The Greatest of Reapers and Apparitions

"Why… why did you have to come…?"

He could no longer hear anything. The darkness that he had always warded off with the warmth of camaraderie has begun to crawl from out from the corners of his eyes, highlighting the monstrosity that stood on top of him. It was an entity that had the muscle of a man and a head of a dolphin, it was that entity that kept standing up no matter what he did.

"I would have won… I would have protected them… why…"

The Dolphin remained frozen with his ax in the air as if he was an executioner waiting for a call to kill his victim. There's nothing that he could do about it and it happened a few times already.

The Dolphin would raise his weapon up, only to hammer it down into his flesh after a few minutes. He couldn't feel that much anymore but he could sense that the touch of his limbs would disappear after his swing, from the tip of his toes and his fingers.

"Mr. Wei… Ms. Santos… James… everyone… I'm sorry but this is where I-"

He stood there on the ground without a shred of energy left to change his fate. He's done, he knew that his head will roll at the moment he swings his ax. He accepted that and that's what the monster had intended to do. The Dolphin took a deep breath and pushed his shoulders back to gain enough space to fuel up his momentum. He swung down his weapon at a great speed but his upper body was got blown off, leaving the other drop on the ground.

"Phew… It looks like we managed to save at least one of them." One of the apparitions said as his group descended from the skies, bringing a sense of dread to those who remained. It was a man in his forties, wearing a thick brown robe and a silver cross hanging from his neck. His face was firmly built, complimenting his dark-brown clean-cut hair. He then turned his head towards his men. "Nicky, blow his lower half away just to be safe and George, tell me what's up."

"Roger that." The woman stepped out from the group and narrowed her sharp eyes as she raised her hand. She let out a huge gust of wind that threw the lower half of the Dolphin's body away from the general who stood there with tears running down on her eyes.

"The three of us had already cleaned up the other reapers in the area. We encountered a large group too but well… we managed… it's not like they've put up a fight hahaha!" The voice in his head replied with a condescending tone. "Well, Steve, what do we do now?"

"That's good. I doubt that this man would send his whole group to their deaths to buy some time, so get some help from Raymark and search if there are any survivors. Get Marian to start the portal too. For the meantime we'll-" Their leader paused and looked at the few survivors of what this battle had turned out. "Jun, get the General out of here while we're continuing our search."

"Gggghaaankk…. Lyeuuuwww…" The General tried to express his appreciation despite his broken jaw and Steve smiled back as he gave him a thoughtful nod.

"It looks like a few of them managed to survive… maaan… look how messy this fight ended up." A man wearing a tank top then leered at the others as he cracked his knuckles. "Yo boss, mind if I take them for a spin?"

"Well Dan, someone has to so thanks for stepping up. Keep yourself busy while we're off finding our people," Steve said as he turned his back against him to command the others. They were about to head out when he looked back and whispered, "Careful though…"

"Hah… Sweet. You of all people should know that I'll be fine." Dan smirked as he made a ball on both of his fists.

"I know… that's for those rats right there." Steve's voice turned grim the moment he started to walk away. "Avenge our brethren."

Dan let out a huge murderous smile that weakened the knees of the remaining reapers who dared to stand their ground. He then took a deep rough breath as if he was emptying a tank of air, he stomped the ground and ran towards his first victim like a deprived wolf that just escaped out of his cage.

He had already imagined how he would end his first enemy but before he could raise his fist, golden cruiser appeared without even the slightest flash or even before he could blink his eyes.

He had no time to react, he just stood there as he got his body buried into the ground with an impact so loud that called the attention of the others that just left one of their comrades to die.

"Nicky!!" Steve shouted as soon as he saw what happened. Nicky then pointed her hands down to blow away the dense cloud of dust and smoke that impared their vision.

"Shit! They'r-" George's voice echoed through their heads before it was cut off.

What followed was a moment of silence. They raised their guards as they watched three other reapers emerge right beside that golden cruiser.

"Ahahaha…" A gruffed laugh then entered their heads. It was Raymark. "They got us. Sorry boss… but someone managed to-"

His voice was then cut off once again.

"Dammit! Marian are you there? Marian… Marian are you there?! Answer me!" Steve shouted.

"Y-yes… I'm sorry." The voice then started to waver as if it was crying. "I kept the portal open as you have instructed… I wasn't able to help…"

"No… that's fine… are you okay? Did you find someone?"

"Ye-yes… we did… around twenty people had managed to escape… I have Jun with me but the others died with Ray and George…" The woman's voice paused to take a deep shaking breath. "I'm in the nearby shed a few meters from our rendezvous point… I'll keep — should I open up the portal?"

"Please. We'll be right back."

