Kenji found it difficult to move as if submerged in water.

He strained his senses but couldn't pinpoint the source of the whistling, seemingly hidden among the gnarled branches and tangled brush. Each note floated in the wind, filling him with a strong sense of unease.

Sweat slid down his face as the haunting melody continued to taunt him. With an unsteady hand, he drew his elixir, uncertain of whether or not to drink it right away.

He only had three vials and they were all enhancement elixirs. Before then, he had gotten accustomed to killing monsters so quickly that he didn't think of purchasing a health elixir in the event he was injured.

Frantically scanning his surroundings, he spotted something off in the distance, a shadow moving through the trees. As it moved, he could faintly make out the silhouette of a human. The whistling gradually narrowed towards the direction of the figure as it approached.

The figure's attire flapped in the nightly air as it reached behind its back and pulled something out. Kenji's heart skipped a beat when the man flicked his wrist and a curved blade whipped out of the shaft.

There was no doubt about it now. This had to have been him.

Not wasting any more time, he popped open the lid of the vial and gulped down its contents. As usual, radiance began to swirl around him. By now the moonlight had illuminated the Ripper's top half. A dark red mist emitted from him as if wearing the darkness like a cloak. Crimson tendrils slithered around what he could now see was a scythe.

'What is that...?!'

Kenji had never seen such a sight before. It was as if this man's radiance had been corrupted somehow.

There was no time to ponder. Kenji lifted his staff toward the ripper.

"Let's see what you're made of." He challenged, willing radiance into his staff.

He fired a huge blast with enough force to send him stumbling back from the recoil. The torrent of radiance roared through the trees, carving a trench through the earth.

The blast was wide enough to fill his entire vision with amber, it was almost blinding. His pupils contracted and a toothy grin crept across his face in satisfaction. No one could avoid this attack.

When the dust settled the Ripper was nowhere to be seen. He didn't think that blast would leave no trace of the man.

He either underestimated his own abilities or overestimated the Ripper.

Just as he was about to leave, a red blur dashed across his peripheral followed by shuffling.

Instinctively, he conjured a barrier just as a blade sliced into it. The blade still managed to pierce halfway through the barrier, despite being enhanced. If it hadn't been for the elixir, he would've been decapitated.

Suddenly, Kenji began feeling a familiar burning sensation throughout his body, only this time it was more intense, bringing him to his knees. He gripped his chest to soothe the pain but it only worsened.

'What's happening?!'

The ripper glared at him through the barrier.

"Let me show you what true power looks like." He hissed.

𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘭𝘦! 𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘭𝘦!

His scythe glowed a hot red, bolts of lightning cascading along the length of the blade. The air around them buzzed, intensifying with each passing second.

Terrified, Kenji did the only thing he could think of. He backed off and conjured a dome around himself, causing the initial barrier to evaporate.

With a grin, the Ripper released the stored energy in his scythe.

𝘉𝘖𝘖𝘔!

The ear-splitting explosion tore through the dome like paper. The blinding light burned Kenji's retinas as he was catapulted back several meters.

Slamming into a tree, his body snapped back from the abrupt stop. A searing pain tore at his side as his ribs took the full brunt of the impact.

Blood spilled from his head as the world spun around him, the ringing in his ears deafening. The physical trauma combined with his already throbbing insides made for an excruciating experience as he let out a primal scream.

By now, the radiance once swirling around him had dissipated. Clutching onto his side, he desperately dragged his useless body away from the chaos.

A calm whistle cut through the smoke behind him, filling him with a sense of terror. He didn't dare look back. Despite the adrenaline pumping through his veins, he couldn't move any faster than a snail's pace.

He frantically fished for another vial but pricked his fingers on something sharp. His face went pale when he saw there was yellow liquid seeping from his satchel. His enhancement elixirs, the only things providing him with strength and false confidence, had shattered.

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'I'm really going to die...'

Leisurely walking through the smoke, the Ripper approached and saw that the boy's belongings were scattered about.

A pair of broken glasses and a torn rank ID card. Stooping down, he examined the card.

"An E-rank," he huffed in amusement.

Whatever possessed the boy to venture into such dangerous territory was beyond him. However, his foolery was now going to get him killed. Such an easy life for the taking to sustain his amulet's power.

His gaze returned to the boy who had barely put any distance between them, his lips twisting into a face-splitting smile.

"Did you think the monsters here would show restraint because you're a child?" He asked rhetorically, resuming his menacing approach toward the wounded conjurer.

Kenji had already exhausted his strength, unable to drag himself any longer. He glanced back to see a tall, dark outline, the white of the figure's eye peering through his stringy hair the only distinguishable feature. The figure resembled a reaper, its shadow slowly consuming the kid.

"No...please...!" Kenji begged, his raging heart slamming against his broken ribs.

The figure ignored his pleas as it raised its scythe. He slammed his eyes shut as he heard the blade whistle through the air as it came down.

𝘊𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨!

After a few seconds of anticipation, he reluctantly pried open his eyes to see a second figure. She stood between him and his assailant, a dagger stopping the scythe in its tracks. The Ripper leaped back as a second dagger sliced the air where his neck used to be.

