Even though I mentioned Plan C as if I had some grand strategy, the truth was that neither Ethan nor I had a surefire way to escape our current predicament.

In fact, the details of Plan C weren’t all that elaborate. The plan was simple: I’d buy time while Ethan dealt a decisive blow to the enemy. That was it. The reverse would be Plan B.

How I bought time and how Ethan delivered the effective strike were things we’d each have to figure out for ourselves.

To be honest, it was more like solo play than party play, but since Ethan had already confirmed his understanding, the plan was set in motion.

‘Sally, Sei. Use the flame fireworks to attract the golem’s attention towards me.’

‘Got it! Let’s go, Sei!’

‘…….’

‘Sei! Come on, let’s go!’

‘…Alright.’

After a slight rebellious streak following the battle in Bridget Village, Sally dragged Sei along, preparing the flame fireworks in the air. As I briefly thought about doing something to cheer Sei up soon, small yet bright fireworks exploded above me, drawing the bone golem’s attention.

-Bang!!

‘Clatter, clatter….’

-Thud! Thud! Thud!

At the loud sound of the fireworks, the Giant Skeleton turned its gaze away from Ethan and started lumbering toward me.

At least now Ethan had time to focus, and I had to deal with this bone golem one-on-one.

-Whoosh!

“Hyaaaah!”

The bone golem swung its massive sword at me with terrifying speed, clearly aiming to crush me entirely.

The most troublesome aspect of the Giant Skeleton was its incredible speed. Unlike other large monsters, it was just a skeleton, which meant it could swing its light, skeletal arms swiftly.

And the sword itself was made from the sharpest, most jagged parts of its bones, so if I took even one hit, I’d probably die, unable to even collect my remains.

‘If I even think about taking a hit, it’s over. I need to dodge as far away as possible, every time.’

Until when? Until Ethan was ready to strike.

He had learned sword techniques from Harold that were specifically for undead monsters, so he had to have at least learned Ghost Slayer or something similar.

From what I remembered in my past life, Ghost Slayer required a fusion of internal energy and magic, a process that took about 2 or 3 turns in game mechanics.

Once someone was experienced, it could be done in a single turn, but since Ethan had never used Ghost Slayer before, he would probably need a good three turns.

Assuming it took three turns, I needed to buy about five minutes on my own.

‘Sally, I’m giving you magic, so transform into the flame giant right now.’

‘Alright! How much are you giving me?!’

‘Half.’

‘Sweet!’

Sally looked ecstatic at the unusually generous amount of magic I was offering and quickly absorbed half of my power.

A brief sensation of emptiness hit me as the energy drained from my body, but luckily, the result soon appeared before my eyes.

-Fwoooosh. Fwoooosh.

‘Lilith! I’ve transformed! What should I do now?!’

‘Attack the Giant Skeleton from head to toe. Hit every part of it!’

‘Got it, Lilith!’

With that, Sally—now a towering flame giant—threw her flaming fist directly at the bone golem without hesitation.

As I watched her punch land on the golem, I started calculating the skeleton’s regeneration time in my mind.

‘Fire punch!’

-Boom!

‘First strike, left shoulder.’

I started counting the seconds in my head as Sally's first attack landed. After about two seconds, I saw her follow-up attack hit the golem’s right leg.

‘Burn, baby, burn!!!’

-Bang!!

‘Second hit on the right calf. The left shoulder began regenerating after two seconds, and the third strike landed on the head a second later….’

Sally did as instructed, targeting various parts of the massive monster’s body.

Naturally, there was no way Sally could take down the Giant Skeleton by herself. Even with half of my magic fueling her, the monster's regeneration was far too fast.

But what I was observing was the subtle differences in the regeneration times of the various body parts.

When dealing with an undead monster, the key was locating its core. The core usually wasn’t located in the head or heart like one might expect, but elsewhere in the body.

