ã€ŠSecond Echoã€‹


 Chapter 1: Masked Man

    Hey guys I''m starting a new series here!  If you''re interested please let me know  by commenting!

    ------------------------

    To me, it was just another day. I woke up with my lazy hair, and my cowlick stuck in an unfashionable way. My eyelids were tightly shut as I tried to rub them the tiredness out of them. My shirt was stuck in my boxer briefs and even I¡¯m not sure as to how it happened. I yawned and stretched, as my muscles of my body twitched countless times, I almost thought I might grow a few inches. Alas, my luck wasn¡¯t that good.

    Grumbling about having to wake up early for school, I rushed into the shower. It was my holy place where I could ponder the magnificent wonders of the universe, such as, Why didn¡¯t god create me to be the most handsome man alive?

    But that didn¡¯t much matter to me, I was by no means a handsome guy, but I¡¯d like to consider myself as average at the very least. To be honest my most attractive feature might be my butt, however the girls wouldn¡¯t know as the jeans I wear gave a flat feeling to it. My chest was average as I didn¡¯t constantly work out, however I do play soccer and because of that, I¡¯m quite toned. Might be the reason I have such a nice butt, I¡¯m not entirely sure though.

    My nose was sort of stretched and sometimes I could easily see it if I criss-crossed my eyes. I was told it looks normal but somehow I felt mine was slightly longer. My eye brows? Well there was nothing special about them, of course I didn¡¯t have a uni-brow. My eyes, so say the girls, are the most attractive part about me. Why? Even I don¡¯t know. They are black as night and to the girls they apparently feel like their souls are being sucked out.

    Well, I hardly have the chance to stare at a girl that long anyways, after all I¡¯m average at best. My height for a 17-year-old in my last year of high school was normal I was a good 5¡¯10. Awkwardly thought my shoe size was tiny, and only reached a size seven.

    When my ear length brown hair wasn¡¯t being a mess it would naturally have a right side cowlick that I sort of had an obsession to play with. I don¡¯t even know why, people call me weird but I swear you try having this soft of hair. It just feels that good.

    Overall there wasn¡¯t anything fascinating about me. And with another day, was another walk to school.

    ---------------

    After a nice breakfast cooked by my loving family, I left my house after brushing my teeth and all the stuff a good kid would do. I had already booked it out of the door and awaiting me were two similar looking people. They were naturally familiar looking because they were my best friends.

    ¡°Morning Ryker~¡±

    ¡°Yo!¡±

    As the girl ahead of me waved energetically, and the man gave a slight salute, I too gave them a morning greeting.

    ¡°Morning Sasha, Sup.¡±

    The girl was a head shorter than me. Her rosy cheeks from taking a shower had given off a lovable feeling. Her eyebrows were perfectly symmetrical that complemented her deep blue eyes. Time after time I could see myself getting lost in these eyes. Not cause I was in love with her or anything, but that was just the type of eyes they were. It was also Sasha that first said staring into my eyes seemed to suck in her soul, which in turn caused a one day mayhem of multiple girls trying it. But now, the only person that will stare back is Sasha, which I don¡¯t mind, call me crazy but I kind of have a soft spot for blue eyes. Her long dirty blonde hair was in a pony-tail which gave off the feeling of a sporty girl. The truth in the matter was that she was a sporty girl, a sport girl with the natural curves to match it.

    ¡®Ah what a goddess she is¡¯

    Is what I thought time and time again every time i saw her. But it wasn¡¯t just me who did, Leo and every single other guy stared at her all day long while dreaming of being able to just hold her hand. Leo and I both wonder how we got so lucky to be so close to her.

    Leo on the other hand gave the opposite impression. He was a ginormous guy who was easily 6¡¯2 although he was big he was kind to a fault. His overly large build was sought after many girls and day after day he would get love letters. After being reminded of such a thing I could not help but clench my fist slightly in bitterness. But contrary to his love letters his looks were average. He had a wider nose that seemed overly normal, and eyes that didn¡¯t leave any particular feeling as they were a normal hazel colour. His short black was straight and gave off a nice sheen from the sun. All in all he was an average built man.

    The true reasons why Sasha and Leo were so popular was because of their actions. Sasha herself was the ace of the volleyball team while Leo was the ace quarterback of the football team. Me? Did you forget? I¡¯m the regular average joe on the soccer team who plays as a substitute half the time. How did i get matched up with such good friends?

    Long story short is our families grew up together and naturally we also hung out together. Being friends at a young age whether we wanted to or not our families would drag us over to another, forcing us to play together. So we couldn¡¯t just say no. We became good friends and after that never separated. Even our families made sure to have us all go to the same school.

    The biggest problem with that was when Leo was trying to get into a middle school before when he didn¡¯t play football and was only a scrawny tall kid. But after multiple tutoring sessions with Sasha and I, we managed to get him barely accepted at the bottom of the acceptance list. I remember sweating profusely as my eyes scrolled and started to move slower the farther I went down.

    ¡°Shall we go?¡±

    ¡°Ah, yeah let¡¯s go.¡±

    As my mind wandered there for a bit Sasha returned my from my reminiscing. Leo didn¡¯t say much as he wasn¡¯t the overly talkative type to begin with and gave a slight nod.

    ----------------------------------

    As we started walking and chatting heavily with a few laughs here and there, suddenly Sasha frowned and put on the

    ¡®unhappy¡¯ act when she wanted something. Of course being guilty naturally Leo and I had to listen to her demands in order to brighten her mood.

    ¡°How come you guys never give me any interesting greetings!¡±

    Leo and I stared dumbfounded at one another. We couldn¡¯t help but both shrug our shoulders. Truthfully we didn¡¯t really know either, as the three of us were best friends at one point in time Leo just naturally started to use the least amount of syllables he could in a sentence and I soon followed suit. Actually I knew what Sasha was truthfully talking about as I

    held out my hand in front of Leo.

    Leo returning his hand they slowly bumped into one another and we started a set chain of reactions of a handshake, low five, finger wiggle, the hand wave one on top of another, and finally finished it off with the awkward turtle.

    As seriously young adults this did not suit our maturity level at all but alas we were young foolish little boys and what cooler method to greeting each other than a secret handshake? Regardless of how truly foolish it was now.

    ¡°Yeah like that!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a guy thing.¡±

    Leo only answered her with a simple one liner. Sasha seemed dissatisfied with his answer but didn¡¯t follow through with it. She then only gave a slight grin, after all she knew that we were slightly happy about such a cool handshake even till today. It would only embarrass us if we used it in public, thus she sometimes she would lure us into doing it. She secretly was quite manipulative although no one knew about her bad side and even if I told someone they would call me a heretic for lying about their goddess.

    I could only shake my head as I thought about being massively ganged up for speaking badly about Sasha.

    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    ¡°Ryker?¡±

    Leo noticing my actions first asked me by just using his expression in a questioning like manner. I waved my hand as if it was nothing and responded to them.

    ¡°Nah it¡¯s nothing school¡¯s right around the corner, I¡¯ll race you.. Go!¡±

    ¡°Not fair!¡±

    ¡°Haha what a sneaky guy.¡±

    ----------------------------

    As I opened the door to the classroom, I was about to walk in when Leo finally caught up to me and put me into a rear naked choke to express his unhappiness.

    ¡°O...kay I.. give!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s better!¡±

    Leo pumped his chest with a slightly arrogant expression but I wasn¡¯t about to complain after all I technically cheated him. As sportsmanship was his go to, naturally any form of cheating would bother him the most. To rest of the students in the class all watched this scene with slight smiles on their faces. They all knew they I was the type to cheat and knew I had done something wrong to receive his wrath. Although I say wrath the guys pretty much a stuffed bear. He looks scary on the outside but he¡¯s harmless inside.

    As I couldn¡¯t be bothered with the class¡¯s reaction I sat down in my seat, which was the furthest from the front. It was the corner of the classroom beside the windows. If I wanted too I could easily spend the entire time watching the clouds fly by, which might I add, did all the time. But this time as if the fate would have it the skies were clear and with nothing else to look at I stared at the ground watching the rushing workers get to work on time.

    It was then I noticed at the school gate, a large figure walked in. Normally I would brush this off as a normal occurrence as even teachers could be late, or a parent would come for a meeting. For whatever reason it was a normal occurrence, but this time was different.

    This large figure wasn¡¯t wearing any shirt and had red stains covered on his bulging muscles. The weirdest part was that covering his face was a white mask. This mask was rough on the edges and had a place for the cheek bone. The mouth area had a circular fan that seemingly look like a gas mask. The eyes, although not super noticeable due to the brightness outside, had a bright blue glow to it, as if there were thermal scopes of some sort. This mask might have looked white but it was so overly dirty and covered with red stains as well it wouldn¡¯t be appropriate to call it nice white colour. Because of the weird-looking mask I was unable to draw my attention to anything else of the masked man.

    ¡°Ryker!¡±

    It was just then, that I noticed an old man staring at me in displeasure. He was the teacher of the class, and I couldn¡¯t help but think ¡®When did he get here?¡¯

    ¡°Class has just started and you¡¯re already cloud gazing. Should I move your seat?¡±

    ¡°Ah.. No sorry I¡¯ll pay attention.¡±

    ¡°Good as your grades are one of the highest I won¡¯t be too hard on you for dozing off sometimes, but at least try to pay attention at the very start.¡±

    As the teacher sighed while he spoke, the students chuckled in the background. It was true, I didn¡¯t pay attention half the time and because of that I was called an air head. They laughed because I watched clouds so much they thought it fit

    even more.

    It didn¡¯t bother me, as it wasn¡¯t like they were doing it in spite. After all, it was true that I was staring off into the distance, bored out of my mind half the time. School was boring, as it was too easy for me. You could say I had the potential to be one of the top students but because I didn¡¯t put the effort in my grades above average.

    As I looked around I noticed Leo shrugging his shoulders as if saying ¡®I tried to warn you¡¯.

    ¡®Liar I know you wouldn¡¯t open your mouth even if you wanted too!¡¯

    Unhappily breaking eye contact my gaze fell onto Sasha who was also starring towards me. She gave a worried look as if to ask ¡®are you okay?¡¯, and with a nod I responded ¡®Yeah I¡¯m fine¡¯, or at least this was the impression I was hoping to deliver.

    Finally remembering the figure I quickly shook my gaze from Sasha and look towards the school grounds.

    ¡®Not there? Was I imagining it? I must be playing too many video games lately.¡¯

    But it was then that what I saw was truly not an illusion. I even realized that it was a mistake to be solely focused on the man¡¯s mask alone. As the man itself had just opened the door and walked in disrupting the class. The teacher unhappily yelled out to the masked man.

    ¡°Who are you and what are you do-¡±

    But before he finish the masked man swept his arm, and with it a terrifying sound rung out. The teacher unable to do anything was brutally attacked, with an object from the masked assailant. Unable to react in time sat there dumbfounded. It wasn¡¯t until a girl in the front of the class screamed that everyone, myself included realized how grim the situation truly was.

    As we stared in the direction the girl was looking we noticed the teachers body. From his body was a dark red liquid spreading onto the floor as if nothing could stop it from flooding the room. Everyone started to scream unconsciously even the guys were unable to hold back their voices. I, myself nearly wet my pants, but that was because I was the first to notice the object in the masked assailants hands.

    In the masked man¡¯s hand was a long three-foot object. Most of it looked like a normal rod with a handle grip on it, but that wasn¡¯t the case for the top. The top of the rod sat a saw blade, much like one from a table saw only somewhat smaller.

    It was when I finally noticed it was a dangerous weapon that a loud sound started to reverberate through room silencing all those who were unable to hold back their fear. They stared with pale faces at the fastly spinning saw. The girls were unable to hold back their tears as they huddled towards one another for protection. The guys clenched their fists tightly to hide their fear, but they weren¡¯t fooling anyone especially not the one giving them fear.

    The masked man¡¯s silence didn¡¯t last for long as he started to flail the weapon around like a maniac. It didn¡¯t take long for the second victim to meet an unsightly end as the saw was struck at a young cowering girl¡¯s chest. Screams erupted again and as if all reason had been lost some of the boys viciously charged at the masked man to hold him down. When three guys who even I forgot their names called out the class started to listen.

    ¡°Hurry! Get out of here while we are holding him back!¡±

    As if the masked man was a superhuman before any of the students even had a chance to move the three boys were thrown off. Thrown unto the ground like a rag doll they were made into easy pickings as the saw came down and blood gushed from their arteries. Once again everyone was unable to move. The tears silently ran down the faces of the girls, who were even unable to scream at this point. The guy¡¯s clenched fists loosened and they too lost hope.

    As I felt I was the only one with mind still half functioning I called out to the man.

    ¡°Who are you? Why are you attacking and killing people?!¡±

    ¡°Hehe¡­ You¡¯ll soon understand young boy. Death is only the beginning for you all, as you¡¯ll soon arrive to your Second Echo!¡±

    To my surprise the man responded with bunch of gibberish, as if the masked man truly believed that he was in the right. I was flabbergasted as even now, I could feel the fear in my muscles as they twitched. Sure seeing murder was scary, but what was scarier was a man who thought he was doing the right thing. That was the moment that changed my life forever and brought me to my Second Echo.

 Chapter 2: A New World

    Special Thanks To SpartanLoki for editting my terrible mistakes~

    ----------------

    This¡­ guy¡¯s a fucking maniac!¡±

    I couldn¡¯t help but mutter softly so no one could hear. Not that anyone at the time was willingly to hear it. After all nearly everyone had already thought their death was certain. But I was not about to kick the bucket so easily, as I truthfully enjoy my peaceful times as it is right now.

    ¡®What can I do?¡¯

    I couldn¡¯t help but ponder over the situation, even while I was thinking for a fraction of a second people were being killed. I didn¡¯t have the luxury of time and I didn¡¯t even have the right state of mind either. It was already an incredible strain on my brain just to muster the courage to even think straight, not to mention thinking of a method of escaping.

    ¡®There¡¯s one door and that man is making sure to cover it while killing people. So unless someone lures him over¡­..ah fuck I don¡¯t like this but this might be the only way out.¡¯

    After I finally managed to figure out a plan, I realized how incredibly vicious of a person I was under stress. But I didn¡¯t have time for that. I had to save myself and as many people, including my best friends, as possible. Therefore, I mustered up my courage and yelled at the top of my lungs!

    ¡°Everyone! Listen¡­ I have a way to escape¡­ But only half of us will be saved at a maximum. If you want the chance to at least live. Split up into two groups and stand on either sides of the middle of the walls farthest away from the door! Quickly!¡±

    As Sasha was a mischievous young girl, she was naturally the first one who figured out the truth behind my plan. I could only shake my head when she gave me a worried look, and as I did she called out to help split the groups.

    During this time, the masked man thought of it as a game for the students to struggle for their lives. He stopped killing at the moment and only watched as we set our plan into motion. Even though it might be obvious, I¡¯ll say this now. One group was definitely not getting out of here alive. As the masked man would definitely not sit and wait till we starved to death. The masked man was on a time limit after all and if he wanted to escape there¡¯s no way other people wouldn¡¯t have heard the screams by now.

    Naturally I was with Leo and Sasha, at one corner of the room, while it might be selfish, I was still hoping we weren¡¯t the group chosen for a death sentence. Staring at the masked man blood was dripping from his weapon, and I finally realized where the red stains had come from. In fact it was an even more terrifying realisation now that I knew it was a common occurrence to him.

    Finally, the moment the masked man move came. Unfortunately, even after trying my best to come up with a plan, he decided with my group in the end. I could only bitterly smile, while I did Sasha came up and hugged my arm before consoling me softly.

    ¡°It¡¯s okay¡­ You saved at least half the people¡­¡±

    ¡°Thanks..¡±

    Everyone in our group started to have complicated feelings and tears welled up in their eyes. It was not completely over for them. The opposite happened for the other group of people. The life in their eyes lit up and they all rushed towards the door when, the masked man neared us. The smiles on their faces grew more evident and just as they were about to reach the doorway, the masked man started to laugh coldly.

