GTS Summoner Ch 2: The Warrior Beyond The Smoke!

(Mark) The second I stepped out of the classroom, I realized all hell had broken loose. The hallway was unrecognizable —a chaotic battlefiel

(Mark)

The second I stepped out of the classroom, I realized all hell had broken loose. The hallway was unrecognizable —a chaotic battlefield where order had been replaced by pure, unfiltered panic. Students and teachers were running in every direction, their screams echoing off the shattered walls. Debris was everywhere. The ground had split in places, jagged cracks slicing through the floor tiles. Dust filled the air, thick and choking, making it hard to see more than a few feet ahead. It felt like the building itself was groaning under the weight of something far worse than an earthquake.

I stumbled forward, coughing and waving a hand in front of my face to clear the dust. My legs felt shaky, but adrenaline kept me moving. "Damn... what happened?" I muttered, rubbing my eyes as if that would somehow make sense of the madness around me.

I pushed through the panicked crowd, bumping into students who barely noticed me. They were too busy screaming or crying or just trying to get away from... well, whatever had caused this. My heart was racing, and a part of me wanted to join them—run as far as I could and not look back. But something kept me moving forward, deeper into the chaos, as if I could somehow make sense of it.

That's when I saw him. A teacher I didn't recognize, slumped against one of the cracked walls. He looked awful— pale, sweaty, barely holding himself up. His chest heaved with shallow breaths, and his hands were shaking like leaves in a storm. I hesitated for a second, then rushed over to him, nearly tripping over a broken piece of tile.

"Hey! What's going on?" I asked, kneeling down a little to meet his gaze. He didn't respond. His eyes were darting all over the place, wide and unfocused, like he was searching for something that wasn't there. Or maybe something that was there but he wished wasn't.

"Hey, are you okay?" I tried again, louder this time. Still nothing. He just kept staring past me, his mouth slightly open, trembling like he'd seen a ghost.

I turned to follow his gaze, hoping to understand what had him so freaked out. All I saw was the same wreckage— the collapsed walls, the cracked floors, and a gaping hole that offered a view of the outside world. Through the swirling dust and smoke, I could just barely make out black plumes rising into the sky, twisting like some malevolent force.

Finally, the guy snapped out of it-or at least, part of him did. He turned to me, his eyes glassy with terror. When he spoke, his voice was barely more than a whisper, trembling like it was struggling to escape his throat. "It came out of nowhere..."

"What?" I blinked, confused. "What came out of nowhere?"

He swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing like it was trying to escape his neck. His lips trembled as he struggled to find the words. "A steel foot," he finally stammered. "A massive... steel foot."

I stared at him, trying to process what he'd just said. "A steel foot?" I repeated, my voice dripping with disbelief. "Are you serious? Like... a foot made of steel? Is this some kind of joke?"

But before I could press him further, the ground shook again. Violently. Dust rained down from the ceiling, and the walls groaned like they were about to give way entirely. The teacher's face twisted in panic, and without another word, he bolted, sprinting down the hallway and disappearing into the chaos.

"Great. Thanks for the help," | muttered, bracing myself against the wall as the tremors subsided. My heart was pounding, my hands trembling as I tried to steady myself. Whatever this was, it wasn't just some random quake.

Something was happening.

I didn't wait around to find out what. I sprinted down the hallway, dodging fallen lockers and scattered debris, until I finally burst out of the front doors. The moment | stepped outside, I froze.

The city-our city-was in ruins. The streets were cracked and broken, jagged fault lines carving through the asphalt. Cars and buses were overturned, some of them on fire, sending thick plumes of black smoke into the sky. Buildings were riddled with massive holes, their steel frames exposed like the bones of some giant creature. Others were completely flattened, reduced to piles of rubble. Bloodstains streaked the pavement, smeared alongside mangled bodies— flesh and bone crushed together in ways I didn't want to think about.

"What the hell happened?" | whispered, my voice barely audible.

I started walking, my legs feeling like they were moving on autopilot. I didn't know where I was going, but I couldn't just stand there. Every step felt heavier than the last as I picked my way through the destruction. Bodies littered the streets, some half-buried under debris, others sprawled out in unnatural positions. I forced myself not to look too closely, but the images burned themselves into my mind anyway.

The ground was still trembling beneath my feet, but it wasn't random. It was rhythmic. Steady. Like footsteps.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

Each one was louder than the last, the vibrations growing stronger with every second. The air was thick with smoke and ash, stinging my eyes and filling my lungs with every breath. I kept moving, even though every instinct was screaming at me to turn around and run the other way.

And then I saw it.

At first, it was just a silhouette-a massive figure emerging from the haze of flames and smoke. It moved with a slow, deliberate grace, each step sending shockwaves through the ground. My brain struggled to process what I was seeing, but as it came closer, the details became horrifyingly clear.

It was a woman. Or at least, it looked like one. She had to be at least fifty feet tall, towering over the ruins of the city like some kind of goddess of destruction. Her blonde hair was tied back in a tight bun, not a strand out of place despite the chaos around her. She wore silver armor that gleamed in the flickering light, each plate intricately engraved with symbols that seemed to shift and writhe as I stared at them.

Beneath the armor, a flowing blue dress swayed with every step, impossibly clean and pristine, as if the destruction around her didn't dare touch it.

In her hands, she held a sword. No-the sword. It wasn't just big; it was massive, an absurdly oversized weapon that seemed to radiate power. The blade gleamed with an unnatural light, its edge so sharp it looked like it could cut through reality itself. And then there were her eyes-glowing with an eerie red light, bright enough to pierce through the thickest smoke. They burned with an intensity that made my stomach twist.

"What the hell," I muttered, stumbling backward, my voice cracking. "What the actual hell..."

She stopped in the middle of the street, her glowing eyes scanning the wreckage like she was searching for something-or someone. For a brief, horrifying moment, her gaze landed on me. It felt like the world stopped. My chest tightened, and I couldn't breathe. I was frozen, trapped under the weight of her gaze like a bug pinned to a board.

I don't know how long I stood there, but when she finally looked away, my knees buckled, and I nearly collapsed. My heart was pounding so hard it felt like it might burst out of my chest.

This wasn't real. This couldn't be real.

But as the ground shook beneath her next step, and the sword in her hand glinted in the firelight, I knew one thing for certain.

It was real. "Damn it."