The easiest solution would be to blast away the entire body at once, core and all, but as I mentioned earlier, I didn’t have the luxury of using Mana Blast right now.

Ethan would only have one chance to strike, so I had to make sure I found the core’s location beforehand. By calculating the regeneration speeds of each body part, it wasn’t too difficult to deduce the core’s location.

‘The core’s closer to the head than the right calf, but the left shoulder regenerates even faster, so it’s probably around the stomach or waist….’

‘Take this!!’

-Boom!!

Amid the chaos, I kept piecing together a mental map of the Giant Skeleton’s body and roughly calculated where the core might be.

Just then, the golem swung its massive sword toward me again, and for a split second, I was too slow to react—something wrapped around me, lifting me out of harm's way.

-Whoosh!

‘Ah, I was too late…!!’

-Whoosh!

‘…Lilith, that was dangerous.’

‘Th-thank you, Sei….’

‘…Don’t do anything reckless.’

‘It’s fine. I trusted you, Sei.’

‘…….’

After briefly thanking Sei for saving me, I refocused on the battle.

To be precise, it wasn’t really a battle—I was more like a circus performer dodging attacks using my agility—but that was a minor detail.

-Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

“…! …! ……!!!”

I kept twisting and dodging, even holding back my gasps of relief to avoid distracting Ethan while he concentrated.

Using wind magic, shockwaves, and Sei’s help with air magic, I managed to buy Ethan enough time to finish his preparations.

-Clang!

“……!!!!!”

Oh, for crying out loud, this skeleton.

Why did its skull have to be stuck on the blade like that? That nearly gave me a heart attack.

After narrowly avoiding several more close calls and holding my breath for about five minutes—

“Lilith! I’m ready!”

Finally, Ethan called out, signaling that he had finished preparing his sword technique. I wasted no time relaying the information I had gathered.

“Hold on, Lilith! I’m going to cut off the skeleton’s head in one strike!”

“It’s not the head, Young Master Ethan!”

“What?!”

“It’s the left side of its torso! The core is inside the left side of its torso!”

“…Got it! I’ll slice through its left torso, then!”

“Yes!!”

Before Ethan could waste his strike on the wrong part of the monster, I successfully passed along the crucial information. He immediately adjusted his stance and redirected his sword’s trajectory toward the skeleton’s left side.

With a powerful swing, Ethan poured all his energy and magic into a single strike, and his blade cut deep into the Giant Skeleton’s left side.

-Crack! Crack-crack-crack!!

‘Clatter, clatter…. Clatter….’

The bones, once held together by the core’s magic, began to crumble. The hundreds of bone fragments that had been held together by the core’s power lost cohesion and collapsed to the ground.

If we left it like that, it would regenerate in a matter of minutes, so we had to seal it quickly.

“Young Master Ethan! Use the Undead Sealing Magic Stone!”

“On it!”

Following my instructions, Ethan moved quickly, bringing the magic stone to the purple core that had emerged from the skeleton’s body.

I, too, placed my magic stone on the Giant Skeleton’s collapsed remains to make sure we could collect the evidence of our victory and prevent the skeleton from reassembling itself.

-Fwoooosh….

Thanks to the strange sealing technique devised by Professor Mamari, the Giant Skeleton’s core was absorbed into Ethan’s magic stone, and its body was sealed into mine.

When the sealing was complete, Ethan’s stone held the Giant Skeleton’s core, while mine contained its massive body.

“Well, it looks like we’re finally done….”

“Yes, it seems so, Young Master Ethan.”

“Phew. I’m glad the sword technique I learned from my father worked. And thanks to you, Lilith, for pinpointing the monster’s weakness.”

“…Thank you for your hard work as well, Young Master Ethan.”

While Ethan sighed in relief, I couldn’t shake an uneasy feeling.

‘This is only the first boss we’ve faced—there are still more to come. If this is how things are going….’

The thought of having to deal with another boss tomorrow and the day after was already giving me a headache.