Narrator's POV

  Fshback...

  The First Layer

  (A few minutes before Kujira arrived in H.U..I.T.Y.)

  What seemed like a few minutes for Kibisihi and the rest of the others back at the organization was an eternal hell for the supernaturals and the soldiers who faced off against the returning monster.

  The fight may have seemed short to those outside of the battlefield, but to those who were in the battle itself, it felt like eternity...

  Csh! Csh!

  Akuma exchanged her bde with the cw of the beast.

  In the depth of the now-freezing hell, Akuma was trying her very best to defend BOTH Tao's lifeless body AND the soldiers.

  With her boots already a few feet deep, as her whole body temperature was hitting rock bottom, Akuma's movements weren't to her usual standard. Her footing was off; she was bending one knee forward and another in the back. The way Akuma was gripping her bde wasn't as tight as it was supposed to be. The freezing air was preventing the girl from doing what she was supposed to do. But despite that, Akuma stood her ground.

  In the midst of the heated battle, a few soldiers were already dead.

  The corpses of their fallen comrades were increasing. The moment the monster was done giving the whole group a teaser and destroying Taoreta's insides, it threw her at the group, distracting them for a moment. Kujira and David caught her in time before she hit the cold ground.

  And when the whole group's attention was on the fallen supernatural, the monster got to work.

  A few teenagers were ripped apart.

  A first few got their heads torn clean open. Like how you pop open an ice-cold bottle drink with a metal cap, the blood of the teenagers sprayed into the sky.

  Red.

  That was the color you would have been seeing if you were there. But the monster wasn't done. Before anyone else could think, it grabbed half of a soldier's body and split them in two. One by one, they fell like flies. In the midst of those moments, Emily was shaking in terror as she saw the soldiers dropping one by one. Emily shook her head in denial as some who were even her friends got sughtered.

  Crush!

  One head was crushed clean off.

  Ssh!

  A soldier's upper half was cut clean off before the blood rushed out from the bottom half.

  Gulp!

  Some were getting eaten alive in a matter of seconds.

  The monster was fast, strong, and even smart. It knew when to strike and when to retreat. It seemed to remember the supernatural and pnned its moves accordingly. No, perhaps 'pn' wasn't the right term. More like it was using its instinct.

  Like a wild animal, it knew when to strike and when to leave.

  This kept everyone on their toes.

  The monster tried to aim for Riley next as its next prey.

  Swoop!

  But Riley instinctively dodged out of the way. Barely.

  You see, even if Riley somehow got out of the way, her chest got a huge scar, and it ended up bleeding like crazy. Riley started to have blood pouring out of her mouth and ended up falling on the floor.

  David noticed and got angry.

  He wanted to help Riley, but ended up getting sshed in the back. This made him fall face-first.

  Riley and David. The two people besides Emily survived the attack. One had to wonder how they survived such a heavy attack, unlike their fellow soldiers. What made them so different? How were they alive? Was it luck? Did the monster's movement slow down for a brief second?

  Whatever the reason, perhaps that was why they had survived the attack back at their prison.

  So many questions, so little time.

  But we'll put that at a halt and try to figure that out for another day.

  Back to the situation at hand, the monster's movement wasn't slowing down at all. No, it had been slowed down only a little bit. How, you may ask? Well, thanks to Akuma fending the monster off in such harsh weather. Despite that, though, more soldiers were dying.

  Where was Kujira, you may ask?

  She was busy taking care of the wounded. Kujira was trying her very best to heal as fast as possible. But without Yosei to speed up the process, it was slower than normal. That, and the weather wasn't good for Kujira either. No, it wasn't good for anyone who was under it. Taoreta, right then, was passed out with her wounds patched up with Kujira's magic and inside of a forcefield with a few others that got treated by Kujira.

  "Haah.... haaah..." Kujira's breath was getting heavy.

  After trying to defend against the monster alongside Akuma, Akuma suggested that she stick to the healing role for now. And so, she did.

  But being the healer wasn't easy. Not to mention, there were new bodies piling up as she finished with someone. And if that wasn't bad enough, Kujira sometimes stopped mid-healing to py defense so that the wounded wouldn't get harmed. Heal, defend, heal, defend. It was only a few minutes, but to Kujira, it felt like hours with no end.

  This whole thing had only been 2 minutes after the ambush attack from the monster.

  Yet, so much was going on in the st minute or so.

  Csh! Csh!

  Akuma thrust her bde and took a step back when she was done. With light steps, Akuma followed the monster's movement. When the monster struck to the left, Akuma twisted her body mid-air and dodged the upcoming attack before nding on one knee.

  Her exposed knee turned bck the moment it touched the snow. The main reason for that was that she was closer to the monster than anyone else. And the air around was beyond cold at that point.

  Any normal human would have frozen up and died on contact with the monster.

  Swing!

  Akuma swung her arm across her body and made her bde make contact with the cw of the monster. It was hard to breathe in such a climate.

  Akuma knew this and used every breath to counterattack and take a brief break after every attack.

  Ssh! Ssh!

  That didn't mean that Akuma paused her movement. Oh no, far from that.

  Mentality.

  She mentally took breaks between each csh. As a veteran of the supernatural, it was a simple thing to do.

  However, the more she attacked, the harder it was to take "breaks."

  Csh!

  Another csh between Akuma and the monster. Now that the monster's movement was readable to Akuma, it was redirecting its attention to her and her alone.

  It realized that if it didn't put Akuma down, then it wouldn't finish its hunt.

