---

It was a desperate attempt and it was clear it was all for nothing. The monsters the sizes of elephants continued to trample and overpower Asahi and his classmates, and there's no doubt there were probably other creatures that were being engaged by the others not far from here. With his improved senses, he could hear more snarling, panting, breathing, and pounding of feet, fists, and hearts. He wanted to get angry, but it was getting hard for the lad. That feeling of burning hatred within him has gotten cooler and cooler as he was faced with the hopelesness and fear of their situation.

His focus shifted back to Sasuke when he felt him hit his back. Just looking at him now made Asahi want to cry. The strongest boy he knew in town... It hurt Asahi's heart to see him his friend like that. He wanted to keep protecting him but part of Asahi knew Sasuke was right. If he didn't do anything at all, all of them would die tonight.

"D-Don't you dare die on me!" Asahi sternly said to Sasuke, his eyes watery with forming tears as they glistened under the moonlight. He kissed his friend's forehead deeply before getting up and facing the situation beforehand.

While the creatures may seem like they spawned straight out of hell, they were still animals in their foundation, living, breathing creatures with their own bestial instincts. While Asahi and his classmates managed to beat the ones before with their sheer strength, it was clear they would have to think outside the box with this one.

Way outside the box.

While Ayana and Masato were fighting with the hulk-phants, Asahi rushed back within the bus towards the driver's seat. There, he saw the charred remains of the bus driver. The smell was horriyfingly pungent, enough to make a grown man vomit for sure. Most if not all of his clothes burnt to ashes with his skin cooked to a crisp. It's best if Asahi didn't go over the details of a burnt corpse and just got this over with.

"Sorry about this." He said as he broke both of the driver's arms. He tried not to care too much that it was an easy task as he picked up a random glass shard and muffled his groans as he cut his arm, letting his blood drip over the corpse's arms he just broke off.

Asahi then emerged from the bus holding the ends of the arms on each hand, his own arm dripping with fresh blood. He looked at his classmates, Ayano in an attempt to smash her head against her opponent while Masato was trying to break one of the limbs of his foe. Oddly enough, Asahi felt no anger of sorts towards these creatures and to their situation. His classmates, annoying as they may be, they didn't deserve this. None of them did. Now he's holding the arms of a dead bus driver while he's walking calmly towards his death.

Asahi's laughter pierced through the night sky. He was like an empty vessel, devoid of anything yet capable of everything. This attempt of his will probably end in his death, but it didn't matter to Asahi as long as he got to drag these monsters down to hell with him too.

"Yoohoo! I have a question!" He called out to the hulk-phants, waving the charred arms and grinning at them with murderous glee. "Why don't you guys just die?"

While the class had been assaulted by its second set of monsters, Kogen was... sleeping. He was dead asleep, in fact, given that he spent a good chunk of his time in this strange new world being active in some way. That fight with the bearwolves took a number on him, the skinning was rather smelly, and his hand was still sore punching that tree for much of the night. It only made sense for an idiot like him to be knocked out of commission in a night like this.

It made a bit less sense for even an idiot like Kogen to sleep through such an attack.

"Hey... keep it down... Your hero is sleepi- AH, CRAP!"

At the very least, he had awoken at the nick of time, almost falling off his half of the bus as the hulking monstrosities came crashing along beside it. Talk about a rude awakening! Thankfully, the adrenaline quickly kicked in as Kogen launched himself out from the bus seat he was sleeping on and took a good look at his current situation. It was dark, but it was a good thing Kogen had just been sleeping! His eyes were quickly adjusting, almost too quickly... If Kogen were any smart, he'd put two and two together and figure out he had night vision. Still, this was definitely enough to work with. Right, there are more monsters outside... more monsters? Shit, they really need to find a safer place to sleep soon, huh?

Kogen's eye scanned the bus for anything usable, quickly landing on those sharpened sticks Inaba had made. Right, those would definitely help with what's going on. Kogen grabbed two of them before leaping out of the bus, hopefully not in the view of whatever's out there. If it was those bearwolves again, he was definitely prepared... Kogen knew he was strong enough to shred through their hide at the very least, and maybe they wouldn't even have that forcefield if he got the jump on one of them! All he needed to do was sneak around, maybe from behind the bus, and-

"W-when did they get that big..."

Right. Bearlephants now. Three of them, too. Change of plans.

Kogen stayed behind the bus as he began to think a new plan through. A few of his classmates are already fighting those big things already. It means Kogen could still definitely get the jump on one of them, too... The only issue was where he could strike. He could try and get a jump on them, but their towering height compared to his would just mean he'd stab a leg or an asscheek at best. He needed an avenue of attack they wouldn't expect, one that he could easily take advantage of.

"... The high ground! That's right! Thank you, O**-**n!"

Kogen slung one of the sharpened sticks to his back (which really meant he just stuck it inside the back of his shirt) as he began to climb the bus. It was a bit awkward with one of the sticks still in his hand, but his enhanced strength allowed him to pick up the slack with his arm and legs, yanking and leaping himself up to the top of the bus. As soon as he was there, he knew he needed to be quick. While there were suitable distractions all around (especially with Asahi's morbid cheerleading), the best target would be one that was already occupied.

And seeing that Ma-kun had, once again, gotten himself into a situation where he needed saving, Kogen knew just where to strike.

The boy ran quickly from one end of the bus to the other, giving himself a running start as he leapt into the air. He wound the arm he was holding his makeshift spear with back as he jumped, using his other arm to uncover his second eye. It was a cool trick Kogen liked to do when pitching, pushing his eyepatch to the side just when he was getting serious. Everyone else had turned their caps backwards, so he needed his own unique thing to stand out. The flame in his heart roared with anticipation.

As he soared through the air, time ticked ever so slowly. It wasn't by a lot, but it was noticeable. It gave Kogen a bit of time to do some quick thinking, something he wasn't quite used to doing, but thankfully what he intended to do was based more on instinct than tactics. Based on his position, he didn't need to account for things like distance, his grip on the stick, or even how much strength he needed to put into his throw. All he needed was the timing and a direct target, both of which were easily obtainable.

"Die, monster! An eye for an eye!" Kogen exclaimed, his mind too preoccupied to come up with something more intricate as he would launch the spear with all his might at the bearlephant pinning down Masato, aimed directly for one of its many eyes. As soon as the spear left his hand, Kogen would then quickly shift the weight of his body in order to propel himself just a bit forward, his hands reaching out to grasp for whatever he could.

Once again, he aimed for the same bearlephant he had just struck, aiming to land on top of it.

---

//Night 0 | Location: Nameless Forest - Clearing

_{@OwO@AThousandCurses}
Shun ceased her thoughts and became as beast.

Her legs shot her through the distance that separated her and the Long-Tailed, while her arms raised up to protect her most vital body parts: her head and her heart. The first injury she suffered had confirmed it: even with the element of surprise, the beast’s blade wasn’t able to slice through her bones. Her blood will clot. Her cuts will heal. All she had to do was power through!

Flesh flayed from her body, a death by a thousand cuts. Shun pressed on regardless, pain the guide that told her she drew ever-closer. Her arms, battered and bleeding, remained in place to protect her eyes and her neck, elbows dipping low enough to cover her sides or stomach if necessary. So long as she could endure!

The beast, evidently, did not cease its thoughts.

