“SHOVEL WIELDER!”
Lother was already down 3/4th of his health since the clone did manage to hit it once with the crimson cross of [Wielding Cross], dealing around 60000 damage instantly.
And of course, this meant that Lother was entering his ‘final’ phase.
To be honest, Lother was such an easy boss that if it was alone, Stark would have quite literally killed it before the fight even began.
But it was Reaper being there that made it difficult.
Or at least… this is what he thought.
Because once Lother activated [Shovel Wielder]… then it became a whole other story.
~FWISH~
Lother crouched low, its grotesque body forming a hunch as it pressed its disgusting face into the ground.
The air around it thickened, a tension building as the giant focused, fingers beginning to dig into the earth with a savage determination.
The undead crowd could be seen cheering more so than usual, probably since they knew what was awaiting the human, but Stark just focused his attention on what was happening, while still making sure to occasionally watch Reaper to make sure he wasn’t attacking him from behind.
Lother plunged its hands deeper, clawing through the dirt as if searching for some artifact. The ground shook under the struggle, gravel and dirt flying in every direction.
After around twenty seconds, finally, with a triumphant cry that reverberated off the walls, Lother pulled upward, arms straining as it revealed two gleaming shovels, one in each hand.
And right afterward, not even mere seconds after he successfully activated the skill… the apostles attacked.
With a guttural cry, created from the deepest depths of the creature’s soul, Lother dashed toward the clone and swung the shovels overhead, the metal cutting through the air with a wicked whistle.
The shovels descended, shadows casting over the clone and the arena.
~SWING, BAM~
But the [Superior Clone], still smiling, just its used two last strikes from [Wielding Cross] to deflect the two shovels swings.
“Tremor of the Damned!” Lother got up on his two feet, though still carrying the two shovels with the hands on his shoulders instead of the normal ones.
And then… he jumped in the air and stomped the ground with his two feet.
~FWISH, BING~
This created a massive shockwave that hit the [Superior Clone] as it was mostly impossible to avoid without [Invincible Dodge], and it had failed its timing since the shockwave was pretty damn long.
~BOING~
The [Superior Clone] didn’t receive any sort of damage though, it was just sent flying upward, precisely right in front of Lother’s torso.
“…!” it was literally at the perfect position to be hit, with no way to avoid it normally.
It was Lother’s goal: send the enemy flying using the shockwave, then while they can’t do anything, slam them with both shovels.
Lother’s shovels descended with a thunderous whoosh, slicing through the air, a deadly arc aimed straight at the clone.
“SHIT!” Stark’s heart raced as he watched, certain the clone would be crushed beneath the weight of the monstrous attack, and if it died… then it would become a 2V1 with his chances of winning plummeting all the way to zero, essentially more when he was struggling to even KEEP UP with Reaper.
But just as the blades neared their target, the clone’s aura flared bright, the devilish smile growing more, its confidence not faltering for a single second.
“Dodge Control!”
In an instant, the clone’s body shifted, bending and twisting with an almost unnatural fluidity: it ducked and rolled, then slipped beneath the shovels with a grace that seemed to defy physics.
The blades cleaved the air where it had been just a heartbeat before, the ground quaking as they struck nothing but each other, the force Lother put into the blow just to be avoided making him tremble a bit as the impact of the shovels against one another shook him.
Lother stumbled, his momentum carrying him forward.
But with a swift motion, the clone propelled itself backward, launching off the blade of one of the shovels, using the moment to spring away from danger.
“AURA SMASH!” while still in midair, the crimson copy summoned three crimson fists right behind it, then without a second of hesitation sent them toward Lother’s face, who still struggled to regain his balance.
But the funniest thing of all wasn’t that Lother was struggling and still being shaken by the impact, or that it was getting overwhelmed by a simple clone.
It was… that the fists the [Superior Clone] had thrown were aimed at Lother’s mouth, meaning that they entered through the stretched grin it had, now transformed into one of shock as it SWALLOWED THEM.
But of course, swallowing didn’t mean they didn’t hit.
