As the lady, Hye-sun, led them through the tower, Archer played around with his poleaxe, spinning it around as he hummed a small tune. Rosaline took this moment of peace to ask Archer a question that had been on her mind for a while now.
"What's this whole thing going on with rifts?" Rosaline asked.
"Well you know how on occasion they will appear in the middle of areas and monsters come out. It's really dangerous so when people do it on purpose in the middle of a public space, it's a bit of a problem." Archer said.
"But how do they create one?"
"Well, that's a bit more complicated. They really shouldn't have the resources to siphon any energy from the place, let alone create a rift. It takes items, so clearly this is part of a greater conspiracy." Archer said.
"Are you investigating it then?"
"No, not really." Archer paused, looking a bit troubled, "In all honestly people have told me that I get too angsty and try to do much too quickly." Archer said omitting mentioning how he had only done this to help Rosaline and her problems, and perhaps to look into Dominic's attitude change.
But then he heard of this rift-opening issue and proceeded to delve deeper. Archer knew he needed to be careful. He had just declared war with some of the seedy underbelly, still needed to watch over the school for disasters, and now it seemed like there was another conspiracy for him to rummage around for. Still the prospect of doing so excited him, but he needed to rein it in, at least for a little bit longer.
"I'm just going to deal with this problem and if something comes up later, I'll deal with it later. I won't go looking any deeper than needed for now." Archer said, mostly to himself more than anything.
"We do appreciate you for helping us out." Hye-sun said, "You will be keeping things a secret."
"I don't see why not." Archer said with a casual shrug.
"Thank you." She said with a kind smile, "It is very kind of you to go out of your way to help us. I don't believe you had any real incentive in doing so."
"Well I don't really approve of people letting monsters out into the public to show off." Archer said, "Feels pretty stupid."
"You would be surprised how many people were alright with that deal." Hye-sun mentioned, "You're an odd one aren't you?"
"I've been told." Archer said before pausing, "Are you sure you should be following us? We might be dealing with some dangerous criminals Miss…"
"It's Bi, but please, call me Hye-sun." Hye-sun offered, "And don't worry about me, I can handle myself. In fact I am here under Manager Ming's orders in case you need assistance."
"Oh, well that is mighty kind of you." Archer said nodding his head.
"I am simply following my orders." She said politely before stopping, "This door will lead to where the cleanup crew will be."
"What's the time?" Archer asked.
"Almost one now." Hye-sun said checking the time on her watch.
"Alright, no monsters in this area right?"
"No, the backrooms are secure from any monsters."
"Alright, be prepared for that to change then."
"What do you mean by that?" Rosaline asked.
"Whoever the guilty party is has the ability to create rifts, they might use it now." Archer said, "So stay in the back."
Rosaline's eyes widened as she urgently asked, "How strong are you actually?"
"Uh, I'd say about A-rank." Archer lied quickly as he rested the poleaxe on his shoulder, "I should be able to handle the main threat." He said as the door opened and they began to explore the backrooms.
It didn't take long for them to reach the cleanup crew. Observing them on approach they looked relatively normal. The three moved a cart along filled with bins. They were simply collecting garbage and smaller pieces of loot and stashing them away into different coloured bins.
"Why don't they just take the treasure?" Rosaline asked staring at the small pile of valuables.
"Those are tracked, kills are kept track down here. Higher-ranked guys will leave the smaller less valuable ones lying around to be recirculated within here. Easier to steal something that isn't accounted." Archer said.
"It's a bit of a waste of money." Rosaline said eyeing the potential payday greedily.
"You'll be paid." Archer said with a small grin.
Quickly looking away Rosaline shook her head, "I'm not a greedy hoarder." She said half to herself.
"Oh I know." Archer said before taking the front, "Hello! Hello you three! We need to talk to you really quickly!" Archer called out to them.
"What is it?" The woman, Jill, replied.
