Slasher stands atop the ship's deck, staring at the sea in amazement. His hands tremble as he speaks to himself:

  "That was... incredible! That was the strongest spiritual wave I’ve ever seen in my life!"

  The men behind him neither move or speak, they simply watch Slasher. Suddenly, the entire iron vessel begins to shake, and Slasher rushes to the edge of the deck to see what’s happening...

  A massive number of sea monsters rush past the ship at incredible speed.

  "They’re not targeting the ship... They’re after something else... The spiritual energy drew them in. The monsters are heading toward the kingdom!"

  Slasher turns to face his men, only to find them staring silently at him.

  "You damn useless bastards, are you still staring at my ass?! Go and release the whales! We must reach there before the monsters do!"

  One man steps forward from the group and yells at Slasher:

  "What are you thinking? Release the whales? Can’t you see the waters are full of monsters?! Those whales will be ripped apart in seconds! And even if they survive, that port over there in the Iron Kingdom will be swarming with monsters in fifteen minutes… It'll be a massacre if we go there!"

  Slasher approaches him, seemingly angry:

  "Are you so stupid that you can’t realize the monsters are targeting the source of the spiritual energy and won’t care about a few whales in the water?! And did you even feel the amount of spiritual energy? Whoever released it is worth every sacrifice to save and recruit! Do you understand, Marin?! That person is extremely important!"

  Marin’s face tightens with anger as he yells back:

  "Of course I understand that! But I’m not risking the lives of forty thousand survivors inside the Iron queen for some random person! I don’t know who it is, but he must take responsibility for what he's done! Even beginners know that releasing spiritual energy in the open is dangerous it attracts monsters!"

  Slasher replies:

  "You idiot! Didn’t you see how the spiritual energy was released? It was chaotic and unstable! It looked more like a distress signal than an attack! That means it was his first time ever using spiritual energy and yet he possess more of it than any warrior aboard the Iron queen!"

  Marin responds:

  "I don’t care! I’m not throwing over half my men into death for one person!"

  They lock eyes, and Marin can see fire rising in Slasher’s eyes even from behind the mask. Slasher grips the hilt of his sword tightly:

  "Prepare one of the small boats for me. I’ll go with my squad. I don’t need a bunch of scared kittens to save that person."

  Slasher walks away, and a look of scorn appears on Marin’s face as he yells:

  "You really think you and that bunch of lunatics can get out of there alive and save that person?!"

  Slasher turns his entire body and slams his sword into the ground:

  "I don’t think... We will do it!"

  He points his sword toward the men:

  "And you, rats... When I return, I’ll cut off your dicks one by one! Cowards like you don’t need them!"

  He sheaths his sword and says:

  "The first one to prepare the boats will be spared from punishment."

  Suddenly, the men begin moving frantically as if their lives depended on it. Slasher looks at Marin and says smugly:

  "Fear can be a weapon if used the right way."

  ---

  Unix stands before the hole in the wall, facing all the men. They just stare at him. He feels uncomfortable under their gazes:

  "Uh... Are you guys gonna keep staring at me like that? It’s a little embarrassing... At least tell me who you are?"

  One man steps forward and says:

  "Kid, it’s me. Don’t you remember?"

  A man with brown hair and a short beard, tall, wearing old and tattered clothes. Unix doesn’t recognize him. He places a hand on his chin and, after a moment of thinking... remembers!

  "It’s you! That guy!"

  With a happy face, Unix shouts those words. The man smiles and says:

  "Ah… yeah, that’s me. My name is Iskan—"

  Unix interrupts with sparkling eyes and an enthusiastic face, shouting:

  "The coward who runs across rooftops!!"

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  A strange silence falls over the place. The men stand completely still… and then burst out laughing.

  "Did you hear that?"

  "The coward?"

  "I'm dying… I’m dying from laughter!"

  Laughter echoes throughout the area. Unix doesn’t understand what’s happening:

  "Why are they laughing?"

  The man being mocked clenches his fist in anger and yells:

  "Of course they’d laugh, you idiot! I’m not a coward I just know my limits!"

  Unix still doesn’t get the joke. He scratches his head and then says:

  "You know your limits... isn’t that just another way of saying 'coward'?"

  The men erupt in laughter again. The man places his palm on his forehead and sighs. One of the men whispers to him:

  "Iskandar… is this kid retarded?"

  Iskandar replies:

  "No, he’s just… dumb."

  The other man responds:

  "Dumb, yes. But… he’s got survival instincts. Anyway, let me test something about this kid."

  The man jumps from his spot and lands in front of Unix:

  "Hello, kid. My name’s Darker. And you are?"

