Damien immediately diverted the light away all the while breaking out into a cold sweat. As for Zenos and Killian, both of them were also rooted in place once they saw what was in front of them.
The two giants spasmed, but it seemed that since the light was no longer on them, they gradually calmed down.
While the three of them were holding their breath, Damien slowly lowered his hand onto the keypad once more, causing it to close slowly. Once the gates did eventually end up shutting, everyone began breathing heavily once more.
Zenos snapped out.
"Shit! Why the fuck are there two of them now?"
Killian was sweating, but still had a wide smile plastered across his face.
"It looks like this is what a one and two-tenths difficulty are all about. Whatever you were talking about it being logarithmic must be true, because we are basically in hell right now."
Zenos looked down at the ground with a miserable expression.
"Why are we even trying so damn hard in the first place? It's not like we're going to survive if these are the damn conditions."
Kairos narrowed his eyes.
"Come on, I feel like you're underestimating us a little bit."
Zenos raised an eyebrow.
"How the hell am I underestimating anything?"
Killian rubbed his chin in thought.
"I guess if you think about it, killing all the monsters we have so far is pretty impressive, no?"
Zenos sighed.
"So what? Just because we performed somewhat well doesn't change how difficult it is."
Damien walked around the room rather casually.
"Well, realistically speaking you're correct, but have you ever decided to think about it another way?"
Zenos looked at him strangely.
"What other way is there to look at it? All of our actions are pointless."
Damien smirked.
"Exactly. In other words, our lives don't really matter anymore. Personally, when I realized I don't care much about my life anymore, it was liberating."
Even Killian shot him a questioning glance.
"Huh? Is that how it works?"
Damien shrugged his shoulders.
"If you no longer have anything to lose, what is there to be afraid of? You can push ahead without hesitation. You can take risks that make no sense, be bold despite the risk."
He chuckled.
"Why not have a little fun before it's all over?"
Killian's eyes widened slightly.
"Huh... now that you say it like that, it makes so much sense."
Zenos furrowed his brow.
"...I guess that's not exactly wrong, but it still doesn't make much sense."
Damien clicked his tongue.
"What's the point of making sense now? If you really do want to die, then you can do it fighting the monsters."
Without waiting for a response, Damien pushed up his flashlight to its maximum setting and slammed his hand down on the keypad.
Zenos' eyes widened all the way.
"You're crazy!"
As for Killian, there was a moment of disbelief, but he began laughing right after.
"This is more my speed anyway!"
The doors began opening, revealing the two giant monsters from before, and they began to spasm wildly like usual, and with Damien's flashlight on the ground, there was no way to stop them now.
Killian rushed forth, holding a shotgun in one hand and the katana in the other.
Zenos continually cursed under his breath as he brought out his sniper rifle, setting it down on the ground and aiming toward one of the giants.
Before the doors fully opened and before the creatures fully woke up, Zenos fired his sniper rifle, landing dead center on one giant's head, causing it to explode.
Not too long after, the gates fully opened, revealing everything inside. Although they were originally quite depressed about just two giants, it would turn out to be three, the last one being deep into the room. Thankfully, Zenos had at least taken care of one of them. Along with those giants, there were five pale-skins, three reachers, and a lightbulb.
Both Killian and Damien rushed in without hesitation.
The lightbulb let out a groan that gradually became louder, while the light it was releasing quickly became brighter. For the sake of his ears, Damien pulled out his pistol and shot the lightbulb in the head, instantly cutting it off.
In the meantime, Killian jumped up and aimed the shotgun right at the giant's head. He recklessly pulled the trigger despite it being a weapon that was supposed to be held with two hands.
With a bang, part of the giant's head exploded.
Killian wasn't expecting the recoil from the shotgun, and accidentally let it fly out of his hand, landing somewhere else. As for the giant, it stumbled but was able to catch itself. Despite losing most of its head, an injury fatal for most living beings, it was standing.
But before it could recover its balance, Damien jumped up and stepped on its hunched-over back before slamming his katana into the giant's head. Without really knowing what else to do, he clenched his fists around the handle and began rummaging around the inside.
The giant let out a roar and shook around just like a buffalo. Damien held on for a few seconds, but before long he was thrown off, slamming into a nearby wall. The air was knocked out of him as he slid down, but he got back up right after.
As for Killian, he looked ready to continue fighting off the giant as the other creatures approached, but after flinging off Damien it simply collapsed onto the ground. After confirming that, he simply went to a nearby pale-skin and decapitated it.
The creatures attempted to swarm Killian, but he was rather confident at this point and was able to deal with them easily.
After firing the first bullet, Zenos slowly aimed and looked ready to fire another one. However, after seeing that the situation didn't seem all that bad, he began to hesitate. Damien's bold words resonated in his mind.
If he was going to end up dying anyway, then he might as well have some fun.
With that in mind, Zenos put away the sniper rifle and unsheathed his katana. Then, like the rest, he charged right in.
All three of them began fighting the various creatures, and all did so with little to no mistakes.
However, despite each of them fighting against multiple creatures, they all had their attention on something else. The last giant that was still standing. While fending off the normal creatures, all of them had their eyes on it.
The giant charged toward Damien first, rushing forth without abandon like a drag racer. Damien ran to the side, cutting down the monsters in the way.
With an explosive bang, the giant slammed into a wall.
Damien sucked in a cold breath. He could feel the shockwave from the impact despite being a decent distance away.
Killian yelled out.
"Hey! What are we going to do about that last one?"
Damien narrowed his eyes.
"I think I can just do what I've always done. Though, it's gotta crouch down first, so we need to take out its ankles."
Zenos grunted after decapitating a pale-skin.
"That's easier said than done!"
Damien shrugged his shoulders as he ran.
"I'll distract it. You two cripple its movement."
As if on cue, the giant let out a roar before charging toward Damien once more. He dashed to the side, though this time he dodged it rather narrowly, feeling a wave of wind rush by him.
After slamming into the wall, the giant used a second to recuperate. Damien slashed at its ankles as he was nearby, but wasn't able to get a big cut as he jumped back right after doing so. The giant's hands swept out behind it, but Damien was already gone, so it missed.
Zenos yelled when he saw this.
"It seems like you got it! How about we focus on getting rid of the other monsters instead?"
Damien clicked his tongue.
"Fine! But come help me with this thing after!"
Zenos and Killian began focusing on killing the normal creatures, while Damien continued to lead the giant around. Both Zenos and Killian occasionally had to dodge, but the giant seemed to care most about Damien for whatever reason and ignored the other two.
Taking advantage of this, Damien continued to lead the giant around almost like it was a puppy. Sometimes he would get a slash in, while other times he played it safe and got more distance.
Soon enough, Zenos and Killian got all the normal creatures, leaving just the giant.
It was at this point that the giant rushed toward Damien once more. But what was strange was that it was moving slower than before.
Damien dashed to the side, a method that worked every time before.
But then the monster did a wide turn, running straight to him.
As he realized he was in a situation where he would very likely die, he had only one thing to say.
"Ah, shit."