There were three monsters present, and their strategy of drawing out a portion of their prey’s fighting force was successful already. There was no need for suppressive fire anymore. And while one of the Ten-Eyed tangled with Rin, the other one gathered its energy once more.

Shun was fully-focused. She hadn’t realized, in time, that there was a reason the Long-Tailed allowed her to get so close.

One step to the side as she dropped low, and suddenly, the sinuous blade-bearer was out of sight, replaced by the brilliance of a fully-charged blast. Momentum was against her, her defense was open, her body too riddled with injury to respond. There was no dodging it now.

A beam struck her face-first. Like a baseball bat, swung right into her nose. Blood spiraled as she flew back, but before the Long-Tailed could follow through with a lethal or crippling injury, one that would take out her eyes or slice open her throat, a nearby explosion scattered the trio.

Rin.

Desperation lent to delusion as she hollowed herself out. In dilated time, she could feel herself peeling away, could feel something soldering wiring into her brain. It burned, seizing her mind with such psychic ferocity that her entire body responded in kind to the unnatural stimuli. Heart pounding, blood pulsing, eyes burning, skin sweating, stomach gurgling, fire forging.

Energy coursed out of her palms, piercing into her spear, and tearing it apart from inside out. She felt the splinters pierce her palm, pushed into her flesh by the ethereal substance that replaced it. It felt like grasping glass. Hard, yet fragile. Her mind seethed, the substance flickering, wavering. What was she trying to make? What was she trying to do? What was a spear? The wooden thing that she carved? The pointy thing that she saw in documentaries? The slashing thing that the shrine maidens demonstrated from time to time? An arrow, elongated? A javelin, thrown by athletes?

She grasped at an image. She grasped at lightning.

And, with microseconds draining like trickling sand, she had no recourse but to thrust this misshapen construct into the orb.

As fragile as glass, as hard as glass, it shattered upon impact, an explosion that sent her flying back, an explosion that caused the Ten-Eyed to reel back, an explosion that warned the other two monsters of a new threat, an explosion birthed from inspiration.

An explosion that saw the two middle schoolers falling prone together.

An explosion. A peak beyond the gate of their limited possibilities.

_{@baraquiel@Yankee@Vertigo@Cu Chulainn@Nakushita}

Chaos reigned on both ends.

By the skin of her teeth (or perhaps the skin of the hulkphant’s teeth), Ayana survived to see another day, the audible click of the monster’s jaw snapping over empty air lost to her. She recovered, an expert at bouncing back from the sheer insanity that was unfolding, and naturally followed through with another batshit idea afterwards.

A flying headbutt.

Well, certainly Ayana didn’t very much treasure the precious few braincells she had left rattling in her cranium.

Sprinting at maximum speed, the walking disaster leapt up and became as a spear, her cranium crashing into the hulk-phant’s chest. It was, on reflection a bit of a comfortable sensation, really. She struck its stomach, the soft tissue cradling her head in a way that must have made for the weirdest headpat ever. It even gave the monster itself some pause, the breath knocked out of it, its own advance towards the frailer prey stopped for the time being.

Then, it decided to drop down.

Splat went Ayana, as the full weight of an Asian elephant gave her the worst hug she had ever experienced.

Her madness, however, must have been infectious.

Asahi’s laughter sounded brightly, rattling out from his stomach as he bore the arms of a dead man. There were two hulk-phants occupied, one way or the other, by the students. It went to show then, that if any of them were able to escape, the third one, the one stalking the perimeter, would have to be distracted.

So he walked, so calm that he felt glee.

Until the third hulk-phant turned, a mountain of flesh that could blot out the stars. It settled down, lower. Sinking its head to loom before the mad child. Fangs flashing in a sign of intimidation, of dominance. Six-eyes zeroed in to two blue.

Time dilating.

Intentions crystallizing.

Then, Asahi felt it. A weight settle on his shoulder. A foot.

Kunio, airborne, stringy arms windmilling through the night air. The hulk-phant raised its head, but even with such superior strength and speed, surprise had lent an instance of a delay, and the boy landed on top. Asahi could see it now, what was clenched in the Badminton Ace’s fist, moments before it drove itself into one eye! Two eyes! Three!

The sharpened fang pulled from the corpse of a bearwolf, punching through delicate organs in a way that even Rin’s tools couldn’t!

The hulk-phant let out a howl, one paw sweeping upwards, but Kunio was already gone, his sense of danger causing him to stop only part way through before springing up and away.

“YOU CRAZY FUCK!”

Was he referring to the hulk-phant, or Asahi?

Both, likely, but what was the price of an admonishment, compared to what had just happened? The hulk-phant was blinded on the left side. It was turning away, ready to pursue the scraggly thing that had so greviously injured it. And, rotating through the night, spinning like a toy, that fang-dagger fell.

As if meant for him to take.

Where fang carved flesh though, Kogen was faced with a different story.

His throw had been perfect. Even accounting for the weird balance of the spear (Rin was good with her hands, but not that good), he could adjust. Humanity had reached their position on the top of the food chain through their intellect, and the first thing that their intellect gave them was not fire, not tools, but the power to throw things.

So throw he did.

And saw the spear bounce off.

The barrier. That supernatural phenomenon that once again denied his attack! In the distant dark, he could hear the howling of the third hulk-phant. What had happened to it there? No time to linger on such thoughts; his landing, at least, was successful, seizing handfuls of coarse fur without problem. Little more than an annoying pest. But a pest was still a greater annoyance than the ant beneath it.

With a roar, the monster ceased its attempts to crush Masato flat, and instead flung him away. He flew well, skipped against the ditch before crumpling some distance away, his head ringing.

Distantly, he could feel someone pulling him up. Warm hands, callused hands. Tsubasa’s face before his, trying to find someone she recognized in that befuddled face of his. He could see around him now. Three hulk-phants were distracted; they could all evacuate. Hana, monitoring the situation. Maki, leaning against Daisuke. Yukiko, desperately trying to heave Yuki over her shoulders. Juro and Sohei, gripping wooden spears that had already proven their ineffectiveness, but unwilling still to part with the only wepaons they had.

Akito, lending a shoulder to Tsubaki, whose face was paler than Masato was accustomed to.

Whose right arm ended in a bloodied stump, the stench of fresh blood making her much to easy for any predator to track. But they couldn’t leave her. They couldn’t leave anyone.

Yet they still had to.

“Masato.” He knew Tsubasa was giving him an out. Whether out of kindness or out of practicality. “We need you with us. Let’s go.”

His back hurt.

Hurt, like how the straps of his bag dug into his shoulders.

Hurt, like how his spine protested against the weight he bore.

Books. So many books. Books on Japanese literature and history, on mathematics and biology, on exam prep and exam prep and exam prep. His responsibility to his future self. His responsibility to the family he still cared about. His responsibility as the Student Council President.

He could see Kogen, scrambling as the hulk-phant tried to shake him off.

He could see Asahi, teetering on the boundary line of sanity.

He couldn’t see Ayana, suffocating beneath the belly of the beast.

The forge burned, awaiting a hand brave enough to plunge into the flames to grasp the molten ore within. What was it though, that rested inside Masato?

---

It wasn't perfect, but it was something. Rin had caused something to happen. She had managed buy a moment of respite, even if it involved shards of wood in her palms and the sudden prospect of being airborne. Landing next to Shun was a lucky break. Shun was battered and bleeding, but she was still breathing. At the very least, Rin knew that they were alive. Beyond that was her reflection of what she had done.

