Adam held Yamiyo close as a wall of fire erupted. Flames leapt from overturned lanterns, licking at the wooden planks, crates, and logs. Smoke spiraled upward, thick and choking, and the heat pressed against their skin. Adam's eyes closed for a fraction of a second, a pang of regret flaring inside him. Yamiyo's body rested against his chest, fragile yet warm, and he adjusted him gently, making sure she wasn't crushed in the chaos.
Rehan can you help me..?
[...]
Why are you silent. As I sigh, pulling the rusty sword, walking towards the battle.
Then, he lunged forward. Hundreds of ghouls swarmed, leaping over the barricades, crawling through gaps in the walls. They were everywhere, a tidal wave of teeth, claws, and unnatural regeneration. Soldiers pushed back, shouting, thrusting spears, raising shields—but the horde pressed, relentless.
Adam's mind flashed to Toho, Kiso, Piercebox. Faces of those he could not save flickered before him, burned into his memory. Fury coiled in his chest, a living thing that screamed to be unleashed. His rusty sword vibrated as it hardened, the edge glowing with embers of red, a pulse of energy feeding the weapon.
He slashed at the nearest ghoul. Its arm tore away, flying into the air like a grotesque banner. Another lunged from behind. Adam blocked with precision, the clang of metal on metal echoing in the smoke. Ghouls came from every side. He twisted, struck, and leapt, a whirlwind of steel and anger.
As he was experienced dissecting the monsters in Minori's scape, or at the Renewals monsters knowing already were the softest part of the body. Cutting tendons straight to the limbs.
Karrin was beside him, nails aflame with the same ember-red aura. He slashed and pierce through the ghouls with manic precision, each cut a mark of desperation and survival. Regenerating monsters that healed from chunks of their flesh slowly, attacked him from all angles, biting and clawing, forcing him to grapple in return. One lunged for his eyes. As he covered his body, Karrin responded with a frenzied strike, biting down on the ghoul's arm, then its neck tearing it, then another. Tearing through flesh as he struggled to maintain balance. As hordes of ghouls were overwhelming him.
Grabbing him, tearing him apart at the same part like shovelling of the same part again and again while someone was putting it back together, and Biting him. Like a Lion being surrounded by hyenas.
"Oh man… frick, I'm screwed," he muttered under his breath, with fear as he was being overwhelmed, even as he could only continue to fight, relentless.
Adam spun through the mass of creatures, sweeping his sword in a wide arc circle, cutting multiple ghouls and forcing others back. He grabbed Karrin, pulling him close, shielding him for a moment, even as teeth and claws raked past their body. They moved in tandem—back to back—a living cyclone of steel and fury, being slashed, bitten, grappled, but never faltering.
"C'mon! We can do this!" Adam swith the top of his lungs, teeth bared in a feral grin. Every strike, every kill, fueled his vengeance. Each ghoul felled was a step closer to justice, a pulse of relief and rage intertwined. Karrin's eyes widened, adrenaline sharpening his reflexes. Even as claws tore at him, he lunged at a ghoul, tearing through its neck, gnashing teeth into flesh.
As adam swings with his swords the sword cracked in half. As ghouls lunge at him as he kick and punch one thing after another and again he was being bitten by monsters, torn by chunks grappling on the arm. As he throws another ghoul out through the air.
One grabs his stomach at the side and piercing it. As he gritted his teeth, as i could only smile painfully as its hands squirm at my inside. Adam strikes bursting its pipe box and take it out with a chunk and going straight to the spinal cord and taking its brain out.
With only one thing. A cycle of battle of who could win Adam's And Karrins Regeneration or The ghouls overwhelming numbers.
The soldiers rallied, forming a straight, disciplined line. Spears thrust forward in deadly precision. Arrows rained down from behind them, raining sharp metal into the horde. A red-haired commander with a scarred eye and an eyepatch bellowed, "MEN! FORWARD! Do not let them breach what you protect!"
The battlefield became a maelstrom. Fire roared, smoke choked, and the sound of battle—screams, steel, splintering wood—filled the air. Soldiers fell, grappled by ghouls, one after another, sacrificing themselves to protect families, children, and livestock. Blood pooled at their feet. Ash mixed with it.
Adam and Karrin held the center, surrounded on all sides. They were slashed, bitten, grappled, yet continued to fight. Pain and exhaustion pressed against them, but their resolve hardened. Then, a pulse erupted from a gemstone at the heart of the town. A massive blue barrier surged outward, coating the ghouls in a corrosive, toxic aura. Flesh melted under its light; the creatures shrieked and staggered back, decaying as if burned from the inside.
Lightning crackled across the barrier, arcs of blue electricity dancing over the streets. Slowly, the ghouls retreated, driven back by the strange energy. The town remained, battered and burning, but alive. Soldiers poured water over fires, trying to save what remained.
Adam with sweat, blood, and ash streaking his face. Karrin sank to one knee beside him, still catching his breath, nails retracting. Around them, destruction and survival coexisted in grim harmony.
Karrin: "#%#K... What was that..."
The smell of smoke and charred wood hung heavy. The screams had stopped, replaced by ragged breaths and the soft crackle of fires. Adam looked over the battlefield, eyes narrowing. Every fallen soldier, every destroyed building, every bloodied corpse was a reminder of the cost. Of vengeance. Of life clawing its way through chaos.
And somewhere deep in his chest, the ember-red glow from his sword, but still he unyielding, reminding him that this battle, and those to come, were far from over...
As this was only there journey... And he had experience it that it was a start.