    I didn¡¯t know why at the moment, but I soon found out. As the students rushed towards the door and turned the knob, they found that the door knob wouldn¡¯t turn. Maybe it was more accurate to say they couldn¡¯t turn it. But this was the moment the masked man was hoping for and he started laughing for the very depths of his soul.

    ¡°HAHAHAHA. Foolish children, do you think any of you are going to leave alive?¡±

    It was over. I tried my best to think of a solution and even when I knew I wasn¡¯t going to be saved I thought at the very least I could save others. The impact was like a huge waterfall crushing me down and drowning me under the intense pressure. I fell to my knees, as I couldn¡¯t help but feel responsible for their deaths as well as my groups deaths. After all it was my plan and it failed miserably.

    The impact to the group fleeing was even greater. The moment they knew they couldn¡¯t escape they turned lifeless and mumbled incognizable things. The masked man didn¡¯t even bother with us anymore, as we fully knew we could only await our deaths.

    ¡°Hey¡­ Ryker.. Do you think we could take that guy down?¡±

    ¡°Nope, but I suppose it¡¯s a better way to go then waiting right?¡±

    As I picked myself up to recover I looked at the serious eyes of Leo. He knew the situation was grim but even now he still didn¡¯t give up. Might be the attitude of an ace quarterback that always believes in that winning throw but personally I couldn¡¯t say any words of encouragement to him this time. I was without a doubt sure we were goners. For whatever reason the door wasn¡¯t able to be opened and watching three guys attempt to hold him down and be easily thrown off wasn¡¯t exactly hopeful.

    I mean you might think it was possible to send the remainder of the guys at the masked man, but we were still in a classroom and the desks were in the way. It wasn¡¯t like we could charge at him all at once. Only on the side of the classrooms was there enough room to gather a large group. But the masked man wasn¡¯t an idiot either, he purposely stayed within the desks to avoid being ganged up on like that.

    To me it felt like caution from experience, but I could also tell even if we did gang up on him, it wouldn¡¯t work. It might be because of the door not opening, but something here was clearly strange. After all his attire was too weird, his mask was particularly strange. A mask sure, but why a gas mask? Clearly it would be cheaper to use another alternative, not to mention that the lights from the eyes were strange as well. What was the purpose for those lights? Especially that weapon. That weapon is beyond weird, as a saw that spins attached to a rod. What was the point of making such a difficult weapon? He could just use a blade, or gun. There was no need to go through all this extra work even if you were a maniac psycho.

    To me a unknown factors led to higher risk, and with all the unknowns laid in front of me I could not help but think that this was all strange. As if the masked man knew what I was thinking, the reason I felt uneasy was soon answered.

    A gust of wind, which should have been impossible as the windows were all closed, could be felt. The source of this wind was coming from that masked man. I didn¡¯t know what was happening but I didn¡¯t even have time to question it and nor did anyone else. As the masked man raised his off-hand and pointed it towards the cowering group, they lost their hope as the wind started to concentrate in his palm.

    The moment felt like I was in a dream, except this dream was a nightmare and everything went well for the murderer and nothing went right for the victim. There was no happy ending for us as i stared at the aftermath of the wind being concentrated shot out towards the group of students.

    As it was shot out it turned into a visible blade of wind and pierced straight through all the students. The next moment they were looking around as if wondering what happened. But from our point of view, we could see it clearly. Around the waist level of each student hit, was a red line and as a few seconds passed by, this red line grew more apparent.

    It was only after a solid minute of the students not knowing what happened did their bodies split apart. I¡¯m not sure about everyone else but this scene was to grotesque for even me and I quickly shut my eyes to avoid seeing their pleading faces while they died not knowing what happened.

    ¡°Haha, killing those who have seen hope is still the best way to kill after all.¡±

    At this point in time Leo was unable to hold back any longer. Seeing the group of mutilated students he walked in front of the group trying his best to hide his trembling. Even though he might be able to fool everyone else he could not fool me. I¡¯ve known him since we were kids and could clearly see when he was nervous, he would unconsciously pinch the side of his leg with his left hand. It wasn¡¯t a noticeable trait to anyone but Sasha and I. It was then, even though he was scared himself, that he spoke up.

    ¡°If I willingly give myself up will you be able to spare a few of us?¡±

    ¡°Oh? How noble giving yourself up when I can kill you easily anyways.¡±

    ¡°But you like torture right? If you torture me, will you let some go?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s a good idea¡­¡±

    ¡°What are you doing Leo!¡±

    ¡®How can you do this¡¯

    Is what I wanted to say at the time but only Sasha was able to get her words out. I stood there dumbstruck at his resolve. I knew he was a person who¡¯d sacrifice everything for his friends but to even willingly take torture was another thing entirely. However we weren¡¯t left with much time to discuss as the masked man finally made his decision.

    Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

    ¡°....good idea but unfortunately, orders are to kill you all!¡±

    It was first time that masked man charged forward. It would seem that even the masked man was impatient to delay this any longer. But now the bigger problem arose and the man was charging straight towards Leo. It might have been a useless attempt of defending but Leo still positioned himself in a defensive posture.

    During this time, it was as if my body wasn¡¯t even my own. Before I even noticed what I was doing. I had already been struck down by the masked man. Leo was looking at me with guilt filling his eyes and Sasha was crying while screaming my name. Why were they?

    Because when my body acted on it¡¯s own I rushed to my best friend. Even if I¡¯m a coward I still couldn¡¯t watch my best friend die without doing anything. But it was a foolish attempt while I threw myself in front of the saw It was deeply imbedded into my back. The shredding of the muscles was unbearable and it was then that I finally noticed my own actions. I didn¡¯t regret it though. It might have been a pointless action as they would probably die anyways. I felt slightly happy to increase their life by even a few seconds longer.

    ¡®Ah my eyes¡­. they feel so heavy..¡¯

    With each passing second the sounds of screams started to drift away, and I could no longer hear the screams of Sasha or Leo. My eyes started to feel droopy and I couldn¡¯t remain awake any longer. Just as death approached me, a echo appeared in my head.

    ¡°Do you want a second chance? If so are you prepared to live a second echo? Life is but an echo that ripples through the calm waters. When a larger rock drops it can simply vanish without a trace. However if you¡¯re willing to take that chance, and let your own echo return to be heard once more, we can give you life again.¡±

    ¡°Huh? What¡­ does that all mean? Does that mean I can live?¡±

    As if the voice saw through my confusion it answered back in a calm voice.

    ¡°Yes¡­ but once you agree your life will change forever!¡±

    ¡°Will I see my friends again? My family?¡±

    ¡°All will depend on your actions¡­¡±

    Finally the voice drifted away. With no choice but to accept, I nodded my head. The moment I agreed a bright light flashed and blinded me. I was unable to see anything and suddenly I felt tired and unable to deny my bodies wishes I fell and passed out.

    ------------------------------------------------

    ¡®Urgh¡­ Why does my body feel so heavy?¡¯

    I woke up with cramps and pains all over my body. My head was hazy and I couldn¡¯t think clearly. But as my mind started to wake up the memories that I had just experienced flowed through my head. As the painful memories resurfaced, I was unable to hold back my gastric fluids as I puked up everything. It wasn¡¯t until that my stomach was empty that i finally wiped my mouth of the remains. After staring at my gastric fluids, I noticed something strange. No there was nothing strange with my puke, it was where my puke was. I noticed that the place I was currently at was outside. Finally I managed to gather enough strength to stand up.

    To my surprise, I noticed that I was definitely no longer in my old world. Why? Because there was no way the world I lived in previously was able to have such a decayed city. The buildings were cracking and toppling over, the windows were smashed or completely dirtied to the point you couldn''t even see through them. The pavement was cracked and some unknown plants could be seen growing about. And for whatever reason in the distance some of the buildings were completely submerged by sand. Although the sand was the only normal looking part of this world, it was still weird to think of. After all I lived in a city without sand my whole life, and for me to suddenly be in a desert like environment like this was completely inconceivable. Thus I came to the quick conclusion, this was no longer my own world.

    As I finally managed to turn around I noticed something. There were also other people here! They were also people I knew, specifically from my class and even Sasha and Leo! As they were both looking around endlessly in worry I rushed over and called out to them.

    ¡°Sasha! Leo!¡±

    As I called out they could easily recognize my voice and turned instantly towards my direction. Leo smirked with a happy expression while running over, while Sasha started to tear up bringing her hands towards her mouth.

    ¡°You asshole!¡±

    ¡°wha?!¡±

    As Leo finally reached me he grabbed me into a rear naked choke and cussed at me.

    ¡°How could you jump in like that?!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m¡­ sorry¡­ It was my bad okay!¡±

    As I apologized the gripped lessened and I was able to clearly speak without a hinderance. As I couldn¡¯t be bothered to explain, as I didn¡¯t even know how I managed to jump in front of him. While complicated feelings arose in Leo¡¯s eyes he didn¡¯t bother saying anything more and only stuck out his fist. Naturally, I responded with my own fist and our secret handshake erupted out of nowhere.

    After completing the secret handshake I rushed to the still quietly crying Sasha. I felt terrible as I watched how pained she looked. I couldn¡¯t help but pat her head and ask her softly.

    ¡°Are you okay?¡±

    ¡°....yeah¡­ I am now!¡±

    As the tears started to fall at a faster rate she jumped into my embrace. As Leo and I could only continue to watch as her tears were absorbed by my shirt. However, our fateful reunion was cut short by a loud noise that appeared from behind us.

    Bang!

    As all the students and teachers and myself included looked towards the source of the noise. We all couldn¡¯t help but shudder as we saw a familiar figure. It was the masked man who had killed us all! But before any of us were able to give a word of complaint the masked figure spoke out in a loud deafening roar.

    ¡°Greetings to you all! You all must be very angry, but control yourselves or I¡¯ll kill you right now. There¡¯s no harm in listening to what I say first.¡±

    ¡°Are you the one who attacked us?!¡±

    As one of the teachers spoke up in anger the masked man only glanced at the man before turning away to continue his monologue.

    ¡°Now, I will answer that question, and the answer is no! But, I am the one who ordered for you to be killed!¡±

    ¡°Huh! You **cker! how dare you attack us!¡±

    The teacher spoke out in rage, but this time the masked man stared directly at the teacher and did not turn away. Then he brought out a device that looked like a phone, and pressed the screen a few times. As he finally pressed the last button, an inconceivable thing happened.

    The teacher that spoke up blew up. His body entirely blew up and there was nothing left of him. We could all only stare dumbfounded. We had no idea what happened but if you put one piece together it was obvious that the same thing could easily happen to us.

    ¡°Okay.. Because you guys are so impatient I¡¯ll cut straight to the point. Inside your head exists a nanobots nest. We call them Aether bots. These Aether bots will allow you to receive powers. But there¡¯s a catch, your powers will only grow the more you die. And you only get 9 lives. Well that¡¯s not counting your baptism. As you die you¡¯ll grow stronger and your powers will evolve. If you wish to leave this world, you must find the escape point marked by your PDA¡¯s in your pockets.¡±

    As the man explained, everyone was unable to understand a single thing. However after mentioning the PDA, I immediately dug into my pocket and pulled out a phone like device. On it was a map with a dot marking my location, and another dot marked with ¡°escape point¡±. As the rest of the conversation was gibberish to me I was unable to understand it.

    ¡°There¡¯s no need to worry about understanding it. After your baptism you will naturally come to know of your abilities. Now awaken yourselves and embark on your journey by becoming a [Beginner] in this world!¡±

    As he called out he pressed a few more buttons on his PDA. Just then a massive headache appeared out of nowhere. I was unable to control my bodily functions and immediately fell to the ground. The pain was so great it felt like a thousand needles were individually scrapping my muscles asunder. As the only thing I was capable of was moving my eyes I could see everyone was dropped to the ground and in a similar situation. We weren¡¯t even able to hold our hands to our heads in attempts to lessen the pain.

    I could only see Sasha in front of me as she was no longer able to cry and her body twitched uncontrollably in front of me. I imagined that Leo was going through the same sort of pain and because I was experiencing it personally I could imagine how they felt. Our bodies weren¡¯t even able to move and the only thing that could be felt was an indescribable pain until I could only blackout to release me from my torture.

 Chapter 3: How to live

    I''m strongly starting to like where I''m heading with this story and I hope everyone else feels the same way~

    ----------------

    I woke up for the second time in one day, and for the second time I was bombarded with a massive pain. Although this time instead of my body being in pain I was assaulted with a massive migraine. It wasn¡¯t just a migraine, as multiple pieces of information started to insert itself into my brain.

    As I recalled what the leader masked man said about abilities, I started to figure out exactly what he meant. At the memories poured in I was able to clearly feel my body becoming more powerful and I unlocked a strange new ability. I had no idea of the origin behind this power but I knew from the new memories that and organ in my body was created using the nanobots in my brain. It was a scary thought, to think it was possible to create such an organ with just nanobots that gave us special abilities.

    Not much information was given, other than the memories of my own abilities, as I hoped to be told of what sort of world this was and why we were sent here. But I knew that an organ just merged with my heart. It was as if this organ specifically wrapped around my heart and created a new lifeline. I now knew that the Aether Bots were created to save our memories and construction while the new organ gave us our powers.

    Naturally I was included but I wasn¡¯t able to figure out much about my abilities. As of now I had two abilities that I could use. One was called [Void ball] which I assumed was my main method of attacking, however there was no description to describe my power so I was left hopelessly in the dark. The other ability I gained was the ability to use [Void Eyes], which was called an [Inherent] ability. I also didn¡¯t have any knowledge behind the eyes either, however at the very least, I knew how to use them.

    Just by concentrating on my hand a [Void Ball] could be summoned. I had no idea how many I could summon with my current power as through my memories I was also told that I only had a certain amount of Aether particles supplied by the Aether organ that would allow me to use my powers. If i over used my Aether organ I would be severely weakened, it was essentially the same thing as running yourself to exhaustion even though it was unlikely you would die, you would be so weak if you met up with an enemy you would be as good as dead.

    I also knew how to use [Void Eyes] however unlike [Void Ball] the [Inherent] ability did not require the use of Aether particles to be used. Thus I could use it as I willed, and because of this fact, I decide to try it out.

    As I thought mentally to myself to activate the [Void eyes], I could feel a cold like power flow from my Aether organ to my eyes. As the power concentrated suddenly I felt a black liquid spread all over my body. I might have known about how to use my abilities, however I didn¡¯t know anything about how they formed or what would happen when I used them. As I wasn¡¯t mentally prepared the sudden blackness taking over my vision startled me and I unconsciously fell backwards. But as my eyesight darkened, completely turning the world into a shade of night. Soon after the blackness soft white lines started to redraw the world in front of me.

    It took less than a single blink for the entire world to be painted in white lines that showed the outlines of objects. It might have not been as nearly as efficient as my original vision however it there was a clear benefit, that I immediately noticed. As the entire world was made out of white lines, it didn¡¯t gave off an x-ray like feeling, and as I looked to stare at the rest of the students and teachers who were also starting to recover and stare at their hands awkwardly, I could see where the position of the heart is, a small organ wrapped around their hearts.

    I was able to see it clearly because it was giving off a soft glow and in the world of darkness, only these organs were shining brightly. As I turned my direction I noticed a single blinding light that felt like looking directly at the sun, unconsciously I deactivated my [Void Eyes] and where my glaze rested was on the masked man in front of me.

    It was clear to me now because of the [Void Eyes] I was able to see the concentration of Aether particles in a person¡¯s body. Whether these eyes had more abilities for now I was unsure. But I knew now that this masked man¡¯s power was unfathomably deep and if we were even to attempt to attack him, he could probably kill us all in a few seconds flat without the use of his PDA.

