“Red!” Yamabuki cried out, trying to rush to her comrade’s aid. However, I managed to grab onto her hand before she could take another step.

“Don’t move! If you moved now, that thing would spot you right away! And if we lose you, no one’s getting out alive anymore!”

We had to calm down. Everything was still under control. Akabane couldn’t be down from just that—it would be absurd for someone of his caliber. What we needed to do was to observe the field again, and devise another plan of attack.

I clutched my trembling arm, biting onto my lips to suppress my fear with pain. Even now, I couldn’t fight my primal instincts. No matter how calm I tried to make myself, the pressure that we were in wasn’t something that could just be ignored and shrugged off. But if not me, then who? Akabane’s failure would strike the others much more than it did to me. They were comrades; they knew each other far longer than me, after all. As the only “stranger” in the group, I was the only one that could keep a rational, objective mind on the situation.

I had to calm down. Even if it would kill me doing so.

Steeling myself as best as I could, I waved to signal Aozaki from afar to retrieve Akabane and returned. The man in blue had noticed the hand sign, but the creature from above had also spotted another moving target.

This time, it wasn’t so careless as to let its prey slip again. Raising its four wings, the dragonfly was ready to unleash a second storm.

“Blue, get to its stomach!” Cupping my hands around my mouth, I shouted as loud as my lungs allowed me to.

“You don’t have to tell me twice!”

As the words left his mouth, from Aozaki’s legs burst another blue flame. With a crouched knee, the ground around him cracked into pieces, putting debris up in the air. Once he took a step forward, there was another crater on the ground, almost double the size of an average adult. Just as when Aozaki reached the center point of the stomach, the storm emerged.

This time, it wasn’t in a large area of effect, but concentrated in a “small” distance—just about the dragonfly’s length. And as a result, the wind was much stronger than before, enough to sink everything at least half a leg down from the original ground level, breaking every tree and rock in the area. The pressure itself also propelled the dragonfly upward, making our reach to it further than ever before.

But Aozaki remained safe and sound, thanks to being right underneath the monster when its attack started. Taking no chances, he immediately rushed away when its wings stopped flapping, and with a couple of flame-filled steps, managed to carry Akabane on his back to our position with relative safety.

When the two men reunited with us, Akabane’s state was atrocious. The cracks that had already been present on his body from before spread further than ever, to the point that just a single touch would make him crumble on the spot. The blood oozing out wasn’t even red anymore, instead having already turned into a smudge of black from all the dirt he had been wrung through. His remaining scythe arm was all but completely broken, while the blade itself was chipped to beyond repair. A cut from this thing wouldn’t even split a branch, let alone the giant beast’s diamond-hard skin.

“Yeah, I think he’s out of commission,” Aozaki let out a sigh and shook his head.

Yamabuki hesitated, her eyes fixated on the state her leader was in. “… At least let’s get him treated first. We’re going to evacuate from this place.” In the end, it was the only conclusion she could think of.

So, that would be it. Though no one had said it, running away right now and dying wouldn’t be so different anyway. The dragonfly’s wind could be used in a long-range area as well as a short-range burst of power, and that’s not even mentioning its supersonic voice. Even if it stood still, there were many ways it could have finished us off. The only way that we’d be safe would be because it hadn’t noticed our presence deep within the trees yet.

“I…”

Before I could say anything, a weak, broken arm had stopped me from continuing further.

“Hey, Yellow…” muttered Akabane. “Can you at least give me a pill first?”

“Oh, right, of course. Here…”

Yamabuki searched for her pouch, but before she could reach for a pill, the same broken hand had already snatched it away from her at a speed none of us could have expected coming from it. It was as if Akabane had spent all of his remaining strength for the sole purpose of stealing the pouch, but for what?

The answer came before long. Opening the pouch, Akabane dumped everything within it into his mouth, leaving not a single pill behind.

“Red, what are you doing? Ingesting such a large amount would surely…”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

As Yamabuki gasped in horror, Akabane’s body convulsed. His muscles expanded to an incredible mass, breaking chunks and chunks of his exoskeleton like a snake shedding skin. Veins popped up and deflated in such a rapid manner, I could hear them pumping even without being in touching distance. All the while his sweat evaporated upon being created, creating a misty layer of steam around his body.

“Ah, that feels a lot better.” Opening and closing his palm, the man in red exclaimed. “Well, not like this will last for long anyway.”

“Dude, what the hell?” I shouted.

“Kid, you should have also realized right? The implications of running away.”

“Well, yeah, of course. But…”

“By doing this, you guys have no way out anymore, same as me. Think of it as a morale boost for everyone.”

“But that doesn’t mean you can just deprive us of all our healing means, asshole!”

