"What... does it mean to work?"
The black-robed skeleton tilted its head slightly, a little confused.
"Work means working without eating, drinking, or sleeping... Of course, there's no work for you to do right now, I just want to study the chain on you first."
As Ian hesitated to get closer.
"Woosh~"
A sudden sound of breaking through the air came from the forest. An arrow shot out from the darkness, as fast as lightning, flying straight towards Ian, who was sitting on a boulder touching his chin.
"Snap~"
Before Ian's protective gear could activate, the black-robed skeleton directly flashed in front of the Little Wizard, raising its hand to catch the arrow, which wasn't much slower than a bullet.
"Something dirty is coming..." Ian looked at the shattered fragments thrown on the ground, slightly annoyed. He knew that arrow had been aimed at his head.
"It's a monster."
The black-robed skeleton was truly a linguistic genius.
With one sentence, it calmed Ian's anger.
"Haven't you ever looked in a mirror?"
Ian truly marveled at the skeleton's lack of self-awareness. Well, it had no heart, so it seemed normal to be clueless. Even Voldemort's shredded soul didn't seem as eerie as this skeleton.
"Da da da~"
Just as Ian was speechless, the ambushers appeared with the sound of hoofbeats. A group of half-human, half-horse creatures slowly walked out from the shadows.
The leader was a burly yet somewhat aged centaur, with a gray beard and exaggerated muscles.
The other centaurs were also quite robust.
"Evil souls and an evil wizard... You've trespassed in a forbidden zone you should never have entered." The leader's voice was exceptionally stern.
"That's a skeleton! A moving skeleton!"
"This is a wizard who toys with the dead!"
"He's just a little guy, yet he dares to learn such detestable magic. The people in the castle won't blame us; we're helping them get rid of the festering maggots!"
"Kill him!"
...
The centaurs were also shouting fiercely, and some even raised their longbows again — and at that moment, a sudden ripple appeared in the space.
"Jie jie jie jie jie~"
A bizarre cackle echoed out.
The silhouette of the Black Phoenix appeared in front of the centaurs.
"Attack!"
"Damn! It's an ambush!"
The panicked centaurs tried to shoot down the flying Black Phoenix, but the Black Phoenix seemed to drift between life and death, its figure appearing and disappearing as it swooped towards the centaurs.
It went straight through a nearby centaur, yet, when the terrified centaur lowered its head to its exposed chest, it found no wound there.
"I'm still alive! All good!"
This centaur exclaimed with lingering fear, yet when it turned to look at its companions, it saw their expressions were more terrified than each other.
"What?"
It turned its head to look.
Instantly.
Its face turned pale.
It saw.
The Black Phoenix had a dim, slightly transparent figure in its mouth, a figure raising its hand to struggle, with a face identical to its own.
As the Black Phoenix tilted its head back and swallowed the entire transparent figure.
"No!"
The attacked centaur's voice abruptly stopped, as if an invisible force had gripped its throat. Its eyes began to lose color, fading from deep amber to a pale gray, as if all life force had been drained. This fading process spread rapidly throughout its body, its once strong muscles and smooth skin turning dull.
It seemed like it was being eroded by the frost of time.
As the fading intensified, the centaur's body became extremely fragile. Its limbs trembled slightly, as if they could no longer support its massive body.
Finally, with a dull thud, the centaur toppled over like an ancient statue, shattering into countless pieces and exposing pale bones and shredded muscle fibers.
Clearly.
The thing that was snatched and swallowed was its soul!
"What an evil creature! What terrifying abilities! Notify all our kin! Notify the school!" The leading centaur's soul was almost scared away seeing its tribe's tragic death.
The other centaurs reacted similarly. All centaurs were fearless warriors, but it was only death they didn't fear; the horror of having their souls consumed as food was still terrifying to them.
"Don't let these beasts escape; they just attempted to murder me."
Seeing the centaurs begin to scatter and flee, Ian whispered to the Black Phoenix, which had returned to his arm. He didn't take out his magic wand, as after the centaur's soul was devoured, the Black Phoenix ignited with purple flames again, feeding its magic back to him, albeit not much, but better than nothing.
"Jie jie jie jie jie~"
The Black Phoenix took to the sky again.
However.
Before it could charge out.
The black-robed skeleton, who had stood still, thought Ian was talking to it. Thus, this mysterious skeleton slightly turned its head, looking at the centaurs attempting to escape in different directions.
The soul fire in its eye sockets flickered slightly, and its hollow gaze seemed to pierce through the darkness, gazing at everything ahead. The red patterns on its bones began to leap.
They flickered with an eerie glow under the moonlight, and some mysterious magical power seemed to spread out.
The next moment.
"Ahhhhh!"
A series of tragically sharp screams rang out.