The buildings around the 5th block were collapsing around Evan and the horrendous creature.

Sounds that could only be described as the end of the world could be heard from kilometers away.

Evan felt the wind and a weird flow of energy pass through and around his body, almost making him feel lighter and... sharper.

“You seem to be quite different from that old man just now… I wonder how much this will make a difference in the conclusion of this situation, ha-ha…” the monster said before starting to walk toward Evan.

It was walking slowly, stretching its neck to the point of making a loud sound of muscles and bones dislocating. The body of these creatures was weird and made no sense.

A mixture of werewolves with shadows and human anatomy… It was certainly something out of this world.

Evan did not seem to mind the creature’s posture. In fact, at that moment, all of his fear and survival instincts were completely shut down by his anger.

Evan’s blade, reflecting the faint light of the sun rising on the horizon, putting an end to this hellish night, was raised to the top of Evan’s head.

The creature smiled while looking at what seemed to it like a poor attempt at surviving. This thought was true to the monster until Evan’s silence ceased.

“I don’t need to know how to use this… I just need to use it until you are not alive anymore.”

“Ha! What an interesting and yet foolish way to think… But go ahead, human! Show me what—” and before the creature could even finish, Evan brought his sword to the ground.

The cut and the impact created a gigantic crack that went all the way to the creature's position. The small earthquake created a ton of smoke and pieces of concrete that blocked the monster’s vision.

“What the?” Before the creature could think further, from the top with movements not of a normal human but of some type of Olympic athlete, Evan showed up, striking directly into the creature's neck.

But even with this clean shot, the creature used its incredible speed to jump five steps back while using a loud roar to clear the dust and smoke in the area.

Evan did not waste any time before trying to strike another blow, now from the creature's lower part to the top of its head.

In the mind of the monster, it thought, “Is this human serious? Not even a minute ago, he was about to run in fear with his friend, and now he is ready to die trying to kill me?”

The creature smiled, and as a way to block the sword’s trajectory, it used its claw to try and break the blade. But, unfortunately for it, Evan did not have an ordinary sword.

The action was enough to block the course of the blade, but the creature saw its own claws getting sliced off like it was nothing.

The monster backed off close to a building. “What the hell?! My body was one of the most resistant things in my world together with the other clan leaders… There is no way he could have sliced my claws with a mere sword!”

Evan continued to run toward the creature with a thirst for blood that could be felt by the creature’s soul while looking into his eyes. “Well… It seems I have underestimated you! But don’t worry… this is a mistake I will not repeat.”

The monster started to emanate a black aura and its body became even more muscular. It understood that coming close to Evan’s sword was a mistake, so it had another idea.

Like it was nothing, the monster used one of its hands to grab a column of the building next to it. The column was pierced by the creature's fingers, and by moving the column, the monster ripped that part of the structure in such a way that it looked almost too easy for it.

As the building started to crumble, the creature clapped its two hands, creating a gust of wind that directed all of the building’s debris toward Evan’s position.

Evan stopped moving before being hit by thousands of pieces of glass thrown at him, and before getting hit by the rest of the building's debris, he noticed something.

Everything around him was moving so slowly, he could see all of the dust particles going around him, the pieces of metal piercing the street, and the chunks of the building coming his way.

Was it because of his new ability? Or was it because, for him, in that moment, nothing else mattered besides his revenge? No matter the reason, he was having none of it…

Evan took his sword and started to cut the air with such fast movements that all his adversary could see were flashes of purple energy destroying every single part of the collapsing building into stupidly small pieces before even getting close to him.

But that was not a problem since all of this was a distraction.

Without Evan realizing, the creature dashed to his side in the middle of the chaos to strike a deadly punch. The creature was successful with its move.

Evan felt his ribs snap and his body fold mid-air from the pressure after being thrown to the end of the street by the impact of the strike.

Evan's body lay on the ground, his face covered in bruises. He knew that if it wasn't for the Climax ability, he and any other human would be dead.

