"Together…" Hinako muttered.

As the swordfish came closer towards us, I prepared my SGR-6. Hinako sighed in exasperation as she held her staff high.

"If things get really dangerous, I would use the spell, okay?" Hinako compromised.

I smiled, "I won't let that happen."

A deep wound inside my heart reopened as soon as I said that. A sense of shame, a hypocrite, and a stranded feeling. Even so, I tried to maintain my coolness as I prepared to shoot.

"There's around four seconds delay before their souls and mana would transfer into the alive one, after I finished chanting, let's try to wipe as much as we can together," Hinako planned.

I gave her a thumb-up as I waited, Hinako began closing her eyes as she muttered something.

"Dear the God of Aether, the father of light and magic, I'd ask permission to summon the light that could even perish the deepest undead in one part of the underworld, Aether Burst!" Hinako yelled as she pointed her staff on the most condensed part of the army of swordfish.

A brimming light from the school rooftop materialized as they flew towards the school of swordfish. I immediately open fire at the enormous amount of swordfish coming here.

With loud bangs and bright light, the swordfish numbers were reduced into around thirties of them. I kept on shooting and reloading using the ammo on my military vest while Hinako kept on summoning magic towards them. At last, we were able to shorten their numbers into twelve swordfish.

They kept on charging on until finally, they managed to enter the school rooftop as one of the swordfish managed to almost hit Hinako's shoulder.

"Hinako, run!" I yelled as we immediately headed towards the door inside the school. However, the swordfish wouldn't let us as two of them placed their bodies towards the door, blocking us from escaping.

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I tried to use all of my bullets to kill the one blocking our path, resulting in forty bullet shells being ejected, yet only one of them fell towards the ground. The remaining one kept on floating as it awaited us from crossing its path. Feeling annoyed, I threw away my SGR-6 towards it.

"There's no way out! I'll use the spell!" Hinako yelled.

As soon as Hinako tried to invoke her spell, I immediately obstructed her while some swordfish took it as a chance as they flew towards us with intense speed.

Hinako and I immediately threw ourselves out of the way of the swordfish, it was a narrow escape as one of my shoulders was grazed by the sword of the swordfish. There was only so much we could do as eleven swordfish were rounding us out.

Hinako immediately restarted her spell, before I stopped her again.

"What are you doing?!" Hinako screamed.

Four more swordfish charged towards us as they flew. I immediately grabbed Hinako's hand as we barely ducked in time before the swordfish reached for our heads. I took out my secret weapon from my hip quiver. I used it to slashed one of the swordfish that tried to strike us from above, as we dodged it by ducking.

It was able to inflict deep wounds towards not only the swordfish that was slashed, but also all of the swordfish around us. The swordfish that was slashed by my knife was bleeding green blood as it stopped flying. Its entire body jerked with a desperate motion until it finally stopped moving. Hinako looked at me with a surprised expression.

Unfazed by what just happened to their companion, two swordfish charged towards us. However, their speed greatly decreased as Hinako and I managed to dodge them with easier difficulty than before, yet they're still really fast.

"Hinako, cover me!" I said while charging towards the remaining swordfish, Hinako immediately chanted different kinds of spell as I drew the attention of the swordfish.

Suddenly, my body felt light. I was able to maneuver the swordfish attack more easily, I looked towards Hinako as she was desperately muttering something.

I took the opportunity to graze my opponents one by one. Even if I was able to inflict the littlest amount of wound towards one of the swordfish, somehow all of them flop in pained expression.

I continued to slash one more swordfish as it fell down in terrifying motion. The remaining swordfish felt more and more sluggish as they moved around. I took the opportunity to slash the one that was floating still.

More, and more. I felt dizzy the more I saw green blood coming out from the swordfish body. I was able to take them down until there were only four more swordfish.

I tried my best to move my legs, until I couldn't manage to run anymore, so I walked towards the swordfish that tried to strike me down. Until finally there were only two left.

I walked, slowly, towards the remaining swordfish. They didn't even bother on flying away, as their bloodthirsty eyes could only see me. I tried to summon all of my strength into swinging my knife towards them, yet I could simply fall down on my knees.

Hinako saw me fall with a frantic expression as she summoned two fireballs towards the swordfish. Both of them were taken down in a single hit. I could see Hinako quickly run towards me in a rush, "Sayoko!"

I was too tired to do anything as my entire body fell down towards the ground. I dropped the knife I used to murder those swordfish with a tired expression. I saw a familiar name engraved in that knife as my last scene before closing my eyes.

"Akemi…" I muttered.