NOVGO.NET Chapter 219: Untouchable!
Chapter 219: Untouchable!
“Sophie…” Bruce said softly.
His gaze pierced through the last wave of undead skeletons collapsing before him and locked onto the battle unfolding far ahead, at the distant heart of the dungeon world.
“…Beautiful.”
The word escaped him before he could stop it.
He watched, momentarily forgetting the chaos behind him.
He didn’t know which movement art Sophie was using, what name it carried, what system classification it fell under, but it fit her perfectly. Every step, every cut, every shift of position felt natural, fluid, almost inevitable. There was no waste in her movements, no hesitation. It wasn’t just combat. It was expression. Everything felt so natural.
The enemy she faced towered over the battlefield.
A skeletal colossus nearly ten meters tall, its frame constructed from thick, reinforced bones etched faintly with dark runes. Hollow mana surged through its structure as it let out shrill, distorted shrieks that echoed across the dungeon world. Its skull twisted unnaturally as it tracked Sophie, empty eye sockets glowing with malicious intent.
It was fast. Unnaturally so.
Despite its size, it moved with frightening speed, bones clattering and reforming as it swung massive limbs toward her. Each time Sophie’s blade carved through it, the creature disassembled violently, ribs exploding outward, arms breaking apart, spine collapsing, only for the pieces to shudder and snap back together moments later.
But that wasn’t the most dangerous part. The boss didn’t just regenerate like the lesser undead. It also controlled bone, it could transform and manipulate bone anyway it sees fit.
With a shriek, it twisted its will outward. A nearby fodder skeleton convulsed, its frame ripping apart as its bones elongated and fused into a grotesque spear-like appendage. The newly formed bone lance shot toward Sophie from a completely different direction, fast enough to tear the air apart.
Sophie didn’t look. She felt it. It was as if she possessed a sixth sense similar to Bruce’s Neural Amplification.
That instant, her blade flashed. Space itself split for a heartbeat, and she vanished.
She reappeared behind the boss in a shimmer, sword already in motion. A flurry of precise slashes tore through its spine and shoulder joints, forcing the massive skeleton to collapse inward again. Bones scattered like shrapnel as the boss let out a furious, hollow scream.
The bone spear missed her entirely.
Another shriek.
It was very frustrated, Sophie was traumatising it.
Another lesser skeleton twisted violently, reforming into a second lance that stabbed upward from the ground beneath her.
Sophie landed lightly on it. She used the disassembling spear as leverage, sprinting up its length as it crumbled beneath her feet. Her movements were impossibly smooth, each step perfectly timed, each motion flowing into the next. As she ran, her blade sang, slicing through exposed joints and severing newly reforming connections.
The boss howled.
In response, dozens of bone lances erupted from its skeletal frame, sprouting like thorns and targeting every possible place Sophie could land. They predicted her trajectory, aiming not where she was, but where she should have been.
She smiled faintly. Then she cut space again.
Her form flickered and vanished, reappearing at the creature’s blind spot just beneath its rib cage. Her sword lashed upward, tearing through its core structure and ripping the skeleton apart from within. Bones exploded outward in all directions as the boss staggered back, shrieking in pain and fury.
But it didn’t fall.
The fragments twisted mid-air. Bones realigned, reshaped, reforged.
Destroyed sections flowed back into place faster than the fodder undeads ever could, reforging themselves into thicker, more compact forms before snapping back into position. The boss stood again, larger, denser, its structure adapting as it regenerated.
Still…
It couldn’t touch her.
Frustration bled through its shrieks now, the sound higher, sharper, more erratic.
It tried again.
This time, it twisted multiple fodder skeletons at once, fusing their remains into massive bone whips that lashed across the battlefield, tearing through the ground where Sophie had been moments earlier. Others transformed into overlapping shields, attempting to trap her movement.
Sophie danced through it all.
She ran along falling debris, leapt off collapsing ribs, pivoted mid-air, and vanished and reappeared in flashes of distorted space. Every time the boss adapted, she was already somewhere else. Every time it predicted her movement, she changed rhythm entirely. Such art was not only unpredictable but extremely smooth. Erratic yet everything felt so interconnected for some reason.
She was untouchable. Her blade never stopped moving.
Each slash was precise, deliberate, and devastating, targeting joints, weak points, regeneration nodes. She aimed to kill it outright, but this beast was something else…
She dismantled it again and again, forcing it to rebuild, forcing it to burn mana, forcing frustration deeper and deeper into its hollow core.
The skeleton boss roared in desperation.
It lunged forward, extending its entire arm into a massive spear, thrusting with all its might toward her chest.
Sophie stepped onto the spearhead. She ran up it.
As the arm disassembled beneath her feet, she sprinted upward, slicing continuously, carving the limb apart faster than it could reform. Bone lances sprouted ahead of her, trying to intercept her path, but she twisted, vanished, and reappeared atop the boss’s shoulder.
Her sword flashed.
The skull split cleanly down the middle.
The boss collapsed again, shrieking, its form scattering across the battlefield in a violent storm of bone.
And still…
It began to rebuild.
Watching from afar, Bruce felt his chest tighten, not with worry, but with something closer to awe.
She hadn’t been hit once. Not even grazed.
She was so deeply immersed in the fight, so perfectly synchronized with her movement art and the natural flow of battle, that she hadn’t noticed him yet.
Sophie continued her dance across the battlefield, cutting, vanishing, reappearing in seamless succession, unaware that someone was watching her with quiet intensity.
Unaware that Bruce had arrived.
Bruce sighed as he watched, letting his Shadow Wolves tear through the remaining fodder ahead. They could resurrect, sure, but unlike their master, it would take time. And honestly, he couldn’t care less.
Still, he couldn’t help but sigh again.
With the beast’s insanely fast regeneration, this was going to take forever.
But he had an idea. A way to end it once and for all.
In a sense, the creature was undead. If he gave it life, then it wouldn’t be able to tank damage the way it did now. The very thing sustaining it would become its weakness.
Yet as he watched Sophie, completely focused, perfectly in sync, he knew intervening like that would be a mistake. Helping her in such a manner would only disrupt her flow. Ruin the rhythm she had built.
Then…
As if sensing his hesitation, Vaelith’s voice echoed calmly within his mind.
[I know how to help her… without ruining things for Sophie.]