Chapter 249: The Undead Arena and TWO Apostles?!
[Welcome to the 'Undead Arena']
[Fight your opponents to escape!]
These two panels appeared in front of Stark right as Reaper pointed his scythe toward the human.
"Are you ready?" the skeleton grim reaper spoke again, a powerful dark aura swirling around his entire body and weapon, making Stark gulp.
"Sure, why not," Stark kept smiling though: he had his anti-undead skills, so nothing to fear on a 1 on 1, and he would make sure to deliver a beautiful spectacle for those watching.
"=)" but right as he took his fighting stance, ready to start… his clone tapped on his shoulder a few times.
"…?" Stark looked back to see the [Superior Clone] smiling.
"Very well," Reaper's skull mouth couldn't move, but it was clear that he was smiling, "Let ALL the fighters battle, then!" Reaper said while Stark was busy looking at his clone.
"…" the [Superior Clone] was trying to tell something to the boy.
It was pointing at the arena, then making massive circles with its hands: it couldn't speak, so it quite literally had to play a guessing game with Stark.
"The… zone…?" he guessed after a few seconds, and the clone nodded extremely quickly.
Then it moved to another sign.
It pointed at the ground, then it made a simple panel appeared in front of it.
[Reaper, The Undead Puppeteer] this was what was written on the panel as it was the only one the clone could open since it was minimized.
Then the clone repeated that maneuver several times, its smiling expression almost begging for Stark to understand.
"This zone…?" Stark mumbled as the clone pointed at the ground, "This zone's panel?" he asked as the clone made the panel appear again.
And suddenly…
"!!!!" the clone jumped in agreement.
'This zone's panel…?' Stark repeated, and he immediately opened up that panel again (for some reason the clone couldn't do it though).
Stark quickly glanced at Reaper, and he was actually holding his scythe horizontally with his two handles at the edge of its handle, his eyes closed, though you could only see that because, y'know, the small white dots in them had disappeared.
~TAP, TAP~
He was repeatedly taping his scythe's wooden handle on the ground too, doing some sort of… ritual? Or something strange, as it was glowing with dark aura.
'Well, doesn't matter as long as he leaves me alone for now,' Stark went back to focus on his clone, 'Anyway, so this zone's panel…'
Stark tried to open it, but he had actually closed it, probably why the clone couldn't open it at all.
"Third Zone panel!" he mumbled to himself, and it reappeared again.
[Last Zone: Reaper's and Lother's Grave]
"=)" immediately, the clone pointed… at the second name.
"Huh…" and just as quickly as it did, Stark's eyes widened.
In retrospective, this shouldn't be confusing as it is just a normal name, but when you think about it, if Reaper was the 'undead puppeteer' in front of him, the apostle he needed to kill to fill his [ApostleDex].
Then… who the fuck is 'Lother'?
And that's when Stark suddenly remembered something: right as he was about to open the cabin door, he ignored the third panel that had appeared before him, only reading the first few words.
And they were…
[There isn't just one apostle-] there was another bigger part to the sentence that he had skipped, but now…
"Oh… shit…" Stark figured it out.
And as soon as that happened.
"Give them a show they won't forget," Reaper lifted his scythe all the way up to his head, then taped it against the ground one last time, an extremely powerful aura coming out of it, like dark flames taking over.
And suddenly…
Fwish!
'That noise…' it came from right below Stark.
"I summon thee, 'Lother, The Grave Keeper', come and aid me to prevent this human from reaching our lord," Reaper pointed his scythe toward Stark again, its pointy edges burning now.
And then...
Boom! Fwish! Slam!
The ground shook violently, and the air crackled with energy.
Stark braced himself, his heart pounding as the ground rumbled beneath him.
And suddenly…
Boom!
Four long white hands burst from the earth, each one massive and menacing, fingers curling like claws poised to strike.
"Holy hell!" Stark shouted, adrenaline flooding his veins, and even the clone got ready.
The four hands were surrounding him completely from all directions: nord, east, south and west, meaning that they could easily reach him if he wasn't careful.
