speed are too much. I don’t know if I could even slow him down, let alone land a good hit.

Some kind of full-powered suicide bolt explosion could work, but there’s no point in winning if I’m dead.

Pareth’s weapon disappeared. The Master, having lost his footing, was now in free fall. The weapon of light switched reappeared in another form, a scythe of which the blade appeared already next to the Master’s neck. Pareth pulled back his weapon.

The old elf Master, even with no support, managed to contract his body enough that he threw his head back to avoid the blade. The scythe flew a centimeter above his face, almost touching the tip of his nose. At the same time, a serrated spike extended from the back of Sofia’s armor, stabbing toward the Master’s torso.

This didn’t touch either, Sofia couldn’t even tell how, but the elf actually stepped on the spike somehow while he was still falling and used it to push himself away, performing a sort of horizontal jump.

Ten thousand mana left Sofia, and almost two tons of blood appeared above the Master, right in his trajectory. Liquid or not, two tons were two tons; it was bound to hurt. Sofia could hardly believe Pareth’s eyes when she saw the Master’s body curl around and then spin. He drilled through the deadly cascade of crushing blood before landing unhurt on the other side.

The scene didn’t even look real. She doubted she could replicate these moves even if she tried a hundred times in her demon form. Of course, with the Master back on his feet, he disappeared and reappeared next to Sofia, poking her through the armor a few times. She used that opportunity to try another spike attack with [Bone dominus]. Since he was touching the armor, it shouldn’t be too hard to have the armor touch him back. But not only did that attack fail to touch him, but it also prompted him to poke Sofia one more time in the shoulder.

Down to 92%. Even the blood failed, and that was ten thousand mana gone like that…

“I must say, this isn’t easy by any means, but it does feel very at odds compared to the last two floors. Just the fact that there isn’t a looming death threat, for example.”

The Master took his distance before answering this time, standing barely outside of [Bone dominus]’s ten-meter range.

“You skipped so many floors that you would not know, student, but there are many safe ones. The aim is to rank the participants, not to kill them. But the danger is much more present on the last few floors. Such is the way of things; the rewards are worth at least this much dedication. Even this challenge is not without risk. Should you fail a hundred times, I will kill you.”

“I would likely leave if it comes down to the wire like this. Unless I’m extremely confident that the last strike is the one, then I could see a path where I might take the gamble.”

“You would not be the first, student. You would not be the first…”

“You make it sound like it did not work out in the past.”

“A recurring tragedy, the boldness of youth.”

Alright… Surprise attacks do not work, his movements seem to be limited when he isn’t touching the ground, so there is at least that. Chaining attacks until he has no way out is an idea, but considering how he dealt with the blood, that’s not so simple.

He knows all my skills from looking at my status during the first phase, which gives him an advantage too. Could I make a new skill right now? I only have [Restore command] as a possibility, though. Does not sound like something helpful in this situation.

The book doesn’t have much of anything useful, either. Hmm…

Sofia checked her stats before summoning the book.

Health : 10 115 / 10995

Stamina : 3630 / 3662

Mana : 75598 / 94000

The paladins only cost 5000, so…

Mana : 70588 / 94000

The squad of twenty-five paladins appeared around Sofia.

You’re forbidden from attacking. You can only use [Prayer of swiftness] on me and Pareth if you have it. Then focus on blocking the path of the Master. Be threatening but never actually swing your sword.

Sofia thought that this was good for a start. The Master did not move as the golden skeletons spread around the arena.

“Rarely has a single student outnumbered me so much.”

“So it’s not the first time?”

Sofia spread her wings and flew up as much as the spire would allow. She threw Pareth the blessed marrow shield.

Catch this and get into a ball, Pareth.

Pareth teleported up to her. He fell and picked up speed. As soon as he could, he teleported again. From the tests, Pareth should survive this even if the stone ground of the arena isn’t ideal…

Sofia flew in rounds, and when her skills were ready, Pareth dropped, hitting the arena ground like a meteor. Unsurprisingly, the Master dodged without much trouble, but there weren’t many directions he could go to avoid the impact considering the repartition of skeleton Paladins all around him, ‘ready to strike’. But Sofia could hardly follow his movements when he was grounded, so around this corner of the arena where the Master would go, she summoned a thin but large sheet of blood right above the height of the Master’s head.

That not only hid her as she plunged down but also, due to the disturbance in the falling blood, made it really easy to track the elf’s direction.

Anticipating where he would be, Sofia released both the Angel’s bolts she had been holding for long enough to lose a few percent of her health already.

Pareth also stood up and followed to strike.

When the explosions cleared up, it was clear that the Master had avoided it all. Jumping up all the way to where Sofia was, he poked her four times and fell back.

That was a lot of mana, and it still all failed… I can’t afford to keep trying to be fancy if it is never going to work. Let’s try something else.

She channeled [Graveyard of the righteous] and [Spine of the Black Sun], instantly changing the sword to its whip form while she held her scepter with her left hand.

How much of a buffer do I keep? Fifty? Thirty? Ten?

Perhaps I won’t need a buffer.

Since the only real way she could touch the Master was for him to mess up, she was going to go all out. The plan was to relentlessly attack from all directions until he missed something.

Up to eighty-two blows. Every skeleton ready?

Let’s go.

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