Reinforcements
The calm had returned... or so it seemed.
In a plain room with rough stone walls, lit by the flickering light of an oil lamp, Hiro was wiping the blood from his arm. Sitting on an old wooden bench, he watched Kohaku pace back and forth, arms crossed, brow furrowed.
"Did you see that thing we fought?" she snapped. "A horror like that, I bet it came straight from Tartarus..."
"It wasn't human," Hiro replied, lifting his head. "And not Greek either. Did you feel it?"
"Yeah. Something else... like it was... like it was made to kill."
She stopped, stared at the ground for a few seconds, then closed her eyes. Her breathing slowed.
"We don't have time to wait for orders."
"Kohaku? What are you—"
But before he could finish, the air folded in front of her. Like a sheet of paper being twisted, space collapsed on itself, forming a rippling circle with violet hues.
"We're going back. Now. And you're coming with me."
"Tss... I would've preferred a shower," Hiro muttered, standing up.
They stepped through the portal.
They landed on the charred remains of what had once been the courtyard.
Flames danced on the walls, corpses still smoked, and the screams of survivors blended with the roars of three monstrous giants continuing their rampage.
Kohaku took a step back, stunned.
"What the..."
Then she saw. Amid the chaos, surrounded by blood and rubble, stood Kubira.
He had one hand on his injured thigh but was still fighting, repelling the monsters with electric arcs whipping from his arms.
"KUBIRA?!" Kohaku screamed. "The school guardian?! THAT'S YOU?!"
Hiro joined her, just as shocked.
"He always said he couldn't train with us because he had 'something to do'..."
"The liar!" Kohaku exploded. "He was saving a school and kept it secret from us?!"
Kubira turned briefly. A tired smile spread across his lips.
"Glad to see you guys..."
But there was no time for reproach. A monster noticed the new arrivals, roared, and charged.
"WE'RE COMING!" Kohaku shouted.
She instantly opened a rift in the air and disappeared.
She reappeared right in front of the creature, blade in hand, and slashed. The blow tore into the giant's black flesh, and it staggered back howling.
Hiro leapt in next, joining a small group of terrified students — the last survivors.
"How many left?!" he yelled to one of them.
"Thirty!" a boy screamed. "Not counting the girl and the guy the teacher's protecting!"
"Okay. I'll handle it."
Hiro stood in front of them, arms wide, ready to take the hit. He was now the wall between the survivors and hell.
But even with three of them fighting, the battle was unbalanced.
The monsters were faster than before. More aggressive. And for each one they slowed down, another surged forward.
In the following minutes, five students fell. One crushed. Two impaled. Another grabbed and shredded.
Keita, still in the back, watched without moving. Every scream, every death, every explosion echoed in his head like a hammer blow.
And always, Kael was there.
He hit. He blocked. He crushed.
But he never took his eyes off Keita.
Whenever a tentacle got near him, he intercepted it. Whenever a monster turned its gaze on him, he attacked.
Even Yuna started to realize. He was protecting Keita more than anyone else.
Why? She didn't know. But it couldn't be a coincidence anymore.
The ground shook with each giant step. Whole sections of the school wall collapsed.
The surviving students had grouped around Hiro, but their faces were pale, eyes wide with terror.
"This isn't working," Hiro growled.
Kubira, knees bent, arms flickering with unstable sparks, glanced at Kohaku.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?"
She nodded, face grim.
"We have no choice."
Hiro sighed.
"Seriously? We agreed to save that as a last resort."
"It's now or never," Kubira said.
They took position. Kohaku opened an oval rift to the left of one of the giants. Kubira ran straight at the enemy, arms crackling. He dove into the portal, reappeared behind the creature's neck… and drove both arms in like stakes, discharging all his electricity directly into its spine.
The monster roared.
Hiro charged next. Kohaku opened a second rift mid-height on the monster, and Hiro flew out of it, fist cocked.
A direct hit to the back of the head.
The shock was brutal. The electricity still inside the giant exploded from within. Its skull burst with a muffled crack. It staggered… and fell.
Dead.
But all three fighters collapsed too.
Kubira had almost no energy left. Hiro had fractured his wrist. Kohaku, on her knees, was bleeding from the nose from overusing too many portals in a row.
"That was our only chance," she whispered.
But the two remaining giants roared in response.
And this time, they attacked together.