The creature started to walk toward Evan’s broken body. At this moment, instead of humiliating Evan, the monster said, “I will say… You are no regular human. I’ve killed a lot of powerful humans since I got here with my clan. But all of them had this pathetic look of fear on their faces when they realized they were losing…” The creature then grabbed Evan by his neck, raised him into the air, and continued talking. “But you… you’re the first one who, even after being beaten to this point, keeps looking at me with such determination.”

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The monster was right.

In that moment, even after feeling his entire body hurt, Evan looked into the big red eyes of the beast with the intention to end its existence, once and for all.

“You’ve got my respect, human.”

Evan then snapped and grabbed the creature's fist with his two hands before saying, “I don’t want YOUR FUCKING RESPECT!!!” The monster then felt its pulse being pierced by Evan’s fingers that, with abnormal strength, made it release its grip.

After falling to the ground, Evan took his sword back and before the creature could react, a clean cut was made, one so brutal that it ripped the monster's arm off with no problem.

The creature growled in pain before kicking Evan's stomach, making him fly away again, now hitting a wall from another building.

The monster looked at its ripped arm on the ground, still twitching like it was still part of it.

“AAAACHH! V-very well then… I will let you die like the warrior that you so want to be!”

The black aura kept growing even more, and with blinding speed, the monster dashed toward Evan, destroying everything in its path.

As it got close to him, Evan looked at the monster before grabbing his sword in the middle of the debris, and with a brilliant and brutal idea in his mind, he said, “Let me repay you for earlier, you fucking stray dog!” Evan then proceeded to slash the columns from the building he was thrown close to, making all the structure fall directly onto him and the creature.

The monster was fast, but it let its guard down after seeing Evan in that drastic situation, so it didn't even imagine that he, a human, would be capable of risking being buried alive just to get them.

The building fell and a big chunk of the columns fell on the creature’s back when it was just a few inches from getting to Evan. The monster growled in pain, with only its head out from the pile of metal and bricks.

The chaos also got to Evan, who now had a gigantic metal column on top of his left arm. Both of them needed to free themselves before the other did it first.

And to make it worse for Evan, his increased regeneration granted by the Story Climax ability was not fast enough. As stated before, the ability can only improve the general abilities that one already has, but Evan was not a super soldier or agent, so his new power was only at the pinnacle of a normal human's abilities.

Evan realized that his powers would be useless if he didn't know how to use them…

So, in the middle of that drastic situation, with the creature starting to move from the pile of debris, Evan closed his eyes and found, in the middle of his anger, the strength to think logically.

“I’m not skilled enough to defeat him.” Evan thought and continued to rationalize. “I don’t have nearly enough battle experience to even swing my sword in a way that makes sense… All the damage I’ve caused until now was only possible because of my enemy’s overconfidence or because of some dirty tricks.” Evan was right. Up until now, even the strike at the arm of the creature was only possible because this monster had a terrible habit of letting its guard down. But that didn’t mean that Evan’s attacks by themselves were not doing anything! Evan thought:

“His skin is tough. I think not even a firearm could pierce his skin… But even with that, my sword has the ability to cut through anything. At least, that was stated in the sword's description.”

Not only that, but Evan also remembered that he actually pierced through the creature's skin with his bare hands by putting enough pressure into the tips of his fingers.

“That means… Right!” Evan, still with his eyes closed, clenched his hand and created a strategy. “I don’t need to make a complex and big swing… I just need to make the right move, at the right moment.” The creature was obviously not accustomed to having an enemy able to actually hurt it and to have such a long battle like the one they were having.

Even when Juan was there, the creature didn't waste any time before throwing a fast, direct, killing strike at Juan. That was its fighting style, and thanks to Juan… Evan could now see this and use it against the monster!

The creature then yelled while using its aura to get up from the pile:

“YOU PATHETIC HUMAN!!!”

As the creature said this, an explosion of black energy ignited from the debris, and now free from it, the monster stood with its only arm and claws ready to kill anything in front of it.