  Akuma also knew this, so she was putting in the effort to keep it at bay.

  Akuma slid one foot forward, swung the other one to make a half circle, and then swung her bde like a baseball bat, hitting a home run.

  SLASH!

  A critical hit. Akuma managed to nd a heavy hit on the monster.

  However, this also gave Akuma a disadvantage. Thanks to how hard she hit, her fingers were becoming numb.

  Akuma leapt back and nded on one knee once more.

  "Jir! Now is the time to head back with the wounded!"

  Csh!

  The monster instantly jumped at Akuma with another cw attack. It brought back its arm and swung forward towards Akuma, like how a bear would attack its prey.

  Akuma accounted for that and blocked with her sword. Holding her weapon to use as a shield, Akuma was standing her ground. But her fingers were turning bck as well.

  Every swing was freezing the atmosphere around Akuma and the monster.

  "Kuma!"

  "Don't you DARE come close! I gave you instructions, and you'll do it! Now!"

  Kujira lifted her hand to reach out to Akuma, but she rejected it and attacked the monster once more.

  This made Kujira swallow her worries. She wanted to be there for Akuma; they were the only ones who could even stand a "chance" against the monster, though slightly.

  And so, Kujira slowly nodded and got up. She looked around and saw that the wounded had the same uniform. All but Taoreta. Which meant that Taoreta would have to stay behind. But at the very least, Kujira would bring her back to the temporary campsite.

  Kujira touched one of the wounded soldier's uniforms with her palm.

  Kujira did a small chant and the uniforms glowed. The dead couldn't be in the process since they were already gone. But those who were alive were affected by the spell.

  The spell she was using was a binding spell. A simple one that did have fws in it.

  It would help identify who could come back and who to leave behind. It sounded cruel, but that was how it was in war.

  "Everyone who can still move, follow me! I'll go ahead and go back to the organization for backup! The wounded will head to the caring center as soon as you get back!" Kujira shouted.

  But that was another mistake on her account. The monster drew away from Akuma and started to aim at Kujira.

  It raised its cw at her. One swing from this, and it was over for her. The cw might not be able to kill her fully, but it MIGHT damage her enough to immobilize her.

  Just then—

  Swing!

  David, out of nowhere, appeared with a rock-shaped sword.

  Half of his face was bleeding thanks to hitting the floor hard. His uniform itself was in a complete mess. A tear from his shoulders, there was a window revealing his six-pack, and his pants were torn around the knee area. His shoes were also gone. So David's feet were turning bck due to the cold.

  David smirked at the monster as he saw it do SOMETHING. It wasn't enough to make it move away, but he managed to surprise it.

  "Ha! You like that, you son of a bitch! I got another one that has your name on it, asshole!"

  "What are you doing?!" Kujira shouted.

  "Saving your butt?! Now get out of here so I can at least be the meat shield for Akuma!"

  Without looking back, David made a mad dash towards the monster.

  Csh! Csh!

  Cshes with the stone sword and Akuma's bde were heard in the background.

  Where did he get that weapon from?! Wait, how is he keeping up with the monster like Kuma?! Kujira had question after question.

  One thing was certain: it could expin how he survived the attacks from that monster. But not enough to expin how he got the weapon in the first pce.

  Kujira then saw Riley helping Emily. They were both running toward Kujira's direction. Riley had one of Emily's arms wrapped around her neck.

  "Kujira!" Riley waved at Kujira.

  There's another walking mystery that's helping Emily out...

  Kujira jogged a little to meet up with Riley and Emily. Once she reached them, Kujira slowed down and put two hands up to cast a healing spell.

  "You two, okay? Follow me alongside the others who can walk."

  "No problem!" Riley smiled at Kujira, who gave a nervous look.

  "By the way, not that I don't mind you two being alive and all, you and David, I mean, but, um... how are you two... still able to move?" Kujira asked.

  "Oh? Don't you know? David and I are kinda hard-headed and a bit stubborn about certain things!" Riley answered cheerfully.

  "I doubt that..." Kujira closed her eyes.

  Kujira turned around and started sprinting.

  Emily and Riley followed suit. Emily was still shaken by her allies being killed in front of her, but Riley was supporting her and helping her escape.

  The wounded who could move helped those who could not. One by one, they were leaving the battlefield.

  The monster, of course, noticed and moved to kill those who were leaving.

  But David and Akuma countered each cw attack.

  David countered with an upper ssh and Akuma with a horizontal one.

  David looked back and saw one of the soldiers carrying Taoreta away from the battlefield.

  David smiled at the sight of this.

  Good. Now Kibishi won't chew my ears off for not protecting Tao. That's one worry out of sight.

  David turned serious.

  "Hmph!"

  Leap!

  Crash!

  With a leap, David dodged the monster's attack and nded superman-style with his weapon in hand.

  He slowly stood up and smirked.

  "Fuck yeah! This is what being a soldier—no! This is what being a protective friend is about!"

  "Take that!" Akuma shouted, then leapt forward at the monster.

  David followed suit.

  Leap!

  Csh! Csh!

  With two people now helping out to push back the monster, it seemed like Kujira could protect those who followed her and get reinforcements.

  The only thing was that no other soldiers could do this. The only people who could stand a chance were the supernaturals.

  And since most of them had gone into hiding, there was only one option left. Find Kibishi and try to pn something else.

  As the cold air blew, the group followed Kujira inside a building to return to Middle City.

  The other two that remained would fend off the monster for as long as they could...

  And all of this was within 5 minutes in total...