    The scariest part when I was staring at him, I realized he was staring back at me the entire time. It was clear that he knew exactly what I saw. Thankfully he only shrugged his shoulders and raised a finger to the mouth position of the mask. I knew at that moment I would keep this a secret till the day I died.

    It was at this moment that the man finally stood up noticing there wasn¡¯t a single person unconscious anymore. Even Leo and Sasha were fine, but as I knew they were currently also figuring out their new abilities I didn¡¯t want to disturb them. Of course I was also busy with learning my abilities as well. Thus before I even got a chance to talk to them the masked man already started to speak.

    ¡°Now then. You all have finally stepped inside the new world. This is but a small step to the real world ahead of you. I won¡¯t lie to you, I am no saint, however I will not leave you to die without giving you some advice. Because we forcefully already killed you twice once in your world and once here, naturally we will give you some information. Whether this information truly helps you will all depend on your own actions.¡±

    Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

    As the masked man started to over exaggerate his arm movements to complement his speech we all patiently listened. No one was stupid enough to interrupt the masked man who killed someone without even a second thought. He then continued slowly and made sure to enunciate each word clearly so no one could pretend to not hear it.

    ¡°First, I will announce once again, that you currently have 9 lives. However, that isn¡¯t absolute you can only die once per run!¡±

    ¡®Per run?! You mean we will have to come back here?¡¯

    I couldn¡¯t help but think to myself, as the masked man¡¯s intentions were clear behind his words. He said we could escape but we would be forced to comeback. as the thoughts about being murdered a second time was rushing through my mind, I couldn¡¯t help but start to sweat. If we had to experience a helpless death like that each time, I don¡¯t think anyone would be able to stay sane. The masked man nodded as he saw some expressions of horror. He knew what those people were thinking and to ease their doubts he spoke again.

    ¡°You, won¡¯t be killed again to return here. When you need to be recalled you¡¯ll start to hear a loud noise in your head. This noise will get louder and louder until you accept to be transported. If you fail to accept within 10 minutes you will die for good. To accept simply take out your PDA¡¯s and click the the black circle. This circle can only be pushed by you so whether you chose death is entirely up to you!¡±

    The faces of everyone who was able to see between the lines started to calm down. While the solution didn¡¯t feel good, it was much better than being murdered each and every time to arrive here. The masked man didn¡¯t waste time and continued.

    ¡°Now, back to your 9 lives. It will take exactly 24 hours to revive. If your Aether bots are destroyed you will be unable to revive, if you are eaten, you will also die, and yes there are large enough monsters here that would be able to easily eat you. The Aether bots naturally would be decomposed in the stomachs of Aether monsters. Thus you will want to at least travel with someone to make sure your back is safe if you die.¡±

    I couldn¡¯t help but think, this was truly strange after all. If we had abilities why give us multiple chances like this? Are they by chance trying to train us? The theories passed one by one as I couldn¡¯t clearly figure out their intentions.

    ¡°Your Aether organs are currently like babies, and are unable to handle the stress of the Aether particles required to effectively fight in this world. However, with each death as your body will get reconstructed and your Aether organ will grow. Naturally at this time one would think that you could endlessly die and let yourself be reborn to become even stronger. However it doesn¡¯t work that way. Your Aether organ will only be able to handle 10 deaths and reconstructions as you die your 11th time your organ will be unable to hold the power and your body will combust.¡±

    I was surprised by the sudden information. It made a lot of sense now that he explained it. Of course no one would be able to figure the reasons behind such an organ as it was like a foreign language to us. But when hearing the explanations behind everything it all made sense. Our new organs are part of our bodies as well and they are new to it. The organs could probably grow with time but who out of this group would be willing to wait that long? Who knew how long it would even take for the organ to fully develope.

    ¡°Now you can think of your current power as a little child, nothing but a weak insignificant being in a large would''ve predators. You¡¯ll have to run and hide from 90% of this world¡¯s ecosystem. However as you escape and die, eventually to your last life, you will become a [God]. Now comes the main point and the most important part to you all. If you want to escape you must die and die, until your last life, and successfully escape. It sounds easy, but I can tell you that less than 5 people have succeeded before out of thousands.¡±

    ¡°What!?¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t this just a death trap then?!¡±

    ¡°Yeah, why are you just sending us to our deaths!¡±

    The crowd started to get rowdy but as if it wasn¡¯t the masked man¡¯s problem he didn¡¯t even need to speak as he just took out the PDA from his pocket and everyone who spoke up immediately shut their mouths. I was suddenly struck by fear. At least I thought it was possible to survive this hell like game, but now I realized it wasn¡¯t as simple as I thought.

    ¡°Finally I have one more piece of information for you. On your PDA is a mini map and of course it outlines the escape point that you need to all reach. But it also outlines dangerous areas that you shouldn¡¯t attempt to near under any circumstance. If you do it¡¯s the same as death. These areas will be marked with a dotted border. There is no time limit to leave, as long as you do not die twice, get eaten, or completely destroyed you will have a chance to leave. Lastly, is a warning for you and because this is only a slight warning to [Beginners] let me tell you; do not trust anything, and stay cautious with everything, as this is not your harmless world.¡±

    With that the man, jumped off the car he was sitting on top of and ran down the cracked pavement soon disappearing in the horizon. The group of a hundred made up of students and teachers stood there, and could only absorb all the information give to us in hopes to survive this new world.

 Chapter 4: Scouting

    ¡°Ryker¡­.¡±

    A sweet worried voice filled my ears.  I looked towards the source of the sound and saw Sasha and Leo standing there with slightly troubled looks.  It was no wonder why they were troubled after all we were all sent to this unknown world for even an unknown purpose.  Sure we were told to fight and survive but why did they kill us in the first place?

    What did they need us to accomplish in order to truly leave this world?  It obviously wasn¡¯t as simple as looking at the PDA and running to the escape point.  Clearly fighting and growing stronger was part of the reason, but what was that reason?

    ¡®No matter how hard I think, I just can not come up with a reason.  First of all these powers are simply too strange.  I mean how were these Aether particles created in such a world?  I might not be a physicist or chemist but I at least know that I have never heard of such a thing.¡¯

    I was unable to realize that I failed to even answer my friends as the ideas popped one after another into my head.  It was only when Leo grabbed me and put me into choke hold that I was able to realize they were trying to speak to me.

    ¡°Are you okay now?¡±

    Sasha came up and asked in a worried voice.  Even though she was slightly trembling and even before worrying about herself she was worried about me.  I couldn¡¯t help but feel slightly guilty,  although I was definitely worried about being in this world and why we were transported here, my first thoughts should be on how to survive currently.  I looked at Sasha and Leo with a small smile and nodded.

    ¡°Yes, sorry I was just a little overwhelmed.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s okay we all are confused¡­  But Ryker¡­ What should we do now?¡±

    Leo and Sasha stared at me curiously.  Although I don¡¯t stand out much in school, they both think I¡¯ll be able to come up with a solution the fastest.  It wasn¡¯t to say they weren¡¯t able of thinking of a solution, it¡¯s just a matter of who can come up with an idea first would voice it.  While the others could build on top of it, and most of the time it started with me while Leo and Sasha were able to perfect it.  I thought for a moment before coming up with a sound conclusion.

    ¡°I think we should stay in the area and look for any food and shelter for now.  That masked man said there was no time limit and if we rush through things it would just be more dangerous for everything.¡±

    It may have been simple and obvious to people who were calm but under such circumstances most people are unable to think logically.  First of all when you get lost the best plan for action is to not move and set up a base.  Someone lost would have no sense of direction and could end up going in circles wasting energy and soon passing on before rescue could come.  This was the same idea, except instead of rescue coming to us we knew where rescue was yet the dangers in between were unknown.  Thus it would be better to scout the areas before we set off and having a base would be the best way to start off.

    ¡°Sasha can you gather the girls and look for a place to stay?  Take a few guys with you just incase you find something one of the buildings.  If you find a wide enough area make sure to start cleaning it up.  Leo gather a group of guys and immediately look for food and water in any stores.  Make sure to check the expiry dates, we can¡¯t have people getting sick here.¡±

    ¡°Alright.~¡±

    ¡°Okay.¡±

    Sasha and Leo immediately answered.  They knew that because of their status it wouldn¡¯t be very difficult for them to gather a group.  If one could delegate to others who could do the job better why wouldn''t they?  Naturally no one would be happy with following my orders so why not get Sasha and Leo to?  As they walked off to do the jobs I assigned them, I couldn¡¯t help but ponder about this world some more.

    Can we even get sick?  Do the rules of the common world still apply here?  What kind of creatures live here?  There¡¯s too many questions that I just can¡¯t answer!

    ¡°Okay, let¡¯s just focus on surviving for now any problems that arise we can just deal with them then.¡±

    As I softly muttered to myself to calm myself down the street.  We were teleported into a 4 way intersection and thus I could have chose any direction but I didn¡¯t think going to the sand was going to be too easy and it was the opposite direction of the escape point anyways.

    When i started to leave the area I noticed that someone was following me.  I carefully turned around and saw a young man.  He was similar height to me and his bleached blonde hair gave off the feeling of a rebellious child.  He had his left ear pierced, and his normal gaze looked like a glaring delinquent.  He wasn¡¯t big, instead he looked to be completely toned and fit.  We stared at one another for a s olid minute and I guess because he realized we both weren¡¯t very good at starting a conversation he first spoke up considering he followed me.

    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    ¡°Are you going to check out the outskirts?¡±

    Blunt!  Straight to the point, just the kind of guy that makes a conversation easy.

    ¡°Yes I am.  Did you want to come?¡±

    ¡°Ya¡­¡±

    ¡°Alright let¡¯s go.¡±

    ¡°R-really not even going to think about it at all?¡±

    ¡°Well I don¡¯t see the problem of getting someone to watch my back.¡±

    ¡°That is true¡­¡±

    As I started to realize his personality didn¡¯t qute match up his appearance, I couldn¡¯t help but smile as I began to open my mouth to tease him.

    ¡°Quite the rebellious one aren¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°S-Shut up!¡±

    ¡°Haha.. My name is Ryker, what¡¯s yours?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s Tyler.¡±

    ¡°Nice to meet you, but seriously if you¡¯re such a good little boy why do you dress up like that?¡±

    ¡°....My older sister is the rebellious one.  Because she thinks if I do it too our parents won¡¯t care as much she kind of¡­. well you can see the result.¡±

    ¡°Haha!¡±

    ¡°S-Stop Laughing!¡±

    I couldn¡¯t help but laugh so hard my stomach was hurting.  After all the guy was helplessly forced into looking like a delinquent but he¡¯s as harmless as a lady bug.  Simply seeing to complete opposites was enough to make anyone giggle uncontrollably.

    ----------------------------------------------

    We had already left the area and walked for some time.  Although I teased Tyler before we left, the moment we did  we both didn¡¯t say a word.  Even though Tyler seemed harmless he was in fact quite tough.  I noticed it when we started to leave the starting point but he was cautiously looking around and ready for action at a moment''s notice.  I felt it was if he was trained to be a natural survivalist or something.  Thus I couldn¡¯t help but ask quietly.

    ¡°Do you know survival skills by any chance?¡±

    ¡®Yea.. My dad is an ex military officer.  Thus he made sure to teach me all about survival tips and what not.¡±

    ¡°Hm that might be surprisingly helpful right now.  Where do you think animals would gather in a world like this?¡±

    I asked Tyler, and he stopped while putting his finger on his chin to think.  It didn¡¯t take long before he came up with an answer.

    ¡°If this world is similar to ours, I feel like whatever is here would be near a water source of some sorts.  After all this world seems pretty barren so straying too far off wouldn¡¯t be helpful.¡±

    I broke down Tyler¡¯s conclusion and though it made a lot of sense.  It wouldn¡¯t be realistic to run around finding prey far away from your territory.  And having a territory would naturally be around a source of water that you could drink regularly.  It made sense to me, and that was good enough for us to come to the conclusion of finding a water source in the city.

    Because it was a city it must have some sort of sewer and water source that it connects too, or at least assuming that the desolate era hasn¡¯t changed that at all.  I mean with all the sand it''s possible most of the water sources have dried up.  But it was at the least a starting point for investigation.

    Tyler and I walked another street and a few more turns, looking for an signs of life or water.  All the buildings, small shops or malls were all practically destroyed.  The scene felt like an apocalyptic world, it was unknown what happened but clearly it was devastating enough to bring a city of this size to such a state.

    CRASH!

    As we were walking carefully and silently we both heard a giant noise close to us.  We both stared at the direction it came to and then to one another.  With a nod, I walked forward to the mall where the sound came from.  I wasn¡¯t stupid enough to directly enter, so I stayed off into the distance hoping that noise would later be found out.  To my surprise just waiting a few minutes, something did come out.  But I immediately regretted wanting to find out about it.

 Chapter 5: End Of The Day

    I stared at the monster that came out from the shopping mall. To my surprise this monster, or creature or even abomination was out of this world. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. If I had to use a simple word to describe it, it would be the one of the most commonly used monsters for popular t.v series; a zombie! Only the difference was this ¡®zombie¡¯ didn¡¯t have an undead feeling to it. Instead of having rotting skin, it was just grey in colour, their looked to be no lips existing, so I could see it¡¯s fangs, and not just a few all of the teeth were fangs, stretching out as if made solely for the purpose of eating raw meaty flesh.

    It wasn¡¯t super noticeable now but it¡¯s eyes were a shiny black with its pupils covering the entire iris. It was hard to believe it wasn¡¯t blinded from the sunlight with pupils that large. The creature''s body was unnaturally thin, looking as if it had been starved, although I was unable to feel any pity for such a savage-looking creature.

    The scariest thing about it? It hands! On it¡¯s hands there not normal looking fingers. Instead its fingers were abnormally long and attached were claw like fingernails that could probably scratch flesh out by the second.

    Tyler to my side was slightly shaking and I noticed that even I was too. It was hard not to after seeing such a thing. As I first tried to calm myself down, and only when I was able to breathe normally did I lightly tap Tyler as to not alarm him.

    ¡°Tyler, let''s go. We did enough for now.¡±

    ¡°...Alright.¡±

    We walked back and normally it would be smart to turn and carefully retreat while making sure we weren¡¯t followed, but instead as soon as we were firm enough to not be heard we ran as fast as we could to our starting point.

    --------------------

    ¡°Phew.¡±

    ¡°Ryker¡­. What was that?¡±

    ¡°I have no idea but it¡¯s definitely hostile.¡±

    I wondered myself, what it was countless times on the way back. Even as we arrived, I still had not come up with a sound conclusion, but I did know that I didn¡¯t want to fight anything that looked like that. Whether or not it looked physically weak due to its small stature. In a world like this, with illogical things such as Aether particles and unknown powers, who knows what it was hiding.

    ¡°Tyler¡­ Make sure to keep this a secret from everyone alright?¡±

    Tyler gave a surprised look at first but soon after as if coming to a sudden realization only nodded before walking off. I gave a slight nod to that reaction, as it seemed that becoming better friends with Tyler, would be a smart choice in this unknown world.

    Even though I said to keep it a secret there were a few people I had to tell no matter what. For example the teachers, Sasha and Leo. While I¡¯m able to act behind the scenes I am entirely unable to speak out and have everyone willingly follow me. Not that I would want to do such a thing to begin with. Even Leo and Sasha would prefer not to, but because people trust them, they naturally had to take up the responsibility. Responsibility is a strange thing as well, even though someone may not want to they will be blamed because they have to ability to act and if they don¡¯t it becomes their fault.

    This was important to me because now that my two best friends took up a leadership role, I refuse to allow them to be put in a situation where they can be blamed for others deaths. Specially Leo, as a kind-hearted big softy it was only obvious that he would be hit harder than others in a situation like this.

