บท 35: The Girl? Part Three

Age 1991

"Why does every new person I meet always end up betraying me!" Hero shouted jumping back as the bone blade sliced through the air. "Am I cursed? Is it just the way I act?"

Reaper let out a small laugh as the flesh around him pulled off and the skeleton ripped its way out of the girl. "Don't feel too bad," Reaper yelled letting out his insane cackles. "If it'll make you feel better, it was mostly luck that I happened upon you, in that form. I realized that a straight-up battle wouldn't work out against those Enforcers, the way I am know! No! I need to evolve my style! I needed to get you all away from each other. One I can handle..."

"Evolve..." Hero muttered jumping away from the man. "That's an idea..." He frowned as he watched the skeleton's other arm morph and change becoming a second bone sword. 'Crap... I can't use my pipes, because if he touches my bones he'll be able to take me over. I also can't let him cut me, or I'll be taken over... But I can't fight from far range... And if I use my Big-Arm-Strike, I'll be down a limb, for a few minutes until it heals... What do I do-' An idea flashed into his head. 'Wait! I can't use bones but...' Hero stared down at his arm for a moment. It began to bubble as a white muscle poured out. "Instead of usinf Bone Pipes I'll just use pure Muscle to make shapes!" Hero yelled as the, for some reasson white, muscle morphed around his arm forming a white gauntlet. 'Damn! It hurts so much doing this! I'm not ready for this yet... But I'll make it work!'

Reaper let out a crazed laugh as he ran forward jumping into the air, and crashing down slicing his blades out. Hero dodged the slices dancing through the air as he backed up. Reaper continued to chase Hero as the two became a blur of moving limbs. The muscle formed becoming a large white round shield on Hero's arm as he used it to block the attacks.

"I... Can't... Hold... It.." Hero jumped back as the muscle collapsed peeling off of his ground and melting at his feet. "Oww..." The flesh around his arm was turned a nasty red as steam rolled off of it, and it began to heal. "Not ready for that level yet... But maybe someday..."

"A nice trick. But not good enough!"

"Why are you doing this?" Hero yelled ducking down as the bone sword sliced through a metal pillar like a hot knife through butter.

"Why am I killing? Well to put it simply it's fun! This rush is everything!" Reaper screamed. "I'm a predator hunting its prey! Our race seeks evolution. It's our goal to continuously evolve! The gift God gave us allows us to improve to infinity. Every now and then you have cases like me! A superior being of the next Equation! I do all of this to Evolve! I'll improve and gain more power!"

Hero's frown faded as he felt a bit of hot anger rush through his body. "Okay..." He muttered out jumping back. He twisted his body grabbing one of the pillars, with it he twisted around slamming it up and smashing it into the skeleton echoing out a massive bang throughout the warehouse. Reaper was picked up off the ground and slammed through a row of pillars as he crashed down. "But that wasn't what I meant." Hero said raising the pillar up. "I was actually asking why you are attacking me!" He screamed throwing the pillar as hard as he could.

A loud sonic boom echoed out as the pillar slammed forward. Reaper let out a small gasp as he ducked down just in time. The pillar flew over his skull and flew straight through the wall leaving a massive hole in the warehouse as the entire building shook.

"Geez..." Reaper muttered slowly getting back up as he began to dust himself off. "Pretty destructive? Is it just me or are you acting differently? I thought you were a big idiot but now you seem to be fighting like a wounded animal."

"D... Differently?" Hero asked we his eyes slowly widened. 'He... He's... Right... This is just like when I was fighting Max, and Zero. My mind is clear, and I can actually think of a plan. Now that I'm focusing on it, my entire body feels different to...'

"You're a Seraphin, right? Or at least that's what my boss said." Reaper muttered as he slowly stalked back and forth staring at Hero. "That explains why your body is different. So that's what's happening. You're also growing. You know I heard that most Seraphin's have a dark path ahead of them. I thought I was a monster but compared to you I'm normal..."

"Uh... You're a Skeleton though?" Hero said with some confusion.

"And you're still an idiot."

