The ensuing smoke that engulfed the mountain site made it hard to keep a steady foot. I was told to look for something. What, I did not know.

Only an hour ago, the mountain stood tall and proud. Now it was the rubble I walked on. I turned my head around to see Chopper in the distance. There wasn't a speck of wind anymore. I wished the smoke would disperse so I could at least catch a glimpse of the sky. For some reason, I had a feeling that we were nearing the end of this business. I was utterly wrong.

**************

"Doesn't look like there are any rules anymore, are there Chopper?", Deli asked as we were all standing as the audience of whatever it was that was about to sprawl open in front of us.

Lady and Grim stood opposite each other.

"Those two aren't capable of following any rules", Chopper replied.

The wind blew harder than ever, sending Lady's fur coat flitting behind her. I could barely grasp her figure from where I was standing. Grim, on the other hand, was in clear view and he was awake like he'd never been before.

"Listen up, Sight, Lubbock, Deli", Chopper addressed everyone, "And you, Seraph. We'll only watch from this distance. No one would join in even if Lady is dying."

"Chopper! What are you-"

"Deli, no matter what happens, we won't join in. Is that understood?", Chopper declared once again.

"It's fine. Lady won't lose anyway", Lubbock agreed confidently.

"That's what I'm afraid of", sighed Chopper before looking at me.

I was in a daze, just taking in everything.

"Before you begin!", Chopper stepped up, "Oi Grim, how long do we have till this whatever calamity hits us?"

"Ahh....hmm", Grim wondered for a brief moment, "No clue!"

He grinned proudly. Chopper glared at him like he was sick of his crap. And indeed, he was.

"Then let's assume the worst and imagine one hour. And so, be done before the hour is over, got it? Both of you", Chopper passed around this final instruction.

"How come you are acting all boss-like, mutt?", Lady asked, as she warmed up for the fight.

With that said, Chopper returned and the duel was set to begin.

"Ah, Sight, did you put up that barrier on her?", I asked, hoping he hadn't forgotten again.

"Oh no boy, she won't need it."

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"Huh?"

"Grim won't use that spell on her, boy."

"Why not?"

"Why, of course! You savor your favorite dish, not gulp it down."

Just like that, the ground shook once and when I looked straight ahead, Grim was lifting off the ground. He'd summoned that absolute hell of a scythe of his and he looked more like a shadow than before.

Grim always wore black, the darkest of it. And he always wore clothes that were more like a cloak, extending all the way down to his feet. His neck and face were, in fact the only exposed part of him. He had an engraving on his neck and the side of his head. It looked like a sentence written in some language. But I didn't know the language, it looked like runes to me. He had a buzzcut, so the engraving showed there as well. Only one side of his head was shaven though and his dark hair rested on the other side. He had short hair, not below his neck so you could clearly see the engraving around his neck at all times. To make out what it said was another matter.

The point is that he never so much as touched any other color, he was always clad in black. It wasn't that he wasn't trying to stand out. In fact, at times, his bizarre looking clothes stood out more. I always took it as his fashion statement but I later learned the truth. I think Grim even gave me a hint about it in our duel when he said that humans always made a mess. I would find out later on that the reason behind his clothing was so that blood wouldn't show on his clothes. As someone who had been reaping souls for who knows how many centuries, in wars and in peace, it was a given that he couldn't afford to expend time on getting rid of the blood that stuck to him.

No matter what kind of magic you use to get rid of that sort of stain, there's only so much magic energy you'd find yourself wanting to invest in that. Instead, he chose an easier option. For some reason, when I heard this, I wondered if he wasn't just trying to avoid looking at blood. Grim himself never talked about it. So I wouldn't know for sure what it was that he was up to.

Back to the duel, Grim was afloat, with a strange shadow engulfing him. His cloak looked bigger than before. His hair seemed to have grown out to waist length. A dark wind blew across, killing all the vegetation on the mountain. Something of a tornado was beginning to form all around us.

But in the eye of the tornado were Lady and Grim.

"Decay", muttered Chopper to me.

"Huh?"

"That's Grim's magic. exactly what you'd expect from a god of death, huh?"

I returned my eyes to him. Grim truly looked hypnotizing as he was. His dark eyes glimmered a strange, overpowering glow. He'd lost his playful look all of a sudden and since I couldn't see Lady's face from where I stood, I wondered if she stood there in awe just as I was when I faced off against him. But considering her, she probably wasn't.

Grim looked down on her from his elevated position and raising his scythe, swung it before her. A wave of dark mass-like wind was sent her way. For a second it seemed, Lady disappeared. And soon as the wave had gone beyond, she reappeared. Her fur coat that was bigger than her, ravaged against the wind, barely holding on to her shoulders.

Th dark wave shattered on collision with a nearby rock. The rock too turned to ash.

Suddenly, I found it hard to breath. Even though there was so much wind. I felt like I could barely keep my head straight. It was hard to see too and I was getting dizzy. But I stood my ground. I had begun to sweat and Lady's figure that looked like it waved with the wind, was the only thing I beheld in that moment. I wanted to see what she'd do.

But then I fell on my knees, without even realizing what was happening. Chopper saved me though, from falling to the ground and held me up.

"Oi Sight!", he yelled.

Sight's face hovered over my head before he cast some sort of spell on me. I recovered soon after that.

"What happened to me...?"

"That's Grim's decay for you. The air is decaying, you are too. You'll need some magic circulation in you to fend off his decay. Sight's barrier won't be much help in the long run. Seraph, you probably shouldn't be here", Chopper proposed, still holding me up.

"No, I...I have to be here. I want to see this."

Seeing as I was determined to not leave, Chopper didn't pursue the topic. He held me up and helped me stay standing, all the while the fight went on.