    ¡®Now, should I tell the teachers or Sasha and Leo first?¡¯

    ¡°Ryker!¡±

    Before I was able to make a decision, it was already made for me. I turned to looked at the owner of the voice. It was deep voice so even if I didn¡¯t turn around I know it was Leo to being with anyways. There he and Sasha stood looking towards me with troubled faces. I had a terrible habit of always showing my emotions on my face, and even though I was unable to tell what my current face looked like, my best friends naturally were able to tell something was up when they saw me from a distance.

    They didn¡¯t speak up other than grabbing my attention, waiting patiently for me to speak first. I Looked towards them and breathed of a sigh of relief. Truthfully, even to them it''s quite hard to tell them about the creature I saw. But i wasn''t about to keep secrets that may cause problems in the future, thus it would be better to tell them now. That isn¡¯t to say however that keeping secrets from others isn''t¡¯ helpful. It¡¯s not helpful to tell people who would scream and make a big fuss, on the other hand people who were able to think clearly, it just might save their lives.

    ¡°I went out to scout with Tyler, by the way he¡¯s not actually a delinquent and is really nice!¡±

    ¡°Ryker.. there¡¯s no need to avoid the problem. Just let us know what it is!¡±

    As I tried to ease into the topic, Sasha slammed an imaginary hand down and forced me to be blunt about it. Once again I couldn¡¯t help but sigh, as I spoke about what I saw to them.

    ¡°Oh my god! Are you serious?¡±

    Sasha spoke up in a frightened voice, and I could only nod softly in response. Leo chose not to say anything and only thought to himself. But it was a waste of time to needlessly think about it, after all I thought about it for a much longer time and wasn¡¯t able to deduce anything even after being the one who saw the creature. I could only speak up about the task I assigned them earlier.

    ¡°Did you guys manage to find a safe house and food/water?¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­ My group found a slightly messed up recreation center. Because it has a swimming pool it has the running water still. So our immediate water source has been found and shouldn¡¯t be able problems for now. It hasn¡¯t been cleaned fully yet but it will do for now.¡±

    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    ¡°Alright that¡¯s good news.¡±

    I nodded my head in satisfaction. I might seem like a downer or not care about anything, and while for the most part that''s true, I do care about living. So it was only natural that I would be happy about such news. I finally looked towards Leo who then took it as his turn to speak up.

    ¡°Luckily there were a few stores of dried foods in the super store. We were able to procure non-perishables for now. It didn¡¯t have much as it looked like it had already been ransacked, but it¡¯s enough to last us a week or two.¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­ well I guess we can¡¯t expect too much now can we?¡±

    ¡°Ah Ryker¡­ Now that we finished our tasks we should have some free time. As it¡¯s almost night why don¡¯t we discuss about each other¡¯s ability?¡±

    ¡°I honestly forgot about after all this time. It¡¯s too hard to get used to having a supernatural ability out of nowhere.¡±

    ¡°I know right?¡±

    ¡°Ya.¡±

    Leo and Sasha quickly agreed to my forgetfulness, but luckily Sasha brought up the detail so we were able to discuss about our abilities. While Sasha and Leo gave me a soft stare as if telling me ¡®You have to go first¡¯ I rolled my eyes and told them.

    ¡°First I have this [Void Ball]!¡±

    Just then a purplish black ball appeared out of thin air and rolled around in the palm of my hand. Sasha and Leo stared curiously at it and even I did. It wasn¡¯t like I tried it out and for some reason its ability wasn¡¯t told to me in my gained memories. Thus I could only truthfully explain that.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure what it does to be honest. My memories didn¡¯t mention anything about it.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s so strange¡­.¡±

    Sasha spoke up but because it wasn¡¯t too important I continued with my next skill.

    ¡°Truthfully, I think my next skill is quite unique. My [Inherent] skill is the [Void Eyes] skill. I¡¯m able to see the strength of Aether Particles and the Aether Organs in an X-ray like world.¡±

    ¡°Wow! Maybe we can use that for some advantage against the monsters?¡±

    I was startled with a sudden realization. Because I freaked out so fast when I saw the monster I didn¡¯t even think to use my [Void Eyes] ability. Somehow I regret not doing that earlier. It might have helped in finding out how strong the monster actually was. But because it was already over and done with, as I didn¡¯t have any plans to return in the meantime, I could only shake my head and wait to hear Sasha¡¯s and Leo¡¯s ability. Because Sasha was already bouncing up and down she continued after me.

    ¡°Hehe! Open and your eyes and look at my powerful might!¡±

    As she spoke a red light started to flicked in the space above her palm. Just then out of thin air an ember ignited and turned into a small blazing fireball! This fireball did not overly look dangerous but it was incredibly hot as I could feel the temperature already starting to make me sweat.

    ¡°You¡¯re a dragon?!¡±

    ¡°No!!¡±

    Just then Leo who had kept quiet for some time smacked his fist onto his palm and I swear a light bulb appeared above his head as he said.

    ¡°A fire salamander!¡±

    ¡°NO! It¡¯s called the [Flame of the Phoenix]! Jeez, I was even so happy to show you guys and you just make fun of me!¡±

    As I chuckled watching Sasha puffing out her cheeks unhappily. I looked at Leo and for some odd reason he also looked unhappy. I might be wrong here but I swear he was disappointed by the fact that she didn¡¯t have the fire of a salamander. I had no idea what a salamander meant to Leo but I felt it was best to move on so I spoke up.

    ¡°What about your [Inherent]?¡±

    ¡°Actually I also didn¡¯t info on one of my skills and that happens to be my inherent ability. My flame can be shot out like a fireball in a video game but my [Rekindle] I have no idea about other than the name. Sorry..¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s okay.¡±

    Leo spoke up and pat her head to comfort her. She felt guilty being unable to answer our questions. After all, knowing more about our abilities would let us come up with better strategies and teamwork in the future.

    Finally I looked towards Leo and even without making eye contact he spoke up.

    ¡°My abilities are [Fusion] and [Body Enhancement]. My [Fusion] allows me to turn other materials into part of my body, which I can reconstruct my body or make it into a golem like figure. [Body Enhancement] just increases my overall physical abilities.¡±

    When Leo started explaining he also started to fuse with the concrete on the ground. It wrapped around his hand and look like a thick hard skin that covered his hand. It was really cool to be honest. Sasha also thought it was great except for a different reason.

    ¡°That¡¯s great! You¡¯ll be able to heal if you get wounded, that¡¯s definitely great to hear Leo.¡±

    Sasha gave Leo a compliment while Leo nodded in satisfaction. Honestly I felt his abilities suited him perfectly. As a kind-hearted guy he would always jump in front to save people, but now he could do it and get hurt and still recover easily. It was definitely a plus to our team.

    With that we had all discussed the basics of our abilities and decided to chat about other things to take our minds off of the reality of the situation. Few minutes turned in a dozen and the sun started to set. It was the end of the first day in our second lives.

 Chapter 6: Working

    ¡°Ryker!  Why don¡¯t you help us clean up instead of sitting there doing nothing!?¡±

    A buff student called out to me.  As I recall this was a student on the football team with Leo.  But because I absolutely had no interest in his existence I couldn¡¯t remember his name.  To be honest it wasn¡¯t just him, unless I found the person interesting or to be a friend I wouldn¡¯t remember anyone''s name.  That includes all the people in my class, was it dumb of me?  No, I personally think I was just overly lazy and didn¡¯t have the attention span to remember people I¡¯d never talk to.

    After all no one cares about me and even belittle me as I¡¯m closer to their idols then they are.  This was one of those people who thought like that.  As such I looked towards the football player and gave him a shrug.  He wasn¡¯t worth my time to argue with, and truthfully even if he didn¡¯t know I had the hardest job here.  It was Tyler and I that went to scout in the end, not this buff looking guy who deep down was a coward.  How did I know he was a coward?  Well I didn¡¯t I just felt like calling him one.

    Because I had already spoke with the teachers about the creature I spotted.  Besides freaking out, they reprimanded me about going off alone.  Although at the same time they were grateful because even they as adults didn¡¯t have the courage to go out and scout an unknown world.  That wasn¡¯t to say they wouldn¡¯t, but they definitely would think twice before acting.

    Not like I blamed them either. I only did it to ensure my possible survival in the future, otherwise I wouldn¡¯t even lift a hair to help scout or direct these people.  I can only say for sure that my actions have been 100% in my interest as well as my friends.

    After realizing I had no intentions on answering the football player came over to me.  To my surprise it wasn¡¯t just a simple walk over and trash talk, instead he grabbed me by the collar and started to glare at me before saying.

    ¡°Do you think you get to eat if you don¡¯t work?¡±

    ¡°Haha¡­. sorry, I swear that slipped the tongue a little there.¡±

    ¡°Do you want to die you bastard?¡±

    ¡°Actually, That might be a good idea I get stronger after all.¡±

    ¡°Why you!¡±

    Even I was surprised by his sudden proclamation I unintentionally giggled to myself.  What?  I couldn¡¯t help it, it was a joke that someone barely working himself could say that to others.  While it was true I looked like I did nothing I couldn¡¯t have worked harder as I was already the one who did the most here.  Mind you all the work was relatively easy other than risking my life getting Leo and Sasha to gather a group together only required a simple sentence and they were smart enough to figure out the rest themselves.

    But how could this guy know that?  He was a jock with no brains and thus he could only speak with his fists when his mouth couldn¡¯t.  Well to be honest, I was now starting to worry.  I mean I had powers and all but I didn¡¯t even know how to use them, and I¡¯d crazy to try to kill another human being over such a petty fight.  I mean this guy talks big but it¡¯s only to the point of talking.  But just as I was thinking he was all talk and no bite he punched me.  Solidly and really hard, punched straight in the jaw and I was flown backwards.

    ¡°Urgh!¡±

    I groaned as my back impacted against the wall.  I was surprised, to the point where even I was unable to find a retort to the situation.  The jock only walked back up to me, while the remaining students seemed to silently urge him on.  At this sight I could only smile softly as I knew the reason why it was all happening all of a sudden.

    I forgot that we are in a world where dying will become a normal thing.  How could they who were under immense pressure think rationally?  Even I, myself, failed to think about it clearly enough to realize how far people would go under this much pressure.

    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

    Therefore I could only sit there helpless as the jock walked over to me.  He looked like he wanted to continue the fight and quite frankly I wasn¡¯t one to fight back against such people.  IF he wanted to show his supremacy this was definitely not the place to do it.

    Just when I thought I was going to take another few blows a sudden voice echoed throughout the room.

    ¡°Hey what the fuck do you think you¡¯re doing?!¡±

    As I looked at who owned such a deep intimidating voice I realized it was someone who was all talk and no bite.  It was Tyler who yelled at the jock, however the moment the jock saw Tyler, he backed off slightly.  Clearly he was a coward that could only bully the weak, even though Tyler was weaker than I was, probably that is.

    ¡°Uh Tyler, nothing we were just talking as pals¡­ Right Ryker?¡±

    ¡°Who the fuck do you think you¡¯re trying to threaten bitch!¡±

    ¡°Sorry Tyler.. I¡¯ll leave him alone but you better make sure he gets to work!¡±

    ¡°Fred!  You sack of shit!  You better listen up, while you''re pathetic coward ass was sitting around ordering people Ryker and I were scouting the area.  Now you tell me, who the fuck wasn¡¯t working hard?!  Huh?!¡±

    As Tyler said that the room was filled with silence.  Although I was planning on keeping it a secret that I went out, because it wouldn¡¯t matter even if they knew.  I had no intentions on telling them what I saw, however it seems like Tyler didn¡¯t think too well of me getting bullied by a useless joke and spoke up.

    This way no matter what anyone said I would have already done the most by scouting the area.  After all it was the most dangerous job and none of the trembling students here would even dare to set foot outside.  I could only sigh to myself as I thought about how hard it was going to be to survive this mess of a world.  Just as I was somewhat complaining to myself Tyler finally stopped glaring at the so-called Fred and came over to my side.

    He helpd me up as I was still somewhat in pain, although he didn¡¯t say anything to keep up an appearance in front of the students.  We walked off a separate room when he leaned me against a soft wall, at the very least it looked a little bit nicer than the other ones okay?  He gave me friendly look and smiled and then said.

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t have expected you to be so easy to bully Ryker!¡±

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t have expected you to be such a badass fake delinquent.¡±

    ¡°Sometimes I just need to yell a bit and shit gets real.  Sometimes it''s handy looking like this!¡±

    ¡°Haha really?¡±

    ¡°No!  Fuck, everyone thinks I¡¯m some  badass kid when truthfully all I want to do is go play some video games.¡±

    I once again laughed at the sudden chit-chat we were having.  Tyler as well started to burst into laughter, he who was acting tough just couldn¡¯t hold it in anymore and let it all out with a giant breath.

    We ended up chatting for a while before we heard a girl call out.

    ¡°Supper!¡±

    Tyler looked at me and pointed towards the sound.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡±

    ¡°Alright!¡±

 Chapter 7: Decision

    It didn¡¯t take long to finish dinner, mainly because no one was even slightly excited to talk. When the entire group of 100 students and teachers gather, it turned into a gloomy atmosphere for everyone. Even my group of Sasha, Leo and my new delinquent friend Tyler, weren¡¯t able to talk because of how depressing it was.

    Unable to talk it was only a matter of course that everyone ate fast. Without anything else to preoccupy their thoughts they wolfed down the food at an amazing pace. However the food limit was not infinite and the amount of food each person got was minimal. Naturally the bigger people didn¡¯t get a portion it was decided unanimously that everyone regardless would get the same amount. This left for arguments however once Leo who was one of the largest people here spoke up, naturally the rest of the bigger students who were mainly jocks of some sport shut their mouths.

    I gathered all of the disposable waste and threw it into one of the garbage bins. Quickly after I gathered back with my friends as we walked to a separate room. We didn¡¯t chat on the way to get even a bit closer to our destination. After arriving in a small room that contained a bunch of equipment for sports we closed the door behind us. I made eye contact with everyone and then decided to finally talk.

    ¡°Alright. I guess I¡¯ll be blunt, what are everyone¡¯s thoughts on staying with the group?¡±

    As I spoke, I brought up the main topic immediately. After all to survive we had to look after ourselves first, and others after. I would die for my friends, but there is absolutely no way I would die for a person that I didn¡¯t even know their name. Or that I didn¡¯t even care to know their name. It might seem selfish, but since when was being selfish ever a problem when it came to living? If I lived I was the one who gets to enjoy it, dying doesn¡¯t seem all too fun. However I wasn¡¯t the only person here and I couldn¡¯t just decide for everyone, as such Leo was the first to respond.

    ¡°I vote for staying. Ryker, they are our peers. I can¡¯t leave them.¡±

    It wasn¡¯t like I needed to hear what he said to know what he wanted to do. He was the kindest person I knew and sometimes I wondered how someone as antisocial as I could befriend the guy to begin with, however it might be just because of that point that I¡¯m able to get along with him so well. I don¡¯t have to worry about him talking behind my back because honestly he¡¯s not intelligent enough to keep secrets and also he wasn¡¯t that sort of person to begin with. Of course I Say bad things about him because it¡¯s a certain duty as a best friend, an obligation of sorts.

    Anyways Sasha didn¡¯t even bat an eye to Leo¡¯s answer and only quietly thought to herself. I didn¡¯t expect her to answer next after all she was the person who thought secretly to herself even more than I did. Sasha was popular and overall a nice person, however to her enemies she made sure they died in a fiery pit of hell, while she would laugh at them from afar. That¡¯s exaggerated and I almost feel bad for thinking like that, but seriously she¡¯s not one to be messed with.

    Sasha takes revenge quite seriously as she¡¯s the most competitive person I have met. Truthfully she¡¯s the reason I stopped trying in school because when I beat her she¡¯d go full study mode and start studying for weeks without being seen only to lose again. I felt bad, and sort of stopped trying and because I wasn¡¯t bothered by the rest of the students for being that smart anymore it was nicer. I soon realized it became a habit not to try anymore, thus she didn¡¯t need to disappear although deep down she wanted to face off again, and again until she truly won.

