Early the next morning, the entire valley shook violently. Countless boulders tumbled down from the valley's mouth. In an instant, skeleton after skeleton was crushed into fragments by the falling rocks.

  The dark blue flames in Eric's eyes flared up. He raised his head and stared intently at the back of the valley. As if in response to his anticipation, the next moment, bright orange fireballs shot in from the valley's entrance. The opportunity he had been waiting for had finally arrived.

  "Deeper than the abyss, the darkness," he muttered under his breath.

  "Craft the forbidden elixir from the fruit of darkness, and offer it to the exalted Lord of the Abyss, the King of Darkness."

  "Seventh-rank magic, the Sacrifice of Darkness."

  Circles of pitch-black magical arrays rose from the ground, surging from the valley floor to the entrance, blotting out the sky.

  At the center of the magical array, in the deepest darkness of the valley, the bone dragon named Pound stretched its neck and chanted its seventh-rank magic.

  A jet of pitch-black light spewed from its mouth, and the valley's cliffs instantly vanished into nothingness under the dark beam. An intoxicating yet foul stench of alcohol filled the entire valley.

  "Holy Lord, send down the angels of salvation," another voice chanted.

  "The sacred light will eventually shine upon every inch of the land, praising the Lord's mercy."

  "Seventh-rank magic, the Sanction of the Holy Angel."

  Golden beams of light shone down from the sky as the chanting continued. Like a golden curtain descending from heaven, it was filled with a sanctimonious glow. Faint silhouettes of angels seemed to appear, and before them, a missionary in resplendent robes was chanting with his golden staff raised high.

  "Detestable human who worships the Goddess of Light, do you wish to endure the wrath of the bone dragon Pound?" Pound flapped its massive bone wings, instantly sweeping away countless skeletons nearby.

  But it didn't care and charged towards the missionary's figure.

  Although Eric didn't understand how Pound's bony, drafty wings could lift its body into the air, the very notion of applying scientific rationality in a magical world was itself irrational.

  Pound charged at the missionary, only to be intercepted mid-air by a figure clad in heavy purple armor. That slender and seemingly insignificant body in front of the dragon firmly held a greatsword, blocking the furious, overbearing Pound.

  A high-level warrior. Eric felt that as a low-level skeleton of his rank, it was better not to concern himself with the celestial battle unfolding above.

  What he needed to do was seize the opportunity to escape from Pound's clutches.

  If Pound was killed here by the combined forces of the missionary and the warrior, that would be more than perfect.

  With the bone dragon Pound detained by the two celestial beings, the other adventurers and soldiers eagerly charged down into the valley. The ranged mages, on the other hand, stood at the edge of the valley, chanting spells and unleashing magic towards the valley floor.

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  The skeletons here also swarmed towards the humans, shedding their usual clumsiness. Even Eric felt an urge to kill the invading humans at all costs. He immediately realized it was Pound's influence. If it had been his old self, he probably wouldn't have been able to control his sanity and would have been manipulated by Pound's command to charge at these humans.

  But now, he could suppress the impulse and not be controlled by Pound. However, to avoid drawing attention, Eric still mingled with the low-level skeletons, clacking his jaw and charging at the humans.

  He blended in with the skeletons, not for any other reason, but to deliver the finishing blow. If the humans severely wounded a skeleton here, Eric would unhesitatingly rush forward and quietly deliver the final strike, killing the skeleton.

  When the skeletons here severely wounded a human and were about to finish them off, he would even more "fearlessly" charge forward, push them aside, and deliver a vicious finishing blow. In short, it was all about delivering the finishing blow, over and over again. Meanwhile, he moved towards the edge of the battlefield.

  Watching the experience points on his status panel constantly jump up, Eric's jaw was almost about to fall off from smiling.

  Damn it, this other world was just too generous to outsiders.

  Eric still didn't reveal his true strength. Lying low and waiting for the right opportunity. The battlefield hadn't yet presented an opportunity that would force him to expose his true abilities. In a battlefield filled with people, there were countless individuals stronger than Eric, both on his side and on the enemy's side.

  As the humans continued to charge, the skeletons suffered heavy losses. The succubi had already flown to the valley entrance and were attacking the mages there.

  The mages had no choice but to defend themselves and couldn't unleash magical attacks on the skeleton army.

  The skeleton army seized the opportunity and began to counterattack, leveraging their numerical advantage. Meanwhile, high-level skeleton mages joined the fray, casting necromantic spells. One by one, the dead human bodies rose again and counterattacked the humans.

  Hidden priests among the humans stood forward and chanted in unison:

  "Holy Goddess of Light, your merciful light shines upon the land, purifying every inch of your divine realm."

  "First-rank magic, Group Purification."

  The chanting voices merged into one, and golden light shone over the entire battlefield. It was clear that the other side had prepared very thoroughly for this raid. Under the golden holy light, the reanimated corpses sizzled, smoked, and fell back down one by one. Even the skeletons became listless and dispirited.

  Eric also felt a wave of irritation and weakness, but he shook his head and dispelled the feeling. However, seeing the surrounding low-level skeletons becoming listless, he also pretended to be the same. Lying low, he muttered to himself. This time, the humans' momentum surged, and they charged forward with their weapons.

  The numerical advantage of the skeletons and the momentum of the humans canceled each other out, and the battlefield became deadlocked once again. Eric didn't care about the battlefield; he was still pretending to be sick on one side, delivering finishing blows, and inching towards the edge of the battlefield. Lying low, he continued to mutter to himself.

  "The bones slumbering beneath the earth are murmuring, brewing the most fragrant disaster in the darkness."

  "First-rank magic, The Call of Bones!"

  A familiar voice rang out—it was Lucia's. She was leading a group of succubi in chanting, and a purple-red magical array opened beneath her feet, rippling out and sweeping over the skeletons on the battlefield.

  The flames in the skeletons' chests and eye sockets flared up violently as if stimulated. Their presence surged.

  The skeletons let out "cackles" and charged forward, overjoyed. The advantage shifted back to the skeletons, and the humans began to retreat.

  Eric also felt a surge of restlessness in his soul flame, eager to pounce on a human and tear into them, letting blood soak his bones. He quickly splashed some water magic on his soul flame to calm down.

  Damn it, lying low, lying low. Eric continued to inch towards the edge of the battlefield. Because his colleagues were acting strangely, he only delivered finishing blows to the humans as he moved, so as not to be noticed by his stubborn-minded peers and be eliminated as a traitor. Damn it, he had a rebellious streak, but what could he do?