"It's about the power supply here being sapped. We need to check out-" Archer paused as before he could even finish his sentence, one of the men broke off sprinting, "Oh wow. I didn't even need to say anything yet."
"Freeze Jamie!" Hye-sun yelled as she began to run after her.
"Stay at a distance if you're going to follow." Archer said as he ran after the two.
"What's happening?" The other guy, Alexander asked.
"Oh, nothing, just little case of theft." Archer said casually before he noticed a container with its lid open and completely empty, "Is that normal?"
"Huh? Uh, no. It should be closed."
"Oh dear." Archer said nodding his head and pointed to Rosaline, "Stay further back, keep with Hye-sun. Protect those two." He said as he quickly ran after Hye-sun just as Jamie activated a rift.
Skeletal knights poured out of the rift and began to charge towards them. Hye-sun raised her hands towards the charging skeletons and a dozen muskets appeared spinning around her. As they rotated, they fired and instantly pulverised the first row of skeletons. Armour crumpling like they were nothing.
However more skeletons poured out, bigger and stronger-looking. Jamie at the same time ran past the skeletons who paid him no heed. To Hye-Sun's shock he ran straight into the rift.
"What's he doing?" Rosaline exclaimed.
"Well if he set up the thing, I suppose we can assume that the monsters would ignore him." Archer said as he smashed a skeleton that went a bit too close.
"Is that possible?"
"Only if there's a boss."
"If there's a boss, it would be inside that rift. With all these skeletons, it's likely to be a powerful one too." Hye-San said as she fired another volley at the monsters, "We need to call for backup. We don't know how dangerous this thing will be!"
"Oh, this I got to see." Archer muttered to himself as he used the poleaxe to swat the skeletons aside and ran straight into the portal.
"Archer!" Rosaline yelled as he disappeared into it.
From the other side of the rift Archer saw a simple, dark, dank cave with a dozen eight-foot-tall skeletons lumbering towards the rift. Archer also saw Jamie running his way past them.
"Huh." Archer said as he tossed the poleaxe at Jaimie, with the blunt end smacking Jamie hard in the back. Who quickly fell down, incapacitated.
Now just the big guys. He thought as he pulled out his roll of tape and began to wrap his hands. A pair of the giants approached him, and he quickly leapt into the air and sent two kicks that separated the heads from the skeletons.
As soft as those familiars. Archer thought disappointedly as he finished taping his hands and punched through the midsection of the next two. He then proceeded to equip his mouthguard. Safety first. He thought as a couple of hard kicks now cut the numbers down to six.
"Couldn't you be a little bit faster?" Archer complained loudly as he charged forward and quickly took out the final six, "I hope the boss is a bit better than you." He muttered as he heard footsteps approach. Archer staring at who was approaching, couldn't help but have a wry smile.
Out from the shadows came what Archer assumed was the boss. He was the size of a regular-sized man as opposed to the goliaths earlier. But his armour was nice, clean, and well taken care of. The skeletal face was in pristine condition and more interestingly, the skeleton spoke.
"You've invaded my domain." The skeleton boss said, not through his mouth but just emitted out of his body.
"Well you did it first." Archer said as he carefully approached the prone body of Jamie, "So why didn't you kill him?" He asked.
"His master and I have made an agreement. An agreement to make sure that pathetic humans like you will be eradicated." The skeletal knight pulled out his broadsword.
Watching the skeleton's body language and the glimmer of the sword, Archer couldn't help but give a small grin. Oh, he's a lot different from his goons. Archer's smile only widened when he saw blue flames glow to life around the skeleton's eye sockets.
"So I think it's safe to assume that you won't let me out of here alive?" Archer said as he took off his school jacket and casually walked up to his poleaxe. As he asked his question, the portal behind him closed. Archer looked back at it curiously as the skeleton boss addressed him.
"No, your remains will be another for my army." The skeleton boss said as Archer stuck the poleaxe into the ground and hung his jacket on it. He then unbuttoned his long-sleeve shirt and revealed underneath his black t-shirt and hung the button-up on it. At the same time, he pulled out a pair of black gloves and equipped them.
