4: Saved by the Damsel

[ HARU'S POINT OF VIEW ]

"Ka...zuki..."

My voice got weaker in every syllable, I almost forgot how easily humans could die. But I knew, I had no time to mourn. The monster had already turned its head in my direction. It stared into my eyes, as if telling me that I was next. Even though it didn't speak any words, its body screamed of boasting and arrogance—it was mocking me.

"What.... are you doing?" Ueda's voice faintly reached my ears as she got her consciousness back. "Leave me and run."

I quickly summoned several layers of barrier between me and the monster to keep it at bay before running away from it. I was by no means athletic but for some reason, I felt really light on my feet as I ran even when I was carrying Nozomi in my arms. But still, once again, I was back to where we were— away from the exit. I stopped my tracks as a dead end met me, I could hear the monster's footsteps drawing nearer and my barriers shattering.

I let out a sigh. "Am I seriously going to solo this thing?"

After heavy breaths followed by a scoff, a remark came from her lips. "You seem suspiciously calm about all this." Ueda spoke once again, her voice gave away that she was still in pain. "I told you to leave me and run, didn't I?"

I crouched and gently put her down on the ground. "I think it's too late for that, though."

"So?" she responded weakly. "You're gonna fight the monster alone?"

"You tell me. Can you still fight?"

"No way."

I sighed once again. "Then I don't have much of a choice, do I?"

"What are you gonna do then? Even Masashi's laser beams couldn't penetrate that thing."

She did have a point. Compared to her and Saito Masashi, I was a nobody, a weakling. But that didn't matter now that I was the only one between her and death, the only one who could save her was me. Kazuki died trying to make a difference using whatever power he had had in him, even when knowing that it was ridiculously futile. And honestly, that was something that I could never hope to understand. But even so. Even if the action that I was about to take had no meaning to me, if I was able to produce results, then that would be enough.

"Don't worry, I won't let myself be killed." I replied. "I'll just have to stay alive and distract the monster until help arrives."

I stood up and turned around to face the monster who was already standing in front of me, its towering size blocked the light, casting its giant shadow upon us.

"You better not break your words." Ueda said.

I wasn't planning to die. There were still a handful of things that I wanted to do with this life.

I ran forward at full speed, summoning a barrier above me to block an incoming attack that was unsurprisingly easily broken into pieces. I then quickly darted away, barely evading its massive fist that had shattered the ground. I maneuvered around until I got behind its body. My plan was to draw its attention away from Ueda until either she escaped or help arrived. The monster turned around towards me, now its back facing Ueda, marking the success of one part of my plan. Now, I just had to run around and stay alive.

But even that was close to impossible. We had never seen something as huge as this thing move with such speed. And it was also considerably intelligent to some degree. I would have had to pull some crazy tricks from up my ass to at least maintain my distance because there was no way I would be able to defeat that.

Even if I were fast enough to run from it, which I wasn't, I would have quickly tired out first before the monster did anyway. I knew that I couldn't run forever and would have to face it at some point, and that time had arrived sooner than I had expected. I turned around only to be met by a giant accelerating fist toward me which landed straight on the barrier that I had summoned in a fraction of a second. But instead of a flat surfaced barrier, I created a narrow concave barrier to capture its arm and gradually reduce the force of the impact. There was a bolt of pain in my head when the barrier was lightly cracking, but for some miraculous reason, it worked.

After effortlessly breaking free, the monster attempted for another attack. It pulled its fist back, loading for the next punch but before it could even throw it, I summoned a barrier mid air, blocking its fist's path. That way, generating enough force for a punch would be a little bit harder. I realized that it wouldn't hold the monster for long so I jumped to my side before I could get squashed like a bug on the ground.

After that, I ran out of tricks up my sleeve. I ran, summoned barriers that got shattered immediately over and over again. I lost track of time as waves of headache surged through my head, hoping that soon enough help would come. I was gasping for air and sweat had soaked my face and clothes. My legs were getting numb and I could already taste my own blood. With all sounds gradually fading, being replaced by just my violent heartbeat, I channelled all of my remaining strength to one single barrier that had managed to block a punch for me before getting smashed into pieces.

It seemed that I had overestimated myself, or underestimated the enemy. I might actually die here.

"Kid!!!" A familiar voice of a girl echoed from a distance. "Hold it from the shoulders!!!"