"I get it..." She whispered to Shun. Afflicted by a strange epiphany, Rin's thoughts began to compound.

What was she trying to make? A spear. What was a spear? It was such an ambiguous term. So many things could be called a spear. No, what was physical was not an idea. It was an imitation. It was substance at a point in time. No matter how she tried to imagine it, there was no way to create the perfect representation of a spear.

But why was she getting hung up on what a spear was? She could always take a step back. A spear was merely something used to pierce. Was there any reason why it couldn't have been something else? A bullet could pierce and so could a knife. In fact, was there any important distinction between piercing and slashing? It was all the same in the end. To damage and sunder substance was all there was to it. That was the essence.

She understood that she had to abandon her notions of what constituted a form. Necessity was the mother of invention, after all.

She pulled the energy from within her once more and dragged her finger along the beasts in the night.

What she had drew was not complex. What had formed in her mind was fundamentally simple. Something fundamental to everything, yet could not be observed in reality. It was something that could only be in the mind.

A single bisecting line.

A shrill scream escaped from someone's mouth. Oh wait, that was her mouth. Her vision exploded with pain and black. Her body was sent flying and tumbling down to the ground. Her skin was scrapped against the ground as the friction began to draw blood. Eventually, it came to a stop, and she found herself beside Rin. "Ah..." Shun groaned. Her body ached. A pain that she wouldn't have known in her world blossomed in her body. Her mind could barely keep itself awake from the exhaustion and beatings that the body took. A laugh escaped from her mouth.

"You get it? I'm afraid I'm not as smart as you, Rin." A dark chuckle escaped from Shun's mouth as she rose up. She stumbled for a bit before straightening her posture to look at the creatures. "But I think I can definitely feel on the same page as you."

Interests were like flames. They flicker and burn with passion, but at a single gust of disinterest, it fades away into ash. However, fires can be reignited. Just like how a motor can be turned back on, that once-of-a-lifetime flame had ignited. This time there was no one getting in her way; this time, there was no stopping. The fear in her heart only fueled the thrill of danger.

Back when that robber carjacked the car with her in it, she was afraid. Yes, of course, she was afraid. An unknown situation presented itself to the childlike her.

What should she do?

Fight the man?

Jump out of the car?

Beg him to let her go?

However, in equal measure, she was just as excited from the blurry outside to the frantic inside of the car. All of it happened in a singular moment. She couldn't help but laugh in the car as they swerved around in the town. There was only one thing that Shun could do at that moment.

Always forward, never look back.

"If I want to do something, I should just do it, right?" Strange energy fueled her body. That same energy shined over her legs, and Shun got into a sprinter's posture. Her tendons cried in pain, but she didn't care. Everything else was secondary to this very moment. "Let's... GO!" At that moment, she became a blur. Her feet kicked off the ground, but it was much more different from before. Launching herself would imply that there was some sort of wind-up.

In one big leap, Shun fired herself at the same laser wolf, who blew her up. Like a max pedal car, she shot forward towards the wolf and aimed to throttle the beast into a tree or two.

______________________________________________________________________

Masato barely registered that someone - Kogen, by the sound of it - had thrown themselves onto the monster before he was lifted up and tossed away. He bounced against the ground and after coming to a stop, he laid there with his eyes closed for more than a few seconds. He hadn't been able to escape on his own, despite his struggle. Still wasn't strong enough to get from under that weight. And of course it was Kogen that had been the one to save him this time. There was anger pooling in Masato's gut, but it was as muted as the rest of his senses at present.

The gentle touch on his face coaxed his eyes open, though focusing on the face hovering in front of him took longer than it should have.

Sato...?

It was her. She was saying something to him. Go? Surely she wasn't telling him to run. Upon glancing up he realized that wasn't it - everyone that had been ambushed at the bus managed to slip away from the chaos while the stronger students held the monsters' attentions. Injured or not, they were going to make a run for it.

As he sat there regaining his sense, he could imagine a host of futures playing out. In some he dove back into battle and the students overcame the beasts, in others the smell of Tsubaki's blood influenced his vision and every member of the class died no matter what they did. No matter what he did. He felt the familiar ache of a decision weighing him down. He looked back at Sato.

"Okay," he said, his voice so thick it nearly stuck in his throat.

If the other kids were going to escape into the woods, he would be there for them. The Changed students would have less to worry about with their friends out of the line of fire, and the Unchanged would need someone to protect them from anything else that was lurking in the night. The ones left to do battle would be alright. They were strong. This was the right choice.

He let Sato take his hand as he pushed himself to his feet, shaking his head a little to get his brain back into place. He ignored the coals churning in his core and moved to relieve Ohta of her burden. Stamped down the ire curled around them to focus on the task at hand.

"We'll get everyone somewhere safe," he told the assembled students, letting Ryuugasaki take the lead to guide them through the trees. Before coming back for the others, went unsaid.

______________________________________________________________________


Ayana was left surprised; she had expected her head to be hurting right about now. Instead, it didn’t feel all that bad. It had felt like she had gone headfirst into a pillow that had a lot to give. Hell it was even pleasant and something she didn't really mind having again.

But now she had a far more PRESSING problem. It had been dark and hard to see before, but now she only had darkness. The weight of the beast atop of her, pressing down and her body imprinting into its soft flesh. A feeling of regret soon trickled into her mind; she had really gotten herself stuck this time. Underneath the massive beast wasn’t the best place to be, the smell of it being rather terrible. The total lack of movement not making the situation enjoyable in the slightest. Her cheek snuggly pressed into the ground as she tried to move her body. Finding that she could barely wiggle even her fingers.

But hey, it could be worse, she could have been on a rocky part of the ground. Hopefully this hulk-phant had the urge to get back up. She didn’t quite know how much oxygen she could suck into her lungs in this position. The Hulk-Phants body having her snuggly underneath it “HEYYYYYYYYYY!!!!! GET OFF YOU BRUTE!!!!” Ayana tried to shout from underneath it. However, its large mass muffled her request significantly.

Letting out a sigh as she laid there left to her thoughts and her regret. Hoping that this really wasn’t how she went out. If she had to go, she was hoping for something far more heroic and epic like she had read in her manga or seen in anime or movies. But crushed underneath a giant beast until she died from a loss of oxygen? Now that would just get her laughed her surely. For now all she could do was bid her time and hope for the best.

Kogen clicked his tongue in annoyance at seeing the shield appear again. Were their weapons useless against these beasts? It was surely an annoying thing to think about now that he's on top of the bearlepant. Maybe he should have driven that bear claw idea forward, after all, fighting fire with fire and all that. Well, it didn't matter now, since Kogen was now clinging to dear life on top of the Bearlephant! What to do, what to do...

For now, Kogen began to climb, doing his best to maintain a grip on the bearlephant's tough hide as he would try to get himself onto a more advantageous position. Finding himself atop the beast, Kogen's enhanced senses allowed him a moment to take in what was happening in his immediate vicinity. Thankfully, Masato had been flung away to who knows where, which means he's probably fine given the track record of everyone who has been flung by these monsters so far. The two other bearlephants were definitely giving his classmates some trouble, but between the two, the one that was crushing a certain idiot was the one that was of the most immediate concern.

