041 | Spooky Scary

My name is Asher.

Although the Grim Reaper wasn't chasing after us, we still met each other.

Before this happened, I was taking Rudif and Lisha back to where we came from. I was sure that my meteor spell is more than enough for the forces of Yanalia to win. However, it seems that the army of skeletons was nothing but a mere distraction.

Let's rewind time to where it all started.

* * *

We were simply heading back, Rudif and Lisha still wanted to help so we decided to go through the forest again, undetected, and get into Yanalia from the sides.

"We're way stronger than most of them! We can help!"

Lisha concurred with Rudif, "At the very least, I'm sure they would be grateful to accept a Sorcerer who's able to use Rejuvenating Magic."

I pulled one singular small strand off of Lisha's platinum black hair.

"Ouch!"

I smirked, "Who gave you the title of Sorcerer? Don't you think that's too soon?"

"Hehehe..."

Out of nowhere, I felt murderous intent.

I channeled my mana and silver magic circles went around the circumference of my forearms. It was a simple spell that would conjure a small blast of wind. I didn't even need to say a single chant for this child's play of a spell.

I turned around and shouted at Lisha and Rudif to get away.

"Get back!"

I struck my palms in the direction of the two and knocked them a few meters away from me. Then, I reached into my Inventory spell and quickly pulled out a sword. I guarded against a sudden downwards slash from a scythe with a black blade and dark handle.

I looked at my opponent and couldn't help but smile out of joy, "Well, well, well...You saved me the trouble of going to look for you. Grim Reaper."

Surprisingly, the dark skeleton in his pitch-black hooded robes was capable of talking.

"You...will die!"

The Grim Reaper applied more force on my blade.

"Tch."

I had to withdraw and step out of his scythe's range. His scythe struck the ground and caused the nearby area where his blade hit to corrode. The lively green grass faded into nothing. The soil dried up and turned into dirt.

"Oh~ Interesting weapon you have there, skeletal man."

I looked over at Rudif, "Recognize that?"

Rudif and Lisha were hiding behind a tree. They knew their limits and I respected their decision not to act arrogant or try to fight someone well above their current level.

The mutt peaked his head out from the side.

"It's a scythe?"

"Tell me something I don't know. I meant-"

The Grim Reaper didn't give me any time to talk. He spun his scythe and came at me with three different moves, all aiming for areas above my neck.

I weaved the first two and blocked the last one with my sword.

"Well, mutt? I'm awaiting your answer!"

From behind the tree, I could sense his fear. To be honest, I'm surprised my current body is holding up so well against such immense pressure. Lisha's also doing a great job. Was it also because of the past life experiences that allowed her to stay unfazed?

"I-I don't know! A-Asher, just focus!"

Hilarious, the mutt thinks that I of all people will lose?

I disappeared from the sight of the Grim Reaper and reappeared from behind him. I thrust my sword out as if I was fencing with a rapier.

The Grim Reaper spun his scythe and deflected most of my thrusts but a few attacks went through and hit his black bones. Although, it had no effect.

He did a wide sweep attack with his scythe and I took this chance to time my jump. I landed on the blade of the scythe and I used his attack to launch myself backward, creating distance between us.

I pointed towards the tree that Rudif was behind. Magic circles circled around my index finger.

"Earth."

I sent out a small rock that hit the tree, that ought to have gotten the mutt's attention.

"Remember what Patricia mentioned? A specific type of material?"

"N-no! I can't remember!"

I sighed.

"I'll let you off the hook today, mutt. Remember that this skeletal man is using a weapon with a blade forged with Black Iron."

I also motioned to Lisha with hand signals to run around us and get out. She nodded and gave a thumbs up. She poked her cute face out from behind the tree trunk.

She mouthed the words: "Good luck."

I smiled.

The Grim Reaper stared at me with his blue flames that burned in each eye socket.

"Twelve instances of an...attack within...one second..."

"Oh? You counted how many times I thrust my sword?"

"Miscalculation? No...It seems you are another threat to my master."

There we go. He spilled everything on his own. Someone else is behind this.

"Who's your master?"

The Grim Reaper was quite upset by this.

"You! A filthy human! Do not deserve to know!"

He raised both his hands and his scythe moved on its own. Murky dark-colored mana shrouded the Grim Reaper.

"Corrode away and die!"

The scythe instantaneously circled around the Grim Reaper at extremely fast speeds. It instantly cut down the trees that were within his range.

"Skeletal man, that's quite a cool trick you have."

"I am the 433rd Reincarnation! I am the Grim Reaper!"

"Yeah, yeah, spooky scary skeletal man. Hurry up and do something."

