(Discontinued) CORHEIM Year One Volume 1: The New Heart in Town

Chapter Petnaest

Chapter 15–Chamber of Thorns; Bad Company
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A fierce battle was in session, a group of angry tweens versus a higher level of Reaper known as a "Thornstalker", an intelligent specimen of Reaper that excels in long-ranged combat, its large tentacles-for-arms were adorned with prickly thorn: Oozing with sleep-inducing toxins, perfect for ensnaring weak prey. The Thornstalker was also effective when it came to gladiatorial combat like this fight.
Fighting was the only thing it knew as well as survival.
It initiated the fight by slamming its long tentacle-like arm towards Reza, Funka, Takeo, Cade, Sanda and Akina, all except Reza scurried off away from the attack. He simply acted as a blockade to the slam. He refused to go down like a "wimp" in his own eyes, struggling to hold it back as Funka lunged at it with alarming speed by unleashing several explosions to get to here she was.
Eventually it grabbed Reza without killing him yet, simply constricting the oldest kid of the bunch.
She grabbed ahold of the Reaper's head and held her hand in front of its head. Get a taste of this!!!!! She thought while smiling cockily as she fired her explosions at point-blank, releasing all of that anger. It felt great to release on a "thing, not a "who"
It did not feel her explosions, it only stared at her blankly.
Uhhhh.......I really did screw up this time.........Usually her explosion were not on her father's', who did not even have to fight to
Her assault was rendered useless as the beast threw her on the ground with such force. If she did not catch her equilibrium in time and used her power to slow herself down: Her body parts would have ricochet all over the ancient foundation. Funka played it smart in her eyes: Using her hands to expel out her powers was the only one she could do.
It prepared for the killing blow, its only freed arm was in the air.
It stopped for a second, being a machine after all by swinging in a heavy fashion again but this time at Sera and Ryoji. He countered it with a sudden swipe
"Can someone keep it off from us?" Sera asked irately, getting angry as her Aether was depleting over time and focusing on all of her attention onto the orb.
She looked at the Heart-Bond and apologized briefly.
"Sorry about that......Just don't stop, Ryoji. We're almost finished."
"We hope so." Igneus was took charge of speaking to Sera, he licked his mouth once meanwhile Takeo accepted her request unhesitatingly, raising his left foot then stomping the ground to release small mountains of ice.
Another one of them joined in: Cade and Inugann, who stopped it from killing Reza. Cade smiled nervously as he pulled the lever that controls the arm, which punched the Reaper with brute force once.
The impact of the punch felt great to witness, but  Cades' attention was piqued from his necklace gleaming a red energy. Ouuuu....That is never happened before......He held it up and glanced upon it, which a tear came from his onyx eye for hewas ebullient. He jammed the drill into the machine like an ordinary car key.
Everyone marveled at the Mecha as the left hand manifested into a drill shaped of a navy blue heart. Alright! Here it goes! He thought inside his mind.
"Gigadrill!!!" He yelled out, pouring all of his power out in the new found weapon rammed inside the Cyber Thorn chest area. If only he paid attention to how
"......" The Reaper spoke its first word. "....!!.!...!!" It shouted as it grabbed the drill and threw the Mecha to Sera's side. The left arm of the Mecha was broken off.
"It speaks?!" Akina marveled as her speech impediment was not there to cause awkwardness around her. "What's next: It's gonna be rapping Rap God?" Sanda quipped around her before the rest had their eyes on him. He quickly retorted by saying, "It looks like an Eminem fan." They all still looked at him.
Ryoji thought that Reapers could not speak or think complex thoughts and ideologies. It resumed to talk once again. It had a menacing but melancholy voice with metallic rasps between its speech."..............??"
"Why this school?!?" Questioned Reza, the Reaper stood for a second and said, "..........." 
Yeah....Speak to the giant killing robot with large tentacles for hands...... Akina thought, readying herself by collected more kunai.
"Is that Gaelic?" Bonded-Ryoji asked his assistant, who then looked down. She was trying to figure out on where she heard that before. "No..." Sera said, realizing the castle defenses are
"Whatever it is: It's older than Gaelic. It sounds.....to ancient for me to understand."
If I'm alive after this, I need to go to Houndspire to Babel's' apartment immediately. I was going to visit him while in the casual mood, but now it seems he will get pissed at me for using his skills..... Ryoji thought as Akina threw a barrage of kunai wired with flammable metal wires.
her friend gasped at her as she said; "Akina, you shouldn't be so reckless!" Akina bit her lip in frustration, she wanted to talk back at her friend. She was tired of being weak: She needed to pull her own weight and could not since even her best friend saw her as a damsel-in-distress.
