The sun shined beautifully and the sky's mood showed a healthy blue.
The wind was blowing gently and a flock of red-horned birds were flying above the clouds.
Then, high up in the sky, out of nowhere, a large blue portal appeared, scaring all the birds away.
Dropping through the portal...were nine humans.
They nine of them began falling through the clouds.
"Did you seriously have to dropped us out of the sky?" One of them asked in a casual tone. He wore a deep blue, trench coat, with jeans and a plain grey t-shirt. The Piercing Gunner: Jack.
"It's faster this way isn't it?" He wore a dark purple magic robe with, and a pointy wizard's hat. The Elemental Mage: Baron
"HAHAHA! WOOHOO!" One of them cheered in reckless excitement as she fell head-first. She had long, untied golden hair and wore brown shorts, gloves and a crop top. The Ruthless Brawler: Lily
"Oh dear, I do hope my children back at home aren't causing any trouble." Another one said as she placed her hands on her cheek. The Beastly Hybrid: Eve
"You're children are always causing trouble." Like the others, this other woman acted as if falling from the sky was a common occurrence. She held a fancy, black paper fan in front of her face. The Evil Villainess: Elizabeth
"Oh Elizabeth dear, don't insult my children please. Or I'll have to kill you." Eve replied in a sweet voice.
"Everyone! We're approaching a mountain, get ready to land or you'll die!" Lily shouted with an excited grin.
"That ain't a mountain, idiot. That's our target," Jack replied, he was wearing some sort of digital eye glass.
One of the them yelled to the others, "REMEMBER EVERYONE! This is an S-class monster, don't underestimate-"
"Yeah, yeah, no one cares Yukari." The mage interrupted.
"This is serious, Baron!" Yukari had shoulder length pink hair and wore red and white clothing that covered her entire body. The Divine Healer: Yukari
"I'm... not suited for this type of monster." One of them said softly as he observed the enormous Goliath. He wore black clothes that hid his entire body and face, except his eyes. The Silent Assassin: Zeno
"Yeah right," Jack said sarcastically after hearing that, "just go up it's nose or something."
The last two remaining falling humans didn't say much.
One of them was a young woman who wore white clothes of smooth silk. The Heavenly Angel: Aria
The last one was a young man who wore shiny, gold and silver armour with a sword and shield. The Holy Paladin: Arthur
"Everyone," Arthur spoke, causing the arguing team of heroes to fall silent. He was in the front, falling head-first with his shield in front of him, "It's time..."
The nine heroes were beginning to near the gigantic monster that rivalled the size of a mountain. From the top, it had a very cone-like, grassy shape which made it easy to mistake as a mountain. But as the heroes came closer, they saw the lower body of the monster, revealing legs that left chasms whatever it stepped and arms that could cause total destruction with a single swing.
They were falling directly towards the monster's head.
"About time," Lily exclaimed as she cracked her knuckled, "skydiving was already getting boring!"
"Let us first test the waters, shall we." Said the mage. He put hands together which formed a magical light blue circle. Above the falling heroes, a larger light blue circle appeared and a gigantic iceberg fell through it.
"That's going to hit us as well you know." Said Jack.
"You'll survive." Baron replied.
Yukari activated a spell that enwrapped all of her teammates with a thin but powerful, healing barrier.
Still falling and in the sky, Jack pulled out a handgun. At first it was small. Then, digital micro cubes appeared and combined with the hand gun. It expanded and grew larger until the handgun had transformed into a large cannon. He then fired a large laser blast which pierced a large hole through the gigantic monster.
It began to roar loudly. It swung its enormous arm towards the other heroes. All of them had their own way to avoiding it. So instead of the heroes, it ended up hitting the giant iceberg instead. The iceberg shattered. The giant monster's hand then got frozen upon contact.
Aria silently stared with a calm, neutral expression as large angelic wings appeared on her back.
