The air boomed, stunning everyone, including the fallen creatures. The air and ground itself split in two.
Nuriel's gaze pierced through the thick dust brought up by the attack. His eyes widened as he saw the sight in front of him. The monster and the ground below it were cut cleanly in half, vertically.
'Unbelievable!'
He hadn't expected magic to cause such a precise and devastating attack. The magic he was familiar with could only dream of competing with technology that used simple kinetic energy like railguns and such.
To think magic could be used in such a ridiculous way, the knight almost seemed like a true hero in a fantasy story.
"!!!"
But it wasn't over. Black tendrils inside the cleaved corpse sprouted and moved like snakes, grabbing the other end of the dead body and pulling it together.
It was one of those stubborn types that refused to die from mortal wounds, no matter how devastating.
The knight entered another stance and quickly readied himself. Slowly, his sword emitted a pale blue aura visible to the naked eye, glowing in the night.
Sword technique: Ground Cleaving Slash
Another boom stunned everyone. The attack landed cleanly on the beast, but this time the wounds began to burn into blue flames and turned to ash.
'It worked!' Nuriel thought, his body easing into calm.
The monster stumbled. The two cleaved parts fell to the ground, but.
Convulsing, the tentacle-like skin of the corpse began squirming in such a disgusting way that some passengers looked away in horror.
The mess became incomprehensible to Nuriel's eyes. After a few seconds, the tentacles went still, then unfurled again like a blooming flower. What emerged was a new creature, just smaller this time.
Now there's was two problems.
The knight went into the same stance as before.
Nuriel's expression twitched. 'Surely you can do something else!'
Before two problems became four, Nuriel shouted at the knight, "Do something else, idiot!"
The knight turned his helmet slightly toward Nuriel's direction. Although Nuriel couldn't see his face, he felt the burning gaze in the Knight's eyes. He couldn't help but think the knight was mouthing insults at him.
Something like, "I knew that, obviously," or something similar.
Fortunately, Nuriel's expression grew less worried as the knight retreated from his stance.
Dashing toward the two creatures, the knight held his own despite the two-against-one scenario.
Nuriel turned his attention elsewhere. Around him, he saw the soldiers finishing off the last of the fallen creatures, albeit at a great cost in lives.
He looked over the battlefield and saw the lifeless corpses of people, majority of them in civilian clothing, ages ranging from young to the frail.
Of the soldiers who came to defend them, more than half had perished.
As the last of the fallen creatures fell, the surviving soldiers collapsed to the ground, either fainting, succumbing to grave wounds, or simply exhausted. The only problem left was the beast the knight was fighting.
Seeing the area clear, Nuriel made his way down the train, followed by the remaining passengers, who immediately packed themselves into the tight space of the car, disregarding the comfort of the injured placed inside before.
"Let's get Sayla inside the car, we need to leave," Nuriel said as he looked inside the locomotive's compartment, seeing what was left of the train crew huddled against the walls.
"Get the train running, we need to move!" Nuriel barked.
The conductor screamed before noticing Nuriel's human face. "Y-yes, of course."
Stepping down, he helped carry Sayla's body with Edward and the medic.
Before they could take even a single step, the train began to move much faster than expected.
Nuriel's face grew grim as he shouted, "Don't leave us, dammit!"
Watching the train move past them, he and the others grew pale with terror.
Turning his head toward the other side of the tracks, he saw something peculiar.
There wasn't anyone alive, other than a single soldier holding his neck, which was bursting with blood. The man tried to open his mouth, but only liquid came out. After a few steps, he collapsed face-first to the ground.
Nuriel's expression turned pale, his breathing shaken. 'Weren't they just alive before?'
He turned to the train, now far ahead. He saw a dark figure entering the car attached to the locomotive.
Muffled screams emerged. The windows were splattered with various matter from inside. It only took a few seconds before it grew silent. Then the roof of the car burst open, and a bloody creature emerged, locking eyes with Nuriel.
. . .
It began running.
'Shit!' his mind screamed.
He forced his body to move, leaving Edward and the medic. He grabbed a rifle from one of the many corpses.
He pointed the gun at the beast and fired a shot that barely grazed its head.
He pulled the trigger again.
Click.
Did it malfunction? Should he grab another gun? Questions piled up in Nuriel's mind. Before he could freeze, the medic shouted at him.
"Pull the cock! The metal rod on the side!"
Nuriel remembered watching the soldiers and mimicked their actions.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
They all missed.
He pulled the cock and fired. To his horror, a metallic ping sounded as the empty casing fell to the gravel.
Nuriel glanced at a nearby rifle, but it was too far. At the rate the creature was closing in, it was too late.
He clenched the rifle with both hands, pointing its bayonet at the monster. His teeth chipped down from pressure, making a rattling sound. His hands shook as if he was freezing, his pupils trembling in terror. His legs looked ready to kneel.
Logically, he thought, no one could save him. The knight was too busy. There were no soldiers left. Edward was with his unconscious sister. The medic only knew how to heal.
'Damn.'
Nuriel braced for the impact, closing his eyes. He tried his best to keep the bayonet steady.
To think he'd die so soon. All that effort to survive his assassination was for nothing. Trying to make connections with Edward and Sayla was pointless.
Maybe living wasn't worth it in the end.
After all, he cheated death by hijacking another body. So death came back to bite him.
Slowly, his face stopped quivering, accepting his end. He gripped the rifle even harder.
He heard the rabid snarls of the beast, growing louder as it got closer and closer.
'This is it. Fuck me...'
. . .
. . .
. . .
It was taking longer than expected, which threw off Nuriel's focus. Perhaps this was his body's final attempt to relive its life before death. But it wasn't his body. Its memories were foreign to him.
He opened his eyes and saw a screen.
[??? is entering reality]
[Scepter unable to commence emergency shutdown]
[Reality is being disrupted]
[??? has arrived at your current position]