Kogen thought to himself as he climbed the beast, those rusted gears turning ever so slowly as he forced his brain to do the one thing he was bad at. Humankind dominated the beasts in their world not through sheer strength or physical ability, but by their ingenuity and dominance. All beasts simply became tools with different uses, especially ones as big as this bearlephant. Horses, cows, even elephants all served as mounts to humans, broken to serve their will. Clearly, this beast was no different... at least, that's how it worked in his video games.

If Kogen could not easily break its flesh, then Kogen will break its resolve.

Climbing to the back of the bearlephant's head, Kogen would dig a knee into the back of its neck as his hands moved to cling onto its furs. With his other leg, Kogen would do his best to wrap it around whatever bit of the beast's body he could just so he wouldn't be so easily flung off. And with a yank, Kogen would pull with all his strength, pulling to the direction of the other bearlephant crushing Ayana.

"Bend to my will, foul creature! Bend to the will of the One-Eyed Devil!"

---

Asahi's hunch was right. He knew that aside from the other types of creatures he heard his other classmates fight somewhere nearby, there was another one of these hulk-phants hiding in the shadows. Perhaps it was waiting for an ambush? Whatever the reason was, it was good Asahi managed to bring the last of them out into open. At least, he thought it was so judging from his enhanced senses.

He and the hulk-phant engaged in a staredown. He was actually surprised it wasn't immediately charging at him unlike its other kin who were also busy fighting his classmates. He could feel a sense of intelligence behind those multiple demonic-like eyes. Was it confused as why this pink-haired lad was acting stranger compared to the others? Asahi just looked back at it with bright blue eyes, gauging at it in anticipation about it's next move.

He then felt pressure on his shoulder and stared in awe as Kunio basically jumped on Asahi to shove a sharp object over the creature's eyes, making it howl in pain. The hulk-phant was now completely blind on its left side and Kunio did a much better job at distracting it as the massive beast quickly turned to face him. It made the sharp object twirl in the air before landing in front of Asahi.

Asahi realized it was a fang of one of the bearwolves they killed earlier. Acting quickly, Asahi threw one of the corpse's arms at the beast to get its attention.

"Kunio!" Asahi called out as he picked up the sharp fang that's still dripping with the hulk-phant's blood. "Lead the others away from this place! We'll buy you time to escape. Go now! He further yelled, running at full speed to underneath the monster and wildly slash at the hulk-phant's legs before quickly going away to make space.

---

//Night 0 | Location: Nameless Forest - Clearing

_{@OwO@AThousandCurses}
It was not form that determined effect, but effect that guided form. Inventions did not come from matter, but from idea. A desire. And if that was the case, then how necessary was a defined form? Given the proper tool, what need was there for a reasonable cause to generate an effect?

Her fingertips burned, glowing with the light of her core once more. She could feel the energy building, peeling out from her fingernails, as her mind formed the trajectory. With a swing of her hand, Rin drew a line in the night air, one and a half meters in length. An arc, in truth. A crescent, like a moon.

The release was near-instant, a flash of light slicing through the air!

But what was novel for Rin was common for the monsters. The Long-Tailed intercepted, its blade clashing against that energy construct before it exploded, impotent! A failed attack? Nay. She could see it. Her blade had been shattered, but its blade had been chipped, repelled back by the self-same explosion!

And whereas Rin became formless, Shun became Formula One.

She had always been energy personified. Her parents had joked about her heart being an engine before she ever got her moped. Always forward, never back. So long as she wasn’t the one who would get in trouble, there was no reason to stop. Her body burned, from the pain and from the heat, blood steaming out from her multitude of injuries. She had been faster than she ever was, once. And now? She was faster still, to the point that her mind couldn’t even keep up with her actions.

Shun’s head slammed into her adversary in one step, and in the next step, the two reached the depths of the treeline, both of them smashing through the terrain before the sheer force of the consecutive impacts wrenched the two of them apart. It had been so much faster than the excitable girl had thought. So much more forceful! Her legs felt numb, forced beyond even superhuman limits to achieve the effect of a truck slamming into a teenager.

But it had been enough.

The blood that coated her face was not hers, and the beast before her was still stunned, its lower jaw hanging on one hinge. A familiar choice presented itself once more.

Rin was out there. Alone now.

Would Shun finish off this crippled monster, or return to assist her classmate?

_{@baraquiel@Yankee@Vertigo@Cu Chulainn@Nakushita}

This was his weight to bear. The iron hot and burning, but controlled still with a purpose. Masato could not surrender it after all, the responsibility of being the Student Council President, of being a leader, of being a shepherd. Of being someone who had to be better.

Hana lead the way, her pen-sized flashlight carving a swathe through the darkness. Daisuke brought up the rear, filled with an energy that was at once determined and nervous. Masato stayed in the center, the one most capable of responding to any other threads. And though he had tried to take on Yukiko’s burden as well, she ignored him.

No, ignore perhaps may have been too harsh a term here. She looked like she had something to say, but in the end, didn’t say it. A stupid question, perhaps.

Together, the band slipped off sideways, leaving the chaos of battle behind for a trek into the unknown. Seeking safety, in a world that could not guarantee even a sliver of it.

For Ayana, that meant a slow death. Her body was firmer than the ground so she wasn’t crushed by the earth, but that was all. She was suffocating. Her thoughts growing hazy, her struggle depriving her body of more oxygen. Her limbs were numb, blood vessels constricted by the impossible weight. All she could do was hope for the best, but what was there to hope for? She couldn’t even see where her classmates had gone. If they had fought, there were still two hulkphants that were still lumbering about. If they had ran, that meant she was now alone.

She wasn’t the brightest. Wasn’t the strongest either. Back in elementary school, she’d be called a clumsy idiot by other kids, while her teacher made her out to be a troublemaker and her father thought of her as a little disaster. Banned from the kitchen after too many incidents with knives. Sitting out from home economics classes after too many incidents with needles. Banned, for fear that there was something that would happen to her that she couldn’t recover from.

Was this it? Did anyone even know she was here?

Kogen did.

He climbed quickly, hands finding easier purchase around the thick fur of his mount. His legs were too short to wrap around anything, but he could squeeze his thighs together at least, pincer it between the fat around the spine. And with a yank of the reins, the image was complete! The One-Eyed Devil, mounting a mountain of a beast, commanding it to charge at its prone brethren!

That delusion lasted half a second, before the monster stood up on its hindlegs. Turned around.

Fell on its back, straight upon the charred remains of the bus.

He had seen it once with Masato, smashed into the ground by superior strength and mass. He had seen it again with Ayana, flattened into the earth by superior strength and mass. Now? Kogen too experienced it, the weight of an entire body dropping his whole body through charred steel and melted rubber, finishing with an impact that flattened him whole. His hands came away with but loose fur as the monster rose, the force that he took still jarring his brain, and before the Devil could rise once more, the hulkphant’s jaws opened.

Teeth. So much teeth. A tunnel of teeth, each rotating like a nightmare of a cement mixer. Wholly unrecognizable from the mouth of a dog, the mouth of a wolf.

And snapped shut.

The only thing that prevented Kogen from becoming K ogen were two things: his arms, pressed against the upper jaw to prevent it from closing fully. But that too, was a slow death. How long until his arms lost their strength? How long, until he ran out of blood?
How long, until his mind gave in and accepted a death that could at least be quick?

How long, until Asahi couldn’t dodge anymore?

