Old man Scrappy had woken up earlier than usual and assembled two other tamers for their usual morning scouting.
Everything was going as usual, until Mark's owl returned. It reported a horde of fast-approaching beasts.
"A beast siege and now of all times?" He muttered and then ordered, "I want every tamer here in the next 5 minutes and tell everyone else to stay locked up in their houses".
"Yes Sir," one of the tamers scouting with him said and rushed towards the Scrapyard.
"How many are we facing and how long do we have?" Scrappy turned to Mark and asked.
"We have 20 minutes at most and there's at least two hundred of them" Mark answered, keeping his eyes forward.
Scrappy could only sigh and lightly touch his mechanical arm.
"You ready for this, boy?" He asked Raio who was standing by his side.
"Growl" it growled in affirmation.
A few minutes later, the tamer returned and with him were seven other tamers. Three of which were Alex, Tommy and Timmy.
Scrappy sighed in relief, seeing that Reid wasn't among them.
'The kid has a knack for putting himself in dangerous situations' he thought.
The other were filled in on the situation, causing them to tense up.
Five minutes later, Scrappy turned around and spotted Reid walking towards them.
'I knew he would come' he thought with a frown.
"Reid? why are you here?" Scrappy asked, knowing exactly why the kid was there.
"I'm here to help" Reid replied with a firm tone.
After a little back and forth, he gave up and allowed Reid to stay.
The battle with the beasts soon started and although he told Reid he wouldn't, he was keeping a close eye on him.
Scrappy was impressed with how easily Reid was taking down the beasts on his own without forged beasts.
Scrappy was a bit worried when Reid faced the [Spikeback Mole], a Bronze-tier beast but Reid surprised him again by taking it down without much struggle.
The old man was about to turn back to Raio, who was taking down most of the siege, when he suddenly saw an ant-type beast jump at Reid from behind, opening its mandibles around his neck.
Scrappy rushed towards him with Raio but he knew he wouldn't be fast enough when he suddenly stopped.
Like someone pressing the pause button, everyone paused, even the ant about to bite off Reid's head froze mid-air.
---
Reid closed his eyes, waiting for the pain but it never came.
[Evolution complete:
Rusty has successfully evolved into a Silver-tier Time mouse.
Nyx has successfully evolved into a Silver-tier void moth.
]
[Active mission: Evolution 01 has been completed.
Bond stat has been unlocked ]
A bunch of tabs suddenly popped up, causing him to open his eyes.
He slowly turned around to see everything paused, even the beast siege.
His attacker, the ant-like beast, froze mid-air. He gulped and slowly moved back to avoid its razor-sharp mandibles.
"What's going on Evo?" He asked.
[ Your forged beasts have been successfully evolved. Sensing the danger you were in, Rusty somehow managed to use its ability from within the forge lab] Evo explained, even though she sounded surprised.
"Is that possible?" Reid asked.
[No it's not... Well it's not supposed to be] she said [ but whatever you're going to do, I suggest you do it now, since this ability won't last long]
"Right. Bring Rusty and Nyx out of the Lab" Reid said and both his forged-beast appeared, with Rusty looking entirely different and Nyx was just bigger than before.
Rusty now looked like a large wolf, similar to Raio but with bigger ears. It wagged its tail, happy to see Reid.
"I'm happy to see you guys too but we're in a bit of a situation so we'll leave that for later," Reid said focusing back on the frozen beasts.
"Alright, Rusty, Nyx, we need to end this quickly. Are you two ready?"
Rusty barked in reply.
"Rusty, do you think you can hold them for a while?" he asked.
Rusty barked softly and tilted its head, as if processing the question or checking its energy reserve.
It then barked in confirmation.
"Good. Keep them like that for now," Reid instructed "We'll target the Bronze-tier ones before Rusty's ability ends".
He rushed at the frozen beasts with Rusty and Nyx. Swinging his bat, he crushed the ant beast's head.
[Congratulations on killing a Bronze-tier blade jaw ant. You've gained a Bronze-tier core]
[10 seconds before Rusty's ability [pause] wears off] Evo informed.
He turned to see how well his beasts were fairing and he was surprised.
Rusty was teleporting in quick succession, biting off the heads of the Bronze-tier beasts.
Nyx on the other hand didn't get close to them but any beast it focused on popped like a balloon.
Kill notifications were constantly pouring in that Reid had to ask Evo to shut them off for now.
Old man Scrappy watched from afar. Although the time-stop ability also affected him, he saw everything going on.
'what the hell is this kid?' he couldn't help but ask. He had seen Reid retrieve beasts, Scrappy or the others of the Scrapyard didn't know he had, out of thin air.
This was only possible with an inventory tech and as far as he knows, Reid didn't have one.
Time suddenly resumed moving and the beasts slain by Reid and his team fell to the ground like flies.
The others were surprised because one moment they were fighting against the wave and then the beasts just dropped dead the next moment.
They just assumed it was Old Man Scrappy's doing— since his beast was faster than the eye could track—and went back to fighting the beasts.
But four people on the battlefield were focused on Reid. Alex and the twins were surprised by the sudden appearance of forged beasts helping Reid, and Scrappy was wondering where Reid got them from.
The beasts were quickly culled, leaving only a few attacking ones. The tamers were already celebrating in their minds assuming the beast siege was about to end.
Suddenly, a heavy pressure descended on them and a roar was heard.
"There you are, you bastard," Reid said, the pressure not even phasing him.
----
Hello, dear readers!
I have some exciting news to share—The Scrap Tamer (this book) has officially been contracted! YAY!
This means you can now support my book with gifts and Golden Tickets. Your continued support and enthusiasm mean the world to me, and It motivates me to write more. Thank you for sticking with me, and I hope you enjoy the chapters to come.
Happy reading!