"Run quickly!"
Haruki couldn't make out who this person was, for he wore a black cloak that covered his entire body and a gas mask that hid his features. But Haruki didn't have many options, so he had no choice but to follow the mysterious stranger.
The two began running through the crowd, while the furious monsters chased after them at a relentless pace, as if it were a deadly game of tag, slow down for a single moment, and you would pay with your life. The masked man took the lead, shoving bystanders aside as he pulled Haruki along.
Then, with a sudden push, he forced Haruki forward to the front, stopping just long enough for the horde to close in before surprising them by rolling a mountain of iron-polishing barrels into their path. Several monsters stumbled, while the rest were caught in the chaos.
As Haruki kept running, he glanced back and saw how the masked man had handled the monsters with quick thinking, filling him with awe and admiration. Without thinking, he shouted.
"That's amazing!"
But his outburst only drew the attention of even more monsters to them, nearly doubling the number of pursuers. The masked man let out a weary sigh, as though Haruki had just dragged more trouble onto them.
He broke into a run again, his strides wide and swift, easily covering the distance Haruki had managed, as if he were used to this sort of situation.
Haruki was stunned by how fast the stranger was,faster even than Fuji himself! But his admiration was short-lived, for the furious cries of the mob grew louder and louder across the market, with every kind of creature now chasing after them, determined to bring them down.
Adrenaline surged through Haruki's veins as panic set in. The stranger reached out and seized his wrist once again, yanking him forcefully into a narrow alleyway between the dark buildings. Unfortunately for them, the alley ended in a massive wall, a dead end, with no escape to the left or right.
They spun around to retreat, only to find the monsters had already closed off the entrance, their furious eyes and weapons blocking the way, while the unyielding wall loomed behind them.
The two backed away slowly until their spines pressed against the cold stone.
Haruki's eyes darted between the monsters with their weapons and the towering wall at his back, before he turned to the masked man, whispering in a rush of panic.
"What should we do?"
In a moment of helplessness, with every path blocked before them, a metal canister slipped down between the legs of one of the ogres.
Both the monsters and Haruki stared at it in confusion; it was producing strange, rhythmic ticking sounds. The ogre looked around with a bewildered expression, and with the final tick, the canister released a thick black gas that robbed everyone of their sight.
Seizing the moment of chaos, the masked man grabbed Haruki's arm and tilted his head back toward the sky, letting out a sharp whistle. Almost instantly, a small flying robot appeared above them and dropped a metallic hoverboard toward the stranger.
The masked man caught the iron hoverboard with one hand, and the moment he activated it, the board began to float just above the ground. Haruki's eyes widened in astonishment at the bizarre gadgets this stranger possessed, and the words slipped out of his mouth without thought.
"Wow, this-"
Before Haruki could finish praising the hoverboard, the masked man jumped onto it, pulling Haruki along with him. With a skilled shift of his legs, the stranger controlled the board, sending it soaring upward, higher than the entire wall itself.
The board soared high, piercing through the clouds, leaving the monsters below with nothing but cries of protest and frustration mixed with helplessness as they gazed at the sky where the two had vanished; it was now impossible to reach them.
Haruki screamed as he clung tightly to the stranger's leg so he wouldn't fall, the wind whipping his hair backward with fierce speed. The masked man rolled his eyes in annoyance and sighed, then gradually guided the hoverboard downward until it settled atop the green grass in the heart of the forest, far from the chaos of the marketplace.
Haruki leapt to the ground at once, embracing the dirt and thanking his luck for surviving safely without losing his life, while adrenaline still surged through his veins from the horrors he had endured in such a short span of time.
He lifted his head toward the stranger who had saved him.
At that moment, the man lowered the hood of his gray cloak, then removed the mask that had been hiding his face...
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Thank you for reading! If this moment touched you even a little , please consider adding it to your library.💐