Aria and Arthur dived forward. Falling directly towards the face of the monster, they pulled back their shining blades and sliced it, leaving a huge deep X-shape wound on the monster's face. The monster stepped back, almost causing an earthquake but did not fall.
With that, all the nine heroes landed in 9 different locations and the true fight began.
...
-I-I-I-I-
...
"F~O~U~N~D, Y~O~U!"
She was a Yukari fake. But not an ordinary one. There were a few distinct features that made her incredibly different from all the others.
The first thing I noticed was the large, deadly scythe that she was casually resting on her neck. There was fresh blood dripping from the blade of her weapon.
She also showed off a lot more skin compared to the original. All she wore were shorts, a crop top, and a long dark purple jacket. I saw her faded number "0187" imprinted across the lower part of her stomach.
This was an attire and weapon that the original Yukari wouldn't even think about having.
But the one thing that stood out from everything else was her smile. Her wide, unsettling smile. Safe to say, it was an expression I had never seen on a Yukari fake.
I was silent and didn't make a move. I kept Alfred firmly in my left hand behind me. My eyes kept switching between looking at her dark eyes to her black deadly scythe that looked like it could slice my neck at any given moment.
It was then she noticed the dried blood at the pile of garbage I was sitting on, she spoke with a somewhat high pitched and eerie tone of voice, "Ahh, you found a corpse yesterday, did you?"
I nodded softly.
"I'm surprised you came back here," She stepped forward and leaned closer to me, "...you know... fakes like us usually get killed in places like this."
I once again looked at the fresh blood dripping from her scythe.
"W-what do you want from me?" I finally gathered the courage to say.
Alfred then managed to somehow slip from my grasp, catching both of our attention. He jumped on ground right between us with his head held high. Completely unafraid, he brandished his tiny sword and pointed it straight at the Yukari fake, as if trying to intimidate her. The difference in size between her large scythe and Alfred's tiny dagger was way too great.
Yukari blinked a few times at Alfred's boldness before she suddenly burst out laughing, "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Alfred and I simply stared as she continued laughing. It was not a normal laugh. It sounded psychotic, especially when her laughter was echoing throughout the alley way.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" She clutched her stomach as if she had stitches. It was then I noticed something else that was odd about the way she laughed.
Then, without any hint of her slowing down, she abruptly stopped laughing all together and the silence that followed somehow felt more tense than before. Her wide smily expression didn't move for a brief movement. It was like she had become a statue during those few seconds, but then her head and eyes moved again which caused me to flinch.
"Nothing really," She replied. She lowered her weapon and casually threw it away. I watched as the weapon disappeared into the shadow, "All I really want is... you."
"W-what do you mean?"
She giggled a bit at my reaction, "You... you are a very, very rare case these days... it's been a while since I found a fake like you."
"I... I s-still don't know what you want."
"Oh it's really nothing. There's just something..." She paused mid sentence before saying, "Special I want to show you."
Was she purposely being vague? I looked around the alley way briefly before looking back at her.
She smiled again as she offered her hand to me, "But to show you, you have come with me on a tiny adventure... It's not like you have anything to leave behind here anyway. What do you say?"
I looked at her hand for a moment. There were still traces on someone's blood left on it. Alfred looked to me to see what I would say. This was all very sudden but-
"..."
"..."
"O-ok." With a shaky hand, I reached for her and took it. Alfred seemed quite shocked by my sudden decision. To be fair, even I was slightly shocked by it too. But after thinking about it, I knew she was...
"Umm, h-hello," I greeted before bowing my head a little, "...I'm a Summoner. N-n-nice to meet you."
Her signature wide grin only grew larger as she licked her lips, "I'm a Reaper... Let's get along, alright?"
...
-I-I-I-I-
...
We left the alley way and towards the main city gates.
As we walked, neither of us said a single word. I didn't really know what to say and she wasn't initiating any conversations. Alfred kept his weapon out for 'just in case' he said.
However, there was one thing she did say.
On our way out of Bostina, we passed the building where the original Yukari's family lived. As expected, there was a horde of desperate Yukari fakes trying to break in.
