Spirit Soul

Kyle had no idea what was going on with him either.

He shouldn't be excited to be forced to fight undead beings with a numerical and cultivation base disadvantage.

That was a devastating situation after all!

However, rather than complaining, his eyes shone brightly as he circulated soul force through his body without any hesitation.

After exerting the Swift steps movement technique at the familiar mastery, Kyle's speed increased the moment he advanced towards the closest Skeleton that looked like a bear.

He then unsheathed the Peak Ranked tiola machete while rushing towards the opponent.

Holding it in a firm grip, his confidence seemed to soar as he lashed out at the Skeleton's core the moment he arrived in front of it.

Owing to his high speed and the bear Skeleton's relatively slow reaction speed, Kyle was able to strike first.

It was possible for him to launch a swift and lethal attack by utilizing the Deadly assault martial art technique.

This enabled him to cut through the bones that enveloped the core without much resistance.

Unfortunately, his strength was not enough to cut through both the bones after penetrating the core.

This forced Kyle to evade the bear's paw that brushed past him by a hair's breadth.

He felt the light gust of wind generated by the paw's force.

A glint in Kyle's eyes emerged as he lowered his body.

In that moment, he inserted a faint trace of soul force into the tiola machete.

The short boost allowed him to pull it out without any difficulty.

At once, Kyle lifted his free hand as a means to launch the next attack he was about to initiate.

A moment later, he made use of his wind affinity seed.

Using some of his soul force, he manifested a few centimeters long crescent-shaped wind blade in front of his hand.

Without showing any signs of hesitation, Kyle shot it out, targeting the small gap his first strike had opened.

Reaching an extraordinary velocity with no time, the wind blade shot out of his hand.

It reached its target a quarter of a second later, penetrating the football-sized core without much resistance.

Kyle himself was astonished about the wind blade's velocity that he had conjured owing to Arashi's affinity.

This made him stare at the collapsing skeleton in a daze before he recalled his current situation.

'My soul force is not enough to use the wind blades too often, they consume too much…' Kyle realized immediately.

More than 10% of his entire soul force had already been used up in just conjuring that one wind blade.

That was simply too much, considering that he had just defeated his first opponent.

He still had to fight the rest of them.

Because of that, he had to regulate the usage of his techniques and wind affinity to the bare minimum.

At most, he could use the Swift Steps movement technique to a certain extent. Arashi was fast enough at generating new soul force from the surrounding energy in no time.

The only issue was that he had to annex it by himself. Otherwise, he wouldn't have to resort to using portions of his soul force.

Now that the first Skeleton had been defeated in a matter of seconds, Kyle was able to take a look around.

A single glance at the portals was enough to make him realize that he was at a slight advantage.

There were no further Skeletons that emerged from them anymore.

Through this, he could tell that the remaining 15 Skeletons at the Low Fortification stage were his only opponents.

Kyle found this reassuring, even if it was still a lot of work to fight, let alone defeat all opponents.

It was only then that Kyle was able to avert his attention from the crowd of Skeletons to something that began to float.

They were all staring at him with the intent to kill but he was only staring ahead with a disbelieving look.

A soul that had detached itself from the pile of bones.

And, upon taking a closer look, he noticed that it was decayed.

This was nothing surprising because the bear's soul had been trapped inside the core of the Undead even after it had died!

There were several ways for an Undead to be born. But there was one specific requirement for Skeletons to start existing, in the first place.

They had to be alive first, and after dying their soul had to be sealed within their vessel.

Said vessel would then metamorph into the vibrant greenish core every Skeleton had.

Kyle compared these Undead cores to the engines of machines, which made the visualization relatively easy.

If he were to destroy the engine, the Skeletons would crumble, and the sealed soul would be released.

In the end, there were also multiple ways to seal a soul to specific objects. But the creation of Undead beings was slightly more difficult.

The Undead core could only be created through external means.

A few examples included actively sealing a pact with a Lich or other being that had the ability to create Undeads.

Another possibility was if an entire territory was filled with the death aura.

In such a case, it would transform the body of beings the moment they died.

It would seal their soul, and slowly transform their natural vessel into the Undead Core.

Thus, if he were to die inside the castle, or anywhere within the range of the death aura, he would become a Skeleton, just like the bunch in front of him.

Kyle was still not sure why the mysterious woman had brought him to the castle, or where exactly he was.

But, it was more important to focus on the opponents in front of him than dwelling on the past.

No matter how much he would brainstorm, he lacked information to find answers to those questions.

Hence, it was better to focus on the present and his future.

Determined to survive, Kyle tightly grasped the tiola machete.

He rushed towards the decaying soul and grasped it with his free hand.

Without the slightest hesitation, he ignored the desperately squirming soul, and pushed it into his chest.