    Anyways instead of Sasha answering, Tyler spoke up.

    ¡°Truthfully I want to stay as well, but I care more about my friend who is also stuck here, so as long as I can bring her with me I¡¯ll stay neutral and follow whatever decision you guys make.¡±

    ¡°Who is your friend Tyler?¡±

    Sasha asked with a teasing look, at which Tyler turned bright red. Of course Sasha didn¡¯t let that go and started to tease him even more. While Leo and I just giggled, it wasn¡¯t the first time seeing Sasha go all out on teasing. When Leo had his first crush on Sasha¡¯ older sister, she was non stop pretending to break the news to her sister about it, where Leo would flip and body slam into Sasha to prevent the end of his world. Naturally as the spectator I got all the laughs of both sides.

    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    That was until they finally found something was strange that I didn¡¯t have a crush. I could only think ¡®Why can¡¯t we tease Sasha about her crush?¡¯. Thus when I told them I didn¡¯t have a special someone Sasha unhappily rebuked me and ended up hassling me telling me I was wasting my youth. What is she an old woman? Obviously if I said that she would kill me so I chose to keep it in my head. Tyler finally gave in and spoke up.

    ¡°Her name is Rebeca. She¡¯s the girl with the black twin braided hair and glasses, she has some freckles around her face and dark blue eyes.¡±

    ¡°Oh for you to notice such important details you must really like her huh?¡±

    Sasha once again teased Tyler, he didn¡¯t give the details about her skin or height or shoe size thankfully, but it was enough for me to picture someone in my head. All students had to wear a uniform so it wasn¡¯t as if our clothing was different. Thus to point out these finer details was somewhat important on finding a person. Although had Tyler just pointed out about twin braids that was enough to know who it was, at least to Sasha.

    Don¡¯t ask me why, for some reason Sasha made it her job to find out every girl¡¯s name and memorize them. She told me many times before it was for investigating, for what? I don¡¯t even want to know.

    ¡°Well it¡¯s fine regardless, it¡¯s not as if even having a few more people would hinder us. As long as we trust them that¡¯s the important issue here.¡±

    ¡°She gets scared easily, but she cares deeply for her friends.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s all that I need to hear then!¡±

    It was an easy decision. I wasn¡¯t a hard person to convince but whether or not someone was trustworthy was the number one important thing for me. If I felt the person would stab me in the back later, fat chance that I would even try and recruit or help them.

    ¡°Well Sasha, I think we all know what my opinion is, so let¡¯s hear yours.¡±

    Sasha brought her finger to her mouth in a cute manner, and pretended to ponder for a moment. I knew she had already thought of her answer just didn¡¯t want to rush her actions. Always the careful and secretive type she was. She finally answered after going ¡®home¡¯ for a solid minute.

    ¡°I think it¡¯s best to stay grouped for the time being. At the very least until we understand the situation a bit more. If something major happens it would be better to have more people.¡±

    For a meat shield is what she wanted to say but Sasha hid it well and only ended her sentence there. She wasn¡¯t evil, and nor was I, but we were both realistic people and able to grasp a situation clearly. The advantages and disadvantages are important to look at from an objective point of view. Of course I was also neutral in this situation. Whether we stayed grouped for now it would have the positive of having multiple people to fend off monsters. While being in a small group made it easier to venture and easier to ration food. However the disadvantages were also clear, it was slower in large groups and becoming a target was easier. However being in a small group was faster, however if caught in a fight against a large number of enemies, death was the only answer.

    ¡°Well let¡¯s stay for now and see how the situation unfolds, however I need to stress this, our lives are important and it takes priority over everyone else. Now the five us including Tyler¡¯s girlfriend will join and fight to survive together. Leo that means no sacrificing yourself for others unless we all agree. Tyler, the decisions of the group are made by all of us if you have opinion you need to share it, it may save our lives. Sasha, you just be you¡­..¡±

    I gave small advice to everyone. It was simple but clear and decisive but little did I know at the time that just by using the small idea it would save our lives as the longest night of my life was about to begin!

 Chapter 8: The Night Begins!

    Hey guys I don''t usually post anything on this story but today I will as I have a new project page on my site that I will be introducing!

    Future Projects</a> Click on the link and if you like any of them or all of them or even none of them vote, or comment and let me know!  Hope you guys enjoy this chapter because after this everything starts to get real!

    <hr />

    ¡°Hey! What do you mean girlfriend!¡±

    ¡°Oh nothing I naturally wasn¡¯t trying to tease you or anything!¡±

    ¡°Damnit not you too!¡±

    I shrugged at his reply, and suddenly turned serious. While I like to joke around truthfully that was only after we set our plans up for the future, noticing my stern face Tyler, also get serious and spoke up again.

    ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll go let her know!¡±

    ¡°Ah before that Tyler, what¡¯s your ability?¡±

    Sasha asked with a curious face. But as she said it she was immediately stunned and even I was momentarily unable to react. The reason I was so startled was because he disappeared! Right in front of us it was if he just vanished! I couldn¡¯t believe it so I touched the previous spot he was in and in an instant he reappeared!

    ¡°Haha what d¡¯you think?¡±

    ¡°Wow! That¡¯s so cool!¡±

    Leo and I both unconsciously nodded in agreement. It was a man¡¯s romance to be able to turn invisible. Why? Well that¡¯s obvious but I won¡¯t dwell into the topic very much. But now I was somewhat unhappily grumbling, I mean I get a friggin purple ball that does who the frick cares what, like it''s a friggin bouncy looking ball, and here my new friend gets a goddamn stealth ability! What hell kind of fairness is this? However before I was able to continue grumbling Tyler spoke up.

    ¡°Truthfully, it''s not fully stealth. I can only hide myself from one¡¯s direct vision. If someone isn¡¯t looking for me I can¡¯t hide from them. Thus its pretty useless at the moment but I still feel maybe later it will turn into full stealth!¡±

    ¡®FUCK YEAH!¡¯

    Serves you right is what I thought in my mind however I still felt kind of disappointed maybe I could have given him a camera or something for future reference? But now that went down the drain and as if Sasha knew what I was thinking she gave me a cold glare. Somehow I even regret thinking at this very moment. To change the subject and hopefully the temperature around me I encouraged Tyler.

    ¡°Hey don¡¯t worry you can use it to escape right? Also as long as they are aware of your presence you can disappear right? Therefore once you get seen you can just disappear and attack from behind. So it¡¯s not too bad!¡±

    I thought at a millions times per second to come up with a solid strategy for his ability. It wasn¡¯t because I wanted to make Sasha think otherwise about my wandering thoughts! Well maybe but that¡¯s besides the point it was true that Tyler¡¯s ability would be very useless for hit and run tactics!

    ¡°You should have an [Inherent] ability too right?¡±

    While I was calming my heart beat and the glare softened considerably Leo asked the question Sasha and I forgot about. Tyler smiled once again and put his hand to the ground!

    ¡°My [Inherent] skill is [Radar]! When I put my hand on the ground I¡¯m able to tell where everything is within 200 meters! Look there is obviously us four here, 24 people are in the next room over, and 42 people are in the main center, with the rest spread out through out the other rooms except the 5 people on lookout¡­..¡±

    Before Tyler, could finish his sentence his facial expression turned into one of utter fear. I had no idea what was going on but it obviously had something to do with his radar and that he picked something up. I quickly reminded him to tell us something instead of standing there dumbfounded.

    ¡°Tyler, what did you see!¡±

    ¡°Ryker¡­. There are 500 plus unknown humanoids coming to this area right now!¡±

    ¡°What?!¡±

    I was shocked but I was unable to speak and instead the quiet Leo screamed out before he rushed out. I quickly tackled him to calm him down and spoke to him.

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    ¡°Leo! Get yourself together man! Rushing out like an idiot won¡¯t help solve anything! Get everyone gathered and have them enter the main center Sasha!¡±

    ¡°Okay!¡±

    Without listening to the rest she immediately ran out of the room, while still on the ground and finally starting to get up Leo looked at me with a thankful expression. He was able to think more clearly which was good, thankfully my actions prevented anything from escalating. I had to get things going so I thought of a simple but quick method to stall for time.

    ¡°Leo gather any tables or large heavy objects and use the jocks to barricade the entrance! I don¡¯t care if you cover the top just make it so it blocks the entire doorway!¡±

    ¡°Right!¡±

    Just then Leo also rushed off with a glint of determination. I wasn¡¯t able to hear it clearly but I figured Leo had said some words of encouragement. I looked at Tyler, who was still a little shaken and I stretched out my arm onto his shoulder. He sadly jumped in fright, and I could only slowly approach him calming him down.

    ¡°Listen Tyler, we need everyone to stay as calm as possible and I need your help to make out of this situation alive!¡±

    As if he understood a great deal of things from a simple sentence, he looked at me with a calm expression. His hesitation had vanished from his eyes which was good, as I couldn¡¯t use anyone who couldn¡¯t react to emergencies.

    ¡°Go find that girl and bring her to the back of the main center near the exit! but first tell me if there are any creatures near that emergency exit and if so how many. Also are the monsters grouped or spread out over a large area or at the very least within the 200 meters you can see.¡±

    ¡°Um one second!¡±

    The best course of action was to give him slight hope first and when I told him about the exit he was able to get the point, unfortunately the situation was going to be a lot harder than I thought when Tyler, responded.

    ¡°Ryker, the emergency exit already has about 100 monsters gathered and the are even more tightly gathered than the other 500. The ones by the main entrance are still tightly grouped that escaping through by rushing won¡¯t work!¡±

    It was good that Tyler got my general plan immediately. I had originally planned on just running away with as many people as possible as none of us were proficient enough with our abilities to use them correctly. Thus the chance of running felt higher than fighting, however the real problem wasn¡¯t simple enough to make it easy for me. I gestured for Tyler to quickly and get his girl friend. I had to use all the remaining time that was being stalled to think of a plan.

    ¡°Urgh! I hate not knowing everything! If i don¡¯t know everyone¡¯s abilities how the hell can I come up with a plan! I don¡¯t know how strong Sasha¡¯s fireball is but I know she won¡¯t be able to kill 600+ enemies! That goes for me as well, and my ability is even more unlikely to be useful!¡±

    I wracked my brain multiple times over as I tried to think of a way to survive. However the situation was looking bad as the only sound idea I could come up with was to stall for time and fight it off. I wasn¡¯t sure of this, but if the monsters were attacking during the night it was more than likely because they were nocturnal! If they were nocturnal fighting in bright sunlight where their vision would be weakened it would be a chance to run away then! But that was a big if, and the night had just begun and we still had hours until sunrise! The worst part was I didn¡¯t even know how to heal a sunrise worked in this world! Who knows maybe the sun would stay down for days!

    It wasn¡¯t something that was fun to think about but all possibilities must be thought of when trying to survive. I finally realized how bad this world was going to be after all, it''s only the first day and we have 600 plus monsters to fight off. I clenched my fist and ran over to the main center to regroup with my friends. The night had only begun!

 Chapter 9: Eyes of Hunger

    I ran toward the main center and as soon as I exited the room and entered the hallway I was bombarded by load of cries and angry howls. Although the cries and howls sounded different I knew it came from the despaired students or the angry jocks. It wasn¡¯t difficult to hear the loud deep voices of the jocks during the cries. The cries were mainly from the females and when I entered although, males weren¡¯t voicing their despair their tears naturally showed their state of minds.

    I wondered how these people truly thought to survive with such attitudes, but at the same time could I blame them? We all have already died twice, it wasn¡¯t as if it was an enjoyable thing to discuss about and most had tried to forget about it. But when people heard that an army of unknowns were coming for them, naturally the sealed memories resurfaced. It was anything but possible to keep them sealed any longer, and thus their emotions turned to their unstable selves.

    Tears on most an angry glares on some it was nothing but mayhem inside the center, the teachers were unwilling to step up and calm the students down as they themselves were naturally worrying for their own lives. I couldn¡¯t blame them but I kind of wished they were more helpful than just standing there doing nothing. They were after all suppose to be our guardians while at school and instead they practically left us to do everything, well technically me and realistically Sasha and Leo handled all the work.

    It bothersome to try to save all these people and every time I thought about how soft-hearted Leo was I grumbled to myself. I would have already been gone if it wasn¡¯t for my friends being here but I couldn¡¯t just complain as I needed to work out the finer details of the plan. Thus I looked for Leo and Sasha. Sasha was trying to calm down a group of girls by patting their shoulders or rubbing their backs. It ultimately did nothing in the end but for the girls being patted they were able to slightly feel a bit better, thus I went to Sasha to unfortunately take away their one source of hope.

    ¡°Sasha, let¡¯s go we need to find Leo and get things going!¡±

    ¡°You came up with a plan?!¡±

    ¡°...Well sorta¡­¡±

    ¡°What is that suppose to mean!¡±

    As I answered ambiguously Sasha gave me a soft glare, although she knew in this type of situation coming up with a solid plan was impossible but still she hoped for a little more resolve in my answer. However I wouldn¡¯t be me if I was overconfident and arrogant about everything. I mean I was confident but I know my limits and I could see that this situation would test it in every way possible. If we could survive I¡¯d believe it was more due to luck than actual plans.

    As Sasha and I ran through the group of hundred people I finally saw Leo. He was trying to calm down the rest of the jocks after he had barricaded the entrances. At this point I was able to see the barricade because the fight was going on near the entrance as the jocks had just finished the barricade and then started to fight. They apparently weren¡¯t stupid enough to fight before barricading the doorways first, thankfully.

    But now the problem is how to get these idiots to join and help save their small lives and the rest of the students as well. I mean I wasn¡¯t sure but I could imagine a lot of these people had somewhat decent abilities and more than likely people had doubles of starting abilities.

    The reason this was is because of how our abilities start off. They start off weak and evolve depending on our experiences and thought processes. The abilities would only help us get stronger, and naturally to be the most effective evolving towards our own abilities was best. So I figured there were going to be more people with similar abilities out there. It wasn¡¯t something I came up with it was the implanted memories that informed me of this. I wasn¡¯t one to come up with something this difficult out of thin air. After all I knew next to nothing about this world.

    ¡°Psss Leo!¡±

    I gently tapped his shoulder, as I didn¡¯t want to alarm the rest of the jocks and be noticed. It would not be very helpful to the cause to direct their anger to me instead. I was already punched one today and I didn¡¯t plan on it happening ever again to be truthful.

    As soon as Leo saw me and noticed I had a finger up to my lips he quietly walked over with me to meet up with Sasha as he thought of something he quickly asked me.

    ¡°Ryker, do you have a plan?¡±

    ¡°Well¡­ Sorta.¡±

    ¡°Ryker¡­..¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry Leo, he said the same thing to me. However if it''s Ryker, it should be the only plan left for us and I imagine its to fight isn¡¯t?¡±

    If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    ¡°...uuuhhh yeah.¡±

    With my confirmation to Sasha¡¯s question she shook her head and face palmed not because it was a simple plan or a dangerous one simply because she hated the fact that everyone here was so powerless at the moment making this incredibly difficult. Leo on the other hand frowned, he wasn¡¯t the smartest one here but he knew that it was difficult to fight against numbers. Having abilities wasn¡¯t necessarily the out for every bad problem. Because if it was possible for us to have [Aether Organs], then naturally the inhabitants of this world would have them as well.

    That wasn¡¯t to say that the abilities granted would be similar and it¡¯s possible for mutations to happen but at this moment the ¡®what if¡¯ was more dangerous. If we found out these things to be true then fighting would be a lot harder as from time immemorial the larger the numbers the greater chance of victory. The only other factor if both sides were equal in fighting strength whether numbers or abilities in this case was tactics.