"Sad isn't it?" Yukari commented as we walked past, she walked in front of me so I couldn't see her face when she said that. She didn't even look in their direction and kept walking. I made no comment on the topic. On the bright side, the humans seemed more focused on the horde of Yukari fakes rather than us so we reached the outer walls without any issue.
We exited the town and went on our way. We followed a path that was surrounded by flat grass plains. The Reaper walked in the front, casually humming while I walked behind her, holding Alfred in my arms. Step by step, we walked without barely saying anything to each other.
"So you're a summoner." She suddenly broke the awkward silence.
"Y-yeah."
"When did you reset?"
"About two days ago."
"Oh really? You must be incredibly weak then."
"Y-yes..."
"And here I thought I had finally found someone to spar with."
"How about you?" I asked.
"Can't remember, it was a while ago."
Another wave of silence fell on the conversation for a moment. But then she asked:
"Why did you choose summoner?"
"I felt lonely." I looked down at Alfred who at the same time, looked up at me, "Why did you choose Reaper?"
"I wanted power... and it sounded like the strongest option I had."
"I see..."
Another long moment passed without any words being spoken. I had never gone this way, which didn't say much since the only two places I knew were Bostina and Aria's hometown. Alfred was beginning to grow excited to finally discover some unknown territory. For him, this was like an adventure. Yukari didn't say much as we travelled.
After a few hours, we stopped. In front of us was a deep misty forest. It was nothing like the slime forest that Alfred and I fought in before.
Without turning around to look at me, Yukari said, "If you still don't trust me, you can go back."
I trust you." I replied.
"And why's that?"
"Because... you... seem like a trustworthy person..."
"..." A slight pause inhabited the air right before she began to enter into another hysterical fit of laughter, "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Alfred jumped a little in surprise.
The reaper clutched her stomach and wiped away a single tear, "HAHAHAHAHA! I'm not sure whether you're naive or just gullible. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA-"
Once again, with no sign of her laughter slowing down, she abruptly went silent. Her back was facing me so I could not see her expression when she softly said, "That'll be the death of you if you're not careful."
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
"..."
"..."
Alfred got ready to yeet his weapon at her. I doubt that would do anything though.
Yukari turned around to face me with a smile and a few giggles as she licked her fingers, "Well then, let's get going shall we?"
There were definitely going to be strong monsters in this forest. Considering Alfred and I could barely kill a slime, entering this place meant fully placing our lives in the hands of this strange Yukari fake whom we had just met.
"You might want to stick a bit closer to me now."
...
-I-I-I-I-
...
A mist surrounded the woods which prevented us from seeing the tree tops or what was even ahead of us. There wasn't a single path in sight yet Yukari went along as if she knew exactly where to go. Probably because she did.
We took about a minute worth of steps inside the deep forest before a monster attacked.
A large snake, thicker than the dark tree trunks and so long that I couldn't see where its tail was.
Yukari equipped her weapon. To my surprise, it was the wooden starter weapon that everyone gets. However, as she gripped the wooden scythe, dark shadows leaked from under her palm and wrapped itself all around her weapon. Soon the scythe had completely transformed into the large deadly weapon that I saw back in the alley way. She spun the scythe casually as if used to this.
The giant snake hissed loudly. Its tail revealed itself from behind one of the trees and swung itself at us.
However, the tail was sliced off way before it could hit its target. Yukari swung her scythe, firing a shadow blade that sliced the snake's head off.
Right after that, an earth golem emerged from the ground. At the same time, a huge lizard with sharp armour-like scales on its back appeared behind us.
The reaper stabbed the ground and at the same time, shadow spikes appeared beneath the lizard and impaled it. The shadows then wrapped around the dead lizard and threw it towards the earth golem.
The shadows picked up the dead lizzard and began bashing it against the earth golem.
Diving from the top of the tree was a giant horned eagle. At the same time, a large black scorpion aimed its long stinger at Yukari's neck.
