Author's Notes: Time for another fight my dear little readers. Though this time it will involve Raike who is supposable the strongest Shadowling there is. Also…the reason why Kratos's keeps calling Kai "Spudera" is because Spudera is Kai's last name. Anyways let's find out what will happen Royal Guys and Gals.
Chapter 50: The Crow of the Night
Kratos stood over the trio's battered bodies. Willow began to groan and was sweating along with Silk thanks to the venom that the former Spider Prince inserted inside them and Kai simply stared at him with blood slowly filling up in his lungs which made it hard for him to breathe. Kratos then grabbed Kai's neck forcibly and heaved him in the air. As he done so Kai gagged out more blood and looked at the ground with his tired eyes.
"Oh…look at you now Spudera. You look so pathetic now that I kicked your worthless, scrawny ass in front of my Sisters. It pleases me to see you like this you arrogant little brat." Kratos sneered.
He then threw Kai back on the ground where a sound of bones snapping can be heard but Kai couldn't even make a noise to show how much pain he was in.
"What are you going to do now Spudera?" Kratos said arrogantly.
Once Kratos said that Kai shot out what appeared to be a spike which punctured the left side of Kratos's chest. He looked at the spike in shock to see it made out of some sort of thick webbing and saw black blood.
"Wh-what!" Kratos said in shock.
"Heh…you…anticipated me Kratos. That's why that spike is able to puncture you. You…thought I was just a mere Human….though….you're partially right….I'm now part Spider you idiot." Kai chuckled as best as he could.
Kratos only growled under his breath and ripped the spike out of his chest and threw it down until it grazes Kai's head leaving a cut on his cheek. He then stomped on Kai's chest and raised his right clawed hands as he pointed it at chest ready to impale his heart with one blow.
"You're a dead man Spudera. I may not have wanted to kill you like I wanted to…BUT AT LEAST I'M GOING TO KILL YOU AND RID YOU FROM MY LIFE! Kratos yelled.
As Kratos pulled his hand back ready to impale Kai but then Kratos started to feel weird. He stopped his attack within centimeters from Kai's chest and grabbed his head with his left hand wondering why he had a split headache. Suddenly everything went black in his vision and he was confused as he looked around.
"Wh-what is this? Is this another one of your moves Spudera!?" Kratos shouted.
As he said that a voice spoke to him but the voice was not Kai's nor was it anyone that Kratos ever knew.
"Vengeance…its never rewarding to anyone in the very end."
Before Kratos could comply with the voice he was suddenly punched in the face which sent him crashing on the ground. Kratos groaned from the punch and got up but as he did so he felt a pair of hands grabbed him and smash him down on the ground not just once but repeatedly. After the numerous ground smashing the former Prince was kicked in the face which sent him in the air. During this time Kratos's blindness effect began to disappear but it didn't prove to help anyone as he was hit with a barrage of punches and kicks and then finally he was punched out of the sky and came crashing towards the ground.
Kratos was wounded on the ground with several cuts and bruises on his body. He was breathing rather heavily with black blood dripping from the side of his face. He then heard footsteps and turned to see who attacked him but he was unknown to him in every way. The stranger was in 5'11 height with medium lengthened black hair with a glowing purple eye and a grey colored eye and he wore a mask which concealed his face. He also wore a black long sleeve hoodie, black pants, and what appeared to be military combat boots. Behind his back was a black war hammer and he had an intimidating look in his eyes. Kratos began to get up from the ground and charge at the unidentified man he simply dodged each of his attacks without even trying to block the former Prince's attacks.
"Hold still!" Kratos hissed as he sent clawed jabs at the figure as fast as he can.
As he sent his right hand at the figure it was simply caught and this surprised Kratos. Kratos was starting to get nervous and tried pulling his hand out of the stranger's grip but as he did so he met a hammer to the side of his body which sent him tumbling a good feet away from both his new foe, Kai, and the two Spider Princesses. Kratos gagged out a massive amount of black blood as he held onto his side and glared at the stranger with hat in his eyes.
"You think that you can beat me? I'll just turn into my Spider form you incompetent fool. NOW LET'S SEE WHO'LL BE LAUGHING WHEN I BEAT YOU TO THE GR-"
Before Kratos could finish his sentence the stranger seemed to disappear from his field of vision and reappear behind him where he slammed the hammer on Kratos's back severely injuring him. Kratos fell on the ground and was looked as though he was groveling at the stranger's feet.
"What the…ugh…Nether!? How am I losing to a piece of garbage like you!?" Kratos mustered to say.