"If I beat you, I escape?" Archer said as he put his mouthguard into his mouth.
The skeleton knight said nothing as he waited for Archer to approach him. It seemed that he was as itching for a fight as Archer was. Which made sense, he gave Jamie the ability to summon him wherever, whenever he wanted. As Archer approached the skeleton, he wondered how long this boss had been waiting for something to do. Maybe he was a kindred spirit, if it wasn't for the whole evil undead ruler thing.
"I'll be nice, you get the first shot!" Archer said once he was standing within sword-swinging range, "How long has it been since you've needed to use that huh? Come on." Archer goaded as he placed a foot back.
Not needing much convincing needed as the skeleton gave a violent swing at Archer, which he was able to back away far enough to avoid hit. Archer then had to move further back as the knight's attack didn't end there. A backswing followed by a thrust came his way.
They were fast and they were experienced swings that Archer had to watch carefully. Clearly with that sword the knight had the range advantage. So unless Archer wanted to dance around this tunnel all day, he needed to get close. Deciding that he needed to test the effectiveness of that sword and needing to get closer, Archer stopped backing up.
Instead, as the knight swung sideways again, Archer this time moved forward with his left arm up as a guard to intercept the blow. Archer hid any expression as he felt a sting of pain from where the sword collided with his arm. He really missed his full gear set at this point. But still, it only hurt, his arm was fine otherwise. Good, this fight can be taken the way Archer wanted to then.
As the knight registered surprise from the sword failing to cut Archer, Archer threw a quick right jab that collided with where the nose of skeleton would've been. The impact further shocked the knight as it had to take a step back. It registered real damage and was trying the fathom how a single punch could be so powerful.
Archer used this moment to follow through with a straight left hand. The classic one-two combo that he had taught Luna the other day. Unfortunately, the skeleton knight wasn't going to fall from two blows. So Archer continued.
Raining a flurry of different blows coming from different direction at the boss the skeleton was now trying to figure out how to escape this scenario. After taking several more strikes, the knight managed to back up enough to swing again at Archer.
As Archer looked to block the attack like last time, the skeletal knight changed from a sword swing into a straight thrust. The tip of the blade struck Archer in the chest and sent him stumbling back. Archer then proceeded to back up again.
"Good, I was afraid that this might be boring." Archer said before he moved back in to engage. The two then proceeded to trade blows. The knight on occasion managed to strike Archer with a sword swing, whether it was with the blade or the pommel striking into Archer. Yet it felt useless. Archer simply marched him down.
Unlike the beginning of the fight where Archer backed up, he moved forward. Taking the damage from the sword in order to get close enough to hit the knight. The blows, if not deadly from the magic blade should've been devastating considering how much force he was throwing behind each swing. Yet he wasn't even getting any response of pain from this human boy.
Archer in his own right was hurting, or rather, damaging the skeleton knight and Archer knew it. The knight was completely moving backwards and the pristine armoured now looked warn and dented. The boy hit like a monster and seemed to be immune to pain.
The more unnerving part of the fight was how Archer was picking apart the knight. The boss could feel his joints weakening. Archer had been kicking his legs enough for him to feel the joints loosening and coming apart. He could feel his teeth cracking and threatening to fall.
Archer as the fight went on wondered if this tunnel was actually endless with some sort of reality distortion that caused place to loop or something. Whatever the case, Archer had done nothing but advance this entire time since his first strike. He could tell that the undead before him was breaking.
Both physically and mentally. He saw the movement and body language of the skeletal body change. More unsure, more desperate, it was only a matter of time now. Archer as he continued the fight did ponder something. This was his first time fighting what would be called a rift boss.
Rifts can be solved in two ways destroy everything that comes out of it or head in and destroy it from within. Either way it all ended with beating the boss. It was a bit like a video game in that sense, though obviously reality tended to change things quiet a bit. Still things given the title of bosses had more to do with them than just being stronger and tougher than their underlings. They had extra abilities, a type of trump card that gives them an edge.
