Ace hid behind a tree as he watched an evolved beast wolf down another. The creature's size and ferocious build made Ace quaver but he needed to hunt for his friend.
However, the boy was conflicted when he saw the system mention beast core. Sure he heard it from sci-fi movies and novels but he never fully understood what the system meant by it.
'Could this creature be powered by a core?' He whispered to himself, something which he wished he didn't do.
The beast's sensitive ears and keen sense of smell enabled it to immediately spot out Ace. It left it's meal behind while clawing at the tree Ace was hiding behind.
Using his quick reflexes, the boy jumped away right on time and watched as the creature's powerful paw destroyed the tree's tough body. The creature glared at him with its large, fierce eyes as it used its hind legs to threaten Ace that it was going to charge at him.
[Blood Drain Activated]
Ace held out his palms and concentrated as hard as he could to try and remove as much blood as he could. However, the beast's exoskeleton acted as a shield which blocked the boy's skill from harnessing it's blood.
Ace swore he saw the beast smile at his failed trick as the sides of its mouth slowly lifted upwards in a teasing smile. "I may not have your blood, but I can have his."
Ace dashed for the carcass, which was thankfully a fresh kill. He quickly stretched out his arm and drained all the blood from it. However, the beast was infuriated that its meal was tampered with so it charged at him with its long, sharp antlers.
[Blood weapon activated]
Ace, knowing he wouldn't be able to dodge in time, used his blood weapon skill and made a blood shield. However, his low power level meant that his weapons were terribly weak, so the beast bashed through the shield with ease.
His body was sent crashing into a nearby tree as he spat out blood due to the internal injuries he suffered. The beast continued running until its long, pointed antlers pierced into the tree Ace was on.
"Aaggh," He cried as he winced in pain with his eyes tightly shut. He stayed like that for about thirty seconds but he didn't feel any stinging pain, neither did he see any white lights.
"Wha....what's going on...." He wondered but then he saw that the beast's antlers only caught the sides of the tree. The beast had its antlers stuck in the tree so it was currently struggling to draw them out.
Ace quickly gathered the blood he once had and separated it in two. He then made thick blood spikes which he forcefully shoved into the beast's, soft sides.
[5:59]
[Time's not on your side. Your damsel's in distress. Hurry and save her.]
"Got the memo, System." He argued.
*ROOAARR*
The beast roared in immense pain as it struggled to set itself free. Ace quickly got off from the tree and collected all the blood that dripped from the beast.
He quickly utilized it and made a larger spike which was twice his size and height. Without hesitation, he shoved the spike deep through the beast's insides until it came out from the other end.
Once fully in, he dispersed the large spine into smaller ones and moved them around the beast's insides, killing it slowly but painfully in the process.
The beast's struggles eventually seized as its beating heart stopped. Ace smiled as he watched the creature's body go limp but something was off.
'Why isn't the system showing me anything?' He asked himself.
[ Beast's killed: 1/2]
*SCREECH*
------------
After Jason's sudden powerful surge of energy took out half of The Granian forces, the ArkVille military forces celebrated and cheered.
As a reward for his brave heroics, Jason was given the guard of honor and the title WARRIOR OF THE YEAR. Though weak and extremely injured, his head swole with pride as he arrogantly smiled and cheered himself due to the praise he was receiving.
A few of the fellow Gifted teens cheered him on while the majority cursed inwardly but he didn't care. He was just happy to be noticed for his extremely powerful display of skills.
As another reward for his bravery, General Luke and the other five decided to make him lead all the lighting Gifted students so that they too would show great power like he did.
"Congratulations Jason."
"You did great, Jason."
"Thumbs up, Jason."
"I wish I was like you, Jason."
"Be my boyfriend, Jason."
"Grow a pair, Jason."
"Jump off a bridge, JASON."
"Get lost, weirdo."
While others praised and cheered the Gifted, others cursed, abused and mocked him, but he didn't bother listening to them at all. He was just happy to live in the moment of glory and power but little did he know that all that glory was going to be short lived.
All of a sudden, all the lights in the underground base started to flicker uncontrollable as each screen got hacked and later showed a strange logo of a Granian head.
Everything from the bracelets to the large holographic screens showed the logo and after a short while, the logos disappeared while a video played out.
In that video, all the Gifted and non gifted watched a familiar black scaled Granian with one eye step in front of the camera. His face was calm and collected but they couldn't be so sure what his intentions were.
"Greetings, humans," The alien spoke through its translator so that all the humans could understand what it was saying. " Do not deceive yourselves. Today's short, miniscule victory over us may seem good to you, but it just spells doom for you."
"We had what we came here for in our grasps but thanks to this one," A picture of Jason showed on the screens. " We'll be staying here much longer."
Grim's calm face turned into one of anger as he said. "Brace yourselves, you meaningless excuses for intelligent life. Each day that passes by will start with completely unexpected and random attacks and until these two are brought to me, alive," A picture of current Ace and Cherry showed, " We will not stop attacking this planet and draining it of every good this it had. You've been warned."
The video ended while everyone in the underground military base glared with fury at Jason. It was thanks to him that the aliens were still on Earth and now there was a risk that they could all die at any second.
Jason could feel all the angry eyes piercing into his soul as he tried his level best not to say a word or make eye contact with anyone.
"Nice going, idiot." Lily made a long, blue glowing staff out of pure energy and used its tip to smack the back of the boy's head. "You've managed to become an even better screw up than that kid with the orange hair."
"Speaking of which," Another boy spoke. " Why do they want that kid and the girl?"
"Maybe they stole something from them."
"Maybe they have a score to settle."
"Maybe they're chosen ones and the Granians are here to seek them out and worship them."
" No idiot. Those two are definitely having something that belongs to those Granians."
After the students made useless, totally incorrect guesses, General Luke silenced them as he said, "All of you are to return to your rooms and rest. As you have heard, these aliens are going to attack us every morning so we'll need to give our best if we want to survive. Go now, dinner will be served in an hour." He ordered and all the students dispersed to their designated rooms.
" Not you, boy," Luke said as he glared at Jason with disgust. "Come here." He pointed so Jason slowly walked to him with his head hung in shame. General Luke quickly grabbed the boy's arm and checked his power bracelet.
"Interesting," He said. "You somehow managed to produce so much power at such an average power level." He then looked at Jason's weary face as he scrolled back on his bracelet which showed the power level 10.
"Oh my," He gasped, " You're even much stronger than you realize. Go get some rest and return here after dinner. We're going to work on that surge you just had, Jason."
Jason's eyes shook in fear as he gulped down really hard. His nerves got the best of him and soon, he started trembling slightly as he walked back to his room. While doing so, he still felt the daggers of glares piercing into his soul, making him highly uneasy.
His ears caught faint whispers and mumbled but it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that they were talking about him. He quickly picked up his pace and ran straight to his room, where he quickly got in and shut the door behind him.
However, even his own roommates glared with anger and disgust while sneering repeatedly at him. The guilt and shame all over Jason made his sweat increasingly and this got him even more glares of disgust.
"H-hey guys..." He stuttered.
His roommates walked out of the room and sneered, leaving Jason alone in the room with his emotions of pride covering over his sense of achievement. " What have I done?" He cried to himself.
"Why do I have to suffer. Even when he's not here, that loser still embarrasses me. Augghhh." He grunted. "You'll pay for humiliating me this much."