Even more Spikes began to come out of the Behemoth’s body and Sixth Sense was firing off rapidly. I quickly recast Bone Armor, “Get to cover!”I yelled at Jessica and started to run. My undead couldn’t make it back to the Behemoth before it started to spin.

  This time though, the spinning wasn’t just to make those spikes work like a blender and chop up the things around it. No, they started to fly off like throwing knives, whistling through the air. I held Medusa’s Shield over my torso and slouched down as much as I could as I ran.

  Still, it wasn’t enough. I could feel the pangs of pain as my bone armor was fractured and cuts riddled every part of my legs and sides. It hurt terribly, and yet there was nothing I could do about it.

  I hadn’t anticipated that the fight would come to a crescendo just yet, but I couldn’t wait any longer. I resolved myself to use my available spare stats and quickly put 10 points into STR, 10 into AGI and 4 into DEX.

  With the buffs affecting me as they did, increasing my base stats should have an exponential affect on me, or that was the intuition I had.

  My body got lighter immediately, and I felt like I could move better than before I had even been wounded. Each step came faster, and the sharp bone knives hit less and less until I was simply deflecting them off with my shield. They panged against it hard enough to make my arm shake, but I had the strength to deflect them off.

  And suddenly I could even tell where the attacks were headed. It wasn’t just that vague sense of danger from before. I knew the general area of where the danger was going to strike. In one moment I had been running for my life and in the next I was dancing through death.

  By the time the Behemoth stopped spinning though, I was in bad shape.

  Around twenty-five percent HP was all I had remaining, but the Behemoth was in just as bad shape. The spinning had caused the wounds riddling its body to widen, and blood dripped like rain. The rusty brown fur was now matted with deep red all over.

  I popped another HP potion and tilted it back, the cool sensation filling my mouth and racing down my throat. A bit of the burning sensation that had been distracting my thoughts vanished. My mind was clear as it had ever been.

  I started to walk towards the Behemoth one unsteady step at a time. The viciousness in its eyes had slowly receded over the course of the fight and developed into something like fear. The roar that came from its maw wasn’t as domineering or visceral as it once was.

  Spikey #1 and Spikey #2 joined me side by side as we approached, those who remained from my undead soldiers moved to surround him again. I popped a final MP potion for the fight and raised my hand. “Feast”

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  As though my own personal sycophants, my summoned undead rushed ahead with no desire for anything other than flesh. The Behemoth was no longer nimble, but now an immovable tank. Its head shook but without the strength and speed it once had, it could no longer shake off my minions feasting on its flesh.

  The monster was nothing more than a dying beast now. Yet Sixth Sense triggered and I raised my shield at an angle, deflecting a bone knife from piercing my face. Another came towards my right shoulder that I deflected immediately after.

  We were merely a dozen feet away and all the mobility and strength the Behemoth once had was gone. Such a majestic beast was lying on its death bed in front of me, and I had managed it all solo.

  Both Spikey #1 and #2 gave me a cool glance when I had that thought. “I couldn’t have done it without you guys,” I said aloud. Spirit link made them somehow a part of me, I just hoped there wouldn’t be downsides in the future to this new ability.

  The contrast I felt in the moment was immeasurable. My life rapidly rose above 500, and then 600, and then 700 as it raced back towards 1000. The green hue on my minions was blinding, and yet the Behemoth’s HP rocketed towards 0.

  As soon as the struggle ceased and the green hue faltered in brightness, I sent Spikey #1 forward with his Zweihander. I casted Rot directly between the Behemoth’s eyes for a dozen seconds and instructed him to place the blade tip there. With one thought he plunged it a foot deep into the Behemoth’s skull and thoroughly stirred its brain matter.

  The fight ended just like that and I was flooded with system messages. A level 25 Elite that would give any party a run for its money had died at my hands. No healer, no tank, just me. I had become my own healer and tank somehow. I had never felt as strong as I did in this moment.

  Jessica came rushing to my side a moment later, her lips moved but I couldn't hear the words coming on account of being temporarily deaf. Eventually I could read the words coming from her lips, “Mike, are you okay?”

  “I’m okay.” I said slowly several times. Bone Armor receded to display the wounds that riddled my body. Jessica didn’t hesitate to pull out an HP potion and attempt to feed it to me.

  I stopped her, as by now I was already a long way from death’s door. The gashes and wounds no longer bled, and they closed at a rate visible to the eye. The green hue surrounding my undead and I faded momentarily as any life force that could still be extracted from the Behemoth vanished.

  I suspected that such an insane amount of regeneration and life-steal was only possible when dealing with an elite like this. If it was any normal mob it wouldn’t heal me nearly as much or as fast, but that was fine. I wouldn’t need to go all out like this against fodder.

  Her fingers gently ran over my closing wounds in wonder. “Is this what you meant?” she asked curiously.

  “One day I might not be human,” I said, “I didn’t mean it figuratively.” There was nothing really to hide from Jessica. The others were already aware that I no longer needed to eat food. What that exactly meant wasn’t something they pried into deeply on account of trusting me.

  She caught some of the words from my lips and understood what I meant. “We’ll deal with it when the day comes.” She responded. The thought warmed my slowly dying heart.

  “Let’s collect the loot.” I walked forward and circled the corpse until I found it, the pile of goods. At first glance I could see there was a skill book and a weapon, also a material that glowed a purplish-blue hue and looked otherworldly.

  I read the skill book first.

  That was a vague description, but it made me wonder. Bone Armor could be considered a form of my own ‘bone’. I had the extra skill slot as well on account of the fiend, and after killing the Behemoth I was incredibly close to level 30. The next demon wave would push me over that boundary.

  I was worried just how strong the next demon wave would be. Twenty people was a large number, and I couldn’t imagine it being any less than two or three to one in the battle. That wave was only three days away now.

  Was learning Bone Manipulation worth the risk of filling a skill slot with something that might not prove to be valuable? If it did allow me to improve Bone Armor then that was definitely worth taking. Bone Armor was an effective skill that I’d used many times over. Even in the worst case that I couldn’t use the new skill to manipulate Bone Armor, it might still come in handy in fights. It clearly wasn’t a weak ability and I’d seen how the Behemoth utilized it. Humans could be much more crafty and heinous in their preparations.

  I decided to learn the new skill with a ‘yes’, it was time to move forward without holding anything back.