"Are you just mad because I look normal?"

"I'm gonna kill you..."

"But why?" Hero asked. "Why me? I thought you killed girls? I mean that's bad and I'd still try to stop you, but why are you coming after me now!"

"I do it for enjoyment, but I also kill anyone my boss tells me to..." Reaper explained calmly. "You went somewhere you weren't supposed to, so..."

"Somewhere I wasn't suppose to- The room!" Hero said with wide eyes. "With the robots! So they are behind all of this!"

"Bingo. Unfortunately I'm kill you now so..."

"What?"

Reaper charged forward as his skeletal structure began to slowly grow getting bigger and bigger as he began to rip the ground up with each step.

"What the actual hell!"

"I told you I'd evolve!" Reaper shouted as he grew to ten feet tall and began to gain massive boney armor that grew around his body. Spikes began to sprout out of him as his arms began to shift, and gain a dangerous edge to them...

'He transformed!' Hero thought in shock. 'That's just like my Monster-Point! And Heal-Point. And Balloon-Point... Maybe I shouldn't have stopped using those things. I mean I'm pretty sure they were speeding up that weird Seraphin thing of taking me over but do I really have any choice now- No! What am I saying? This isn't me. It's that damn Seraphin thing. I need to calm down and focus. He's getting bigger. And scarier... Way scarier!'

"Roar!" Reaper shouted as a massive boney tail sprouted from him. "Behold your reckoning Enforcer!" He shouted picking up a massive metal box. "Take this!"

The skeletal monster threw the box at the Seraphin! It soared through the air as Hero tried to jump away. He was to slow, though, as the box slammed into him throwing him back and smashing him straight through a pillar and slamming into a wall.

"Oww..."

"Die!" Reaper announced punching through the box and grabbing Hero by the face. He twisted his body and smashed the boy into the floor and began to sprint forward dragging Hero's face through the stone floor leaving a trail of destroyed ground in his wake, as Hero's face grinded on the floor as Reaper finally stopped and forced the teen up. He pulled his arm back and threw Hero forward throwing him towards the back of the wall.

Hero let out a small groan as he tried to stand back up. "Well, that hurt..." He muttered out as he tried to stay standing. He rubbed his arm as steam slowly rose off of his body, and his flesh began to heal. "Damn it... I was struggling against his normal state. Now I got to fight him like this... Man, this sucks... I have bad luck..."

"Looks like it's over for you..." Reaper said letting out a tiny laugh. A massive sword made of bones formed from his body as he took a step forward. "I'd infect you, and take you over, but I don't know how your body would react to my presence. I'll just kill you instead." He stated in a simple tone.

Hero let out a small gasp as he gritted his teeth. "Alright... I'm out of options... I need to use that form... The one I used against Max... Get ready!"

"What are you babbling on about?" Reaper hissed out.

"This is my full power!" Hero announced clenching his fist. "Mon-"

'Bang!'

The roof to the warehouse caved him as a red blob of flesh dropped down. Red tendrils fired out wrapping around Hero. "Looks like I made it in time..." The voice of Dawson said echoing out. The form changed becoming more refined as it took shape, becoming the Red Demon, of the Enforcers...

"Mr. Blight!" Hero said with wide eyes.

"Stand down Hero," Dawson growled out turning to look at the giant skeleton who was wielding a massive bone great sword. "So... He did evolve... Weird... I thought he would be stronger. He's barely a silver rank Enforcer though?"

"Ahh. You're that one Enforcer." Reaper muttered out as his skull changed into a frown. "Well... You seem to be alone."

"I am..." Dawson said nodding his head.

"Good..."

"Good?"

"That means there's no need to run away," Reaper said smirking as he stepped forward. "I'll simply kill you both now, before anyone else shows up."

"...Tell me something." Dawson said as his form began to change. "Do you know what Mantra is?"

"Mantra? What the hell is that?"

"Good."

"Good?" Reaper asked confused. It was his turn to not understand.

"That means I don't have anything to worry about..." Dawson said simply. "I don't need to worry about you..."