Deeper

Hearing movement, Leezy turned his head expecting another zombie…

To his surprise a man with a headband and a normal looking Kusarigama appeared out of the blue and landed next to him.

"Who the hell are you? Were these things searching for you or something?"

"To make a long story short, yes and my na-."

Unable to finish, Grim was interrupted by a sudden swing from Leezy's greatsword which he easily parried.

The clash of their weapons echoed throughout the canyon as blade met steel chain.

"Did you come to this valley as a friend or foe?"

"I came here because I saw some crazy ass explosions going off. If you were the cause of that then I definitely want to fight yo-."

Without warning, another wave of zombies beset the two after hearing their clash.

Leezy quickly jumped backward bumping directly into one of the skeletons he had taken control of.

Expecting them to help him, he just glanced at them with disappointment while hacking away at nearby zombies while they continued to stand motionless.

'How the hell do I get them to move!? Fucking help me already!'

At that thought, all of the skeletons under his control immediately formed a line in front of him and began slaughtering any zombies that came too close.

Across from him, Grim was easily dealing with his own separate wave of zombies. Twirling his Kasurigama to and fro, he was forced to stop and deflect another swing from Leezy's greatsword as he tried to stab him in the back.

"I swear to the gods you are beginning to piss me off! I was going to help you, you dumbass!"

Instead of replying right away Leezy quickly threw a kick out and spun into it, pulling his greatsword into a wide sweep.

Without breaking a sweat, Grim dodged the kick by ducking low and used the momentum of his earlier counter to throw the weight of his weapon's chain directly into the sweep.

Clang!

As Leezy's greatsword cleaved through multiple zombies that were behind Grim, his attack ground to a halt completely wrapped in his opponent's chain.

Smooth as silk, Grim stepped forward and placed the blade of his weapon to his throat while sucking his teeth…

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. And here I thought you were a powerful warrior. That huge greatsword makes you sloppy and predictable. You should know when dealing with a Thousand Eye general, an attack like that won't work!"

"Wait…you're Grim!?"

"Who else did you think I was?! Now prepare to die."

The zombies that were still behind him wrapped their hands around his arms before he could finish Leezy off.

In annoyance Grim threw his head back and headbutt the nearest one, following up with a spinning slash that severed the heads off the rest.

Turning his attention back to Leezy, he was surprised to see that he had lowered his weapon.

"I am actually here to bring you back to Highrock. Horus sent me and my brother to find you."

The nearby skeletons that were under his control continued laying waste to the zombies around them, protecting the two while they conversed.

Having a hard time believing him, Grim's eyes lowered to a squint.

"Why did he send you to find me? I left that old man a note…"

"Which was complete trash by the way! What the hell did you expect us to do with that little riddle you left us with?"

"You found me though didn't you?"

"…."

"Yeah, that's what I thought…anyway, why did he send you?"

"Azel has been set free and Highrock is on high alert. They want you back to help protect it."

Hearing Azel's name made Grim's face darken.

"Damn, this isn't good…not at all…I came here to ascend and just as I am getting close to doing so, something would drag me away from my path like always!"

Visible frustration worked its way onto Grim's face as he shook his head.

Leezy didn't pay attention to that though. He was more interested in the reason Grim said he had come to the valley for.

"You said you came here to ascend?"

"Yes. Once enough undead get killed in this valley, a blood moon is supposed to appear and awaken a very powerful enemy. Once defeated, it should drop an item that can be used to increase one's power to the level of ascension."

"And you chose to come here to fight it by yourself?"

"I am not so foolish as to come here unprepared. I have trained long enough and consumed enough Soul Gems to unlock my Kyōran."

"Kyo-what? What the hell is that?"

Sighing, Grim just facepalmed and shook his head at Leezy.

Turning away briefly, he killed a few more zombies that had managed to slip past the skeletons, then turned back toward him.

"It is a transformation that anyone can unlock provided they hone their Ki, Mana, and Spirit energy. That is what I used to set off all those explosions you saw. How do you not know this….whatever your name is?"

"My name is Leezy. I have heard of being able to unlock a transformation called Soul Form but I didn't know it was called Kyo-whatever the fuck."

"It is Kyō…Ran! Soul Frenzy!"

…

It took almost everything Reyes had to avoid being hit by the Giant King. His injuries didn't help at all either.

The area around him was riddled with giant hand prints from where the King had struck. Looking up, Reyes dove to the side, dodging the King's had yet again. Darting forward, he tried to get a better position when something new and unexpected happened.

The King took both of the golden bracelets off and let them float into the air. Each one spun to a stop directly next to his head, looking like two small glowing suns.

Energy began building up into the center of the bracelets while pointing directly at Reyes. Keeping up his stride, he kept running as hard as he could toward the King, darting from side to side.

Zing!

After the energy had been built, both of the bracelets shot a continual beam of gold energy toward him, cutting through the dirt like butter and leaving behind a large cloud of fiery ash.

The only thing he could do was run side to side doing his best to avoid the laser like energy beam that hunted for him like a starving wolf.

After what seemed like forever, the beams finally dissipated.

The whole area was left with smoldering scorch marks and deep gashes, looking as if someone had drug multiple hot knives through it. Even one of the armor fragment mountains in the distance had caught a bit of damage with a hole cut straight through the middle of it.

Reyes laid down in one of the massive hand prints, using it to break line of sight.

'What type of power is that? If I got hit by that shit, I'd definitely be turned to ash.'

Reaching into his pack, he tried to search for something that could help his wounds.

Inside, he found the small vial his mother had gave him and was glad to find a single sip left.

Putting it to his lips, he swallowed the remaining liquid and smiled to himself once his wounds fully closed up.

Gripping his weapons tightly he stepped out into the open and ran full speed toward the King…