"Don't move!"

Multiple gunbarrels were aimed directly at them.

Looking around, the bespectacled man confirmed the green camouflage uniforms. Reflexively raising his hands, his glasses misting over. But the armed group didn't change their stance. In the distance, something like a cow's bellow could be heard. And the soldiers seemed absolutely terrified by it.

"Who the hell are you?!"

"Should we shoot?"

"State your affiliation!"

"Ah, um, wait a sec-"

Try as he might, it was clear they completely saw him as some kind of monster. Any attempt at explanation failed, the words catching in his throat under the pressure of their aimed guns.

The soldiers closed in further.

"We're firing!"

"Orders, Sir?!"

"Hey, just hold on a minute-"

It was at that moment of resignation that it happened. The man at the front lowered his gun. Lifting his helmet slightly, he stared wide-eyed at the white bird’s sharp, piercing eyes.

"That couldn't be..."

"Sergeant?"

"It is! The white bird of happiness. I recognize it now. Everyone stand down. This thing's not dangerous."

He had heard that term before. Just a small news story so far, but it left an impression. Some foreign woman had started an impromptu show in the town square with an unknown animal at her side. He hadn't paid much attention, but remembered a friend saying they wanted to go see if she did it again.

He also recalled hearing the woman was a foreigner. And then it clicked. That was her, from the room with the black sphere. The details matched up perfectly. Which meant the animals she had tamed were also participating in this battle.

No sooner had that realization sunk in than he realized this was no place to linger. He hurriedly got to his feet.

"A-Ah, we need to get out of here quick, before-!"

"What's wrong?"

In an instant, several of the camouflaged troops were decimated. The man who had tried calling out to him was among the fallen.

The Tengu lowered its arms, stepping aside from the corpses. Letting out a low growl, it glared at the rising white bird.

"No, run!"

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Gunfire and roars blended together. All he could do was stare dumbfounded as the cyclone of violence tore through the soldiers.

The bullets seemed to have no effect, only further enraging the beast. The Tengu swung its club in a blurring frenzy, flinging bodies aside, all suffering severe mutilation before death. Lashing out with its legs to crush any who tried fleeing. The gunshots soon ceased, the final screams fading away.

"Ah...ah..."

Retching, the bespectacled man backed away. His legs soon gave out, leaving him collapsed on the ground. Only he and the bird were left alive in this place.

"Kyu..."

The bird had risen fully, staring defiantly at the Tengu. But it was far from fighting fit, its feathers still twitching spasmodically. It clearly could no longer fly. He noticed a faint glow surrounding it, though doubted it would make any difference. They were both going to die here.

The tengu halted, turning around.

The bespectacled man finally recognized the men it was staring at. They were bracing some kind of weapon - twin barrels fused together into a gun-like shape. Its intricate design shared similarities with the X-Guns they had been issued. The twin muzzles began glowing, emitting a driving hum.

Without warning the white bird crashed into him, its momentum flinging them both off the wide bridge.

In that fleeting moment as they fell, he clearly saw the Tengu sense the attack and try to take flight, but the blast hit first.

The fearsome beast was slammed brutal force into the ground, cratering the solid bridge surface.

Somehow clambering up the steps, he watched in shock as figures approached the Tengu's fallen form.

A shirtless man smoking a cigarette spoke up first. "Well? Is it dead yet?"

"See any others around? The hundred-pointer?"

One of the thuggish looking men with close-cropped hair stopped in his tracks, stunned.

"Ah shit...not this pattern again. This guy too...?"

The Tengu slowly rose, its mountain monk attire already slipping away. Its horned cap was gone, blood trickling from the corner of its mouth. Snarling more viciously than before, its features twisting into something truly monstrous.

The shirtless man stayed the beige serpent at his side. "Oi, back off."

"Gggggrrrrraaaaaaahhhh!!"

The darker-skinned man worked the twin-barreled gun again. As the Tengu charged with a roar, he blasted it back down. Its sturdy staff remained completely unscathed from the impact.

"This guy...a hundred-pointer?"

"Could be."

Removing the cigarette from his mouth, the bald man seemed to ponder grimly.

"I'll handle this one."

Not everyone seemed convinced. Particularly the distinctly floral beings - vaguely humanoid forms that still clearly weren't plants. But they were quickly ushered away by the darker man, leaving just the bald thug to face the Tengu.

As it struggled upright, he repeatedly fired into it. The circular crater kept deepening, some immense gravity force trying to crush the massive body down.