***

Tanaka stood there from the other side of the field. He was about to take his arms for one last time but he was frozen in awe when the ship that they had just boarded appeared out of nowhere just to bury a single person in the dirt.

"What the hell just happened?"

"I never knew about their squad but from the looks of it. It's probably MC's" Albert clicked his tongue as he turned his gaze to mary and rei who looked like a couple of poor broken toys. "With that being said, I'm quite jealous that you're able to identify one of the Anti-Blues, how did you know that monster?"

"Ah… I gave him sushi once… right at the cafeteria from waaaaaay back. He licked the raw fish off of the rice and he acted like it was the best thing that he tasted with all of his life." Tanaka scratched his cheek and sat beside Albert as they watched the enemy from the distance. "A few gossips later, I thought that he might be strong and It turns out that I was correct. I never knew about him being with this 'Anti-Blues' though, and you said that you worked with them too…"

"I said that I worked with them… My job was to maintain the perimeter fence while his handpicked minions went ahead to crush whoever they needed to face. We didn't know anything."

"Blues huh? Well, we were just told not to pick a fight with them after all… bummer."

"Oh, it's not like your old ass could win against them. Let MC's squad do their jobs. It's wha-"

"Oh… speak of the devil. She's here."

***

They got to look at their surroundings, they didn't expect that something would appear in the middle of the field without them knowing and for their comrade, the only thing that remained was his white blood that drenched the nose of the ship that crushed him.

"What's up you little bastards. It turns out that I made the right choice to let out five hundred worms so I could have you fishes scurrying in my domain." MC walked up with a twisted smile on her face as well as a cackle with a tone so high that it could scratch a tempered glass.

"And you're still very cute. Did you get taller? I think you did?" Steve replied as he puffed his chest.

"But hey… at least I'm taller than this guy right here…" She said as she pointed her finger at the pool of blood beside her.

Her mocking demeanor in contrast to her elegant looks threw off and antagonized the others. It eventually got to one of them and Nicky raised his hand to attack her with a sharp burst of wind. But even so, she didn't even move or flinch but her attack just disappeared as if it was never made in the first place.

"Oh yeah… one of you is pretty feisty alright… Nicky was it? Could it be that you're missing this guy already?" She laughed as she slammed her fist at the surface of her boat while the other party replied with a determined gaze. "My bad… my bad… the file said that none of our manufactured weapons would work against him so yeah. I gave it a go with my baby right here and guess what? She got the job done!"

"You!-" Nicky shouted. She was about run towards her but was stopped by Steve.

"Keep your head straight. Adrian, are you ready?" Steve said and the guy on his back replied with a nod.

"Oh… oh… planning are we? That's fine. Perfectly fine but let me tell you. No matter what you do, everything, everything!" She raised both of her hands in the air with a wide gaping smile as a few reapers decided to reveal themselves from the dark. "Everything will be... useless. Useless. Useless-useless-useless. Useless! Useless! Useless! Useless! Useless! USELESS! USELESS! USELESS! USELESS! USELESS! USELESS! USELESS! USELESS! USELESS! USELESS! USELESS! USELESS! USELESS! USELESS! USELESS! USELESS! USELESS! USELESS! USELESS! USELESS!"

She dropped her arms as if it were metal beams and she raised her chest into the air with a shriek so loud and taunting that it could damage one's ears.

"Adrian!!" Steve shouted and the Blues then bore their fangs towards their enemy. "We'll buy some time! Andrew, Charlene, and Lola. Head back and secure our exit!"

Adrian ran towards them with his eyes glowing red. He took a deep breath and his chest began to expand along with his arms. A dark scaly dried skin began to taint his northern complexion. His eyes were enlarged and his jaws had widened up the corner of his ears. A horn grew on his forehead and the same thing happened to a few sections of his spine. His arms were long and it was huge enough to put MC's ship at the palm of his hands. Before they knew it, he had turned into a huge deformed predator with a pair of legs too thin to support its own weight.

He swung his fist onto the floor to lift himself up in the air. He took flight along with a wind so great that it managed to shake the buildings around them. It made the other spectators, Tanaka and Albert faze but MC kept her chin up in the air. She remained frozen with the same unbroken smile until one of her lackeys moved.

It was the same entity that wore a white mask and a cloak but he had no weapon. His body was fat and cuddly like a teddy bear in a store. It looked like that he was fat enough that if someone or something were to collide against him, it would bounce right back but even so, he stepped up like this situation was nothing of the ordinary.

"Interesting, let me tell you something then, dear side characters and you, monster. Rule number four; the Protagonist does not lose in a contest of strength."

He raised his flabby arms and clenched his hand covered in sweat to meet the monster above them that swung his fist with all of his might. He took a step forward accompanied by a wide smile and with a single punch that seemingly shook their world, this reaper broke the arm of the monster that aimed to destroy them.