What a jolly little surprise. Unlike the years of past, Nicolas Klaus was able to make it this far without a single interference, and even better, without a single Shinigami in sight. He had grown too comfortable, too encroached in his late night escapade, to truly question why that may be. Ignorant to the events of the Soul Society, which left this Human World so vulnerable, so free for the taking, Klaus continued on, not questioning the gift he appeared to have been given.
What he had not expected, on this Christmas night, was that humans, united, would give him such a fright. Ignorant to the world around him, Klaus gave in to his delight, consuming the souls of families one after another, dashing through the snow, his footsteps heavy across rooftops. His bag full of the souls he had taken, his surroundings now full of the bodies left behind, empty stockings robbed of life from the black coal, victims of the man's black heart.
Click
From behind, a small sound catches the jolly giants ear. Rather than leap through the wall to the next rooftop, as he had done so many times before, Klaus decided to stay. Looking to see the source of the sound, he turns his head over his shoulder. Well what would he see, but a small Quincy Soldier?
”RATATATATATA-”
Not expecting any company, and with no time to react, Klaus’ massive frame leaves him a sitting duck. The barrage of Reishi-formed bullets penetrate through his back, resulting in his body twisting and contorting in pain, their momentum causing him to flail violently. Just as Fredrick’s machine-gun barrage stops, just as the smoke from Klaus’ burning christmas ham reaches his nose, another enemy appears to the fight, a Fullbringer riding a top a bringers light.
"Hmm, Excuse me? you're messin' with the wrong town Jack."
As though skating on ice, the Fullbringer Avillio ran circles around Nicolas, sharing his taunts. Though riddled with holes, to the point that a dashing reindeer could leap through his chest and out the other side Klaus remained standing. His glowing red eyes followed the Fullbringer as he danced in circles and fired his little toy pistols, but Klaus body did not move to react. Rather, it remained motionless, as the green bullets of Avillio’s Fullbring pelted at his flesh, causing no more damage than a BB gun.
Klaus grunts, his fists clenching up, smoke starting to come through his nose, just as his glowing red eyes finally lock onto the quick-dancing Fullbringer. However, in that very moment, a beam of Fullbring-powered green Reishi launches itself from Avillio’s pistols. Though Nicolas had located the blur of a man, it was too late. The beam cut through Klaus’ stomach without resistance, piercing through his flesh, through the wall behind him, and out into the night sky. A young Shizuka would be able to see the streets outside the building glow green, reflecting the light form the blast. A clearer beacon than any as to their location.
Grinding his teeth, foam begins to pour from Klaus’ mouth. His body visibly shakes in anger. As Avillo alters his trajectory, and fires a series of distracting shots, Klaus musters the strength to raise only a single arm. Using his forearm as a shield to deflect the nuisance of his bullets.
He turns, twisting the ribbons of what is left of his body to face Avillo, who now hovers five feet in the air above Klaus. Perhaps it is Avillo’s negating Fullbring eye, or perhaps the damage inflicted upon Klaus was too great, but the large man does not move, or display any sign of emitting Reiatsu. In fact, if one were to attempt to use their senses to find Klaus based off his spiritual energy, they would find none at all.
Regardless, Klaus can only glare at Avillo. His expression terrifying, his face contorted in such anger that he appears more like a canine's snarl than the face of a man. He says nothing, but reaches out his remaining arm. His massive hand outstretched, the size of Avillio’s chest, the Fullbringer being nothing but a toy to him, a toy he means to clutch. That is, he attempts to do so, but instead only turns to face another glowing green beam of energy, staring right down Avillio’s barrel as it charges. When it unleashes, it devastates the titanic Klaus. Shearing through his face, Avillo’s blast penetrates through Klaus’s skull, and down through the building, into the street below.
"Let's get it on Biggin!"
Avillo exclaims, as Klaus clutches at the remaining half of his face. His fingers part, revealing his glowing red eye to be staring furiously at the Fullbringers. Avillio would likely feel his world shift, the killing intent radiating off this creature being so potent, that he would know his next few seconds will only result in death.
That was, until the hulking figure finally noticed it. The trap that had been set up so stealthily. So focused the flashing theatrics of the Fullbringer, Klaus did not notice until now the series of arrows that littered the battlefield around him. Perfectly positioned from one another, they formed a circle around him. Though Klaus had leaked no Reishi, nor displayed any signs of Reishi based ability, Avillio’s Fullbring had plenty. The electric-green energy of Avillio’s Bringer-light had fully charged the arrows of the one known as Silas.
Before Klaus could react, to any of them, Silas’ trap finally sprang. Electricity erupted from the ground, using the Quincy’s arrows as pylons, they arced through one another, trapping Klaus inside. The electric currents sprung out towards the massive man, searing his flesh from outside and in. A massive roar of pain echoed throughout the frozen wonderland that was Naruki. The electric light strobing throughout the night, so that the observing Masked Avenger would have to look away from his perch for just a moment.
Finally, as the electricity died down, so too did the last of Klaus’ energy. He stands, his flesh searing, doing nothing but panting heavily with no lungs to fill with air. His arms stay harmlessly at their sides, the remaining half of his head flung upwards to stare helplessly at the roof.
”Ho-Ho-How can this be?”
They had struck so suddenly, so unexpectedly. Their strikes happening in such unison, Klaus was never afforded an opportunity to react, to retaliate, or even to observe. They had come in, a raid of Quincy, of Fullbringers…but still, no Shinigami.
As he falls to his knees, this thought brings a smile to his face. His body lurches, his shoulders bouncing, as though he were chuckling. With no air left in his throat, his uproarious and maniac laugh would be instead be replaced by a vicious gurgling.
