No Other Choice?

Though Killian's stomach wound was bandaged, it burst open just from blocking the spear that the figure brought down. His head began spinning, while his senses were all messed up. In the end, he didn't even notice that the figure had pulled back its spear and was about to pierce him.

Adonis and Damien had both pulled out their katanas and were rushing forth to help, but they were still quite far away.

However, Zenos still had his sniper out. His eye was narrowed ever so slightly and bloodshot. He was holding his breath and remaining completely still. Then, he pulled the trigger of the sniper.

An explosive bang resounded within the room.

The figure that was just about to pierce through Killian's stomach once more suddenly retreated, evading the sniper shot, causing the bullet to slam into the wall and create cracks over the wall.

After succeeding, he relaxed, but a frown was still on his face.

"...Making me waste my shots."

The figure did not wait to lunge towards Killian right after backing off, but that brief instead was enough for Killian to force himself to recover. When a spear shot towards his heart, this time he twisted to the side, letting the spear pass graze past his suit.

His eyes widened all the way as the front part of his suit shattered.

Killian grit his teeth.

"Some help would be appreciated!"

The figure pulled back his spear before thrusting it towards his neck.

A loud clang resounded.

Adonis got in front of him and blocked the spear with the base of his katana. The figure continued pushing his spear, but Adonis stood his ground. Both of their weapons were trembling, and unfortunately, Adonis was being forced back.

His eyes widened as a nasty frown was on his face.

"What the hell?...This guy is way too strong."

Damien eventually caught up and whipped his katana towards the figure's neck. It quickly dashed back after that, but had its spear up and looked ready to go back in at any moment.

Damien frowned.

"It's too agile for us to fight normally. We have to surround it and kill it that way."

Adonis sucked in a deep breath.

"I'll go behind."

He attempted to circle around the figure, but it simply jumped back so that it couldn't. Adonis clicked his tongue in frustration.

"It's faster than me! This isn't going to work."

Damien shook his head.

"No, we can still corner it like this! Just don't let it slip past us, and it will have nowhere to go."

Killian narrowed his eyes.

"Yeah, I ain't letting this thing get off so easily!"

The three of them kept their distance, but blocked off the various paths the figure had available. Adonis kept attempting to circle around, but didn't force it. In that way, they were gradually able to back it into one of the far corners of the room.

All three of them were currently roughly ten meters away from the figure, while it was just a few meters away from the corner.

Damien tightened the grip on his katana.

"Alright, we have him in the right position. Now, we slowly close in and don't let it escape the circle, or if it tries, make it pay a price for doing so."

Adonis stared down the figure without blinking.

"Alright."

Killian smirked.

"Heh. I hope this little shit comes to try me."

The three of them slowly got closer, from ten meters to nine. Then from nine meters to six. As they got closer, the figure began holding onto its spear even more tightly and pointing it forth.

Damien spoke calmly.

"It looks like it's getting ready to jump out. Gang up on it when the thing does."

The three of them took another step forward as he said that, and that was when the figure decided to act. It suddenly bolted forth straight towards Killian, thrusting its spear towards his head.

Despite the extremely dangerous situation, Killian's smile only grew wider.

"Try me then!"

He flung his head to the side, getting his head out of the way. Unfortunately, his ear was hit, scattering both blood and tiny fragments of his suit. But dodging wasn't the only thing that Killian did.

He swept towards the figure's leg as it thrust forth, and because it decided to commit to that attack, it wasn't able to retract its leg in time.

Killian's katana slammed into the leg, causing black blood to splatter. Unfortunately, the katana only went through the flesh and stopped at what appeared to be bone, meaning the figure did not take any real damage.

However, Adonis and Damien weren't just going to watch either.

They rushed forth with their katanas pulled back, approaching at opposite angles. The figure seemed to realize the sudden situation it was in and leaped into the air once more, scattering blood from its wounds around.

Adonis and Damien stopped themselves from slashing and both looked at the figure up in the sky.

Damien smirked.

"What comes up..."

After a moment, the figure began falling.

Adonis chuckled.

"Must come down!"

Adonis and Damien swung their katanas without abandon at the figure that dropped back down. Yet, as they traveled closer, the figure spun its spear, only leaving faint afterimages in its wake.

Both Adonis' and Damien's katanas were each hit hard by different ends of the spear. In fact, Damien's katana flew out of his hand, and into the distance.

Killian lunged forwards right after it deflected the two away and brought his sword down on the figure, trying to split it in two.

In response, the figure twirled its spear with agility it didn't seem to have earlier. It brought it up to block with both hands, causing the katana to slam down into the middle with a clash.

The katana didn't even cut in slightly despite hitting fairly hard. In other words, whatever the spear was made out of, it was really tough.

Damien cursed under his breath before pulling out his pistol, as it would take too much time to retrieve his katana right now. Realistically, using a pistol at this range when multiple friends could easily get caught in the crossfire was not the best idea. However, he didn't really have much of a choice at this point.

Killian retreated after his attack had failed, but the figure did not give chase. This gave Damien an opportunity to shoot, but he did not take it. He figured that the thing would just dodge anyway, thus he waited.

Killian noticed that Damien now had his gun out, and began wondering about his own gun.

"Should I get my shotgun back?"

Damien shook his head.

"For now since we have it cornered, we should maintain the formation. We only break it apart if we have no other choice. I doubt this thing will let us corner it again."

As he said that, the figure suddenly charged towards Damien. With a frown, he aimed right at the center of its torso, but as he pulled the trigger, he moved the gun to the left.

A bang resounded, and black ink-like blood splashed out of the figure's shoulder.

The figure had attempted to dodge as he was pulling the trigger, but because Damien knew it was going to do that, he purposely diverted it as he was doing so. As for whether the monster was going to the left or right, that was purely a gamble, and it had paid off.

The figure retreated for one moment, but now all of its attention seemed to be focused on Damien.

Killian raised an eyebrow.

"I think it's got a thing for you!"

Damien scowled.

"Well I'm not into vague black figures."

The figure continued to look at Damien intently. Adonis thought this might be a good opportunity to get the jump on it, so he gradually got closer. Killian realized this, and just remained where he was since the figure would probably still be able to see him in the corner of its vision.

As for Damien, he remained still, hoping that would cause the figure to remain still as well.

Yet, before Adonis could even get three meters close to the figure, it began to blur strangely. It was originally not bleeding, but now inky blood was pouring out of its wounds. Then, it suddenly jumped at Damien with even greater speed than usual.

Seeing this, Damien immediately shot, and the bullet tore through the figure's torso, causing blood to splatter.

Unfortunately, that wasn't going to stop the figure this time.

Its spear thrust towards his heart.

Damien tensed his muscles before twisting to the side. For whatever reason, the figure decided to stop worrying about its own safety in order to attack, which placed him in a really bad situation.

He began to wonder to himself.

'Do I have no other choice but to...'