His mind could keep up, but his body couldn’t, and the situation he thrust himself in demanded both. Beneath the hulkphants, he spun and slashed, a pink-colored gale. At times, the fang-dagger tore out tufts of fur and skin. At times, the fang-dagger ripped into fat, leaving raw gashes. At times, the fang-dagger drew blood, scattering like petals.

But they were shallow wounds, compared to the threat of each concussive stomp that Asahi had to dodge. He felt the secondary impact even as he avoided the strike itself, the air rippling against his skin and clothes, the upturned soil scattering into his hair. He couldn’t make space like this, couldn’t get out from beneath the beast. It simply followed him, simply redoubled its efforts to crush him in a single blow, like how one would pursue a rat or a mosquito.

And he was running out of air.

Through his narrowing vision, he could see Kunio pick up Sasuke, carry the unmoving boy away. A spot of relief, perhaps. Could see the rest of the fighting that still had to be done. Kogen’s legs, dangling out from a hulk-phant’s mouth, as that delusional idiot struggled to accomplish something. Ayana’s form, completely gone from beneath a hulk-phant’s body, flattened and suffocating.

And Asahi himself. Each step sending another twinge of pain up his calves. Each swing reminding him how inadequate a dagger was when his foe was so titanic.

A risk needed to be taken.

The forge needed to be fed.

---

It was enough. Rin saw the path that she could take. Just as the beasts could act to their own accord, so too could Rin. Her slash didn't do much, yet it was enough. Enough to instill a drop of confidence in a world that had hours earlier flung her into a tree. Confidence that would let her trust Shun to not allow beasts to swarm her. She'd finish off this beast with her geometric slashes.

The simplest way forwards was to overwhelm the beast. But if she had done so, she would be staking the strength of their selves against one another. Trying to outgas a beast was, perhaps, not the best way forwards. Humans were endurance animals, but only over the course of hours and days. Minutes? Beasts were much better. However, she possessed what beasts didn't; what humans lacked in intuition, they more than made up for in cunning.

She created another arc to throw at the beast. Blinding, blooming, violent. More dangerous-looking than before. However, its looks were the only thing dangerous about it. She put little force into it; what power it did possess reserved for visual flair. Behind it, she tracked the beast with her eyes. Her vision in the night wasn't the greatest. However, her perception gave ample time to parse the forms before her.

Behind the arc, she traced a simpler line. One that would drive forward. It was designed to pierce the beast. If it could simply clash with large arcs, then the answer was simple: a needle-like mass that focused all of its intensity towards one point. A penetrating attack that could not easily be blocked or deflected.

"Hehehehehehe," Shun giggled to no one other than herself and the monster in front of her. That was fun. At one moment, she was touching the ground, and the next, she found herself covered in blood. How exhilarating. The adrenalin coursed through her body as she eyed the injured monster in front of her. Any thoughts that were related to Rin or the other beast had long since vanished. Unlike that time at the bus, she was going to finish off this beast for good.

"Have you ever read Grendel before?" She doubted that the monster had read a book before. In fact, she doubted that many of her classmates knew much about that story. At one point, she checked out a random book from the library. Needless to say, Shun didn't understand a single word of it and quickly got bored. It was a vain attempt to understand literature, but there were some plot points that caught her attention.

Her burdened legs glowed once more, and she sprung at the injured. Grabbing the monster by the neck, she used the rest of her strength to plummet the laser wolf's head into the ground. A sadistic grin grew on Shun's face. She wasn't done with the wolf yet.

"Sing for me, will you?" Shun screamed out. Then she raised the laser wolf's head up and then smashed it back into the ground. "Sing." Then she raised the laser wolf's head up and then smashed it back into the ground. "Sing." Then she raised the laser wolf's head up and then smashed it back into the ground. "Sing. Sing. SING." Each repetition grew stronger with every slam. Shun was intent on making this laser wolf into a red paste on the dirt ground.

______________________________________________________________________


Being stuck under the large beast, Ayana had time to reflect on her life and the past. Which wasn't something she often got to do in her chaotic life. She had always wanted to be friends with others. To join a club and be accepted into it and have all the fun that a group of friends gets to enjoy. All the memories that get created during those periods of time. Those are the things she sought after the most. Though it didn’t sadden her that she hadn’t yet experienced this feeling of acceptance. She had grown use to often being on the outside, an observer, a social outcast of sorts.

All the times she had tried to join the various clubs, and all the failure and rejection that had resulted in the end. Whether it was setting the oven on fire when she attempted to join the culinary club. The time she somehow managed to not only miss hitting a baseball with a bat, only to get sent spinning out of control. The bat slipping from her fingers as it took out the water cooler, which in turn took out half of those who had come to try out for the team when she went crashing into them in a slippery ice cube and sports drink logjam. Or the time she had the bomb squad summoned to the school, after she nearly blew up the entire science clubs lab. Accidentally knocking over a set of vials with the contents mixing into an explosive concoction. Amongst the many other failed attempts that she had experienced.

Though, she didn’t feel sadness that this may be the end and she never got the chance to find her place. She found herself disappointed, here underneath this giant beast, her lungs burning from the lack of oxygen. She was disappointed that she didn’t get to try again, even if it meant being rejected again. She was never going to give up on it, nor was it going to shape her behavior or personality. But here she was, maybe at the end of the line. She could have never imagined or dreamed that this would potentially be the way she went out. Though she had to admit it would be appropriate considering her history.

She felt warm inside as she thought about her short experience here in this new and strange world. She had started to make some inroad; she had even gotten to talk with her sister and get along with her. Which often wasn’t the case as the two mixed about as well as oil and water. Even starting to make some friends with some of her other classmates. She had no real regrets, beyond not being able to help the others more. If this was too be her end, then so be it, it had been a shorter life then expected, but she had enjoyed it, nonetheless. The weight of the beast almost disappearing from her, as she remained within her thoughts, trapped beneath it.

---

//Night 0 | Location: Nameless Forest - Clearing

_{@OwO@AThousandCurses}

The initiative was Shun’s now, and she did not hesitate to take advantage of it, her fury and madness, sorrow and rage, all mixing up into her mind and heart and blood as she pounded the Ten-Eyed’s face into paste. Each blow fused gore with dirt further, the choking yelps of the monster weakening with each successive impact. Even through her cathartic violence, Shun could understand that the ground was not a wholly effective weapon to use against such creatures, but it didn’t matter. She had the advantage and the initiative, and an ineffective weapon simply had to be used more times.

The earth became a divot. The divot became a crater. The crater became a grave. Her forearms plunged deep into the ground by the time her emotions were spent. Fur, flesh, bone, and organs had all mixed together into a slurry of ground meat, the entirety of her form so far removed from the child that she had been even just a day before.

Twenty-four hours, that was all it took for Shun to become unrecognizable.

…

Twenty seconds and Shun did not return.

Rin’s fingernails burned still, the froth of the supernatural bubbling up within the surface of her mind. A hollow arc flew out with one hand as the other drew her bullet into existence, but without the presence of another, it was two against one. Terrible odds now that she had shown her own hand, for while humans had their cunning, beasts had their ferocity.

The Long-Tailed charged forth, its blade swinging sharply to clash head-on with Rin’s arc. Mere imposter that it was, the energies composing her feint shattered in an instant, doing nothing to impede the beast’s descent. Her needle shot out next, a penetrating bolt that shot through tail and flesh alike, leaving a hole within the Long-Tailed too, but so what?

