Heroes to Hunted

"Just get me a weapon!" Takagi bellowed, drawing my attention. "Even if my leg is like this, I'll slash that thing while it's digging us out! Let's at least make it pay for its fucking dinner!"

"With what weapon?! With this?!" Agawa stretched out her arm and held her bloodied knife to Takagi's face. "You think this'll reach far enough to fight with, head on?!"

'Reach... Reach... That's what I could do!' I felt a glimmer of hope swell up inside me. Looking beyond the roots and the beast that'd been within a few meters by now, I could see it.

Our sliver of hope. A hope which took the form of Takagi's lost sword.

"Agawa," I shouted and stepped toward her, "could you distract it?!"

She and Takagi looked at me with expressions caught between confusion and frustration.

"What?!" Agawa snapped. "That's what I was go-"

"Not baiting," I interjected, "a distraction. I'll run for the sword, then we'll meet back here. We'll stab the grizzly through the roots!" I smiled, my attempt at inspiring confidence in the others.

We definitely wouldn't survive if we waited for the beast to claw its way inside, but with a proper weapon, we stood a chance.

Agawa raised her finger to argue, but I couldn't allow her to waste precious time.

"There's no damn time to decide! Just listen to me and do what I say!" I swiped my hand at her; I had no time to entertain her arguing.

You know, it's amazing how much a person can change in life-or-death situations. I mean, look at me! I, Kamida Gin, was now shouting orders and speaking with crass language. I was as unkempt as a wayward drunkard!

After my outburst, Agawa gaped at me in disbelief before shaking herself back to reality. "F-Fine, okay…okay." She conceded to my demands, and we both prepared to run.

Takagi glanced at me and lit up with an impressed smirk. "I'm starting to like you a little, Conman," he shakily gave a "thumbs up" before his arm fell to the floor from its own weight.

Seeing Takagi's body tremble with weakness, I felt nervous about the future. 'It's not just Nakamura... Takagi's lost too much blood.'

Following the symptoms of anemia, Takagi's complexion was fading to a pale white. Though his wounds weren't as severe as Nakamura's, he'd been bleeding from his back, arms, and legs for longer than one should.

I grinned back at Takagi, but that was only a facade.

Setting aside my worries about him and Nakamura, I was also about to leave safety. I was about to confront a predator that tore a horse to shreds with ease.

'The strength of the dragon lies in courage,' for every moment of cowardice I had, I countered it with my boss's words. 'Push through the fear, Kamida. Besides,' I glanced at Sato, 'I still have another debt to repay.'

"You ready?" Agawa outstretched her legs for a sprint.

"Likely not," I chuckled to hide my unease, "but I'm going anyway." I raised a hand and clenched my fingers into a fist. My plan was to materialize my fear, my hesitation, and my anxiety within my hand. Then, I'd crush it all like dust before casting the scattered remains aside.

Our minds in sync and our peace with fate made, Agawa and I readied ourselves for the conflict to come. We approached the roots to see that, as if to meet us, the bear was right outside.

It hunched down low and, storing as much momentum as possible in its legs, braced its body to smash away our defenses in a single blow.

"We're really doing this, huh?" Agawa shook at the beast's presence. "God, what I would give to be home right now."

I turned toward her and sighed. "And miss out on being chased by a mutant grizzly? You'd forgo such a unique experience?"

She giggled tiredly at my sarcasm and returned her gaze to the outside. "Yeah... Yeah, I think I'd rather skip this for another boring day with the TV."

Once we grew closer, the bear spotted us emerging from within the darkness. Its pupils enlarged in rage, and it unlatched its mouth to release a deafening roar.

The bellow was perhaps the loudest, most bloodthirsty one we'd seen until now; it shook every bone and vein in my body.

"It's time; you ready?" Agawa smirked.

"Yeah," I smiled, "we shouldn't keep our killer waiting."

"THEN LET'S GO ALREADY!" Agawa bellowed.

Using the beast's attempt at intimidation as our signal, Agawa and I nodded to each other and launched our own plan into action!

