The monster growled, then leapt. Its gigantic body cut through the air with a cavernous breath. It no longer launched flames or shockwaves. This time, it relied solely on its brute force.
Keita was the first to react. He rolled to the side as a massive fist slammed down where he had stood a second before, pulverizing the stone and raising a cloud of dust.
"It hits like a mountain!" shouted Tobias, throwing himself behind an overturned car wreck.
Kubira, meanwhile, rushed toward the monster's right flank. He jumped, arms stretched forward, and unleashed a targeted lightning bolt toward the beast's neck. The electricity crackled, briefly illuminating the thick, dark skin of the colossus.
But the effect was limited. The monster took the hit, turned its head, then swept the air with a backhand.
Kubira was struck full force. His body flew through the air like a rag doll, smashed against a collapsed wall, and slid to the ground, motionless.
"KUBIRA!" yelled Keita.
Kohaku appeared immediately. A portal opened beneath Kubira and teleported him several dozen meters away, behind makeshift cover.
"I got this!" she shouted, carrying him on her back.
But she barely had time to breathe. A cry of pain came from behind her.
"AAH!"
It was Rhan. She had tried to distract the monster by creating a flash of light, but one of its huge feet swept her away before she could react.
She rolled several meters, unconscious.
Kohaku cursed through her teeth, opened a second portal, and disappeared with Rhan and Kubira, taking them out of the monster's reach, into an adjacent street.
Meanwhile, the others coordinated.
Ezra dashed through the ruins, creating four duplicates of himself, each emerging in a different direction to sow confusion. The monster struck one of them with an elbow — an illusion. It turned and struck another — also an illusion.
"Tobias, now!" Ezra shouted.
Tobias extended his palm. Sharp metal shards flew at high speed, spinning around the monster's right arm, seeking a weak point.
But the monster retaliated without finesse. It slammed both arms into the ground with a roar, creating a shockwave that threw Tobias backward.
"He's too dense," Tobias grunted, spitting blood. "No clear opening."
Lima and Soojin worked together. Soojin increased gravity around the monster's left leg, while Lima froze the ground to unbalance it.
The creature slipped briefly — just enough for Ayra, returning from the dome, to leap forward and trap one arm in the rock.
"Now!" she shouted.
Kwame focused his breath. He howled with all his strength, unleashing a sound wave that shook the monster's head.
The creature staggered, roared, then tore apart the rock that bound it. A wisp of black smoke escaped its lips, proof that the impact had affected it.
But it kept advancing.
Keita had approached, patiently. He threw himself under the monster's legs, delivered a quick strike to the knee with all his might. Nothing cracked — but the monster bent slightly. It lowered itself to crush him.
A portal from Kohaku opened beneath Keita and teleported him just above the monster's back. He didn't need to strike hard. He drove an iron bar found in the rubble into the beast's neck. The metal sank slightly, enough for the creature to roar and struggle.
Keita jumped back before being thrown off.
The group regrouped. Despite fatigue, despite injuries, none of them fell.
But their breathing grew heavy. Their muscles screamed.
Kwame held his right arm, paralyzed. Tobias bled from his mouth. Ayra's legs were numb. Keita panted like a boxer in the twelfth round.
The monster bled too. Slowly. Purple veins flowed where the iron bar had been driven.
But it still stood.
The ground trembled once more beneath the monster's step. Its rough, ragged breath made the broken windows around them vibrate. Though it had lost some power because of Hiro, its raw strength remained colossal, and its charges were enough to knock down everything in its path.
Keita stepped back hastily, wiping blood from his forehead. He glanced quickly around. Fatigue was everywhere. Breaths were short, arms trembled, yet not a single fighter had fled.
"It won't fall on its own..." Tobias grunted, reaching out his hand to shatter a shard of rock hurled toward Keita.
But that last effort cost him more than expected. His left arm faltered, and a coughing fit cut him off.
"Tobias!" Lima shouted. "Stay back!"
"Too late," he rasped.
The monster pivoted sharply, its deformed eyes fixing on Tobias. With a monstrous leap, it slammed both arms into the ground. The shockwave shook the entire street. Tobias was thrown against a collapsed wall, his body violently hitting the stones.
A silence. Then a groan.
"He's breathing!" Keita shouted.
But Tobias didn't get up.
Soojin tried to reach him, but a monstrous roar pushed her back. Kwame immediately reacted, stepping in front of her.
"Wanna play?" he shouted.
He took a deep breath, then howled. A sound so powerful it made the air vibrate like a visible wave. The monster took the blow, staggered a step.
But at the end of the howl, Kwame dropped to one knee, then the other. He placed his hand on his throat, veins pulsating fiercely.
"Kwame!" Ezra called out.
"I'm out of breath..." he managed to say. "Pushed too hard."
The monster didn't waste a second. It leapt toward Kwame, fist clenched, ready to crush him.
Ayra appeared. She raised her arms, summoning a column of rock as a shield.
"Don't touch him!" she shouted.
But the monster struck. The column exploded, throwing Ayra and Kwame farther away.
Both bodies tumbled in the dust. Kwame immediately lost consciousness. Ayra tried to get up... once, twice, then collapsed, her arm hanging limply.
