[Lother, The Grave Keeper]
[Rank: Boss]
[Reaper, The Undead Puppeteer]
[Rank: Calamity]
The two apostles stood before Stark, the latter being of a rank above boss, a rank Stark had never fought before.
Of course, he had previously seen monsters of this rank: the [Crimson Moons Trio] back at the rift with Judicator, the second apostle he fought.
And so that meant… that this thing should be within their range of power.
“Come on,” Reaper pointed his scythe toward Stark again, “We need to entertain the viewers, don’t we?”
“Haha… sure…” Stark had drops of sweat pouring from his forehead as he was actually stressing a bit.
But he wouldn’t let that get him to make a mistake.
“PERCEPTION,” he shouted as he saw Reaper prepare himself to strike, and Lother on the verge of jumping toward him as well to grab him with his disgusting hands.
…
[Name: Lother, The Grave Keeper (BOSS – Godless Demon Apostle)]
[Level: 145]
[HP: 600000]
[Strength: 11821]
[Stamina: 2368]
[Speed: 5583]
[Defense: 7904]
[Skills: Grave Grasp, Echoing Wail, Vengeful Strike, Burial Mound, Undead Sacrifice, Bone Barrage, Spectral Ambush, Tremor of the Damned, Shovel Wielder, Fate’s Chains, Final Rest (MYTHICAL)…]
…
“Decent HP compared to other bosses… but incredible strength and defense, and medium speed, only it’s stamina is low…” Stark thought of the possibility of using that fact to his advantage, but he didn’t see how.
Stamina meant that the monster would get tired easily since casting skills this powerful could exhaust you easily, and in addition to that the time between his skills would be pretty significant since the lower your stamina is, the longer it will take.
But there was one problem: the presence of Reaper, the [Calamity] apostle, who would obviously buy some time for Lother whenever he needed it.
“Ah shit…” he was basically fighting a stronger version of the warden (Reaper), but along with him was another boss…
This was hell, and Stark couldn’t see how any of his group could possibly survive that.
If all 50 of them had tried to conquer this rift, then the giant majority would have died, and even Sora would have probably been overwhelmed.
‘They should thank me for sacrificing myself… seriously…’ Stark sighed as he took his position, then immediately moved to check Reaper’s stats.
“PERCEPTION,” he shouted again, eyes darting toward the newly appeared panel.
…
[Name: Reaper, The Undead Puppeteer (CALAMITY – Godless Demon Apostle)]
[Level: 150]
[HP: 750000]
[Strength: 10532]
[Stamina: 6049]
[Speed: 8511]
[Defense: 4875]
[Skills: Soul Rend, Shadow Bind (MYTHICAL), Scythe Dance, Cursed Requiem, Death’s Grasp, Phantom Veil, Abyssal Charge, Wraith’s Veil, Eternal Night, Unholy Convergence, Spectral Rebirth, Dark Symphony, Fate’s Judgement (MYTHICAL)…]
…
“…” Stark didn’t even need to analyze that thing, all that he knew was that it was definitely stronger than the warden, “Alright.”
Fwish! Throw!
And before Stark could even realize it, a golden ball of energy was thrown from behind him, toward Lother.
“Huh…” he looked back, and saw the [Superior Clone] smiling, it had used [Crimson Purification]’s new perk while he was busy analyzing.
And…
Boooom!
The attack actually hit Lother, who was too dumb and thought that he could tank it.
“-176482!”
“Holy,” Stark was flabbergasted, “Amazing job, clone!” he praised it, and it just shrugged.
“…” Lother was sent flying toward one of the walls of the massive arena, which gave them more than enough space to fight freely, crashing against the wall and causing dozens of undead monsters to fall inside of it, all crushed since the height from the stands to the ground was high.
But… was Lother did when he saw those undead fall was… surprising.
“Undead Sacrifice…” the grotesque wide-mouthed creatures grabbed the bodies of all the undead with its four hands, crushing them using its sheer strength, then swallowed all the dust and remains with its mouth.
Stark watched as Lother consumed the remains of the fallen undead. A dark mist enveloped the giant, swirling around him as he fed, tendrils of shadow stretching from the remains into Lother’s gaping maw.
…
[Skill: Undead Sacrifice]
[Description:] Lother consumes fallen undead to gain strength. For each undead he devours, he absorbs a fraction of their power, boosting his own physical abilities. However, there’s a limit. If Lother consumes too many at once, he risks overwhelming his own body, leading to a temporary (and long) stun.
[Note: take advantage of that, Lother cannot resist the temptation of eating other undead =)]
…
That note was basically telling him to allow Lother to eat a maximum amount of undead and trying to make him reach his limit.
But there was a problem with that: what was the limit?
10? 100? What if it’s 1000?
‘Not clear, no point in risking it,’ and so that was the conclusion he reached.
But his clone, on the other hand… it seemed to think differently.
“Aura Smash… MERGE!”
Fwish!
Reaper was currently just observing the fight, using his scythe as some sort of cane by placing its handle in the ground, “Hm.”
Boom!
The crimson fist hit Lother’s mouth as it was literally unable to avoid it since it was too fast, way faster than the holy energy ball, obviously.
Crack!
Lother’s head literally cracked upon the impact with the fist, and it actually moved a bit as its mouth stretched more.
“-76482!” plus, the damage was very good.
But of course, it resulted in Lother’s body crashing against the wall, and MORE undead falling, at least 50 of them this time, and the worst of all was that the ones who fell were actually cheering, anticipating being eaten by one of their ‘gods’.
“Undead Sacrifice…” Lother ate them all again, and the dark aura swirling around him increased again: this time, both Stark and his clone sensed that surprise attacks wouldn’t work anymore, its mouth letting out a deadly black fog of aura.
“…” yet Stark and the [Superior Clone] weren’t impressed: that thing literally just took 250k points of damage in less than ten seconds, so why should they care if it started eating its ‘servants’.
But suddenly, right as if Reaper could read their mocking thoughts, he suddenly moved, removing his scythe’s handle from the ground and grabbing it again, swinging it a few times to make sure it was working as a trail of black aura with soul particles followed each of the strikes.
“I think I saw enough,” he began walking toward Stark, “I give you a 3/10 in the entertainment scale, could do better, I hope you will and your next life.”
“Heh, that’s pretty low,” Stark responded, a smile as devilish as his clone’s forming, “Maybe I can make that number go up by kicking your ass?”
“You are free to try,” Reaper spanned his scythe in his hands, showing that he had perfect control over it.
Lother on the other hand got up on his two feet, increasing his size and now slightly taller than Reaper: he was a giant, and a grotesque one at that.
“Hey, clone,” Stark looked at the crimson replica of himself.
“…”
“You take care of the white guy, I’ll get Reaper, and please don’t die,” Stark gave it a thumbs up as he gave it such an insane order, but it was proof that he trusted his clone.
“…” the [Superior Clone] nodded, still smiling.
And so both of them took their fighting stances.
Reaper and Lother were the same, though, as the calamity apostle slowly walked toward the original Stark, while Lother took huge steps in the clone’s direction.
