Chapter 17: Grim Reaper

Lark opens his eyes - shocked by what he sees. Instead of the giant caveman, Nathan stands in front of him, next to a pair of legs without a torso. Blood sprinkles down like the river breaze, sparks of electricity jumping between the droplets. ‘Ah, so this is what he actually looks like. That grim reaper is definetely more terrifying.’

“Don’t I look pathetic right now?”, he asks him with a broken giggle.

Nathan doesn’t even spare him a look as he walks towards Lark’s prior enemy. But shortly before he reaches him, he turns his head to the side. “No.”

“Hey you bastard! Where the hell did you even come from?”

Whirr. Thud. He drops to the ground, a hole in his chest.

‘I expected more of a challenge. Maybe that is why the chosen one did not show up. Ha.’ With his usual blank expression, he turns to look in the direction of the gate, where villagers are pilling up, and foreign bandits following suit. But most of them have stopped in their tracks as they heard the thunder, looking at the demon that has just descended upon them. With the closest ones roughly a hundred meters away, he gets to work. Closing the gap in four steps, he appears in front of the confused bandit like a bolt of lightning, and just as quickly decapitates him. Starting off with the ones the soldiers are fighting against, he moves like a violent current, tearing away everything in it’s path.

Rumble. Rumble. Rumble. Whirr. The bandits begin dropping like flies. As the chosen one’s face is painted red, his expression remains unchanging. There isn’t a single battle on the former battlefield anymore. Every single bandit watches the display in horror, unable to comprehend. ‘Is he the payback for our sins?’ - is what most of them are asking themselves right now. Wether they do or not, one thing is a fact for all of them - that thing isn’t human. And they sure as hell cannot fight that alone. As the judgment continues, and one violent thunder strikes after the other, all the bandits yet unscathed gather in the midst of the plaza, some of them managing to take hostages with them.

By the time they’ve all gathered, the remaining villagers have started pouring out of the village’s gates. Only four people are heading the other way: Marc, Kaze, Elaine and.. Lex. The four friends, as well as Lark, who is already on the plaza, all move closer to watch the display of the monster they have unleashed, unable to believe their own eyes.

Having dispatched of the bandits lingering around on the outside, he turns his attention towards the group that has gathered in the middle. Even though quite a lot of bandits have fallen even before he arrived, the group still counts almost forty people. Nathan confidently heads their way in slow steps, echoing throughout the dead-quiet plaza.

“D-D-Don’t come any cl- closer! You hear me! We - We’ve got ho-hostages!”, one of them warns him, alsmost peing his pants in the process.

“I do not know if any of you believe in a god.”, Nathan speaks to the crowd in a clear, sober, yet loud fashion. “But I do not care about your hostages, and all of you will be dead in a few minutes, no matter what you do. Since it would be quite the useless murder, I would recommend you not to kill those hostages for that might have negative consequences for your afterlife. But the choice is entirely yours to make. But to be honest, you are all screwed anyway.” He keeps getting closer.

“As if you would not give a shit! Why would you even attack us in the first place, then?”, another Bandit wonders.

Whirr. Rumble. As the bandit’s body drops to the ground, some others defeatedly drop to the ground, others scream out in eager to fight to their last breath. The ones that hold hostages let them go, realizing he was serious. The sound of weapons and bodies dropping to the ground alike, screams of fear and occasionally thunder dominate the plaza.

A sword is swung from his right. Too slow. He takes one step back, and as the blade passes he plucks his larynx out. A spear from the left. He lets it pass him, grabs it, and javelin throws it into two other bandits. The disarmed foreigner drops on his knees, begging for his life. “Please, I ha-”. Thud. While his head rolls on the floor, his body is flung into two bandits approaching Nathan with shields. Whirr. Nathan catches the two stumbling men from behind by stabing his hands through their chests. Whilst walking toward his next targets, he blows the head off of two praying bandits on the ground.

