The rhythmic , wet raspy echoes off the cinderblock dark walls, sawing through Min-sun’s last shreds of patience.
She stares blankly at the underside of the bunk above , her eyes burning from lack of sleep.
“Can you please just turn over?”she mutters under her breath.
Her roommate, a tall girl, lays sprawl across her bed like a fell tree.
Every breathe she takes sounds like gravel in a blender.
Min-sun throws her arm over her face praying for dawn or deafness- which never came first.
She must have drifted into a light,fragile doze, because the next thing she knew, a rough hand was shaking her shoulder.
“Get up! Move, move, move!”
Min-sun bolts upright, her heart hammering against her ribs.
The room is bathed in pale, sickly gray light of the early morning.
Her roommate is already on her feet, frantically throwing on her uniform.
“What? What’s happening?” Min-sun stampers rubbing her eyes.” What time is it?”
“No time,” Hina barks, not looking back.” If we don’t clear the threshold in three minutes, we are dead.
Get your shoes on!”
“Dead? What do you mean? We’ll just be late for class-”
“You don’t understand,” Hina interrupts, her voice cracking with pure panic.” They don’t just lock the doors if you are late.
It catches you!”
“It? What catches us?” Min-sun asks as, her hands shaking as she fumbles with her laces.
“The Matutinal Toll. The morning haze demon.” Hina finally says, her face pale, eyes wide and bloodshot.
“It patrols the hall during the transition hour. If you aren’t in a classroom before the final bell rings, it strips the flesh right off your bones to feed the academy’s foundation. Now move!”
Before Min-sun could even process the horror of the room, the heavy door of their dorm room violently splinters open inwards.
A thick, undulating fog rolls across the threshold, smelling sharply of ozone and rotten copper.
From within the mist, a massive, shifting silhouette materializes
It has no true face, only a gaping, vertical maw lined with jagged crystalline teeth that scraped together with the sound of thousand ticking clocks.
“It’s here.” Hina whispers, her voice dropping all the frantic energy, replaced by a cold, hollow dread.
The demon lays out a low , vibrating hum that rattles the windowpane.
“What do we do?”Min-sun shrieks, slowly backing away until her spine hit the rigid steel frame of the bunk bed.” Where do we go?”
“Stay behind me.”Hina orders.
She didn’t look back at Min-sun.
Instead she drops into a low, athletic stance, her muscles tensing like coiled springs.
“And whatever you do , don’t scream. It likes the noise.”
“Are you insane? We need to run.”
“There’s nowhere to run, Sun.” Hina says, a grim, humorless smile touching her lips.” It blocks the exit.
We fight our way out or become breakfast.
”
“Does this happen every morning.
“Min-sun cries, gripping the metal bedpost so tightly her knuckles turns white.
“Every single morning. ” she replies.” It gets stronger every day too.
The academy likes a survival curve.”
“I’m not calm.” Hina says, her fingers curling into a faint fist ethereal glow begins to ripple from her fist.” But in this place is very simple: kill or be killed.”
The Matutinal Toll lunges.
The mist explodes outwards as the demon surges forward with terrifying liquid speed.
But Hina is faster.
With a fierce battle cry, she launches herself directly into the vortex of the fog.
Min-sun scrambles backward, diving into the narrow gap between the bed and the wall, drawing her knees to her chest.
She presses her hands over her ears but she couldn’t block out the noise of the escalating violence.
“Is that all you’ve got you overgrown cloud?”Hina yells.
A loud, metallic clang echoes through the room.
Hina is utilizing everything at her disposal, weaving physical combat with bursts of raw energy.
Min-sun peeps through the gap in the metal frame, her eyes widening with fear and awe.
Hina ducks beneath, a sweeping, shadowy appendage that shatters the wooden desk behind her into kindling.
In a fluid motion, she channels her own dark, inner demonic power, her eyes flashing a dangerous iridescent purple.
She drives her palm directly into the center of the demon’s moving mass.
The monster shrieks-a sound like tearing metal-and stares back, it’s misty form flickering violently.
