Kanjori

Chapter 11: The Boney Reaper

Several hours after the new plan was created, Damian finally woke up and the key began to glow. Soon after, an arrow popped up above our heads pointing us in the direction of the boss room. It was finally time.

The dusk sun shone upon our faces as we walked on the sizzling desert sand. Each of us knew what was ahead of us, yet we still continued to march forward as if everything was going to be okay. Nobody else had beaten the boss before. Not even Krueger, the current strongest player in the game. I'm confident in our team, but can we really do it at our current state?

I felt a hand touch my right shoulder, it was Lily's.

"I-I'm sorry if that made you uncomfortable, you just look a little stressed out!" She said while looking down.

Gideon quickly jumped in front of me with his arms wide open and a big smile on his face. "M'lady, would a hug from your marvelous knight make you feel better?"

"She's going to be on the primary offense, we can't have her crushed to death by your fat arms", Damian responded while blowing sand in Gideon's face.

Lily and I both began to laugh as Gideon frantically rubbed his eyes. It felt as if the weight on my shoulders had been lifted.

"So Lily, since you've been around this area the longest, do you have any intel on the boss we're going to be up against?" Damian asked.

"N-No not really, from w-what I've heard, the boss is a boney monster that wears a cloak. I-I'm not even sure what kind of weap-" her sentence was cut short.

I looked to my right and Lily was nowhere to be seen. I quickly turned to my left and realized both Damian and Gideon had disappeared as well. Then I fell.

When I finally landed, the rest of the party was there as well, looking around. The air wreaked of salt and blood, and the walls were covered in a blue stone. The only thing I could hear was the sound of something scraping the ground in the distance.

"Where the hell are we?!" I cried out in distress.

"Well the arrows above us are gone, so we can assume we've finally arrived at the boss room" Damian replied while touching one of the blue stones on the wall.

The walls began to glow as the scraping sound approached us rapidly. The four of us swiftly jumped back behind some rocks while carefully scouting out what was coming.

What we saw was no monster, but instead, a man wearing the skull of a dead animal, dragging a bone scythe behind him. He wore a dark bloodstained cloak, and each of his slow footsteps echoed through the area, sending chills down my spine.

"Show yourselves to me, there's no point in hiding, my dogs already sniffed the FOUR of you out." The man commanded.

The four of us stepped out with our weapons drawn. The immense pressure being emitted from the man was enough to make my knees buckle. Maybe we wouldn't win after all.

"It seems Gregorio has become increasingly desperate to keep the stone to himself, he doesn't believe that I'm fit to protect the old thing even though nobody has taken it from me before. That spineless idiot, IF HE WANTED THE STONE HE SHOULD'VE CAME TO GET IT HIMSELF."

The pressure increased and his 3 dogs walked up behind him. "Look at you all. Shaking, scared little fresh spawns who are not CLOSE to being strong enough to take me down. Gregorio is a monster for making you experience what I'm about to do to you all."

"GET INTO POSITIONS, HE'S ABOUT TO ATTACK" Lily yelled as she dove behind a rock.

Gideon rushed forward with his sword enhanced by aura, while Damian and I followed behind him. The man swung his scythe, but it bounced back because of the force field Gideon made, which created an opening.

As we began to flank him 2 dogs jumped towards Damian and one ran towards me. I quickly dashed backwards and swung my sword in an X shape, sending two slashes of aura towards the dog. It slammed the dog into a wall, but it got back up.

The man spun around with his scythe, causing a large wave of air to push the 3 of us back. Lily then shot a supercharged arrow at the boss, but one of the dogs jumped in its way and took the blow.

Damian jumped onto a wall and used it to propel him to the dog that had been hit by the arrow and cut it down. 1 down, 2 more to go. The Reaper then swung his scythe in Damian's direction but was thrown off when Lily shot another arrow into his arm.

"So you guys have coordination, it's nice to see a team that finally understands that there's more to fighting than releasing strong attacks" the man noted as he looked at the three of us.

Without hesitation, I slid across the floor and released another 2 slashes of aura, and jumped up to pierce through the middle of it, which increased its acceleration. The attack made a direct hit.

As the Reaper groaned in pain, Lily shot another arrow at one of the dogs, which was followed by a downward slash from Damian's sword. 1 Dog left.

"It's my turn to shine!" Gideon yelled as he charged the Reaper. Before I could even yell for him to stop, the scythe stabbed through his abdomen.

The Reaper then slammed his hand into the ground, causing a path of bones to emerge from the ground, piercing into Lily who was still behind the rock. She let out an agonizing scream.

Paralyzed by the gruesome sight of Gideon laying on the ground covered in blood, I froze. However, it seemed as if Damian was unfazed by the whole thing, as he quickly blitzed forward and cut down the last dog.

"Snap out of it Rin, the boss is still standing"Damian said. My body still couldn't move when I came to the realization that the scythe was coming towards me.

Damian jumped in front of me, and his sword clashed with scythe. The Reaper began to exert more force, causing Damian's sword to begin to cut into his shoulder.

All life was drained from my face as I continued to stand there. There is no way for me to save my friends. We failed.....