“If you want your last moments to act like a child, then be my guest! It will not change YOUR or humanity's fate!”

The creature, just like with Juan, dashed with super speed in Evan’s direction. Evan, who was lying down with his eyes closed, apparently open to the attack…

It was over, Evan thought.

But it was not for him!

As the creature got close, Evan took all of his last strength and threw his sword. Using his augmented strength and the speed of the creature, the sword pierced directly into the monster's chest!

The creature suddenly stopped, its claw mere centimeters from Evan’s face, still not understanding what had just happened.

From the creature’s mouth, blood spilled, and the monster’s body fell to the ground, sitting in front of Evan.

“H-How? How d-did you?”

“It was your mistake…!” Responded Evan, finally moving the debris from his arm and standing up to face the creature now, bloody on the ground.

“You fought someone weaker and with less experience than you… and still lost!” Evan approached the handle of the sword and grabbed it, making the creature growl even more, blood dripping from its chest.

Even with his face completely covered by bruises and his legs almost giving out, Evan stood in front of the creature and continued to explain.

“The old man who you killed understood better than you that fighting is not something you do with your heart only… You were so concentrated on making yourself look superior that you forgot to actually focus on the battle against me!”

The creature then said, with its life drifting away, “Wh-What the f-fuck are you talking about? You are just a freaking human—”

Evan then took the sword out of the monster’s chest, making it yell even more in pain.

“And yet, you are the one who lost…” said Evan, swinging his sword to clean the blood from it. “You could easily have killed me if you fought with me seriously from the beginning and took advantage of my anger to make me lose… just like I did to you!”

The creature looked at Evan’s eyes, and for a moment, just a moment… The creature saw behind Evan something, a being, a force. No matter what it was, the monster knew it was not something from the human world but something from its own world.

“....” The creature fell silent and then proceeded to say, “Ha-ha… You are right, human.”

Evan looked confused at the monster, not believing what it just said.

“I underestimated you, and because of that, I lost,” continued the monster, accepting defeat with at least a little bit of its pride intact. “But, I will say… My mistakes and your luck were not the only reason I lost.”

“What do you mean?” asked Evan, who now was not angry anymore but rather oblivious to what the creature was saying. After all, he was not prepared for a monster to admit defeat and actually engage in a dialogue with a human.

As a matter of fact… Why does a monster understand the ideas of pride, being right or wrong, luck, and other things that require some kind of consciousness to fully grasp?

In Evan’s mind, something popped up like a question that for some reason no one seemed to really think about before… Do the creatures that attack us really have feelings?

The creature then continued.

“You may not notice, human… but like I said before. You are different from the other creatures of this world.” The creature, with its last strength, raised its arm and pointed to Evan’s face.

“The look in your eyes… they tell a different story from the others. You may not have experience, but you’re no ordinary human. Maybe if I had noticed that before, I would not have lost just like you said.” The creature’s arm fell flat on the ground, and blood started to drip even more.

Evan, with the most confused look on his face, suddenly realized something that, although obvious, he hadn’t realized until now.

He had killed a living being.

Something that he did not realize before because of how non-human the other creatures acted, roaring like animals and not showing even a little bit of humanity.

But still, this monster just now… Was praising him?

“Human… Tell me your name,” said the monster before looking at the sky and using all of its will to keep itself awake.

Evan, confused, replied, “My name is Evan… Evan Müller.”

“Evan… That’s a really nice name, human. My name is Saber Hankukaja from the Desert Fang tribe. Please remember my name.”

Evan was at a loss for words. “It has a name???” The question went through Evan’s mind like a bullet train hitting a wall. What does this mean? What does it imply? Why was Evan feeling this way for a monster who killed his best friend???

The sun started to rise, and the light began to shine on the creature's face.

“Ha-ha… Lucky bastards. You guys have a better sky than ours,” and after saying that, Saber closed his eyes, and all life left his body.

Evan stood victorious beside the creature's body, but still… a sharp feeling of dread started to consume his heart. The only words he could say were:

“W-What is really happening to our world?”