With his strength returning and his barrier re-energized, he took a step forward and delivered a flurry of punches on the monster's throat, shoulders and knees. Taking in a breath, he then kicked the monster's left knee from the side, his kick managed to cause the creature's kneecap to pop out. Just as Zek released his breath, the creature fell to the floor on its left side with a yelp due to losing control of its left leg. Taking in another breath, he punched down the creature's face, breaking the creature's head and crushing its brain with its own broken skull.

"Six," Zek said to himself as he looked at his bloody hand, the blood not being his.

Zek stood back up and fixed his stance as he took in a deep breath before releasing it slowly. He felt a lot better now that the pressure was no longer on him. Previously, his breathing was a mess from having to deal with the monsters one after another without even a second of rest. Even before he started, there was no time for him to prepare for battle as the monsters were quickly upon them almost immediately. Now with Carl distracting them, he could finally have a look around the dining hall without any pressure.

"Oi! Are you bragging? Help me!" Carl yelled as he evaded all attacks from the three monsters around him as if he was a certain cartoon character from the 90s that could defy the laws of physics.

Zek was very impressed by Carl and his moves. Even Zek, who had won some local silat tournaments found it hard to follow the movements of the monsters one on one. These monsters and their attacks were so fast that two out of five attacks would always hit him.

Even when he could defend against their attacks, those attacks would still count as a hit due to how strong the monsters were. For him who was used to the rules of silat tournaments where getting hit was merely a matter of getting points or not, not getting hit at all was an utterly impossible feat. Yet Carl faced off against three of them at the same time while not getting hit by the monsters even once.

"Hold on, Carl! Let me get rid of this last one and then I'll help," Zek said as he grabbed the arm of the other monster still trying to break the barricade. Using a judo over-the-shoulder throwing move, Zek threw the single monster against the shielded barricade, destroying it and impaling the monster's heart on the bottom of a table's leg.

"Fuuuuuuuck!" Came a female cry from the other side of the barricade.

Both Carl and Zek could hear Nisa cursing from the other side of the crumbling barricade. Zek saw too late that the barricade no longer glowed green. He assumed that when he smashed the monster against the barricade with all his might, it ended up delivering enough damage to remove the barrier. Unlike before, he didn't see the green glow return.

"Don't use the barricade as a wall! I'm fucking tired, you bastard!"

Zek decided to ignore Nisa's complain as he counted, "Seven."

"Could you help?!!!!" Carl yelled before he capoera'd himself out of the middle of the three monsters, giving himself a moment of respite.

"Right! Sorry," Zek apologized before he came up behind one of the monsters in one smooth step. Inhaling air through his nose, he kicked the back of the monster's knees one after another as hard as he could.

With the monster's legs neutralized, it fell to its knees, neutralizing its height advantage. Now that the monster's head was on the same level of Zek's chest, he reached both his arms around the monster's neck. With his left hand on the monster's right shoulder and his right hand gripping the monster's jaw, he quickly pulled his hands in two directions, snapping the monster's neck in one quick movement.

Seeing as another of their friends were killed, the remaining two monsters in the school canteen's dining hall became cautious. They looked around them, finally realizing that they were the only ones left. Neither of them noticed when the rest of their raiding party withdrew, but they noticed that many of the corpses of their prey were missing, suggesting that the others had already left with their bellies full and carried away the rest of their prey's carcasses.

Had they been human, they would've thought that this would be a great time to run away. However, they weren't human. Their race could feel fear and anxiousness, but they couldn't fight against their instinctive hunger for fresh meat. And unlike their companions, they have not eaten yet. They were truly, seriously, ravenously hungry. With such desperate hunger, the aggression and fervor encoded in their DNA took over.

As they charged forward again, their instincts became their guiding principle. But their mindless instincts, driven crazy by starvation was no match for the two boys who were ready for them. Death was right before their eyes, yet they could not register it, too lost in their hunger. They could not see that the scythe of death was already at their necks.

Zek took the monster's attack head on, the green glow around him lost some of the depth of its colour when the monster's claw swiped against his left shoulder. Yet the claw could proceed further, as the barrier prevented the claw from breaking skin. Using a killing fist that he learned in Karate, he punched with all his strength at the monster's windpipe, crushing it and forcing it to take a couple steps back.

Zek pulled the monster's left arm and threw the monster over his shoulder against the hard faux-marble floor. He was about to deliver another punch against the creature's skull, but realized that it was already dead. He murmured the number eight as he punched the monster's head and caving its face into its skull anyway.

As for Carl, he avoided the monster's attack in a wide arc. Grabbing a wooden chair, he smashed it against the monster's head as hard as he could. Despite apparently not having any effect, he kept up the cycle of evading and smashing. After destroying his sixth wooden chair, the monster finally showed a clear sign of being dazed from the repeated impact on its head.

Stealing a long carving knife from a dead cook's dismembered hand, he jumped on the monster's back. With his left hand pulling up the monster's jaw, he held the knife in a reverse grip and stabbed it into the left side of the monster's neck and proceeded to pull the knife hard, slicing the monster's throat from the behind. Spraying its blackish blood all over the floor, the monster fell to its knees before it crashed to the floor on its front.

Looking over at Zek on the other side of the dining hall, Carl saw Zek holding up his right hand with a grin on his face. After catching his breath, Carl smiled and raised his right hand to the air as well. With his left hand on his thigh, Carl waved his right hand horizontally, as Zek did the same. Despite their victory against so many dog headed monsters, they could only celebrate it with an air high-five with five meters separating them.

Ai-chan

Oyaaaa! It's the new chapter! Somebody say something, please.  Your comments help motivate Ai-chan, yanno!