It pierced. It did not stop.

And through that pain, through an injury that did not kill it on the spot, the monster’s five-meter tail, craft of sinuous muscle and flexible bone, wrapped around Rin. An instant later, she was lifted off her feet and airborne.

Funny, wasn’t it? What had happened hours ago was happening once more, the sky and the earth reversing at rapid speed as Rin plummeted upwards, her slowed perception of the world only adding to the vertigo and dizziness.

That slowed perception, however, allowed her to at least see the gathering of light once more, a brighter concentration of energy than ever before.

The Long-Tailed had ensured that evasion, defence, and even counterattack was sealed as options, hurling the gear-headed inventor skywards in a way that caused her to spin. The remaining Ten-Eyed, then, would finish her off, with a beam that would only send her ever-higher if it did not punch a hole through her lungs or heart from the get-go.

But time was still slow. Her mind was still bright.

And her fingers could still move.

"Sing, Sing, SING!" With every bash came a wonderful note that resounded in Shun's ears. How resounding and how fascinating. She was getting on highest of highs and the highest of lows. Each slam increased with vigor until she felt no resistance from the beast. It was until a little later that she realized that her opponent was dead. "I guess not everybody is meant to be a singer," Shun said as she tilted the corpse's head. What a shame. But there was still more to do. While she was off playing, she left an acquaintance alone. The other beast that was going after Rin.

"Well, if you're not going to sing you might as well become an instrument!" Not of it made rational sense, but to Shun as long as it was coherent, it made sense. Taking whatever remained of the corpse, her legs glowed again. She was sure that her legs were torn or something for that regard but she didn't care. That was future her's problem and that was enough for her to go at it again. Dashing through the air, she charged at beast.

"Heads up!' Shun said both literally and metaphorically. Using the corpse head first, she used the corpse as a club and proceeded to swing it at the beast. It didn't matter whether it hit or not, all it mattered was that she was getting the beast's attention. And if the beast were to come to blows, Shun would use whatever remained left of the body as a shield. After all, the greatest offensive was the greatest defense. Right?

---

And there was Rin flying a second time.

It was a cruel twist of fate that the girl so interested in reenacting the Wright brothers had flew so often.

Rin's mind sharpened. How could she avoid this? Everything was out of the question because she was spinning so quickly.

What was her power anyway? Math? She perceived lines on a coordinate plane to make slashes. But how did they slash? Well, fundamentally, it was just a force. And if she had access to forces, then she had access to vectors. When your mind functioned with such acuity, you could pick out how the environment around you looked even if you were spinning. With a click of her fingers, she emitted force with when her vision settled laterally.

She flew away from the trajectory of the long-tail's attack, spinning lessened from the sudden force on her body.

If what she needed was stopping power, then she'd use stopping power. If a needle wasn't enough, then Rin just needed a bigger attack.

With Shun acting as her flashing distraction, Rin generated a new shape. One infinitely more complex than a simple line. 3.14... times, even.

With her mind focused on the beast, a new shape formed upon her hand. One that spun and spun, its circular nature concealing just how fast it was rotating.

It was a god damn destructo disc and it was coming straight for the long tail.

"C'mon, Ko-shit! Stop struggling! Just get flushed down already!" Ryusuke chided as he shoved the bleach-haired boy into the toilet while Akira stood by and poured more water onto the back of his head. The lesser Akito, ever the coward, only stood back at the door and kept a lookout for anyone who would pass by the abandoned bathroom.

"Shouldn't have gotten that home run, Ko-shit! Ryusuke's girl was watchin' the whole thing! He was 'sposed to be look god this practice, not you!" Akira snided as he filled the bucket in his hands with more water.

Kogen, held onto the held the edges of the toilet tightly, doing his very best not to let his head get pushed in. Whatever was in that bowl, even after being mostly flushed away by now, was rancid. The smell, alone, was enough for him to keep his head cocked back almost instinctively. All he could think of not getting whatever was in the toilet on his face... or worse, in his mouth.

At the same time, Kogen told himself it would be over soon. He just needed to keep holding on, to keep his grip on the toilet's edges. It would all be over soon, anyway. The stale water in his hair could easily rinse out and dry, the shoeprint on the back of his uniform can be washed out, and even if his face did unfortunately hit the toilet bowl, a hot bath would be nice. He just needed to endure.

Enduring was all he really did, anyway. He knew standing up to them would get his ass kicked again, and Kogen knew the other students wouldn't dare try to cross them in order to help himself. Ratting to the teachers would also do harm than good. After all, Ryusuke was the star player! And Akira's dad seemed to be paying the school a fortune keeping it running. All Kogen could do was wait for the torment to be over, for them to get bored and tired.

He just really did not want to eat shit.

The present wasn't any different. Kogen's head was once again shoved in a pretty smelly place, and he did not want it to end up slipping in. Incidentally, his arm was what was holding him back from being grinded into minced meat by the bearlephant's teeth. He was strong, but he wasn't quite strong enough to pull himself out, nor was he smart enough to figure his way out of this mess. No, all Kogen could do was the same he did that same day. All Kogen could do was endure.

Surely, this time, his classmates would come to help him... right? At least one of them, gifted with the same powers he had, would swoop in and get him out of this situation. He had spent a good deal of time helping them out of pickles, so it'd only make sense if they returned the favor. Yes, this will be over soon. It could only be over soon.

Kogen needed to be strong. More importantly, Kogen needed to be tough. Even if no one was going to come, even if he was abandoned by his peers, even if he was the only one still alive in this whole mess, Kogen needed to be tougher than he had ever been before. He knew it, deep in his mind, as the memories of his bullying filled his head. The memories... they burned through Kogen's mind like the flame of a lighter. No, it was much hotter, like hot coals in his face. Searing, white-hot memories more painful than anything he has experienced. More painful than the sting of betrayal. More painful than the night he had lost his eye.

And yet, Kogen gritted his teeth and continued to endure. Yes, this pain was not something he was a stranger to. It had always lingered within him, even long after those beatings. And yet, rather than allowing the pain to creep up on him, to take over, Kogen instead chose to wear the pain like armor.

To stop himself from being hurt ever again, he wore his pain like armor in the shape of a demonic persona. It was a metaphorical sort of armor, not like the protective padding catchers would wear in baseball... almost like the invisible armor worn by the beasts they had fought. Yes, that's what Kogen needed! He needed that armor that protected him from the shame the bullies had left on him. He needed the skin of a demon.

And so, Kogen "accepted" the pain that would sear his head, almost as if he was allowing it to swallow him whole. Instead of the beast's teeth, the boy would instead find his body swallowed by a white glow.


The Demon spewed forth from the Bearlephant's gaping maw, body covered in bright steel. Kogen caught himself as he was spat out, quickly leaping to his feet as he did his best to get his bearing. His body still ached and his head was still frazzled, but Kogen knew that he was protected. How could he not? The lightborn armor that encased his body was quite obvious, after all. And it definitely was tough, too! Tough enough for that Bearlephant to spit him right out!

There wasn't much time to get a feel for his new look, however. Kogen knew that there were more pressing issues, namely these Bearlephants. Kogen also knew that he couldn't handle this single Bearlephant on his own. So instead, he elected to disengage from the fight, kicking up some dirt in the direction of the Bearlephant before running out of sight.

