❤️💜30k uwuwuwuwuwu legends lets make it to 35💜❤️

"This- This really isn't the best t-timing, Reaper."

"Timing? Do you think I care about your timing?" Reaper hissed, pointing his scythe down at Nightmare and letting the tip press into his sternum harshly, earning a wheeze of pain.

"The dogs will rip us apart you idiot!" He went to get up, only to feel the sharp pressure of Reaper's boot press down on his wrist. He ground it down slowly, earning hisses and gasps of pain through his gritted teeth.

"Dogs? No they won't, they're staying back and watching the show~" He laughed, tilting his to the side and his grin widening. "They want to watch me tear you to shreds~"

Nightmare bit back any sounds of pain as Reaper dug the heel of his boot further into his arm, letting out a choked snarl instead. "You're psychotic."

But he was right. The dogs had made it to the centre, all of them stood less than ten metres away from the two fighting boys with their eyes fixated hungrily on the scene.

They were monstrous, large black dogs that resembled wolves but at least twice the size. All of their fur was black, rough and shaggy looking and already matted thickly with dry or wet blood. From who he didn't want to know. Attached to their paws, five kitchen knife-like claws dug into the soul, twitching impatiently as they stared. All but one had cold, icy blue eyes that seemed to physically freeze you, practically dripping with malice. The odd one's eyes were crimson red, narrowed and alight with the hunger to kill. They panted softly, yellow fangs stained with blood and dripping with thick, stringy saliva that got caught in the fur around their jaws and shined in the light of the ever-so-faded moon.

"You really think so? I like that word, describes me well~" He chuckled lowly, his tongue poking out of his mouth to show his sharp white teeth.

Nightmare ground his teeth against each other, his arm with the crossbow currently being crushed. He couldn't just simply shoot him this time. "You know Reaper- It was kind of funny to see your little pet Geno have his neck snapped."

Above him Reaper stiffened slightly, his expression of amusement turning into one of sorrow. But it only lasted for a second before he roared and lifted the scythe above his head and swinging it down on the direct path to make Nightmare into a sushi kebab.

The octopus slammed his left arm into Reaper's leg, sending him off balance enough to let him roll to the side. The scythe dug deep into the soil, the blade quivering at the force. Grunting, he brought his knee up to collide with the deranged skeleton's crotch.

Reaper yelped, stumbling back and clutching his aching lower region with a look of pure rage on his face. "You--!"

Nightmare lurched to his feet, panting and wincing at the pain in his wrist. Cracks ran across the dark bones like splits in ice, zigzagging in lightning strikes that merged together into a spider's web. He tried to ignore the throbbing feeling, wiping the blood and dirt from his chin. "What? Did I hit a nerve?"

"You didn't kill Geno." He snarled, his seemingly permanent smile widening as he circled him round the scythe, eyes not leaving him once. "That irritating teen from eleven did. The partner of your friends pathetic little ally."

"And?" He swallowed, his eye lingering on the hilt of the scythe intently. Reaper barked a laugh, taking a step closer to his weapon. "I slaughtered him. As penance for what he did to my Geno. My poor, sweet Geno."

"Get to the point."

Reaper stared right at him, his grin stretching even wider. "Oh Nightmare, you don't get it, do you~? You're also the reason Geno died. If you hadn't been there to distract him, he would have seen Dust coming and surely killed him. But you got in the way."

"Well sorry, but he threatened my life." He shot back, glancing back behind them to see that the dogs were slowly padding a little closer, clearly impatient with them. "And you've done the same, and you also threatened my partner's life, so for that I'm afraid I'll have to kill you!"

Both of them lunged at the same time, their fingers both curling around the hilt of the scythe and tugging in opposite directions. Reaper spat at him like an animal, swinging a fist round to collide with his face. But Nightmare ducked, all four of his tentacles latching onto the skeleton and flinging him directly into the wall of the cornucopia.

He hit it with a shuddering crunch, his head snapping back painfully as he fell to the floor in a crumpled heap.

Above him Cross stumbled, the force of Reaper's body hitting the cornucopia nearly sending him flying to the ground with the two of them.

"Not so powerful now, are you Reaper?" Nightmare said, a smirk making its way onto his face despite the aching pain that ran through his whole body like electricity. "You're nothing without this scythe." He dragged it along behind him, letting the curved blade dig into the grass.

"Nothing? You think I'm nothing?!" He launched at the taller skeleton, only to feel the blade of his own scythe press into his neck.

