Esmond was meditating and training all forms of energy within his body by resting in the shallow depths of the spring.
He noticed the continuous notifications going off in his mind, but he was too focused on his own training to pay any attention until his mother came looking for him.
"Esmond honey what are you doing?
Come on home already!
I've made pizza, burgers, chips and other greasy food!"
Ruby noticed early on that her metabolism increased along with her increased hunger.
While dining out, the small number of dishes wouldn't fill either her hunger or Daniels, so she come to create major feast on the daily while going out during the day and tasting all types of food.
Today she felt like burgers and fries with pizza, so she had Carter and Echo bring everything over as she got everything ready.
She was ready to serve the food as well but was waiting on Esmond to arrive however he continued to practise so she went to find him herself.
.
"Sorry Mum…
Just got a little carried away in training."
Esmond got up and started cleaning himself off before leaving the spring.
There was no place for the egg to go nor was the Kraken going to appear abruptly without him know, so he left the drones in charge with Echo keeping an eye out.
Running his mind over his body, Esmond noticed the core within his heart had grown and the energy within was denser as well.
His body felt improved as well, but it was hard to tell exactly with his race being a Primordial Human.
It felt like parts of his body was 'awakening' with every bit of improvement.
.
He wanted to stay for longer and continue but it seemed the Rian made up throughout his body continued to accumulate energy, and at a faster pace.
Just knowing that his body could continue to improve without him having to do anything was quite comforting to know.
Esmond shifted himself and his mother back to the cabin and left to show so he could clean himself off before dinner.
But as he was about to go, he saw Carters cheeky smile from the corner of his eyes.
"Waaahhhttt….."
"Come onnnnn….." Carter was nudging his head to the side in the direction of the T.V as he held the remote in his hand.
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem was playing, and Daniel seemed to be heavily investing in the film.
He was a big fan of the series, even going so far to dress up as Arnold Schwarzenegger from Predator during a trip to Comic Con in Los Angeles.
Esmond didn't want to interrupt his mother's dinner plans but he felt like shooting for the stars, so he gestured to Carter to throw him the remote as he started activating his ability.
…
..
.
*Ding*
[Scanning surroundings… Analysed!]
[Quest activated in conjunction with Spectral Consciousness Ability]
.
[Please select difficulty…]
[Easy] [Normal] [Hard] [Hardcore] [Nightmare] [Hell]
[Hard] [Accepted!]
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[Media: Film]
[Name: Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem]
[Year of release: 2007]
[When Prey hunts Prey…]
[Two hostile species that've come fight against each for eons come back crashing to Earth, a former battle ground that saw the death of a civilisation and the typical draw between the two species]
[While they fought, two human companies fought for the technologies that were brought to them because of the ever-fighting ways of the two races, continually spilling out into human inhabited planets into the near future…]
[For now, the two races spilled out into Colorado, storming a small town and infecting the people with chest bursters]
[A small horde of matured Xenomorph Aliens are on their way towards a small afterschool business that cares for children with late working parents]
[Host will be in charge of stopping the horde from attacking the children and the carers and keeping them safe until a military unit arrives, evacuating the children]
[Host needs to:
- Keep the children from harm
- Keep the Carers from harm
- Clean up all traces of Xenomorph carcases
- Destroy small nest below in underground sewage system
[Reward:
- 845,000,000 Credits
- 769,000,000 Exp
- Yautja (Predators) Genetic Code – Elite Grade
- Yautja (Predators) Weaponry Technology – Epic Grade
.
[Any other Rewards are based off evaluation]
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[Time to complete: 12 Minutes]
…
..
.
Esmond appeared in the town centre where the lights seemed to be out.
Putting on his armour and grabbing his weapons, Esmond raced across town with Carter's voice in his head telling him of the childcare centre.
Just as he was about to reach his destination, Esmond heard the voice he wasn't prepared to hear…
'…You're really cutting it short with me today, aren't you Esmond Manston…' Ruby said, sending chills throughout Esmonds body as his mother's voice in his head frozen him still.
"*Sigh* just hurry up!
I don't want the food to go cold, is that understood!'
"Yes Ma'am…"
Somewhat with his mothers blessing, Esmond burst through the doors and entered the childcare centre, much to the shock of the children and carers who started to freak out.
"AGHHHHHHH!
"I WANT MY MOMMY!!!"
"AHHHHH SAVE ME JEBUS!!!"
.
Seeing the terrified children, Esmond realised his smash and bash attitude probably would leave these children scarred for a very long time.
Esmond removed his helmet, showing his beautiful smile to the children before calming them down with the help of the carers who figured out Esmond wasn't there to cause them any harm.
"If you don't mind, could you tell me where this place connects with the underground system?"
Esmond asked one of the carers, praying she knew something, unfortunately she knew nothing, leaving Esmond with more questions.
Without the kids noticing, Esmond opened a portal to let some drones enter and begin looking while he sorted out the kids and set up some protection for them but seeing there wasn't much he called for a few droids and Aven to keep watch over them.
Around then Carter informed him that he'd found the trap leading down to the underground system.
