Chapter 44: Five Minutes of Survival

"SKREEEECH!" "SKREEONK!"

The monster roared again. Even in their combat forms, the four of them visibly flinched at the deafening sound. A single stride brought the creature significantly closer to the train. Clyde, Casca, Craig, and Corie braced themselves despite having no clear strategy. Clyde then unfurled his wings, drawing his siblings’ gazes toward him,

"We just need to hold it off for five minutes until the train pulls far enough away from it. There’s no way we can defeat it, but if we hold out for five minutes, the train won’t be destroyed, and my vision won’t come true," Clyde said telepathically.

"But... how?" Craig asked.

"Shoot... use whatever long-range attacks you have, just shoot at it," Clyde instructed.

Clyde spread his arms as the eyes on his helmet flared bright red, accompanied by the four eyes on his wings glowing intensely,

Eye Beam!

The four eyes on his wings fired inward toward Clyde’s center, merging with the beams from his eyes to form a massive red laser. Blam! The thick, crackling red laser bolt shot out and struck the monster square in the head, forcing its skull to jerk slightly to the right and halting its advance,

"SKREEONK!"

The monster let out a furious bellow upon taking the hit, but immediately after, its head, still smoking from the laser, turned back toward the train with a fierce gaze.

"SKREEEECH!" "SKREEONK!"

The monster roared and veered straight toward the train. Boom... boom... Its steps shook the ground as it accelerated faster than before. The faces of Clyde, Casca, Craig, and Corie grew even paler than before,

"Hey... that just made it angry, Brother... what do we do now?!" Corie cried out in their minds.

"Gosh... this is bad... we shouldn’t have shot it head-on, Brother... what do we do now?" Casca asked in a panic.

"Shoot... keep shooting!" Clyde yelled.

Clyde fired another laser beam from all six of his eyes, merging them into a massive energy blast. The monster paused again as the laser hit, but it continued marching forward as if the beam were merely tickling it rather than causing real harm, despite the smoke rising from its head. Seeing the creature close the distance, Craig stepped up to the front and spread his arms,

Avalanche Smash!

Boom!

He slammed his palms together, causing the earth below to split open and surge toward the monster. Crack! The monster’s foot sank into the fractured, caving ground before freezing solid, bringing its momentum to a sudden halt. However, it ripped its foot free from the earth and resumed its march toward the train, its face contorted in rage with smoke venting from behind its tightly clenched teeth. Clyde and Craig continuously blasted their attacks at the monster, slowing its advance.

Yet the creature pressed closer. Noticing this, Casca took a step forward and crossed her arms before her face,

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Casca unleashed her Blood-Curdling Scream ability, sending sonic shockwaves that vibrated through the air. The wave slammed into the monster’s head, causing it to reel back and freeze. Once Casca’s scream tapered off, the creature shook its head, then lunged its face toward the train,

"SKREEECH!" "SKREEONK!"

It countered Casca’s scream with a bellow of its own, generating a shockwave that nearly blew Clyde, Craig, Casca, and Corie right off the train roof. Visibly incensed, the monster raised its upper body and reared up on its hind legs. Clyde, Craig, Casca, and Corie looked up in horror: even while crawling, the monster stood 50 meters tall, but now standing upright, its height doubled, casting a looming shadow over the four of them poised atop the speeding train.

Then, a bright yellow light gathered inside the monster’s maw as every spike on its back glowed brilliant yellow. Graaaaaaah! It unleashed a massive yellow beam downward at the train.

Whoaaaaaaah!

Startled, Clyde, Casca, Craig, and Corie raised their hands in unison, deploying a hemispherical blue barrier that shielded them and the train. Blam! The yellow beam slammed into their combined barrier, scattering energy everywhere, yet the train remained intact and kept speeding away from the creature. After exhausting its breath attack, the monster turned toward the train and gave chase on foot. Clyde, Casca, Craig, and Corie, panting heavily atop the train, could only stare at the creature marching toward them with furious expressions.