At that moment, Yukari's jacket moved. It expanded, grew and moved on its own as if it was made out of shadows itself. Parts of her jacket extended into multiple ribbons made of dark energy. They swiftly grabbed the stinger, ripped it off and used it to stab the eagle in the neck. More shadow ribbons wrapped around the scorpion: twisting, suffocating and tearing its limbs off.
The Reaper swiftly gave the eagle a quick death.
The loud buzzing of a horde of flying hornet-shooters attacked, they aimed and fired their stingers.
The back of her jacket grew larger and shielded all of us by absorbing the stingers into itself.
Her jacket acted as both her second weapon and her shield. Well, it was no longer a jacket anymore, it had transformed into a long black cloak with a hood that made her look like a true Grimm reaper.
My eyes rapidly scanned our surroundings over and over. It was as if Yukari had managed to aggro every creature in the forest. Alfred on the other hand was having the time of his life. He has never seen so many different monsters before. He was waving his tiny arms, cheering Yukari on. I hugged him tightly.
I then got a new skill. Which was completely unexpected in a situation like this.
...
New Skill Unlocked:
Defensive Gift: Increases a target's defence by 10% for 1 min. CD: 30 min.
...
I saw Alfred reach his hand out towards the Reaper. His palm glowed slightly.
Wanting to try it out, I do the same. I spotted Yukari's body glow slightly which she herself didn't seem to notice. Another thing she didn't seem to notice were the weird green stems poking out of the ground beneath her.
"B-below!" I cried out as a warning.
The mouth of a giant Venus fly trap revealed itself and ate Yukari whole.
At the same time, moving vines poked out from the ground and attacked me. I threw Alfred in the air right before the vines wrapped around me.
Shadow hands with claws burst through the ground and sliced the vines, freeing me. I managed to land safety just in time to catch my small knight.
Shortly after, Yukari sliced the plant monster in half from the inside, emerging from it covered in green saliva. She didn't seem to mind at all though as part of her jacket was already cleaning it off. Her wide grin was still present as always. Once the Venus fly trap was dead, the vines stopped moving.
A bear with red eyes appeared. It swung its huge claw at us which Yukari swiftly sliced off. However, the bear grew another arm and attacked again. The Reaper proceeded to slice its head off which still didn't kill it as it grew a new head.
Ribbons made of shadows restricted the bear's movement. She spun her scythe rapidly before swiftly cutting the bear into multiple pieces which finally did kill it. The shadow ribbons absorbed the bear's body parts. Once it did, Yukari's cloak expanded and dug into the ground, painting the entire floor with a pitch black colour.
Any monster that stepped onto the pitch black floor, instantly sunk into it.
Multiple spikes would also poke out from the ground to impale flying enemies.
Silence then fell upon the woods as the last remaining monsters who dared challenged the Reaper were now dead. The shadows slowly retreated and the reaper's cloak transformed back into a long jacket.
After it was all over, we heard the rapid soft sound of someone clapping.
Both Yukari and I looked to the source of the sound. It was Alfred. My knight was rapidly clapping his two tiny hands together. Just like that, the Reaper had earned all of Alfred's respect.
I looked around at all the corpses around us. Their bodies were beginning to disappear into particles, each dropping different items depending on what monster they were, "C-rank monsters sure are scary, yet you defeated them with such ease."
"There's actually a B-rank monster that rules this area."
I was incredibly alarmed by this, "S-should we be concern?"
"It only attacks if you attack it. If you can even find it, that is."
"Have you fought it before?"
"Once. I can't remember when I did... oh, but I do remember almost getting killed by it." Yukari recounted the memory with a cheerful tone.
"I see...oh and, umm, t-thank you."
"Don't mention it," Yukari stabbed the piece of meat that the red-eyed bear dropped and picked it up, "Shall we eat dinner?"
...
-I-I-I-I-
...
We sat around the crackling campfire, sitting on logs.
