I needed to go fast, I could have simply positioned a teacher close to the door and trick the monster into breaking the rules, but there were problems with that.
Time
I would waste too much time on recess trying to get a teacher positioned where I want them, not only that I would also have to find the monster without being too far away from the building which would be even more time consuming
I needed to do both at the same time without wasting any precious time.
'I don't even know If I can survive that long, that monster Is incredibly fast after all.'
Step!
Step!
Step!
I kept running, checking every place I can In order to find the bastard
"No luck huh"
I couldn't find him anywhere and leaned on a tree to rest for a few seconds
'Let's not make ourselves exhausted before even meeting the guy'
I needed to finish this quickly, but I obviously couldn't make myself exhausted.
I stare at my trembling hand
"..."
My vision overlapped with another, a vision with my hand smeared in blood and my body crawling on the hard stone.
I shook my head and steadied my breathing
'Let's just stay focused'
I resumed my searching, carefully checking every spot
***
"W-Wait! please sp-!"
Crush!
A headless body laid on the ground, blood flowed and seeped on the cobblestone, trees stained with bright red paint as if a child painted them themselves.
On the road, bodies of different shapes and colors laid, sprawled all over the floor.
In the middle of the carnage stood a man In armo-no he was the armor itself.
The metal on the helmet started to shift, transforming Into something that resembled a mouth.
It smiled, the metal screeched like it was laughing at what it had done.
POP!
It then plucked one of the eyes that littered the floor, The head of the owner of these eyes was half destroyed. However the eyes were vibrant with life, as if it was still alive and feeling everything.
It then took the other eye out of its socket.
[It's so squishy]
The sensation it felt when caressing the eyes was ecstatic, the softness of the eyes resembled that of a stress ball.
[Just holding them fills me with joy...Huff]
It gripped the eyes in it's hands, threatening to crush them, It's breathing turned ragged.
Drip!
Liquid metal started flowing from Its metal mouth and hit the blood stained ground.
[Ah...Ha, I crushed them]
It looked disappointed at how eyes were so fragile when in his hands.
[Who else should I break?]
It questioned itself what it should do next.
[Ah wait, wasn't there....]
It remembered someone, someone whose screams filled it with so much happiness it found itself not wanting to kill him.
[Yeah, I remember now]
It had also been reminded with how much of fire that someone held in its eyes.
They were filled with hope, hope that if enough trial and error was repeated, It would be possible to kill him.
[I want something that authentic to bless my ears again~]
It sung a tune as it was passing the hordes of corpses, expecting to find its stress ball that it had once lost two months ago.
[I can't wait till I]
The sight of Cale on the ground bleeding out filled its vision.
[Break and crush that spirit you delusion yourself into having]
The metal screeched and stretched once again, this time reaching its temples, a ridiculous smile full of sadistic desire became prominent on its helmet that resembled much like a human face
***
"..."
It finally found me huh
I raised my head, feeling and seeing pulses coming from in front of me.
The pitch black lines got thicker, so thick that it resembled a black mass instead of just lines.
My body Involuntarily started shivering and trembling out of fear of what that thing had done to me in the past.
I was sitting on a rock I had found at the edge of the courtyard.
"Past this point is the forest..."
I had reached the forest, faster than I had once anticipated 2 months ago.
So it was in the forest...
It didn't matter to me why it wanted to go to and stay at the forest, I couldn't care less about its reasons.
"Let's see If I now have at least a chance of surviving a confrontation with that thing"
I got up from the rock, my body tensed as I stared at the marching black mass that told me death was approaching.
Clank
Clank
Clank
A creaking metal clank Invaded my ears.
Drip
I heard something dripping, I thought it was water at first but I knew that it wasn't the case.
"..."
I kept my eyes peeled, instincts sharp and knees buckled.
[Ahhh~ I can't believe it~]
A distorted voice echoed and a metallic smell wafted in the air.
[How can I be so loved by a stress ball? so much so that it would willingly come back to me to get more of my love?]
The first words I hear it say since it almost killed me is this?
Finally, as the seconds dragged out, a figure emerged from the shadows the trees provided it, a metallic scent wafted in the air.
It seems it enjoyed itself quite a lot
From head to toe its body was smeared in blood, armor that looked to be forged for the sole purpose of mobility became visible in my vision.
It was here, and it stood in front of me, a sadistic smile greeted me and I greeted such a smile with a blank expression on my face.
Ba-Thump!
Ba-Thump!
My heart was anything but calm, it beat louder and louder, every single inch in my body trembled.
I'm going to face things even worse than this...
If I was determined to survive, I would have to go through things way harder than this, this I was certain was correct.
[Well then, let's not drag this out and enjoy ourselves]
Crack!
It cracked its metallic fingers.
