At that moment, the battle escalated with terrifying speed. A series of more than a dozen shimmering wind blades shot through the air like jagged crescents, slicing directly toward Anti-Bone Boy. In an instant, his body was covered with a dozen criss-cross wounds, each mark glowing faintly where the elemental energy had seared his flesh.
He hissed in pain, but the injuries were shallow. They hurt, yes, but they weren't enough to slow him down. Anti-Bone Boy turned his head and briefly glanced toward the spot where Big Knife Boy had last appeared, almost envious of his companion's ability to vanish into stealth. If only I could do the same, he thought grimly.
But there was no time for longing.
With a hiss like rustling leaves, more than a dozen wind-blade pythons appeared, their serpentine bodies formed entirely of swirling gales. Each python began to condense another blade in its maw, preparing for a second devastating volley.
Ethan, standing off to the side as their commander, immediately understood the danger. If Anti-Bone Boy takes a few more rounds of this, he'll be crushed and captured by the sacred object, he thought. Ethan was about to issue a mental command for his creature to retreat and regroup—but before he could, Anti-Bone Boy made a reckless choice of his own.
With a roar that shook the air, he charged forward head-on into the swarm.
Ethan's brow furrowed. The boy's tactic was suicidal. Closing the distance between himself and so many giant serpents meant he'd be surrounded. What Ethan had wanted was simple: for Anti-Bone Boy to cancel his "Broken Army" skill, shrink his massive frame, and slip past their attacks before lunging. Smaller meant harder to hit. But the boy wasn't listening. Still, Ethan forced himself to hold back. No. I should try not to interfere too much. Let them fight on their own. Let them learn.
Meanwhile, Big Knife Boy hadn't been idle. With his usual hunter's cunning, he slipped into stealth. His form blurred and vanished from sight. When he reappeared, he struck with blinding speed, interrupting the spellcasting of two wind-blade pythons before they could release their next attack.
Boom! Boom!
The explosion of compressed air within their jaws made even the serpents recoil in agony. Two of the pythons collapsed temporarily, their bodies writhing helplessly. The rest, however, completed their casting. A flurry of blades ripped across the battlefield, but Anti-Bone Boy, reckless as ever, took them head-on. Using his hardened jaws and skull like a battering ram, he crashed through the storm of blades.
Big Knife Boy, on the other hand, danced through the battlefield like a phantom. His nimble body twisted and spun, avoiding the massive strikes with ease. Whenever he found an opening, his scythe-like forelimbs slashed into the serpents' mouths, spilling air and disrupting their elemental forms. He would retreat after each strike, his attacks not fatal but always irritatingly precise.
Ethan studied both of his warriors carefully. Big Knife Boy excelled at hunting tactics—hit, retreat, harass, and hit again. His damage wasn't overwhelming, but his instincts were sharp. Perhaps what he needed was training to make his attacks sharper, deadlier.
Anti-Bone Boy, by contrast, relied purely on strength. He roared as he barreled into the group, wrapped his arms around one python, and swung it like a living club at the others. The sight was brutal and chaotic. To him, the mobbing serpents must have been a reminder of Ethan's earlier simulation—when he had been surrounded and slashed by a hundred giant swords. Back then, he had fought his way free by smashing the swords with the one clutched in his jaws.
But now was different. A serpent's body wasn't a blade. Flailing one around did little real harm to the others. The python he held, however, was quickly bitten into two halves by his powerful jaws.
The others saw their companion fall and immediately retaliated. They swarmed him, their bodies wrapping around him layer by layer until Anti-Bone Boy was cocooned in a living cage of wind and scale.
This was the python's deadliest move—strangulation.
One python alone couldn't match Anti-Bone Boy's raw power. But together, coiling around him in dozens, they became a crushing force. Anti-Bone Boy, who had always seen himself as the strongest brute on the battlefield, suddenly froze. The realization was dawning—he wasn't invincible.
Under their crushing embrace, his skeletal frame creaked ominously. Ethan tensed, fearing his creature would be crushed.
Then something surprising happened. Anti-Bone Boy's eyes flickered with thought. He dispelled "Broken Army" by himself.
In an instant, his massive frame shrank down to less than a meter tall. The coils tightened, but they no longer had a target—they clutched at empty space. Anti-Bone Boy darted free through a narrow gap, slipping away like water through fingers.
He roared again, but this time with cunning. Rushing forward, he sank his jaws into another python, tearing a gaping wound into its side before burrowing inside its body.
The other serpents froze. Their prey had vanished. All they saw was one of their own twisting and thrashing wildly, as if possessed.
Inside, Anti-Bone Boy tore into the serpent's organs until he found something bitter, foul, and yet incredibly vital—the snake gall. The moment he bit through it, the python convulsed and weakened, its writhing slowing instantly.
Ethan's eyes widened. That was it—the weakness.
Originally, Ethan had only intended for Anti-Bone Boy to learn the value of focusing attacks on one target at a time during group battles. But what the boy discovered was even more effective.
Ethan recalled a lesson from his past life on the battlefield: "Seriously injuring one enemy is often more effective than killing them outright."
A dead enemy is gone, but a crippled one forces others to break formation, to hesitate, to defend. Against foes with loyalty, it disrupted their unity. Against these serpents, though loyalty wasn't strong, Anti-Bone Boy still found a different use—he could turn his victim into a shield.
And that's exactly what he did. Hidden within the weakened serpent's body, he forced it forward, using its bulk to block the attacks of the others. From inside, he struck again and again, killing them one by one.
Meanwhile, Big Knife Boy was experimenting too. He had noticed something odd: despite closing their mouths to avoid his attacks, the serpents still flicked out their tongues constantly. He couldn't understand why—until curiosity pushed him to test.
With a precise swipe of his forelimb, he slashed one tongue in two.
HISSSSSSS!
The serpent shrieked in agony, thrashing violently and lashing out blindly at friend and foe alike. The chaos that erupted gave Big Knife Boy a revelation.
So, the tongue is their weakness too.
From then on, he hunted with surgical precision, slashing tongues whenever he could. One serpent after another fell into wild frenzy, turning on their own kin. What followed was a grisly massacre, the battlefield littered with serpents covered in wounds.
For a while, Ethan actually misread the situation. Watching Big Knife Boy methodically carve his victims apart, he thought it was simply the creature's unique sadistic habit—to execute enemies piece by piece.
But he realized later this wasn't cruelty. It was strategy. Big Knife Boy was experimenting, analyzing weaknesses, and perfecting his killing method.
By the time the dust settled, the outcome was clear. The two creatures had evolved their combat tactics.
Anti-Bone Boy learned how to exploit enemy bodies as shields and discovered the vital weakness of snake gall.
Big Knife Boy discovered that tongues, too, were vital points and honed his assassin's precision.
The battle could have been won more quickly if Ethan had taken direct control. But that wasn't the point. The goal wasn't victory—it was growth.
And so, in the week that followed, Ethan led his two companions deeper into the jungle, slaying countless wind-blade pythons. By the end, they had nearly wiped out the entire population in the area.
Finally, at the boundary where the environment shifted, they encountered something new. The jungle beyond was shorter, its trees squat and covered in jagged spikes. It was a harsher, deadlier landscape. That meant one thing—the types of pythons would change as well. And with new types came new harvested materials.
Ethan's eyes gleamed with anticipation. But first, there was one last obstacle.
The Boss.
It loomed at the threshold of the new jungle, blocking their way forward. Before they could explore the next domain, they would have to bring down this final guardian.
And Ethan, more than anyone, was looking forward to testing how much his warriors had truly learned.
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