I must've been drooling as I held the meat in my hands.
This was my first time consuming cooked meat. I never thought I would ever get the chance to eat something that wasn't mouldy bread, let alone have such huge amounts all to myself. The moment my teeth hesitantly bite into the food, a new sensation flowed through my mouth. Before I knew it, I was devouring all the meat that the bone had to offer.
Yukari started giggling at something which caused me to give her a questioning look. She pointed at Alfred. I looked down at my knight to see that he had somehow pulled out a miniature sized knife and fork. He cut his food into tiny pieces before chucking them inside his helmet. I chuckled at the sight, giving him a gentle rub on the head. I then directed my attention back to the Reaper.
"I've been meaning to ask: how did you find me?"
"Hmm? Oh, I heard you yelling at people."
I almost choked on the food that was hallway through my throat and coughed. My face probably went red again, "A-ah, y-you heard that?"
It was only a day ago and yet I already wanted to erase that embarrassing memory from my brain. Alfred, on the other hand, seem to remember the memory quite fondly.
"I see what you were trying to do though," Yukari said as she was about to take another bite from her food, "but don't bother with that kind of stuff. Trust me, things like that come naturally."
"But... don't you do it as well?"
The reaper stopped mid-bite. She looked over at me, raising an eyebrow.
"I-I mean I could be wrong but..." I waved my hands a little, slightly panicked, "it's just... your chaotic laughter... the crazy smiles... they all feel a bit... forced."
"..."
"..."
I scratched my head, "Sorry that was-"
"Haha...ha... HAHAHA..." She started off with a few chuckled which gradually built up, "HAHAHAHA... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Her laughter was loud and echoed through the forest. At first I was worried it might attract more monsters but that was when I realised that the forest itself seemed unusually calmed compared to what it was like a few moments ago. Not a single monster had attacked us since the first wave.
Alfred and I sat there silently, listening to the chaotic laughter of someone using the original voice of the Divine Healer. The original Yukari was known to be quite gentle and kind hearted so you could probably imagine how unusual it felt, hearing the Reaper laugh like that. Although at this point, Alfred had already grown used to it so he continued to enjoy his food.
But then she stopped. The silence that followed after was so sudden that it ironically gave Alfred a scare.
When the laughter stopped, everything else about the Reaper's facade also stopped. Her twisted smile, her deranged eyes, her sudden freezes. It all gradually vanished from her expression, leaving behind a calm, neutral stare. The only thing left on her countenance was a blank face and tired eyes.
"...and here I thought you were a dense princess..." She spoke with a deeper tone this time, the creepy giggly voice she spoke with before was no where to be heard, "Yes. Like you, I tired forcing out a different personality. I did it so much, it became a habit of mine. So you could say I'm speaking from personal experience."
"I see."
"Although now I'm slightly curious about something..." The Reaper looked up from the campfire and stared directly into my eyes, "...I thought you were just a naive fool who trusted anyone she comes across but now I have to ask...back in the alley way...you... already knew from the start, didn't you?"
"Yes." I replied.
"How? Explain."
"You're a fake just like me."
"That can't be the only reason."
"But that's the main reason."
"So there are other reasons?" The Reaper asked, hitting it right on the target.
"Well..." I took in a deep breath to organise my thought before saying, "Firstly... If you wanted to kidnap or kill me, you could've done it easily. With how powerful you are, you wouldn't need to resort to such deceitful tactics. But despite that...you still started a conversation. Why?"
"There are some twisted people out there."
"True, but that doesn't explain my second point... the first words you said to me, "Found you". I wasn't even hiding yet your tone and words implied you had been searching for me. But why? I'm a nobody with no money, and there are plenty of Aria fakes everywhere. So why me? The only possible explanation for that must have something to do with the fact that I reseted my skill tree."
"..."
"Thirdly..." I continued, "The fresh blood dripping from your weapon...there are no monsters in the capital city... meaning you most likely killed or attacked someone who was in that same alley way. Even if it might've been luck, it did seem strange to me that I wasn't attacked once in such a secluded area, despite finding a corpse."