It’s not his immense strength that shocks the friends the most. It certainly is even more than they could have ever imagined, but more than that, it’s his face. It’s as blank as always. But seeming emotionless in everyday situations is much different from not show anything while ending one existence after the other. It’s like he makes no difference between plucking fruit and plucking organs out of bodies. It would almost seem more normal if he were to have fun doing this, like the bandits had before he arriveed. Or if he would put hatred into his attacks, or anything, really. Even if he were to be a godlike being, he should at least feel pity. But it’s nothing, just blank. And while these thoughts cross all of their minds, he continues his slaughter.

A thrust. He can easily walk past that, and the enemy’s chainmail won’t help him then. Whirr. Rumble. A mist of blood sprays onto the few bandits remaining. He walks towards his next two targets. They appear to be quite young, maybe 13 or 14 years old.

“Please spare us! We were forced into this! We didn’t want to be any part of those cruel murderers!”. They drop their weapons to the ground and themselves on their knees, putting their hand together and looking up to him with teary eyes as if he were a god. Nathan looks down on the their swords, their blades covered in black blood. ‘Quite the performance’, he acknowledges. Splat. Rumble. In a single motion, he desintegrates both their bodies, and, with a spinning kick, he breaks the spine of the one sneaking up on him from behind. Nathan takes a look at his fingers, where sparks are jumping from one to the other. ‘I used too much on those kids’. With his Chi reserves still not fully replenished after his healing process, he won’t be able to fight the remaining bandits using it. He walks up to the next enemy, who brings his sword down in a diagonal blow against the demon. Nathan steps to the left in a swift motion, and hits the sword’s flat side with his palm, making the swordsman swing to the side further than he intended to. He uses the opening to break the opponents arm gripping it with his own, and then unleashes a barrage of blows onto his stomach, throat and face. His enemy drops to the ground, gasping for air. He picks up his sword, and releases him from his suffering. There is only four bandits left out of forty. One of them is hurling up, lying on the floor, but the others all still hold their weapons in their hands.

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“He doesn’t use his Chi anymore. Come on guys, we can win this!”

“Yeah!”

“Don’t underestimate us, you demon!”

Like a silently flowing creek, he moves along in between the three without them even noticing. His sword carried along like an extension of his body, he slashes the first one’s throat. His blood scatters in the air, and by the time his veins pulsate once more, another throat joins the fountain in it’s efforts, and soon after, a third one. Unlike his Chi, this was no violent release of energy, put rather a piece of art performed by a master of it’s craft. Nathan walks up to the last bandit cowering on the ground.

“You’re lucky.”

The shivering man slowly turns his head up to look at the demon, but he is barely able to stand the Grim Reaper’s ashen gaze without shitting himself.

“You will now listen to me closely, because I will tell you what to you have to do now.” Nathan squats down next to him, and glares into his eyes intensely. “You will go back to the Proxia Kingdom’s army, and you will tell them you have completely burned down this village. The others have decided to move on, but you were unable to, because your foot was stabbed in an accident”. He stabs his sword through the bandits foot, and pulls it out again. The man shrieks with pain. “If you fail to comply with my mission for you, I will hunt you down. Even if you hide admist the army of an entire kingdom, I will see to it personally that you die. However, if you do as I request, and the army will not advance here, you will remain the sole survivor of this unlucky encounter. So, do you understand your assignment?”

The man tries to supress his pain to answer. “There.. There is still.. a-a-archers.. who might have.. fled..”

“Very good, it seems you have indeed understood your task. Do not worry yourself with the others, I will take care of this problem.” Nathan stands up, and turns around, looking for someone.

“Hey, you, Lex!”

Lex is startled as she is ripped out of her thoughts, but composes herself right after. “Y-Yeah, what is it?!”

“This one stays alive! See to it that you give him food and water, and then let him leave!” Without waiting for any response, he turns away from her, back to the bandit. “In which direction would your fellow scum be running?”

The man points a bit further west from the point of the initial attack.

Nathan takes a look at the terrain. ‘I had hoped to not overexert my Chi, but seems like my recovery has to be prolonged a little.’ With lighting sparks at his feed, he dashes over the plaza, on top of a building, and jumps multiple meters into the air, disappearing behind the village’s walls.

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