  Unix replies:

  "I… I’m Unix."

  Darker pats him on the head:

  "Little Mr. Unix, huh! Nice to meet you. But let me ask you a simple question: Was that you?"

  He gestures toward the destroyed part of the house. Unix shows a sad face and grips his shirt:

  "Yes… I did that. I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to. I don’t even know how I did it..."

  Darker smiles, then pats his head again:

  "Don’t worry. We don’t care about houses. What matters is your safety."

  Unix's eyes shine. He imagines Darker’s face as if it were his father’s, then jumps up and shouts:

  "Dad! Dad!"

  He hugs Darker tightly. Darker freaks out and tries to push him away:

  "Get off! You idiot, I’m not your father! Somebody get him off me… No! Get him off quickly, he’s drooling!!"

  The men laugh again… but the laughter is cut off by a strange noise, like rocks being crushed.

  Unix pulls away from Darker. All the men suddenly go on high alert. In the midst of the silence, one word comes from Iskandar’s mouth:

  "Damn!"

  Suddenly, in the distance, the ground explodes. Pieces of houses fly everywhere, and a terrifying roar fills the air. From within the dust, the monster appears. Its shape matches the monsters that were chasing Unix—but it’s huge... big enough to swallow an entire house!

  The beast emerges from the crater, followed by dozens, even hundreds, of smaller monsters! The large beast roars, and the smaller ones charge, flooding the streets. All the men draw their swords, and Iskandar shouts:

  "Darker! You’re the fastest one here! Grab the boy and run!"

  Darker picks up Unix in his arms, jumps to the rooftop, and starts running away from the monsters. The men stand their ground firmly, while Darker gets farther and farther. Unix yells, struggling in his arms:

  "Wait! Why are we running?! Don’t leave them behind! Fight with them!"

  Darker answers:

  "Sorry, kid... The commander ordered me to—"

  Unix interrupts:

  "But they’ll die, don’t you see how many monsters there are?!"

  Darker responds:

  "And that’s exactly why we need to run from here."

  In response to Unix’s ’s words, Darker speaks to himself:

  "Iskandar’s eyes... it's as if he’s already decided to die. But why... he always the coward one barely can face one monster we choose him as leaders because of his genius survival tactics what's up with him today? The look on his face gave me goosebumps he made me moves without arguing And the rest of the men, are standing by his side. Their faith in him is great. They’re ready to die beside him... did he gave a head for all the soldiers in the last night or something?"

  All the men descend from the rooftops, Iskandar among them. They grip their swords, ready to face death. The number of monsters grows closer. Iskandar stands at the front, facing the men and shouting:

  "Men! You know what will happen if these monsters cross to the other side of the kingdom... it will mean the death of all the Lujain in the safe zone. And more than that, the death of that boy. You may ask why I’m ready to die for that boy. The answer is: as someone who can control spiritual energy, I’ve never sensed spiritual energy like his before. It was so pure... so strong. Ever since I felt it, I had a feeling that this boy must be protected that he will be important for humanity one day. So, are you with me or not?! Are you ready to die for humanity? Will you choose to die running away? Or fighting? Are you ready to die?!"

  Iskandar’s speech ignites the fire of courage in the men. They shout, raising their swords. Iskandar smiles, then turns and takes a fighting stance as the monsters approach… closer… and closer… the monsters are upon them. They charge. Iskandar takes a deep breath… lets out a war cry, and then charges, with all the men following behind. A clash erupts between the men and the monsters.

  But… the monsters completely ignore the men and Iskandar, passing by them as if they didn’t exist. Iskandar and the men are confused. Iskandar notices the large monster is missing:

  "Where’s the big one?... Where did it go?"

  Suddenly, Iskandar’s eyes widen as realization hits him. But it was too late. He shouts desperately:

  "Darker! Run!"

  From afar, while carrying Unix, Darker hears the scream and stops running across the rooftops. He stands still, looking toward the direction of the voice. Suddenly… crashing through the buildings behind him, Darker turns to see massive red eyes. The giant monster glares at him with a rage that terrifies his soul. Darker’s eyes widen in fear as he clutches Unix tightly.

  "That look... he's glaring at me in anger. He’s probably after Yonex and thinks I’m stealing his prey."

  The monster lets out a thunderous roar, sending a strong shockwave of air. Darker leaps to another rooftop to create distance.

  "Your roar won’t scare me."

  Darker draws his sword and shouts:

  "If you want this boy, you’ll have to go through my corpse first!"

