NOVEL NEXT Chapter 14 Beyond Death ( Part 1 )
Beyond Death ( Part 1 )
A wide shadow swept over the van.
Marcus jumped off the military car as a wide scythe came cleaving through the upper body work of the driver’s cabin.
The van almost turned on its side under the impact , saved only at the last minute by the sturdy walls of the tunnel.
Before Marcus had time to get up from the ground , the scythe came swinging back in his direction.
“So this is the end for me ,”
Resigning to his fate , he closed his eyes and waited for the sound of his body being sliced in half. He waited till it felt odd to have his eyes closed .
When he opened them again , he was shocked to find himself intact , at least physically. The massive floating creature had even flown past him and was now headed for the Warrior mage.
“ I said open these damn cuffs!” Jack shouted at Carol as he watched the Soul Reaper floating past the van headed for the mage.
The Dread Ghost still topped the list when it came to the horrors league , but the Soul Reaper was not so far behind.
It had a large dark cloak that covered most of its floating body but what stood out the most was the golden crown on its head that was perpetually dripping a darkish viscous fluid. Size wise , it was a colossus at par with the Dread Ghost.
The creature had an appearance that was almost more ethereal than physical. As it moved , multiple after images of itself seemed to part then converge in the space around it.
As if this wasn’t enough to deter Jack from wanting to get into a tangle with it , the System decided to go crazy on him by revealing the stats on this new beast.
[
System Information
Name
Soul Reaper
Origin
The World of Praiyas
Threat Level - 10
]
Then his System sweetened the deal , as it had with Caesar , this time even throwing a countdown into the mix .
[
System Information
New Quest ; Defeat Soul Reaper
Expected rewards ; Summoning tickets x3 , Points 400 , Soul Reaper crown x1 , Soul Reaper Cloak x 1
Remaining Time - 00:20:00:00
]
“ CAROL ! ” this time he thundered.
The woman had hit her head badly when the van was attacked, and was finding it hard to concentrate her senses on anything. She weakly threw the bunch at him.
“ The long one ,” she said.
He quickly sorted through them , trying out two similar looking keys. The second one worked and the cuffs dropped to the ground.
He was free just in the nick of time as immediately after , one of the Wailing Hounds landed on the boot.
It too, had the dehydrated traits of the hound that had first tried to jump them , which now became the obvious signs of possession by the Soul Reaper. That was the reason they were so well coordinated.
Jack didn’t know exactly how it happened , but he found himself thrusting the sword that he had gained from the System through the throat of the beast , in the same spot he had pierced to kill the other hound at the company building.
It was a hallmark of how fast he was progressing , taking out the monster even before it had time to let out one of its signature wails..
The System gave him a notification of having gained an additional 50 points , all of them now summing up to 150.
He tried to upgrade his personal attribute of Durability , but the System declined , informing him that the attribute required actual experience to level up. The same went for Strength.
He took the next best alternative and boosted his stamina up a level.
Having done this , he pulled up a summary of all his current stats , keen to know everything before he threw himself into the chaos brewing before him.
[
System Information
Personal Attributes :
Strength - Level 2
Speed - Level 4
Durability -Level 2
Stamina - Level 2
Talents:
1) Rejuvenation - Stage 1 ,level 3
2) Perception - Max level
3) Constricted Surface - Stage 1 ,level 2
4) Flowing Paradise - Stage 1 , level 1
Artefacts:
Excalibur - Refinement rank 1
Points left - 0
]
Killing the Soul Reaper would get him 400 points and if he could manage , Caesar would earn him an extra 550 points.
That would be a lot of points that could jack up his unlocked talents to a whole other level.
“Time to grind ,” he jumped off the van , gripping the sword firmly at hand.
He reminded himself that Constricted furnace , unlike the other talents , had a long cooldown of 4 hours. It had to be reserved for the best opportunity.
He would also have to be careful with the new talent , Flowing Paradise , because even though it claimed to reduce the effective damage taken from enemy attacks , he was still unaware of its stamina consumption rate.
“ Aiko , is the Soul Reaper creating all these zombies ?” Jack asked her as he went to work slicing through the desiccated humans that had surrounded the van.
“ Bossman is correct . The scythe that it carries has the power to turn living beings into undead slaves ,” she confirmed.
“How does it work, is it something that I can avoid ?”
“ The Scythe cuts through all physical matter with the exception of bodies containing living souls. Whenever the weapon attacks the living , the scythe will pass through the body without harming it and rather cut at the inner hidden soul itself ,” she added as Jack cut down more of the damned humans.He was a little disappointed when the System failed to give rewards for this.
“No Jack , that’s Marcus !” Carol screamed at him as he sent his sword flying past the neck of another zombie that had tried to jump him from behind.
“ You just killed Marcus ,” Carol , though a battle hardened soldier , was having a breakdown after witnessing all that was happening around her. It made Jack doubt himself more . He was the one on the ground fighting , yet for some strange reason felt more alive and excited . This was the same feeling that he’d gotten when fighting the Dread Ghost.
The Warrior mage smiled with all his teeth as his axe clashed with the Soul Reaper’s scythe. Its bony hands , which the mage assumed to be weak due to the lack of fleshy muscle , packed a resounding punch that surprised and impressed him greatly.
“Finally , a worthy opponent ,” the blade on the mage’s axe heated up to a sizzling red before retreating to swing again at the Soul Reaper.
The beast hissed furiously as the axe landed on one of its after images. Though there was no damage , it had still felt the pain.
“ Wanna cry now ?” the mage roared , swinging his axe again. The reaper moved to dodge this attack instead of parrying.
“ Float around all you want , I’m not going anywhere ,” the mage thundered with laughter as his axe chased after the drifting monster.
“ Aiko , how does one defeat a Soul Reaper ,” Jack finally asked after getting nothing from Perception. He trying to keep watching its fight with the Warrior mage , hoping that the mage would kill it on his behalf.
“ Aiko too does not know. The Soul Reapers from Aiko’s world are so rare and powerful that no one has ever won against them ,”
The mage carelessly flung his axe up at the reaper , a move that was easily read and dodged by the monster.The axe dug into the concrete ceiling above powerfully , causing the tarmac on the road above the tunnel to slightly crack.
With its prey now seemingly defenceless , the reaper brandished its scythe, ready to finish the job.
“Let me show you what it means for a mage , to be a first class !” the warrior thundered, leaping into the air just as the scythe came swinging.
His hands grabbed hold of the axe’s handle , then with one powerful jerk of his body , the mad man brought a considerable portion of the ceiling down with him as he freed his weapon.
Jack had to dodge a couple of cars that came falling with the cave in , retreating back to the military van which was a safe distance from the debris.
When the dust settled and the two heavy hitters appeared , the mage’s axe was lying on the ground with its hot metal blade melting the surrounding concrete.
The reaper's scythe was halfway through the man’s chest , seemingly phasing through his body without any visible physical harm.
“ Aiko , we’re fucked right ?” Jack watched the skin on the warrior mage’s face lose its reddish colour and dry up to a ghostly grey.
“Bossman is right ,”