Only five remained.
Keita, Kohaku, Ezra, Lima, and Soojin.
Ezra activated his doubles, three illusions running in circles. The monster, disoriented, struck at nothing.
Soojin took advantage of the opening to weigh down its right leg. The ground cracked beneath the weight, temporarily immobilizing it.
Lima followed by freezing the other leg, forming a shiny layer of ice.
"Now!" Keita shouted.
He rushed, dodged a lateral strike, climbed the rubble, then jumped onto the creature's shoulder. He raised a makeshift knife—a rusty metal rod—and stabbed it into the shoulder joint.
The monster screamed. It swept the air; Keita was thrown off, but a portal opened at the last moment: Kohaku.
He reappeared behind her, panting.
"Thanks…"
"You're welcome..." she sighed.
She looked at the monster. Purple blood was flowing again. It was wounded. Not dead, not slowed... but wounded.
Kohaku gritted her teeth. She drew her two short blades, previously hidden in her pants' folds.
"I'm going to mark this monster too."
She opened a portal above the creature, jumped in, and reappeared directly on its back.
"For Kwame, for the others!"
Her blades traced two shining arcs. She stabbed the first into the neck, just behind the deformed eye, and the second into the upper back. The monster roared in pain.
Then she opened a new portal beneath her feet and vanished just before being swept away by an angry arm.
Keita and the others joined her. The ground shook. The monster's breathing quickened. Its veins pulsed stronger.
It was angry.
And they... still held.
Silence was gone. The ground vibrated like a taut string, walls groaned under the monster's pounding steps. Its massive arms, carved from the flesh of a nightmare, swung with wild, unpredictable force.
They were only five left.
Keita, Kohaku, Ezra, Soojin, and Lima.
And none of them knew how many seconds they had left.
"It's going to strike again," Keita whispered.
Hardly had he finished speaking when the monster lunged at them, fists raised like two meteors. It struck the ground. A shockwave devoured the street. Stone shards flew in all directions.
Ezra created three doubles to confuse the monster's vision. Too late.
A giant hand grabbed one double, then another—illusion or not, the beast knew its true enemies were still there.
"It's learning," Ezra growled, retreating, breath short.
Keita ran zigzag, slipped between two ruins, jumped onto a crushed container, and leapt, metal rod in hand. He aimed for the monster's already injured shoulder and struck.
The rod barely sank in.
The giant let out a bestial roar, turned its head, and swept Keita away with a backhand.
The boy flew several meters, crashed into a charred trunk, coughed blood, but stood up, trembling.
"Still alive..." he murmured.
Kohaku appeared behind him, supporting him with an arm.
"You still got some fight left?"
"A little... if you open a portal at the right moment."
"I'm ready."
Lima raised her arms, her fingers blue with cold. She summoned ice spikes beneath the monster's feet, aiming for the tendons. The spikes exploded on impact, cutting flesh, making the beast howl.
"Now, Soojin!" she shouted.
Soojin concentrated her power. The monster's left arm suddenly grew heavy. It tried to strike, but its own weight slowed it down.
Ezra, eyes bloodshot with fatigue, shouted:
"Keita! Take the high ground!"
A portal opened above the monster.
Keita jumped in without hesitation.
He reappeared in the air, legs tucked, and struck the creature's skull at full speed with a blood-stained metal pipe.
A crash. A groan. The monster stepped back. Just one step.
Keita landed awkwardly, his ankle twisted, and he rolled on the ground.
The giant, wounded but furious, roared again. Its breath was so hot it melted the ice around its feet. Its left arm regained mobility.
It charged straight at Soojin.
"No!" Ezra shouted.
He created two clones to distract it. But the monster struck anyway. Its hand swept through the air… and hit Soojin full force.
She flew, slammed violently into a vehicle wreck, and collapsed, motionless.
"SOOJIN!" Lima screamed.
She ran to her, dodging debris. She placed a hand on her shoulder. She was breathing. Weakly. But alive.
"She's unconscious!" she cried.
"We need to get her out of here!" said Kohaku.
But Kohaku didn't move. She was frozen, eyes fixed on the monster. Her breath trembled. Her WIND was fraying.
"Kohaku?" Keita asked.
She didn't answer.
Then, slowly, she drew her short blades. Her hands bled, but her grip stayed firm.
"I'm done," she breathed. "Enough."
She opened a portal. A second. A third. She chained them until she appeared directly behind the monster's head.
It turned, surprised. Too late.
Kohaku plunged one blade into the upper neck, the other into the base of the skull. She pushed with all her might, screaming with rage.
The monster howled. Violet blood gushed, more abundant than ever. It shook its head violently. Kohaku was thrown off, rolled on the ground, but got up panting.
The monster staggered. For the first time, it bent a knee.
Not defeated. But marked.
Seriously.
Keita, Ezra, and Lima joined Kohaku, forming a circle around it.
"This might be our chance," Keita said, breathless.
"Or its transformation," Ezra whispered.
The monster lifted its head.
Its deformed eye vibrated, pulsed. Its flesh seemed to boil.
They didn't know what it was preparing. But they knew one thing:
The next blow... could be the last.