The Rising of the Scythe Hero

"So, round two?"

Grinning, I cracked my neck, lowered myself into position, pulled the scythe back and… dashed forward.

A sharp pain stabbed my side, but I had to ignore it. Shame neither I nor Night had any talent for healing magic. Though honestly, I wasn't entirely sure about Night, but I wouldn't bet on it either way.

The ogre howled again, his gaze even more ferocious now. Understandable – it's hard to stay sane when your head's barely hanging on your shoulders.

The moment I got close to the monster, he suddenly slammed his club into the ground right in front of me. At first, I didn't get the point of that move, but a moment later, a shockwave rippled out from the impact site, sending a few more shallow cuts across my body.

So… the guy's got skills too, huh?

I decided not to take stupid risks and play it a little safer. Up to this point, I hadn't paid much attention to one of my abilities, mostly because most fights ended within the first few hits. But now, going up against a monster roughly my level, I figured it was time to be more cautious.

From the very start of the fight, the Reaper's Scythe had only managed to land a single hit on the enemy. But now…

"GUOOO!!!"

The ogre roared helplessly as some tiny insect buzzed around him, clearly driving him insane with its "bites."

Well, those tiny cuts I kept dealing him couldn't be much more than bug bites for a brute like that. I was simply circling around his legs, gradually slicing him up.

[Special effect activated: Withering

Enemy stats reduced by 2%]

Another slash…

[Special effect activated: Withering

Enemy stats reduced by 2%]

The Reaper's Scythe had a special effect – Withering. On paper, it sounded absurdly overpowered, making the enemy practically helpless. But in reality, it wasn't nearly as broken as it seemed.

First of all, to trigger the effect, you had to deal direct damage with the Reaper's Scythe. The blade had to cut the enemy's flesh – anything else wouldn't count. No magic, no skills, no grazing their armor or clothes.

Then you had to ask yourself – how many times can you realistically cut an enemy during an average fight? Most of the time, you don't even land ten clean hits. And scoring small cuts on a monster that short with a weapon as bulky as a scythe? Let's just say, it ain't exactly easy.

And finally…

[Special effect activated: Withering

Enemy stats reduced by 2%

Effect accumulation limit reached – 50%]

The ability had a hard cap – you couldn't weaken your opponent by more than half. Not that it was really a downside – weakening an enemy by 50% was fatal enough in most cases.

So, after buffing myself and debuffing the ogre with Withering and Night's curses, there was no reason to drag this out any longer.

The ogre, who had been decently fast earlier, now moved in a way far more fitting for his size. He couldn't even catch me anymore. And his attacks…

Whoosh

The vertical swing of my scythe once again sliced through the club aimed at me, and the monster blinked in confusion.

I gathered strength in my legs and leapt up…

"Erst Phantom Scythe."

And again, this time launching myself off the flat side of the phantom scythe that appeared mid-air, shooting straight toward the monster's neck.

The ogre howled, his hand jerking up in a panic, trying to swat me away, but he no longer had the speed or strength to pull it off. A gleaming steel arc carved through the air as I slid past him unhindered, landing smoothly against the cave wall, then dropping softly to the floor.

Thud

The monster's head tumbled from its shoulders, its body freezing in place with arms outstretched, then collapsing with a wet splat onto the floor.

"That's that." Exhaling, I immediately sat down.

"Master?" Night ran over to me.

"I'm fine. Just a little worn out."

And that was true – I was only a little tired. Well, aside from what was clearly a broken rib. Damn, I needed to do something about that… Either stock up on way more healing potions or…

I chugged one right away. Their recovery speed sucked, but it was better than nothing.

The ogre's corpse gave me one Scythe Shard per body part – except for the head. I could only get the full scythe after absorbing all his parts, but that would have to wait. I needed to keep the head for the village elder as proof. No need to deal with extra questions or suspicion. I wasn't in the mood for arguments or wasting energy.

After resting a bit, Night and I decided to explore the cave further. Although calling it "exploration" was a stretch. The room the ogre had come from contained nothing but a few rotting monster corpses – and they hadn't even risen as undead. And, of course, no trace of the missing husband whose case I had agreed to look into. Pity, but not a big deal. Worst case, I still had a few more days. After that, as they say, my hands were tied.

So… was the ogre the source of the plague? His cave was guarded by two undead, he himself was decently strong, and the corpses inside hadn't reanimated like the others. By classic RPG logic, I had just finished a "quest" by defeating the dungeon's final boss.

All that was left was to mop up the remaining wandering monsters in the forest, and the job would be done.

"Ooooh…" The village elder stared at the ogre's head in my hands with awe.

"I hope this is enough to clear up any doubts you might've had?"

"More than enough, respected Hero." The old man bowed deeply. "On behalf of all the villagers, I thank you for saving us from certain doom. Here," he handed me a pouch of coins. You've more than earned this."

"Good. I'll stay for another day or two to finish off the remaining undead. You don't mind, do you?" I clarified, just in case.

"No, no, of course not. I'll be glad to offer you our hospitality for a few more days. Please, make yourself at home."

"At home, huh?" I muttered thoughtfully.

Yeah… Last thing I wanted was to feel "at home" anywhere. My mood suddenly took a dive.

I tried not to think about my life in the old world. I didn't know how this whole thing would end, but going back wasn't on the table.

Sure, I wanted to live a long and preferably happy life, but if it came down to choosing… I'd rather die fighting in this world than go "home."

