Lament of the Moon S&H - Ch.07: Trial and Success - Ep06
#6 of LoM 07
"Aah! Wha-What's going on!?" Sasuga gasped and almost fell on the ground from the big quake if it weren't for Seif's strapping arm grabbing her and keeping her close to him protectively.
Seif looked over at the source of the loud noise and to his surprise, saw a huge demon appearing from thin air a few miles away in the middle of the forest across the river bank, with only the shape of its head peeking out from the top of the lines of lush green trees. It had a demonic shaped skull for a head, as it roared out loud and started moving towards something.
"Heeelp!" they both then heard a scream of a female in danger, coupled with other cries of scared children.
"Oh my God! The demon! It's after someone!" Sasuga cried out.
"It's much bigger than usual," Seif said, trying to size up the demon from afar.
"I'll call Haz and Panja!" Sasuga said and reached for her cell phone.
"No, there's no time. We have to handle it ourselves," Seif told her and stopped her before she could dial.
"We? Alone? But, look at how big it is!"
"We just have to. Each second we waste debating it is one second closer to those innocent lives' death. Can I count on you, Sasuga? If you're not ready, don't be afraid to back out," Seif said as he looked back as Sasuga, and see saw the fierce determination in his eyes. She wasn't exactly sure if she was prepared or not, but she knew Seif was. He could do this, and she could help him.
"Yes... Yes, I'm coming with you," she answered him straightly and Seif nodded back at her.
"To the car." They both got into the lion's SUV and drove over the river and towards to the location the demon appeared in. They arrived at the middle of the forest and saw some damaged trees, obviously caused by the giant demon as it stomped its way through the forest. They could see it rearing head moving away into the woods, so they decided to leave the car and go after it by foot.
"Hold on, I'll need my sword," Seif said as he flicked a switch inside his car and a door at the back of the SUV slid open, revealing a secret compartment just under the backseats. He pulled it out like a drawer and inside was a large, two-handed sword; its blade was like a gigantic slap of iron.
"This sword... I remember it... you're the one who saved me that time!" Sasuga pointed out when she saw the big sword, figuring out that Seif was her mysterious savior that rescued her from the Hellhounds when she was getting Hazard's sword.
"No time to explain. Let's go," Seif rumbled as he pulled his big sword out and held it up easily with one hand, hurriedly going over to the demon's direction.
"Y-Yes," Sasuga muttered in amazement and followed him closely.
It didn't take them long to find the demon up ahead, chasing after a female teacher and a group of elementary school children. They must've been having a field trip in these woods before they were surprised by this demon appearing from out of nowhere. The demon was as big as Seif predicted, probably over seventeen feet tall, with a hard shelled body that resembled a beetle and six tall, thin needle shaped limbs with pointy ends that served as its legs. Its head was made of hard bones, looking like a skull with four hollowed eyes and a long pair of sharp teethed jaws.
"What is that... thing?" Sasuga uttered in fright as she looked up at the hideous looking monster.
"A Skulled demon kind. Damn, those are hard to kill..." Seif replied, cursing under his breath. The demon relentlessly chased after the school class as they were running for their lives aimlessly.
"We have to help them, Seif!" Sasuga desperately said.
"I'll keep it busy. You have to take them as far away from here," Seif explained to her and held up his sword with two hands.
"But, Seif, I..."
"No time for hesitations. Go, now!" the lion growled and rushed off towards the Skulled demon.
"Seif!" Sasuga cried out, fearing for his safety, but she was stunned when she saw Seif swing his sword sideway as he came closer to the demon and hit it on the back of one of its legs, making it stagger to the side and fall off against a bunch of trees, crashing into the ground.
"Sasuga! What are you waiting for!? Go!" Seif shouted at the kirin.
"R-Right!" Sasuga ran towards the class of children and their teacher, passing by the fallen demon as it struggled to get back on its legs but was having a hard time getting up lying on its side with those long pointing legs. Sasuga seized this chance to go over to the teacher, who was a female raccoon and was in a serious state of panic. "Are you alright?"
"What the hell is going on!? What is that monster!? We were just strolling! We didn't do anything! Why is it attacking us!?" The teacher was saying fretfully, gathering her little class of children around her.
"I know, I know, I don't what's going on either, but we have to get away from here! Is there a vehicle that brought you here?" Sasuga quickly enquired.
"There... There's the school bus... a few miles from here..." the teacher panted, calming down slightly.
"Okay, good, good. Pull yourself together. We need to get there fast before it..." before Sasuga finished her sentence, they heard a screeching roar coming from the demon and Sasuga turned around to see what was going on. The Skulled demon turned over to lay on its back then retracted his six limbs into his body like a turtle. It then pushed them out again, but they were flipped and it managed to stand up again, rotating its upturned head 180 degrees so it wasn't upside-down, turning its sight at Seif.
"Damn freak..." Seif gritted his fangs and prepared to face it again.
"Oh shit, we have to hurry!" Sasuga gasped when she saw that the monster was back up again and urged the class to start moving to where the buss was stationed. Everybody ran together along the forest road, but the teacher then noticed that someone was missing.
"Kemo! Where's Kemo!?" the raccoon cried out.
"Crap, we don't need this right now!" Sasuga griped.
"Oh! There he is!" The teacher then pointed, where there was a single little turtle boy dropped on the ground, his hands covering his head fearfully, too scared to move a step.
"You go on ahead, I'll get him," Sasuga said and rushed over to where the kid was, crouching down to him. "Come on, Kemo, we need to get away from here."
"No! I'm scared! The monster will eat me! I want my mommy!" the little turtle sobbed, covering his head under his big cap.
"Don't be scared, Kemo. The monster won't eat you. Seif... Seif will save us! But we have to help him by getting far from here, okay? We'll go and get you home to see mommy," Sasuga comforted him while petting his head.
"R-Really?" little Kemo sniveled as his crying calmed down.
"Yeah. We have to hurry, okay?"
"O... Okay." The little turtle nodded and held the kirin's hand as they ran off together to join the rest of the class.
"Please, Seif... Please be careful," Sasuga dearly hoped as she looked over her shoulder and watched Seif face the Skulled demon by himself.
To be continued...