The Skeleton froze in place.
Crack, crack...
Several more cracks appeared on his leg bone.
'What to do, what should I do?'
The Skeleton screamed inwardly, feeling a strange sense of deja vu.
Everyone silently watched the leg bone, which had stopped growing, and the thumbnail-sized red light.
In just a few seconds of absorbing the energy from the silver-haired woman's severed arm, the foot bone had grown into a leg bone.
They had witnessed the entire process.
Regarding the Skeleton, Chucu wasn't familiar with him, so she had no idea who this sudden foot bone belonged to. But Law and the others were different.
Even though they had seen the Mender carrying the Skeleton's body, which later disappeared during the intense battle, they all guessed that this foot bone was essentially the Skeleton.
They didn't know how the Skeleton had done it, but escaping from under the Mender's nose showed he had some skills, after all, he was a monster that had lived for many years.
"Skeleton?"
Kuro's voice came from behind. The Skeleton remained silent. He couldn't hear the sound but could see Kuro's mouth moving. Up close, he could barely read his lips.
In this situation, he was determined not to respond no matter what.
Kuro didn't know the Skeleton couldn't hear him... he thought the Skeleton was playing dead.
He first looked back at Coo, who was watching them, then walked a circle around the leg bone.
"You're the Skeleton, aren't you."
Kuro looked at the suddenly still leg bone with a scrutinizing gaze, this time using an affirmative tone.
The Skeleton was quite decisive.
Of course, not decisive in admitting it, but decisive in turning off the red light on his leg bone.
As the red light went out, the upright leg bone collapsed onto the silver-haired woman's severed arm.
Even so, the Skeleton kept one trick up his sleeve, ensuring his field of vision could still see the nearby Kuro.
Because in this situation, even if he was going to play dead, he wouldn't dare completely close his eyes. He had to at least leave a narrow slit to support his covert observation.
Kuro looked at the leg bone, which had reverted to a dead object, and sneered silently.
He looked ahead at Law, then quickly glanced at Chucu and the dying silver-haired woman.
'Law's business wasn't finished yet... there was no need for the Skeleton to get in the way.'
Thinking this, Kuro's gaze towards the Skeleton grew cruel.
Sensing Kuro's malice, the Skeleton, who had extinguished his soul fire, felt a chill in his heart.
Even back when he was with the group, he and Kuro had never gotten along.
In this situation, if Kuro insisted on messing with him, he couldn't even fight back.
To survive this, he could only seek Law's protection.
"Alas."
Kuro suddenly sighed deeply.
Seeing Kuro's ostentatious demeanor, the Skeleton felt an involuntary tightness in a certain part of his anatomy.
"It must be my excessive longing that made me mistake this bone for the Skeleton."
"???"
The Skeleton's head was full of question marks. He could roughly read the meaning, but Kuro's tone when he spoke was too exaggerated.
Then, he saw Kuro's lips move rapidly again.
"After all, that idiot was torn to pieces by the Mender, how could he still be alive? Besides, look at the color of this bone, dull and lacking white, no texture at all. And look at its growth, it's about to grow crooked. With a slant to the right, it's not far from being deformed."
"Given that idiot's obsession with replenishing calcium even in death, how could this deformed bone possibly be him?"
"Alas, it's just that I miss that idiot so much, I even see him in a roadside bone."
"No, the dead are gone. I can't wallow in grief anymore."
"Yes, that's right. I must eliminate the source!"
Watching Kuro speak sentence after sentence, the Skeleton could barely keep up.
A detailed explanation was impossible, but he got the gist.
'This bastard is making fun of me...!'
If the Skeleton had a face, it would first have turned as black as a pot, then as green as a meadow.
Shush!
Kuro raised his hand, revealing sharp claws, a cruel glint in his eyes.
Seeing Kuro's action, the Skeleton's train of thought ground to a halt.
He could see that Kuro was serious. If he continued to play dead, he would be dead for real soon.
Thinking this, the Skeleton cursed Kuro in his heart, 'Escape was impossible now... I had to think about how to survive first.'
'But how could I survive?'
Kuro could swing his claws in less than a second.
The Skeleton couldn't think of a way to survive in such a short time.
But he didn't need to think... he knew what to do.
Almost as soon as the thought surfaced, the Skeleton was ready to risk it all.
The red light suddenly reappeared on the leg bone, stronger and brighter than before.
Kuro's eyes narrowed, and he swung his claws mercilessly.
His posture showed he intended to shred the leg bone, without any hesitation.
But the Skeleton was ruthless enough. He poured all his newly acquired calcium into the base of his foot, instantly unleashing powerful kinetic energy that propelled him away from the scene. The cost was the complete breakage of his toe bones, but it allowed him to escape this calamity.
Kuro's claws swiped through empty air. He watched helplessly as the Skeleton, now only a leg bone, dashed madly towards Law's position.
"Tch."
Seeing the Skeleton's strong will to survive, Kuro didn't chase him, returning to Coo's side instead.
Coo glanced at Kuro but said nothing.
She was still quite surprised by the Skeleton's survival skills, managing to escape from under the Mender's nose.
But what was even more astonishing was the fact that Law had killed the Mender.
The Skeleton, now disregarding the consequences, was clear that even if death awaited on both sides, going to Law at least offered hope of survival.
At the very least, he had to get far away from that bastard Kuro.
Law watched the Skeleton fleeing towards him, his expression calm.
He was considering whether to give the Skeleton a chance.
In his earlier assessment, he had considered the Skeleton a strong combatant, but loyalty remained a difficult problem to solve.
The Skeleton arrived hastily, but that short distance had exhausted his hard-won calcium.
His acceleration faded. Now just a leg bone, he landed precisely on the silver-haired woman.
The rich, pungent scent of calcium nearly overwhelmed his will.
Fortunately, he clung to his last shred of reason and resisted the urge to absorb from the woman beneath him.
He struggled to straighten his leg bone. The red light at the top flickered faintly, as if feeling guilty.
"What if I said I was lost? Would you believe me?"
The Skeleton's guilty voice came from within the red light.
"Of course I believe you."
Law said calmly, re-concentrating Nen in his right hand.
He was about to deliver the final blow to the silver-haired woman.
Seeing the Nen coalescing in Law's right hand, the Skeleton, having no mind to read Law's lips, was terrified out of his wits.
"I was wrong! I won't dare again! Please don't kill me!!!"
The red light on his leg bone flashed like a signal lamp.
"?"
Law looked at the Skeleton, whose will to survive was very strong, with confusion.