Magic

Beneath the deep night sky, the winding mountain road was pitch-black. Only crisscrossing high beams illuminated countless shifting figures. Amid piercing screams and furious roars, savage shadowy outlines kept reflecting off the asphalt stained red with blood.

Knocking down the first ten people took less than half a minute. Those sent flying screamed as they hit the ground, twitching and unable to get back up. Then, knocking down the next ten took forty seconds.

Then came one minute, two minutes...

"Forty-one, forty-two, forty-three! Forty-three..."

Forty-three full-force straight punches. Ignoring the bats, clubs, and blades striking his head and body, Ueno panted desperately and raised his eyes to look at the enemies before him.

They swayed in the cold glare of the headlights, surrounding him like monsters baring their fangs and claws in the darkness.

He could not see where anyone was. Only a shifting mass of shadows kept flashing before his eyes.

"Die, monster!" Someone leaped up, bringing a nail-studded baseball bat down on his forehead. His vision swam, growing slightly dim.

Then, the bat was seized.

Ueno raised his hand and jerked up the club in his grip, lifting the person at the other end with it. Looking up at that bewildered face, he grinned. "So you were here..."

In midair, the bat was wrenched free, aimed at his forehead, and brought down.

The sound of the club breaking overlapped with the sound of bones snapping.

Forty-four!

Ueno roared.

"Come again!" he howled. "Come again!"

Then, forty-five, forty-six, forty-seven!

The brutal count continued!

Yet those roaring voices gradually drifted farther away, becoming blurred along with the world before his eyes, which was slowly melting into a haze.

In the end, only the monotonous, stubborn counting remained.

"Sixty-one... sixty-two... sixty-three... sixty-three... sixty-three..."

From within his dull stupor, Ueno stiffly stepped