And so…
~BOOM, BOOM, BOOM~
“-33821! -34338! -34186!”
[Lother HP: 15026/600000]
The crimson fists exploded while they were in Lother’s throat, and it was actually another one of his weaknesses: the abyss that was his stretched was extremely sensitive, and anything that went inside would deal much higher damage to the white giant.
“…” the explosion inside Lother almost made him lose consciousness, and the fact he was already struggling to keep his balance on his two feet didn’t help as he suddenly fell backward, crashing into one of the massive stands with thousands of undead on them.
The arena shuddered under the impact, a cascade of undead tumbling from the seats above as the shockwave reverberated through the air.
Lother let out a guttural cry, its grotesque form crashing vertically, shovels clattering beside it.
And yet…
“UNDEAD SACRIFICE!”
The first thing Lother did as he caused such havoc was to move all four of his hands to begin devouring everything in his way.
“UNDEAD SACRIFICE!!!” he was eating, and eating, and eating, eating everything that he could grasp or see, all the undead that fell, those that were crushed, and even some that were still cheering.
The more Lother ate, the stronger he became: better speed, greater strength, impenetrable body and defense.
Lother was actually mad he had been ALMOST defeated by such a small thing.
“UNDEAD SACRIFICE!!!!!!”
~CRUSH, NOM~
He crushed the bodies of dozens, hundreds, then quickly thousands of undead before eating them.
Quickly, he became stronger than Reaper, even the calamity apostle surprised to see that his ‘companion’ could be pushed so far.
“Futile,” but even then, Reaper didn’t seem to care much.
“UNDEAD… SACRIFICE!!!!!” Lother was in an absolute frenzy, and no one was safe from his gaping mouth as it absorbed everything.
This kept going for three minutes, with all three other participants: the clone, Stark and Reaper, just staring at Lother as it kept eating.
But right as the giant titan got up again, feeling as powerful as before, and ready to smash his way to victory, both Stark(s) unable to avoid his attacks or even hope of dealing damage to it…
The expected happened: Lother tried to move as he put ONE last undead in his mouth and…
[You have maxed out your powers for a while now, the body isn’t able to keep up]
[‘Stun’ has been given to Lother, The Grave Keeper]
And so… the white titan stood still, unable to move as his body fidgeted, and even though he could see all those insects below him, he wasn’t able to crush them in any way.
~FWISH~
Quickly, the [Superior Clone] drew a circle in its hand, then pointed at the dark sky above the arena, “Heaven’s Wrath.”
And so less than five seconds later, the beam charged up and…
~BOOOOOOOM~
It not only destroyed Lother completely, slowly erasing his body from existence as he couldn’t even move or scream, but a major chunk of the arena was taken by the blast, thousands upon thousands of undead killed.
[You can’t get EXP from those monsters.]
“…”
And with that…
[Lother, The Grave Keeper has been defeated!]
[One apostle remains!]
“Hm~” Reaper was still invisible, and so both Stark and the clone stared back at the floating scythe now that one of the threats was gone, “I mean, you destroyed half the audience, but the other half seems happy… so…” the scythe began to spin in the air, almost as if controlled by nothing, “I guess we can entertain them so more…”
“Hey, seems like you upgraded my rating,” Stark smiled back, and the clone took a few steps toward the calamity-level apostle as well.
“I was planning to kill him after that anyway,” he responded, speaking of Lother, “Thanks for doing the hard work.”
And so, the three figures faced one another, although one was invisible and spinning its sigh repeatedly, a dark aura coming of its edges.
2V2 turned into a 2V1, giving Stark a good advantage in comparison to before.
But even then… could they defeat Reaper?
He was the first calamity-level monsters fought, so he could definitely have many tricks up his sleeve, as seen by his blatant confidence even though the human had eliminated the other apostle.
“I have eliminated five of you now, you won’t be different from the rest,” Stark pointed, an enraged expression on his face as his pupils glowed with crimson aura.
“Very well, let the game begin then.”
And so, the final battle began, and Reaper was stronger than Warden, there was no denying it.
