Clyde’s jaw clenched until it ached. His grip tightened around the spear, his knuckles pale, and his shoulders rigid. Anger burned through him, tangled with grief that refused to loosen its hold.
He took a step forward without a word.
Mina saw his expression. She didn’t try to speak. She didn’t ask if he was ready. She already knew the answer.
There was nothing left in him now except the need to kill what stood before them.
"Stay back," Clyde said, his voice low and firm, eyes never leaving the beast.
Mina scoffed and stepped up beside him instead. "No."
For a mont, it looked like he might argue. Then Clyde sighed slowly, the tension in his shoulders shifting and beca steadier.
"Then you must live," he said. "When this is over, I believe you will."
Mina’s lips curved into a sharp, confident smirk. "Of course."
They moved together.
The Lunar Beast snarled and launched itself forward, the ground cracking beneath its charge. Up close, it looked almost like a massive and pale wolf, but its proportions were wrong.
Its limbs bent at unnatural angles, its muscles rolling beneath fur that was matted with dried blood. Its maw opened wide, revealing rows of jagged teeth slick with saliva.
It ca at them with terrifying speed.
Clyde t it. He slid under its first swipe, the spear flashing upward in a brutal arc that scraped sparks from its hard hide.
The impact shuddered through his arms. The beast twisted with impossibly agility for its size, and slamd a claw toward his chest.
Mina intercepted it. Her daggers struck in a blur, cutting deep into the joint of its forelimb.
Dark blood sprayed across the ground. The beast howled, recoiling, then spun with a snap of its jaws aid at her head.
She ducked, rolling beneath it as Clyde drove his spear into its side.
The spear sank deep. The Lunar Beast roared and thrashed, muscles clenching hard enough that Clyde was nearly ripped off his feet.
He then planted himself and wrenched the spear free, ripping a long, bleeding gash along its body.
The beast didn’t retreat. It continues to attack.
It leapt backward, then circled them, claws scraping against the asphalt. Its eyes locked on Clyde.
It lunged again faster than before, feinting left before slamming its full weight into him.
Clyde skidded back, boots carving lines through blood-slick ground, but he stood his ground.
Mina was already moving again.
She climbed the beast’s side, and plunging her daggers again and again into its shoulder and neck.
The Lunar Beast bucked violently, slamming her into the ground.
She rolled just in ti even with breath knocked from her lungs, and ca up slashing.
Clyde struck as it turned.
His spear punched through its chest, straight toward its heart.
"GRAAAHHH!!!"
The beast scread, the sound shaking the air. It then swiped wildly, tearing open Clyde’s shoulder.
Clyde felt the pain , but he didn’t slow.
They pressed the attack together, driven by the mory of screams and nas that would never be here again.
Rage and grief kept them standing.
The Lunar Beast staggered, bleeding heavily now, its movents losing precision.
But it was still fought just like a cornered monster, refusing to fall.
Clyde advanced, eyes cold and unblinking.
He didn’t slow as the beast reeled. He advanced step by step while holding his spear low.
Mina struck from the side. Her daggers flashing fast to carve fresh wounds into already torn flesh.
The Lunar Beast snapped and clawed in wide and savage arcs, blood spraying with every motion.
Then finally it caught her.
A backhand swipe slamd into Mina’s side.
The impact cracked through the air. She was thrown hard across the asphalt and her body skidding before hitting broken concrete.
She didn’t rise imdiately.
Sothing inside Clyde snapped when he saw what happened to Mina.
His breath fastened and sounded rapid. His jaw locked so hard making it trembled.
The grief that had weighed him down twisted into violent and sharp anger. Rage surged through his body in hot and absolute feelings.
But it wasn’t done. Beneath it, sothing else answered.
Power flooded back into his body like a broken dam giving way. It burned through his veins, it felt heavy and familiar for him. As if it were awakening muscles that rembered far worse battles.
His senses sharpened. He felt as though the world slowed around him.
Clyde felt whole again. His old power had co back without him realizing it.
He moved.
The distance vanished in the blink of an eye. The spear beca an extension of his will, driving forward with brutal force.
He stabbed the beast’s leg, then its ribs, then its neck, in quick succession, never stopping and never retreating. The impacts destroyed flesh and shattered its bone. Blood soaked the ground beneath them.
The Lunar Beast tried to counter of course. But its claws raked empty air.
Its jaws snapped shut inches from Clyde’s head as he slid past, spear ripping open its body.
He jumped and struck again, piercing its shoulder, then yanking the weapon free and driving it into its spine.
The beast scread, staggering, turning in circles as wounds opened across its body.
Clyde stayed close, attacking relentlessly from every angle.
He didn’t give it ti to breathe. He didn’t give it space to recover.
Each of his thrust carried the weight of the dead people.
The Lunar Beast lunged one last ti. But right now desperation was clear in its movents.
Clyde t it without hesitation. He stepped into the charge and drove his spear straight through its chest, deeper than before, until the tip burst out its back.
The monster convulsed. Its legs buckled.
Clyde twisted the spear and tore it free, then struck again, and again, until the beast collapsed into the asphalt that was soaked with its own blood.
It roared angrily for several seconds. Then it was still.
Clyde stood over the corpse. His chest heaving, power still thrumming through him.
His grip loosened slightly as the surge began to fade.
Behind him, Mina pushed herself up, bruised and bleeding but alive.
The Lunar Beast did not rise again. They had won.
—
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