Skidding back, he took the time to assess the unexpected situation he found himself in.

The familiar young woman stood in front of the injured kid protectively. Kenji's eyes widened in disbelief.

"F-Fuyumi...?"

"You idiot. You have no business being out here!" She snapped, her face twisting in a mix of anger and frustration.

Out from the shadows, a radiant arc hurdled through the dense vegetation toward the Ripper. As he was focused on his new opponent in front of him, the arc of energy exploded against his back, lurching him to his knee with a grunt.

Although his cloak of red mist provided some protection from radiant-based attacks, his back was still throbbing from the impact.

As he dropped, Yakeru emerged from the brush, katana held high for a finishing blow. However, after alerting the Ripper to his presence, he missed his neck by a hair's breadth as the man evaded.

The Ripper swiftly hopped back a few meters to reorient himself and reassess.

Yakeru quickly retreated to Fuyumi, protecting his wounded ally after his ambush had failed. Although he's never seen him in person, it didn't take a genius to figure out who the scythe wielder was.

'So this is him...' he gulped.

"How...did you guys find me?" The writhing Kenji asked.

"Did you already forget what we bought in Hanataru?" Fuyumi quizzed him.

He glanced at his belongings strewn across the dirt floor. There he could see his broken talisman, his brows shooting up in realization.

"Thank goodness you still had your talisman on you. When our talismans stopped glowing, we thought you were..." Yakeru couldn't bring himself to finish, his eyes still fixated on the man before them. "Luckily we were nearby to hear that explosion."

Kenji returned his gaze to his friends still standing in front of him with their weapons at the ready. Before he could thank them, there was still crucial information he needed to relay.

"Be careful...!" He strained through clenched teeth, his burning chest making breathing difficult. "His radiance...is more akin to lightning...like it's been corrupted or changed somehow."

'Corrupted?' Fuyumi echoed in her head.

She and Yakeru glanced at each other, confusion evident on their faces. They've never heard of radiance changing its form before.

"What do you mean by corr-" When she turned back, she found the Ripper mere inches away from her. She reflexively jerked her head to the side, narrowly avoiding the silver blur that just missed her but still managing to slice open her cheek.

Dumbfounded, she stared as the man who somehow cleared several meters in a heartbeat.

Had it not been for her quick reflexes, her head would've been cleaved in two, though her violent reaction made her lose her footing.

'I only looked away for a second!'

Frustrated that his killing blow had missed its target, the Ripper used his scythe's momentum to pivot and swing again. This time her loss of balance made his second strike impossible to evade.

𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘬!

Yakeru had come between her and the scythe, blocking the blow as the scythe's blade stopped inches away from her trembling eye.

As the young swordsman locked eyes with the serial killer, his mind snapped back to Kenji. The Ripper's obsessive eyes eerily resembled that of his friend's during their time in the Dark Ember Swamp.

The amulet began to glow as the Ripper infused his scythe with radiance in the form of dark mist. An electric current crackled around the shaft, illuminating a now horrified Yakeru. Though Kenji warned him about his radiance, he still wasn't prepared to see lightning bending to his will.

'What the...!'

Before he could react, the red tendrils had reached him, chaotically whipping around his body as he shrieked in agony.

The current momentarily seized control of his muscles, jerking his limbs this way and that before launching him away. He soared through the air before tumbling to a stop, forming a dust trail.

His armor was now a smoldering mess, the excess electricity flickering out of the unconscious Yakeru.

Fuyumi and Kenji stared in shock, unable to process what happened to their comrade.

"Y...Yakeru...?!" Kenji squeezed out but got no response.

Fuyumi snapped out of her daze when the Ripper advanced toward her. Blocking an overhead strike, she swung her second dagger to his side.

He spun his body, avoiding her strike and slicing through her stomach. Before she could react to the pain she'd already been slashed again along her thigh.

She stumbled back as he infused his weapon, disks of crimson dancing around his body as he gracefully twirled his scythe.

His inhuman agility made it impossible to read where the blade was. Having no other choice, she leaped away just as the blade slashed into the ground where she used to be.

𝘉𝘖𝘖𝘔!

A violent shockwave tore through the earth, uprooting trees and shattering boulders. Fuyumi managed to land on a small ledge, avoiding the blast.

𝘉𝘢-𝘥𝘶𝘮! 𝘉𝘢-𝘥𝘶𝘮! 𝘉𝘢-𝘥𝘶𝘮!

Her heart was in a frenzy and her nerves made her hands tremble. When the smoke cleared, she found him standing silently in a web of fissures, a hint of annoyance in his uncanny gaze.

Her face went pale as she swallowed hard, fear finally having a firm grasp on her.

She tried her best to regain her composure after gaining some distance. A stream of questions formed in her head as she started to fill with regret.

Would it have been better not to search for their ally? Would things be different had they known they'd be battling the ripper? If so, would they even have a fighting chance?

It didn't seem like a battle they could win even if they were prepared for it.

"This guy..." she muttered in a shaky voice as he finally decided to move, pulling his crackling blade from the ground.

"A slippery one, aren't you? It'll make trying to kill you all the more infuriating." He said calmly as if this was just a sport to him.