In a mere moment, the soul dispersed into soul particles. Arashi quickly devoured it until he was fully satiated.

Using the rest of the soul particles, he empowered his Nurture ability before ducking as he saw an incoming attack.

Through this, he escaped the pounce of a hyena's skeleton.

Not far behind the hyena, he saw a lion's skeleton emerge right in front of him.

This caused Kyle to grit his teeth because the position of the four-legged skeletons' Undead core was extremely bad.

Taking a deep breath, he ignored the pile of bones that was right next to him.

He jumped into it, and escaped the lion's clutches.

Landing inside the pile of dense bones, Kyle let out a curse.

But, he didn't waste any time as he got up.

At that moment, he saw how another bear skeleton appeared in front of him.

Close on its heels, were three wolves' skeletons.

Bearing that in mind, Kyle instinctively accessed his spatial ring.

But instead of taking something out, he stored the tiola machete inside.

Now that his hands were free, he could move more easily.

This allowed him to escape the onslaught of the Skeletons by using the Swift Steps movement technique and the wind affinity.

With the wind affinity, he created a gust of wind to avert the trajectory of his opponent's attacks by a small degree.

This made it possible for Kyle to walk out of the next string of attacks without a single injury.

Unarmed, he had no chance to defeat the Skeletons.

But his strength was not enough to eliminate the Skeletons with a single strike of the peak Ranked tiola machete, anyways.

As such, he required a different weapon, a blunt one at best.

Because of that, Kyle looked around and spotted the bear's thigh bone.

It was lying on the ground, only a few meters away from him.

Sprinting towards it with a pace the Skeletons couldn't reach, Kyle grasped the thick and dense thigh bone.

It was as heavy as it appeared to be and Kyle was relieved to have found a near-perfect weapon.

Thus, he looked at his opponents before entering a defensive stance.

'The Skeletons' brute force is much higher than mine.

But I'm even faster than the most agile ones amongst them!'

He reassured himself as six of the remaining 15 Skeletons appeared in front of him.

The sight was unnerving as he saw bones all around him.

His wildly beating heart had become eerily calm after he used the Nurture ability on himself.

With the majority of his ability's energy expended, Kyle's body was overflowing with vitality.

Through this, he could make use of every single cell inside his body.

His moves became smoother as he evaded the attack of the first three Skeletons.

Trying to find the right opportunity, he noticed a small gap between the third and the fourth Skeleton that attacked him. With a slow smile, Kyle immediately made use of it.

Given the short momentum, he continued to circulate soul force through his body.

This soul force enhanced it, only to use a small amount of it to conjure a faint gust of wind.

Kyle had brandished the bear's thigh which he had been holding firmly.

He used it to cleave through the wolf's back.

To increase the impact, he used the faint gust of wind he had conjured to increase the heavy thigh bone's velocity marginally.

This small acceleration was required to shatter the wolves' entire back.

The impact crippled the Skeleton that had no way to recuperate from the severe injury he had caused.

Meanwhile, he successfully evaded the fourth beast's attack.

While trying to escape a severe injury from the fourth Skeleton, Kyle couldn't even think as the fifth and sixth had already reached him.

He wasn't sure if it was a coincidence or an intentional act.

But, they appeared in front of him while standing next to each other.

Because of that, Kyle could already see himself getting injured.

As such, he lifted the bone with both hands and deflected the attack of one of them.

Only then did he stare at the Skeleton that was just about to tear open a fatal wound.

'Fuck, I miscalculated!' Kyle swore loudly.

His instincts took over as he utilized the knowledge about the essence of wind he had learned for weeks.

He manifested a strong wind current on the side of the beast on his left. Kyle didn't have to use a vast amount of soul force to avert the Skeleton's attack.

This gave him a fraction of a second, in which the Skeleton to his left had to regain its balance.

As such, Kyle didn't even have to actively think about his next move.

He charged forward with the use of his primal instincts. It helped him create a crescent wind blade which he shot out, followed by a needle made out of compressed wind.

With the first attack, the Skeleton's ribcage burst open as bones flew everywhere.

Meanwhile, the thin needle pierced through the Undead core.

It inflicted a deep crack, killing the Skeleton on his left.

Just at that moment, he realized what he had done.

This would make him both happy and relieved under normal circumstances.

But Kyle also noted that he had been too focused on the two Skeletons in front of him.

This had made him neglect the threats approaching him from behind himself as well as the sole Skeleton that had managed to survive the clash with him.

'Did I mess up?' He wondered.

A distinct feeling of dread began to slowly spread from the depths of his body.

Suddenly, at that moment, a raspy bark filled the immediate surrounding.

This caused a smile to emerge on Kyle's face as he recalled something important he had momentarily forgotten.

'Right...I'm not alone!!'