Perhaps in this moment of stillness, those present would notice one important detail. A minor thing, that they would be forgiven for overlooking. Despite all these injuries, these mortal and crippling wounds. Despite all the time standing, the movements, falling to his knees. No blood came from the body of the Saint. Not a single drip, let alone a downpour of lifeblood, had stained the walls of this devastating building.
Now, he had time to react. Now, he had time to observe. Now he had time to
retaliate.
In an explosion of movement, Klaus thrusts his only undamaged arm outward, as though calling forth some invisible force. Ten feet away, discarded in the chaos among the floor, Klaus’ bag moves. Something inside it attempts to claw outward, the leather stretching to accommodate the force. Suddenly, thousands of faces press against the leather from inside, their expression tormented, as though silently screaming. With Klaus hand outstretched, the leather cord around the bag loosens on its own, until the opening of the large sack unfurls.
WOOOOOOOOOOSH
Again, a whirlwind of force erupts from the bag. Like the hungry maw of a greedy giant, all the air within the vicinity vacuums and twirls, sucking inwards into the open sack. This pull would not be limited to the physical, but walk at the souls of everyone present within a mile radius. Those, mere feet away, would need a miracle of their own to resist such suction, to prevent their bodies from becoming hollows husks. Ice erupts, from seemingly nowhere, encircling the building and the surrounding block in a blizzard of snow so thick that visibility is limited to mere inches from ones face. The very building they find themselves in begins to shake and wobble, its foundations flustered, its structural integrity now questionable after such violent assaults.
A bright red light, glows brighter and brighter, from within the darkness of the sack. As each moment passes, as the storm grows worse, the suction pulls harder, their souls weakening, this light glows, brighter and brighter, only visible to those immediately present around Klaus.
Then it’s gone. All of it. The light, the storm everything.
Instead of finding themselves in a broken building, in front of the corpse of the Saint. Those who were able to resist the bag’s pull, and hold onto their souls, would surely be puzzled. As they find themselves in the middle of a wasteland of snow. A desolate tundra of ice that extended as far as the eye could see. Had Naruki been completely flattened, or was this some new and unexplored dimension? Perhaps they had been thrown through time, or teleported somewhere safe. Who exactly is to say?
”You all have been very naughty. For this, I deny you the gift of a quick and merciful death.”
Klaus voice booms, his figure standing between them where he once was kneeling. His body, completely restored, down to his clothes. It’s as though their attack had never happened, as though this fateful night had never occured.
Klaus lifts the bag up from off the ground, and holsts it over his shoulder, then with a sinister smile, and a twinkle in his eye, he fades away. Completely disappearing from sight.
Had he run? Or simply gone invisible? Was the fight to continue here and now? What was the meaning of all thi-
A rumbling occurs. Small at first.
Where Klaus once stood, the snow begins to shift.
The rumbling grows louder.
Now, the very ground begins to shift, the snow violently rattling.
Until
.
.
.
”ROOOOOOOOOAR”
A massive creature, a reindeer-like man, erupts from the ground. Standing twelve feet tall, the being towers over the Quincy and Shinigami present.
It wastes no time. Instantly appearing behind Avillio, should he have survived the initial soul-sucking whirlwind, the creature’s hand thrusts forward. With no indication of its whereabouts, or sign that it would move at all, it seemed that there was no way for Avillio to possibly predict this attack, let alone sense, and register it, in time for an action to move. However, inaction would result in the hand, with its hardened hoove-like fingers, piercing through the Fullbringer’s back, and out through his lower abdomen.
Caught up in the horror of this moment. Fredrick and Tsukune, should they have survived, would be similar displaced. In that, their attention first on the being, and now on Avillio, would distract them from the true threat. Two more Reindeer stood behind them, their actions exactly mimicking the first. As with Avillio, Fredrick and Tsukune would have no prior indication of an attack, nor knowledge that there was even more than one of these beasts, and thus would likely be unable to predict, sense, or react, to a silent stealth attack coming from behind.
Outside, within Naruki city, those onlookers would see nothing different about the building which they observed previously. Naruki City itself seemed unphased, other than the effects of the snow-bringing whirlwind. There was no tundra, nor Reindeer creature to haunt them. Yet, when previously the Saint Klaus seemed on the cusp of defeat, now, he would be observed crashing through the rooftop of the building. He runs, seemingly free of attackers, and seemingly ignorant of onlookers, from the top of the roof. His body leaps into the air, the strength of his jump allowing him to soar through the sky, momentum unphased, until ultimately he crashes atop another roof, miles away.
Yes, those who observed his actions, who chose to watch from afar and track the man, would soon regret it. As their focus on Klaus himself distracts them from the near imperceivable flick of his wrist as he leaps.
Whistling through the air, no more than an inch across, and completely black, would be two pieces of coal. Camouflaged by the night sky, hidden by their size and distance, these pieces of coal fly like bullets through the air, directly towards the skulls of both Silas, and the Masked Avenger.
When had they been spotted? Had Klaus known the whole time? Perhaps all of this was a trap ...one so easily sprung by those flies that flock to their demise.
Above Shizuka, a rush of wind can be heard. Crashing down from the sky, comes the Saint himself. Should Shizuka not move, Klaus would come down like a meteor. His impact devastating the asphalt below, leaving him surrounded by a crater five feet deep and ten feet wide. As the smoke clears, Clause stands, healthy as ever, a grimace across his face, as his red eyes glow like the hounds of hell. Staring deep into the off-guard Shizuka’s soul.
“I’ve been waiting all year for this night. Come morning I will make toys of your Shinigami bones.”
The Saint had been interrupted from his task, and now each of their souls was added to his list, soon to be crossed off in a blood red ink. May the Soul King bless them, everyone.
