The black shadow swallowed the entire bus. And once again, time slowed down around me.
The wind from its wingbeats tossed my hair. At the same moment, the kids' hair whipped around too. Seonghee's hair flew up and brushed against my face.
I felt the razor talons closing in on the top of my head. On instinct, I swung my sword.
A severed foot dropped in front of my eyes, spraying green blood. I followed through and sliced off its left wing. I thought I heard it scream. As it fell off the right side of the bus, it locked eyes with me.
*What the hell are you?*
That's what it seemed to be asking.
I answered by swinging my sword at its throat. Head and body separated and hit the ground.
The kids had stopped crying. Their faces were pale with terror, their small bodies trembling.
I couldn't even begin to imagine what they were going through. Adults barely hold it together in situations like this.
Why, though? Why do these things keep coming at us? Pure killing instinct? Did they have some ancient grudge against life on Earth? Or were they some kind of alien predators?
Another shadow fell over the bus. I looked up. Massive wings again. I pressed the shield into Seonghee's hands. She curled over the kids, using it to cover them.
I swung again. A wing came off. But in that same instant, its talons raked across my shoulder.
"Ugh—"
A short grunt. No time to feel it. I drove the sword toward its throat. Green liquid sprayed straight into my face. Right in my eyes. Burning. Everything went dark.
I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to wipe my face, but it wasn't easy. The one I'd run through was still thrashing on the roof. Eyes closed, I kept stabbing. Over and over, until it stopped moving.
"It's dead."
Seonghee's voice. I stabbed a couple more times just to be sure, then kicked it off the side of the bus.
I managed to wipe most of it off and forced my eyes open. Blurry, but my vision was coming back. And through that blur, another shadow appeared.
Another one closing in. But what really made my stomach drop wasn't that one — it was the shapes I glimpsed far behind it, high in the sky.
A dozen. No — more like a hundred. Maybe more. Circling up there in wide, lazy spirals.
"Oh, *hell* — there are too many!"
*Damn it, I need to watch my mouth around kids.*
The one directly above me was almost on top of me now. As long as they kept coming one at a time, I could manage. The cores that dropped to the ground — the bus would pick those up on its own. In a twisted way, this could actually be a decent pattern.
I cut it apart — legs, wings, head — like breaking down a raw chicken. *Why am I suddenly craving fried chicken?*
"Come on then! All of you!"
I shouted and glared upward. Two came at me at once this time.
I'd handled multiple boar-monsters simultaneously before. Two was nothing.
*Fire up the oil, fresh birds coming in!*
That absurd thought in my head, I carved them apart and shoved them off the roof.
I slowly rolled my sword wrist and looked up.
*Damn it.*
This time, a whole swarm of them dove at me simultaneously. At least ten, by rough count.
At this rate, Seonghee and the kids were in danger.
"Get to the hatch!"
My plan was to at least get the kids positioned over the open roof hatch. I didn't know how to get them inside, but it was the best I had.
Seonghee raised the small wooden shield above her head and crawled with the kids toward the still-open hatch. It must have felt like crawling across invisible glass — but the kids were handling it better than I expected.
"There's a hole," the boy said. His little sister was peering down into it too. They could see inside.
The girl reached her hand in.
"Huh?"
Something stopped it — some invisible force, like hitting a pane of glass. Her hand bounced back.
Then the whole parking lot went dark all at once. Dozens of massive wings were blocking out the sun overhead. I scrambled over to the kids. Seonghee couldn't protect all three of them with one small shield.
Countless talons above me. And I stepped back into that warped, slowed-down time.
But with so many coming at once, even swinging as fast as I could, I started missing.
I cut off legs — talons, really — and sliced through necks and hacked off wings, but somewhere in the chaos a beak drove into my back.
Another one swiped its talons right in front of my face. I dodged sideways just in time — only my shirt tore, just a shallow scrape. In that gap, another one's talons grazed my cheek. Like a knife cut.
