“[Accel]”

I dash down the mountain of bones at an insane speed. Bones are crushed under my feet, the mountain trembles in my wake.

Death quickly takes his stance as I approach. Raising my scythe and twisting my body I prepare to strike with everything I have…

“[Incras]”

Swinging my scythe at Death he prepares to take the blow. Raising his sword he meets my scythe and parries it to the side with little effort.

My eyes widen in shock as he quickly step into a strike, aiming directly for my neck. With his sword centimetres from my neck I squeeze out in a ruched voice…

“[Rubius]”

The blade strikes an invisible shield letting out a resounding TINGGGGG.

[Spark]

Blinding Death I quickly step back, getting out of range of his sword, and brin my scythe slicing horizontally, using the full length of my weapon.

Death ducks before seizing the chance to close the ground again.

Realising I don’t have time to retract my scythe I quickly abandon it. Death is clearly superior with a weapon. If I’m going to fight him, I can’t keep leaving myself open every swing.

Releasing the scythe, I slip to the side as Death thrust towards my head. I grab his sword arm and the scuff of his cloak at the same time and…

“[Incarnat]”

I set him alight with a slightly empowered fire ball.

Death’s eyes widened in shock at this as he quickly removed the cloak whilst jumping back. After clearing himself of the flames we silently stared at each other, sizing up each other’s next move. At this moment I took notice of Death’s new look.

I could tell it was him by the way he acted and carried himself. After being here for so long I’ve learnt not to be too surprised by strange things. This whole situation is strange after all. However, Death really does look different.

Standing before me is a male human, roughly 6 ft tall, maybe 6ft 2”. He has long, silky brown hair and a chiselled jawline with handsome features. Honestly looking at him I feel slightly jealous of his face. I would say his body is on par with mine though but no better. His muscles are refined but he is not as slender as me, giving him a warrior vibe from an ancient past. His eyes are black and cold, giving his gaze a deep sense of forboding.

“You sure look different’, I comment, remaining vigilant at the same time.

“This is how I looked before I died. Are you surprised?”

“A little. Wish we could sit and have a drink together. Well… I’m underage but you get my drift”.

Death chuckled at this, then he said “what is your name child?”

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“Rey”, I replied.

“Mordarath is mine”.

Mordarath then took his stance again. Signalling the end of the conversation. Doing the same we stare at each other waiting for the other to move then…

Simultaneously we both dashed at each other.

A flurry of slashes, swipes, punches and blows followed. The pace of the confrontation surpassing the previous by miles, making the exchange before look like a warmup.

The battle became fiercer and fiercer every moment. Blow after blow being exchanged in quick succession.

[Spark], [Incarnat], [Rubius], [Accel] and [Incras] were used repeatedly, quickly tearing through Rey’s mana. Mordarath’s strikes were fluid and fierce, boasting unparalleled combat experience and prowess.

Blood was spilt every time Rey struck Mordarath. Wisps of soul we lost every time Mordarath slashed Rey. Despite this neither side slowed down or showed a moment’s hesitation. The bones around them were either sent flying or obliterated by the fierce exchange. The solid grey ground split and shattered when heavy blows were dealt or blocked. The area around them seemed to be taking even more damage than the fighters themselves.

The exchange wasn’t short. Despite the building exhaustion and rapidly depleting mana, neither side showed any sign of fatigue.

The battle continued seemingly endlessly, even moving far from the bone graveyard and across the great expanse.

The reapers who witnessed this battle either quickly backed away or tried to get involved. The ones that tried to involve themselves were quickly swatted away as if they were mere bugs before them. All anyone could do was watch as the weakest reaper Mordarath, fought a terrifying battle against that insane soul.

Whilst it is true that the reaper Mordarath is weak in his skeleton state, he is actually anything but weak. In his prime he was the greatest warrior alive, entire civilisations feared his presence on the battlefield.

Due to the lacking mana density from Eardh, Mordarath was never able to learn any magic other than [Incarnat] and a spell that allowed him to move his boat through the mud. That is, after countless years, he couldn’t learn anything else. Even these two are barely functional and are useless in combat. Not to mention soul power which is considered an impossible task to obtained for the denizens of Eardh.

Mordarath is not Rey. He can’t perform these god defying stunts and attain such strength in this desolate place. However, Rey is still new to combat. In this field, Mordarath beats Rey by mountains.

Rey on the other hand, is still not done defying the gods.

[Soul Manifest]

[Name: Rey Stein]

[Race: Human]

[Constitution: Sloth]

[Soul Level: 21]

[@###%$^()!@#!@$#$%^#!@]

[@###%$^()!@#!@$#$%^#!@]

[Strength: 44]

[Agility: 59]

[Stamina: 61]

[Mana: 3900]

[Intelligence: 93]

[Ki: ?]

[Karma: ?]

[Luck: ?]

[Martial Affinity: Reaper’s Harvest]

[Spells: Incarnat, Rubius, Accel, Incras]>

[Abilities: Spark, Soul Manifest]>

That’s right. Rey is still getting stronger even in the middle of this fierce battle. In fact, this battle is the very reason Rey is gaining such strength. He needs to get stronger to win. He needs to surpass him. Mordarath is just that strong.

Blow after blow is exchanged and Mordarath, who is adjusting to Rey combat style, is becoming more difficult to deal with.

The battle continued. Mordarath endlessly adjusted to Rey growing strength and kept the pressure up, in turn, causing Rey to seek and achieve greater heights as he fought. Rey’s soul power is truly becoming monstrous.

As the battle waged on and neither side managed to take the advantage, a third party finally decided to take notice.

Watching from her room, seemingly annoyed that the useless reapers couldn’t handle a little incursion on their own, she was pleasantly surprised to find such a battle underway.

‘That reaper… Mordor… no… Morgar…. No …. what was his name?’ she thought.

‘He was a weakling, no? He got his skin back and then became stronger with only his flesh?’ she pondered as Rey and Mordarath exchanged a particularly heavy blow, causing the ground to shatter beneath them.

‘The soul could be useful’ she thought as a slight grin appeared on her face. She decided what she would do right then, standing up and stretching slightly, seemingly in no rush.

Using her power, she quickly disappeared and headed for the fierce battle she was enjoying spectating, completed forgetting about the reaper’s struggle to handle the influx of dead arriving from Eardh.