Chapter 21: Is That Bat riding a Wolf?

The haunted burning suit of armor had its metal arms restraining Vault in one of the worst hugs in history. The moment its turned started Vault received burn damage from the flames on its body. “Gah! let me go you burning piece of scrap metal!”

The knight unexpectedly did nothing with its turn, and just let the timer run out. Vault’s turn came next, and he spent the entire time trying to get out of its grip, but to no avail. The timer for his turn ran out and it was wasted. He received burn damage as the cost of his failure to escape.

Harmony's turn began, and Eunice reached out to Felicia. “<That burning haunted suit of armor has him in its grasp. Judging from the way it's fighting, it seems that it wants to slowly burn him away until he passes. A truly strange way of fighting. There is a chance that it just wants to have you both suffer.>”

Harmony grit her teeth. “Let him go already!”

She charged forward with her chakrams, and instead of throwing them, she used them in a slashing motion to attack the suit of armor from the back. A small amount of damage was dealt to it, but it still remained unfazed.

Her turn ended and Vault cried in pain as he suffered more burn damage. She needed to think of a solution quickly before her next turn came. She needed a way to take that thing down for good, or at least get him out of its grasp. The two of them would be able to have a much better chance fighting together.

The burning haunted knight once again did nothing for its turn and dished out more burn damage. Vault desperately flailed about in its arms during his turn, but it was all for naught. He was still unable to free himself.

Eunice called out to Felicia. “<I have an idea of how we can free Vault. Just like with removing the pearls from the clams earlier, theoretically, we could use the Extract skill to remove Vault from the knight's grasp.>”

Harmony took a moment to study the burning knight's armor. She was wondering if she could use the Extract skill to remove the ghost from the metal suit. Her skill was very low level and most likely would not work on something so powerful.

At least not yet to that extent. As Eunice had once mentioned, she would need to increase the rank of the skill a lot more before its prowess could grow.

Another idea suddenly crossed her mind, this time it was a way for Vault to also assist with the rescue. “Hey Vault, I remember you telling me before how your crafting ability works. You said all you needed was building material and what?”

He furrowed his brow for a minute in confusion, but then his expression shifted to a mischievous smile. “You seriously have the weirdest ideas.”

She responded with a similar smile. “Build something nice when you get the chance.”

Harmony activated her Extract skill on Vault, and it tugged him a little bit towards her. It was almost like she was using telekinesis to sort of pull him with an invisible rope, but the knight’s grip was still too strong. The best she could do was loosen it.

The knight’s turn timer began and it did nothing to Vault except making him suffer more burn damage. This time, when Vault’s turn began he activated his crafting skill on it. A loud metallic creaking echoed throughout the area, as the metal making up its body began to warp slightly.

A notification appeared from the system. It mentioned Vault’s attempt at trying to craft the sentient armor. It said it would take three turns in order for the process to be complete. This was good, they now had a game plan to win.

Harmony started her turn and used the Extract skill on Vault. The burning haunted knight’s grip loosened on him a little more. This time it decided to actually release one of its arms and pick up a sword. It still kept its other arm wrapped tightly around Vault.

Harmony sweated nervously as the knight’s first turn of attacking began. It lunged at her getting ready to strike. Its immense speed caught her off guard, and she had no time to block to lessen the damage. She lost half her HP from just that one move. She started breathing hard from the pain.

If they could just hold out for a little longer then they might be able to get through this. They just needed a little luck on their side. Black fog suddenly flew in from all around them. She looked around wildly and confused as system notifications kept blaring in her face.

“Warning! Warning! Warning!”

“The battle has been invaded.”

The battle has been invaded?! She didn't understand what that meant. It was a new mechanic that she was not familiar with. Does that mean something was coming? More enemies maybe?

A cloud of black smoke appeared near the haunted burning knight. It shattered into pieces as if it was made out of glass. Another one of its kind emerged from the darkness. Most likely the Iron Maiden thought it was taking too long and needed help.

Harmony’s heart sank upon its appearance. Now all hope of surviving this encounter, and making it home together in one piece was lost. Her thoughts were interrupted by another black cloud of smoke emerging right next to her.

Was it another knight? If it was three then this world truly had something against them, or at least the Iron Maiden did. To her surprise it was not a knight that emerged from the black smoke. Instead it was truly a bewildering sight. It was a gray wolf with a sword tied to its back and a black bat riding on it.

The wolf just turned to her panting with his tongue out and looking happy. She just stared at the weird sight trying to figure out how to process it. “What the…?!”