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It was a really weird feeling, almost like an out of body experience. Not that Masato had ever had one of those, but he imagined it might be sort of similar to what was going on. Pain laced up and down his back where the wolfbear was tearing open his skin. Masato could definitely feel the claws sink in and the warmth of his blood well up and out of his body, but as far as fatal injuries went it didn't seem that bad. Was his brain lessening the pain to make the transition to oblivion a little more palatable? Or maybe it was possible that this [i]wasn't[/i] a fatal wound. That its claws couldn't get through the back of his rib cage into his more important parts, and that the blood flow wasn't enough to bleed out. 

Masato chose to hang onto the second option. [i]Fuck you, I can do this,[/i] he told the phantom in his memory. He grit his teeth and endured the rake of the monster's claws, keeping a hold of its legs to keep it in place. [i]Just kill it.[/i] His thoughts were loud, as if trying to project them to Kogen. [i]Just kill it so this can be over.[/i] It was hard to think past the immediate situation, so what had become of the other students and what to do after dealing with this wolfbear were thoughts that didn't even filter into Masato's head anymore. 

Unfortunately the OHKO he'd been hoping for did not come. A monster's skull was apparently much tougher than a dog's or a human's. From his awkward position it was hard for Masato to see what was going on until Kogen was slammed down on top of him. 

[color=B1E4FC]"Ghk-!"[/color] The added pressure on his ripped up back really made it hurt now. He'd finally released his death grip on the monster's back legs in order to try and push himself up or otherwise escape the pin, but it didn't look likely unless the beast ripped the boy on top of him apart first. And was he really going to let that happen? Could he do anything to prevent it?

Things would have been looking a lot more grim than they already were if not for Inaba. How she'd managed to survive Masato didn't know, but if Inaba was alive then Suzuki was alive. They could all get out of this with their lives intact. The kids all seemed to move at once, with Kogen putting his plan into action once Inaba made contact, and Masato scrambling out from the pin as soon as Kogen shifted and gave him enough room to escape. He managed to get his feet underneath him and stand up, and though he was breathing heavily he wasn't sapped of his strength just yet. Now freed, he could go check on Suzuki, or he could make a proper escape. But he really wanted to see this thing dealt with now that he'd had a taste of defiance against the death the monsters represented. Kogen had a hold on one of its front legs, so Masato rushed forward to seize the other before its claws could come down and stop what would hopefully be a death blow this time.