"Gosh... what do we do, Brother? I don’t have any strength left," Casca said.

"I don’t have any ranged attacks... how am I supposed to fight back?!" Corie added in a panic.

"This is bad... really bad... can we actually get out of this alive?" Craig asked.

"I don’t know... I really don’t... but what matters is... we’ve held out for five minutes," Clyde answered.

Clyde was right. Just as the monster drew near and raised its hand to crush the train, blam! an explosion rocked the creature, causing it to stumble sideways before dropping back onto all fours, unable to stand upright again. Clyde, Casca, Craig, and Corie turned to look off to the side, where military forces were fast approaching. Two massive GEARs, humanoid mechs standing roughly 60 meters tall, leaped over the train bridge and lunged straight at the monster, swinging their colossal blades.

Behind them hovered three fighter jets and an attack helicopter. Clyde, Casca, Craig, and Corie breathed a collective sigh of relief, but then Clyde caught sight of the emblems painted on the jets and helicopter, followed by the shoulder insignia on the two giant GEARs currently hacking and shooting at the monster.

"Military forces from Neo Ark... we should head inside right now," Clyde said.

"Oh... really?" Craig asked, staring at the GEARs locked in combat with the giant monster.

"Gosh, he’s right. Let’s go, get inside!" Casca said.

"Hurry, hurry... what are we waiting for?!" Corie added.

They hurriedly rushed toward the rear of the carriage and climbed down the ladder, reverting to their original human forms before slipping inside the carriage. From their seats, they watched the battle unfold out the window as the train continued to pull away from the battleground, looking like an unbelievable scene straight out of an action movie. The expressions on Clyde, Casca, Craig, and Corie grew tense, knowing full well that if the military emerged victorious, their next target would be the four of them.

Suddenly, blaaam! a massive explosion echoed as one of the GEARs detonated, obliterated by a strike from the monster’s tail. The fighter jets fired their missiles, and the helicopter peppered the monster with continuous gunfire. Watching the monster they had just fought destroy one of the GEARs, Clyde, Casca, Craig, and Corie felt a complex wave of emotions: on one hand, they were relieved to see a GEAR destroyed, meaning the military was losing ground to the monster; on the other hand, a victory for either side boded ill for them.

Clyde glanced at the three other passengers inside the carriage, who looked visibly anxious as they stared out the window at the battle, which was still clearly visible despite the growing distance.

"I just hope those three don’t realize we were just outside, or that they have no connection to Neo Ark’s military," Clyde thought to himself.

The train sped further and further along, until the battlefield they had passed receded far into the distance behind them. Clyde, Casca, Craig, and Corie finally sat back with a sense of relief, their bodies going limp as the adrenaline slowly drained from their systems,

"Crazy... seeing a movie-style monster in real life... I don’t even know what to feel," Corie said.

"Yeah... who would’ve thought something like Godzilla would be walking around in this world?" Casca added.

"There’s still so much we don’t know about this world... but for some reason, I feel like we’ll understand everything once we find Celes," Clyde said.

"I feel the same way... especially since... the five of us drove a giant robot no smaller than that monster... our dream said so, didn’t it?" Craig said.

"Right, I’m sure of it... those are our buried memories. It seems we really did pilot a giant robot back then, and judging by Celes’s condition on that screen... she looked identical to how she appeared in our dream," Clyde replied.

"You’re right, Brother. We’ll definitely find our answers soon," Casca said.

"Still... I don’t have a single ranged attack... if I had used my kicks back then, I’d probably still be standing out there... how annoying," Corie pouted, crossing her arms over her chest.

Clyde looked over at Corie and patted her head, while Craig leaned his shoulder against hers from where he sat beside her. Casca simply shook her head and nudged Corie’s leg with her foot until Corie held her leg and shot Casca a sharp glare. They resumed their journey in peace once more, but now they understood that the world they inhabited was vastly more dangerous than they had ever imagined.