Akira took one glance and didn't waste time, tearing across the road again. The men still standing hit the ground as she rushed past, but she targeted none of them. Instead, Akira swung and used one powerful kick to pulverize the base of the tree.

  Erina clutched the branches tight as a loud snap filled the air. The entire tree dropped a foot, and Erina's heart dropped several more as something leapt through the space she had occupied just one second earlier. She felt the rush of air as it swept over her and the unmistakable sensation of a savage swipe that would rip any normal human's head from their shoulders.

  The world pitched beneath Erina. No, it was rushing up to meet her! As the tree came crashing down, Erina jumped at the last second, somersaulting at first and then gracelessly rolling and tumbling. The brittle tree broke apart and shattered to pieces behind her.

  She stumbled to her feet, dizzied as a large thing hit the ground beside the felled tree. For a moment, Erina thought she hit her head too hard. The thing that attacked her seemed to be some kind of large animal, and… that was all she could tell. She had no idea what it was even though it was standing right in front of her. It seemed to blur and blend in with the storming skies and the mountainscape behind it. Her brain simply wasn't processing it. What were those prints it was leaving in the dirt?

  It emitted a deeply unfitting high-pitched noise and attacked, its paws pounding across the earth. Erina thrust her hand out, forming a spell circle right in front of her, and yanked her arm up to quickly build the thickest hedge of stone spikes she could. She flinched as most of it broke, spraying her with shards, and then leapt aside as the beast smashed through anyway.

  Erina stepped back from the thing as it slowly paced around to face her with another bizarre warble. It reminded her of birdsong of all things.

  "Get the bow!" Akira ran past her, pushing her back several more steps on her way to confront the creature.

  The thing leapt up to dive down on them and Akira broke off her attack, backing up right alongside her. Erina saw Akira craning her neck and narrowing her eyes as she tried to view it from multiple angles—seemed she wasn't alone for once.

  A heavy blow knocked all the wind out of Erina and sent her tumbling through the dirt. She saw it move, but she had no idea where the hit came from or what actually hit her. Akira threw caution to the wind and dived into the fray, her kicks shooting off thunderous booms as the animal maneuvered around her. Erina scrambled to her feet and got running. The bow lay amidst the unmoving men by the broken-off stump of the tree.

  Akira had the thing on the move, but she might as well have been fighting blindfolded. The creature didn't seem to take any of her strikes, dodging and slithering around them. Akira's figure crackled with static as she tried to dodge; fast as she was, it only helped so much when she didn't even know what she was fighting or what it was doing. Every other attack the creature made, another Akira dropped with limbs torn off, huge deep gouges across their fronts, or snake bites in their necks.

  The thing screamed—not a monster or animal's voice, but the exact sound of a regular woman screaming at the top of her lungs. Akira paused, baffled, and the creature darted off to place itself squarely between Erina and the bow.

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  Erina tossed up an orb and ordered down a salvo of lasers that forced it to sidestep. It ran several paces forward and she hastily backed up, swiping a large dragon's curve into the space between them to dissuade it from getting any closer.

  Akira rushed in and re-engaged the beast. Erina provided supporting fire; she couldn't see it, but throwing projectiles in its general vicinity was about the best she could do. As soon as Erina tried to advance towards the bow, it turned around and forced her away with a wild flurry of indistinct attacks before returning its attention to Akira.

  Erina knew she couldn't approach the bow or it would target her again. Rather, she drew her spell circle into the air above the creature and then flung her spear into it. The seal broke it down and redirected a fresh spear into the ground just past the bow. The resulting mini-tree of light struck it from below, launching it high into the air.

  The beast broke away from Akira. Even without being able to see it, they could tell it had turned its head to the airborne weapon. It began preparing to leap—

  Akira's boot slammed down on some part of whatever the hell just cost her a good dozen bodies. She wasted no time drawing her knife, ducking another swipe in the process, and then slashed with an incensed yell. A red arc splattered across the ground.

  The thing screamed, retreating and staggering back from Akira. Erina felt its eyes on her as the bow reached the peak of its arc and began coming back down. She summoned an orb from each hand, one floating in front of her and the other pushed high into the air.

  The creature jumped at her—

  Erina slashed down with her whole body, and the floating orb erupted into a massive dragon's curve that slapped the damn thing out of the air. It crashed to the earth, and then another motion created a second curve that punched it away. Her eyes on the beast, Erina raised one arm and caught the bow without looking.

  The bowstring clattered off her hand. Erina fumbled it, just barely catching it before it hit the floor. Drops of faintly glowing green ether dotted the floor, mana bleeding away to protect her as her fingers closed on the sharp edge of the bow. Her cheeks tinged pink, she got a proper grip on the bow and set her sights on the dazed monster. She didn't see any arrows, so this was how it worked, right? Right?!

  She drew the string, mana flowing from her body to form an arrow of light. The creature shook itself off and got up just in time to see her fire, the arrow immediately speeding up and flaring into a powerful blast of energy.

  The thing screamed in the voice of a human as the arrow exploded on it, bowling it over again. Now, Erina could get a good look at it—a misshapen mishmash of animals, the orange-black striped limbs of a tiger standing at sharp odds with its fuzzy beige body. Half its side was singed black by the blast. The long, wild mane of a lion surrounded the face of a monkey. Akira looked at the thing in her hand—the upper half of a dead serpent, the rest of its body hanging limp as the beast's tail.

  The nue warbled and took off. Erina's second arrow struck the earth just behind it, kicking up a plume of dust as the mythical beast vanished into the tree line. There was no more movement on the mountain road.

  There were flecks of blood on Akira's face. She licked a drop from the corner of her mouth as the clouds returned to light gray. "Just going off a hunch when I say this," she said, "but I think they know we're here."

  Erina tossed the bow aside, wavering. She nearly keeled over before finally giving up and dropping to her knees. She hugged herself tight, trying to catch her breath.

  "We're close enough to run the rest of the way." Akira paced around the base of the tree, confirming that every mage was unconscious and every youkai had their face kicked in. "On your feet, Erina! Let's get a move on."

  Hands in her pockets, Akira began walking down the dirt path. It was a desolate mountain with no signs of civilization on the Surface, but on this side, she could see the tops of the buildings at the peak from here. They just had to—

  "It's okay to continue alone, isn't it?" said Erina.

  Akira stopped. She realized she was the only one who'd been moving forward.

  Erina hadn't budged an inch from where she sat, her head low and her eyes hidden.

  This was far as she could go.