  The monster roars again in fury, almost as if it understands what Darker said. Suddenly... it breaks through houses, and in an instant, Darker sees it in front of him. He barely dodges the attack by leaping onto another rooftop. Before he can process what just happened, the monster is already in front of him again, smashing through another building. Darker dodges again, landing on another rooftop, but before he can regain balance, the monster is above him, crushing the roof beneath its weight. The monster stands up and begins digging through the rubble with hunger, searching for bodies.

  "It’ll take more than brute force to bring me down, you fat beast!"

  The monster looks straight at Darker with hatred. Its red eyes blaze as if on fire, and its mouth drools like a rabid dog. It charges again in a wild, fast rampage, destroying any house in its path. Darker keeps dodging with incredible agility. The monster grabs a large flying stone in its mouth and throws it at Darker mid-air. Darker slices the stone in half with his sword and lands on another rooftop.

  "Is that all you’ve got? How disappointing."

  The monster roars and charges straight at Darker, who shouts:

  "You think I’ll run away this time?!"

  Darker dashes toward the charging monster, which is demolishing homes in its path. Darker gets very close, and just before they collide… he throws Unix into the air above the monster. Distracted, the monster looks up at Unix. Darker takes advantage of the moment and drives his sword into the left side of the monster’s mouth, slicing it to create a deep wound that stretches from its mouth to a quarter of its body. The monster screams in pain and backs away. Darker jumps to catch Yonex mid-air, lands on a rooftop, and looks at the monster.

  "Did that hurt, you fat ass?!"

  After hearing those words, the monster turns toward Darker, its face hateful, its mouth slashed open.

  "Does this bastard understand what I’m saying or what?"

  Suddenly, steam starts rising from the monster’s mouth… the wound begins to heal. Its mouth returns to normal.

  "What the hell... is this?!"

  Darker grips his sword tightly. Yonex watches in shock. The monster faces Darker, lifts its front legs, then slams them into the ground as if anchoring itself. It locks eyes with Darker for a few seconds, then lowers its head and begins making a gurgling noise. Swelling appears across its back as if something is about to burst out. Suddenly… its back explodes, splattering blood everywhere. The monster pants heavily. From the open wound, six flesh-colored tentacles without skin emerge each ending in a head that looks like the monster’s.

  Terror creeps into Darker’s heart as he backs away with Unix in his arms. One of the tentacles slowly extends toward him. Darker thinks:

  "It’s going to attack... the distance is far, it won’t reach me. Dodging it will be easy, all I need to do is_"

  His thoughts are cut off by the sight of a beastly head in front of him. Darker realizes it’s an attack. He braces his sword to block and lessen the impact. The head slams into him so hard that it feels like his intestines are about to burst out. Darker is sent flying, crashing onto another rooftop.

  He lies there, gasping for breath, drool dripping from his mouth. He rolls onto his stomach, trying to breathe, thinking:

  "So fast! I didn’t even get to see him coming and it’s already on me..."

  His vision blurry, he sees a hazy image of Unix running toward him, screaming. He can’t hear what Yonex is saying. Suddenly, his senses return, and he hears Yonex shout:

  "Watch out above you!"

  Darker realizes what’s happening, turns, and sees another beast head rushing toward him. He raises his sword and stabs the head, but the impact breaks part of the rooftop, sending him crashing into the house. Yonex runs to the hole to help him, but three heads block the way. Inside, Darker lies on the debris, stands on one leg, and sees three heads facing him.

  "Son of a bitch! He separated me from Unixon purpose!"

  Yonex stands before three heads. So does Darker. Darker shouts:

  "Unix, run!"

  Unix begins to flee across the rooftops, while Darker remains trapped inside the house. Yonex leaps in fear Darker is inside the house. Yonx prowls and jumps across rooftops. Darker, inside the house, opens the door to the room he fell into, steps out, and closes the door. One of the heads pierces through the door, and another bursts through the left wall. Darker looks to his right and spots a glass door. He runs toward it, shielding his face with his arms. He crashes through the door with his body and finds himself on the balcony.

  One of the heads charges after him at high speed. Darker jumps and plunges his sword into the wall, causing the dog’s head to slam into the neighboring house’s wall. Clinging to his sword, Darker suddenly sees another head smash through the wall, bite onto his sword, and begin spinning him in the air before hurling him into the adjacent house. Darker’s body crashes through the wall, landing in the middle of a room amidst the rubble.

  “Damn it! I think I broke a few bones.”

  Darker gets up and turns to find the dog heads surrounding him, one of them blocking the door. He glares at them with anger:

  "Alright, you bastards... I didn’t want to use this, but you’ve left me no choice!”

  Smoke begins to rise from Darker’s body. He grips his sword tightly, his eyes growing intense:

  “Let’s get this shit started fuckers!”