Entering Apocalypse in Easy-Mode-Chapter 558: Feel Thw Rythm

Clyde didn’t wait for the fear to crush them.

The spawns crept forward on all fours, their claws raking the broken street. In one swift motion he lunged. His spear flashing in a silver arc.

The tip carved across the chest of the nearest creature, tearing fur and flesh but not finishing it. The beast screeched, staggering sideways.

At the same instant Mina darted ahead, her two daggers glinting.

She moves and her blades slashing across another spawn’s legs, cutting them deep but leaving it writhing in pain instead of immediately dead.

She then stepped back smoothly, her breathing steady. And her eyes looked sharper than the moonlight.

The six survivors flinched at the ease of it, unable to believe how fast the two had moved.

Then Clyde’s voice rang out, cold and heavy.

"But it’s not us that will kill them for now. You kill them. That’s the only way you learn. You want to survive in this world that you must able to kill."

The wounded spawns hissed, staggering but still dangerous. Their pale eyes glowed as they snapped at the air.

The three teenagers hesitated, clutching their weapons.

Clyde’s eyes cut toward them. "I haven’t heard your names, by the way."

The boy with messy hair swallowed hard. "John."

The girl with trembling hands clutched a pipe to her chest. "I’m Yuri."

The taller one with a crowbar muttered through clenched teeth. "I-I’m Ren."

Clyde’s gaze shifted to the man and his family. "You."

The man straightened slightly, pulling his wife closer. "My name is James."

The woman answered softly. "Regina."

Their daughter, pale as snow, whispered so faintly Mina had to lean in to catch it. "...Emi."

Clyde nodded once. "Good. Now fight."

The spawn Clyde had struck stumbled toward John. The boy raised his broken chair leg with a shout that was more fear than anger and slammed it down, missing the head but cracking the beast’s shoulder.

The impact jolted through his arms. The creature shrieked and whipped claws at him, nearly sending him sprawling.

"Again!" Clyde barked.

John gritted his teeth and struck again, this time crunching into its jaw.

The monster convulsed, collapsing in a twitching heap.

John froze, staring at the blood on his hands. His chest heaving.

Yuri faced her spawn next. She couldn’t stop shaking.

The spawn Mina had cut limped toward her. She screamed while thrusting her pipe forward with both hands.

It sank clumsily into its chest.

The beast shrieked, snapping its teeth inches from her face, but Mina’s voice sliced through the panic.

"Push harder. Don’t stop!"

Yuri screamed again, shoving with everything she had until the pipe burst through the creature’s back.

The spawn fell, thrashing once before going still. She collapsed to her knees, sobbing.

Ren swung his crowbar down at another spawn Clyde had crippled. The strike cracked the skull and bone, spraying dark blood.

He gagged at the stench but struck again until it stopped moving.

That left Emi, Regina, and James staring at the last wounded spawn that writhed on the street.

James raised his butcher’s knife, but his hands shook. Regina held a rusted metal rod, frozen in place. Emi clutched her father’s arm, her lips trembling.

Mina stepped forward, standing beside the girl.

"Look at me." Her voice softened, the sharpness gone.

The girl’s wide eyes lifted. Mina’s face was calm, her daggers lowered.

"I know you’re scared. I was too. But you have to do this. If you don’t... it won’t stop. It’ll come for you, and your family."

Emi’s lip quivered. "I... I can’t..."

"You can!" Mina cut in firmly, her voice hard. "Because you have them. Your father and your mother. Fight for them. That’s what makes you strong! Or you want them to die?"

The words struck something deep. Emi swallowed her saliva.

With shaking hands she gripped the small kitchen knife James had given her earlier.

Mina guided her forward. Together, with her parents flanking her, they rushed the spawn.

James slashed first, Regina struck its side, and Emi drove her knife into its neck.

The monster wailed, flailing once before going still.

Emi gasped, tears streaking her cheeks, but Mina steadied her shoulders.

"You did it. That’s the first step. Remember this feeling. This is how you survive."

Clyde planted his spear into the cracked pavement and looked over them, his expression still cold.

"Good. You’ve killed your first monsters. From now on, you’ll keep killing. That’s the only way forward." his voice cutting through the night.

The survivors stood among the corpses, blood on their hands, their chests heaving.

Their fear hadn’t vanished, but their resolve also began to burn.

The night dragged on in a blur of claws, blood, and breathless shouts. Every few minutes another pack came slinking out of the dark, their pale eyes gleaming as they closed in.

Each time, Clyde and Mina struck first, wounding, crippling, or staggering the spawns before stepping aside and forcing the survivors to finish them.

At first the blows were clumsy. John’s arms shook every time he raised his chair leg, Yuri swung wild and missed as often as she hit, and Ren nearly dropped his crowbar when a spawn’s blood splattered across his face.

James faltered, swinging too late, while Regina winced with every strike as if she could still feel the pain she dealt. Emi froze more than once, her knife trembling, but Mina’s voice was always there, sharp and relentless, cutting through the fear.

Clyde’s voice thundered between her commands, cold and merciless.

"Kill it or die. No hesitation. Your survival is your choice!"

Hour by hour the hesitation dulled. Their arms grew heavier but their attack became sharper.

John began aiming for the skull instead of the chest. Yuri no longer needed to scream to drive her pipe through flesh. Ren stopped gagging at the stench and learned to step back before the blood sprayed.

James tightened his grip until his butcher’s knife carved cleanly. Regina struck with the weight of anger to protect her daughter instead of fear. And Emi drove her knife true each time her turn came with clenched teeth, her small frame trembling but not retreating anymore.

By the time the horizon bled with the faintest trace of dawn, the street was littered with broken bodies.

The survivors stood drenched in sweat and blood and panting hard, their weapons dripping with blood.

They were exhausted to the bone, but a strange fire smoldered inside them.

They could feel something changing inside their bodies. They accepted the rhythm of killing and surviving.

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