“Yeah! How does that taste?” Hina yells , panting heavily.
But the triumphant is short-lived.
The demon vertical maw opens wider,releasing a concussion wave of dark energy.
The glass catches the girl fairly in the chest.
“Ah” she cries out flying backward, crashing against the concrete wall, sliding into a heap.
A dark smear of blood stains her lips, and she clutches her side, gasping for breath.
“Hey get up!” Min-sun yells from the hiding spot.”Please!”
“I…I…I….ca …can’t. ” Hina chokes, her legs trembling as she tries regaining her footing.
The monster drifts closer to her, it’s crystalline teeth clicking in anticipation.
It ignores Min-sun entirely, and focuses solely on the wounded prey before it.
I can’t just watch her die.
I can’t watch another person get slaughtered after passing the entrance test Min-sun mind screams.
Her eyes sweeps across the ruined room searching frantically for anything she could use.
In the corner, leaning against the door by the wall is a heavywooden mop.
It us standard academy issue, thick-handled and heavy.
Min-sun didn’t think.
If she thought, she would freeze.
She bolts from across the room lunging across the room.
Her hands grips the coarse wooof tge mopsick.
With a wide desperate scream, she raises it over her head and charges towards the demon from behind.
“Leave her alone!”Min-sun yells.
She brings down the heavy mop handle with all her might.
It strikes the demon’s upper mass, but instead of shattering the creature, the impact sends a massive shockwave into the handle and to her hand.
SNAP
The wood splinters into pieces, and a sharp white-hot pain flares in Min-sun’s right wrist.
“Oh no,”she whispers.
“Sun , run!”Hina screams from the floor.
Min-sun falls backward, her wrist throbbing.
She squeezes her eyes shut, bracing for the inevitable strike.
The room goes completely silent for a heartbeat.
Then a sickening, wet ripping echoes through the room.
Min-sun forces her eyes open.
The Matutinal Toll is splitting down the middle, it’s misty form ripping like old cloth.clothes.
Standing directly behind the dissipating monster is Hina.
The girl is covered in dark, viscous blood, her chest heaving violently.
In her hand is a zigzagged dagger dripping in dark residue.
With a violent hiss, the demon dissolves into nothingness, leaving behind only faint smell of ozone.
The girl drops the dagger with a loud clatter.
She stumbles forward grabbing Min-sun by the shoulder and shaking her.
“Are you crazy?!”Hina yells, her voice a mixture of fury and intense relief.” A mop?
You charged a higher-tier haze demon with a mop?!”
“I was trying to help you.
“Min-sun protests, cradling her wrist.” You were gonna get killed.”
“I had a hidden blade you idiot! I was waiting for it to get close.”Hina reprimand her fiercely.” Charging in like that…you’re lucky it didn’t allow you whole.
That was really careless.”
“Well excuse me for trying to save your life.”Min-sun snaps back wincing her wrist.
Suddenly, a bright, metallic chime chimes through the room.
BEEP
Hina stops shouting.
She looks at her own right arm.
Beneath her sleeve, a faint neon blue glow begins to pulse.
BEEP
A sleek, translucent blue holographic square materializes in the air in front of Hina’s face.
Text begins to scroll rapidly across the interface, updating her stats and profile.
“Wh…What is that?”Min-sun asks, staring at the glow in absolute amazement.
Hina looks at the screen then down at her hands.
The exhaustion seems to drain from her face, replaced by renewed energy.
The dark bruising on her side begins to visibly disappear
“An improvement update.”Hina murmurs, a small , genuine smile breaking through her grim expression.
“The academy’s system recognized the kill.”
Min-sun can only stare.”You…you must be incredibly powerful.
”
Hina lets out a small, dry chuckle.” Don’t get ahead of yourself,Sun.”she says, reaching down to grab Min-sun by her arm.” We still have a problem.
”
“What problem?”Min-sun asks blinking.
“We have exactly two minutes to get ro the main hall.”she says grimly.
“And of we are late,we might not live to tell the tale.”