“Calm down for a sec, will you?” Akabane’s face turned to a solemn look. “I’m dead either way; I know that better than anyone else. By doing this, at least I can continue fighting, and I can give you more chances to read that damn thing’s patterns. Everyone else is also free from participating for now, so there's less risk of getting injured. Blue and Yellow are all fine, right?”

Turning to his partners, Akabane asked. Aozaki nodded without hesitation, while Yamabuki, though hesitant at first, still ended up with a regretful nod.

“Good,” Akabane flashed a confident grin. “Now, Yellow. You still have your numbing needles left. They’re less effective, but if used correctly, they should suffice for a temporary painkiller. When Blue and the kid get out to fight after I croaked, you’ll be providing support in the backline.”

“But Yakushi-kun is…”

“Blue. You’re our best combatant here. Just do what you do best; it’s not like I have any advice for you. Just protect your teammates, okay?”

“… Of course.” Even the always stoic Aozaki couldn’t help but hesitate for a split second, almost baffled by his leader’s planned sacrifice.

“And lastly, kid. You’ve probably realized what I mean when I said my piece to Yellow, right?”

Of course. I’d spent time with you for far too long to not have realized the meaning behind it.

“By sacrificing yourself and depriving Akari of any healing, you’re forcing me to take on the mantle of the prophesied hero, right? Get out there, you bastard. I’m not letting you die before taking that thing out.”

“As if you can stop me.” Giving a wave, Akabane turned around.

But there was something else that I must say to him.

“Hey.”

“What now?” He asked, still not showing his face.

“Imitating Green wouldn’t bring him back, you know.”

“… Yeah, I know.”

With a blast from his jump, Akabane returned to the battlefield. As the flash of crimson appeared on the ground again, the giant dragonfly started to move as well.

Now, it was time for my job.

Don’t let this chance go to waste! Analyze its patterns, and assist the bastard if possible! Mine, and Akari’s life depend on it!

Unlike last time, Akabane didn’t have the thick trees to protect him anymore—the red man was going for a frontal assault. All to bait the opposing creature to attack him with all he had, and it didn’t take long for it to take the bait.

Revving up its wings, the dragonfly slightly tilted its head upward, preparing for a large storm.

Count the intervals! One… Two… Three…

A storm erupted, this time in the same large-range area as its first attempt. However, I could feel that the wind was a lot weaker than before, seeing that the trees around where we hid weren’t rustling nearly as much as before. In other words, it was a weak attack—trading ramp-up time for a faster execution.

Akabane had noticed it as well, as the man stood up from the brink of being blown away. The copious amount of pills had helped him dulled his sense of pain, but it didn’t mean there were no injuries on him—the cracks had gone deeper this time, seeing that they had already spread to everywhere they could. But that didn’t stop him from continuing his advance. When he made it to the “safe point” below the dragonfly’s stomach, the red man started his attack.

It was a flurry of jumps. With each jump, Akabane scratched the same spot on the creature’s leg—the same spot that Akari’s and his blade once crossed. His tactic was clear: even if he couldn’t break the armor in one go, by repeatedly chipping it down, it could give a wound significant enough.

The same motion, going for hundreds of times. Jump. Slash. Land. Jump again. Each time from a different direction, but every time hitting the same spot. Like a blacksmith’s hammer forging a masterpiece sword of his life, Akabane’s strikes were relentless. Fearless, even. Even if his blade was gradually breaking apart, there was nothing stopping him. Since he was in the dragonfly’s blindspot, and none of his attacks were enough to actually hurt it, the creature was still scrambling around to look for the prey it missed.

However, even when the pills could remove his pain, it couldn’t repair his damaged state. When finally a crack appeared on the creature’s leg, his remaining scythe arm shattered to pieces. But that didn’t stop the man in red from his last hail mary.

“Hahhhhhh!”

With a battle cry, Akabane made one last jump. He didn’t have his blades anymore, but one of his hands still had its sharp claws. Flashing his final weapon, Akabane plunged his arm into the creature’s leg, finally breaking its armor, and tearing the leg into two halves.

As the dragonfly screamed in pain at last, I had also noticed another weakness.

The flesh that was torn up from the leg, and the part of the neck that was revealed when the creature winced… they were the same. Meaning that they could be cut off with the same method.

I could do it. I could save both him and us.

“Aim for the neck, Red!” As a last-ditch attempt, I ran out before anyone could stop me. It was a gamble, but if Akabane could just do it one more time…

However, my effort was in vain. The gamble had failed, and Akabane, after his last hurrah, had stiffened. Even in death, his body stood proud, as if satisfied with his actions… as if mocking me for one final time.