What would this skeleton's ace be? Something to make the sword better? Something that will reanimate his fallen comrades? As Archer wondered, the ace was revealed. Unhinging his jaw the skeleton knight fired a point-blank range beam of black into Archer.
Archer's eyes widened as the blast struck him and he felt himself be lifted from the ground and sent flying backwards. The pain was on a far higher level than what he had experienced previously. The black beam completely engulfed him and he found himself blinded in complete darkness as he felt himself floating into nothingness as he felt only pain.
The skeleton boss finally closed his jaw, if he still had lungs, he would've sighed in relief as he could no longer see Archer. He must have eradicated the body, the boss's special ability 'Rapid Rot' decays the body of his opponent in a matter of seconds. A very powerful ability that can turn even the strongest adventurer into dust if they weren't careful.
The skeleton struggled to raise his arms up, they were so badly damaged he didn't know how long it would take for him to fully recover. He wasn't sure how powerful his next blast would be, he had used almost everything up. Before he could even think of what his next steps were he heard footsteps approach and looked up, dread hitting him.
Archer Griffen came striding back towards him, looking as calm as he was before. With a sly grin he asked the boss, "You another couple in ya?"
The skeleton knight at that moment felt something he hadn't felt in years. Fear. He felt himself trying to back away. His best shot and Archer wasn't even hurt. He may have looked human, but Archer was far from it. He was some monster from the depths of hell, he had to be, how else could he have shaken off the skeleton knight's best attack?
As the knight stepped backwards, Archer walked forwards. Worse yet, Archer was moving faster than the skeleton could retreat. He would be able to grab the skeleton soon. The skeleton boss desperately thought what it could do, what it needed to do to survive this.
The 'Rapid Rot' was all still available, though at a reduced rate. He couldn't fire nearly as powerfully as before, but it would still be his best attack. As Archer nearly got into striking range, the skeleton knight unhinged his jaw and readied to fire again.
Then in a flash, Archer rushed forward and grabbed the skull before the beam could fire. Archer then forcefully closed the jaw just as the beam activated. The blue flame spluttered in panic as 'Rapid Rot' hit the inside of the skull.
In a desperate attempt to break free from the grip the knight tried to whack Archer with the blade. Archer caught the sword under his armpit and managed to yank it out of the knight's grip. All the while the teeth turned black and fell out of the skull as Archer still holding onto the skull, slammed it onto the ground.
Jaw now missing, pinned to the ground, and out of 'Rapid Rot' attacks, it could only stare up at Archer frozen with fear. Archer, unlike the undead warrior, had no hesitation in deciding what to do next as he raised a closed left hand and smashed it right down into the skull. Archer then purposefully raised his hand up again and brought it right down. And again. And again. And again. Deliberately making pauses between strikes to emphasize how helpless the situation was for his opponent.
"Stop…" The knight managed to utter out, "Please… mercy…"
Archer had just raised his fist up again ready to bring it down again when he said that. Pausing, Archer looked down at the skeleton and broke out with a grin that showed off his black mouthguard. That was what he was waiting for, he broke the skeleton. He wasn't even sure it was possible. But he did.
"Sorry, but I need to get out of here." Archer said as he brought his fist down on the skull again, this time with full force. This last strike was what was needed to finally shatter the skull. The blue flames died out and he felt the tunnel rumble.
As Archer stayed kneeling, he watched as the body of the skeleton knight disappeared, save for pieces of the skull, then to his surprise he saw a screen appear in front of him. Right, boss loot. Archer remembered as he read what was in front of him.
Congratulations for beating the boss! You received the following rewards!
1x Skeleton Boss Gemstone(Rare)
1x Ancient Chestplate(Rare)
1x Ancient Sword(Very Rare)
1x Skeleton Knight Skull(Epic) (*Item destroyed! Not rewarded!*)
You are free to leave the realm whenever you want, however any loot not collected will disappear when you leave!