    However my only tactic was to fight and use a barricade. I guess you could call this similar to a sieging a base but was a few tables really that difficult to barge through? Of course not and it would only stall for a short amount of time. It was at this point that the humanoids finally started banging against the barricades.

    Bam!

    Bam!

    Silence filled the room and other than the banging nothing else could be heard. Everyone¡¯s stare turned towards the entrance, and as if to instil more fear the only thing the students were able to see was the head of the monster. I wasn¡¯t able to confirm until I saw it but now I knew, it was the zombie like monster I saw before. However the difference now was the terrifying light that shined from its eyes. Over a thousand pair of eyes were seen glistening in the darkness and even I was momentarily froze by such a such. Their eyes lacked emotion and the only thing I could gather from it was they were hungry, as if savage beasts had taken over their very beings and they lived for nothing but to satisfy their hunger.

    Bam!

    Bam!

    With every smash against the tables the trembling of the students grew. Before everyone was frozen but the banging broke a piece of ice convincing the bodies and were about unable to stop being shivering after they were released. Heavy breathing could be heard but no one was willing to scream and even if they tried their voices just weren¡¯t able to come out! This was the meaning of true fear, as they were unable to take a single movement from their positions nor were they unable to turn their gazes away.

    ¡°Leo! Sasha!¡±

    I called out and Leo and Sasha who also had been affected look towards me with a hint of worry in their eyes. They knew the appearance of these monsters from my description but how could the description match the real thing? It was terrifying enough hearing about it, imagine what it would be like seeing hundreds of those things. I was unable to hide the fear in my own voice as I continued to speak, but they didn¡¯t have time to worry about such a thing.

    ¡°Loe grab whatever you can and make weapons of it and arm the jocks and find any other people with body enhancement! Make sure they have shields as well! There should be multiple things you can use in the equipment room! Be quick every second count!¡±

    ¡°Right¡±

    I heard him run off and as he did I could hear him yell at the jocks to follow him. To save time and to match his personality he didn¡¯t explain more, however that was enough for the jocks as Leo was already their leader in their hearts. EVen if fear took over as long as the situation wasn¡¯t immediately turning into death they would follow him. Next I turned to Sasha, who had already nodded fully understanding what I wanted her to do.

    If I was asking Leo to use his abilities to fight, naturally Sasha would also have to use her abilities to fight. Thus she quickly ran off and gathered people with offensive abilities.

    Bam!

    BAAAAAAAM!

    The sounds grew louder and the hope grew slimmer, as even I did not know whether we would survive. We might have multiple lives but if we were eaten that didn¡¯t mean much! I stood and patiently waited for my friends to come back as I glared at the shining eyes at the entranceway. I couldn¡¯t help but think to myself to increase my hope.

    ¡®I¡¯ll make sure to live through this!¡¯

 Chapter 10: One Fist

    First of all I just want to apologize!  I mean to be honest there is really no excuse for me to have no released a chapter after this long!  Even if I have been busy and have been writing [SS] as well, I still took sundays off~

    So I am sorry xD I don''t want to rush this story as it''s not a topic I easily just dish out.  Thus with that I will try for a weekly release AT THE VERY LEAST!  Hopefully it will be more.  (however it will also depend on the amount of sponsored chapters I have for [SS] howeve as I don''t plan on getting that many I should be able to release more SE from now on!)

    Anyways enjoy the chapter!

    <hr />

    Time was quickly running out for us, and because the time we were given was already incredible short it made it quite difficult to come up with any solid planning. Although it was hard for me to become overly stressed about something, the moment when I took action I naturally was unable to no longer feel responsible for anything.

    If people died while under my watch although it might not be something I can entirely help. They still died or were affected while following my commands. Even though everyone would think that Leo and Sasha were the ones in the light and I was in the back, it was me at the very top. Though my friends, well at the very least Sasha, was smart enough to come up with plans on their own at this time it was simply too hard to come up with any solid plans for escape.

    The attack of these zombie like humanoids was clearly unexpected. Even though we reacted quickly and Leo had already gathered a bunch of boards hockey gear or football gear, armed with baseball bats or hockey sticks it was truly a pitiful sight to fight against such a terrifying existence with just these items. On the flip side while their bodies were heightened due to the [Aether Organ] everyone and anyone would still be afraid to attack these monsters unarmed as they stared with their deep emotionless eyes into us treating us nothing more than food for their regular nightly hunt.

    I rushed over to Leo or who was the most obvious out of everyone as he only was wearing a chest plate without any other gear to protect him. While I gave him a questioning glance he simply responded.

    "Annoying."

    As expected of Leo, regardless if his life was about to forfeit his preference about not wearing a lot of gear still more important. Even on the soccer team I heard of the players talking about how eccentric Leo was about not wearing any gear. Naturally in a school sport he was still required otherwise he would be ejected from the game, however now that it was no longer a rule he could freely wear what he wanted. Which was a single piece of shoulder guards.

    "Well, don''t die on me tonight alright?"

    "Naturally, as I know you''ll prevent that!"

    "Your expectations of me hurt in such a terrible situation you know."

    "It''s simply cause as your best friend even in the face of death I trust you above all else."

    "Wow, I gotta hand it to you Leo, for you to complete that entire sentence in one breath must mean it''s true!"

    As I said that I gave him a nudge, and even in this atmosphere all Leo was able to do was slightly blush. Truthfully even Leo was surprised at his own words, but at moments before death approached people said crazier things and so I could only shrug it off as such. Not that it wasn''t true however even I was a bit shaky and words of encouragement were important at a time like this.

    Finally Sasha arrived back with a multiple groups of people. Although they were all differing people and mainly most of them strangers to another, I knew this because I had already been observing the group of students as we arrived in this world. Without information death was all but certain. If i didn''t pay attention to my surroundings how could I expect to live in such a crazy world?! It didn''t take much thinking to figure out why they were organized like this and even though I knew the reason Sasha explained it for Leo who was instead questioningly staring at the groups as he too already knew who were friends and who were not.

    "Leo, they are separated in their abilities. Fire, Water, Earth and wind, as currently these are the only ones with abilities that can be used at range when I asked. Thus the rest are grouped together in the back."

    I nodded in approval, I expect nothing less from someone like Sasha who could do fine even without me here. At the same time I couldn''t help but ponder as to why she didn''t just handle everything, I mean I could just slack off and watch. Well I guess with death in front of me slacking off would be over exaggerating a bit but I mean it would be nice not to risk my life fighting for people I could care less for. The only reason I was helping in the first place was to save my own friends, and against a giant group of zombies like this it was better to fight with organized numbers than anything else! Sasha once again spoke up.

    Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    "It seems that mainly everyone has the same first skill that can be used. As for the fire wielders we can all shoot out a fireball. For the water users apparently their skill is mainly used for healing. As for the earth users they can summon walls made of earth and the lightning users can only use their abilities through contact!"

    "Ryker?"

    As Sasha explained the usage of everyone''s abilities Leo only called out my name waiting patiently. As for my brain that was coming up for an idea and while maybe others would not be able to come up with a solid strategy during desperate times, I was able to come up with something the moment I heard Sasha''s explanation, and I quickly gave out instructions. Naturally during this entire time we were far enough away that I only looked like a outside in the discussion between Sasha and Leo, as both of them had spoke loudly enough for others to hear while I spoke out so no one was able to hear it.

    "We can live, however it all depends on the amount of time you and the jocks can hold off Leo. If you can hold off in time we might live if not it''s tough to say."

    "Good that is better than nothing. I will take the front myself!"

    Leo might have missed a few words there, as he clearly meant he was going to take the helm to make sure it succeeded but both Sasha and I got the point and I continued to explain the strategy to Sasha.

    "Understand?"

    "Yeah. Honestly I understand how risky this is, if we don''t stall enough time we will just get over run. But it definitely has the highest success rate if we stall."

    "Good!"

    As Sasha readily understood that this was a high risk high reward situation failure resulted in death while success was life! Two complete opposites but only one led to a favorable outcome and as I thought about it it was truly a risky strategy but I could come up with nothing else!

    It was just then that the zombies who all this time had been banging against the barricaded doors managed to break through the first entrance!

    "Oooooo Arrrrgh!"

    "Ahh!"

    The girls screamed at the arrival of these monsters and at this moment Leo charged forward to meet the monsters!

    "Kill them!"

    "YEAH!"

    The jocks were incited with morale with Leo leading the front it was hard not to be somewhat courageous. The jocks were all arrogant and likely weak willed when alone however with Leo in front of them their bravado was something even I had to breathe a gasp of air in front of. Recklessly charging in might seem like a bad idea however the most crucial part about a fight was the beginning because stalling for time only allowed them to become more nervous over time. Thus if the less time they wasted the more likely they were able to gain confidence later in the fight.

    Leo knew this as well as he although he only led a football team in high school he knew that when competing against a strong enemy was to keep their mind side focused on other things and not allow for their mind to wander with unmotivating thoughts. At this Leo charged first so naturally he was the first to charge into the first upcoming zombie who was surprisingly charging with agility that was frightening!

    These zombies were nothing like the movies where they would slowly approach and could be easily out run. They were quick and ran even faster than my own current speed, it was definitely luck we decided to barricade ourselves instead of running for our lives, as I wouldn''t even be able to last a minute before my death.

    "AH!"

    I heard Leo scream as I watched him strike a zombie with his bare fist. This punch landed straight into the zombies face and because of Leo''s giant size his arms were naturally longer than the even long lanky zombie creatures. Thus allow the claws of the zombie looked like it was going to make contact after the fist struck first, the zombie was flown backwards straight into the crowd of zombies rushing through the doorway.

    "Holy shit!?"

    My mouth unconsciously swore out as my jaw nearly fell off watching Leo''s strength. I knew he had [Body Enhancement], but wasn''t that simply too overpowered? Although I knew right away that even Leo was surprised as he looked at his own fist with a stupefied look.

    "Haha! This might work out better than I thought!"

    Somehow, the situation was already looked better than I had though. Although little did I know at the time that it wasn''t simply these zombies that were our only enemies!

 Chapter 11: Rykers Ability

    Here like I promised releasing this more!

    <hr />

    Punch after punch I watched as Leo steamrolled right through the zombie monsters. He didn''t even worry about going behind enemy lines and rushed in a straight path as he punched her way through the monsters.

    "What a badass, stealing all the limelight even I can''t help but be slightly jealous."

    I couldn''t help but unconsciously let out these words, I mean I was still a guy right and even I had times I wanted to look cool and at this moment Leo was definitely cool. Although it was a dramatic and terrifying situation watching Leo, everyone was able to somewhat gain courage. Even the girls who were crying non stop, at the sight of Leo decimating his enemies allowed them to gain their courage.

    Following straight after Leo, the jocks rushed in to fill in the gaps. As Leo was only one person he could only hold off, or destroy so many zombies at once. Thus with an army of them and the amount of doors breaking open, that allowed more to flood the center, it became harder and harder for the jocks to hold them down.

    Of course it was then, when the zombies numbers became greater than the jocks that problems started to happen. With the increasing number of monsters their claws finally managed to reach their targets as the jocks started to be scrapped with giant slashes on their chest areas or arms. Even with the body gear from football or hockey that they were wearing was unable to even book them for a second.

    The only thing that the jocks were fortunate for was their [Body Enhancement] abilities they received. Although I couldn''t tell the exact amount of strength behind those slashes I knew from the shocked expressions of the jocks and the bleeding bodies that they were clearly not as weak as I originally had thought. Which to say the least was an absolute awful thing! If these monsters were stronger that just meant the time we could hold up would be incredibly shorter than I had originally thought. Without worrying about the jocks I shouted out too Sasha not caring for whether or not people knew I was giving out commands our not!

    "Sasha Hurry the fuck up!"

    "What!? Do you have eyes!? Does it not look like we are working as hard as we can!?

    "....Well duh but that''s not the fucking problem here!"

    "Well yeah it is!"

    "No the problem is if you don''t hurry these meatshields won''t hold out for any longer!"

    "Already?!"

    "THAT''S WHAT I''M SAYING SO HURRY UP!"

    "Okay okay jeez."

    At the back and forth conversation naturally everyone other than the too busy fighting jocks were able to hear us. Clearly some of the smarter ones were able to put two and two together and realized that I had come up with the strategy. However even if they did along with oblivious ones simply kept working, as even they were not stupid enough to stop their duties. Completing their job meant life while the other option available was naturally something they didn''t want to experience and thus they could only concentrate to their limits and use their [Aether Mana] as fast as possible!

    I noticed with their increase in speed that their faces started to sweat profusely, as I haven''t used my own ability before I had no idea what it was like to over strain my mana usage. At the same time however it wasn''t like we had an option as I turned around and saw the jocks slowly moving backwards as they tried to drag their injured comrades back away from the zombie like monsters.

    I saw the fear deep within their eyes, and sighed within my mind.

    ¡®It''s clear that these guys will be useless in the future.''

    Although they had Leo to lead the front without ever standing in the front themselves, they clearly would make no attempt to save others lives and run at the first sign of danger. These were the people who I distrusted the most! How could I let such people protect the front lines? They would crumble easily if they thought they would lose their lives just like now! No one had lost their lives as of yet and their injuries were only skin deep but they had already turned tail and started to flee!

    Only Leo was still deep in enemy lines thrashing his way through the group, it was almost hard to even see him at this point as the amount of monsters flooding him! Although the plans might not be ready I wasn''t about to sacrifice my best friend the lives of people I didn''t even care about and I shouted out to him.

    Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

    "Leo get back here!"

    "I can hold!"

    A flustered shout followed after. I could hear the strain behind the voice, as I knew how hard it was to keep fighting while speaking was. Although I had no time to worry about whether he wanted to play hero and shouted at the top of my lungs while I ran towards him. I wasn''t sure what my ability did exactly but now wasn''t the time to worry about such things. I concentrated the [Aether particles] from my organ, as a warm feeling emerged from the center of my chest it started to flow from my chest through my arm finally reaching my finger tips. When it reached my fingertips I could feel an electrifying sensation as the energy started to condense. As the condensation grew the purple ball started to appear larger and larger. Finally it was the size of a baseball in which I didn''t spend any time pondering about the feeling nor the colour, I threw it with all my might into the group of monsters farther behind Leo. Without waiting for a reaction I yelled towards Leo one again.

    "Leo get over here!"

    "Fine!"

    At this point even Leo knew he could no longer hold on, although he had no idea I had thrown my [Void Ball] he came plowing through the zombie monsters, and it was then that I finally realized how bad his condition was. He was covered head to toe in blood, and although I say covered it was mainly that only a few parts of his white skin could be seen. EVen his face had claw marks across his cheeks and the once chest gear he had worn was no longer visible as his upper body had only scraps of clothing. Of course if his face was even clawed his upper body was in far worse condition as even some stab wounds could be seen bleeding profusely!

    "Damnit Leo! Don''t be a hero alone!

    As i reprimanded him at the same time I grabbed his arm and helped walk towards where my strategy was being made up. He didn''t resist and readily allowed my help as he limped together with me. Although it took awhile, after Leo''s final charge he rushed back through and knocked down all the monsters on the way thus even though they were incredibly agile they were somewhat weak to blows and took awhile to recover. But all the while I was thinking why hadn''t my [Void Ball] gone off. I was actually somewhat pissed as I couldn''t help but think was my ability some sort of did? Did it need a trigger word? AS I thought about this I thought in my mind.

    ¡®Explode? No? Ummm Blast!? Go?! Destroy!? Friggin Blow up?! Release?!''

    "Why doesn''t it work!?"

    As I screamed my lungs out in frustration it was then that finally a reaction occurred. As a deep purple light filled the entire center we were entirely blinded by the light and although I had no idea what was happening after the light had bombarded my eyes I could feel an attachment to that light or at the very least where I had thrown my [Void Ball]. After a short blink the light was gone and what happened next surprised to he point of stupefaction!

