The white glow took another step forward, and then the darkness opened up. A total of ten figures came out from the side corridor, one after another, as if someone had pushed them from the back. They did not run. They did not breathe.

  They only walked with that horrible patience that only something without life can have. Dirty bones. Unhinged jaws and empty sockets.

  Each one carried something different: pieces of broken armor, splintered wooden shields, weapons that looked too heavy for arms that had no muscle.

  Cck. The sound filled the corridor. Katherine took a step back and almost stumbled. “That... that is not normal,” she murmured. Kai did not ugh. He could not. He had never seen anything like that in his previous life.

  It was basically ten against one, and the corridor behind them was narrow. There was no room to go around them. There was no room to run without turning his back on them. And if they ran, he did not know where to.

  Kai swallowed. “Perfect. First fight. Naked, without a weapon, in a tunnel.” The screen flickered in his vision, fast, like a power cut.

  [Mission: Survive][Defeat the 10 skeletons][Reward: +100 XP]

  “Of course,” Kai thought. “Survive. How specific.” Katherine looked at him, waiting for an order. Her ears were stiff, tense, as if they wanted to run away on their own.

  “Kai...?” she whispered. “What do we do?”

  He did not answer right away, because his head was calcuting. “If I run, they catch me. If I stay, they surround me. If I hide, they find me. So... I have to fight.”

  It was either that or die. Kai slowly raised his hands, as if the skeletons could understand gestures. “Listen to me,” he said in a low voice, looking at Katherine. “Stay behind me.” He looked at her briefly.

  “But...” she was at his side.

  “Behind.” Kai said definitively. Katherine obeyed at once. She pressed herself against his back, as if her body wanted to disappear into his.

  ‘At least that works,’ Kai thought. The skeletons kept getting closer. The first one raised a short, rusty sword with a bde that looked more like a saw than a weapon. Another at his side carried a club made from a huge femur and metal tied on with rope. The third had a shield and moved forward as if it knew how to form a line.

  Kai felt a subtle warmth under his skin. His skill, Adaptation. “Come on. Give me something useful,” Kai said, sighing quickly. Nothing appeared. Just that feeling that his body was more awake than normal, more alert, as if everything moved a little slower.

  The first skeleton attacked with brute force alone. The sword came down diagonally toward his bare shoulder. Kai leaned back in time. He felt the air cut across his skin. Too close. “Ok. I do not want that thing touching me even once.”

  He answered with the only thing he had. His body. He stepped forward and punched the skeleton’s skull. The sound was like hitting a rock. Immediate pain. “Shit. Bad idea.” He touched his hand because of the pain from the hit.

  But the skull turned, as if the impact had disoriented it. It did not knock it down. It had only deyed it a little. The second skeleton was already coming. Kai moved to the side and shoved the first into the second, trying to create a collision.

  The skeletons crashed into each other and for a second they got in each other’s way. Kai quickly lowered his gaze. He looked for anything on the ground. His fingers found a rock with an uneven edge.

  He grabbed it and lifted it. “This works for me.” The third skeleton’s shield came forward, covering the others. The rusty sword showed over the edge and came down again, aiming for his head.

  Kai ducked and hit the edge of the shield with the rock. It did nothing, but the impact made his arms vibrate. The shield skeleton pushed, trying to crush him against the wall.

  Kai felt the pressure, the constant force of the shield. ‘It is not going to beat me with strength, it is going to beat me with persistence,’ Kai thought. Katherine let out a sound behind him. A small gasp.

  Kai heard the cck of footsteps behind his back. Another skeleton had tried to circle around them. Kai barely turned his head. He saw it raising a club. “Kat, down,” he said. Katherine crouched by reflex. The club passed where her head would have been.

  Kai raised the rock and smashed it against the skeleton’s arm. The bone splintered. It did not break completely, but a crack opened in it. The club fell.

  The skeleton stayed still for a second, as if it did not understand. Kai took advantage of it and struck again, and then again, until the arm broke and the club rolled across the floor. ‘Ok, that does work,’ Kai thought with a faint smile.

  The shield skeleton pushed again. Kai dropped the rock and grabbed the club from the ground. It was heavy. More than he expected, but he could hold it. “Better. Much better.” He swung the club in a short arc and struck the shield. The impact sounded like a dry drum. The skeleton staggered.

  Kai struck again, aiming at the knee. Crack. The leg fractured. The skeleton fell to the side. It did not die. But it stayed on the ground, trying to get up with clumsy movements. Kai turned the club and smashed it into its skull. Crack. This time yes, the skull split.