"..."
"The only thing I didn't know was how did you find me in the first place. But now that I have the answer to that, here's my theory... After you saw me yelling at random people, you followed me. From there you-"
"Stop. I've heard enough." The Reaper interrupted, "So you're extremely observant. Got it."
"Most fakes are."
"True. But I've never met a fake who's as observant as you. It's almost creepy, listening to you list all of those details."
I never thought of it like that. Am I really more observant than most fakes? I had always assumed my close attention to certain details was a normal thing or that maybe it was just a trait that I inherited from the original Aria.
"One more question," The Reaper continued, "I can't help but wonder why you recklessly went straight into such a dangerous place, twice. Not even I expected that."
"Ah, well that... was just out of my own stupidity I guess." I admitted, "I was so embarrassed by my stunts, that I desperately wanted to find a quiet nearby place where there were no people around, especially in case someone had reported me. You say I'm observant but at that time, I had no idea I had walked into such a place. Then I smelt the corpse. So I went deeper to look for it."
"Why would you go so far?"
"Because there was a corpse."
"So?"
"Corpses need to be buried. Otherwise their souls can't live in peace." I replied.
"You believe in that?"
"Yes."
"So you're telling me... that you risked your life... for a dead corpse?"
"Yes."
"You could've been killed."
"Then... I guess I would've deserved it for living such a foolish life," I said much to Alfred's dismay and the Reaper's shock, "To die by my own foolish choices would've been quite fitting... don't you think..."
This time it was me who looked up from the campfire to stare straight at the Reaper's face.
"..."
"..."
"haha... HAHAHA... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The reaper slowly began laughing out loud again before quickly stopping and returning to her blank stare, "Do you have any idea how lucky you are?"
"It worked out well in the end, didn't it?" I smiled.
"You're insane, you know that?" Said the Reaper, "I could've killed you anytime."
"You could... yet here we are, eating dinner together."
She was silent after that for a few moments. But then she sat back before letting out a large tired sigh.
Alfred climbed up my shoulder and placed his tiny hands on my cheek. He was incredibly distressed by what I had just said.
"I'm sorry Alfred," I gently rubbed his helmet, "I may have gotten a bit carried away. Don't worry."
"That's enough chatting for one night... You should head to sleep first."
"Sleep?" I titled my head in slight concern and confusion, Alfred did the same, "I-In a place like this?"
She gave no reply. She simply grinned at me in an amusing manner before lying down on the log and closing her eyes, humming a song.
Alfred and I looked at each other and shrugged. Deciding to trust her, we set up our tent and went to sleep shortly after as well.
...
-I-I-I-I-
...
I'm still not sure what exactly Yukari did but we woke up the next day completely fine. We hadn't been attacked a single time last night which was very odd considering we did come across a few monsters here and there as we travelled through the place.
As we walked, Alfred had found a new form of entertainment. I would pick up Alfred and throw him in the air. After catching him, I would do it again. Every time I did, he would flail his arms around as if trying to fly. He had been asking me to do it after experiencing it the first time.
"We're here."
The reaper had stopped... right in front of a tree.
We were still very deep inside of the misty forest so I had assumed we still had a long way to go.
Alfred was slightly confused but I kept inspecting the tree since the Reaper didn't sound like she was joking. Upon further inspection, the tree had a shadow that was unusually darker than most normal shadows and if you looked long enough, the shadow moved slightly. It was something you could've easily missed and walked passed.
"Step on it."
I looked at Yukari who simply smiled back at me.
With Alfred tightly in my arms, I slowly raised my foot and step on the tree's shadow. I instinctively tensed.
"..."
However, nothing happened.
Before I could ask anything, the blade of a scythe appeared very closely to my cheek. I didn't move as the sharp tip of the weapon slowly pressed against my cheek.
"I told you didn't I?" I heard her say with a low deep tone, "That your naivety was gonna going to be the death of you..."
