She shot up, grabbing onto both Seren and the ledge to fight against the rumbling and shaking of the building, trying to ignore the screams around them.

Half the roof was gone.

Rubble still rained down from the crumbling edge that that boulder, or whatever had come flying, had created. The building must have been some sort of office, she realized somewhere in the back of her head as she noticed plenty of open spaces and broken chairs and desks rolling and falling out of the hole that had opened up.

At that same moment, the sound of shots being fired filled the air, quickly followed by a salvo of explosions. Hyrin swung back to the drake, who staggered in the middle of the street it occupied. It slammed its claw into a nearby building for balance, ripping nearly half of it off with its enormous claws.

“It’s okay!” Lieutenant Slin yelled. “Calm down! It didn’t destroy the integrity of the building. Keep your positions and fire! Slaying the drake is our top priority!”

Every soldier on that roof obeyed and aimed their weapons at the sky class’ chest, except for Seren. He jumped up, grabbing Hyrin’s shoulder.

“No, it came from there!” He yelled at the top of his lungs, trying to overcome the alarm and the shooting at the same time. “It wasn’t the drake! Hyrin, the sniper rifle!”

He had pressed his own weapon against his shoulder, searching the area he had pointed at, ready to fire at anything that would appear in his scope.

Hyrin glanced at the Lieutenant, who gestured to them to get down and shoot with an angry glare, but then she jumped up as well and pressed her sniper rifle to her cheek. She trusted Seren. More than she had thought, she realized.

“There,” Seren pointed, “that building on the right side behind the sky class. That piece of building came from there.”

A piece of building, Hyrin thought, something had thrown a whole piece of building at them. 

It had aimed at them, she suddenly realized. It had aimed at the team that was responsible for opening up the drake’s chest.

She looked through her scope, moving from the raging drake to the building behind it, slightly to its right. She ran up the endless windows until she reached the roof and suddenly, it was like her blood stopped flowing. Like all life got pulled out of her.

It stood in the middle of the roof, leaning its hand against some sort of antenna. A hand… she thought with a shudder. This wasn’t a clawed, four legged monster. It was barely three heads taller than her, but it stood on two legs, two eerily long, thin, wiry legs. It leaned as casually as the Captain often did. Not only that, it wore a uniform. A torn, but unmistaken uniform of the D.A.F. Had it stolen it off someone?

She stared at the misshapen form of his head. Longer than a human, but still round, still with a nose and mouth and two eyes and ears. The only difference were the light scales that alternated its light flesh, and the two dark horns that grew from his forehead over the length of his head, sticking out at the back.

All this time, it had stood there staring at the sky class that was about to be defeated, but suddenly, it snapped its head towards her, staring right into her eyes through her scope. And then it disappeared.

She gasped, instinctively shuffling back.

“A huma…” She whispered hoarsely.

“A humanoid,” Seren finished her sentence, his voice high and strained. “It’s a humanoid,” he screamed, turning to Lieutenant Slin. “We have to run!”

The lieutenant raised an annoyed eyebrow, but got up anyway and lifted her rifle to be able to look through the scope in the same direction Hyrin and Seren had been looking.

“I don’t see any-”

It landed before her in a flash, bending through its lanky knees for a second before it straightened itself and took the Lieutenant’s rifle. It nonchalantly pulled it behind him and then slammed it back in her face. The movement had seemed so casual, so slow almost, that it looked as if it could barely hurt, but the impact sent her flying back faster than Hyrin could register, over the edge of the building.

Spatters of blood flew up from where she had been just a moment ago, splashing against Hyrin’s face. She took a jagged breath, unable to move, to even understand what was going on.

“Aahah…” the humanoid sighed wearily. “Having to do it one by one is such a drag. I need to work on my aim.”

Human, Hyrin thought somewhere in the back of her head. His voice was too human, just like the look on his face.

“Lieutenant…” One of the soldiers next to her mumbled, clearly just as confused as she was. “Run…” he uttered softly, but then suddenly, he seemed to find his voice again. “Run!” He ordered the others. “Run! Inform the Capta-”

The humanoid grabbed his face with its long fingers and squeezed it until it burst open. Hyrin tried to turn away, but her body refused to listen. All she could do was stand there and take shallow breaths as more nauseatingly warm blood rained down on her.

Not everyone froze the way she did, however. Left and right, soldiers pulled out gear to either scale down the building or to hook to nearby buildings so they could flee the roof.

The humanoid sighed again, dragging it out far too long, as if to let them all know he was so done with this kind of behavior.

“Give me a second, I’ll be right back,” he told Hyrin as if they’d been having some sort of conversation.

He bent through his knees a little and jumped up. He flew meters up into the open air between two buildings. Right in the middle, he made some sort of half salto, and aimed both his hands down, his long fingers spread.