Heads, wing fragments, and severed legs were raining down all over the roof and off the sides, but they just kept coming. I took a slash to the arm, a peck to the head, a wing to the face that sent me staggering.
*There are too damn many.*
Even while swinging nonstop, I stole a quick glance at Seonghee. Her ability still hadn't triggered. And honestly, I wasn't sure a knee-drop would even work on things like these — pterodactyl-looking freaks.
I cut off another talon that appeared right in front of me. In that moment, one I'd missed broke through and dove toward the kids.
Seonghee swung the shield and knocked it away. The flimsy-looking little wooden shield sent it flying a shocking distance.
*That's not just a regular shield.*
They came again. Seonghee swung with perfect timing. The creatures seemed to have their own force turned back on them — they went sailing into the sky like they'd been launched.
*Oh.*
The shield wasn't just blocking. It looked like it was reflecting attacks back at full force.
But it was only slowing the endless assault by a fraction.
"Ugh—!"
Pain flared in my arm. It shot up through my neck and into my head. A brutal headache crashed over me.
A flash of white. Something had clipped my head in that instant.
Seonghee was still fighting hard with the shield, but the two of us were losing ground fast.
"Ah—!"
A beak drove deep into my back. I didn't dodge that one. The pain hit like a wall and I went down.
Breathtaking agony. But I couldn't stay down. I pushed with my arms, legs, core — tried to get back up.
"Ngh—!"
A talon raked across my thigh. I didn't need to look to know it was deep. The pain was beyond words.
I couldn't get up. I rolled onto my back instead. Now I was lying there staring at the sky. The view from down here was even more terrifying. But I clenched my teeth, forced the fear down, and locked in on their movements.
I swung the sword from the ground. The ones attacking my legs and feet from angles I couldn't reach — nothing I could do about those. I twisted my body so my head was toward the kids and Seonghee, and kept swinging.
The feeling below my waist was gone. Actually a relief. At least it didn't hurt.
The sword dropped from my right hand. The flat of the blade landed on my stomach. My right arm wouldn't move. I picked the sword up with my left hand. Kept stabbing. Kept cutting.
A head split in half right in front of my face. Green liquid poured directly into my eyes.
Blind again. They were shredding my lower half, I was pretty sure. But I couldn't feel it. Had the nerves been severed?
Seonghee had collapsed beside me. Still swinging the shield from the ground.
Her ability still hadn't triggered. Right when we needed it most, she was just slightly stronger than a normal person. Had it fired once against those ugly things earlier and now it was on cooldown or something?
A decision settled in me.
"I'm sorry, kids."
I couldn't protect them. Seonghee and I had to survive. Better two of us make it than none of us.
The thought crept in and took over. This was survival instinct.
Noble sacrifice? If I die here, it's a meaningless death. No amount of grief from others, no amount of gratitude, brings you back.
I looked at the roof hatch.
But I couldn't move my body.
*Just throw myself in there. Make it to the bed. That's all.*
*Then I can recover.*
*The shield has enough charge to hold for a while.*
*Come on. Why won't my body move.*
They were going for my stomach now. Diving at my face.
*So this is how it ends.*
I felt sorry for Grandpa. He'd spent his whole life building this camper van, and I'd only lasted a few days.
This wasn't what he'd planned for.
I felt like I'd ruined whatever grand vision he'd had.
There was so much I'd wanted to ask him. Didn't look like I'd get the chance.
The years — short and yet somehow long — flickered through my mind all at once.
I didn't feel much regret. Not unhappy, exactly. But not happy either.
Just flat. Ordinary. A life without much flavor.
Living hadn't really meant much. I never knew what family felt like. No relatives. No friends except the three of us back in elementary school — and after graduation they all scattered, and I was always alone.
Yeah. I got through it without any great suffering.
That's enough. Whatever.
"AAAAAAAAAH—!"
*Huh?*
That wasn't my scream.
It wasn't Seonghee's either.
Both kids. Screaming at the same time.