On that point, I guess Naofumi and I would never see eye to eye.

Back in the room the elder had given me, I fed the scythe the last piece of the Necro-Ogre. That unlocked an entire new weapon branch – the Necro-Ogre Scythe.

It had a monstrous attack power boost compared to the Reaper's Scythe, but came with a nasty side effect – reduced agility, meaning slower movement and attack speed. Interesting option, especially if I could enchant it to regain some of that lost agility… but I had a feeling completely negating the downside wouldn't be possible. Besides, I preferred speed over raw power. Though… having both would be nice too.

The ogre's death had also given me a hefty amount of experience points. Guess he really did count as some kind of boss. Or at least an elite monster.

I spent the whole next day doing exactly what I'd planned – clearing the area, all while thinking about our next move toward the dragon Ren had killed.

At first, I figured the monsters had mutated because of the dragon, but the village where Ren took it down was a day's travel from here. I doubted the corruption could've spread that far. If that were the case, it wouldn't be an isolated outbreak – it'd be a full-blown plague ravaging the world.

Ideally, I wanted to grab the dragon's core without a fight. From what I understood, it took time for a dead dragon to "ferment" back to life. I hadn't heard any rumors from the villagers about an epidemic near the dragon's corpse, which meant it hadn't rotted enough for a proper resurrection yet. I still had time.

Night had started fighting in her human form more often, using her tiny fists for attacks. Fists that hit way harder than her fragile appearance suggested. I suspected her Qi mastery was progressing fast. Sometimes her punches outright ruptured weaker monsters from the inside. At the same time, she kept weakening enemies with dark magic and boosting herself with wind spells. At this point, I wasn't even sure if I needed to get her a weapon.

Maybe I should buy her some clawed gloves or combat gauntlets? But then there was the issue of her shapeshifting. Weapons would just get in the way.

The ideal solution for Night was to master Qi completely and ditch weapons altogether. That way, neither of us would have to waste time inventing gimmicks like her clothes that vanish during transformations – but for weapons instead.

My own training had… stalled a bit. My scythe mastery hadn't improved in a while, and I could feel I was missing something to break through. Maybe I just needed more combat experience? But I fought constantly… And sparring with Night didn't help – she simply couldn't push me hard enough to make it worthwhile. Sigh…

Looked like I'd have to head to Zeltbull soon – the land of mercenaries and coliseums. If anywhere had opponents strong enough to help me grow, it was there.

The morning of the second day, that woman came to visit. Her face showed a faint glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe, the Hero had brought her news. But…

"I'm sorry. I didn't find anything that could be your husband."

"Oh…"

Her eyes emptied. Her shoulders slumped, her face pale, with heavy dark circles under her eyes. And yet – she was still beautiful. The stress of the past few days had dulled her natural beauty, but couldn't snuff it out entirely. Most surprising though – there wasn't even a hint of anger or resentment in her eyes.

I was ready for her to suddenly lash out, but… it didn't happen. She simply stepped aside and slid down to the ground, leaning weakly against the house wall.

"I'll be leaving the village tomorrow. I'll try to look for him today, but like I said, I can't promise anything."

"Yes… Thank you, Hero."

As expected, I didn't find anything that day. And the woman didn't show up again, probably having lost all hope completely.

I'd never experienced the pain of losing a loved one, so I couldn't understand her feelings. But for her sake, I hoped she'd stop tormenting herself and move on as soon as possible.

From midday to evening, we didn't run into a single undead. Even if some remained, the villagers could handle them. They'd survived this long without me, after all. They weren't completely helpless.

At night, as usual, I didn't sleep, preferring to spend time studying another ice magic spell from my grimoire. Night sat quietly beside me, eyes closed, practicing her Qi.

We sat like that, calmly minding our own business… until Night suddenly opened her eyes wide.

"Master…" The little bird looked at me nervously. "Something's coming… Something really bad."

"Hm?" I looked up from the book, trying to sense it myself. But… nothing. "I don't feel anything."

"It's… similar to the monster you fought in the cave, but… stronger. And… scarier."

Stronger and scarier? What the hell was out there now?

The answer came quickly.

"Aaaah!!!" I heard a man scream outside.

I jumped through the window and immediately saw a house on fire, to the left of the elder's home. I'd been so focused on reading, I hadn't noticed the faint flickers of firelight outside the window.

A few seconds later came another scream – a woman's. And then… a child's.

Turning toward the source, I saw a group of monsters spilling out of another house, which burst into flames moments later.

"What the hell…?"

I thought I'd wiped out most of them, if not all. But…

There were a lot of them. Way more than I could've possibly killed during my time here.

Howls, screams, growls – they echoed from all directions. But none of that mattered.

It all faded into background noise compared to what I sensed now. A wave of magic and Qi several times stronger than the ogre's – and far more twisted and repulsive. Then I saw the source.

At the edge of the village, right at the main entrance, stood a man.

No… not a man.

He used to be human, but now…

Pale, bluish skin – more fitting for a corpse than the living. Sunken, lifeless eyes with a faint purple glow.

He stood there quietly, like a lost spirit, indifferently watching the chaos unfold. And the monsters, flooding in from the forest, simply avoided him – like water parting around Moses.

"Looks like… I finally found you," I muttered, staring at the… monster?

Digging in my pocket, I pulled out the necklace the woman had given me. Then I looked back at the monster.

Around his neck… hung the exact same necklace.