"Because you anticipated your opponent thinking as though you could win. Basically…your arrogance made you lose."
The stranger would now be standing over Kratos's hammered and battered body. The poor Former Prince would now be at the mercy of the man as he would simply raise his hammer in the air and look at Kratos.
"After your crimes against life and the harm that you have placed innocent souls in you have been judged guilty of your crimes against those that you have killed! Now prepare to die!" The stranger said.
"NO!" Kratos screeched with blood coming out of his mouth.
The stranger then brought his hammer down at his head and Kratos could only watch in despair seeing his life end in the hands of some stranger. Just before the hammer could even smash Kratos's head into bits and pieces with blood and brain matter everywhere a hand simply caught the hammer just centimeters away from his head. Both Kratos and the stranger and Kai who was awake watching the entire fight the entire time looked to see a figure in black garments holding the strangers hammer without looking at him at all.
The Stranger only stared at him with a surprised gaze though the figure wouldn't see it as he only stared down at Kratos through his plague doctor mask.
"You idiot" He said calmly.
Kratos stared at the cloaked figure before he kicked him to the side a few meters away from him and the stranger. As he did the stranger continue to stare at the cloaked figure seeing him stop the attack of his so easily without using any of his power.
"Aren't you going to back away?" The figure said emotionlessly.
Before the stranger could react to what he said a scythe appeared out of nowhere and was close to hitting him though he teleported away in time. He'd see that the cloaked figure would be holding the scythe in his right hand and be somewhat surprised seeing him use it with one hand with ease. The cloaked figure then turned his head revealing his masked face to the stranger who seemed unfazed about it. The figure then walked over to Kratos who staggered up on the ground and glared at the stranger before averting his eyes at his savior.
"What the heck Raike…I would have kicked this gu-"
"Quiet. If you were smart you would have realized that he is stronger then you in every way." Raike interrupted with the same emotionless voice.
"What! You…you gotta be joking this guy can't be stron-"
"Shut up! Stop denying the fact that he just brutally pummeled you and almost killed you. The power he is releasing right now is higher then yours and the reason for this is because he's a Infernal Mob." Raike said calmly.
Kratos opened his mouth again to say something but shut it knowing that whatever word he said would be countered by Raike in every way. As the two spoke the stranger took this advantage and teleported behind Raike and brought his hammer down on the masked Shadowling but it was easily blocked as Raike motioned his Scythe rather slightly until the blade blocked the hammer.
"I'm sorry we're talking right now and it's quite rude to attack someone when he's talking." Raike said.
"Sorry…but taking a guess you're with this guy aren't you?" The stranger asked.
"Unfortunately…that is correct." Raike said.
As he answered Raike did a quick motion with his wrist and with speed pushed the hammer away and tried to hit the stranger with his scythe but the stranger teleported away before the blade made contact with him. The Stranger then reappeared beside Kai, Willow and Silk as he just gazed at Raike and a mortally wounded Kratos.
"Taking a guess you don't like him either. *Tch* why not allow me to finish him off for you." The Stranger insisted.
"IN YOUR DREAMS!" Kratos shrieked.
"Be quiet Kratos." Raike said non-chantly his voice still void of any emotion.
"NO I WON'T OK! JUST KILL THIS GUY AND THEN WE CAN HEAD BACK TO THE SPIRE AND TELL-"
Kratos's words were cut off when a hand dove its way through the left side of Kratos's chest. The Spiderling couldn't help but gag out a massive amount of black blood after receiving such a painful blow. He looked down at the bloodified hand that rammed its way through his chest and looked behind him to see a figure except he knew who it was.
It was the same Village girl that he dove his fangs into when he destroyed the village except…she was different. For one her skin was very pale as if she was a corpse which was followed by black veins which appeared on the side of her face, next was her luscious light brown hair which had some parts of it turning white on some parts, and finally were her eyes. Her eyes had a sickly pale yellow color and her pupils were different. Her right eye had a purple ring with a red dot while her left eye was nothing but a red black pupil with a red dot.
"Wh-gag- what is the meaning of this?" Kratos gagged.
"My orders. Our lord see's no sign in you being needed. So your services…are no longer required." Raike said without care.
Before Kratos could respond to that his head was torn completely off by the Village girl. She smiled as she looked at Kratos's beheaded body and laughed seeing it twitch as she still had it in her grasp.
"Master…it's twitching. The Idiots body is twitching! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH!" She laughed.