One went for Kael. The other charged straight at Hiro and Yuna.
Keita watched, unmoving. His heart pounded, ready to burst.
Kael's arm flew off.
A monstrous crack, a shoulder hit, the sound of shattered bones. The professor was flung backwards, his left arm torn off — but no blood spilled.
He rolled across the ground… then stood up. Slowly. As if nothing had happened.
Keita, shocked, took a step back.
"He… he's not bleeding..."
Kael ignored the pain. Once again, he placed himself between Keita and the giant.
Meanwhile, Hiro tried to defend Yuna, but the monster was too fast. It swept a group of students with its foot.
Two were crushed against the wall.
Another was thrown into debris… and impaled by a metal bar.
Yuna screamed.
A fourth, running away, fell and was trampled without the giant even noticing.
Five dead.
"Fall back!" Hiro yelled. "Stay together!"
But a sixth student tried to flee alone. The giant grabbed him, looked at him for a moment… then smashed him against the ground. A dull thud, then silence.
A seventh, wounded in the leg, was left behind. He screamed for help. No one returned.
The monster slowly approached… and crushed him like a bug.
Kael was breathing hard. He wasn't moving. He stared at the two remaining monsters.
Hiro, out of breath, stood beside him.
"We're not gonna make it…" he said.
Kael slowly turned to him. His face remained expressionless. But his deep voice pierced through the chaos.
"I'll tell you why I protect Keita... when all this is over."
Then he looked at the giants, still standing.
The battle wasn't over. But hope already felt far away.
The monsters roared.
Their fists destroyed, their steps crushed.
The survivors were but a shadow of what they once were.
Hiro panted, holding Yuna with one arm and shielding three terrified students with the other. Keita stood frozen near Kael, who still lacked his left arm. There was no blood, but his body seemed slower. Weaker.
Suddenly, the sky opened.
Or rather, something tore through the clouds like a comet.
A silhouette split the air, struck the ground at such speed even the giants recoiled.
He slowly stood.
"You lasted longer than expected," he said in a calm voice.
He was a tall man, slick black hair, dressed in a long white coat split at the sides. His gaze was electric blue. No visible weapon at his waist. He didn't need one.
His name was Oren.
The fastest.
And the most powerful of them all.
Behind him, three others arrived through successive portals:
— Narek, shadowy, blurry silhouette, able to slip into and manipulate darkness at will.
— Solan, glowing red eyes, firing destructive laser beams from his pupils.
— And Drav, a mass of muscle and flame, whose every breath burned the air.
"Reinforcements are here!" Narek called out to Kubira with a smile.
"Too late," Kohaku replied. "But not useless."
Oren teleported onto a giant's arm.
One hit.
The arm exploded.
He vanished, reappeared at head level.
A second hit.
The giant roared, staggered, but didn't fall.
Meanwhile, Solan fired a laser straight into the chest of another colossus. The giant backed off, burned, but crushed a student as it fell.
Drav unleashed a wave of fire in a wide arc, pushing back two monsters at once. He saved a group of students… except one girl who didn't follow.
She burned alive.
Narek slipped into the shadow of a giant, trying to immobilize its legs…
But the beast spun around and crushed him with a knee.
Blood sprayed. Narek was cut in half.
Drav, too close to a monster, got hit by a whole hand.
He fell, ribs shattered, then was slammed into the ground repeatedly until he stopped moving.
Solan, trying to protect Hiro, stood in front and fired continuously.
One giant fell to its knees… but a second speared him through with a finger like a lance.
The lasers faded from his eyes.
One student tried to flee through the ruins: swept aside by a hand
Another panicked and ran into a fire
Three more were crushed while Kael tried to get up
A boy screamed "I want to go home!" before being pulverized
A girl hiding under a bus was spotted… and eaten
Hiro counted them. One by one.
He murmured softly, broken:
"...fourteen… fifteen… sixteen… eighteen…"
He clenched his teeth. His eyes were red. He couldn't take it anymore.
Oren, out of breath, stood tall. He had managed to drive off one of the remaining monsters, wounded. The other was retreating.
But Kael, he dropped to his knees.
"Professor!" Yuna shouted.
He raised a hand… toward Hiro.
"Hiro… It's time."
"Time for what?"
Kael looked at Keita.
"You need to understand… why I've been protecting him."