From here, Kogen could run away from this. He had armor, and enhanced physical and mental faculties. His safety wasn't assured, but it was definitely safer than where he was now. While he wasn't sure on his ability to survive, he would be in arguably better company. After all, everyone on that bus simply turned a blind eye from the suffering he had gone through. If anything, leaving everyone to die would just be returning the favor.

Kogen, however, was not the type to abandon his peers. On the day of his betrayal, on the day he lost his eye, Kogen had vowed to not leave another behind. He would not be like Ryusuke, Akira, or the rest of those fiends. He would not be like that rat, Akechi. And he definitely would not be like-

Well, that other guy isn't around now, is he?

Circling around the chaos, Kogen would once again rush into the frag, his eye centered on the Bearlephant trampling over Ayana. With a leap into the air, Kogen kicked his body back, allowing his legs to propel forward as if he was sliding in mid-air.

If the spears did not serve as suitable weapons, if his armor was hard enough to give a Bearlephant a hard time, then the only option Kogen had was to be the spear. With a heroic shout, a release of his kiai, Kogen exclaimed his intent as he flew directly towards the Bearlephant's center of mass.

---

Asahi could still vividly recall that day.

It was years ago. The weather was gloomy, the winds were chill yet relaxing for then young Asahi at least. He was walking back from his judo class with a smile on his face and a spring on his step. Not only did he defeat that foul-mouthed judo classmate of his during a trial match but he got to see Sasuke smile! Well, it was actually just a small smirk but he learned to celebrate the little things with his crush. That's when the boy he defeated walked up in front of him out of nowhere with a black eye and swollen lips. Asahi may have overdone it with his match but he was such a bully, always picking fights with the newbies because he's confident he can win.

Now that bully called for backup, two of his spineless lackeys that're always at his feet like sniveling wimps. They were no match for Asahi, especially since the pink-haired lad would always practice hard to be on par with Sasuke to impress him. Just as they were about to be totally defeated, one of them used a branch to hit Asahi. Caught off guard, he got hit on the head and he fell to the ground in pain. That's when the bullies used the chance to beat the heck out of him.

Asahi went home beaten and bloodied. While his mom cried as she's tending to his wounds and his grandparents were trying to calm his dad down from going to the kids' houses to teach them a lesson, he was only calm and quiet on the outside. His folks thought the poor kid must be so down and depressed from being ganged up on, but Asahi was fuming with anger underneath like a wildfire. It was probably the most amount of hatred he felt in his being at that moment. He loathed those good-for-nothing boys and he thought of the ultimate way to get back on them.

The next day, Asahi befriended them. He knew kids were very naive and easy to manipulate, especially because he was also one. He treated the incident like it was nothing and got into the good side of the three dunces, quite easily at that too since they had muscles for brains. He got into their clique and even got invited to their houses. That's when Asahi set his plan in motion. He started small at first, little whispers and casual mentions about how one of them don't know how to pee without their mommy's help, how one of them still pooped their bed, or how one of them keeps a journal. It didn't matter that some were true or not, kids love making fun of each other. He kept on doing the same thing to their parents, how one's mom actually thought the other one was a kleptomaniac, how one's dad was actually a gambling addict who's on his third wife, and so on.

All it took was one tiny spark to create an explosion. The bullies became the bullied, their parents were furious once they learned about the things the boys did while they were mad at each other, and the three even got kicked out of the dojo once their unruly behavior finally came into light. What Asahi was the most proud of was that he made these so-called 'friends' turn their backs on each other. A pathetic triangle of friendship formed from tormenting the weak was easily broken like a mirror being dropped on the floor. A beautiful web of deceit and revenge.



Asahi snapped out of his flashback. He didn't know why he suddenly thought of that all of a sudden, especially now that he's in the middle of a losing battle. Maybe it was his life flashing before his eyes? It was still a weird and specific event in his life to look back on. He would ideally spend the next couple of minutes thinking about how odd that was if it weren't for the fact that he was always a hair's width away from being flattened by a pancake by a monster.

He spun and evaded and slashed as much as he could, hoping to the gods above that he was at least doing some obvious damage to the hulk-phant. The sounds of fighting still raged on around him, he could even hear new explosions at some points, but he was too preoccupied with fighting these massive beast on his own. While he moved around quickly to evade its powerful stomps, he could see Kunio pick up Sasuke and carry him back to their other classmates. He felt a huge amount of relief especially now that he could put his whole focus on his opponent.

"Gah! D-Damn you!" Exhaustion eventually began to overwhelm him from attacking and evading the beast's attacks with so much effort and so little payoff. His legs began to burn and he was going to run out of breath soon. He needed to do something, anything at all that might help him defeat this hulk-phant. He refused to be caught in the same scenario from years ago again. As it wasn't obvious enough, Asahi was a sore loser.

After much effort, Asahi jumped out from underneath the behemoth just as it slammed itself down onto the ground in an effort to crush him. He timed it so he was on its blind side so it would have to take some time to turn its head in the other direction just to see Asahi. Grunting through the pain and exhaustion, he conjured the last remaining amount of energy he had left and used that window of opportunity to jump on the monster's back. He crawled as quickly as he could towards its head and dug the dagger at its nape. He shoved it down with all his might as he grabbed on the side of its head while its thrashing around, his body being tossed around like a ragdoll. Asahi would have likely been tossed aside immediately if it weren't for the strange pink threads connecting his fingertips to the creature's head, acting like an anchor.

---

//Night 0 | Location: Nameless Forest - Clearing

_{@OwO@AThousandCurses@baraquiel@Vertigo@Cu Chulainn@Nakushita}

Light gathered in her fingers, but not as swiftly as light gathered before the Ten-Eyes’s mien. If it was quickdraw, Rin was already losing, no matter how slowly time moved for her.

It wasn’t quickdraw, though. Not when both of them were slower than the real bullet here.

Shun’s legs burned. She could hardly feel them through the caustic agony that seared into her muscles and her mind. The extra mass she carried was just that impactful, and her mind roared out from the sheer effort of carrying an entire other body with her. Her knees cracked. Her tendons snapped. Her muscle fibers tore. And just as quickly, her flesh mended itself, overcharged within that moment. The image was crystallizing within her mind now, the image of an engine switching from gasoline to NOS. It burned bright. It burned out.

With a weapon now, she turned the remaining Ten-Eyed into bloody mist, before her foot slipped upon gore and she tumbled and tripped a second time, limbs tangling with the corpses of two monsters.

Without a beam heading towards her, Rin held all the cards now.

What was an inventory without tools, after all? When a box cutter couldn’t do the job, when the hammered nail proved too slim, then a circular saw was what was needed. Light split the darkness, a disc like a full moon dropping down upon the Long-Tailed. The sinuous beast challenged Rin’s assertation with its trusted weapon, five-meters of muscle and bone whipping out to catch the blade. For a moment, the two forces were equal. In the next, the inequality between the organic and the inorganic was clarified.

The disc, fading into nothingness, scored the earth.

The tail, dismembered violently, struck the ground.

And the Long-Tailed, outnumbered and disarmed, bared its teeth for the first time since the fight began and let out a wrathful, ear-ringing howl.

…

Kogen charged forth, his delusions finally synchronized with reality. He could endure. He was invincible! His armor, demonic and yet divinely-illuminated, was only a half-step removed from the Power Rangers of every boy’s dreams, and his body, a perfect union of supernatural elements, allowed him to launch into a classic dynamic, nay, Demonic Entry!

