10 Michelle Aubert

Barry's finger was trembling on the trigger, ready to shoot. It has been an hour and a half since the Genmas began their attack. And we haven't stopped running and shooting, fighting for our survival. His weary body started to show how exhausted he was.

We keep listening to the footsteps that getting closer and closer, but something was strange. The footsteps were too orderly for it to be Genma's. Barry also noticed it and relaxed.

And surely, from one of the pillars, a group of armed people emerged and also spotted us. Surprised, they reflexively aimed their weapons toward us, but soon they noticed that we were civilians and lowered it. I counted 12 people aiming their rifles at us. They wore a full-body uniform complete with the helmet with goggle, mask, glove, and boots. It seemed they were one of the deployed forces.

The group split and a blonde woman walked out approaching us. Unlike the others, she wore casual clothing with a bulletproof vest. She spoke something in French but Barry and I didn't know the French language. Chris knows how to speak French, but he was unconscious. Seeing that we didn't respond, she started asking in English. "Foreigner?"

Barry answered immediately, "Yes, we need some help." He moved as to show Chris behind us leaning unconsciously at the wall.

"How long has he been like that?" asked her. She then signaled one of her men to check Chris's condition.

Barry looked at me, signaling to answer it. He also was unconscious when it happens. I thought for a while.

[The car crashed at 11:32 AM. Samanosuke arrived at 11:45 AM. We arrived at Arc de Triomphe at 12:15 PM. Since now was 12:28, that was 56 minutes ago.]

Wow, you even count that little detail?

I repeat what Regina just told me to see how they responded. Barry was shocked, "Wow! You even count that little detail?"

See. That was the proper response to it.

From behind us, the man that was attending to Chris interjected. "There was major bleeding behind his head. Expected to be from a blunt weapon or smashing into a hard material. He was lucky to have the bleeding stopped earlier. But since your friend hasn't woke up yet, he needs immediate treatment in case there was blood coagulating under the skull." He has changed the bandaging on Chris's wound with a proper one to avoid infection.

"We have a temporary emergency facility east of here. Once we clear this building we will take you to safety." She signaled her men to begun the clearing. The door was locked, but they just shot the handles and barged inside. Meanwhile, Michelle and two of his men stayed outside for a lookout.

"Thank you, my name is Barry Barton and this kid here is Edward. Although he's still underage, he can shoot better than me." Barry introduced us to her, he seemed to have an interest in her.

Dude, stop. She's engaged. You'll embarrass yourself.

"I'm Lieutenant Michelle Aubert, Arm��e de Terre (French's Land Army). We are on the Search and Rescue mission.", Michelle glanced at me for a moment, especially at the gun on my hand. Feeling her staring, I put both of my hands inside my pocket. I didn't let go of the gun, I felt safer if I hold a gun.

She then wanted to continue but noticed Samanosuke coming out from the temple. Michelle and her men raised their rifle and aimed at Samanosuke. She started shouting, asking for his identity. The situation suddenly took a turn for the worst.

"No! Don't shoot!", I jumped and stood in between to stop them. Michelle shouted for me to move. She was skeptical at the silent man in front of him. Especially with the eastern armor and katana on his waist made him resemble the monsters.

"It's okay, he's on our side. He's uglier than me, but he's on our side." Interjected Barry. Hearing his response I raised one of my eyebrows.

Dude, must you be this desperate?

Samanosuke was confused about this current situation but he actually was pretty calm. He just got a new weapon, so he was in a good mood. If I knew what he felt right then, maybe I would be the first one to shot him. How dare he be relaxed when we were so worried about him.

Suddenly, from the door, which the soldiers went to earlier, were heard screams and gunshots multiple times. Michelle and the other two turned around, cold sweat on their backs. They ran the moment, the commotion becomes silent.

Samanosuke and I nodded at each other.

"Uncle Barry, wait here and protect uncle Chris." Without waiting for an answer, Samanosuke and I ran toward the door. Barry shouted to stop me from going, but I was already going inside the door. Inside the room was a spiral staircase, connecting to the rooftop. I saw Michelle fell from the stairs when I first stepped on the floor. The wall was covered by blood and scraping flesh. Body upon body was littering the staircase. The stench of blood was piercing my nose.

There was a spiral staircase, covering the wall, on our left. We looked up, the view was unobstructed up to the ceiling. Two, Three, five,...14 Genma Ninjas were walking on the wall. Finishing the last man standing on the top. A green light glowed beside me, it was from Tensho, Samanosuke's two twin swords. I got into position, covering the fainted Michelle. The two guys that were with her were nowhere to be seen.

I took out two handguns, the Beretta M9s. While he climbed the stairs, I started shooting.

*Bang! Bang! Bang!

The room was too cramped and if I use a rifle in this place. I couldn't promise to not hit Samanosuke with a stray bullet. A handgun was a better choice. I slowly stood in the center and keep aiming. Looking for the chance when they peeked or their body could be seen. With eagle eye, I can see their movement from the bottom of the stair.

