Taki stepped out of the boarded-up shop, his bat at the ready. If an old lady can kill one of these things, why can't I? He asked himself. I can do this!

C-Team spread out around the building. This was crazy. we're high-school kids, Benzo thought. Why aren't the police out here fighting monsters? Or the military? He tightened his grip on the hockey stick. The press conference had seemed surreal. What large scale battles were happening across the world if this was their reality in a small mountain city.

The team fanned out in front of the shop, trying to track the scraping noise they had heard. Benzo walked around the corner out of sight. Just then, the scraping noise intensified and all three of them turned toward the building in surprise.

"Where is it?" Sakura sounded panicked, her bow half-drawn.

It's stalking us." Natsuki's eyes narrowed. The team watched as a pair of eyes emerged over the edge of the roof. Red, glowing. Now a jagged mouth. It crept over until it was perched on the edge. This one had wings, like an oversized bat.

"That thing is hella ugly," Taki adjusted his grip.

With a guttural scream, the thing leapt from the roof. It arched toward Taki, jaws extended with malice.

"Batter up," he gritted his teeth and swung as hard as he could.

The thing fell to the ground, its head partially caved in. It started to rise on rickety legs. Taki advanced and finished the job, pummeling it until it was dead.

On the other side of the building, Benzo was locked in combat with a monster that had emerged from the back-alley behind the shop. It clawed at him with fury as he swung to block with his hockey stick. Pieces of plastic were flying off by the second. The creature loomed over him and swiped at him one last time, cutting the stick cleanly in half.

"Leave him alone!" Sakura yelled from the other side of the alley. With a twang, she let loose an arrow that whistled through the air and bounced off the wall with a loud clang. "That was just a practice shot!" she yelled. The creature began to advance toward her. She nocked an arrow and drew once again, sending a projectile that flew and planted into the creature's knee. It screamed at her in rage and pulled the arrow out, an arc of blood sailing through the air. Slowed but not stopped, the monster stumbled towards the archer, slavering.

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Sakura breathed in deeply and nocked another arrow. She drew, in rhythm with her breath, and released. The arrow zipped from her bow and lodged itself, at the zenith of its flight, right in the middle of the hulking beast's head. It dropped immediately to the ground, dead as a doornail.

"Alright!" Sakura cheered, raising a fist into the air.

"Holy shit, that was awesome!" Benzo rushed over, still holding the remains of his hockey stick. They were basically just plastic stakes now.

There was no time to celebrate, however. Another of the creatures, drawn by the sounds of combat, rushed towards them from the street. It had closed the distance between them in no time, running on all fours. Sakura screamed, too slow to nock another arrow. Benzo braced himself for impact.

BAM.

The creature's head exploded in a shower of blood and gore.

Natski smirked as it fell to the ground, pleased with her kendo sword's performance. "Imagine what we could do with real weapons."

Taki stumbled around the corner. "All clear?"

"All clear," Natsuki replied. She swung the bamboo sword towards the wall, splashing it with blood from the creature and cleaning her weapon a bit in the process.

"Aw man. I didn't get to kill one." Benzo whined. He kicked at the asphault.

RAAAAAAWRRR. A thundering cry rose up behind him. The beast Sakura had downed rose from the ground, blood dripping down it's ruined face. The arrow had badly hurt it, but it wasn't dead. It lumbered forward, claws outstretched to seek revenge on those who had injured it.

"Look out!" Taki yelled, but it was already upon Benzo. With a surprised look, the boy swung around, instinctively blunging both the sharpened halves of his hockey stick into the creature's torso. There was a sickening gurgling sound and the monster fell to the floor, truly dead this time.

"Remind me not to complain anymore," Benzo huffed, exhausted from the effort.

Suddenly, the display that Taki had seen before popped up in front of him.

Congratulations!

You have reached level 3. Your stats have increased.

The group looked around at each other. Everyone had a similar display in front of them, like some kind of hologram. The colors were different - his own was blue, while Sakura's was red and Taki's was green. He looked over at Natsuki, who was frowning. She didn't have a display.

"Must be because you already killed that one monster, right?" Taki tried to be consoling.

"Yeah, that's probably it." Natsuki shrugged. "Let's just make sure the shop is secure and then we should check out the rest of the district.

"Agreed." Sakura nodded seriously.

With that, C-Team stepped over the numerous monster bodies, avoiding pools of bright red alien blood, and continued on with their journey.