Leave?
Yes/No
Archer stared at the items listed and before deciding what to do, flopped backwards and let the cold ground comfort him. He was still in absolute agony after being hit by that attack. What Archer wanted to do right now was to lay on the ground and not get up until the pain was gone. Every movement caused Archer severe discomfort, as he had done his best not to show any of it earlier.
But now with the monster gone and Archer alone, he allowed himself a few seconds of reprieve. Collecting himself as best he could, he sat back up as he couldn't keep everyone waiting. Picking up the gemstone and fragments of the shattered skull that still remained, he stuffed them into his pockets as he trudged over to the poleaxe.
Slowly he put back on his white button-up shirt and school jacket, making sure to keep any dust off of them. Took out his mouthguard and stashed it away, and threw his used tape away. Grabbing Jamie by the collar and the poleaxe in the other, he then reopened the portal and exited out of this weird place.
Walking back into the tower, Archer stood back straight, looking as casual as possible as he entered. Hye-Sun had defeated all of the skeletons by this point and once seeing Archer and Jamie she looked visibly relieved.
"You're alright. What happened?" She questioned.
"He ran into where the boss was, thankfully the boss was relatively low level and I got it by surprise." Archer answered as he handed the unconscious Jamie to her.
"You got lucky, but that was awfully dangerous. Still, if you didn't catch him I was worried what he might have done."
"Just doing my job." Archer said with a shrug as Rosaline studied him closely.
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah, the boss never got to react." Archer said with a shrug, lying as all he wanted to do right now was nothing.
"Must have been a weak horde monster then." Hye-Sun said nodding her head, "Makes sense, I no elites exited out of the portal."
"Yeah, hey could we take those gemstones from the skeletons for ourselves?" Archer asked.
"Of course, I'll get someone to collect them for you. Come, Manager Ming will be excited to thank you and give you your rewards." Hye-Sun said guiding them back to the office.
***
The process for getting their rewards afterwards was easy enough. Manager Ming was thankful for the help and graciously awarded them both with gifts as well as VIP access to the tower. Rosaline held in her hands more money than she had ever seen before.
As they left the tower Rosaline still couldn't quite fathom the payday. With this I can clear most of our debts. She thought, feeling the wad of cash she had received. While Archer took a cheque, Rosaline had all of her money in the form of money and some adventuring equipment.
"Be careful with the money." Archer said as they walked down the street.
"I'm not stupid."
"You also never had that much money before."
"Well I know how to be careful."
"Good to hear." Archer said with a kind smile, "So what do you think of our partnership?"
"Partnership?" Rosaline said looking at Archer in surprise.
"I still would like to use the tower as practice, having an extra hand would be nice. Might be useful for you too. If you're willing to keep my whole thing a secret." Archer offered.
"When?"
"Twice a week." Archer offered, "Wednesdays and Sundays? At night? Starting next week?"
"Yeah." Rosaline said staring at Archer, "That works."
"Cool, I'm taking the bus. Where are you going?" He said stopping at a bus stop.
"Oh, uh, I took a bike."
"Oh alright, I'll see you later then." Archer said pausing as he then asked, "Should we exchange numbers?"
"Oh, uh right. Here." Rosaline said awkwardly fumbling out her old battered phone and the two exchanged contact information.
"Oh look my ride's here." Archer said as the bus pulled up just as he stashed his phone away, "See you at school maybe."
"Yeah, uh Archer." Rosaline said as she hesitated for a moment, "Thank you."
"Just doing my job." Archer said as he boarded the bus.
After a smooth bus ride back to his home, he entered his apartment. He then washed his mouthguard and ordered a meal on his phone before he collapsed onto his bed, staring straight up at it and just let the pain take him as he finally was allowed a break. That was fun though. Archer thought as he appreciated the comfort of his bed.