The combined strength of the remaining three was a desperate, insufficient defense, unable to land the single, decapitating blow needed to stop the relentless monster.
As the monster surged toward her, Emily reacted on pure instinct, she attacked it with Sarah's discarded steel serving tray, smashing it against the creature's ugly, shell-like face.
The tray buckled, but the monster flinched. In that instant, Sarah was on it, she snatched Matthew's iron rod from the floor near Ethan, and with the strength born of terror, rammed it through the monster's eye.
The creature recoiled, its body convulsing as a primal, agonizing roar erupted. It was a sound of true injury, revealing that the eyes, like a severing blow to the neck, were a path to breaking its terrifying power.
"You feel pain! Huh!?" Sarah cried.
The monster kept roaring with pain and anger. Sarah tried to grab the metal rod again, but the monster quickly turned and hit her hard with its backhand.
The blow sent her flying across the ground, and she crashed against the wall, falling down with the air knocked out of her.
Matthew didn't hesitate. He yelled and charged forward, swinging his blood-slicked axe at the monster's neck. But the monster was too fast.
Its huge, five-fingered claw clamped down like a vise on Matthew's face, with the sharp talons digging into his cheek and jaw. A horrible, wet sound of crushing bone echoed as the monster began to squeeze, trying to smash his skull.
Suddenly a blow strikes, cutting the monster's right arm. Matthew falls down, blood dripping from it's arm.
The monster's claw let go of Matthew, and he immediately fell backward onto the ground, his face now fully covered with blood.
Blood from both Matthew and the monster splattered as he tumbled. His bloody axe slipped from his hand and slid away, its blade briefly catching the faint light.
Ethan was also standing over there, breathing heavily and trembling. In his hands, he held his axe tightly with both hands, its sharpened edge, now dripping with the monster's thick, black blood. The monster's arm lying in front of him.
The blow that cut the monster's arm was a desperate, lucky shot, and it had bought Ethan a single, precious moment. But the victory was short-lived.
The monster didn't waste a single second on its pain and had regenerated its arm in no time just like the previous one. The low, guttural shriek of rage it emitted as a physical force, and it lunged—not at the fallen, injured Matthew, but directly at Ethan, the one who had cut off his arm.
Ethan, holding the axe tightly in his hands, knew his insufficient defense wouldn't stop the charge. His eyes, usually gleaming with mischief, were wide with stark terror. He braced himself, ready to become another bloody stain on the floor.
Suddenly, a blur of motion came from the side.
"Hey, ugly!" a voice screamed—a voice usually reserved for either arguing over homeworks or a moment of pure cowardice, was suddenly strained with battle-ready rage.
The voice was of none other than Ryan.
Ryan had used the monster's single-minded focus on Ethan as his window to attack it.
With a reckless, desperate leap, Ryan didn't aim for the monster's legs; he launched himself straight up, stabbing the monster at its back with the same iron rod which Sarah used to stab its eye.
Ryan climbs up on the monster's hard shell like flesh, trying to keep it busy to provide a chance for Ethan to attack it again.
Ethan also uses the chance to cut off its right hand again.
The monster roared, thrashing wildly, trying to grab the clinging annoyance, but its severed right arm couldn't respond, and its left was occupied trying to find Ethan.
"Matthew's axe!" Ryan shouts, twisting his head to shout at the others. "Ethan, get it!"
Ethan acted immediately. He saw the blood covered axe lying near Matthew's feet, he lunged upon it with one hand which was a dangerous risk, and in a second of pure, adrenaline-fueled strength, quickly grabbed the axe from the floor.
The monster finally managed to arch its back, grabbing Ryan by his shirt and throwing him forward.
But as Ryan tumbled over the creature's shoulder, Ethan swung the axe in a desperate, curving arc. He didn't aim for the chest, or the regenerating arm, but the one weak point they knew of.
CH-THWACK!
The sound was a horrific, dull strike of metal on bone. Ethan sliced through the thick neck with brutal force, fueled by the height of Ryan's fall and his desperate momentum. The blow was solid, final.
The massive, towering body of the monster froze mid-thrash. The enormous torso crashed down with a deafening, Earth-shaking thud.
Silence. An awful, ringing silence broken only by the panting breaths of the four teenagers. Matthew was still unconscious.
Ryan stands up, looking at the decapitated body of the monster, a violent situation had finally come to an end. It was an important victory for them.
Ethan standing in the middle, also looking at the decapitated body, his clothes were also covered by the red-black thick blood of the monster. The axe slips down from his hand.
Their priority quickly shifts from the monster to their friend Matthew, he was still unconscious, showing that he was badly injured during the fight.
"Matthew!" Ryan grabbed his still-unconscious friend by the shirt and tried to lift him up. "We did it, idiot! We did it! Now move!"
"He's badly injured! Be careful or his wounds would open up more!" Sarah yells at him.
Emily and Ethan, stunned but galvanized by the unbelievable success, Ryan grabs Matthew's right arm, while Ethan quickly grabs his left arm and lifts him up.
They were ready to leave the cafeteria as soon as possible and move to a more safe place till Matthew woke up.
"The library," Emily said, her voice shaking slightly, but clear. "It's the most corner area of our school and the safest place for now."
"Let's go quickly!" Ethan added.
"We have to grab the first aid box from the Principal's office on our way." Sarah said.
"Let's go before another one arrives!" Ryan announces.