Brutal

The creatures rush towards them. Hiwo takes the lead, taking the first head-on. The spear in his grasp was ready to dissipate these monsters.

He slashes at the creature in front of him, and the slash manages to cut its leg off before it scurries away, biting it off like it was another occurrence. Toki, facing the other creature, pulls on the spear, causing the thread to take effect.

His spear recoils into his grasp with the thread's guidance, allowing him to take his opponent by surprise due to its lack of awareness on its side. The spear slices its beak right off, causing purple venomous liquid to fall onto the grass field.

They both give a confident nod before running towards each other, switching targets. The spear stayed with Toki, as he and Hiwo can afford more time due to the monsters' stagnation.

I have to slash at it now while Hiwo has time.

He runs over towards the now three-legged creature, running straight at it. It quickly reacts by dodging to the side before trying to launch its own counterattack.

Its jaw opened wide towards Toki, sending a shiver of fear down his spine; as he was about to get eaten, a blinding light blew the creature's jaw off, completely melting the purple liquid down to black.

Taking a look at his side, he sees the sentry switched targets, knowing that protecting Toki is a higher priority. The downside of its momentary stance was its defencelessness to the creature currently attacking it, which cut the threaded sentry in half, sending its threads into the air.

It sacrificed itself for me. I'm even more jealous of her now.

He prepares himself for the other creature, which now looks towards his direction to attack, its hunger not being satisfied, its desires needing fulfilment. It turns towards the right to run at Toki.

Tap

A light sound echoed from the dirt beneath him, the one he recalled to be Mios's stick. The golden yellow threads that were sent into the air started to twirl and twist back into their shape, forming the same trombone player.

Can she revive her own band? It's an infinite army. Symphony, why can't you be my deity?

Suddenly, the trombone player extends its arm, sending a beam of golden yellow light towards the creature, piercing straight through its lower core.

“Toki!” At the sound of Hiwos's voice, he turns around quickly, throwing him the spear instinctively.

The now inactive trombone player glides erratically towards Toki, protectively standing in front of him, before charging his attack again at the staggered creature.

I should go support Hiwo; it can handle this one.

He runs over to Hiwo, who is now engaged in a battle of dodge and strike with the creature. Toki, seeing an opportunity to get behind it, decides on a course of action.

He reaches his hand up, signalling for him to throw the spear.

Letting out a sigh, Hiwo continues fighting the creature; he makes sure to position each strike to bait out a lunge.

After a couple more engagements, he purposely trips himself backwards, the spear falling out of his grasp, allowing Toki to grab it anytime. Seeing him fall gave a direct instinct to lunge over and devour Hiwo into pieces.

Taking the urge, it runs over towards him. The spear, at the same time, gets tugged by the thread pulling upwards as it tries to go towards his raised hand; the combination of both makes the spear shoot straight through the glowing core on its lower body, causing dissipation.

Both of them raise a thumb before quickly adapting to the now advantaged girl, leaving four with each being occupied by a sentry.

This should be pretty easy now.

Having the spear in his hand, he runs to the earlier creature he was facing; the erratic movements of the sentry allowing it to dodge gave plenty of chances for Toki to strike. He runs underneath its distracted body and takes a direct swing towards the orange core, causing it to dissipate.

Turning to see Hiwo running towards the remaining three creatures occupied by sentries, he throws him over the spear. His gaze turned one last time to his nearby trombone player before it vanished without explanation.

Why would it have vanished and not fought with others?

He looks around in the distance; the sudden sight of creatures from Shina's side trying their hardest to avoid them, but the beasts were destroying sentry after sentry; the taps were barely audible from this distance, however.

Mio is using too much of her power; the poison must be spreading immensely. We have to end this fast before she destroys herself.

The remaining three creatures, with the help of the sentry, posed no threat, two being dispatched by Hiwo, growing tired of their destructive instincts, quickly striking their core with the distraction of the sentry, while the third was overwhelmed by the combined force of the sentry's power.

Toki sighs, seeing these sentries also vanishing. “Those sentries are based on Mios' power; their fading means she can't keep it up.”

“The other side seems to be struggling; we should help.” Hiwo also noticed the many sentries being slaughtered on the other side.

Ayuri and Shina stood side by side, neither letting go of the other; however, their circumstances were abysmal. Three creatures were circling them like prey, while the other two spared were helping destroyers over and over again in an endless battle, hoping that they would end soon.

“I'm sorry, Shina, I should've gone further back,” Ayuri apologises, her tone disappointed at her own incompetence.

Shina shakes her head. “It's not your fault we got attacked suddenly from both sides. Also, they seem to be done with their side. It will be a couple of moments before they get here.”

The couple of moments lasted more than a couple; Ayuri watched how Shina protected her and how the sentries dying for them kept rebuilding, but what she managed to be the first to see was the disappearance of the first sentry on their side; the threads floated up and never came back down.

Then the second fell soon after; those couple of moments were still not enough to get them saved.

The third sentry seemed to try its hardest; its erratic movements became predictable. Too easy for a learning creature. It also fell.

The last one tried its hardest; the three creatures now freed from the sentry onslaught started to gang up. Ripping it to shreds, the threads didn't even lift; they just vanished. The ripples on the floor faded away, revealing the green grass again.

Is this the end for us?

With the newfound creatures joining their circling, they all decided to run towards them from all sides. Shina, who tried to stay close to Ayuri, had to back away toward her, hoping her instincts would let her get there in time.

The creature circling them from earlier saw the vulnerable Ayuri plummet firmly into the ground, unmoving and nerved beyond comprehension.

It ran at her, opening its jaw, dripping full of purple poison out of its mouth, facing its jaw towards her and halving her upper body inside its mouth.

It's over for me.