It really is humanlike, Even the sound resembles that of a human's
I marveled at the sight slightly before getting ready
"Hoooo"
I took a deep breath and-
"Do it now! use it while he hasn't noticed you!!"
[!!!]
The monster turned around lightning fast and he was met with an unbelievable sight.
[...?]
Nothing was there, it was deadly calm even.
It turned around to face the stress ball that came to him voluntarily.
[....]
The stress ball was running through the courtyard, It was running so fast that it would definitely reach the school building In under a minute.
[Kuk]
It covered its mouth.
[You think you can play with me using just this?]
A pulse reverberated Inside its body, Then almost immediately after Its body started to flare up.
Its eye sockets started to flash and gave out a low hum.
Uuuung
Then, eyes started to form in its once empty sockets, bright blue retinas locked directly at the retreating figure of Cale.
Particles started to swirl around its retinas.
Swoosh~
Then it was gone? as if it had never even been there in the first place.
Swoosh~
Swoosh~
It repeated this action multiple times, covering an incredible distance each time, until it was inches away from Cale.
[Too easy~]
It threw a lightning-fast jab at the nape of Cale.
"!!!"
[Huh?]
Its newly formed eyes widened at what just happened.
Cale had moved out of the way, narrowly dodging the jab.
Blood started trickling from Cale's right cheek.
How did he?
It thought back at what happened.
[A sensory type of #%^#&%#?]
"..?"
What did it say?
Cale stood dazed for a few moments at the incomprehensible nonsense the monster spouted.
Swoosh~
It disappeared once again, when it did that Cale had felt something pulse and swirl around his body, it was the black mass.
It concentrated itself on Cale's shoulder and nape.
Cale saw this, his body acted out of survival instinct before his mind could even process why the black mass concentrated itself on Cale's left shoulder and nape.
"Ngh!"
Cale stepped back.
"?!"
[!?]
Both Cale and the monster were astonished.
H-How did I do that?!
Blood trickled from Cale's shoulder, he wasn't able to dodge it completely.
The living black plated armor stared at Cale, Its smile nowhere to be seen
[...]
Cale felt his mouth dry up, sweat trickling with blood alongside it.
Swoosh~
It disappeared from Cale's sight and the moment it did.
A swirling black mass predicted where it would hit and Cale narrowly got out of the way.
"Kugh!"
Cale lost his balance and fell to the ground, however he quickly recovered.
But the living armor was nowhere to be seen. The black mass had already predicted where it would hit but-
"?!"
It had already lodged Its hand at the side of Cale's body.
"Arg!"
Pain, scorching pain that instantly made Cale want to scream, He bit his lip and just barely held his scream in.
The living armor wouldn't allow Cale to recover even a bit.
It was mad, mad by the fact it had given a sliver of hope for this filth to hold onto.
[You shouldn't have something like that....]
It pressed its foot onto the back of Cale and then retracted his hand, kicking Cale in the process
Thud!
Cale fell limply to the ground, The living armor didn't give him any room to breath and grabbed him by the hair.
"Ah..Ha..kugh! Cough!"
Cale coughed up blood, The living armor had no reaction.
[...]
It looked at him for a while, savoring his pained expression, while doing so It gripped Cale's head, Cale winced in pain and struggled weakly trying to escape its grasp
"Ugh!"
He groaned, his strength leaving his body
[Not...enough]
It muttered under its breath, Cale's screams and wailings of pain weren't as good as back then.
It raised its arm and then-
Woosh~
It threw Cale, Cale was slicing through the air, his vision already hazy not understanding what happened to him.
Thud!
He finally hit the ground and rolled through the ground.
"Huff...Huff"
He was weakly breathing, his life about to be snuffed out.
He raised his trembling blood soaked hand, reaching out for help.
Crash!
"AHHHHHH!"
A piercing scream so loud it strained Cale's voice, he screamed In pain while the figure that had crushed his body with his foot on top of him, relishing in the pure agony Cale's scream had blessed Its ears with.
[This was...what it was missing]
The living armor heard Cale's screams a little while longer, until Cale stopped.
"Hu-Cough!"
Cale felt so much pain course through his body, his vision so hazy he couldn't make out anything anymore, even the shape of his blood soaked hand.
He didn't even know where he was anymore.
His eyelids felt heavy, as if someone had put small weights on it.
[Ah~ that felt good~]
A metal liquid flowed from its ridiculous smile, salivating at the scene before him.
It raised its head, and it saw it.
An invisible humanoid like monster, wearing a navy blue suit, its hands donning black gloves with gold patterns on it, its square glasses were perched up on its face.
It was Carlos Ashen
The living armor then realized where he was, It was the cafeteria, the door was open as if someone had prepared for this beforehand.
Its face paled at the realization of what it had just done.
[S-shit]
That's all it could say in this situation
[Do you mind if you tell me what you are doing right now?]
The air in the room grew colder as Carlos spoke
[Gravel Stone]