I released more of my mana that I had kept suppressed. I was now at about 70% of my total usable power. Perhaps the Grim Reaper will identify me as a more threatening person now.

I got my answer fairly quickly as the instant I released more of my total mana, the Grim Reaper teleported behind me. My eyes tracked him as he came from behind.

A thicker and wider dark-colored mana covered the Grim Reaper.

"Interesting, well go on, make a stage suitable for our spar."

"Perish and begone!"

At the moment he conjured his spell, I did a backflip and avoided his attack.

The Grim Reaper seemed to have increased his range. The scythe circled around the Grim Reaper many times at lightning-fast speeds.

When the scythe returned to his hands, a large even and symmetrical circular field has been cut and we were standing in the center of it. Trees that used to stand faded away into ash and were carried off by sudden gusts of wind.

The Grim Reaper and I stood a few steps away from each other. For a second, neither he nor I had any intentions of raising our weapons against one another.

A brief moment went by until we started our clash. The Grim Reaper was covering his scythe in Death Magic, making it quite lethal if I were to clash with a regular steel sword.

I hopped away before my sword touched his scythe.

"That won't do. You should warn me in advance next time, skeletal man."

"I am the Grim Reaper! Do not...address me by anything...other than the name my master...chose for me!!"

He seemed pretty pissed off as he came straight for me. I was still imbuing magic onto my sword. I decided to go with Water Magic.

I dodged the first slash and evaded a blade of mana before I could finish covering my sword with a Water Spell.

I dashed straight towards the Grim Reaper, once he raised his scythe and started moving his limbs to strike me down, I sidestepped to his non-dominant side and slashed at his shoulder joint in one clean cut.

The Grim Reaper acted fast even though he just got dismembered. He spun around and slashed with his scythe. I blocked and counteracted as much as I could and we pranced around the circular grassy field.

His arm returned to him automatically shortly and it didn't seem like he took any significant damage.

I did a feint with my sword and fooled the Grim Reaper. I dropped down and did a sweep kick, tripping the Grim Reaper and making him fall on his back.

I quickly leaped into the air and charged my sword. I channeled my mana and sent out a sharp blade of water flying straight toward him.

The Grim Reaper reacted in time to strike my blade of water and evaporated it.

I came down and touched the ground. The Grim Reaper looked at me yet again.

"Human...Although having slightly lower...magic power than the strongest humans in...Yanalia, your technique is unrivaled. That alone, makes you stronger than anyone...currently present in Yanalia. Maybe except for the annoying pest with the...Union."

Ah, he must be talking about Pen.

"Honestly, I just didn't think you would be so weak."

The Grim Reaper laughed ominously.

"It is shame...I just thought...I could kill you slowly while giving you a false impression that...you had a sliver of hope to win."

The Grim Reaper spread his arms out as if he was embracing the illuminating midnight moon. The two blue flames in his eye sockets grew larger and became a bright shade of cyan blue.

Something formed behind his ribcage and it was a dense chaotic small sphere of black mass that had an incredible amount of mana being held within. Small streaks of purple sparked around the chaotic sphere.

"Human, you have done something...that you should not have."

"You mad, skeletal man?"

He caught me off guard when he suddenly appeared behind me. If I hadn't blocked the handle of his scythe with the blade of my sword, his scythe would have cut my waist even deeper.

"Tch looks like you're finally getting serious."

Good. I liked a difficult challenge.

I repelled his scythe and sprung back. Leaping yet again into the air. I sensed and accurately predicted the next location of where the Grim Reaper would appear at.

"Wind."

I used Wind Magic mid-air to propel myself towards the Grim Reaper while I led with my sword.

The Grim Reaper blocked my initial attack, waited until I started falling back down to the ground, and he spun his scythe as he counterattacked.

I dodged and twisted my body left and right from consecutive attacks from his scythe and his Death Magic.

"Is this all you can do?"

The Grim Reaper responded by mixing in various different types of Death spells. He shot beams of concentrated Death Magic and sent small orbs condensed with Death Magic my way.

If I let any one of his serious attacks connect fully with my body, I won't be leaving this fight unscathed.

We were like flies that went back and forth with each other, a ridiculous dance of repetitive clashes between our weapons and our magic.

"Human, do you feel the despair...and the death that awaits? It is...eager to see you!"

"Shut your jaw already skeletal man, I'm just getting started. How do you even talk? Where's your lungs or voice box? You don't even have lips or a tongue!"

"...I am unable to wait until you die..."

I did a series of simple footwork to evade the Grim Reaper's scythe that came even faster than before.

I smirked. I didn't think it would be this soon in this life that I would have to resort to my old world's techniques.