The Yatzul lunged, its screeches like metal scraping against itself.
Kanesaki rolled left, narrowly avoiding a devastating swipe that shredded the steel container behind him like paper. His boots skidded over the blood-slicked ground, and he hissed through his teeth as his side flared with pain - wounds from earlier still fresh, barely stitched by adrenaline.
He raised his blade, still glistening with stolen blood. Reforged or not, his limbs trembled.
The Yatzul struck again - fast. Too fast for its size. Kanesaki parried the blow just in time, but the force launched him backward, crashing into a pile of debris with a metallic clang. Wind knocked from his lungs, he coughed, spitting blood.
Get up. Get up!
He rolled to the side just as claws ripped into where his head had been a second earlier. The creature snarled, talons digging deep into the floor, ripping through concrete.
Kanesaki surged forward, slashing the beast's arm - it hissed, staggered slightly, but the wound began closing even as he pulled back.
It's healing. Kanesaki thought.
The beast reared up suddenly, releasing a shriek that shattered glass and rattled loose panels from the walls. Kanesaki winced, covering his ears too late as the sound drilled into his skull. The Yatzul slammed down with both arms, sending a shockwave through the ground. Kanesaki staggered but stayed upright, dragging his blade against the floor to steady himself.
'You just don't know when to die,' he muttered bitterly, circling it with cautious steps.
The Yatzul hissed, head tilting like it recognized the words - like it remembered him.
He exhaled sharply.
He couldn't run. Wouldn't run.
Not until he buried this thing in the dirt where it belonged.
Kanesaki tightened his grip on the blade, lowering his stance.
'Alright, freak. Round two.'
And then he charged.
Kanesaki dashed forward, blade in hand - but something in him snapped. Not just resolve. Not just will. It was deeper.
Cracks.
Fractures danced across his irises like spiderwebs of glass. A sharp inhale cut the firelight. The world slowed.
He didn't feel pain anymore.
Only pressure - pulsing, building, bleeding into every nerve like thunder waiting to burst.
The Yatzul swiped down - too slow.
Kanesaki vanished from its line of sight, slamming into the left wall of the hangar with inhuman speed. His boots struck metal, and in a blur he ricocheted right - then left - then again. Faster. The beast's head jerked in confusion, unable to track the movement.
Then the blade came.
A slash opened across the Yatzul's side - then another across its leg - its neck - its spine. The strikes weren't deep, but they were endless. Cuts, gashes, punctures - all layered on top of each other like a rainstorm of blades, eventually shattering it once more, still sharpened by the hilt. The regenerative tissue stuttered, overwhelmed, failing to prioritise what to heal.
Kanesaki flipped mid-air, twisting as he slammed the flat of his blade against the far wall - then kicked off it, launching like a missile directly toward the Yatzul's towering back. In one burst of acceleration, he leapt, twisting again - slamming both feet atop the monster's shoulders.
It roared, rearing - and in the same moment, Kanesaki drove the broken blade down into the creature's skull.
The sound was sharp, final. The tip burst through the jawbone like a fang ripping free. The beast convulsed, mouth agape, claws scraping the ground in a desperate last spasm. But Kanesaki didn't let go - his hands gripped the hilt like it was the only thing anchoring him to the world.
Somehow, the blade had bled through the skull, reforging once more to pierce straight through its mouth, blood appearing like vomit as it spilled out.
The firelight shimmered behind him as the Yatzul staggered, collapsing beneath its own weight.
For a second, nothing moved.
Then the Yatzul's body slumped - a heap of steaming crimson muscle - and Kanesaki let himself fall with it, rolling off and hitting the ground hard, the reforged blade still buried deep in the creature's skull.
He lay there, chest heaving, eyes cracked and twitching.
'…Stay dead,' he rasped.
The hangar was quiet again - finally, save for the low crackle of distant fire and the drip of blood against steel.
Kanesaki stood shakily, breath fogging in the smoke-thick air. His eyes were still fractured, but the cracks had dulled, receding as the high of violence passed. He reached up and wiped blood from his mouth with the back of his hand, blinking hard as the hangar trembled around him - metal groaning, support beams cracking above.
Then, from the far side of the smoke, a familiar limp echoed against the scorched floor.
Kanesaki snapped his gaze over, blade instinctively raised - only to lower it quickly as a bloodied figure emerged: Sakaguchi.
His YNS was shredded, repairing itself slowly, one arm bled profusely. He coughed wetly, dragging his right foot behind him - and in his arms, unconscious but breathing, was Yasuko, her body limp but intact.
Kanesaki rushed over, his knees almost giving out.
'You're alive…'
Sakaguchi exhaled through his nose, teeth clenched. 'Barely.'
Kanesaki knelt beside Yasuko, brushing a hand across her soot-covered cheek. 'She alright?'
'Injured. Hit hard. But she should recover.' He looked up at Kanesaki, his expression heavy. '…She was attacked from behind, couldn't react. I grabbed her and made my way.'
There was a pause. Kanesaki didn't want to ask, but he had to.
'Where's… Isao?'
Sakaguchi didn't speak at first. Just stared at him, the silence dragging like weight.
'Gone,' he finally said. 'Died to some masked guy... His speed was... Something else.'
Kanesaki's jaw clenched. He looked away, biting the inside of his cheek.
'Shit.'
The hangar groaned louder above them - a loud snap overhead, then a cascade of dust and small debris rained down.
'We need to move,' Sakaguchi barked.
Kanesaki nodded, helping him shift Yasuko's weight. Together they limped toward the hangar bay doors, which were half-melted, barely hanging from their hinges. Flames licked across the ruined floor behind them as they stepped out into the open air.
And then - a sound overhead.
A low whir. Turbines.
Kanesaki squinted up, just in time to see the sharp silhouette of a friendly dropship descending through the smoke. Its lights cut through the haze like beacons, and a ramp hissed open beneath it as it hovered low to the ground.
'Evac,' Sakaguchi muttered. 'Guess we're not the only ones left.'
Kanesaki let out a shaky breath of relief.
'We're getting out of here.'
Together, they made for the dropship, Kanesaki gripping his blood-wet blade tightly in one hand, Yasuko supported between them. Behind them, the hangar finally gave in - collapsing in a roaring burst of fire and steel as the last remnants of the battlefield disappeared into smoke.
The battle was over.
They had survived the night.
'Hey, did you see Nishihara on your way?'
Glancing past his shoulder, Sakaguchi shook his head. 'Thought he hopped on a ship of his own.'
Sighing in annoyance, Kanesaki limped a little, beginning a long walk. Sakaguchi looked back fully, eyes widened with concern and confusion.
'You're going back!?'
'I have too... He's fighting that lieutenant... He needs help.'
Reluctantly, Sakaguchi nodded, turning back to the dropship as it's doors lowered, creating the ramp for him to walk up, carefully handing off Yasuko to two medical troops before almost collapsing himself, help up by another injured soldier.
I've gotta buy them time. Ten minutes should be enough, right?
Chapter 29 - end