I didn't budge or say anything. Neither did Alfred.
Silence filled the atmosphere as no one dared make a move. However, that silence was quickly broken by-
"...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I'm joking, I'm joking," Yukari laughed.
My body instinctively began to relax as if relieved. Even though I trusted her, a small percentage of doubt did occupy my overthinking mind at that moment.
"But I do need a bit of your blood for this to work... may I?"
"S-sure."
"I'll be gentle."
I winced slightly as the blade pressed against the very top of my skin.
The Reaper then brought the scythe to her face and licked it before dropping some of the blood into the tree's shadow.
"Alright! Let's hope your little knight doesn't get left behind."
Alfred was very alarmed and panicked by that comment. Especially when my feet began to sink into the shadow. Alfred clung to my shirt for dear life which was slightly adorable to watch.
Yukari gave me a little wave as I sunk lower and lower until my entire body was completely submerged. Everything turned pitch black. I could not see anything, not even my own body. But I could somehow feel some sort of movement, as if I was being carried by a flowing river.
...
-I-I-I-I-
...
A bright light forced me to close my eyes for a few seconds.
After I re-opened them, the first thing I saw was a village.
...
-I-I-I-I-
...
...
...
...
Meanwhile, the fight against the S-rank monster seemed to be over.
The nine original heroes calmly stood on top the corpse of the mountain sized monster they had just slain. Their battle, which caused widespread destruction to the surrounding biome, resulted in dense clouds of smoke obscuring visibility, making it impossible for a normal person to see more than a few feet ahead.
Usually, this would be when the nine of them would disperse and each go do their own things. Except this time, they seemed to be silently waiting for something. Or perhaps they were waiting for certain skills to refresh their cooldown timers.
Elizabeth flipped open her fan in front her face before giving the original gunner hero the most bombastic side eye she could conjure, "What was it you said again about ignoring the monster's given title?"
Jack casually raised his hands defensively, "Hey, in my defence, 'Ulbrok: The Destructive Calamity' never turned out to be a destructive calamity, did it."
"That's probably because Aria managed to kill it before it could did anything serious." Zeno pointed out.
"Oh yeah true that."
Arthur immediately brandished his weapon causing all of the heroes to get ready.
The ground began shaking again. It was much more vicious than what they had felt before. Emerging from the enormous smoke was another mountain sized monster, identical to the one that the heroes had just slain. However, you could tell from the sound of the earthquaking footsteps that something was different this time. There were now two mountain sized monsters, both the exact same size and heading straight towards the nine original heroes.
Above their heads, giant red text displayed the name, title and rank of this colossal, towering creature.
Trogan: The Multiplying Mountain.
Rank S
Despite the hundreds of earthquakes that this monster was causing with each footstep, none of the nine heroes seemed worried in the slightest.
Arthur and Aria had already vanished from their spot as they went to confront the first one.
Lily yawned before winding her arm up for another punch.
"I don't care what any of you say this time, I'm summoning my giant robot." Said Jack before he proceeded to fly in and summon a giant robot.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes before her pet dark crow grew larger and carried her towards the target.
"Aww, they're like twins." Eve had a pair of twin daughters of her own so she couldn't help but be reminded of them. She started commenting about how 'chubby' and cute the mountain monster looked.
Baron leisurely began casting another spell, seemingly unfazed by the approaching mountain-sized creatures. The mage took his time as the imminent danger failed to give him any sense of urgency.
A small black hole, filled with daggers, appeared behind Zeno's head, teleporting him straight to the monster's eye.
Yukari sighed because from her point of view, it really felt like she was baby seating all of them.
Without any issue, the nine heroes swiftly defeated the two mountain sized creatures. When they did, four more appeared.
Despite the battle lasting longer than expected, by the end of the fight, the nine original heroes emerged victorious.
...
...
...
End Chapter
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A/N This chapter was finished on 16/01/2022
Edited on the 23/04/2024.