Surrounded by unspawns with their target to the front, it was fight or flight. Behind them, they had a clear path back into the woods. They could regroup and come up with a new plan. But that route was quickly terminating as the creatures closed in.

The Janus confidently said, “Run or fight, boys and girls, escape is an impossibility. I suggest you stay and accept your fates. It would make things go so much smoother.”

“Screw fate!” Shimona spat, sick of running. “We'll go through you!”

She ran past her classmates and lit up her magic circuits. As she moved, she pulled the dew off the grass blades on the ground. Droplets of water began conjugating in the middle of her two chakrams, quickly forming into a layer of transparent disc film. Rushing towards The Janus, the water film expanded behind her, catching the wind and turning into a long bubble stream.

Her classmates followed her between the bubble stream, and the unspawns around them charged in. The monsters leaped to attack. Pempe fired a grappling seed at one and the vine tangled the creature and pulled it away. Seks and Four-Chan provided covering fire, slowing down the assault. In front of them, The Janus pulled out her whip blade and snapped the air, ready for a fight.

Just as it seemed like Shimona was about to jump into The Janus's range, the girl skidded to a halt and clapped her chakrams together, sealing the bubble. Lifting the weapons above her head and cutting ties with the globule, she held out her hand and snapped her fingers.

The snaking bubble contracted and the clear liquid quickly condensed into a thick translucent sleeve. In an instant, the water froze over and exploded away from the group, shattering in shards of reinforced ice that pierced through the surrounding unspawns, quickly dissipating most of the horde. The Janus took a shocked stepped back and fluttered her whip, parrying away the shards directed at her.

The rest of Class C rushed by Shimona to close the gap and she promptly followed, last in the group.

It was a charge. A proper one. Lead by Pempe screaming a battle roar. The Janus's confidence faded quickly, her eyes starting between all her attackers. It seemed the woman was not as well equipped when the numbers overwhelmed her.

As Class C closed into a certain distance to The Janus, their charge slowed to a stop one-by-one, each of them quickly observing their surroundings in surprise before turning their attention back to The Janus, ready to fight, but not attacking.

Shimona stopped before stepping into the fight radius. “What's going on?”

Pempe shouted back, “You can't see this?”

“See what?”

Shichi turned to Shimona only to open up in terror. “Watch out!”

She turned. Behind her, a large unspawn hammer arm was swinging down. She jumped back, tripped, and rolled painfully onto her back. On the ground, she stared up and saw the appendage bearing down. Fully expecting to die, she closed her eyes and readied for death.

But it never came.

She opened her eyes expecting pain but could only manage a stunned, “What?” at the sight of the unspawn, smashing furiously against the air. But more pronouncely, she could hear each impact of the attack sounding off like a bell being struck under water. It was a disorienting experience. An unspawn that made a sound was quite simply put, unheard of.

“It's...” Lua muttered in stun. “A forcefield.”

Shimona clambered onto her feet and hopped away from the monster, her eyes darting as she struggled to keep up with the drastic scenery around her.

The world changed as if she had stepped into another universe. The ground was a jarring contrast of red lines squiggled over a shading of black to dark grey. There were no grass. No dirt. The sky was filled with messy and twisting lines of bright cyan on onyx. Clouds floated by as a single space the colour of empty that her brain struggled to process. It was like the mixture of blue and green your eyes see after rubbing them, only solid and permanent and indescribably confusing. Every rang a sharp, dead tone, as if music had died. The air felt like electricity and smelt of new clothes.

And in an instant, that world was gone.

Class C turned back to The Janus who was running away. The forcefield or alternate plane that they saw seemed to be generating from the woman and it repelled the unspawn. Whatever it was, it meant The Janus was not controlling the creatures. She was just letting them run loose. But it made for a weakness. If they could get inside the forcefield again, they could thin the number of enemies they have to fight and cut off the unspawns. They could win.

They gave chase after The Janus and the unspawns pursued them. Trini dug her trident into the ground and hung back as vanguard, drawing a line of ice behind that caused the creatures chasing them to slip and slow.

Running back into the city, they entered through the northern districts where aboveground buildings of original settlements were more prominent. Streets twisted around hills and structures, through patches of trees and parks. They were maybe a stone's throw away from The Janus. The range fighters of their group reloaded on the run and prepared to fire.

Then the building next to them exploded outwards.

A large bull unspawn rammed through a stone-wood structure, sending pieces flying as sparse barricade through the streets. The debris and the unspawn blocked them off from The Janus who was about to disappear at the next corner.

“Damn it!” Pempe cursed.

From his ammo pouch, he pulled out another bullet seed and loaded it into his gun. From his jacket slit, he took out a long barrel which he hastily locked onto his gun. With an aimed shot and a bright glow of his magic circuits going into full charge, he fired the pellet that could be seen threading onto the edge of The Janus's dragging cloak.

Shichi exclaimed, “What was that?”

“Tracing seed. I can sense it. But it'll keep draining my magic, so we still have to run her down quickly!”

The bull unspawn's head extended like a snake and shot out into the air. Making a turn, the bull head directed its momentum towards the class and they scattered apart right as it smashed into the ground. Behind them, small unspawns flooded through the gate and stampeded towards them. Shimona got up quickly and assessed around her. She had been separated from the rest of the class with only Shichi beside her. The others were on the other end of the cratered bull's head.

Something about the bull wiggled, and in an instance, jell-like tentacles shot out at her from the head. She let out a yelp in surprise and swung her weapons instinctively, cutting the appendages off. Opposite, the others were faced with a similar circumstance, but held well in their numbers. But another tentacle sliced towards her and she had no choice but to step aside in an attempt to dodge. The edge grazed her arm and she was spun around, only to find Shichi grabbing her arm in support.

He yelled, “We have to run!”

“But–!” She wanted to tell him how dangerous it was for the two of them to run off together. The fact that they were numbered one after the other was highly suspect under the circumstances.

“I know!” he replied without her explanation. He gestured to the approaching horde. “But we've got no choice. We'll meet up with them as soon as we can.”

She took only a split second to think and nodded in agreement. With that, they were off. Together, the raced through the streets, with Shichi leading the way, his large scythe hanging over his shoulder in vanguard.

They turned into the neighbourhood of where they thought The Janus had ran off to. It was then that she saw from the corner of her eyes one of the buildings the bull unspawn had run through. In it, a young man was crawling out of the wreckage. Next to him, the wooden pillar that held up the second floor gave a loud crack, visibly splitting at the seams in a burst of force.

“Watch out!” she shouted.

“Shimona?” Shichi turned.

But she was already racing towards the man. She created another bubble film on her chakrams and threw them. This time, the film stayed in her weapon as they flew towards the man. At first, he was shocked and covered his face in fear of being hit. But the weapon changed directions in the last moment just as the second floor collapsed. With a snap of her finger, the bubble coat burst from the chakrams upwards and blasted apart the falling debris. In the final moment, she ran up to the man and yanked him by the arm, pushing him out of the way while switching position with him as the roof fell on her.