"Yes." Nightmare hissed, pressing it against the skeleton's neck until a bead of blood dribbled down. "I think you are."

Freezing up, Reaper glared sharply at him and sunk back until he was pressed against the cornucopia once more. "You're a little shit, you know that?"

"Yeah, I know." He laughed, staring down at his helpless and frustrated expression. "But I'd watch my tongue if I were you, seeing as I've currently the one threatening your life."

"Are you?" He giggled, tilting his head to the side. "Oh Nightmare, you need to be more vigilant~"

Before the teen had a chance to think about what he'd meant by that, a sharp pain hit him in the side. He let out a choked wheeze, looking down to see a small knife embedded deep into his hip.

He stumbled back, his hands dropping the scythe and letting it clatter to the floor. His hands clutched the blade in his hip, shaking. "I-I--"

"You weren't paying attention, Nicholas." Reaper taunted, the scythe returning to his hands. "And now I'm going to kill you!"

He jumped at the wounded skeleton, swinging the scythe with all his might at his skull. Nightmare grunted and fell to the floor, ducking the blades arc by mere centimetres. Tripping on the grass, his shoulder rammed into the side of the cornucopia, sending bolts of pain all through his body.

"Nightmare!"

He looked up quickly in surprise, his eye widening as he saw Cross staring down at him. He held his last knife in his hand, expression panicked. "Catch!"

The teen lunched to the side as Reaper slammed the scythe into the wall, catching the knife in mid-fall as Cross dropped it. He spun around as soon as his fingers curled around it, swinging the blade as deeply as possible into Reaper's chest.

He froze, his eyes going wide as he looked down at the knife dug in up to the hilt. He lost his grip on the scythe and stumbled back into the cornucopia, blood pooling down his chest.

From on top of the cornucopia Cross slid down suddenly, ripping the scythe from the wall and holding it over his head. And then with an animalistic cry he swung it down, the blade slicing cleanly and shattering Reaper's skull.

His body slumped to the floor, his face completely gone and left with a gaping hole with a few jagged fragments of skull at the base. Bone shattered everywhere, scattering across the ground around him.

The oreo stumbled back after, his hands shaking horribly as he dropped the scythe to the floor with a clatter. It was drenched in blood.

Nightmare gulped harshly, his breaths coming out in ragged pants. His hip was on fire, and his eye couldn't focus on anything. He could hear faint yelling, someone screaming his name desperately.

"--tmare!"

"--ightmare!"

"NIGHTMARE!"

He jolted, looking around to see Cross indicating desperately, pointing behind him with pure panic. Turning, he looked behind himself only to freeze. It seemed the dogs had got bored of watching now that one of them was dead, and wanted in on the action. All of them were sprinting towards him, fangs bared and loud snarls leaving their lips.

Mentally screaming, he stumbled to the cornucopia, flinging Cross up once more before rushing as he grabbed onto Cross' outstretched hand and scrabbled up onto the roof with him.

The mutts snapped and barked, their claws raking down the walls of the cornucopia as they tried to get to their level.

Nightmare gasped down air, clutching his still bleeding hip and watching them nervously. "G-God, That was close... You okay Cross?"

No answer.

He frowned, forcing himself up to his feet. Reaper was dead now. And there had only been four of them left. That meant...

"Freeze, brother."

Nightmare stiffened, shifting his heels and twisting his body round to see the last person he wanted to encounter right now. "...Dream."

His brother was stood at the edge of the cornucopia, blood matted all over his skull and dirt covering his whole body. His clothes were torn and ripped, hanging off of him loosely now. His eyes seemed dilated and crazed, unable to really focus as he stared at his wounded brother.

But the majority of that was overlooked as Nightmare stared at Cross. He was caught in Dream's grip, a knife held to his throat while the other hand had his wrist held back behind him.

"Dream I--"

"Don't move!" He practically screamed, digging the knife into Cross' neck and earning a panicked wheeze from him.

"Y-You move, and I'll kill him."

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Reaper called Nightmare Nicholas in a mocking way, it wasn't a typo, before I'm accused-–

uwuwuwuwuwuwuwuwuwu longer than I expected 1,703 words

Weeellllpppp I think there's like five chapters left to this book now lmao

Hope you won't miss Reaper, personally, I won't

And uh, hope you lieked.

And yes, Katniss and Peta's positions are slightly switched in this but I just thought it should really be Nightmare facing off his brother instead of Cross. Makes more sense to me. Oh, and don't forget the angst >:3

:3

-Jess-