Grim Reaper in the Apocalypse: Reaping Immortals

"Do you guys hear that?" Altna said out loud.

Everyone kept their ears open but none of them could hear what Atlan heard. Even if they couldn't understand the Canzer language, they still couldn't hear anything but the sounds of dead branches creaking and crows crying in the distance.

Despite that, Ninth didn't completely dismiss his words. "What did you hear?"

"I think it's a Canzer."

She didn't know how he got that information, but she knew better than to question a hunch. Sometimes, it was much better to trust someone's sixth sense rather than the other five.

A crescent beam of white light suddenly shone towards them at almost light speed! It came from the deepest depths of the fog seemingly out of nowhere.

Thanks to Atlan's timely warning, the Tank already readied a defense for the formation. His body lit up in a red tint as he activated his LifeSkill, bashing his expanding shield toward the beam and redirecting it out of harm's way.

TANG!

The crescent beam reflected out, hitting one of the dead trees.

Everyone watched as the dark and dead tree suddenly vibrated, slowly inching its branch outwards as if it were a giant archaic beast awakening from its thousand years of slumber.

A curved slit suddenly appeared from out of its thick trunk, creating a permanent sinister smile on the tree. And even though it had no eyes, Atlan felt as if it was looking at him straight in the eye.

It pulled its roots out of the ground and stretched its 'legs' before making its way towards him and the group.

"I'll take care of this," Ninth said as she sprinted towards the tree with her one-handed sword skidding through the mud.

The animated tree bent its body left and right as it welcomed the arrival of Ninth. It didn't seem aggressive. In fact, it even looked as if it was dancing in the night with jovial ignorance.

But just as she stepped foot where its branches could reach her, its mouth curved up even higher. It swung down its dead branch towards her at speeds Atlan couldn't see.

In response, Ninth raised her sword and blocked the branch easily. Then, she pushed the branch outwards, disorienting the animated tree.

Once the tree showed a weakness in its position, she quickly took advantage and brought down her mighty sword.

The blade created a split directly in the middle of the tree. Once her sword hit the ground, the tree broke in half and dissipated into nothingness.

Atlan waited for the tree to make clones of itself or regenerate, but after a few seconds, nothing happened.

"The Canzer has yet to grace us with its presence," Ninth explained. "It seems that one of its powers is to create live monsters from inanimate objects."

Just then, Atlan heard another scream from the fog.

'Kukuku…I'm so happy! So happy! Victory is mine! I'm so happy.'

This time, he wasn't the only one who heard the Canzer's words. Everyone turned their heads from the source of the beam of light. And even though they hadn't seen anything yet, they felt the air turn…heavy.

Beyond this fog was the Canzer.

"Sniper…take the shot," Ninth whispered.

The sharpshooter never left his head off the scope of his gun. And with her permission, he activated his sniper LifeSkill.

A blue magic circle appeared near his scope and enhanced his vision. And as soon as he saw the outline of his target, he pulled the trigger.

The bullet left the barrel at intense speeds, gathering momentum from each meter it traveled. Though the bullet looked nothing special, Atlan knew better than to underestimate a Specialist-level Sniper—-something that the Canzer didn't do.

The Canzer jumped up from its left leg to its right, as if it had the leisure to dance while the bullet headed straight for its head.

As it neared its chitinous body, the Canzer beamed a smile from its mouth and intercepted the bullet in mid-air. The ray of light was a crescent smile that hit the bullet almost instantaneously after the Canzer smiled.

As soon as it was hit by the ray of light, the bullet suddenly slowed down in mid-air. The Sniper saw his bullet suddenly split open in the front which created a sinister smile similar to that of the dead tree from earlier.

Once it was assimilated, the bullet slowly turned around and whizzed straight toward its sender!

Just as the sniper thought he'd get hit by his own bullet, the Tank suddenly appeared in front of him and deflected the bullet to the ground.

The bullet spiraled into the mud before losing all its momentum and dissipating into nothingness.

'Kukuku! Victory is mine! I will carve a smile on all your faces!'

The Sniper gritted his teeth as he stared down the Canzer in his scope. "Don't think that's the end."

Suddenly, the Canzer stopped jumping up and down as it sensed something behind it.

Two more bullets, each with a force greater than the original bullet, pierced the Canzer's sides, tearing through its chitinous armor and wreaking havoc inside.

The Sniper smiled. His LifeSkill allowed him to create copies of his bullet that targetted his enemies in different directions!

'Kuahh! Ha! Ha! I'm so happy! I'll make you humans even happier than me!'

Strangely, even when it had two enormous holes at the side of its body, it didn't express any anger or fury. It simply showed even more excitement and happiness. Atlan couldn't understand it.

"I'm hating that high-pitched scream," Ninth said.

As if it wanted to respond to that rude comment, the Canzer screamed at the top of its 'lungs' and created a shockwave that would disorient the whole group.

Thankfully, the Tank used his LifeSkill to literally bounce the sound away from their location, letting them hear nothing but a silent murmur in the distance.

This saved them from a horrible case of tinnitus, but that meant that Atlan only heard a small part of the Canzer's words.

'….slow human is delicious…'