“Noooooo!….” wailed Eunice.

“Kalinda!” shouted Bernice.

The class was trapped between two snarling Shadows. Orion’s vision began to tunnel as adrenalin raced through his veins while he stared at Kalinda’s still body.

He could hear the screams of his comrades, but they seemed far away. His own heartbeat was deafening, threatening to drown out his surroundings. His impending confrontation with death seemed surreal.

A feeling that he was about to depart this world began to surface in his mind. He feared it might cripple his judgement as fear gripped his heart.

The beast loomed over Orion. It raised its claws into the air and brought it down on him. He could see the claws closing in on his face, covering his field of vision.

“This is the end.” he thought to himself as he closed his eyes and waited for death. This was perhaps the inevitable fate of Arch Warriors that challenge Shadows without sufficient training.

“Crack!” Orion heard an impact in front of him. He opened his eyes to see Lisa shielding him, arms out, Ether Amp glowing.

She had erected a barrier just in time before the claw fell on Orion. Her barrier was cracking by the second and blood leaked from her mouth and nose.

“Lisa!” shouted Peach. Suddenly realising the injured tank had left her healing zone to shield Orion.

“Run! We cannot hold them!” shouted Lisa as she began to fold.

The rest of the class realised her intentions. She intends to sacrifice herself to buy time for the class to flee.

“Lisa is right! We cannot win against two Shadows! Go! Now!” David yelled.

Orion’s heart felt heavy at their words. He had promised himself to endure thick and thin with his classmates and have everyone make it through their missions together unscathed.

“We can’t leave you here!” pleaded Peach as she continued to heal Lisa, hoping the class would stay together.

“Camouflage Dolls!” chanted Aadam. A blanket of light particles enveloped the class, as illusions formed around them.

Orion could see a double of himself forming beside him. Aadam’s illusion not only created doubles of everyone, it turned the real class invisible by bending the light around them.

“Go! We can’t hold any longer!” pleaded David, his strength flagging.

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Tears filled Eunice and Bernice’s eyes. Their teeth clenched, unable to offer any helpful words to David and Lisa.

“We’ll bring help! Hold on till we get back!” declared Aadam, his fists were clenched so tightly, blood began to drip from them.

Despite his encouraging words, he knew deep in his heart, that they would never make it.

The class knew this could be their last time seeing each other. Peach hugged Lisa from behind, to feel her friend, to offer thanks, gratitude and love for her weakened comrade who so bravely stood up against humanity’s worst foe for her class.

She wished they could have spent more time laughing and playing in the waterfalls of the academy. To chat about the boys’ mischievous antics and go shopping together once more.

Orion stood frozen, unable to offer any kind words to the others. Not because he couldn’t feel the pain, but rather, he felt guilty that he couldn’t lead his classmates to the shelter unscathed.

Gumbie retrieved a crate of potions and placed it on the ground. He was a man of few words during emotional times.

Deep inside, he wanted to say something but the emotions he was feeling within confused him. He tried hard to focus on the task and not let what was happening break him down.

“If we survive this, I want all of us to have the same hairstyle!” joked David, stroking his tomahawk hair.

He hoped to lighten the atmosphere, perhaps to leave a final pleasant memory for his classmates.

“Window.” murmured Lisa, opening a crawl hole at the bottom of the barrier.

It was time to leave. Each person got down on all fours and began to crawl gingerly forward through the gap. Veiled by the illusion, they were invisible to the Shadows.

The two Shadows continued to claw on the barriers, oblivious to the students escaping through the crawl hole one by one.

After they reached a safe distance, they looked back and realised that Clement had not joined them.

The warrior of the class stood his ground, persisting in fighting the shadows. Without the twins’ rear attacks to support him, he was having difficulty fending off both Shadows at once.

Orion and the class paused, uncertain and helpless, seeing Clement stay to fight with David and Lisa. They could not make a sound or call out to him, for that would alert the Shadows to their presence.

One of the shadows lunged at Clement. He swerved to his side and swung his sword using the same momentum to strike the Shadow’s claws.

The Shadow screamed as Arondight drew blood. The slash was dulled by the Shadow’s thick hide, resulting in only a superficial wound, but it was enough to make the beast wary of attacking blindly.

Clement was breathing hard. The Shadows were not letting up on their attacks, and he had to put everything he had into evading their swipes and lunges, all the while looking for an opening to counterattack.

After a while, the Shadows began to recognize Clement’s attack patterns and footwork, and successfully landed a blow on him.

“Crack!” Clement reacted just in time to block the attack with his shield, but the impact split it down the center.

Glancing at the broken shield and seeing no more use for it, he threw it at one of the Shadows, only for it to dodge with ease.

Clement saw his classmates standing at a safe distance and pointed to the sky, making like a gun with his thumb and index finger.

This was the symbol of their camaraderie. A smile spread across his sweaty face as he looked at them, wondering how things would be like if the Shadow invasion hadn’t taken place.

Orion was filled with admiration seeing Clement’s skilful counter attacks. He wished to stay to witness his friends’ valor, but Aadam was already breathing hard trying to maintain the illusions for them.

“Clement! What are you doing! You’re supposed to go!” yelled David from behind the barrier.