The staircase was too good of a cover for them, but for Samanosuke that was basically standing in front of the train. The first Genma ninja ahead of him was hit by my bullet, staggering him in place.

Samanosuke jumped and use his left sword to stab at the Genma's head, ending its life, while his right sword raised to parry another jumping Genma ninja's Katar from stabbing him. Because of the parry, the Genma floated mid-air and I shot it down with a barrage of bullet. A moment later it fell to the bottom, lifeless before its bodies vaporing into the air.

Samanosuke continued to climb the stairs when three Genma jumped at the same time to block him. I fired one shot to each of them, and moved to the right, looking for a better view. One was shot right on the head while the other two on their chest, however, all of them were still alive. Samanosuke took this gap, placing both swords on his left, charging Oni's power.

The three Genma were about to land on him but he swiped the swords, slashing both the genmas and wall behind them. Watching them wriggling mid-air, I followed with my barrage of bullets to finish all three of them.

The eight genmas left, split, and decided to aim both of us together. Four of them vanished like smoke, teleporting and appeared around me, placing Michelle and me in danger, but I've been waiting for this.

I swapped the already empty guns with two P90, spread both my hand, and just spin around until nothing left standing.

[+150EXP]

[+150 EXP]

[+150 EXP]

[+150 EXP]

Meanwhile, Samanosuke charged at the last three Genmas. One of them circled behind him, but he ignored it and keep running at the other two. When he got closer he hurled both of his swords toward the two Genmas, aiming for their head. Of course, the Genmas foresaw this and parried, but the force pushed them back quite a bit, disabling their chance to counter.

However, he suddenly turned around while lowering his body, almost touching the ground. He faced the one that circled his back before and performed a drawing stance with the katana on his waist. The Genma didn't expect that its enemy would suddenly turn around. It couldn't stop in time and raised its Katar, resorting to a last-ditch attack.

*Slash

A diagonal line was drawn from under its armpit, moving up passing its neck. The wall behind it also got slashed. Outside Barry heard a loud crash and he saw a line appeared up near the ceiling.

"What the hell is happening inside?!"

At first, he was still worried about Edward but after hearing the gunshots that keep intensifying and that slash mark. He just gave up and focused on watching his surrounding.

Back inside the building, Samanosuke sheathed his katana and continued his charge, leaving the slowly falling heads and bodies. From the start he hurled his sword until now, it all happened less than three seconds.

The parried swords that still spinning mid-air, turned into light and appeared back at his hand. However, the staggered Genmas also recovered. Both sides charging at each other.

Samanosuke slashed downward at both Genmas head. One, formed a cross with his Katar to block it while the other evades making his form awkward.

But after his left sword missed its target, he let the gravity take charge and twisted its direction cutting the blocking Genma's front legs.

The evading Genma used the wall as a foothold and jumped toward him. Samanosuke was forced to fall back on the small stairs and trading blow with the jumping Genma. A few back and forth slashes were traded and the Genma was losing. The frontless leg Genma used this chance to get on top of the railing with its back leg, planning to catch Samanosuke defenseless.

Finally, I was waiting for any of them to show their body. The higher you are, the better the staircase covers your body from the bottom view. When it got on the railing I grinned and shot several times with the already reloaded P90.

*Papapapapapapapapa! ...

However, even just with only two legs left, the Genma was still fast. It jumped in between the railings to avoid the bullets, but it was still useless. I aimed at the railing where it planned to land, destroying it. It slipped and fell down and another barrage of bullets drew holes on its body. I evade the falling body and started reloading all my guns.

Samanosuke, having left with one enemy wasn't in a pinch. The Genma in front of him was laid on the ground without limbs. He stabbed its head and the body vanished like boiling water. On the top part of the staircase, several Genma souls were floating before getting absorbed into the Oni Gauntlet on Samanosuke's hand.

I got out of the door and called Barry to take Michelle to safety with him. After that, I started climbing the staircase, while occasionally looting the soldier's body. I couldn't help it, man gotta live.

When I finally reached the top, I was sweating so hard. 50 meters was really damn high. How many floors was that? 10? 12? I was glad that I already raised my strength stats.

When I went in through the door, I found myself in a messy room. It looked like a small museum, depicting France's history. I didn't see anyone or anything inside except broken tables, statues, pictures, etc.

Samanosuke was standing in front of a stair that would lead us to the rooftop. We already know who was on the other side.

When he saw me, he was hesitating on letting me come with him. It was his problem to solve and also I was too small to be involved in an adult's responsibilities.

However, he looked around, there were dead soldiers everywhere. Some of the mask covering their face was long gone and showed how terrified they were.

He made up his mind and opened the door. It's not the time to think about responsibilities.

After we walked outside, we were greeted by the somber view of Paris. Smokes and fires were everywhere. The occasional scream and howling made it even worse.

Suddenly, a burst of chilling laughter interrupted us. A Genma with a long Xenomorph-like head was standing on a platform. He wore a black robe covering his body and a bone-like armor plate covered his torso. In his right hand were a black staff, emitting sinister lights.

There was pure hate on the Samanosukes face.

"Guildenstern!"