This Clueless Hero

The skeleton's fractured skull slowly got closer to me. The blue light from the paper within the skull seemed to get brighter.

As for the thunder that rampaged through my body, it was making it harder and harder to move. Even my thoughts became clouded. The skeleton's hand kept slipping forward, pushing past my mangled hand.

I could tell in the next second I was going to lose my hold, but I didn't do anything about it.

Then, the skeleton's hand slipped out of my grasp, tearing through the burnt flesh of my hand.

An audible crack rang out.

The skeleton in front of me froze in place because a dagger pierced through its back. There was a painful scream from the piece of blue paper. Several bone fragments fell from that half of the skeleton. It ran away, but shot a glance at the bones it left behind.

I let out a soft sigh and looked at the dagger.

"Took you a while."

Then, the dagger continued and tried to pierce me, prompting me to teleport out of the way.

At first, the bones left behind by the skeleton gravitated back towards the original. However, some black mass wrapped around them, stealing control over them.

It was the most noticeable, but the rate that the room expanded slowed.

Thankfully, the dagger did not continue chasing after me, but the blue half of a skeleton. I used this time to grow a black fruit to both mend my injuries and increase my physical strength.

As all of that happened, the red skeleton that had been trapped inside Leon's hand of earth began breaking out. Several cracks formed on the hand, showing that it wouldn't be able to last much longer.

During this time, Osric was at a loss. His magic centered around lightning, but that was also the very element these skeletons were immune to. He also noticed that Leon was trying to keep hold of the red skeleton, but the only way he could do anything was with physical strength.

Unfortunately, the target was high up in the air and he did not have any form of flying.

Osric was about to give up, but then he laid his eyes on a large fragment of stone lying on the ground. An idea quickly formulated in his head.

While the lightning itself was not harmful, that didn't mean it was useless. With a heave, Osric picked up the fragment of stone and pointed the edge towards the slightly glowing red paper.

Mana rapidly gathered around him and the lightning around his body rapidly built up, until it covered the majority of Osric's figure.

Then, a thundering bang rang out.

The stone fragment was launched forth with an explosion of lightning. A good chunk of the stone fragment actually shattered from that, what remained left trails of lightning in its wake, speeding up as it traveled.

At that moment, Leon's hand of earth directly exploded, revealing the skeleton. The red light from the paper inside glowed brightly, almost as though incensed. It was about to let out another scream, but before it could, the stone fragment reached it.

The skeleton only realized what was coming at the last second, with no time to dodge. And so, the stone fragment pierced through the red paper.

A deafening groan of pain rang out.

It was so loud, the walls themselves seemed to be shaking. The red light from the paper began to flicker rapidly while the room finally stopped expanding.

I just barely noticed that the blue skeleton looked towards the red one, seemingly concerned. It appears that while they separated and had different ideals, they were still connected in a way.

Upon seeing his attack succeed, Osric smiled to himself.

Unfortunately, it didn't seem like it was over. The bones that were originally half of a skeleton disassembled before revolving around the red paper. The stone fragment was still lodged within that paper, but it seemed like the paper was forcefully assimilating it as part of his body.

The groans of pain constantly rang out. Among them were other sounds. It was like the paper was trying to speak, but the only things that came out were unintelligible syllables.

Then, the room began to shift.

Before, every surface was completely straight. But now, it began to distort. The stone burgeoned as though it were alive, making it seem like we were actually inside the belly of a beast.

While I was in the middle of growing some more black fruit, several cracks formed in the ground. At first, I didn't mind it, but then a chunk of the floor next to me directly fell down. The only thing revealed was a dark and empty pit that seemed to extend down forever.

Once I saw that the floor below me was also crumbling, I ran off. The floor I was just on collapsed, falling into the abyss-like pit. Osric had the same realization and watched the ground closely.

Cracks formed within the ground around roughly ten meters away from me and Osric, but not directly underneath us. Osric frowned.

"This isn't the most favorable situation."

Mist gathered around his body. The next moment, he turned into a wolf with bright silver fur. Osric ran fast and even stepped on the crumbling ground. As one might expect, it gave way right after, but Osric was able to leap and land on solid ground.

As for me, I simply remained on the spot. 

A strip of ground ten meters around me fell.

Then, the ground nine meters around me began to crumble. It was now that I realized what was happening. The red paper was probably trying to get rid of the ground around me. That way, I would be constrained to this section, then slowly work on what remained to send me down into the endless black pit.

I nodded to myself as the platform kept crumbling.

Then I looked off into the distance. My eyes widened while my pupils constricted. I teleported onto stable ground.

Because of my ability to teleport, I wouldn't be trapped. However, that didn't mean the situation was under control. Although the red light from the paper was flickering, it didn't seem like it was dying any time soon.

That meant with time, it would be able to get rid of all the ground. Even if I did begin falling, I was confident that my rate of teleportation upwards would be faster. The only issue was the burden that would place on my mind, meaning I wouldn't be able to do it forever.

In other words, it was better to end it before things came to that.

I narrowed my eyes and looked up to the amalgamation of bones glowing red. My target would have to be the paper in the middle, but I wasn't sure if I could do it.

One thing I noticed while teleporting, is that it was harder to determine where I would end up the farther I teleported. It was because channeling the teleport for longer did not increase the distance at a steady rate, but one that increased.

Half a second of channeling could teleport me roughly five meters ahead. However, a full second would be roughly twenty meters.

A soft sigh escaped me.

Well, what else was there to do?

I casted the elementary wind spell, 'Dash'. Wind gathered around my feet. Each step I took felt a little lighter and became a little longer. Using that, I was able to run away from the crumbling floor and channel my teleportation.

Yet, right as I began, the blue skeleton charged towards me, with the dagger still chasing after.

"There is a price!"

A rumbling sound came from the ground below me, prompting me to jump to the side. That turned out to be a good idea as a giant metal spike ruptured out of the ground where I just was.

Then, that metal spike lost its form, almost like it was melting. 

They turned into many long chains that shot towards me. It seemed the skeleton wanted to bind me. My first instinct was to teleport out of the way, but that was when I realized the chains froze.

Then, they shot back towards the skeleton, restraining it instead.

The corner of my lip turned up.

"It's about time you did something, Leon."

I pointed my wooden stake towards the skeleton's glowing skull. Since I had already begun channeling before, this teleportation was nearly instant.

I reappeared behind the skeleton, while the blue piece of paper had a newly formed hole on it. 

The blue piece of paper immediately let out a painful screech.

My hand trembled violently, while a small crack had formed on my wooden stake. Why was a damn piece of paper so hard?

Unfortunately, my strike was unable to kill it.

The blue light from the piece of paper began to flicker as well. As for the skeleton, it broke into pieces and shot in all directions.

One of which, came straight for me.