As they lifted their heads, their eyes landed on a colossal being standing behind the building that had just collapsed.
Its body was a fusion of the flesh of all the people who died in this town, with their skin stretched across its body as if they were stitched together. You could see their faces fused into its body, with their mouth open wide as if crying for help.
Some of the skin was ripped apart in some places, revealing the wet muscles pumping underneath it.
Its spine was a twisted fusion of the people's spines, creating a curved, jagged line that twisted its hunched back in an uneven way.
Its face was nothing but a massive mouth that ran across burned skin, which was sewn shut with tendons and rusted wire.
Despite the massive size of its body, in contrast, its arms were extremely long and skinny, dangling as it moved.
As it moved forward, it let out a deafening screech that sounded like the souls of the people stitched together were screaming.
"Everyone! Run!" Kael screamed at the top of his lungs.
Before the creature was about to step on what remained of the tent, everyone managed to run outside.
"What is that thing?" Aksa turned to ask Kael as they watched the creature step into the town center.
"I... Don't know," Kael answered as he shook his head slowly, "I have never seen something like this before."
"It's a modified mutant," Iriel explained, "I read that these things disappeared after the last apocalypse ended two hundred years ago. I think it was asleep all that time, and the blood moon cracking again woke it up."
"How are we gonna deal with this thing?" Aksa asked her.
"If I remember correctly, there should be a small opening in the back of their necks where there is crystallized blood moon essence, which is their life source," Iriel replied as she pointed at the monster's neck, "If we could reach it and destroy it somehow, it will immediately collapse"
A slight grin appeared on Kael's face before he uttered, "Then I think we can deal with it just fine."
"Huh?" Both of them looked at him with confusion in their eyes.
"Don't worry, I have a plane," Kael added before he turned towards Irirel and said, "Take all the other medics and run as far away as you can from here."
"Kid, you are gonna climb that tower while I distract him." Kael then turned to Aksa and continued as he pointed at the tower attached to the town's hall building, "You're gonna jump on its back and try to reach the crystal that she talked about."
Aksa and Iried looked at each other for a moment, trying to understand what Kael had just told them. Then, they both nodded before they stood up.
Iriel quickly called for the other medics, waving her hand to the right as she tried to tell them to follow her.
Meanwhile, Kael and Aksa dashed forward together, heading directly towards the beast ahead of them.
Although it didn't have any eyes, the monster immediately sensed their movement on the ground. It started stomping on the ground, trying to land its feet on top of one of them. Yet, both of them dodged the attacks with ease since they were slow and easy to follow.
While Kael turned the blood bow he was carrying into a large double-sided axe, Aksa shifted his path, leading himself towards the tower.
As Aksa started climbing the tower, the monster seemed to shift its focus to him, so Kael immediately swung the axe in his hand, cutting into the skin of the monster's leg.
The monster let out a blood-curdling scream that could be heard throughout the entire town, then it started hitting the ground randomly while kicking its feet to try and kick Kael away from it.
Kael, however, simply stepped back a little as he turned the axe back to a bow and started shooting as many arrows as he could at its head.
As the arrows landed on its face, the monster started moving its head in pain, making itself lose its balance and crash against one of the buildings. Meanwhile, Aksa was standing on top of the tower, looking directly into the monster's face.
"Okay, I can do this," Aksa mumbled as he took a few steps back.
He then waited for the monster to turn around and face him with its back. Once he saw an opportunity, Aksa took a deep breath before sprinting and jumping onto the monster's back.
He started sliding on its back, so Aksa quickly grabbed onto some of the loose skin it had, but the monster didn't seem to notice him as it was dealing with the pain in its head.
Aksa started pushing himself up, jumping and grabbing loose skin and protruding bones to keep himself from falling.
Once he reached its neck, he found the opening that Iriel had told them about, and inside it, a crystal with a dark, crimson color was hidden behind some muscle fibers, and it was connected to multiple veins.
"There it is," Aksa mumbled before he shoved his hand inside, grabbing the crystal tightly.
However, the monster started going berserk once it felt his hand inside its body, twisting and shaking its body to try and get him off of it.
Once that didn't work, it started intentionally pushing itself against the buildings around, slamming him against the walls.
Although Aksa felt like his body was being crushed to death, he kept a tight grip on the crystal. As the monster was resisting, Aksa started trying to pull the crystal out of its place, but it wouldn't budge.
So, he pulled his knife and started slashing the muscles and veins covering it. Although they were tough, he managed to get through them all.
He then returned the knife where it was and started pulling the crystal again, but this time, he managed to take it out with ease.
Once the crystal was detached from its body, the monster immediately collapsed, directly face-planting into the ground.
"Haaah... I'm really tired," Aksa mumbled as he watched the sun rising in the distance.
Before he noticed it, Kael was already standing next to him. "You are getting stronger real quick, kid," Kael said as he patted Aksa's shoulder.
"You think so?" Aksa asked as he looked at Kael with a smug look on his face.
"You are also getting fatter every time I look at you," Kael added.
"Is that supposed to be a compliment or an insult?" Aksa narrowed his eyes as he asked, but Kael just shrugged his shoulders.
"What are you two... Talking about..." As Aksa and Kael turned around, they saw Iriel standing behind them, bent over while grabbing her knees as she tried to catch her breath.
It was obvious that she ran all the way there to check on them after she heard the loud thud sound that the modified mutant made when it fell to the ground.
"Nothing, nothing. Just two guys saying random shit" Kael replied before pointing at Aksa with his thumb, "Anyway, can you check on his body. That thing started slamming him against every wall available when he tried the crystal out, so I won't be surprised it broke some of his ribcage."
"Can't you stop throwing yourself into every opportunity life presents for you to die?" Iriel asked as she rushed to check on him.
However, Aksa didn't say anything. When she lifted her head to look at him, his face was a bit discolored, slowly shifting to a dark purple color, and his eyes were barely open as he looked back at her.
"Aksa? You alright?" She asked with a perplexed look on her face, but she got no response.
Aksa wanted to reply, but he felt like he couldn't say anything, as his mouth remained open with no movement. His eyes began burning, and his vision was starting to blur, and his body kept leaning left and right as she tried to shake him slightly.
Then, everything turned into black for him as his body collapsed.
"Kid, wake up!" He heard Kael's voice calling for him as he joined Iriel in trying to wake him, shaking his body hard. But then his voice started slowly fading, and he couldn't hear him anymore.