"You didn't even wait for me to say start… rude." Jeremy continued, heaving a deep breath through his nose before he tilted his head to glance at his severed left arm with a laid-back smile. "I bet you told you goodbyes to… Dick, I think, but still… that really is quite rude— you know what, yeah... rude."
"Said by someone who shot my friends' face off!" She shouted before jumping towards him in an attempt to land a kick. It was followed by a downward slash coming from her claws that he beautifully dodged as he widened his grin.
She didn't stop there. Placing her hands onto the concrete ground as though it was her feet and using it to propel herself further, she got into his range after getting away from his blade by making herself spin. Then, with a grunt, she drove her heel into the side of his face, sending him to the floor along with an ample amount of blood gushing out of his mouth. Taking a break just to put up a triumphant smile and knowing that she was able to land a hit while still in midair, she clenched her fist and sent it to where her target was until it met nothing but the ground.
"You're not the only one who could think, mister… so-called villain," Nina added, wiping the whites off of her face as she looked at him rolling away with a conceited smirk. "How do you like the tall buildings around here, must be quite a shame that your buddy in the distance won't be able to help you now."
Jeremy staggered to his feet while throwing a cough or two as he caressed the blackened side of his face. "Well, that is true… Nina, can I call you Nina, nevermind," he continued, now moving on with his usual cocky tone. "I did think that this would happen, I like maps, and I, for one, am a big-brained man of culture after all. So, with that being said…'' He paused to glance at both of his sides, still without dropping his expression as though it was necessary for those two shadows, who wore this white frowning mask while carrying a blade of their own, to appear ever so slowly from the shadows. "I bought some time and some friends from the Choir, which was of course, who we are."
"I'll just ask for my friends for forgiveness later…" Nina responded with a hopeful chuckle, now with the side of her face turning black until her ears began to expand and look as if it were a bat's. She then turned her determined eyes towards him, declaring, "I'll have to say sorry that they were killed by a weak and a cowardly man such as you!"
"Oh boo, hoo… save me from your filthy-ass lines you fucking protagonist-ass bitch, people must have wanted to bash your face in with a rock if that's how you lived your life. I know a girl that could turn your friends into mush by just touching them and I know a goddamn macho-man with a dolphin head that could split your fatass friend with a single swing of a fucking fire ax!" He shouted at her, stepping back to let the two other reapers come in as if they were some bodyguards tasked to protect him. "Nothing would change if they were the ones who did it, so the fuck do you want, a medal? But eeeeeeeeeeeeeehh, nevermind... enough with the chit chat because it's time for round two!" He paused to raise his hand in the air to point at her with this maniacal smile that accentuated his deep blue eyes that now seemed darker than ever. "GET HIM, BOYS!"
The two others rushed with their weapons towards her without another word and there, their long exchange began. They came in with their blades with an intent to sever her head away from her body and she responded accordingly by covering her body with a thick layer of armor that resembles an exoskeleton of an insect and by transforming her arms to mimic the shape of a mantis' claws. What came next was the sound of the air whistling like an orchestra defined by the sound of metal clashing with her body as it barely makes a scratch.
That's the time when a shot was made.
"There you are…" She used her legs to push the other reapers away to make herself some room and after dodging the incoming bullet that came from a fairly tall building in the distance, with her arms transforming and extending as far as three times her normal arm's length, she squinted her eyes and threw a rock where the attack was made.
They soon heard the sound of the same rock smashing through concrete and flesh, and that made them even more impatient. With a sense of revenge now gnawing through their minds, the two reapers gripped their blades tighter as they went back to their target who simply dodged their attacks and dashed towards Jeremy in silence.
Jeremy planted his feet, now losing his usual cocky composure and threw at her a punch that caught nothing but air right before he felt her hand boring a hole through his stomach. He froze and coughed out some blood before his hands fell lifelessly onto his side and after a moment, with her arm still lodged inside his body, Nina decided to raise her head and look at his face.
"I made a bet, and it looks like I've won! I do not know if one of you guys could summon a mob-like shadow that can't do much but—"
Right then, she saw his usual smile that rendered her whole body useless before everything turned bright.
She yanked her arm out of his body in panic that made him gasp in pain, bringing her a sense of comfort that she actually did some damage. With her eyes making it seem as if the whole world was lagging and with her ears hurting from something that she wasn't able to hear and causing her pain to the point that she could no longer think, the only thing that made her move was a shard of metal, a bullet grazing through the bottom of her right eye. It made her crouch and thicken her skin while expanding it until it covered the entirety of her face up until the base of her neck right before she felt she was being bombarded with bullets going at her like rain.
It brought her a great deal of pain and of course, her skin soon started to crack because of that onslaught that at that moment seemed never-ending. She had a plan in mind that she would have just to wait until at least her hearing recovers so she could finish her enemies but then...
Among that fuzzy rain of metal that soon sounded all the same, something went through her back in complete silence and punched a hole through her shoulder, making her drop her guard the moment she lost all her breath. The hail of bullets had stopped at that moment so she was able to keep herself on her feet and with her vision, slightly recovering by the second, she saw the man in front of him, smiling and moving his hand with that twisted grin as if he was talking.
"How do you like them bets?" He muttered.
What came after was the feeling of a cold heavy metal, a set of harpoons made heavier by the thick metallic ropes at the end of them, extending through the shadows of the houses and the trees that filled the streets. Three found themselves at her legs, two bit through her left arm and one went to her right, and three stuck out from her back with one lodging itself in her chest while the remaining two shared the space around her stomach. It forced her to kneel and look at the half-dead and one-armed man before her who gazed her at her like a tyrant while carrying a satisfied and sinister grin.
"Now, looks we have a firm believer of that white rapper basically telling us to seize the moment, that you own it, and you never let go." He clapped, continuing with his voice that was a little bit broken and weaker compared to how he spoke before. "And oh boy, I do like my guests more if they're capable of thinking… that is, it is easier for me to… play around and get creative… but you did get to stick it in me so I guess that would need you to have a prize so… if you're wondering how you lost then… other than the fact that you're fighting me… I also brought three sets of sniper rifles," he continued with a mocking tone as though his lips were twisted. "That's all for now and it's my win… so just sleep… good night and don't let the bedbugs bite, if there are any, anyway… and I'll see you later on the show."
To her surprise, with her vision that now had turned better, what she saw was him leaning towards her to give her head a little tap before she felt an intense shock running through her body as if she was getting fried inside out. Her mind went blank, she fell to the ground as if her strength was being siphoned off of her and the last thing she saw the man's feet moving away from her playfully as if he was tap dancing.