It took the higher ranking Reaper took a while to recover.
Attacking the monster head on doesn't work, neither from a far distance. The middle ground as to be five meters!
"Alright,  Takeo: Cover me!" Yelled Funka, her calm demeanor was still intact as her friend fired shards of ice and immediately obeying her orders——the Cyber Thorn was conscious once again, its single ruby gleamed with anger. Ryoji knew it was serious now, the arm of the Reaper morphed into a bludgeon with metal spikes. "......?...?.??.........?.??....??..." It hummed, reminiscent to that of a declaration of war as he slammed his spiked mace into the ground, causing a mighty shake in it, Ryoji activates his flame powers and summoned a large star like projectile.
He threw the ball of explosiveness at the Cyber Thorn, engulfed completely by black smoke.
They heard a large thump, which they celebrate with them jumping and praising Funka for her finishing move.
Too soon. Why the hell are you all celebrating so soon? Ryoji lamented on their choices to be joyful in the wrong time. He knew that one must never celebrate too soon for them could leave an opening.
A large swoosh sound came as something hit Funka's arm, the sudden hit made her crash into the stone. She yelped in pain, all before forcing herself she could not show Akina that she was pain. Funka breathed sharply, Akina gasped and came running towards her.
"Akina—Stay back!!"
As she got closer to comfort her friend, a large whip like appendage lashed the ground and ambushed her by grabbing her quickly. The frightful girl turned to see it was the Thornstalker; stalking her like a hunter. It seemed that the Reaper wanted to play with its food before consuming it.
"...!.!.!!.!.!....!!!!!!...???????" It screeched at their captive Akina, who was confused in what it was saying.
"I-I dunno what you're saying, but-t I'm thinking you want to eat me-e!" She stuttered, she was quite frightened of the Cyber Thorn, its faceless head drew in closer to her, "staring" at her. "...........:("
Upon finishing it sentence, Reza harden his fist and punched it as hard as he could and delivered it to the Thornstalker. "You won't get away with us as long as we're living!!"
"I'm sorry, but I don't prefer my friends about to be eaten by a pile of metallic shit!" Confessed Ryoji. His fingers on his left hand grew into fire and fired at the Creature, cinder collided with the beast. Takeo grabs Akina runs off to a safer spot in the room. Lights glistened slightly, evidence of the phenomenon has not subsided. While the backup generator was up and running, others did not. Cade's Mecha tackled head-on, the ragtag group gazed at Inugann as the two behemoths clashed with one other.
It was a beautiful event-the Mecha with a Dog-like face versus an Elite Reaper. The trading of punches, and it lasted for a five minutes. The Cyber Thorn grabbed Inugann's' remaining arm by the snout and threw it towards it, it flew into the air like a rock would when skipping across the waters. But the Heart-Bond caught the Machine with ease, and spoke with prestige. "How come on!! I just learned how to pilot and now my Mecha has no damn arms!!"
"Alright, us against you." The Heart-Bond cracked his clawed hands, he was anxious in fighting with the monsters that came from his nightmare. It laughed at Ryoji's claim——although it was more of a cackle. It creeped him out. It seemed that the higher the rank an Reaper was, more intelligence it had. Its personality was derived by a aristocrat in the 19th century. "....??.?.?.?.?.?.!.!!.!!.!.!.!.!.!.!..!.!" It insulted Ryoji, he threw his hand-which our Heart-Bonded dodges it with ease. Or so he thought.
He couldn't even move his limbs, he grunted in frustration as the Reaper, came in closer.
".........!!!!!!!.!!.!.!.!!.!.!.S!!!!!!!"
beast shouted as he raised his arm to stab Ryoji, he swigged around like a caterpillar in a spider web.
Impenetrable ice froze the monster's foot, it turned to see that-it was Takeo who done it. The Reaper's foot shattered from the icy snow, hopping on one foot now. It was becoming crippled, like an old veteran who served their time in the military they stood by idly.
Damnit! I can't move my arm but the other one... Funka thought, she grunted in pain as she got on her feet, bracing herself. She smiled devilishly once again, her posture grew stronger as the enigmatic messenger gazed upon her. "?!??.............???" It tried its best to slander, but it would seem that Funka dashed at the speed of where the Reaper didn't see her movements.
"I don't understand on what you're saying, but for a machine: You talk a lot." She said angrily, she grabbed ahold of the Messenger's emblem with such force-Thornstalker just tumbled down as it went down. Their clash was quite a lingering battle between those two, struggling with bitterness between them. Eventually, it roared as louder than before when the girl finally ripped the emblem off of its head.
It held its faceless head in agony as it was bombarded by thousands of volts of lethal electricity- The Thornstalker was gradually weakened now.