  The bones came apart as if they had lost the thread holding them together. One. Katherine let out a small sound of surprise. “You... you killed it.” ‘Do not celebrate yet, there are still nine left,’ Kai thought.

  The other skeletons reacted, as if the colpse had activated something in them. Two moved at the same time, trying to close off his space. One raised an improvised spear with a metal tip.

  Kai stepped back once, but no more. If he kept backing up, they would end up pressed against a wall with no exit. “I need to separate the group.” He looked down the corridor. He saw a nearby corner, a pce where the wall narrowed.

  “If I make them come through there, they cannot surround me,” Kai said. He moved toward that corner, dragging Katherine with him. “Katherine, stay pressed against the wall,” he said without looking at her. “And if one gets close, scream. Just scream,” Kai said, worried.

  “Just... scream?” Katherine replied.

  “Yes,” Kai said with certainty.

  She swallowed. “Alright.” The skeletons followed them. The first entered the narrow area. Kai struck straight at its chest with the club. The ribs broke. The skeleton fell forward. Kai finished it by smashing its head against the wall. Two.

  The next one tried to attack with the spear. Kai blocked with the club. He felt the metal scrape, but it did not pierce through. He stepped to the side and struck the skeleton’s hand. The bone broke and the spear fell. Kai kicked the spear back far enough that the others could not reach it.

  Then he struck the skull. 3/10. The fourth and the fifth arrived together. Kai felt the fatigue for the first time. In his breathing. “I am running out of air and they obviously are not,” Kai said, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

  The fourth raised a longsword. Kai struck first, aiming at the knee, like before. Crack. It fell. 4/10. The fifth tried to hit him with a short mace. Kai took an impact on the forearm while blocking. It hurt so much that a stab of pain shot up to his shoulder. “Shit.”

  He stepped back once. The fifth raised the mace again. Kai pretended to move forward, and at the st second he slipped inside, pressing himself close to the skeleton. The blow passed overhead. Kai raised the club and smashed it into the spine. The bones came apart. 5/10. ‘Good, that is half of them left,’ he thought, somewhat pleased.

  The rest crowded at the back of the corridor, as if they were hesitating now. As if they did not know how to come in without getting in each other’s way. Kai took a deep breath. “Good. It worked.” But they were not afraid, they were just... recalcuting.

  One of them, taller, with the remains of a helmet, pushed another aside and moved forward. Kai clenched his teeth. “Come.”

  The sixth attacked with greater precision. Kai struck at it, but missed. The skeleton hit him in the side with the handle. Kai felt the air leave his body. He felt a deep pain. Katherine let out a whimper. Kai did not look at her, but he felt her move.

  “KAT, stay still,” Kai said with a tone of authority.

  “Sorry,” she whispered, trembling. The skeleton attacked again. Kai used the club like a lever, trapped the weapon against the wall, and with his other hand grabbed the edge of the helmet. He pulled, and the helmet came off. The skull was exposed, and Kai took advantage and struck. 6/10.

  The st four advanced. Two with short weapons, one with a shield, one with nothing. Kai swallowed. ‘If they surround me, I die,’ Kai thought.

  He moved forward instead of back, surprising the first one. He hit it in the chest. 7/10. He turned the club and struck the second in the face. The skull did not break, but it turned. Kai shoved it with his shoulder into the shield one. They got in each other’s way, and Kai struck the shield one’s knee. 8/10.

  The one without a weapon finally lunged, trying to grab him. Its bony fingers touched his arm. Kai felt a physical repulsion. “Get away,” Kai said, half disgusted.

  He smashed the club into its shoulder. It broke, and then into its head. 9/10. One remained. The st skeleton stopped for a second, as if it were looking at him. Then it raised its sword and ran. Kai felt a spark in his body, as if his mind already knew the movement before doing it.

  He moved to the side. The sword passed by. Kai struck the arm. The sword fell. Kai raised the club and finished it with a clean hit to the skull. The st one came apart and finally 10/10.

  The corridor fell silent. Kai stayed still, breathing hard. The club trembled in his hands. Katherine was breathing behind him as if she had been holding her breath through the whole fight.

  He felt relief. “I’m alive,” he said with a full smile on his face. The screen appeared, fast.

  [System][Mission Cleared][Reward: +100 XP obtained][You reach level 3][Skill obtained: Body Fortitude]