“Hey, isn’t that monster acting strange?”
“Yes, its behavior does seem odd. Did it switch to attacking on sight?”
Meanwhile, in the exercise area, Yuugo and Ryuuga saw something was not right with gigantes.
They thought back to Ramy’s warnings, and became more cautious because the air around it was different. And then, gigantes raised its head and howled.
‘Uooooooooooooooooooooohh!!’
“Guah!? This thing…!?”
Yuugo’s body tensed up, as he heard gigantes’ scream that shook him to his core as a living being, and called forth an unconscious fear.
Shian and Egos, who were fighting monsters, also cowered, and could not move.
Something was not right, and said something was an abnormality that surpassed their imagination. But despite understanding this, they could not move.
Yuugo was half panicking, but when he saw the clearly abnormal gigantes about to attack again, he felt even more fear welling up. But then…
“…!?”
His slightly watering eyes caught something.
It was the lone fighter himself and Ryuuga spotted earlier… He was also struck with fear and unable to move.
He fell back and sat on the ground, and much like the other students, could do nothing but watch gigantes. He turned his head, and Yuugo saw an expression painted with fear.
Gigantes swung down its arms, and with an earth shattering rumble, pieces of a building flew all over… But Yuugo heard his voice.
“H-hel…!!”
He could not finish, and his trembling voice could only muster what amounted to a whisper.
But still… Yuugo heard his cry for help.
It was an instinctual fear. A panic that stopped thoughts. But that was overridden for a second, as Yuugo quickly moved out almost by reflex.
He kicked the roof he was standing on, jumped towards falling debris, and yelled fearlessly while clenching his fist.
“Hen… Shin!!”
Crimson light shined, and a Blaster-clad Yuugo emerged.
He then infused his fist with magic energy and hit the debris falling on the student as hard as he could.
“Blaster Punch!!”
The momentum of the jump and charge further increased the power of his punch.
The large debris was shattered, and as he saw it fall in pieces, he turned to another piece to attack it.
“Uooooooooh!!”
The second attack that was also powered up shattered more debris.
The third piece was destroyed with a kick, as he turned to his next target.
He used this momentum to execute his fourth strike, but he was faced with the reality that there was no time to destroy it all.
(It’s too much! I’m not gonna make it!!)
There was more falling debris than Yuugo thought, too much for him to handle alone.
He wanted to at least protect this student, but was left unable to destroy all this debris.
At this rate, the student would be crushed. But as Yuugo strongly wished to do something about it… The debris heading towards the student was cut cleanly in half.
“Eh…!?”
The boulder was cut in two just like fruit being sliced with a kitchen knife.
Yuugo was surprised by how easily it was bisected, when the one who did it called out to him.
“Are you all right, Yuugo!?”
“Ryuuga! Did you…!?”
There was a metallic sound, as Ryuuga put his sword back in its scabbard, and seeing this told Yuugo he really did cut the boulder and save the student.
Yuugo was grateful that he saved the life he was unable to save by himself, but then a second howl from gigantes reached their ears.
“Tch! That’s enough you big thing! Quiet!!”
“…Aren’t you scared of that monster? The other students passed out.”
“Eh? Ah, I’m used to it. And this isn’t the time to be scared!”
Howling caused fear. Then it struck the ground. Then it used its Howling again for good measure… This relentless series of attacks left all the students in the exercise area unconscious, except for Yuugo and Ryuuga, meaning no one else was able to fight.
Melt and the others who had already finished their test, and even the teachers, were either unconscious or panicking. None were responding to the few people who recovered their sense of reasoning.
And as this hellish picture spread, gigantes moved to finish off the unconscious students… Or so one would assume, but it instead then moved towards the barrier surrounding the exercise area, and began to hit it with its fists.
Ryuuga called out to Yuugo, as he saw the monster attempting to break through the barrier to go outside.
“Yuugo, there’s some sort of issue. I don’t know what happened outside, but since they didn’t even contact us, I assume they can’t do anything from there.”
“And we’re the only ones in here that can actually do something… Are we locked in here with that thing?”
Groaned Yuugo with an annoyed expression while watching gigantes continue to punch the barrier.
Crack! Crack! He clenched his fists, as the sound of cracks forming on the barrier told him it was getting closer and closer to breaking.
If it did break out and was unleashed on Luminous Academy… There was going to be a lot of damage.
It had to be stopped somehow… With this resolve in his heart, he undid the Blaster transformation and faced Ryuuga.
“Ryuuga… That monster is trying to break through the barrier and go out there. If it does, it’s gonna be big trouble. It could end up destroying the school, and it’s going to endanger a lot of lives. I can’t let that happen, but… We’re the only ones in here that can move properly.”
They were the only ones in the exercise area that could fight. They could not expect any reinforcements from the outside, and if they did nothing, gigantes would eventually break the barrier.
All they could do to prevent the worst case scenario was take down gigantes before it could escape.
It was very reckless, but… Yuugo knew he had to fight to protect all those people, and turned to Ryuuga with a question, and a strong fire in his eyes.
“We might end up dying. It will be an incredibly harsh fight. But… I need your power. Will you fight it with me?”
Yuugo asked for help while looking directly into Ryuuga’s eyes.
Ryuuga saw the fire and commitment in his eyes, and responded dauntlessly.
“Yuugo… Don’t ask ridiculous questions out of concern for me. It’s not ‘will you fight with me?’, it’s just ‘let’s fight’. If we don’t stop that thing, Yui and Phi will be in danger too, I need to cut it down to prevent that.”
He responded to a question the same way he did before, but the feelings in his words were completely different.
When he said them to shin and Egos, it was a rejection and a warning to vulgar people. But when said to Yuugo, they carried trust and an underlying feeling that such consideration was not necessary.
“Thanks Ryuuga. I appreciate the help.”
“Don’t mention it. I think it would be a bit of a daunting task to deal with that on my own.”
Yuugo activated Blaster, borrowed a sword from the student he saved, and magic energy coursed through his whole body.
Ryuuga unsheathed his sword, and pointed it at the rampaging gigantes.
“We were completely out of the spotlight, and I don’t know if anyone can see us now, but…”
They were completely pushed off the stage, and could not take this test properly, but now… They were the main stars.
The result of the test mattered little. They were not after gratitude either. Yuugo simply looked at their enemy and yelled, as if telling his comrade they should run wild with all they had.
“This is our stage now!”
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Theres so much gaim in this chapter, cutting stuff like its fruit, it being their stage…
Excellent Gaim reference