"Git...smooshed...become paper you bastard!"

"Gggggrrrr..."

Finally stopping his onslaught, the man backed off slightly. "Tch, one after another. Thought it was just gonna be that damn slug again."

Still, the Tengu moved. Its nose flattened, several bones in its torso clearly broken but its fighting spirit undimmed. Blowing bloody snot through those ruined nostrils, it lifted its head and opened its jaws wide, aiming straight for the man.

"Time to die."

The gun glowed again, this charge seeming far more potent than usual with its brilliant luminance. But the Tengu moved first, before the gravitational force could descend.

Staying low, it braced its fallen club upright with both hands on the shaft, steadying it. The blast struck the elevated head of the club.

Boom!

"What the hell..."

The shaft burrowed deep into the ground, the Tengu's hands caught in the impact as several fingers warped and snapped grotesquely. But that was as far as the damage went, never reaching its crouched form - the club had acted as an impossible buffer against the force.

Then in a blistering instant, the Tengu shifted its grip on the club and swung in a devastatingly wide arc.

Even if the bald man had reacted by dodging, it seemed there would have been no avoiding the edge at that range. But he was still in a state of stunned shock, his mind clearly not keeping pace.

"Hey!"

The shirtless man's cigarette dropped from his agape mouth. Nearby, the darker-skinned one just stared in disbelieving horror.

"Muroya..."

"Nobu? No way, for real..."

Their defensive suit offered no protection whatsoever. What remained could no longer be called a human body. The bald man named Muroya was utterly pulverized by the staff strike, one arm flung out in a gory tatter with only the furthest portion still resembling regular flesh.

The bespectacled man had been completely unable to move during the carnage. And before he knew it, he was left behind again.

The Tengu raised another thunderous roar, its necklace beads flashing ominously. That power seemed aimed at the remaining men and creatures.

They were all blasted away, flung clear off the bridge and into the river below. Just a single fleeting moment.

Meeting the bird's gaze, he saw the same tearful desperation he felt mirrored back. Its feathers trembled, injury healed yet still clearly grounded. This was truly the end, he realized in despair.

The Tengu had relaxed its furious visage, rasping breaths escaping as it glared at them, eyes glinting with bestial hunger. As if seeing only prey to be savagely slaughtered and devoured.

"N-Nooo!"

The crushed corpses. The shredded camouflage fatigues. It all seemed so unreal. He wished it were just a nightmare he could wake from, opening his eyes to a familiar ceiling. But the heavy, approaching footfalls drowned out any such desperate fantasies.

"G-Get back! Stay away!"

In a frantic rage, he began hurling anything within reach - chunks of rubble, shattered pavement. Flinging them in a desperate bid to strike back. The Tengu made no real effort to evade, merely swatting the projectiles aside with one hand. Of course none of it did any actual harm, not after shrugging off so many potent weapon strikes. An inhuman durability that bested even the most hardened soldier.

Tears and mucus streaking his face, he kept throwing whatever came to hand. Too craven to charge it directly, flinging debris was all he could manage. After a while, he squeezed his eyes shut, unable to bear looking any longer. Dreading the sight of that massive form bearing down to crush him with its club. He caught a glimpse of his own trembling hand, pathetic despair setting in that it might be the last sight he ever saw.

If only he could have experienced a normal life, he lamented. To die without ever truly living - it was the worst fate imaginable. Flashes of wasted memories flickered through his mind like lightning, cementing his burdensome existence.

Yet after too long a stretch, something seemed off. Surely by now, trapped in this pit of hopeless dread, enough time should have elapsed for death to have taken him already?

"Is that..."

"Kiss-chan?"

"Oh my..."

"So many...dead..." Feminine voices drifted closer.

Raising his head, the bespectacled man saw a group approaching - mostly women but with a couple men among them. One of whom he vaguely recognized as the young man who saved him before, only to discard him later.

But far more striking was the stylish foreign woman - the famed animal tamer. The one who had advised him to don the suit back in that room.

In a dreamlike haze, he turned towards where the Tengu should be. Its massive form was gone, as if an illusion dispelled.

One object still moved. Not a living creature, but an inanimate object. Just a simple red ball, swaying back and forth rhythmically. He recalled wildly chucking something like that amidst the rubble barrage, now rocking in place. The ball rolled three cycles before neatly settling motionless...and its center button lit up.

Click!

 

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