And so, they went their separate ways, hoping to meet each other again at the end.
On Yuji's perspective.
As they run on the sidewalk of the road, on the way to the extraction, they suddenly heard loud noises coming from a distance.
Yuji was alerted as he looked beside him and saw a store for clothes.
"Please be open!" Yuji thought as he grabbed the glass doors doorknob.
Yuji managed to open it easily, and so, they rushed inside the door and locked it.
they hid behind the clothes beside the walls and stayed quiet.
In a few seconds, numerous akumas were running past the store, they stayed quiet, as they looked at the passing akumas outside the glass window of the store, used for displaying clothes.
Not too long, the noise passed and there weren't anymore akumas passing the window.
A moment has passed and the silence continued.
As they were about to breathe with relief, something opened the door inside the shop, behind the register.
"Wha..." Yuji thought, their eyes shrunken with fear, as a tall 6 feet Akuma with about average buff arms, unlike the ones they've seen before, and large legs and feet, walked out from the register.
All of them except Yuji, had the same thought and injected themselves. The injection of three people at the same time, made a slight noise, enough for the Akuma to hear in the midst of silence inside the room.
"Raagggghhh" the Akuma roared, as it raised it's arms, about to randomly smash.
Yuji shouted "HEY!" as he threw a plastic chair he saw beside him, at the Akuma.
The Akuma quickly changed, it's arms direction and hit the plastic chair, making the plastic chair fly out the large glass window, shattering it.
"It's got fast reflex!" Yuji thought, as everyone jumped outside the broken glass window.
"What should we do," said Ray, "running definitely isn't an option huh?".
The Akuma slowly walked outside the broken glass window, as everyone backed down to a safe distance.
"There's no choice," said Yuji, "Try to take it down for now!".
"for now huh?" Ray said, as he pulled out the pistol-like gun from his belt, "so you're going to think of an alternative solution if we're not able to bring this down, am I right?". Ray aimed at the Akuma, "fine by me...".
A high pitched sound came from Ray's Gun then, a thick laser blasted out from the pistol-like gun, making an explosion.
As the smoke from the explosion fades, They were not able to see the Akuma behind the smoke.
"Huh? where did it..." As Ray was talking, the Akuma appeared beside him, with a raised hand about to crush him.
Ray dodged, as the Akuma hits the ground.
Yuji suddenly got an idea, "RAY! Shoot it again!".
"I CANT!" Ray said, "this gun takes time to be able to shoot again".
"Crap! how long?" said Yuji.
"Not too long" Ray answered.
"What should we do?" Layla shouted.
"Be careful! and look around for other Akumas" said Yuji, "and Elizabeth, stand by for a possible injury".
The Akuma ran towards Yuji, as it was about to attack.
"It's fast... but compared to what we faced before, this is nothing!" Yuji thought, as he jumped aside to dodge the akumas attack, as he gained distance from the Akuma.
Then, a sudden high pitched sound emerged from the side, where Ray was standing, as he blasted another laser shot.
This time they were able to see clearly how the shot was dodged by the Akuma.
"ITS SO FAST!" said Ray"
Then the Akuma attacks them again, as the same cycle continued.
"Is this thing playing with us?" said Ray.
"No, I think I have an idea on what's happening," said Yuji, "It moves extremely fast whenever you fire that thing, yet it moves averagely when it's trying to attack us, I think the reason is because his dash comes with a cool down the same as your gun".
"Huh?" Ray said, "cool down??".
"look" Yuji pointed at the akumas large buff legs.
"Is its legs... IT'S SMOKING!?" said Ray, being shocked, "if that's true, then how are we going to get rid of it? I think this laser gun is all we got to take it down".
"I want to try something, but it's risky..." said Yuji.
"Sure! I'm willing to take it" said Ray.
Yuji let out a small laugh, "You're not going to be the one taking the risk, it'll be me".
"Huh?" Ray was stunned by Yuji's words.
"That blue knife, it's the same as the one the military used earlier right?" said Yuji, "It generates stunning electricity, am I right".
Ray nodded, "what are you planning to do?" Ray asked.
"I want to test something..." Yuji said as Ray hands him the knife, "don't fire that laser for now, do you have anything else that can damage it?".
"I do, but it won't do as much as the laser," said Ray, as he puts on his gloves.
"that's ok," said Yuji, as he started to focus real hard on the situation, removing his emotions.
"Just land a hit then back off" Yuji whispered to himself, as he stares at the Akuma.
As they were talking, Elizabeth and Layla were the ones, distracting the Akuma.
Yuji picked up a rock on the ground and threw it at the Akuma, the Akuma turns around, and sees Yuji and Ray, completely ready to face it, the Akuma then turns around and ignored the two.
"WHAT THE HECK!?" Layla shouted as the Akuma went back to targeting her.
"IT IGNORED US!?" Ray shouted.
"Come on, we don't have much time," Yuji said as he runs towards the Akuma, along with Ray.
Yuji managed to get close to the Akuma and was about to land a stab with the knife, but he suddenly stopped and backed off as he sees the Akuma change the direction of its hand.
The Akuma swings it's hand at Yuji, barely missing. Yuji gained distance from the Akuma, as Ray tried to get close. The Akuma then kept attacking Ray, but only as if it was trying to keep him away.
"this Akuma... seems a little faster" Yuji whispered, as he noticed the difference in speed of the early attacks, "don't tell me!".
Yuji quickly ran over towards Elizabeth and Layla's direction.
"You two! stay together!" Yuji shouted.
"Crap, this Akuma might be an intelligent one," Yuji thought, "it saves its dash to dodge Ray's laser, and it ignored us when it saw us prepared, if I'm right then he's targeting..."
The Akuma turned around and looked at Elizabeth. Then in a quick moment, the Akuma managed to get in front of Elizabeth.
"WATCH OUT!" said Layla, as both of them moved aside, evading the akumas hand, as it smashes the ground.
"I knew it, it's targeting the ones..." Yuji thought.
As they dodge, Elizabeth tripped and fell on the ground, and in one glimpse the Akuma was already standing in front of her.
"...The ones that don't seem to be a threat!" Yuji thought, as he sprinted towards the Akuma.
As Elizabeth trembled with fear, the Akuma raised its arm, and as it was about to smash Elizabeth, Yuji suddenly jumped behind the Akuma and stabbed its neck with the blue knife.
The Akuma screamed with pain and was about to shake Yuji off, but as the Akuma started to move, Yuji pressed the button behind the knife and electrified the Akuma.
The Akuma wasn't able to move for a short moment, then the Akuma suddenly moved it's arm and grabbed Yuji, who was behind the Akuma.
"NO!" Elizabeth shouted, as she stood up, while the Akuma was holding Yuji on its hand.
"CRAP!" Ray shouted, as he activates the gloves, which releases a sudden burst of wind, to get there faster.
The Akuma threw Yuji in mid-air.
"I'm... not gonna make it," Ray thought.
The Akuma prepared it's hand to swing.
"No..." Elizabeth thought as she stood still knowing she won't be able to do anything.
The Akuma swings its hand, hitting Yuji, as his body flew towards the second-floor window of a building shattering the glass, making him hit the ceiling, and fell down the floor, unable to move.
As Yuji opens his eyes, with a hazy vision, he thought "Is this... how I'm going... to die...".
Blood drips from his head, "I wasn't even sure... if they're gonna make it... I'm pathetic...".
"sorry, Erina...I didn't do anything too stupid...but guess I wasn't careful enough..."
With those in thought, Yuji closed his eyes.
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Cover illustrated by: @s0ft.b0i.art -IG
@s_b_art- twitter
Author- @Ryk- Twitter
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