But a kick was not enough to dislodge a hulk-phant whose center of gravity had dropped so low to the ground. It wasn’t just trampling Ayana, after all. It had simply dropped upon her, and Kogen, whose defensive capabilities rendered him almost immune to the hurt that the hulk-phants could deal out, still lacked the strength to overcome this situation. His kick was not enough to save Ayana.

His kick was enough to reach Ayana.

Her consciousness was slipping. Her mind was buzzing. In this suffocating space, bereft of oxygen and movement, left only with the hazy thoughts in her starved brain, Ayana was falling. Her superhuman strength, her superhuman reflexes, her superhuman regeneration, all lacked the ability to allow her to go without breathing. And yet, even if her ears could not hear anything beyond the drumbeat of the hulk-phant’s heart, she could feel it. An impact transmitted through the fat of the massive monstrosity. A force that told her that someone outside was fighting for her still.

She was not forgotten. She just had to hold on.

Asahi was forgotten. But he held on too.

His arm creaked from the strain as he held on with a vicious desperation, legs swinging wildly in the air as the hulk-phant reared up upon its hindlegs to shake him off. His mind burned, confused desires and memories sticking together as his emotions focused upon a singular rage, driving the fang-tooth dagger into the monster’s neck. Against a normal human, the first stab would have done it. Against a deer or a wolf, two stabs could do it. But the hulk-phant was a true hulk, a monster the size of an elephant. The dagger’s length, caught up between fur and fat, failed to score a fatal blow with a singular strike, and Asahi’s own body, though it surpassed the bounds of humanity, could not make up the difference in quality.

He made it up with the difference in quantity then.

Over and over, the pink-haired youth stabbed and thrust, even as his stomach heaved up and down from the chaotic motions all around. His left hand, the hand that kept him bound to the monster, was wholly numb. He wasn’t holding onto anything, and yet, spider threads, ribbons, wires, whatever that was, kept him tied to his mortal enemy. Each stab caused greater pain. Each stab brought greater joy. Each stab drove one closer to death, the other closer to victory.

And finally…

…his mind threads snapped.

Asahi crashed into the dirt, unable to roll with the impact in time. The hulk-phant, half-blind and bleeding, loomed before him with a titanic vengeance etched upon its animalistic features. It would destroy him. And there was no Kogen, no Ayana, no Duncan, no Rin, no Shun, no Masato, no Sasuke to prevent otherwise.

Nothing, but an ear-ringing howl through this long and terrible night.

The hulk-phant that was crushing Ayana rose. The hulk-phant had spat Kogen out charged. The hulk-phant that would kill Asahi turned. And with a singular mind, the trio rushed in a straight line towards their pack leader, smashing apart the remains of the bus along the way.

Faced with the thunderous stampede approaching from behind, it was all Rin and Shun could do to scatter, avoiding the trampling. Their bodies were spent, no matter the elation that may have been rushing through their minds, and even if they could have slain the Long No-Tailed if they pushed themselves, the retaliation that such a thing would have invited may have been too much to bear.

Within moments, the monsters disappeared into the forest, leaving behind the mangled corpses of two dead Ten-Eyes, and the severed, five-meter tail of the Long-Tail.

In the monsters’ wake, they had to pick up what pieces remained. Of their camp, of each other.

_@Yankee

Within the forest, drawing further and further away from the camp, Masato could hear it still, the echoes of that wrathful howl, followed by the rumbling of massive footsteps. But what did that mean? What happened to those who were left behind? A couple students looked as if they wanted to go check, but Kunio’s report as the last one who joined them, wasn’t promising.

Ayana, buried beneath one of the monsters. Kogen, swallowed whole. Asahi, on the verge of being trampled beneath pillar-like paws. Rin and Shun, outnumbered and isolated.

How much did he trust in them, really? How much of a risk would it be, to return to camp? What if the monsters were still there, that howl a howl proclaiming victory? There were so many injured present. If he had them all come, and they had to make another escape, did they have the stamina for it? Yukiko was falling behind, her tiny heart sounding heavily within Masato’s ears. Sasuke’s breathing came shallowly, rasping out from his chest. Daisuke, tough as he was, couldn’t defend the group against multiple monsters, even with the help of the Ito twins. There were no other athletic types beyond those three, at least none that could stand on their own two feet. Could he have them go then, to scout things out, while he defended the group? Memories of his encounter with a singular hulk-phant reminded him of how foolhardy an idea that was. He could hold back one, but there were three.

And there were certainly even more monsters within this forest.

Their cellphones couldn’t be used for communication. Their voices could alert other creatures of their location. To split up may be to be split up forever. What more could they do? What more could he do? What?!

So fucking annoying.

“Masato!”

Akito.

Right. That was the other major injury. A missing arm. Lost to a beam of light. Perhaps his thoughts could be driven down other avenues, but his senses refused to tell a lie. The blood-stench had become thicker. None of them knew how to make a tourniquet properly. She had been bleeding out slowly all the while, each step that she had to be helped with another step towards her grave.

Blood. So much blood.

Tsubaki was going to die. Even if they could stop the bleeding, the blood that had already been lost would finish the job. Sasuke or Yuki, no matter the efforts of their respective caretakers, would follow soon after. He had learned, from Hiroshi’s impromptu trivia breaks, about how fatal internal bleeding could become.

Had they been lucky or unlucky, that this happened at night, where most of them could hardly see what was transpiring right in front of them? If they fell asleep from exhaustion, could they steal a few moments and let themselves believe that it was all a nightmare?

He couldn’t.

He still bore the weight.

But what could he do? What should he do? Was a swift death the only mercy, or should they struggle on, agonizing for even a minute more of life?

The timer was ticking.

Masato did not know when it’d stop.

"Haaa... Ha..." Things had settled as quickly as she came. The moment she slammed the bloody remains into one of the beasts, they were bisected by Rin's magic attack. Would it be appropriate to call it magic? Rin was always a scientific orientated person, so maybe she would have opted for a different term. It's blood was mixed along with the corpses as newly pair of corpses collapsed on top of her. Shun let out a surprised sound before being buried underneath them.

All what she gathered from her hearing was the sound similar to a buzzsaw shredding into steel. It was an unpleasant sound akin to hearing chalk scratching against a writing board. Though silence soon came afterwards. It took Shun a minute to untangle herself from the body pile that she was stuck in. All it took was the severed tail in front of her to confirm what was the outcome of Rin's battle. Exhaustion and ever present concussion soon came kicking in.

Her legs felt as if they were about to snap apart and her head was being pounded by a hammer. "Ugh, I'm beat..." Shun said as she collapsed back on to the floor. She was about to make a request to Rin until the middle schooler felt a faint rumble. Turning her head towards the general direction of the source, Shun noticed the two elephant like creatures coming straight at her and Rin. Where did they come from?!

"Not good, not good!" Shun immediately scrambled, to her leg's dismay, and managed to barely get out of the way. The trampled where she was once was and disappeared into the forest. With the bus in shambles, they would need to find a new shelter. However in there current state would they be able to do so?

"Inaba. Can you give me a piggyback ride, please? I think my legs are going pass away without me if I talk another step." Shun whined towards the only classmate around. They needed to check on their remaining classmates. If those elephants were attacking the others earlier, then that meant that Yuudai and others were in danger.