[High noon]
[Weather Conditions: Unstable.]
For more than six hours, Ace tirelessly carried Sky's weakened body in his arms while dragging himself through the hot, dry, unforgiving desert. The gruesome temperatures turned his white skin red, his lips all chapped and cracked, and his head, back, armpits and other areas with major sweat glands released the last amounts of sweat as his body was now on its reserves.
His legs grew weary, his throat as dry as the desert he was in and his eyes burned with weakness and exhaustion. Due to how tired he was, Ace had to breath in long, painful intervals if he wished for his body not to pass out from weakness.
[Energy:25/80]
[You're losing excessive amounts of energy. At this rate, your body will give out to dehydration.]
"Thanks, system. I noticed that." Ace replied sarcastically.
However, all hope for the boy was not lost for within his view, he witnessed a buzzing metropolis that was quite the distance. From where he was, Ace could see people moving in and out of the city. Though relieved to see other humans, he was worried that they could end up like the loud man from earlier.
"System, explain what the system scan skill is and what its catch is?" He asked, having remembered his conversations with it from earlier.
[System Scan]
[Description: The system scan is like a cheat that works for you. This allows you to scan your opponent and see if you can defeat them. However, not all opponents can be scanned and there is a catch for this skill. The catch is: This skill, as mentioned earlier, does not work on everyone you'll meet. It can only scan opponents you have a shot at defeating and the reading may not be accurate according to your body and skill type.]
"Such bullsh*t!!" Ace cursed. "This was such a waste. I could have gone for the other one…"
[This skill can also be used to scan your environment, surroundings and creatures around you. Care for a demonstration?]
[Y/N]
Ace reluctantly chose yes in order for the system to show him what the skill could do. To his surprise, the entire piece of technology seemed to shut down, not even allowing him to see his stats anymore. "Great, just freaking GREAT!!"
Suddenly, while he was still whining, a holographic, three-dimensional display of the area he was in opened right before his eyes, and it was astounding. The system was so detailed that it showed some of the things the boy couldn't have clearly seen with his own two eyes.
His eyes were currently glowing a bright red color as he tried figuring out how the scan worked.
[Simply move your fingers in the direction you'd like the skill to go.]
The system instructed, so he did as it told. With a flick of his index, the entire geographical mapping of the system changes, as if a drone with a camera was moving forwards as it showed an image of the landscape.
When he moved his finger to the right, the image did so and when it moved to the left, it did the same thing. "Oh wow!!," Ace said excitedly. "This is an amazing skill." Ace flicked his index in a scrolling manner, making the image move forward much faster.
"There it is." He said, while looking at the system's digital representation of the city that was a few miles ahead of him. Its vast size and large amounts of people put a little hope that they'd at least be friendlies and take him and Sky in at the moment.
[The distance is quite long and at the rate you're moving, you'll get there in one hour and thirty minutes. Your body can only take thirty more minutes of this heat until blood is of no use to you anymore.]
"Doesn't matter." Ace replied as his grip on Sky tightened. "I'll make it even if it means me dying."
------
"Well, well, well. What have we here?" After walking for a couple of hours under the scorching desert heat, Cherry finally made it to the black speck which she saw a while ago. To her surprise, the speck was more of a human settlement that was constructed in a crater. At the flattest point, she saw people moving up and down with fear and worry written all over their faces.
Some were covered in sweat, shading tears and trembled as they carried away bodies on stretchers that were either injured, dead, or gruesomely mauled.
'What beast got to them before I did?' She wondered as she made her way to the bottom. While walking, she heard lots of wails of sadness, bitterness, and anger as some women, children and few older men wept with incriminated dead bodies in front of them. 'What the hell happened here?'
"Excuse me." A cracking, saddened voice called out to Cherry and when she looked at who it was, she saw a middle-aged woman, who was most likely in her early forties, run to Cherry and quickly held her hands in hers as she wept saying, "We need some helping hands. Something terrible happened, and we need your help. Please, come with me."
Without giving Cherry a shot to reply, the woman already pulled her further into the base, and Cherry got to see more and more gruesome displays of gore and extreme torture by whoever or whatever did this to the people. Blood was spilled and smeared everywhere, heads and other various body parts were missing, bodies were impaled and beasts were being buried six feet under.
Concerned and obviously scared about this whole situation, Cherry decided to ask the woman what exactly happened as she helped one man who had his leg sliced off his body.
"What happened to you guys?"
"We were attacked…" The man replied but in extreme pain. "We were attacked last night."
"Attacked?" Cherry wondered. She then looked at the man and asked, "Did you or anyone else manage to get a clear glimpse of what creature attacked you?"
"I-I…" He stuttered, "I'm sorry. I wasn't able to get a clear view. It all happened so fast and before I knew it, I was taken out. But you can ask him." The man pointed Cherry towards the loud man from earlier. However, he seemed to be emotionally scared and the lifeless gaze on his face gave off that feeling.
Cherry walked towards him and not even before she got close enough to him, the loud man gazed at her and shouted, "EVIL. YOU-YOU LOOK LIKE HIM. YOU ARE HIM!! EVIL!!" Cherry was caught off-guard by this sudden and unexpected behavior, however, she was intrigued and curious when he said 'You look like him.'
"Could it be?" Cherry quickly starred at the dead bodies and noticed how most didn't have an ounce of blood on them and how the beast carcasses were drained of every drop. 'He was here," She said while gazing at nothing. 'Ace was here.'
The crazy look sparked in Cherry's eyes as she glared maniacally at the loud man once more. With an eerie grin on her face and slimmed, narrow, soul-searching eyes, she inched closer to the man and whispered, "Tell me where he went…" She transformed half her face into its blood mutant form, "And I'll spare yours and everyone else's lives."