Atlas bit back a scream as the acid burned away some skin on his arm. The smoke that curled off his arm smelled like sulfur and cooking meat.
He twisted in the air and caught a small branch swinging himself to a thicker branch. The centipede chattered and rushed down the trunk closer to where it had last seen Atlas.
Atlas hid on the other side of the trunk far from where the centipede had seen him. He cradled his arm and wrapped a piece of cloth from his pants around it. The acid was strong in comparison to his body. Even his shield was mostly melted and was mostly a hunk of metal.
The centipede was level 5D and probably would kill Atlas in a few moments. He calmed his breathing and leaped upwards pulling himself up the branch. The centipede turned in circles confused. It chattered intermittently and spat acid angrily.
Suddenly the segment of body before its head was pinned to the ground by a square shield. It started thrashing wildly as its legs caught flesh. Atlas grunted and tried to shove his sword into the head of the centipede.
The hard red carapace held strong against his sword. Not even a scratch was left. Atlas recoiled from the ringing in his sword and dropped to the ground under the centipede. He shoved his sword once more through the beasts jaw cracking through its more tender underside.
It pierced straight through its brain and stopped against the upper shell. Its body shook and began shaking wildly. Atlas ditched his sword that was a foot deep in the bugs head and rolled off the branch.
He caught another one and ran to a safe looking cove of leaves. 'Level 5D Crimson Centipede killed. Ultrasoul gained.' Altas breathed in deeply and shook slightly. That was scary. Atlas' hands shook as he wiped sweat off his forehead.
His leg had a few deep scratches that hurt, but he would live. Fortunately its legs weren't poisonous and he would be fine. His life was an inch from being ended. His actions were too hasty.
He should've assessed its abilities and defenses before doing such a decisive move. The twitching and movement post death of the bug was also something he didn't account for. In fact he remembered a singular time he had heard that some bugs in the Ultraverse would thrash violently post death.
The voice of the Ultraverse pulled him out of his thoughts. He had gained an Ultrasoul. Immediately he dove into his stat sheet to find the ultra soul.
Ultrasouls: Gentle Spring, Pendent of acid resistance
Pendant of Acid Resistance: Gives the wearer minor resistance to acid.
Atlas summoned the pendant. A small necklace strung from leather had a bead that looked like a centipedes head.
It radiated a small green light and felt cool to the touch. Atlas inspected it curiously and twirled it between his fingers. 'Cool.' Atlas thought. It was far from the most useful thing he could've gotten. A decent weapon would've been nice. Seeing as his shield and sword were long gone.
A large bird, having seen the centipedes death, dove down from a branch and began breaking apart the bugs body with its sharp beak. For some reason it seemed entirely uninterested in Atlas. But it was careful to not let its guard down.
Atlas looked at the bird suspiciously and thought through his next action. There was no way he could keep fighting at the rate he was currently. In fact the leg injury would slow him down a little and he needed some healing. Atlas sighed and drew his dagger from his thigh.
He flipped it in his hand and ran out from the small group of leaves. He jumped from tree to tree and branch to branch. The wood shook beneath him as he launched himself off of it landing lightly on the next one.
He was tempted to go upward and see if there were any landmarks above the canopy of leaves. But he had been taught that in this jungle the areas were clearly separated. The ground floor were scavengers and other scary things were around every corner, the branches where every thing could go, and the sky above the canopy.
The sky above was a death zone for anyone who couldn't reliably shoot birds out of the air. It was filled with birds and other flying beasts eating eachother. Atlas would get killed quickly.
A couple of beasts tried to attack Atlas but they were weak being only levels 2-1. He made quick work of them. The centipede had pushed his level to 1 and the 5 other random weak beasts he ran into was enough for him to reach level 2. Unfortunately he wasn't able to get another Ultrasoul which wasn't particularly surprising.
The chances weren't high to begin with. Atlas occasionally had to do some special maneuvers to avoid anything level 3 or higher. Of course he's shown the ability to defeat them but it was too dangerous not to mention there was a possibility he could engage in combat with multiple beasts at one time.
Eventually after traveling pretty aimlessly for a while he paused in a group of dense leaves. He pulled a ration package from his pack and opened the silver packaging. He ate the simple biscuit and summoned the gift he had received from his grandfather.
The Ultrasoul Gentle spring was essentially a simple clay jar that would generate water that was pure and drinkable. It held about a quart of liquid and would slowly refill with time. It didn't take very long according to his grandfather so Atlas downed half the bottle and dismissed the memory into purple energy.
Atlas sat for a moment and took in the environment around him. He just had to keep running around until he found another human. The only reason he was ok with running aimlessly was because all the humans in the Ultraverse were aware that the 16 year olds were entering.
So they sent out parties of people to find the somewhat randomly teleported teens. Atlas noticed a shine of metal in the endless forest of green and brown. 'Another person?' Atlas looked closer before making out what appeared to be a person sprawled out on the forest floor with their throat ripped out.
He cringed and came out from his hiding spot. Jumping from branch to branch he shook. It was one of his classmates. A boy he was decent friends with. Fortunately the scavengers had yet to get to him. Atlas stopped for a moment and considered something.
Should he go down there and try to recover his token, which was essentially a dog tag. He felt stronger from the two levels but still it wouldn't help him in every situation. Atlas smacked himself on the head. 'I'd like to think he would for me.' He thought to himself. Dropping to the lowest branch he breathed deeply.
