The six creatures charged towards the two dozen humans forming a defensive line. The beasts had attacked at the wrong time.
four of the strongest players, were currently out there in the city with their hunting parties.
The lead creature moved with speed that felt unreal for its humongous body. Its three heads, growling and taking in the surroundings.
Behind it three equally fearsome and disgusting creatures moved along with two normal Xenons.
The three headed demon clashed with Shen and the muscular man. Shen's long sword slashed at it and met its tough hide, but it only managed to leave a scratch before the beast caught Shen and threw him away.
The muscular guy spun his hammer and sent a shockwave through the beast's body. The Xenon swayed a little and then kicked the big guy in the stomach.
The organized defense line Shen had assembled, became chaotic in just mere seconds.
The five players behind them attacked at the beast together, but were thrown away like flies. One of the five had it worse, he tried to attack when the beast bent low. A straight strike at its face. But the two other heads caught his body and tore it in two.
Which was then devoured by the two heads. Then it looked at another player frozen in horror around his leg, the large Xenon lifted his leg to crush the poor man, but the figure of princess appeared between them.
Ishiki saw none of that, there was another horror which demanded his immediate attention.
'We're going to die like this. We're all going to fucking die.'
He gritted his teeth and ran alongside Kenji towards the headless Xenon—The one who was just a torso that opened into a vertical maw. It had two humongous hands and the bastard crawled on several tentacle like projections.
The maw opened and closed with wet sounds, revealing teeth and throat and darkness that led down to who knew where.
The four of them formed a loose circle around the approaching monstrosity, trying to halt its inexorable advance toward the civilian cluster huddled behind them.
"Attack together! Anywhere you think it will be soft, eyes... joints, anywhere. Just attack." the man with daggers shouted.
Ishiki looked at him and frowned. 'Has this bastard gone mad? That thing doesn't have eyes or preferable human joints.'
They attacked anyway. Because there was nothing else they could do.
Ishiki dodged a grasping limb, and drove Black Tether toward the creature's center mass with all his system-enhanced strength behind it.
The spear's tip struck the green hide of the creature.
And stopped.
His eyes widened in horror and disbelief. The obsidian spear was sharp enough to pierce a normal Xenon's flesh like it was made of paper. It was also dangerous enough to kill the shinobi in his trial.
But it failed to penetrate the ugly creature. The tip pressed against its skin, creating a dimple.
Around him, the other three also experienced the same horror. Their weapons struck the beast and did nothing. It's hide was too thick.
Ishiki's mind blanked as his body took a few steps back on its own.
'Crap! This shouldn't ha-'
Before he could finish the thought, something massive struck him directly in the guts.
The impact drove every molecule of air from his lungs. His vision whited out and his grip on Black Tether failed. His body flew backwards like a projectile.
Then he hit the wall.
Pain exploded through his entire body—spine compressing, ribs protesting, skull bounced off concrete with force that should have been enough to kill him. But thanks to the system's physical boost, he lived.
He slid down the wall and collapsed in a heap, gasping, trying to remember how lungs worked.
Ishiki raised his hands and looked at them. 'I'm alive. I'm alive.'
Suddenly, something struck the wall besides him.
SPLAT!
And then something fell on the ground with a wet sound. Ishiki's heart skipped several beats. His body went cold despite the pain.
He was reluctant to look, trying to pretend he hadn't heard what he heard.
But his neck moved anyway, towards the sound.
And what he saw made his stomach twist, bile rose in his throat and made him turn and vomit onto the ground beside him.
An old man.
Or what used to be an old man.
Now he was just... meat. A puddle of flesh and blood with broken bones protruding through skin. His face, was frozen in an expression of terminal horror. Eyes still wide open. Mouth still shaped around a scream that had ended before it could fully form.
Ishiki hid his face with his trembling hands, gasping. "It's Okay... It's Okay. That... that could have been me, but I am alive. That's all that matters."
His legs curled up, heartbeat racing past what a person should be experiencing. 'Screw it! Should I hide? It would be better, right?'
Then he forced himself to look at the battlefield, at the camp that had transformed into an abattoir.
The headless Xenon—the one that had struck him, was now crawling deeper into the camp, moving past the front line and heading toward the civilians huddled near the school building, towards the children and people who survived the Great Fall only to die tonight.
Near the gates, the Princess faced the three-headed beast.
She raised a hand above her head and a chilly wind blew across the whole landscape. Then a Ice shard manifested itself above her, as large as a human and ending in a sharp end. With one command of her hand... the shard shot forward like a missile.
The three headed beast took a step back—That bastard was actually intelligent. As the shard closed in at him, he grabbed one of the smaller Xenon from the side and yanked it into position like a meat shield.
The ice shard struck the sacrificial creature with devastating force. Punched through its torso and shattered its spine.
The three-headed beast let go and the corpse collapsed, already freezing solid.
The beast's three mouths opened simultaneously and roared sending the vibrations that sang the song of dread.
Ishiki looked back and found Kenji again lunging at the headless Xenon. A chuckle escaped Ishiki's mouth and he forced himself to stand.
He mentally summoned Black Tether and the spear materialized in his shaking hand.
The headless creature was almost at the civilian cluster now. Almost at people who couldn't fight back.
'You asshole, you think you can hit me and get away.'
He gritted his teeth and sprinted toward it.
The Xenon noticed him approaching. The vertical maw opened wide, teeth glistening with saliva.
It attacked with a limb.
Ishiki dodged, rolling left and extended, Black Tether to keep distance. He came up in a crouch, spear pointed forward, breathing hard.
He wasn't a fighter. The truth was brutal and undeniable: nobody here was really a fighter. They were all just normal, mundane humans—students, workers and parents, thrust into something unimaginable and forced to learn combat on the fly or die trying.
Kenji closed the distance from the other side and successfully shattered the beasts attention between two targets.
Ishiki took the chance and ran. 'I will activate [Ghost Blade] at the last moment, tricking it.'
Suddenly, a tentacle erupted from the creature's back. Ishiki's eyes widened as that thing became visible suddenly.
Just the next moment, before he could do anything, it grabbed Ishiki around the waist.
The world spun.
The tentacle lifted him off the ground, swung him through the air like he weighed nothing. He saw the camp rotating around him.
The tentacle brought him toward the maw.
The vertical opening split wider. Inside, the throat pulsed with rhythmic contractions.
Then, the creature threw him, Into the maw and down the throat.
'SHIT!'
Ishiki fell into darkness and the creatures, mouth closed shut above him, barely missing his legs.