With half the cocoon's threads torn away, Kana's arms were free. She scrambled upright, heart pounding. Around her, the students she'd saved fought the creature with reckless courage. A male student swung a bedpost, while a female student hurled a coat hanger.
But the creature's tentacles lashed out, deflecting their makeshift weapons with ease.
"You think that will stop me?!" it bellowed, voice dripping with arrogance.
Kana ripped off the last of the cocoon, snatching her hammer from the floor. "Everyone, together!"
Her cry rallied the students. They grabbed whatever they could—a chair sailed through the air, another student tore down a curtain, flinging it over the creature's face.
As it thrashed to free itself, Kana smashed her hammer into a tentacle, black ichor spraying. The creature roared in fury.
"Wretched vermin! Your pathetic struggles are nothing!" it snarled, whipping its tentacles in a frenzy.
The male student slammed into a wall, the female student crumpled to the floor. Kana swung her hammer again, but a tentacle seized it, wrenching the weapon from her grasp.
"Not yet!" she shouted, grabbing a shard of glass from the floor and hurling it at the creature's clouded eye.
The glass struck true, shattering the eye. The creature screamed, its movements stalling for a heartbeat.
"Now! All at once!" Kana yelled.
The students surged back to their feet. One toppled a coat rack, tangling the creature's limbs. Another yanked a bed's metal spring, binding a tentacle. Kana slashed with another glass shard, carving gashes into its flesh.
"This ends now!" she cried, as they all pressed forward, pinning the creature down.
For a fleeting moment, victory seemed within reach.
Then the creature's body swelled, sprouting a burst of new tentacles. "Foolish lambs! You're barely a nuisance!"
It roared, tentacles snapping out, ensnaring Kana and the students. Her arms were crushed in their grip, breath choking in her throat. The others were caught, their tattered uniforms dissolving under dripping slime, exposing raw skin.
The creature sneered. "What a pitiful sight! Mere toys for me to break!"
A tentacle slithered toward Kana's neck. She fought, but her strength ebbed. The students, too, were pinned, the creature's mocking voice filling the room.
Then, a deafening crash shattered the moment.
The dormitory door exploded inward.
Shards flew, and a figure stood framed in the dark—silver hair glinting, eyes cold as steel.
Akira.
He gripped his rotary spear, flamethrower at the ready. Sparks crackled from his left arm, but his right blade gleamed with lethal clarity.
"Kana, survival confirmed. Neutralizing threat," he said, his voice mechanical yet brimming with unyielding resolve.
The creature whirled, tentacles lunging toward him. "Too late, machine! The lamb is mine!"
Akira moved like lightning.
His spear's drill screamed, shredding a tentacle. Flames erupted from his flamethrower, searing the creature's flesh. "Your existence endangers her safety. Elimination is my mission."
His strikes were fluid, precise, severing tentacles one after another. Kana and the students fell free, collapsing to the floor.
Akira stepped in front of Kana, his gaze locked on the creature. "Now, I end you."