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| The Grim Reaper a.k.a. a mysterious man with the Crow Scythe |
3.3.19.2. The Reaper and the Crow
Hernan
hears it too up in the air, but his squad can’t help because the pegasus
riders, along with the dragon riders and Airship Aurora are now in intense dogfights with the wyvern riders, hell
imps (winged little devils) and other flying creatures of the underworld.
The
Escudian fencer dives down to take a look, and terror comes to his face.
More undead... and DEMONS! Oh, no... this
multitude... they must be from Bresconnor, coming along with the orcs. But,
wait. If reinforcements come, one of the top Dark Generals must have come too.
Ah, I better go down there and give my comrades a hand...
With that thought, the Flirty Fencer dives
into the city. FWOOSH!! The pure-white winged steed is like cutting the air.
Hernan uses that surprising speed to come near a group of undead and CRRAKKHH!!
With a slash from his sword Albatross Hernan
parts five zombies and skeletons from their heads and limbs, and that’s for
starters.
Hernan goes
up again, and suddenly a winged, big, green demon jumps up and lands an
uppercut on Hernan’s pegasus! BAAMM!!
The pegasus
gets thrown upwards and coughs out silver blood. Hernan leaps up from his
steed, and with a somersault he dives! Without its master, the pegasus just
flies away to safety until it’s needed again.
Still
diving, Hernan aims for the demon. When he gets close, he launches serial
thrusts that fall down like Shears of the
Falling Rain. This skill hits the monster on several spots like puncturing
a balloon with a thousand needles, but the demon is – as always – a tough nut
to crack.
The demon
leaps and does another uppercut in the air! CRASSH!! The evil claw grazes
through Hernan’s shirt, and barely leaves a mark on the legendary mythril
breastplate Eil’thanath. Nevertheless,
Hernan is pushed, but he quickly does a somersault and a serial thrust that is
so melodious and rhytmical, namely Requiem
of the Tides.
This time, Hernan concentrates all thrusts
on one spot: the demon’s head, on and on until at last CHRAATH!! Brain and
blood spray out from the punctured head, and the demon falls lifeless on the
ground with a loud BAAMMMM!!
Hernan
surely doesn’t have time to enjoy the fruit of his experience. He immediately
darts into the enemy. He splits a skeleton in two – CREEAKHH!! – and parts a
zombie from its head – CRUSSH!! – and with a loud ‘EEEYAAARGHH!!’ he goes
unstoppable, chopping several monsters into uselessness.
The fencer
goes on rampaging until he sees a hooded figure with white hair walking among
the crowd. The hooded man’s aura is so dark and dense, far more powerful than
he ever witnessed before. Dark denizens move aside, giving him way.
As he gets
closer, Hernan feels a greater pressure from that person that sparks a bit of
fear in his heart. Never before he gets so intimidated – except, maybe from his
plain but powerful wife. He stops and be on guard.
It’s a man
wearing all-black robe, hood and cloak. The hood is so low, covering his face
(that suspiciously wears a skin mask) in a dark shade, only his white sideburns
hanging out from the hood. He holds his scythe high, just like a Grim Reaper,
or rather a spider ready to execute the fly that is trapped on its web with one
strike.
By Vadis, it’s... it’s Arachus’ weapon, the
Crow Scythe! And this man holds it... it means, he’s either Arachus himself or
someone more powerful thanhim.
Unknowingly by him, Hernan takes step by
step back.
That scythe once belonged to Vordac, and
before him, to Kraal, the Death himself. Could he be Vordac? Kraal? Or the heir
of either?
The cloaked man suddenly speaks with a
harsh voice, ‘You guessed right, human, but you may call me ‘The Heir’ for now.
Now, say your name before I send you to hell.’
Hernan
quickens his pace backwards, answering, ‘I don’t say my name to a rotten scum
like you!’
‘You got
some nerve, human, calling me, the Dark Overlord, a rotten scum. But I see fear
in your eyes, and that’s the proper reaction whenever my enemies came
face-to-face with me, alone. For all that, I’ll reward you with a slow,
torturing death that you can enjoy.
So, take
this for starters! Malevolent
Infestation!’
The Heir extends his scythe as if a
wizard’s stick, and FYAASCHH! A legion of evil spirits fly in high speed
towards this unfortunate Paladin, ready to infest and devour him from within,
feasting on his flesh.
‘An Jokul’me Fyasch!’
It’s Tina! With her spell, Blizzard she blocks and freezes the
Heir’s attack! What’s more, the Blizzard counterattacks,
forcing the Heir to convert his spell into the defensive Wall of Souls. He stays on the spot, pumping up his aura for
another attack.