We dashed outward with fiery spirits and unbreakable wills. No matter what the beast threw our way, we'd struggle and overcome it!

Seeing our approach, the beast shook the air with another thunderous roar, then charged in retaliation. In an attempt to rouse our own fury and intimidate the beast, Agawa and I loosed a battle cry too.

Unlike the bear's, our shouts were far from potent enough to quake the air around us, so I doubt we were menacing. However, our war cries stoked the flame of our determination to the point of being inextinguishable.

Thankfully, my body was swept up in adrenaline and pride, masking the fear of confronting the beast.

"Hey! Over here, ugly!" Agawa screamed and beckoned for the bear's attention. Responding to her taunts, the beast snarled and changed course.

'Okay, the decoy worked!' I internally cheered, seeing its focus being diverted away from me. 'I'm going to do it! I'll retrieve the sword! I'll save us!'

Or, at least, that was the plan...

A plan that failed once a resonating boom shook the ground with vibrations akin to an earthquake. Though we were running full tilt forward, an epic shockwave of dust and mud blasted us back underneath the tree.

In the wake of the explosion, a violent whirlwind of pine needles and pebbles gave chase, tearing at our skin as we flung wildly in the air.

Luckily for Agawa, her trip was clean, only slamming into the moist dirt beside Ayame.

I, however, was ill-fated.

On my return, I collided with every possible obstacle before finally face-planting into the mud. Sadly for me, my body was left next to the entrance of what used to be our cage, making me a prime first target for the beast's rampage.

'My back is burning...' I tried to lift my head, but my body was wracked with searing pain. My legs would defy me too. Each attempt to stand was thwarted by nauseating dizziness.

My head spun to the point of motion sickness, and my muscles twitched wildly. Both factors made my arms buckle, forcing me to fall back onto my face.

"W-What the h-hell did it d-do?" was the question I managed to stutter while looking upward.

'Is this it? Is this the end?' I expected it to be. We had no cover left or roots to protect us from the outside world. We were completely exposed. 'At least I tried,' I coughed, expecting a painful death as my entrails were gutted from my body.

When the possibility of such a brutal death entered my mind, I cried, embarrassingly enough. 'I don't want to die... Please, not after everything. I can't die.' As I anticipated our gruesome end, my hopes sank like a ship struck by a wave of despair. However, an end wasn't what we received.

"What...is that?" I heard Ayame gasp from behind me.

"I-It's something else!" Agawa rasped through pained breaths.

'What's going on?' I questioned as I averted my gaze upward. That's when I saw what had my companions so confused.

Rather than the charge of a magic-infused mutant grizzly, I saw the silhouette of something within the smoke.

The creature didn't prowl low to the floor; it was bipedal and upright. It didn't have billowing brown fur; its skin was smooth and bare, covered only by a pair of blackened slacks and a padded leather apron. It didn't strike the ground with serrated claws but wielded a massive war hammer of darkened steel.

Despite these differences, one thing was similar between the bear and this creature. They were both gargantuan in size, both monsters within their respective species.

Once the smoke finally scattered, the creature's face came into view from obscurity. A face that contained two shimmering silver eyes as they returned my gaze, eyes that lacked any form of deep emotion.

'A-Are we?.. Are we saved?' I questioned with widened eyes of disbelief.

He raised his hammer from the small crater he created with his mighty strike. Following his motions was the crackling and crumbling of pulverized debris as it fell back to the ground.

Upon planting the hammer on his shoulder, his eyes shifted to us. Like shackles, they locked us to place beneath their intimidating glare. Several steps later, I was officially in range for him to land a deadly headshot below.

After gripping the handle tightly with both hands, so much that he revealed the snaking veins within his fist and arm, the man readied for another earth-splitting swing.

Fear, relief, despair, hope, and curiosity; all of those emotions welled up inside me at that moment. My vision was limited, so the bear was out of sight. That said, I had one question flare up in my mind.

'Is he aiming for me?'