บท 38: Come Back!

Right when the bunnies were beginning to overwhelm the group, Sydney stepped up and began swinging the bat violently. One after another, frightening cracking sounds resounded as bunnies were brutally smashed.

Though nobody was silent as they were fighting, it somewhat seemed that way in comparison to Sydney. She screamed hysterically, while her breathing had become erratic and heavy.

The control over the situation was somewhat restored, but with how much force Sydney was using, the wooden bat was beginning to crack. If she just used enough force to kill, then the bat wouldn't face many problems, but she truly put her all into the swings.

And as such, it wouldn't last for much longer.

Kairos sighed, thinking he was going to have to step in sooner or later. The only shame was the fire axe he had been using was destroyed in an attempt to save Harold. Kairos began thinking of whether or not he should use the pulse spell, his hands, or borrow someone else's weapon.

But then he felt a sudden pushing on the door he was holding back.

With his future vision, he saw that it was Sydney who began pushing at the door, trying to get closer to the bunnies. Knowing that this was suicidal, he conversely pushed as hard as he could, using his shoulder.

The crack in the door was just about to close off, but that was when Sydney started to push against it.

Kairos spoke immediately.

"Don't do that! You will kill all of us!"

However, Sydney didn't listen and began pushing. Although her strength wasn't close to Kairos', there was also the factor of bunnies. He could beat her head on, but also had to divert some strength to keep the bunnies away.

Nicole reached out.

"M-Mom?"

Kairos gave up on trying to convince Sydney and looked towards Chase.

"Help me out here!"

Chase did not delay in rushing over, but by the time he got there, the gap had widened farther than it was before.

Both Nicole and Sydney did everything they could to kill as many as they could, but there were simply too many.

Nicole grit her teeth as she swung her axe, causing blood to spill into her eye.

"Mom! Stop!"

The excess bunnies began attacking Chase. It did not take long for a bunny to lunge towards his neck, forcing him back.

As the gap widened, it became harder for Kairos to keep the door shut. And so, Sydney was able to push it open farther.

Nicole was a little frantic.

"Mom! You have to stop! Think about what Dad would want!"

Unfortunately, Sydney already seemed completely lost.

The bunnies began tearing apart her flesh. After all, she was right at the front. However, Sydney did not seem to mind, not even screaming out in pain. She was still swinging her bat, killing several rabbits each time.

However, for each swing, Sydney would take numerous bites. In the end, she continued pushing through until she went through the door altogether.

Nicole's eyes widened.

"MOM!"

She reached out to pull her back, but the bunnies got in her way, scratching up her arm before she could get to her.

Nicole swung her fire axe faster and faster, but there only seemed to be more bunnies to match. Kairos wanted to cast the pulse spell, but quickly realized that it would probably end up killing Sydney if he did so. The area of effect was simply too large when compared to something like Chase's arrow.

He cursed internally as he watched Sydney force her way through the horde of bunnies. Other than swinging her bat, she began biting down on the bunnies, tearing through their flesh violently with her teeth.

It was as though she was trying to get payback for all of the bunnies biting down on her.

As bad as the situation was, Kairos couldn't help but be a little confused.

Because Sydney should've fallen over by now, not just by pain but because her muscles were being ripped apart, meaning she shouldn't have the capability to even stand. But as though mocking his logical thoughts, Sydney began pushing further into the horde, to the point that they could no longer see her.

Nicole continued swinging her axe, but it seemed she was still in a bit of shock.

"...Mom?"

Now that Sydney wasn't interfering, Kairos was able to push the door enough so that the bunnies didn't overwhelm the group.

The situation stabilized quickly, but there was now a strange air that didn't come from the stench of blood.

Nicole grit her teeth.

"Why... why are there so many? Mom, come back!"

Despite swinging with all she could, the bunnies continued to block her way.

However, though muffled, the group could still hear Sydney's screams. This made the hairs on Kairos stand up. The only possibility he saw in her surviving was if she was transforming into a monster.

But he also didn't understand how she would be transforming into a monster already, as theoretically there shouldn't have been enough evolution energy to do so.

Kairos furrowed his brows.

He began thinking of various possibilities and various actions he could take. But eventually, it boiled down to just...

Doing nothing.

At this point, if Sydney was going to die, there was pretty much nothing he could do. His spells were offensive in nature and had an area of effect. He might be able to kill some bunnies, but to kill the ones directly impacting Sydney, it was going to be too difficult to not implicate her as well.

And so, Kairos continued to hold down the door.

Sydney's screams continued, like she was burning in the pits of hell. However, it wouldn't exactly be accurate to call them screams of pain. They still sounded angry, but also very muffled. That was partly because of the door blocking the noise.

But also because her fighting style of choice was biting down on the bunnies. She tore apart and ate their flesh as they did the same to her. It was as though they were competing on who was the true animal.

Eventually, when the time extended out for longer than ten minutes, he spoke up.

"Sydney is still alive. It looks like there's something that lets her survive."

Nicole's eyes lit up when she heard this. She stopped exerting herself so hard and began focusing on surviving.

...However, even that was beginning to become a hard task.

By now, a thick layer of blood had coated the bottom of the floor. The bunny carcasses had stacked up so high, that they almost formed a miniature blockade of their own. If the bunnies weren't able to force their way through it, then it could've been considered something useful.

By now, Tori and Nicole were almost completely covered in blood. They had to squint with their eyes just to see. Not to mention, they were both panting heavily, causing blood to splash into their mouths.

Even Chase was in a similar situation. His hands were coated deep in blood, making it seem as though he was a cannibal in a horror movie. He was trying his best, but his arms began to tremble.

Kairos quickly was pretty sure that the situation was starting to get out of hand, thus he tried to push the door closed.

However, it wouldn't close. It seemed that it had gotten caught on a bunny corpse, stopping it. Though Kairos was rather unsettled by this fact, he knew in the worst case scenario he could just use the red prism to close off the doorway forcefully. That would leave Sydney out to face all of them, but she seemed to be faring completely fine for now.

Kairos began gathering mana in his palm to cast the pulse spell.

Unfortunately, in the time that had passed, his mana had only recovered to about a fourth of its total capacity.

As such, this spell wasn't going to be the strongest.

Nonetheless, he reached out towards the gap and casted it.

A small swish followed up by countless crushing fleshy sounds rang out.

[Multi-Kill (Lesser Kill - One Rank Inferior to Killer) - 0.1 points awarded]

Countless bunnies died. There were still more, and a lot more. That was easy to tell from the scurrying sounds coming from all around.

But they began running away.

For a moment, the only sound in the air was everyone panting. Kairos still had his back pressed hard against the door even though there were no longer any left. Nicole and Tori were still clenching hard onto their weapons despite the trembling and Chases' bloody hands were still tensed up.

Eventually, they came to understand that it was over.

Nicole began pushing the bunny carcasses aside.

"...Mom..."

As though this was a sign, Kairos moved aside the door, and as he did so crunching sounds filled the air.

Nicole, Tori, and Chase all widened their eyes.

Wanting to see what the commotion was about, Kairos also looked over and his eyes widened as well.

"...Woah."