Ashen Ascension: The Divided Flame-Chapter 90: Labyrinth Of The 9 Realms : 3rd Realm

The next chamber was wider than the corridor before it, but the space was broken by thick stone pillars placed irregularly across the room. They stood close enough to each other that moving freely between them required careful footwork. Some paths narrowed suddenly while others curved around blind corners. The air was dry and dusty, and the sound of movement bounced strangely between the pillars.

Ivor stepped into the chamber slowly, his attention already spreading through Soul Sense.

A single skeleton waited near the center.

At first glance it looked similar to the others he had faced, but the moment Ivor studied it more carefully the difference became obvious. Dark bands of black bone reinforced its joints—elbows, knees, hips, even parts of the shoulders. The bone itself looked thicker, denser, and the sword it carried was thicker and heavier than the ones he had seen before.

The skeleton advanced the moment Ivor moved.

Ivor shifted around a pillar, testing the distance, and the skeleton followed without hesitation. It moved confidently through the tight spaces, angling its path so the pillars limited Ivor's ability to circle around it.

The first swing came fast and direct.

Ivor stepped aside and answered with a quick cut aimed at the skeleton's forearm. The strike landed cleanly, but the result surprised him. The blade struck bone with a dull impact and barely chipped the surface.

The skeleton did not slow.

Its sword came back immediately, forcing Ivor to step away and raise his blade to block. The force behind the strike traveled through the steel and into his arm.

Ivor moved again, adjusting his angle between two pillars. The skeleton followed, closing the distance and attacking with short, controlled swings suited for the cramped space.

He tried another strike, this time aiming at the knee joint. The blade connected again, but the reinforced band absorbed most of the impact. The joint did not break.

Ivor withdrew a step, his eyes narrowing.

Without mana his sword simply wasn't strong enough to break through the bones. The skeleton attacked again, pressing forward with another tight swing that forced Ivor to shift back between two pillars. The blade scraped the edge of his tunic as he moved aside.

Ivor pushed mana into his sword. A thin blue coating formed along the edge as he stepped forward again. This time he aimed at the same forearm as before.

The mana-coated strike landed harder. The bone hand was pushed back, but the damage was not there. He struck again at the knee joint, expecting the added force to split the hinge. Instead the reinforced band held firm, absorbing the blow.

Ivor retreated again, watching carefully.

The black bone around the joints was not decoration. It was reinforcement meant specifically to protect the hinges of the skeleton's body.

If he kept striking like this, he would only waste mana.

The skeleton advanced again, its sword cutting through the air in another heavy swing. Ivor ducked beneath it and stepped aside, letting Soul Sense guide his movements while he focused on thinking.

The joints were the key, but the reinforcement meant he couldn't break them with wide swings.

He needed precision.

A narrow strike aimed directly at the hinge itself.

Ivor drew in mana and tried to gather it toward the tip of his sword instead of spreading it along the entire edge. The idea formed clearly in his mind, but when he tried to shape the flow the mana refused to hold.

The coating flickered and spread unevenly along the blade.

He tried again while stepping away from another attack.

The skeleton pressed forward, forcing him to keep moving between the pillars while he attempted to control the flow. Each attempt drained a little more mana from his core, yet the concentration he wanted at the sword's tip never formed correctly.

Another swing came.

Ivor twisted aside and blocked, letting the impact slide off his blade while he backed away again.

He tried a third time.

Mana gathered briefly toward the tip but dispersed before the strike could land. The skeleton's sword forced him to abandon the attempt and move again.

More mana slipped away in the failed effort.

The skeleton attacked again and again, its movements relentless but predictable. Soul Sense traced every shift of its limbs before the strikes completed, allowing Ivor to avoid the worst of the blows without wasting energy on heavy counters.

He watched the joints carefully. Even with the reinforcement, tiny gaps existed where the bones had to rotate. The armor strengthened the hinges, but it could not seal them completely.

That was where the strike had to land.

Ivor kept trying while he moved, shaping the mana again and again as the skeleton pressed him between the pillars. Each attempt slipped apart before the strike could land, draining a little more of his core.

After several failures he finally found a crude method that worked. He let a small stream of mana flow along the blade first, then pushed the rest sharply toward the tip in a straight surge and forced it to hold there for a brief instant.

It wasn't stable and he could only maintain it for a moment, but it was enough to launch the next attack. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

The skeleton lunged forward.

Ivor stepped inside the swing and thrust.

The sword tip struck near the knee hinge. The mana gathered at the front of the blade just enough to concentrate the force. A sharp crack echoed through the chamber.

The skeleton's leg buckled slightly as the hinge fractured.

The success was small, but it confirmed the method.

The skeleton staggered back a step before swinging again, trying to force him away from the damaged joint. Ivor slipped around a pillar and struck at the elbow hinge next, again focusing the mana near the tip.

The blade slipped into the narrow gap and cracked the joint. The skeleton's weapon arm jerked as the damage spread through the hinge.

Now its movements were slower.

Ivor continued pressing the advantage. Each strike aimed for another joint—hip, knee, elbow—each time gathering mana carefully toward the tip before the thrust landed.

The skeleton's structure weakened piece by piece.

One knee collapsed first, forcing it down slightly. The damaged elbow limited the range of its sword. Its movements grew more uneven as the reinforced joints began to fail.

Finally the skeleton lunged one last time with a desperate swing.

Ivor stepped aside, letting the blade pass harmlessly by. Then he drove his sword forward with controlled force, the mana focused cleanly along the tip. The blade pierced through the gap where the spine met the skull.

Bone cracked sharply as the sword drove upward.

The skeleton froze for a brief moment before the red glow in its eyes faded. Its body collapsed in pieces across the stone floor.