The drones started moving things out of the way and cleared away the obstruction items, leaving Esmond a clear enough space to race down and slaughter the aliens.
While Esmond was keen on the fight, he was wondering about the numbers that would be coming at him because of the length of time the small mission was going to take him.
Esmond had his MAR-01 rifle on his side, a side arm and two daggers in his hands that were made from the same materials as he sword.
He leaped down into the pit, crashing into the underground sewage system that were large enough for him to move around freely, before he started heading up north based on Carter's instructions with the drones sealing up the pit leading to the surface.
.
Walking around for a couple minutes, Esmond heard nothing other than the squealing of rats and splashing of sewage water entering the underground systems, however he soon heard something growling that sounded the furthest thing from Earth.
With the help of his heightened senses that needed to filter out the horrendous smell underground, Esmond soon picked up that around the corner further up were roughly 15 or so Xenomorph mature creatures slowly making their way in his direction.
'Ahh fuck… here goes nothing…'
Esmond slowed down his breathing with his daggers in his hands, waiting for the Xenomorphs to come closer.
Soon enough they came around the corner and started creeping towards Esmond, trying to surround him, but the closer they got, the harder it became to tell if Esmond was alive or not.
Just as the last Xenomorph tool their position around Esmond, they all sent their tails in his direction, aiming at his chest.
As the sharp ends of their tails came nearer to his body, within a couple metres, Esmond decided to use his Lifeforce Control and manipulated their space around him to drop his body weight and increase his speed as he moved in a circular direction, moving his blades to cut off the tails.
The Xenomorph were screaming in anguish, unable to contain their anger, they moved to attack Esmond, however with the number of Xenomorphs around, it made things hard from them to move around.
Using this opportunity, Esmond went on a slaughtering spree, carving through the aliens with his daggers without any resistance.
'Might give Hardcore difficulty a shot next time if shit's this manageable…' Esmond thought as he kicked at the midsection of an alien charging at him, before he swept his daggers at the alien, removing the top half of the creature.
With a smile on his face, satisfied by his desire for combat fulfilled by the rushing Xenomorphs.
As he dealt with their numbers that starts to increase with the echoes of the Xenomorph reaching the other aliens, Esmond thought about getting his hand on the Plasmacaster the predators would use.
They were a powerful form of plasma cannons but attached to the body that let the user's take-out fast-moving objects with the help of the HUD system, though it had minor problems with processing speeds, Esmond believed it wouldn't be difficult to fix though.
.
Esmond continued to clean through the aliens with the drones picking up the bodies and taking them to the space.
The acid blood might have been a problem at first, but with the upgrades and improvements on materials and equipment, no harm came to Esmond or his machinery.
But as he was fighting, Esmond noticed some displacement through in the air.
Before Esmond could question what, it was, he saw the camouflage end and saw an Elite Predator carving through the incoming aliens.
Esmond felt like a giddy child fighting alongside the Predator, even though he was still some distance away.
But he soon realised that the Predator was struggling to keep up with the incoming Xenomorph, so Esmond started to get closer to the Predator.
The Predator felt danger coming from Esmond when he noticed him get closer to him, however with his attention focused on Esmond he failed to notice the Xenomorph that was about to cut through him.
Luckily Esmond caught on and got in front of the Xenomorph, grabbing onto him, giving the Predator the perfect chance to attack.
Seeing Esmond put his back towards him, the Predator sense some kinship, especially seeing Esmond save his ass.
That point on, he started fight beside Esmond, firstly throwing his spear through the head of the alien before slicing at the xenomorph about to hit into Esmond.
The two continued fighting on for the next few minutes, with Esmond covering his shadows as the Predator started to tire out.
Eventually with the last of the victims aliens dead and the bodies cleaned away which surprised the Predator at first but he soon though it was normal once he learnt it was Esmonds tools.
He was about to stop Esmond and try to communicate, but before he could say anything, Esmond was already gone and out of sight.
The Predator was about to chase after, but he stopped as his HUD system updated with new information, so he left begrudgingly.
.
Esmond had in fact left without saying anything because of the time left before the mission ended so he was racing back to the childcare centre to gather the droids before heading home.
It didn't take him long before he reached the centre, quickly picking up the droids and leaving as the headlights of heavy military vehicles were making their ways over.
…
..
.
*Ding*
[When Prey hunts Prey…]
[Host needs to:
- Keep the children from harm
- Keep the Carers from harm
- Clean up all traces of Xenomorph carcases
- Destroy small nest below in underground sewage system
[Reward:
- 845,000,000 Credits
- 769,000,000 Exp
- Yautja (Predators) Genetic Code – Elite Grade
- Yautja (Predators) Weaponry Technology – Epic Grade]
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[Evaluation: A+]
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[Rewards based off evaluation:
- 645,000,000 Credits
- 761,000,000 Exp
- Yautja Clan Society (Predators) Genetic Code – Elite Grade]
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[Time to complete: 12 Minutes]
…
..
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"Welcome back!
Now hurry the fuck up and get cleaned up for dinner!" Ruby screamed at Esmond as he appeared in the lounge, thankfully without his armour on or his weapons otherwise the acid blood would have ruined house.