Small balls of fire ignited right in front of his palm and he shot them down towards the fleeing soldiers, each of them instantly burning to a crisp, their ashes gracefully floating through the sky.

The humanoid cackled and landed on the edge of the building opposite of theirs. He grabbed any hooks and rope that were still attached and sent a line of fire along them, making any soldier that had been attached to it plummet to their death.

Hyrin’s breathing got faster and faster. Was she going to fall like that again too? Was it going to burn them? Would it hurt or did it happen so fast they wouldn’t even feel it? Should they run? She tightened her grip on the sniper rifle. Should they fight?

“There, all done getting rid of the useless ones.” The humanoid landed right in front of her, his clawed feet scratching into the gravel and dust of the roof. He straightened, towering higher over her than she had initially estimated. His vertical pupils, surrounded by strangely bright, beautiful purple, narrowed, focusing on her face.

“Hm.” He looked her up and down, tilted his head, but then shrugged.

“You’re the one who spotted me, right?” He asked with a little grin and Hyrin shuddered.

“No, she wasn’t. And you’re too late, anyway,” Seren said, although Hyrin had no idea how he even managed to produce any sound at all. He took a step forward and to the side, planting himself between Hyrin and the humanoid. “Look,” he said, nodding his head over his shoulder, towards the sky class drake.

The humanoid and even Hyrin followed his gaze to see a small dot twirl through the air, swinging an enormous, shiny blade, slicing through a heart about the size of a studio apartment.

“Too late for what?” The humanoid asked dryly, giving Seren a bored look. “That thing was never going to last.” He leaned back with an annoyed groan. “Ah, although I wish it had lasted a little longer. Flattened some more humans.” He shook his head. “You guys are too good at this evacuation stuff.

“W-why?” Hyrin somehow managed to mutter.

“Oh, come on.” He leaned to the side so he could look at her past Seren. “You know why.”

She shook her head, but then slowly released her grip on the sniper rifle in her hands, letting it fall to the ground with a loud clang.

The humanoid watched with a raised, hairless eyebrow how she moved her hands in front of her, as if preparing to fight.

It has to stab me, she thought, her heart pounding in her ears, blocking out any other sound. If it uses that fire power, Seren and I will both die instantly, but if I can get it to somehow stab me or even scratch me with those nails, I may be able to do what I did to that other drake.

“Don’t bother,” he rolled his eyes at her, waving her thoughts away with his hand. “I’m not gonna waste your potential by killing you here. I’ll just get rid of this and then I’ll focus on your Captain.”

He aimed his palm at Seren and before she could even think, Hyrin grabbed her friend and pushed him to the ground, a split second before a heat so dense that it pulled all the oxygen out of the air moved over them.

“Hey,” the humanoid grunted and the heat disappeared. “That was dangerous. And useless.”

He lowered his hand, aiming for Seren’s head. “I’ll just make it smaller instea-”

“No!” Hyrin lowered her head, pressing it against the back of Seren’s. “If you’re going to kill him, you’ll have to kill me, too.”

She breathed shallowly as she felt Seren tense up beneath her, both of them waiting with racing hearts.

“Urgh…” The humanoid grunted as if he had just tasted something absolutely revolting. “Humans.”

Hyrin glanced up at him to see him lower his arm and walk away. “Whatever,” he sulked, “I only came to get that sword guy anyway.” He glanced at her over her shoulder as he stepped onto the ledge. “I’ll come for you when you’re stronger, so find some good ones.”

He bent through his knees and jumped off the roof, shooting so far in the air that he became just a blur in Hyrin’s vision.

She felt tears welling up in her eyes as she rolled off of Seren and onto her back in the dirt and blood. How? Why? She wondered, pressing the radio button on her earpiece.

“Vice Captain?” She said in a broken voice. “Tell Captain Harumi to run. A human-”

“Hyrin?” Vice captain Leyleina responded in a shocked tone. “You survived? How?”

“How…” Hyrin repeated, closer to tears with every second that passed. “I don’t know,” she answered hoarsely. “Just, please, run awa-.”

“It’s okay, Rin,” Captain Harumi’s voice suddenly reassured her through the ear piece, although she could somehow see his smug grin clear as day. “There’s no need for me to run. You stay there and stay alive. I’ll take care of this thing before the medics will even be able to bring you to the hospital again.”

She chuckled despite herself, all her strength suddenly leaving her. She let go of the radio and let her hand fall onto the roof next to her. Only a second ago, she had been sure that no one in this world would stand a chance against that monster, but when the Captain told her he would take care of it like that, she couldn’t help but believe him. 

She closed her eyes, praying she wouldn’t regret it.