    The light that had swept the entire area was reabsorbed to its origin and that I realized was the [Void ball]! As the light condensed the ball finally reacted and expanded outwards a terrifying rate, and although the monsters didn''t know what was happening they felt a hint of fear from that ball and started to retreat. However at this point it was already too late as that purple ball expanded completely absorbing them! After the ball grew to a diameter of about 5 meter it''s stopped! And just as fast as it had expanded it shrunk and soon disappeared in nothing! But that wasn''t the only thing that turned into nothing, as everything the ball had come into contact with had also disappeared! The monsters? Gone! The concrete, flooring, doorway? All gone and there was a crater where the ball had been! It was something that I could only awkwardly stare at and it was then that a shout awoke me from my stupor!

    "Ryker! Get over here while you have the chance!"

 Chapter 12: Exhaustion

    Sorry guys, It''s like I try to write it weekly and all of a sudden 2and a half weeks goes by and I''m like wtf D:  Anyways I''ll try my best to keep these coming out enjoy it~

    <hr />

    ¡°What do you think I¡¯m doing?  This guy¡¯s freaking heavy!¡±

    ¡°...Rude¡±

    When Leo gave me a sad expression,  I looked at him dumbfounded and thought to myself.

    ¡®What?  Do you seriously think I can carry a 200lb guy easily?!¡¯

    Even though joking was not appropriate during this time we couldn''t help as the death like feelings approaching from behind was too terrifying and I needed something to take my attention away from it.  As Leo mustered the last remaining strength he forcefully moved his body with my help into the barrier made out of stone.

    This barrier was exactly part of my plan and although it looked like a simple barrier once we entered Leo, even in his condition couldn¡¯t help but mutter.

    ¡°What is this?¡±

    ¡°Our hope!  now get over here!¡±

    As Sasha called out to Leo, with a lot of difficulty moved forward through the barrier.  This barrier was in the shape of a ¡®V¡¯ with the bottom part of the ¡®V¡¯ having a continuing tunnel.  However what existed in this tunnel was not simply walls of stone!  There was water that flooded the bottom slowing our movements, however although it slowed ours the moment the zombies arrived it slowed there''s as well!  Everyone noticing the zombies started to scream for us to hurry, at this I couldn¡¯t help but sigh within my head.

    ¡®It¡¯s amazing they don¡¯t come to help us move faster and instead stand there yelling at us.¡¯

    I was thoroughly surprised at the cowardice of these people, however I knew for people like Sasha who was currently in charge of the group for her to move would make matters complicated however just when I thought no one would help I saw a familiar delinquent rush to though the tunnel!  Yes it was Tyler!

    ¡°Hey!¡±

    ¡°Good timing you rebel!¡±

    ¡°Seriously? I come to help if you want me to be rebellious I¡¯ll walk away!¡±

    ¡°.....Rude.¡±

    ¡°Haha!¡±

    I started to laugh, happily seeing salvation, however just as I started to relax I realized something was wrong!  It wasn¡¯t that there was a flaw in the trap everyone set up, but instead it was a flaw in myself!  The energy in my body all of a sudden felt like it was about to disappear.  As I quickly used my [Void Eyes] I noticed that all the [Aether Particles] in my body was the smallest I had seen since I was reborn into this world.  Such a problem I never encountered before but I could tell, that after using my ability I was nearly exhausted of all my energy.

    As the person who was trying to carry the weakened Leo, I feel like a marionette who had their strings cut.  Without anyone to grab onto me as I fell, I heard the muffled shouts of my friends.  Although my consciousness was weak and I had a hard time concentrating on anything, I could feel the splash of water surround my face and body as I met the ground.

    ¡°¡±Ryker!¡±¡±

    ¡°Leo!  Hurry and get over here I¡¯ll grab him!¡±

    Even though it was hard to concentrate, I had no choice but to push my limits as I used all the remaining strength to push myself back up.  What else could I do?  If I didn¡¯t the only result would be to die and be eaten by the zombie like monsters!  Although I tried, it was a pathetic attempt and every time I felt  I could get up my body would weaken and I would slam face first into the water again.  To be honest with everyone watching it was a pitiful sight and at the moment when I thought no one was coming to save me I was forcefully grabbed up!

    I looked towards my savior, blurry as it was I recognized the ponytail and the soft feeling between my arms.  As I have been in similar situations minus the needing help to get up, I knew the person who grabbed onto me was Sasha!  I tried to squeeze out a voice in complaint.  Normally, the leader should stay in the leader position in case something happened to them then all hope would be lost for these pathetic students!

    Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

    In the end it didn¡¯t seem like it mattered to Sasha and she rushed to my side dragging me as fast as she could while the zombies started to catch up!  I could hear the screams and shouts of the students, whether or not they were worried for my safety, I couldn¡¯t tell. I was sure there were some screams telling Sasha to let go of me, but instead of letting go her grip only tightened.  Luckily seeing her refusal, a young girl came out to help her.  At my other side the girl grabbed onto me and I noticed a very huge feeling between my arms this time, however as it wasn¡¯t the time to be happy and because I didn¡¯t even know her nor could I concentrate enough to look at her, I was dragged past the barrier!  As soon as we passed Sasha screamed right beside me and even though I couldn¡¯t hear anything else this scream right beside my ear cleared up any fogginess in my head as it was incredibly loud.

    ¡°Start!¡±

    As she screamed the words a few students rushed towards the water and placed her hands in it.  I couldn¡¯t activate my [Void Eyes] as the energy was slowly seeping away from my body, however I knew because it was the strategy I came up with that they were using their lightning abilities to allow the current to travel through the water to the bodies of the zombies!  After watching a few dozen zombies drop, I had no more energy to keep myself up and I fell unconscious.

    -----------------------------

    ¡°Damnit Ryker!  I swear you better start looking out for yourself more!¡±

    ¡°....Sasha.¡±

    ¡°Yeah yeah, I know Leo, I¡¯m just frustrated my two idiot friends don¡¯t seem to care about their own lives when it comes to each other.¡±

    As I said that I shrugged unhappily while glaring at Leo.  Seeing the look of guilt on his face while he stole a few looks at our best friend I couldn¡¯t help but ease my glare.  It wasn¡¯t as if I couldn¡¯t understand what was going through their minds.  As I personally rushed out fully knowing the importance of my position, luckily the girl beside me rushed out too.

    I looked towards the girl by my side.  She had shoulder length hair with braids.  Her hair was completely black and normally in this darkness it would be hard to see, however the beautiful hair had a soft sheen that made it easy to notice.  The next thing I noticed was her giant, and I mean literally her giant chest.  Although normally one would look to her face, even as a girl I couldn¡¯t help but be drawn to those things.  It was only a second that they took away my sight, and it wasn¡¯t as if I was jealous however you know what they say, big boobs have their own gravitational force!

    Surprisingly even though she gathered the courage to rush out and help, it was easily noticeable her current state of mind.  She was trembling, her eyes shone with a fear unlike any other.  However her cheeks were flushed a bit red from rushing to our sides.  Simply put her complexion was nice and she wasn¡¯t overly beautiful but she had a charm that would allow others to fall for her.  I assumed this was the girl who Tyler, had told us about and the only reason she gathered the courage to help was probably because Tyler did.

    As I was given sometime because the monsters were being roasted currently, I stretched out my arm and spoke to the girl.

    ¡°Thanks for saving my important friend.  My name is Sasha!¡±

    ¡°Umm.. You¡¯re¡­ Very welcome.. My name is Rebeca..¡±

    ¡°Thanks Rebecca!¡±

    I forcefully grabbed her hand and shook it.  For these types the best way to approach was to strike first! After thanking her I kept her by my side as she tried to creep away, however once I met a friend It would be hard to get away from me.  As such I yelled towards the students.

    ¡°Someone use some water to wake this guy up!¡±

    ¡°Who cares about this guy, all we need is you Sasha!¡±

    Someone screamed out, however as I couldn¡¯t be bothered to argue with these people I only calmly asked again with a tinge of seriousness.  Luckily everyone took the meaning behind that and a student rushed forward with some water.

 Chapter 13: Alpha Monster

    ¡°Fuck that''s cold!¡±

    As I was rudely awoken from a nice dream of I don¡¯t even remember what it was, water splashed all over my body.  Of course I was drenched, but the worst part was this water was nearly freezing!  I unhappily stared at the few people who were snickering after throwing water using their [Aether Particles].  As unhappy as I was, these cowards were simply not worth my time.  Thus I stood up and noticed Sasha was bombarding the zombies with fire magic along with the other fire users.

    Although the fire users¡¯ magic was somewhat destructive in comparison to Sasha¡¯s they all looked like a tiny ember that could cause skin irritation.  When Sasha threw a fireball it would explode with a deep crimson igniting like napalm in the surrounding area.  To be honest after seeing this  I was somewhat disappointed I even took the time to come up with a plan to get us out of this mess.  However as I brooding over this I heard Leo call me in a groaning voice.

    ¡°Ryker, are you okay?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, in fact I¡¯m a lot better than you, even if you can heal you look like shit my friend.¡±

    ¡°Thanks.¡±

    What the fuck.  He actually took that as a compliment!  Although I knew he was happy to take injuries for the sake of overs  I couldn¡¯t help but be a little stupefied he was proud of that.  Was I just crazy and wounds looked a lot worse than they were?  I couldn¡¯t help but think this was true after all I knew Leo more than anyone and although he wanted to protect others he would think about his closest friends first. It wasn¡¯t much use thinking about it and I shrugged my shoulders and looked towards Tyler, who brought an unfamiliar face.  Of course anyone he brought other than Sasha and Leo would be unfamiliar to me as I didn¡¯t care about them.  Noticing my gaze the girl he brought shrunk back and hid behind Tyler.

    ¡®Hey Tyler, I didn¡¯t even say anything nor do I look that scary.¡¯

    Although I wanted to say that I couldn¡¯t say anything as even I knew I would make the girl up more terrified of me.  I patiently waited for Tyler to give me an awkward smile and speak out for himself.

    ¡°This is Rebecca who I told you about earlier.  Hey come on now Rebecca, this guy looks like a hungry tiger but he¡¯s a softy inside!¡±

    ¡°I have this sudden urge to take out this anger from being splashed with cold water on a certain someone!¡±

    ¡°Ah?  Really I somehow feel like in the midst of all this mayhem Sasha needs my help, well I¡¯ll leave it to you Leo!¡±

    ¡°...Wai-wait Tyler!.... Don¡¯t leave me¡­¡±

    The later half of her words trailed off into a silent mutter, and I couldn¡¯t help but think this girl might seriously think I¡¯m a danger to her over these monsters we are currently facing?  How scary to I look?

    ¡°Rebecca, don¡¯t worry he¡¯s a good guy.¡±

    I gave a thumbs up towards Leo for putting in a good word, I mean it wasn¡¯t like I hated every single existence other than Leo and Sasha.  I just couldn''t help but hate useless kids who only knew how to rely on others.  I mean from the looks of it Rebecca fit that bill perfectly however, I would still give her a chance because Tyler asked for my help.

    ¡°Is he really? I heard.. some strange rumours he was manipulating you and Sasha to be friends with him¡­¡±

    ¡°HAHAHA!¡±

    ¡®Oh fuck¡­¡±

    I immediately realized my mistake as I laughed hysterically and even in the midst of the terror around us stared at me, including the zombies!  I couldn¡¯t help myself as something ridiculous as me controlling my best friends came from her mouth. It was clear this was the work of the jocks or the jealous women and men who wanted to be as close as I was to my friends.  But how could they imagine that we were as close as family?  Thus even I couldn¡¯t control the diaphragm in my body as it uncontrollably pushed out the laughter within me.

    Even with all the stares it didn¡¯t bother me, well except for looking like a particularly nice dish of food from the zombies bright flashing eyes.  That was indeed enough to cause me to shiver however I immediately dragged Rebecca to a separate area, as the current fight was going in our favour I didn¡¯t have to worry about it and could leave it to Sasha.

    ¡°Ah!¡±

    Rebecca gave out alight squeal as she nearly tried to run away however as I couldn¡¯t have anyone giving out the wrong impressions I decided to set her straight right now.

    ¡°Anyways, I¡¯ll say this right now, Sasha, Leo and I have been friends for years, and I without a doubt am not controlling them in the slightest!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what someone controlling them would say!¡±

    ¡®Yes why yes they would but what else am I supposed to say?¡¯

    Is what I wanted to say however it didn¡¯t seem I could convince her otherwise, luckily Leo followed and started to speak as well.

    ¡°Rebecca.  Ryker is my best friend.  Please believe that!¡±

    Short and straight to the point as per usual.  Although at this point I felt unnecessarily spewing out words wouldn¡¯t help and being blunt would probably be more convincing to Rebecca.  Upon hearing this she looked at Leo for a few seconds, then back to my direction and as we made eye contact she looked downwards.

    ¡®holy, just how scary to her am I?¡¯

    Just as I was thinking this, she spoke up and lifted her head staring at me with her eyes filled with an unknown source of determination.

    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    ¡°Well, If Leo says so, and because Tyler wouldn¡¯t talk to you if you were a bully, I¡¯ll believe in you!¡±

    ¡°No, well Ryker is a bully though!¡±

    ¡°Ah!  I knew it!¡±

    ¡°No.. well yeah okay but that¡¯s not the same thing as controlling Leo and Sasha so get over that point already.¡±

    ¡°Hmm.  I¡¯ll believe you then..¡±

    Phew.  Finally we managed to avoid endlessly going in a loop any longer.  Thus the three of us walked back, I noticed that the army of zombies had been cut at least by half.  Something I was truly grateful for, however as soon as I became happy as if some power knew to kick me down when I was just getting up, a loud roar echoed throughout the area.

    ¡°What was that?¡±

    Rebecca couldn¡¯t help but tremble as she asked.  While Leo and I only looked towards each other with complicated expressions.  We both knew that such a sound was never a good thing. After all if this were a pack of wolves, a howl could only mean that the Alpha male had arrived.  And like in all wolf packs that meant the strongest had shown itself!  I wasn¡¯t sure if this was similar however I could tell that these zombies also worked in a pack or at the very least a large pack while hunting.  And unfortunately that was exactly what happened.  As I stared into the doorways, likewise every student who was shocked still stared at the oncoming figure walking through the doorway.

    This figure turned out to be another monster.  It looked similar to the zombies in that it had grey skin with long claws.  However this monster was not lanky, and definitely not weak looking like the others.  Although even they were by no means weak and were incredibly agile and strong.  In front of this monster though they were at least half the size as the muscles on its body were bulging out.  I wasn¡¯t sure if I could see veins or if my mind was showing me veins clearly outlining how strong this monster looked.  It had no hair on top of its head however the sheen of its eyes in the night caused terror wherever its gaze landed upon.  Until finally it looked straight towards me.  I in return stared back and as if coming to an understanding that the both of us were the leaders behind our respective groups, or at the very least he figured I looked at but above the rest and although I couldn¡¯t disagree I felt somewhat conflicted at being the target of its blood thirst.

    To look at my over Leo, it clearly didn¡¯t think that Leo was only brawn, in which it was correct, 100% so.  However to be able to determine that it was me meant it was watching from somewhere this entire time observing our moves.  This fact terrified me, it meant that these creatures were not as simple as I originally thought and the first thing that came to my mind was to run!

    ¡°Leo.  I know what I¡¯m about to say might be crazy, but trust me.¡±

    ¡°...Alright.  I trust you Ryker.¡±

    ¡°We need to get the fuck out of here right now.¡±

    ¡°.....Okay.¡±

    ¡°Wait!  What do you mean by that¡­.¡±

    ¡°I mean if we stay that monster is going to single-handedly kill all of us!¡±

    ¡°He can¡¯t be that powerful¡­ can he?  I mean there are still a hundred of us and their numbers have been reduced by a lot!¡±

    ¡°....You don¡¯t understand, that monster isn¡¯t simply strong.  It¡¯s smart too.  It has been observing us this entire time, and if it¡¯s here, it can only mean that it found a way to kill us all.¡±

    At my words Rebecca stared at shock and looked back and forth between the monster and I wasn¡¯t worried about her conflicted gaze and immediately yelled towards everyone. I didn¡¯t care about their lives, but I wouldn''t just let them die standing here.  Though first off I called towards Sasha and Tyler.