What the Reaper was preparing  thought as his tentacles grew more robust and thus gaining more jagged black thorns on them.
"Hey, Takeo."
"Yeah?"
"Remember that Old Rock band that we used to listen under the porch to escape from those bullies.
"Bad Company?"
"Yeah." She shook her head, "I love Bad Company." She said pridefully, the demon tiger-box boy jumped and yelled out from the bottom of his heart; "Me too!" His fist grew colder than Antarctica as he perform his Frost Knifehand, his facial expression when
He didn't land it—-instead he was blown away to a wall. He coughed up blood as his eyes closed from exhaustion, it was only seven in the game now.
What!?! Cade thought, perplexing on how Takeo Fukuazan, a Shinobi with unrivaled power, was defeated in an instant. His Mecha walked on its own, and punched the Cyber Thorn. All before the arms of Inugann fell to the ground, and was pushed to the ground.
The Reaper laughed at them, trying so hard to beat an unbeatable force, but then again; it respected them for trying such an Herculean task. "???????"
"Sure, even though you're a villain, you are permitted to speak your thoughts!" Clarified Reza, the rest of the rag-tag group sighed and said oh boy.
"Dude it's a Robot——Not a Karen." Sanda chastised Reza.
"...!.!!.!.!....!!!.!!.!.!.!!.!.!..!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!!!..!!.!.!!..!.!!.!.!! .!.!!.!.....!!.!.!..!.!"
As it went on talking and praising them in an unknown language, Sera wasn't too sure of the Reaper in the generator room was all by itself all. The Thornstalker outmatched them. Everyone was weakened because of this fight.
The heavy hitters of the group were seriously injured, even the Heart-Bond: god like beings from folklore, were food to the Reapers.
What could she do?
Absolutely nothing. Her eyes twinkled with sorriness, but the words of the Guardian Spirit came to her once again.
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Sera held the glistening marble in her hand and shouted as loud as she possibly could.
"I SUMMON THE POWERFUL SPIRIT IN THIS ORB TO ASSIST US IN THESE DIRE TIMES: KAWELA!!!" She yelled out with bloody tears coming down her fair skin, The remaining combatants looked at her, who fell unconscious in a second.
Suddenly, the great Reaper grew wrathful, it's limb grew into a spear and stretched it to kill her—but something stopped or rather; someone. A large mist beleaguered the room as something was grabbing it.
Stopping the tentacle from coming for the life of Sera, the smoke evanesces as a large Komodo dragon like creature. Its scales were as black as the Mediterranean night and glisten like diamonds in the sky. Kawela was a behemoth compared to the Thornstalker, the hand of the summon overclouded the Thornstalker's' spiky tentacle.
"How shocking. Don't you pathetic beasts understand when you have lost the battle.. ... But if you are reborn—you do not know death. I will give on what m" Stated the Guardian Force in its native tongue as it bit the tentacle, holding it tight with its dagger like teeth. The Reaper struggled with Kawela, one of its tentacles grabbed the neck of the lizard.
Kawela stopped for a moment before rolling around Thornstalker, crushing every mechanized muscle in it. "Time to walk beyond Heaven!" It shouted, the lizard was surrounded in light as the entire room glowed for a straight minute. The children felt it.
A power like no one has ever felt: The power of a Aeon.
"Such.....strength." Marveled Reza, falling down  as Kawela disappeared into thin light.
The aftermath was the Reaper was now scrap metal, something similar from a dump. "Damn, that's all it could take.. While our attacks just bounced right off of him, that lizard just rolled all over him and it.... just turn into a pile of..." Said Funka, she stood up and held her arm as her eyelids were closed shut and falling down unconscious
"And the way he just grabbed his tentacle. So cool I wannabe a Aeon——" Yelled Sanda before collapsing
A clawed hand grasped the young mechanic's should softly, it was none other than Ryoji, who had turn to his normal form, revealing his face bloodied and scathed.
The door opened, a small individual opened the door telekinetically, Ryoji and Akina was the last one to see on who it was.
The Principal. Of course.........Akina thought before she fell under the influence of great slumber despite having the least amount of damage.
His long face was smirking upon Ryoji who was unsure of what is in store for him now since this was quite interesting to him.
"Not Bad, Little Heart-Bond. Now, what is you want?"
For now, a twelve-hour nap sounded very good to Ryoji, despite lacking the need to sleep. "I," Ryoji stopped talking in English and spoke his first language. "Želim spavati sada. Ja hocu sada spavati."
The dog simply smiled at him as Ryoji, unknowingly knowing his true origin yet understood that beneath that mature persona: Ryoji was still a child.
He came up close and whispered in his ear softly; "You can sleep now."

———Track 15 Ended———