Once the body stopped she chucked it off to the side and looked at Kratos's head. She seemed to find so much interest in his shock gaze that she could help but take a bit of his head tearing off skin, flesh, and bone as she began to devour it. The Stranger and a awaken Kai watched as the girl began eating the head of the former Spider Prince and saw that Raike really didn't care for him what's so ever.
"What the Nether. That…girl just killed Kratos as if he was nothing and the guy didn't even care. What's worse is that she ate the head. I MEAN SERIOUSLY SHE ATE THE ENTIRE HEAD AS IF IT WAS APPLE OR SOMETHIN! What the Nether are we up against!?" Kai said with sweat droplets forming on him.
The girl took one last bite of the devoured head and swallowed the fleshy and boney substance with ease. Once she was done she touched her head and began to moan while giggling in sheer joy before composing herself and looked at Raike who still had his emotionless gaze on her.
"Satisfied?" Raike asked her.
"Yes Master…I am satisfied." She said.
Raike simply nodded and turned his gaze back at the stranger who was unfazed by what he saw.
"You're not scared after what you witnesses. I thought you would be shocked or scared after you witnessed that." Raike said calmly.
"You must be thinking that I'm some fool who never seen such a thing like that." The Stranger said.
"That's because I do.-sigh- it pains me to do this but I'm going to have to kill you. It's a shame really but it's the way of you're foolish pity lives." Raike said as he looked at the Stranger while the Village girl grinned in glee.
The Stranger simply held a tight grip on his hammer with one hand as he stared at his two opponents waiting for them to make a move though they didn't. He watched as Raike simply stood there with his scythe still in his hand while the Village girl smiled with the same psychotic grin.
"C'mon why are you scared? I won't bite unless you want me to." The Stranger said.
He then averted his eyes to Kratos's dead body which lied behind the two and muttered something. After he was done the body began to sputter and shake and bones can be heard cracking which made Raike and his companion turn around to see Kratos's corpse stand up from the ground with some amounts of blood leaking from its body.
"Hmm…that's quite a surprise." Raike said.
He then turned to the psychotic girl beside him and she began to give him her full attention.
"Be a dear and play with the body while I deal with the stranger?" Raike asked her without any care.
The girl only nodded and charged at Kratos's former body while Raike turned back to the Stranger. He then threw his scythe with blinding speed at the Stranger and he dodged it with ease though as he did so Raike was somehow next to him and gave him a swift kick to the face though it was blocked with ease by his hammer. Despite hitting as hard as he can and having his foot blocked by a hammer that would have harmed anyone Raike didn't show any source of pain.
"Hmm…impressive. You're the first non-ally of mine that's ever dodged a simple attack that I used." Raike said with the same emotionless voice.
"I wouldn't call that simple to anyone since that would have killed someone but I'm a different story." The Stranger said.
Raike seemed to be not interested in the Strangers words but he did listen and nodded.
"I see. Though it seems pointless if I may say. The minute your eyes made contact with me you should have took those three and ran." Raike said
He then raised his left hand and his scythe came back to its master's grip.
"-Sigh- It's not my job to fight and kill you but seeing as though you are persistent I cannot allow you to live and get in the way of my masters plans. So I'm sorry to say this but I'm going to end this fight quickly so…die." Raike said.
The masked Shadowling then raised his Scythe and brought it down upon the Stranger but stopped. The Stranger stared at Raike to see him frozen with his eyes widen slightly and he seemed unfazed about it.
"That took longer then I thought. I didn't think that my eye would take that long to get him under the hallucination." The Stranger said as he looked at Raike's body.
Away from Raike and The Stranger, The young girl was facing off against Kratos's resurrected corpse though she seemed to be having fun as she started beating up the pile of flesh. She then kicked the corpse in its hips and it fell to the ground which made the girl smile.
"Idiot's body is going to die again. Idiot should learn when to stay dead!" She said.
The corpse then lurched up which surprised her and lashed out an ender-like tentacle which pierced the center of her chest. Before she could react what happened she was instantly pulled towards Kratos's body and she watched as his chest opened up showing blackish-purple tinted ribs that dug into her brown robe and flesh as if it was going to devour her. Instead of screaming in pain like a normal person the girl only giggled and four elongated arms with clawed hands sprouted from her back and grabbed hold of the body. Before the corpse could retaliate she ripped the body to shreds with her fore harms and while doing so some blood got onto her face and outfit.
She then lowered her elongated arms and took a bite of Kratos's body and began to chew on the chunk of meat before turning to see Raike and the stranger's battle but when she did her eyes widen. She saw the stranger get up and raise his ready hammer ready to strike Raike who appeared to be not moving for some strange reason.
