Panic destroyed what little order remained.

  Children ran in every direction. Some fell. Some froze where they stood. Daria shouted for the younger ones to stay together. Pavel tried to pull Yuji toward the treeline. Trisha backed away so fast she nearly tripped over shattered stone.

  The creatures came anyway.

  Raiden snatched a twisted length of metal from the bus wreckage and charged the nearest one before anyone could stop him.

  “Raiden!” Tenma shouted.

  The blow landed cleanly against the monster’s head. Black fluid sprayed across the ground. The creature collapsed.

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  Raiden grinned.

  Then it started to rise again.

  His grin vanished.

  Tenma saw it first.

  “The head!” he shouted. “Destroy the head!”

  Tsukito moved before he thought. He seized a broken pole from the bus emergency rack and brought it down across another creature’s skull. This time the monster stayed down.

  For a few frantic seconds, the three of them fought back to back.

  Raiden moved on instinct and fury.

  Tenma directed survivors between strikes, grabbing younger kids, scanning for openings, shouting warnings a second before attacks landed.

  Tsukito held the center, eyes darting from threat to threat, his hands trembling even as he moved.

  Then the valley shook.

  Every monster stopped.

  Even the screaming paused.

  From the largest crack in the earth, something far bigger began to rise.

  Trees snapped as a colossal figure dragged itself upward.

  It looked like a titan of black stone and wet muscle, blue fire burning in its throat, its eyes shining with the same hungry light as the smaller creatures.

  It roared.

  The mountains answered.

  Raiden whispered, “Okay.”

  Tsukito stared upward.

  “Run.”

  The titan exhaled blue flame across the slope.

  The world turned into fire.