"=)" the clone was also surrounded since it was right next to Stark, but it didn't look bothered that much.
And then…
"Do not die too quickly," Reaper let out a trail of dark smoke leaving his skull mouth.
~SLAM~
The hands slammed down toward him, each blow sending a shockwave that rattled the air.
Stark reacted instinctively, the familiar rush of power coursing through him as he activated [Invincible Dodge].
In a split second, he sidestepped, a blur of motion, narrowly avoiding the first hand, and the impact cratered the ground, dust and debris flying into the air.
"Not today!" he yelled, pushing himself off the ground to evade a strike from the second hand.
He weaved through the onslaught, his movements precise and fluid, each hand crashing down where he had stood mere moments before, leaving jagged cracks in the arena floor.
The crowd of undead gasped, their hollow eyes wide with anticipation.
"Come on, Lother! Is that all you've got?" Stark taunted, he was sure that this thing was the second apostle.
After around a minute where the giant white hands repeatedly tried to slam both Stark and his clone… they all went back into the ground.
And mere seconds later…
Fwish!
Lother's massive form began to emerge from the ground next to Reaper, rising to a towering height of eight meters, the giant humanoid figure had four arms, each as powerful as a train, ready to unleash fury, and a gaping mouth with what could only be described as a black hole in it.
[Lother, The Grave Keeper - Apostle]
Its body was COMPLETELY white except for the occasional wrinkles then and there, and it was bald, with no nose, no ears, and completely black eyes with no pupils.
As said before, Lother had FOUR arms (two where they normally should be, and another two coming out from his shoulders), and it was currently standing on its two legs, meaning that it could use them all to attack, making it EXTREMELY difficult to avoid it all.
But it did have a second form though, and not talking about when its HP depletes: Lother could use his two front arms, meaning the normal ones, to get on all fours like a dog, making him much more menacing as his face and mouth that stretched downward were actually terrifying.
"Oh~" Reaper laughed, "One of the first who actually managed to avoid it all, you might actually be able to give us a good show, then…"
The "white hands" ambush was actually way faster than you might believe it to be, only taking a split second between the time they emerged and hit the ground where the human stood.
And so, that meant that A LOT of people had died before the fight could even begin, and even Stark only reacted accordingly because he noticed that there should have been TWO monsters, not just Reaper.
"…" the second apostle, Lother, couldn't speak, as his mouth was literally dislocated (or just weird, one of the two), and so only Reaper was capable of speech.
"Your friend's weird," Stark shrugged as he pointed at the white creature straight out of a monster foundation or something.
"He can't speak, hear or breath, and his vision is extremely reduced, to the point he can only attack people based on their vibrations and aura," Reaper informed while inspecting his scythe, "And yet…" the small white dots in Reaper's eyes grew in size, "He is still stronger than you are."
"Hhahaha~" Stark laughed, "I'd love to see that."
"You will."
[3…]
The countdown of the battle began, and all the undead spectators were cheering.
[2…]
Reaper's aura and his body were now surrounded by dark flames of death.
[1…]
Lother was just normal, though Stark noticed that the weird smile on his stretched mouth grew as he kept taping the ground with his arms, ready to dash at the human.
[FIGHT!]
But Stark and his clone were ready too, activating both of their auras as they knew that this was going to be their hardest battle yet.
They were undead, sure (at least Reaper was, not sure about Lother), but they were still apostles, and the strongest ones he had fought yet (the three crimson moons are stronger, but he didn't battle them).
But before Stark could even begin to activate [Perception] to check out his opponent's stats, HP, and skills…
A panel appeared in front of him: it was given by the [Undead Arena] itself.
And on it was information that he feared would be true ever since he fought the [Darkness Ghost] in the second zone.
And it was…
[Lother, The Grave Keeper]
[Rank: Boss]
And… the most powerful of the two…
[Reaper, The Undead Puppeteer]
[Rank: Calamity]
He was at the rank above [Boss].