Soon,
Kyflynn and Desmond also join their fellow Paladins here. The night elf asks
his partner, ‘Trouble, Tina?’
The
sorceress of few words answers, ‘Big.’
Hernan
adds, ‘The Heir of Vordac is here.’
‘What!?’
Kyflynn can’t believe his eyes. ‘That hooded man? Hmm, he has white hair. Could
he be... Robert?’
The answer
comes immediately.
BBRUGGGLLLL!!!
It feels
like earthquake. Soon, Hernan hears wheels and gallops rumbling from a
distance. The Alliance
who is in a tight spot gets a relief. The cavalry and chariots charge on,
unstoppable, whacking into hordes of undead like a tidal wave.
In front of
them rides the man in question, Robert Chandler, shouting warcries as the fiery
blade of Grimlock severs and burns
the enemies relentlessly.
‘Feel the
might of the Flying Lions!’ and WHACK! WHACK! Two more zombies get chopped and
burned.
‘That
answers all our questions!’ Hernan shouts and runs towards his enemy. ‘Robert
is NOT the Heir of Vordac! C’mon, my friends! We gotta attack the Heir together
before he recovers!’
‘To hell
with the Heir! HYAAAAHHH!!! Kyflynn gets to the Heir first and is going to make
a stab. The cloaked man doesn’t move at all. He attacks the elf frontally with
his aura, and misses! He looks up and the elf already does a slash-somersault
above his head!
CLAANK!!
The Heir blocks the Cartwheel Slash with
his scythe, but then comes another somersault and CRAASHH!! The slash grazes
his shoulder. Black blood leaks out from the wound, and the Heir doesn’t scream
in pain at all. Kyflynn lands behind the Heir and lands a Backstab.
CRAASHHH!!!
‘Hmm. The
Heir of Vordac isn’t nearly as good as he claims he is. Now you die,’ Kyflynn
sneers.
‘Wrong,’
says the Heir with a gentle voice. ‘I am already dead. The fact is, now it’s
your turn to die.’
‘Utter
nonsense.’ Saying that, the assassin pulls his dagger, but it won’t come off.
Instead, dark spirits crawl on that weapon up to Kyflynn’s hands. He begins to
panic.
‘W-what’s
going on hereee??’ The blue skin turns black, and it’s reaching the
shoulders...
WHAAMMM!!!
A timely blow from Desmond gets parried with the scythe. The Heir’s
concentration splits a bit and Kyflynn uses this momentum to pull his dagger
out completely. After that, he withdraws from the fight to get rid of the dark
energy with his wind aura.
The
Paladins are definitely not going to give the Heir even a moment to breathe.
Together they attack: Robert from the upper-left with the jumping, super-speed,
hidden blow of Green Dragon Assault
Strike. Hernan attacks from behind with the spin-and-slash Whirlpool Polonaise.
‘Predictable cheap shots!’ The Heir swings
his scythe in a powerful uppercut and blocks Robert’s attack, TANG! and in
split-second swings it downwards, accurately hits Hernan’s sword midway of the
slash and pins it on the ground. Such is the speed and strength of the Heir!
The look on
Robert and Hernan’s face tells all. This time, the foe is the toughest that
they ever fought, with the strength far exceeding their own.
Indeed, he’s more powerful than Arachus! No
wonder the scythe chose him, Hernan thinks.
Another
attack comes! This time, Desmond cracks the ground and sends an energy wave of Land and Sea Divide skill. Still pinning
Hernan’s sword on the ground, the Heir uses his left hand and casts another Wall of Souls.
From the back comes Agustina’s spell, the Frost Arrows, sending a rain of sharp
ice shards all concentrated towards a single target. Though not as brutally
powerful as the Blizzard, the speed,
versatility and precision of this spell is enough to force the Heir to block it
with his scythe, not just his aura. He releases Hernan’s sword and spins the
scythe like a propeller. Nevertheless, a few ice shards find their marks on the
Heir’s body.
Normally,
the shards would get repelled by the dark aura or graze his body at most, but
four of them get planted on the Heir’s body! The wounds are quite bad, but
nothing seems too serious for the Heir as he is ‘already dead’. He’s as agile
as ever.
Analyzing
this situation, Hernan wonders. What? All
our attacks were blocked or yielded nothing but grazes and scratches on him,
but a simple shard of ice can wound him? This is odd. This is against nature.
The dark aura is weak against the holy power only! This must be something
that’s related to the past battles...
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Image Source: Grim Reaper - Artwork by n_deed (DeviantArt.com)
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