Although everything here was foreign to him he felt most comfortable in the trees. It was an entirely new ballgame down there although it seemed empty as of now. Atlas rolled as he made contact with the greenery below and quickly ran to his former classmates side.
He pulled the boys long sword from a shrub beside him and kneeled next to the corpse. "May you rest in eternal slumber." He whispered.
Reaching into his vest Atlas pulled a token out and looked once more at his friend. 'He was pretty decent. I wonder how something managed to rip his throat out and leave no other signs of battle. It must be either super strong, or super stealthy.' His eyes widened as his head went on a swivel. On the lowest branch where he had just been, a black panther was crouched its muscles coiled and ready to strike.
Atlas pivoted and swung the long sword he had just acquired barely catching the beasts teeth with the flat of the blade. It pushed him to ground and growled. Atlas held the sword with a shaky grip as the beast fought for control. It was level 3D but its body was far stronger than Atlas.
Its razor sharp blood stained teeth grinded against the metal and began cracking the sword. "Fuck you." Atlas grunted and used the last of his strength to shove the beast back a little and grab the dagger from his thigh.
With some finesse the dagger flipped in his hand and plunged into the panther. At first it'd dense muscles stopped the blade but with a final grunt Atlas reached its heart. Atlas pushed the beast off him and quickly scrambled up the closest tree. "Level 3D Foliage Panther killed. Ultra soul gained.' He could sense some tremors in the ground that scared him enough to not linger.
Not even looking back he took off in the branches and leaves of the jungle. Eventually he ended up running into a large dog sized spider that was level 3D. His hand twitched as he summoned his newly acquired ultrasoul. A curved dagger with a black handle in the shape of cat claw appeared in his hand. He dove to the side as the spider lunged at him his shoulder scraping against the branch.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw a dried husk of another 16 year old. The armor was different so it must've been a different school that gets sent to the same location. There were about 5 public schools and 1 private school across the human federation that get sent to this area.
Atlas had never bothered doing the research on these other schools but regardless he rushed forward grabbing the girls token. His leg was caught by some spider silk jerking him to a stop.
The fear was beginning to gnaw at his decision making. He was panicking. Yet still, his reflexes remained sharp as he turned and slashed the spider silk with his new dagger. Not stopping to engage with the spider, atlas threw himself off of the branch and kept running.
He was finding more and more kids his age so he was getting closer to the assigned location. And the beasts were weaker in this area. He just needed to get closer. His breathing was beginning to become ragged as his legs burned with effort.
He heard a scream of fear and stopped in his tracks. 'Where…' suddenly he turned and launched himself to another tree. The scream was familiar for some reason and belonged to a female student who just entered his view. A girl with dense metal crutches was fending off a few dog sized dark green ants. Their mandibles clicked with a weird viscous liquid coming off of them.
One of them got smacked on the head with the metal bar and backed up. They seemed intent on just wearing her down and not risking anything. Like a pack of coyotes they took small lunges and tested how much they could get away with until a crutch would smack them and threaten to crack their chitin. They were levels 1E, 1E, 2E. Atlas dropped from the trees and fell directly on top of the ants.
His feet planted solidly into one's head smashing it against the ground. Green blood splattered against the greenery as Atlas wielded his new comparatively powerful dagger with expert precision.
He diced the legs off of each ant while avoiding their attempts at taking a chunk out of him. Their joints were more vulnerable then their carapace.
And while his dagger was probably capable of breaking through it he saw no reason to not do what it does best. Which is strike weak spots. 'No Ultrasoul gained. No ultra soul gained. No ultrasoul gained.' He killed them without injury, and without a word grabbed the girl and threw her over his shoulder. "Atlas??!" She exclaimed.
"No time. Do you know the way to humans?" He said. He ran across the jungle floor ducking and jumping over foliage and holes in the ground that surely belonged to some beast. He couldn't climb a tree with her on his shoulder.
This girl was named Yuri, and she suffered from a rare disease that prevented her legs from growing muscle, so she used crutches to get around. Unfortunately her disease was just the wrong kind to excuse her from having to do the mandatory Ultraverse tour as well as her future military tour. To be excused it must be something that is spine related. So if it was a spinal degenerative disease she wouldn't have to essentially commit suicide.
Society had phased out most disabilities and diseases by now as most things in the world were able to be healed by someone's ability. But only truly poor people couldn't pay whatever independent person sold their healing. Yuri moved from much poorer planet when her mom put all her money into the visa.
Eventually her mother passed away from being overworked and left a decent sum that lasted the girl until now. Poverty was rare in the human federation, and where it was there was almost no sympathy from the majority of the population. Atlas himself had gathered a few friends to pool enough money for her somewhat combat ready crutches.
She began to glow with a blue light and vibrate slightly on his shoulder. "What the hell." Atlas said his head as he hid behind a tree from a group of monkeys. The glowing was not helping. "There's a group of humans half a mile to the east. I'll guide you to them." She came from her stupor and pointed away.
"Is it your ability?" Altas asked simply. A question he certainly knew the answer to.
"Yes just trust me." She said. Her voice was deep for a girl. She was fun to talk to because of her unique look on life.
"Yes ma'am." He said. Atlas peeked around the tree to find the group of monkeys zeroed in on him. They must've seen the blue aura from Yuri. "Hold on." His legs flexed as he exploded from behind the tree.