To Have An Ability
Running through the hallway, Kayden couldn't help but admit that whatever was going on in the academy was strange. For one, everyone's memories had been changed, and after the system had confirmed that Marcus was the one responsible for it, he still wondered why he would go ahead and do such a thing.
And also, how he was even strong enough to do something like that.
The yellow scent in the air led him towards the abilities class. Swinging the door open, his eyes immediately locked on to Marcus. Without giving him time to react, he rushed forward, raising his hand to deliver a strike right to his face.
Opening his eyes, Marcus was able to see the attack just in time as he moved to the side, avoiding the strike completely.
"Kayden! Wait! I've done it! I've changed everyone's memories back to normal!" Not knowing why Kayden had suddenly arrived and decided to attack him, Marcus couldn't think of anything else to say. However, now that he thought about it more, Kayden shouldn't have been aware of what was going on if his memories had been changed as well.
Hearing what he had said, Kayden hesitated for a moment before kicking the student across the face with his leg, sending his body flying in the air and crashing into the ground.
"So you actually changed all their memories. But why?" Kayden asked, wanting to know his reason for literally brainwashing the entire school. Was it a personal grudge? A vendetta? What reason was it that made him take such a drastic action?
Just as Marcus was about to reply, the red mark on his arm began to glow brightly, and as a sizzling sound could be heard, it was as though the mark was burning through his skin, causing him to yell out in pain.
Also, the red mark began to change form. What was once a crimson bat baring its fangs, was now a day's pointing downwards towards his hand.
"Aaahhh!" Marcus yelled, rolling on the floor in agony.
Confused, Kayden had no idea what to do. It wasn't until he laid eyes upon the red mark that he had a feeling what was going on now was somewhat connected to it. Walking closer to the student, he tried picking him off the floor, but after non-stop struggling, Kayden had no choice but to let go of him and allow his body to continue wriggling all over the floor.
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In the unknown planet, Kayla was doing her best to fend off these crocodile beasts that were moving towards her. Still, there was the issue that she was running low on Mana. In order to increase her Mana pool back to what it once was, she would need to concentrate on her breathing and channel the natural Mana in the air into her body.
But, the fact that she had to be wary of her surroundings while continuing to fight, made it hard for her to concentrate.
One of the crocodiles swiped its sharp claws at her. Jumping back, she kicked off against her feet, launching herself forward and delivering a punch with her fist. As she got closer to the beast, her flames would surround the fist over and over again, condensing a large amount of her flames, almost creating a solid shape as it collided with the snout of the creature, the force of the punch pushing it backwards and falling into the river.
If it weren't for the fact that there were so many of them moving towards her, then she wouldn't have been so worried about her safety right now.
From behind, what looked like a giant purple crab launched itself at her, snapping its pincers non-stop. Following the sound of the pincers, she quickly turned around, seeing that one of the other beasts was trying to attack her.
Jumping out of the way, the purple crab had fallen right into the mouth of one of the crocodiles, which proceeded to crush its body with its powerful jaws.
'I don't think I can produce an attack like that last one. I need to get out of here,' she thought to herself, seeing a clear path between the crocodiles and the other creatures. Quickly, before any of the beasts started chasing after her, she dashed in the direction of the path, which led to a different area.
Using the remaining of her Mana, she channeled it to her legs, giving them extra stamina and endurance, allowing her to run faster than she normally would.
As she would pass by, some of the beasts attempted to latch onto her arms or legs to rip them apart. From the side, there was a bird beast that tried grabbing hold of her arm, attempting to lift her up into the air.
She immediately slammed her other hand against the leg, using her flames to burn away at the leg to free herself. It only took a few seconds, and the leg had completely been burnt off, allowing her to continue running without any form of restrictions.
She ran and ran, until she was no longer in the area. This time around, she chose not to stop running, knowing fully well that she would just have to deal with whatever beasts she finds in a new area if she ever decides to stop in an area inhabited by beasts.
After running for a while, the energy within her had completely been depleted, and she could no longer keep up her pace. Between her fight with Kayden, then Shawn, then both of them, and then having to fight against beasts, her Mana had completely been depleted.
She wasn't sure, but right after she had activated her Mana aura back at the arena, it felt as though her Mana pool had been amplified significantly. She wasn't sure if this was something that came along with using the technique, since what her ability class division instructor had told her was that the technique was a severe drain on one's Mana pool.
'Either way, at least now I'm safe,' she thought, before scanning the area around her. There were no creatures in sight, no signs of fighting, nothing at all. Everything here looked peaceful, something that Kayla was surprised to find, most especially on a planet like this.
Around here, there were nothing but large boulders. The ground was boud of sand or vegetation. Nothing but hard, solid rocks. Looking around once again, her eyes quickly caught the oath she was traveling through, and for a moment she thought of continuing the journey, despite the fact that she had almost zero Mana in her Mana pool.
"It's almost like that simulation we had to do," Kayla said to herself, feeling the large boulders around her. "This place, now that I think about it, looks almost like the simulation we students in the fire class division had to train in to grow our strength. I guess being sent here isn't going to be a waste, after all.
"If I'm going to have to fight to live, then I might as well get some strong Mana cores for myself before I find a way to leave this planet."
The previous beasts she had killed, although she would have liked to take their Mana cores for herself, two of the reasons she hadn't done so we're because she was being chased by other wild beasts at the time, and that she wasn't quite sure if they were even strong enough to be of use to her.
In order for one with an ability to increase their strength, they must increase their Mana pool, which is pretty much the amount of Mana they can contain in their bodies, also known as their Mana holding capacity.
To increase one's power, one must either consume Mana potions, or directly consume the Mana cores of beasts. Doing the latter can have more than one effect on an individual depending on the circumstances. For instance, if someone who doesn't have an ability touches a Mana core and apply the absorption technique, they would be granted whatever power the crystal possesses.
A good example of this is Kayden when he obtained his transformation ability from a Mana core back in Black Saber city.
Back then, he didn't have an ability, and using the absorption technique he had learnt online, he was able to absorb the power from a Mana core he had found on his way back home, granting him one of the strangest powers he had ever encountered in his life.
However, Kayla's case would be different since she already had an ability, one that was of the fire class, fire itself. If she were to consume a Mana core, instead of acquiring the power contained in it, she would simply just absorb the Mana contained in the crystal, while the ability contained in the crystal would be lost forever.
"If I'm going to grow stronger, then I will need to find and defeat stronger beasts on this planet. But first, I need to regain my Mana."
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I hope you all enjoyed the chapter.
I want to get this work up to 150k words so I can finally apply for another promotion.
See you all in the next chapter.
Two more chapters till this story reaches 150k words.