CH62: A TIERED.
The forest suddenly seemed to be dead with no sounds of life present. The once calm breeze was no more as the heat from the sun started to settle in. General Luke and the Gifted teens were all alert, each one having their senses at their highest peak.
Suddenly, the infrared settings on their helmets showed heat signatures coming for them. The heat signatures surrounded them in all directions, making it difficult for them to escape.
"Their heat signatures are intense," Jason said while coating his arms with lightning. "Not even my lightning's releasing such heat."
"Me neither," Lilly, who made two disks of pure energy said while starring at them. The heat coming off of them wasn't even close to what was surrounding them. "Luke, what could this mean?" She asked.
Not knowing what exactly to say, Luke just racked his brain until he came up with the easiest and quickest answer. "These energy readings must belong to highly overpowered beasts."
"Beasts!" Hurt wondered. "What tier are we looking at?"
'Most likely A tiered beasts." Luke replied while increasing his grip on his gun. "Not even the strongest Gifted students above the age of twenty have been able to take on A tier level beasts."
"AH CRAP," Jason and Lilly begun to panic. "How the hell are we supposed to kill these things?"
"Easy, we don't." Luke replied.
"Well that's extremely encouraging." Michelle responded sarcastically.
"I meant we're not going for a kill. We're just going to keep them engaged for a while until we get a chance to escape. Whatever you do, don't leave this circle. Each one of you, watch out for the other. I'm not about to lose any of you now."
"Well if it's a tiered beast," Zain spoke, "I guess I'll even out the level for all of us." Zain's body transformed even further with bone plates growing on his head, chest and thick, heavy, spikes all over his back. His body mass increased by one third, and his claws were three times longer and two times sharper than they were.
"Here they come."
*SROWW!* A powerful, loud and eardrum rupturing roar that sounded like a multitude of bulls and wild big cats ravaged the forest, scaring most of the wild life away. The creatures responsible for making the noise slowly emerged from the trees they hid behind, causing Luke and the Gifted to quake in fear.
The beasts had the upper bodies of a bison reinforced with tough, red scales that were as wide as a teenager's mid-section. They had four front legs and two hind legs, each equipped with powerful paws that surprisingly didn't have any claws. Their heads were shaped like horses, their eyes full of rage and were shaped like those of a bird and snake.
Their backsides had three thick tails that had thick, long horns shaped like tridents. With each breath they took, smoke clouds that smelt of brimstone erupted from their nostrils. Their grunts were so great and loud that the humans in front of them felt their bones vibrate.
*PING* The systems in their suits pinged with warnings.
[Highly dangerous lifeforms encountered. Flight Mode suggested.]
[You can either run or fight.]
"Luke, WHAT DO WE DO ABOUT THESE MESSAGES?"
'Ignore them." Luke opened fire on the beasts and released an attack of large energy shots that could kill and dismember a human. The first beast that got hit roared so loud that the ground beneath it split apart while speeding for Luke. The military general quickly jumped away and dodged losing his legs.
Michelle jumped into the cracked ground and focused her energy into one point on her back. Her eyes started glowing a lime green color as the ground started to rise eight feet in the air. With this sudden occurrence, Luke and the Gifted teens had the upper ground, allowing them to at least buy some time for themselves.
"Do you think this'll hold?" Hurt asked. "I don't think this will keep these beasts away from us and if so, FOR HOW LONG?"
"Don't worry. I've got a plan." Luke replied. "Jason, Hurt, and Lilly I want you by the edges, wait for my signal. Michelle and Zain, you're with me. On my count, the three of you in front will unleash everything you've got but aim at their feet. NOW!!"
Jason's eyes glowed violently as he generated as much lightning as possible. His entire arms were now pure lightning and now, he released all the power he had. His lightning bolts violently struck the ground and caused a powerful explosion. Luckily, Lilly made a dome of pure energy she 'borrowed' from Jason. As soon as the explosion calmed down, she turned the dome into smaller spikes of explosive energy which she also aimed for the feet of the beasts, causing the creatures to grow only angrier.
"Michelle, Hurt, NOW!!" Luke commanded. Michelle raised her arms and slowly summoned lightning that swerved around her body. She then made fireballs that were as large as cricket balls and fuzzed them with the lightning.
Hurt darkened the skies and caused a thunder storm, thus feeding both Jason and Michelle with power. He used the clouds to partially blind the beasts as a strong gush of wind violently blew against the forest's trees.
Luke gave them the signal and Michelle threw out the elemental balls at the beasts. The lightning-fire balls, which were great in number, bombarded the beasts and unleashed a great force of energy that weakened the beasts, but didn't kill them.
As soon as Luke noticed this, he quickly had Zain to transform into any large flying creature so he'd get them out of there. Zain turned into a dragon-like creature with four wings, two tails and a beak-like mouth. Luke and the others quickly mounted on Zain's back and escaped while the last of Michelle's attacks finalized with the beasts.
"WOO!!," Jason cheered. "That was awesome. I can't believe we escaped those things. What a rush."
"Well you might want to take that back," Michelle said. "False hope is a b*tch. There's more of them and they've got wings!!"
"Son of a…"