My eyes widened as a sudden realization hit me. I quickly summoned barriers that curved around the monster's shoulders. Its reaction when it knew that it couldn't move brought a smirk to my face. Why hadn't I realized it sooner? If I restricted the shoulders, the body part where the torque was weakest, even something as huge as that wouldn't be able to move easily. It didn't work with Kugiwara's ice vines because his ice was still affected by gravity and would just drop to the ground, but my barrier was different. It could float indefinitely in the sky and would remain immovable until it broke.

Ueda Nozomi came out of nowhere. At the speed of sound, she tore through the air molecules and with her blade, stabbed the monster in the eye, piercing deep into its head. Roars of pain and agony shook the whole school as it flailed around, shattering my barriers in the process.

Ueda landed on the ground before running towards me and turning immediately to face the monster in front of us. It seemed that she had retrieved her sword.

"Not bad, kid." she quickly remarked, swinging her blade downwards to get rid of the blood that covered it.

"Thanks." I replied, wiping the sweat off my brow. "I thought you'd run away."

She scoffed. "Aren't you a cheeky one?" As the monster accelerated towards us, she took a few steps forward. Now that the monster had already gained momentum, I could no longer do the tactic Ueda had brought up unless it stopped moving somehow.

Before I could say a word, she had already dashed forward, forming dust clouds on her path as she moved with terrifying speed. Though if I were her, I would have used that speed to run away instead. She probably knew that there were still some students trapped inside the buildings, too scared to come out. She planned to kill that thing right here, right now.

Ueda quickly dodged an incoming smash to the ground before countering with a sudden jump towards the monster's face. She had only managed to stab its face shallowly because the monster suddenly turned its head, but she had managed to stop its movements, prompting me to enter the fight.

After Ueda landed on the ground, I immediately summoned barriers around the monster's shoulders and legs, making sure that it had the surface area that would optimize the strength of my barrier. But even so, I didn't think that that would be enough to hold the beast for long enough. That was the moment that I felt a certain limit had been broken in my ability. My barrier grew stronger.

"Now! Ueda-san!" I shouted.

Ueda made a sharp turn, pivoting back toward the monster before leaping into the air, her sword directly pointing at its other eye.

But the monster was smarter than we had thought. It suddenly opened its terrifyingly wide mouth when Ueda was about a meter close to its face. The sheer size of its mouth could swallow two people at once, and a girl of Ueda's size would surely go in there without flaw. And naturally, she couldn't change her trajectory mid air, she could only watch in horror as she drew closer towards the enormous pit of sharp fangs and throat.

Did they forget what my ability was? Surely they weren't expecting me to just stand there and watch?

In a split second, I summoned a barrier between Ueda and the monster's mouth, she used it to dart away and change her trajectory while the monster chomped nothing but air.

"Again!" Ueda shouted as she was falling. Immediately knowing what she meant, I summoned another barrier at her feet before she could fall and then she leaped higher into the air, above the monster's line of sight. Attacking from above, I saw her do the perfect form of a plunging strike. She fell down like a meteor as her sword prepared to tear through the monster's remaining eye to rid it of its vision completely.

Just when I thought that it would finally be over, the monster looked up, attempting to catch her with its mouth for a second time. But before its jaws could gape open, I quickly summoned another barrier around its mouth that served as a muzzle. Only then could Ueda complete her strike that would finally end our struggle.

Her blade was met with a giant fist and splinters of shattered barrier. I saw her getting punched into the sky before the ground accelerated towards my face. Good thing I was quick enough to barely catch myself by blocking the ground with my hands as I hadn't even noticed that my knees already gave in.

I used too much surface area that the barrier I had been using to hold its shoulders had been weakened, resulting to Ueda being counterattacked. My barrier broke more today than it did in my entire life combined, giving me intense dizziness and headache. As expected, I had reached my limit. Blood coming from my nose stained the ground as my vision became more blurry.

As I looked up, Ueda's body had already hit the ground. The monster simply walked towards her to finally end her. As much as I wanted to crawl and somehow try again and save her, I could barely even breathe.

The next thing that happened made me doubt whether what I was seeing was reality or just hallucinations. A giant figure of dark smoke materialized into what looked like a human hand, hovering freely above the monster. It was something that could horrify even the biggest beasts. It was so much bigger than the monster that it made it look like a little kitten. The giant hand simply grabbed the monster by the torso and then squeezed the living shit out of it. I saw its blood and organs dripping heavily to the ground before everything went black.