Unlikely Discovery

Brought to an incidental conclusion, an absurd idea quickly came to Damian's mind.

'...This…if this works…'

Driven by his outlandish solution, Damian called to his companions:

"All of you! Hold the door for me!"

"Are you insane?! We won't last 5 minutes!" Mika glared in response.

"No, I'm definitely not sane for trying this!" Damian answered in severe doubt.

Leaving the door, he rushed toward the back wall. Posturing himself, Damian punched the wall with his gloved right hand at the center of the webbed cracks.

Although the results were negligible, Damian could see the cracks slowly growing. In frenzied concise concentration, he struck the exact same spot continuously. As the seconds passed Damian felt the wall hollowing ever-so-slightly as the fissures in the wall expanded with every impact.

As everyone else held down the door, watching the scene with faint hope, Damian struck the wall with all of his strength dozens of times.

*SNAP*

In spite of his progress, however, the door had begun to show signs of giving as one of its bolts snapped apart due to the pressure. 

Blow after blow, Damian miserably persistently pounded at the wall in search of any sort of opening. He could feel it, from just beyond there was something there, but he needed more time.

*SNAP*

Another bolt had given in, allowing a small crack to slowly bend open. The terrible whaling human-like noise instantly shot in intensity as it echoed into the small library.

Feeling the blood draining from his body, Damian desperately pushed himself—praying for any small miracle. 

'Please! I don't care who or what it is, just please get me out of this mess!'

And it was at his most dire times, did someone come to his rescue.

*SCRATCH*

*KNOCK*

*KNOCK*

From the other side, Damian threw his fist at the wall in joy.

'Thank you! You've returned my friend! I always knew I could count on you!'

As Damian struck the wall, a returning impact would then fly straight back, thoroughly wearing the wall down in quick succession. And it was at that moment, that the wall finally chipped, revealing the other side. Reigniting his hope, Damian peered into the largest gap.

From the hole, he unexpectedly met eye-to-eye with an unknown being. At the surprise, Damian jerked away in time for a piercing set of sharp talons to shoot through the stone, nearly impaling him in the eye.

Stupified, the four students speechlessly watched as things went from awful to infinitely more awful.

"You idiot-

Shattering the wall all at once, a shrieking abomination threw itself into the room.

'What the hell, is this what was making that noise this whole time!?'

Using every sliver of his strength, Damian tackled the twisted beast, throwing it back into the dark entrance it came from. In sporadic motions, the new monster clawed at Damian's limbs as Damian attempted to break into its body with his ethereal gloved hand.

The beast appeared completely different from the swarming insects outside. Nearly a head taller than Damian, the creature had a bizarre constitution with each of its body parts showing completely disparate characteristics whilst displaying scattering lines of stitches. The face bore long fangs and gaping holes at the sides of its head paired with milky white eyes.

The beast flailed out of control, injuring Damian's entire body with every movement. In the middle of their crazed stand-off, Damian ruthlessly stabbed his finger into one of its eyes, throwing the creature into even greater seizures.

Luckily, in the chaos of it all, someone was there to assist him.

"Damian!" Yulie shouted as something manifested in her hand.

A mysterious spherical artifact warped into her grip. The unusual orb then liquified, stretching its shape into the form of a glass sword. At the swift transformation, Yulie tossed the blade roughly in Damian's direction.

Landing near his side, Damian glanced toward the blade for a moment. Scrambling around to grab it, a few more cuts sliced into his side and forearm. 

*SNAP*

Unfortunately, the door keeping them safe was now on its last bolt. Bending and straining in greater movements, slim flesh-like claws began sneaking through the cracks as they felt their human-like howling from right behind their ears.

On the opposite end of the room, Damian and the beast continued in their bloody fight to the death.

'I'm so close, the sword is right there! I don't have time for this!'

With no time and no more options, Damian allowed the beast to bite into his shoulder as he traded the painful wound for a guaranteed opening. Immediately, he caught the sword, mercilessly stabbing it right where he had pierced the eye.

As the beast shook frantically in its last moments of death, Damian painfully pried the beast's jaw open, allowing him to escape from its grip.

In tense relief, Damian watched as the beast uttered its last dying breath. In his moment of victory, however, he suddenly felt his eyes glow in brief ethereal light as an unusual yet comforting searing pain subtly flooded his eyes.

Damian faltered in exhaustion at the pleasant alien feeling. 

Covered in dire injuries, he forced himself up and made his way into the hole in the wall where he stumbled back in shock.

From right where he entered, a dark deep pathway leading straight down had presented itself to him. Etched into the endless hole downward, he spotted an old ladder situated at the side.

Finally given the opportunity to escape, Damian gestured to the others. As relief washed over their faces, Aricin and Mika hurried to the opening where they rushed down the small hole. With Yulie as the last one, Damian tossed her weapon back to her where she jammed it into the door and immediately fled the scene. In seconds, the weapon snapped apart as Damian pulled a bookshelf into the dark entrance, collapsing it into the hole. As fast as they could, the students climbed down the ladder leading into the endless darkness below.

Against all odds, the four of them had finally somehow escaped the dreadful swarm...