Skeleton Medalist
This guy is an easter egg that is annoying to kill, but worth it for the humor of the item he rarely drops. He's in a hidden room off the left side of the pit that Dracula throws you down in the beginning of the game. While you can open the room by jumping down the pit, you only have one shot per jump and then you have a long walk back to the top. He doesn't appear until after you defeat Camilla anyway, so just wait until you have the Roc Wing Image:Castlevania CotM item-roc wing.gif. From the bottom of the pit, jump up, and up, and up. About halfway up the room, start whipping the wall as you fall. Equip the Jupiter/Manticore combo, as this can break the wall on the chance that you miss it with your whip. Once you break it, jump back up and in. Grab the HP PlusImage:Castlevania CotM item-hp_plus.gif (39/43) and then break the ceiling on the right side. Once you jump up, you'll see the Medalist run off. Even the Pluto/Griffin combo will not speed you up enough to catch him; however, if you do a Roc Wing jump into the room while running left, you will be able to easily kill him before he gets going.
Since there is only a 1 in 100 chance that you'll get his rare drop, you'll want to activate your Venus/Mandragora combo to boost luck as much as possible. Or just skip it until you're playing in Thief mode. What you're trying to get is the Bear Ring Image:Castlevania CotM equipment-bear ring.gif, which will transform you into a cartoonish bear instead of a skeleton when you use the Pluto/Black Dog combo. It's something that's merely meant to be cute and does not help you out with the game. As such, unless you're a completionist, this can just be skipped.
