The soldiers began to shoot. However, as the crowd started to disperse, it became difficult. As one moment, a soldier was aiming at a creature, but the next second, a civilian ran through his line of sight.
Nuriel looked up at the locomotive and began climbing, using the various pipes and machinery as steps up toward the roof.
"Edward, Sayla get up!" he screamed, already near the top.
Edward turned toward Nuriel's call, then to his sister.
"I'll fight. You should go with him" Sayla instructed.
Edward bit his lip, forgetting to maintain his usual expression. His face contorted, whether from embarrassment as a pathetic brother or anger towards himself.
He took a step forward, clenched his fist, then turned away and did as he was told.
"Here" Nuriel extended his hand, lifting Edward up the last few steps.
In the distance, Nuriel saw Sayla running toward the fight.
She jumped and leaped into the air as if gravity didn't affect her, like someone walking in low gravity.
She placed her hands on her chest, murmuring words that no one could hear over the gunfire and screaming.
A soft light began to emit from her hands, slowly forming into a sharp whip of dim glow. Landing on the ground, she leaped forward toward the forest.
With another leap, she spun her body and extended her arms that were covered in the glowing whip. It was like seeing a figure skater gracefully spinning, her dress following her motion like a twirling flower.
In an instant, every tree and creature around her was severed clean in half.
Thanks to the lack of civilians, she was free to unleash her elegant maelstrom that obliterated the creatures still hiding behind the treeline, her continuous spinning and leaping gave them no time to counterattack.
Near the train, where the space was more open, the soldiers carefully opened fire against the creatures that made it through the storm.
The creatures were around the height of a man and walked on four legs. They zipped through the chaos, picking off passengers with iron-like claws as people ran in every direction.
The smarter passengers, those with a working braincell during the bloody chaos, followed Nuriel's lead and climbed to the top of the train.
"Focus fire on that one" a commander shouted, the soldiers near him pointing their rifles.
"Shoot!"
A wall of steel tore into the creature. Bullet holes left tiny wounds that exploded into what seemed like mini geysers. The kinetic force rattled its body and halted it mid-charge.
Despite the creature's losing stance, the soldiers continued firing, pulling the trigger, cocking the gun, pulling it again, and repeating until the beast collapsed.
Sayla, who was mid-air, caught a large blurry object in her peripheral vision. Before she could react, a tentacle slammed against her waist, launching her toward the locomotive.
Her back crashed against the hard steel and she fell onto the sharp gravel.
"SISTER!" Edward jumped down. "Is there a medic!" he screamed.
Nuriel hesitated. He almost jumped down but stopped when a deep roar echoed from the forest.
Most of the forest had been cleared by Sayla's earlier onslaught, revealing a large figure.
The giant mess of tentacles unfurled like a flower, its pigment shifting from forest tones to a deep iron-like texture. It walked with heavy knuckles and hind legs, thick forearms covered in muscle strands that resembled metal more than flesh.
Its mouth was a circle of layered spikes, like a blood leech. Its many eyes pulsed in a strange rhythm, and anyone who looked directly at it froze like a statue.
"G-Get the artillery!"
A group of soldiers began pushing the barrel of the large gun, rotating it toward the behemoth.
"Load high explosive!"
"Ready!"
"Shoot!"
The gunner yanked the lanyard. A resounding fireball and shockwave erupted from the muzzle. The recoil shoving the gun down into the gravel with force.
In a split second, an explosion bloomed in front of the behemoth.
The black smoke hung thick in the air. The artillery crew readied another round just in case.
As the smoke cleared, the grotesque face of the beast emerged. Its mouth drooled as it charged toward the train, the ground trembling with every thundering step.
Without hesitation, the officer shouted, "Sh—"
A black spike pierced through from the back of his face before he could finish.
The spike ripped itself out, tearing flesh and bone, bits of blood and tissue clinging like leftover meat on a skewer.
One of the fallen creatures had slipped through the firing line and lunged straight at the artillery crew. After the officer, it began slicing and piercing through heads in rapid succession, its sharp tentacles moving in a blur.
Before it could continue the massacre, a heavy weight crashed down on it.
It was the knight.
Stabbing its back, his sword glowed a vibrant blue before emitting an ear-tearing screech as the creature disintegrated into ashes.
On top, Nuriel watched the scene.
When he first went up on the train, he saw the knight silently observing the chaos, not moving an inch. Whether he trusted the skill of his soldiers or was patiently waiting deeply bothered Nuriel.
If only the knight had been more proactive, there would have been fewer casualties. But he had no say in the matter, as he was just one of the many passengers standing on top of the train where it was safe.
But when the behemoth appeared, it seemed that the knight saving his strength had been worth the bloodshed.
Nuriel looked below, a medic tended to Sayla's wounds. Edward sat beside her, emotionally wrecked.
The knight kicked the artillery into the right position as if it was a toy, grabbed the lanyard, and fired. The round hit the behemoth square in the face, blinding it with a burst of smoke and heat.
He dashed forward, right into its path.
In front of the beast, the knight readied his body, leaning forward to the point where his torso was nearly upside down and his sword pointed straight to the sky. It was a strange, almost ridiculous stance, but everyone's lives were in his hands.
Sword technique: ground cleaving slash.