"Master Raike!" She yelled.
The girl the dropped the pieces of Kratos's body and rushed at the stranger who turned to see the girl coming but anticipated this. She sent her four elongated arms at the Stranger but to her surprised he disappeared. She was confused and didn't know where he went until she was hit on the side of her chest which shattered a few bones and sent her sprawling towards Raike. She groaned after the blow and struggled back to her feet but before she could her head was bashed to pieces by the Strangers hammer killing her instantly as her head turned into black mush beneath his hammer. Seeing that she was dealt with the Stranger raised his Hammer swung at Raikes and smashed his head completely off. The body soon grew limp and in a matter of seconds his Scythe fell to the ground which was followed by his body collapsing on the ground. Though for some reason the Plague Doctor mask still stayed intact.
The Stranger sighed seeing both of his opponents were dead and turn to Kai and the two unconscious Princesses. He would see the young boy breathing heavily as he watched the fight go down.
"Wh-…who are you?" Kai asked rather weakly.
The Stranger looked at Kai for a moment before picking up Willow and Silk and heaved them on his shoulders answered.
"The Crow of the Night. Now…let's get you guys to safety" The Stranger said.
Kai nodded though he was unable to move. The Stranger saw this and placed his hammer into Kai's hands and spoke.
"Say "Return" When I teleport away. I'll take these two somewhere safe and sound along with you so you guys can heal." The Stranger said.
Kai nodded rather slowly and watched as the Stranger teleported away with the two girls leaving the boy alone. After a few minutes Kai looked at the hammer and spoke the word that the stranger said to him.
"Return."
In a instant Kai teleported with the hammer still in his grasp and appear beside the Stranger while keeping the hammer up to support him. Despite the venom inside him Kai still made some effort to stand. Kai looked around to find himself in some sort of Graveyard-like clinic-styled underground entrance but his mind and vision were growing fuzzy. He then turned to the Stranger to see him place Willow and Silk on two stretchers and mobs that Kai was unfamiliar with took them inside. After that Kai heard the Stranger talking to someone though he couldn't tell who it was.
"Who's he?" The mysterious voice asked referring to Kai.
"-sigh- Don't worry. I just found him being attacked by some Spider bastard but it was no big deal. He along with those two girls who are princesses are poisoned and they need help immediately." The Stranger said.
"Alright then." The voice said.
Before Kai could say anything he blacked out from the blood loss and venom but he was caught by the Stranger who rested the unconscious boy on the wheel chair before he was taken to the underground clinic.
-Elsewhere-
On the battle grounds where the stranger fought Raike and his companion the two decapitated corpses laid on the grassy plains. Though when ten minutes had passed Raike's decapitated body lurched upwards. The body then started to move its fingers and then after five seconds a head sprouted from Raike's body covered in a thin, transparent black substance though his face was covered by his medium white hair. After the recovery of the attack Raike outstretched his arm and grabbed his plague doctor mask and simply placed it back on his face, and sighed as he looked around the area.
"Ugh….should've seen that coming. That guy is truly different if he was able to take my head off using that ability of his and his hammer. Still…I have collected the data I needed and my assignment for Lord Neydah is complete. I have no other reason to be here so I shall head back." Raike sighed emotionlessly.
He then turned and saw the dead body of the village girl. His eyes actually seemed to produce some emotion of sadness as he saw her dead though when the body lurch up his eyes seemed to widen slightly. He watched as the skin on the bodies neck began to regenerate and the formed a head. After about ten seconds the girl was done rejuvenating her head though her hair was now short white jaw-length hair, and when she opened her eyes they were still a sickly pale yellow color though her left pupil was pure red.
Raike was surprised and didn't think that she would have regenerative powers like most of the Shadowlings but his eyes slowly went back to a emotionless state as he watched as the girl got up and began to crack her neck. Once she was done she looked down at Raike and smiled.
"Master Raike is alive…and so is…"
She then stopped and she began to think of her name. Though as she as she tried she couldn't remember her name and her smile turned into a frown. Raike saw this and figured that the Black blood that he injected into her must have messed up her memories and sighed.
"You're name….is….Maria." Raike told her as he gave her a false but reassuring name.
Maria simply nodded hearing her name and gave Raike a smile. Seeing her happy Raike grabbed his scythe and stood up. He then made a portal and motioned Maria to follow which she did and they both walked into the portal together leaving no trace of their departure when the portal closed behind them.