    ¡°Sasha!  Tyler!  Get over here we need to leave immediately!  The rest of you if you don¡¯t want to die I suggest you run as fast as possible.  Leo I know you¡¯re tired but we need you to clear the way take Rebecca with you!¡±

    ¡°Got it!¡±

    Sasha didn¡¯t say anything and only stared at me giving me the ¡®Is that monster that bad?¡¯ look and I only nodded to her where she immediately rushed towards me grabbing Tyler on the way out.  The rest of the students were a second later and screams of horror and terror filled the room.  EVen the teachers were screaming out in fright.  Although at this moment they were all silenced by the roar of that leader monster!

    At this moment everyone except Sasha, Tyler and I stared towards the creature!  I rushed towards the back door leading to the exit and just as we managed to escape I heard a loud noise!

    Boom!

    What followed made my body shiver so hard I nearly collapsed as all the surrounding zombies screamed with high-pitched voices.  what followed were the screams and cries of the students and teachers alike.  Although I wasn¡¯t sure what the monster did, I had a terrible feeling the moment I saw him that he was like us.  A monster that could control [Aether Particles]!  Maybe it was because I had the [Void Eyes] that I was sensitive to it even without using it, but I knew the moment I saw him other than that it had smarts, that it alone could wipe us out.  Although I can¡¯t say it was lucky, we ran towards a small chance of hope even with the few hundred of zombies that were on front of us.  The night was just beginning.

 Chapter 14: Escape

    Worry spread across my face and even though we managed to dodge the frightful attack of the Alpha monster it didn¡¯t mean we were out the clear yet.  We still had to rush through the infested back exit that was crawling with the zombies still.  A group of zombies only numbering a dozen was already able to make Leo in such a difficult state.  Knowing this  I couldn¡¯t help but frown unhappily.

    Although I could heard screams of the students echoing in my ears, to my surprise I also saw many rush after us.  I wasn¡¯t sure whether it was because they heard my words or decided to follow their idols, but nonetheless seeing the quick actions of the few dozen who followed still gave me a good impression of them.  Although still cowards, they were at least cowardly enough to know how to save their lives by quick thinking.  Which would definitely help us escape the surrounding zombies.  We finally arrived at the door where Leo and Rebecca were still waiting.

    Although I told him to get ready to clear them out it wasn¡¯t like I expected him to rush out and fight the monsters himself.  But currently I noticed that only Rebecca looked our way as Leo was currently holding onto a handrail as the metal at his hand started to melt and be sucked up!  The moment the metal went into his hands his wounds started to heal!  Although I knew he could absorb objects I was still surprised as not only was his body healing it now had a metallic shine to it!  Flabbergasted I shouted at him.

    ¡°Why the hell didn¡¯t you use this before you fought before?¡±

    ¡°Forgot?¡±

    ¡°Leo!¡±

    Sasha gave him a reprimanding glare, and Leo returned a ¡®well I just learnt my abilities¡¯ innocent look.  I couldn¡¯t be bothered and knew we were short on time so I quickly asked him if he was ready to charge.  He nodded and as I saw the students start to crowd around I finally for the first time gave them commands personally.

    ¡°Okay, we don¡¯t have time to screw around, but if you want to live follow us and don¡¯t cower!  We need to work together and everyone needs to play a role.  If you run out of [Aether Particles] move to the center of the group.  I swear if I find out you¡¯re hiding you still have some reserves I¡¯ll throw you out as bait!

    The threat made the students shiver all the way to their toes, and I knew that even though I wasn¡¯t popular after shouting for everyone to run most of the smarter students had caught on I was already somewhat reliable.  With a simple nod, I rushed out the door first.  If one wants to act like a leader, one needs the courage to rush out first.  A simple fact I found out by reading countless novels of generals in history books.  I mean hey at least it worked, as the students, Sasha, Leo, Rebecca and Tyler all had a confident look behind as we rushed out!

    ¡°Ryker!  Don¡¯t go first I know you haven¡¯t recovered your [Aether Particles] yet as even I feel somewhat tired after using half!¡±

    Sasha yelled from behind, as expected of one of my best friends she immediately caught on that I was still exhausted and as she said that I slowed my pace as to let Leo take the lead.  Just as he overtook me the 50+ zombies all noticed our presence and immediately rushed out to attack us.  Like a bulldozer Leo ran right through the zombies without even a slowing down as we quickly followed behind.  Sasha and the rest of the students were firing their magic towards the collapsed zombies as the current situation was looking good however, who knows when it could turn out for the worse.  We could only for now keep running.

    After Leo absorbed the metal his body was incredibly strong, as even the claws of the zombies were unable to make a scratch on his self made armor.  Something I truly wished he tried out first, however I noticed that all benefits come with cons in this world.  As such I could see that Leo was already starting to sweat.  I then used my [Void Eyes].  The world around me started to turn black and immediately after the white contour lines appeared in front of me.  Showing the spectacular shine of the [Aether Particles] I could see the lifelines of the zombies, the students, how low my particles were, and the decreasing amount of particles Leo had every second.  Noticing this I yelled at Leo.

    ¡°Leo!  Stop using your [Fusion] ability, unless you want to end up being a burden like me and passing out!¡±

    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    Hearing my voice Leo immediately ceased using his [Fusion] ability.  Although this didn¡¯t stop him from being the train that led us to freedom he charged straight through any oncoming monsters taking injuries left and right, but it didn¡¯t bother him.  Seeing him in pain I looked towards the students to see if there were any that could remedy the situation.  As I looked I noticed a few jocks and yelled to them who were the farthest in the back trying to go unnoticed.

    ¡°Hey jocks!  Get up here if you don¡¯t want Sasha to throw a fireball your way!¡±

    Reluctantly they rushed forward after seeing Sasha was already preparing a fireball specially made for them.  As they were jocks and our pace wasn¡¯t overly fast that caught up to the front and charged forward along with Leo.

    ¡®Truly cowards.¡¯

    I couldn¡¯t help but look at them with disdain as they clearly were trying to take advantage of the situation to save their own pitiful lives.  But as they weren¡¯t stupid and knew we were the best chance of survival they came over to help.  Running down the streets making random turns, still being followed by the zombies, in which we responded with a bombardment of magic. It was then that finally we managed to escape!  I noticed a small convenient store and told everyone to hide in there.

    As we all rushed in the store, I looked around the surroundings to make sure we weren¡¯t being followed.  Although it was night it didn¡¯t matter to my [Void Eyes] as it was only there to detect [Aether Particles], as I couldn¡¯t see any particles floating around besides the odd particles floating in the air, I knew we were safe for the moment.  However after looking towards the students I knew it came at a huge cost.  Clearly all their reservoirs had been completely used up, the students, Sasha and Leo included were all sitting huffing in exhaustion.  Although it wasn¡¯t nearly as bad as me they were still to the point where they could no longer move.  The only ones full of energy were the few students who didn¡¯t have attacking abilities such as the water users, Tyler and Rebecca, although I didn¡¯t know what Rebecca¡¯s ability was it was obvious it wasn''t for fighting.

    I cancelled my [Void Eyes] skill and noticed at that moment Rebecca was walking towards the injured Leo.  To my surprise she started speaking a language that was unfamiliar to me.  When she finished speaking, an animal, or maybe a spirit would be the better way to put it appeared out of thin air!  It was a small animal that look much like a bunny.  Although similarities, instead of a short tail it had a long bushy tail similar to that of a fox.  The colour was a pure white with the tips of the ears being a light blue.  I had no idea what kind of creature this was but I couldn¡¯t help but be surprised seeing it now.  As everyone noticed what Rebecca was doing she ended up cowering behind her our weak looking spirit.  Truly an image that didn¡¯t fit, however as she looked towards Leo and his pitiful sight she inhaled a deep breath and called out.

    ¡°Please spirit, heal this friend of mine.¡±

    ¡°Arooo!¡±

    The spirit cried softly the next moment and the dim light covered its body, a light so pure that everyone felt at ease looking at it.  The next thing surprised me even more as all the wounds on Leo¡¯s body started to disappear!  The cuts, even the blood started to disappear and although it took some time I was s focused I didn¡¯t even realize when it was finished!

    The moment the spirit finished it disappeared as fast as it appeared and with nothing bothering Leo anymore he immediately passed out on the ground.  I could only tell because of loud snoring coming him his direction.  As for the rest of the students they were too frightened to even think of sleeping.  At this the exhausted Sasha went over to the girls and tried to calm them down, but as she did she too could no longer hold on and passed out.  Tyler on the other hand walked over to me and spoke silently to me.

    ¡°Go get some rest, I know you¡¯re tired as well, I¡¯ll keep a lookout after all I still have my radar to look out with.¡±

    Because  I was tired I didn¡¯t try and argue and I found a spot close to Leo and closed my eyes.  The moment I did I was already in my own dreamworld asleep.

 Chapter 15: Last Option

    I felt a slight nudge at my side through my light sleep and couldn¡¯t help but wake up.  I noticed even with my heavy eyelids, that the person beside me was Sasha.  When I looked at where she previously had passed out I saw that the girls had all passed out, but even while sleeping they couldn¡¯t hide their fear from today.  I wasn¡¯t sure but at seeing them sleeping restlessly I could only imagine the terrible nightmares they were having.

    But I couldn¡¯t care to babysit them, and turned my attention back to Sasha.  As she was also tired and wasn¡¯t quite fully awake she didn¡¯t notice my looking around and only crouched down beside me using my shoulder as a neck pillow she fully closed her eyes and went to sleep.  Not a care in the world her face was only slightly smiling as if she achieved some victory over something.  As that was the only conclusion I could come to because normally I¡¯d throw her off calling her heavy.  I mean after all being a pillow was tough work and my shoulder gets sore.  Though she would complain it wasn¡¯t something I would willingly allow usually.  But this time I saw that she was thoroughly exhausted and I was too exhausted to care and after seeing that Tyler, was diligently keeping lookout with his girlfriend Rebecca I closed my eyes to fall back asleep.  Of course I didn¡¯t even bother to look at Leo at my side as from the snoring alone I could tell he was knocked out for a good while.

    --------------------------------

    ¡°Ryker!  Get up!!¡±

    ¡°Huh!?¡±

    I was shook awake while I could slightly hear the screaming of a guy''s voice in my ear.  As I just woke up I wanted nothing more than to punch the person bothering me because I couldn¡¯t help but want another at least another 5 hours of sleep.  However, after my brain woke up a bit more I heard the urgency behind the call and immediately jumped up.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong Tyler?!¡±

    I stared at Tyler in front of me who was drenched in sweat and wore a complicated in fact maybe terrified expression.  Even if I asked I knew that it was obviously bad, and in this world what could be more worst than encountering more monsters?  Thus even though I asked I assumed the answer was just that.

    ¡°The zombies are back!¡±

    ¡°Are they the owners of this land?¡±

    I couldn¡¯t help blurt out my thoughts.  Truly most predators would own a piece of land that they could happily hunt all they wanted.  If it wasn¡¯t a new monster then the possibility of them owning this land was quite high.  Worry filled my face as I remembered the Alpha male leading them.  Even with our small numbers noticing that the our powers were stronger than I originally thought we could fight the 300 remaining small zombies.  However that one monster alone would be able to wipe out our entire small party.  It was something that even I under these circumstances couldn¡¯t figure out a way to save ourselves.

    Although I stood there thinking, the moment everyone heard Tyler¡¯s shouts they started to wake up, that is minus Leo who was still snoring.  However Sasha was woken up even before that as when I jumped up her head leaning on my shoulder was forcibly removed.  Thus she was able to hear the last few words and on top of Tyler¡¯s face, she wiped off the tired look on her face.

    ¡°Any ideas Sasha?¡±

    I looked towards her and asked with a serious expression.  Seeing how serious I was she knew that I couldn¡¯t figure any way out of this.  Although we both didn¡¯t know the abilities of that monster it was clear it was enough to overtake the situation in a matter of seconds.  With the pitiful numbers which was less than 30 out of the original 100 plus, it would be impossible to fight against that monster.  More so was that I could tell that Sasha still hadn¡¯t recovered her [Aether Particles] fully.  Although I had fully recovered and I had no idea how much time passed through our sleep, it was clear that recovered a lot quicker than the rest of the students.

    To explain this I could only imagine it was because I used my ability once which drained me completely but would recover faster.  That would at the very least make up for some of the cons of such a destructive bomb.  Strong, but draining but recovers quickly, it wasn¡¯t perfect but what ability was?  From the looks of it every ability has its drawbacks however as it wasn¡¯t the time to be worrying about it I never thought past my own ability.  During this time Sasha was in deep thought towards a solution.  But in the end she shook her head as well.

    ¡°I can¡¯t, if it¡¯s the same monster we can only keep running.¡±

    Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Unfortunately, running won¡¯t be an option again.  If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that we had everyone working together we wouldn¡¯t have been able to rely on Leo to charge his way through the entire army of monsters.¡±

    ¡°Then we fight to our last breath?¡±

    At this moment Leo stood up and unhappily spoke with a deep serious tone in his voice.  He clearly already was determined to die at this spot in necessary.  I sighed and shook my head.  I didn¡¯t want it to come down to this but we didn¡¯t have much choice at this point, and I only looked at Tyler.  I had one plan that might have worked however, a plan such as this was at the expense of another.

    ¡°Tyler.¡±

    ¡°Yeah?¡±

    ¡°Want to die for your girlfriend?¡±

    At this point Tyler, looked towards Rebecca who was trying to calm the now crying girls who had just woken up.  It was no doubt that they realized after Tyler was shouting the situation that was about to happen.  He gave a complicated look at her, but as he get staring at her, a smile crept up on his face and looked towards me full of courage.

    ¡°Whatever it takes!¡±

    ¡°Good, as expected of a rebel!¡±

    ¡°How does that even work!¡±

    ¡°Haha, if this works I just might help you win over Rebecca there Tyler!.¡±

    Sasha made a light tease and Tyler¡¯s cheeks turned crimson.  He was unable to respond to her words and I couldn¡¯t help but smile nodding to Leo who was also smiling.  We both knew of her teases and seeing someone else on the receiving end for once made us a little happy inside.  But it was a serious time and though lightening up the mood was great it didn¡¯t change what was about to happen thus I turned serious and spoke out to Tyler.

    ¡°Right now, the only  thing I can imagine that has the highest success would be to use my [Void Ball].  Although if it was just myself I could imagine that the alpha male would immediately dodge seeing the strength behind it.  That¡¯s why I need you Tyler to hide from its view and sneak up on it.  If you can stall it for even a second, I¡¯ll rush over and the both of us can say goodbye to that monster.¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t that suicide?!¡±

    ¡°Ryker!  Why not let me?¡±

    ¡°Sasha, it is obviously suicide, but that this time when we can revive, I don¡¯t fear the idea of dying as long as I can see hope in the end.  Leo, if the both of us died you¡¯re going to leave Sasha alone to clean up more than 200 of those things?  As of right now you need to stay and protect all of their lives!¡±

    I agreed with Sasha¡¯s point, and she gave a look of wanting to argue however my stern attitude already showed I was determined to carry this out.  Whether I died or not I could just revive, well hopefully the masked man wasn''t lying and  I could in fact revive.  Although I would only get one chance and I may need it in the future it wouldn¡¯t matter if we all died anyways.  On the other hand Leo wanted to participate but  how could I let the only person who could protect these people die with me?  I couldn¡¯t count on the few jocks that followed as at the first sign of danger they would run away to save themselves.  Finally, Tyler had already known that I planned on using his ability if not why would I bother calling him out?  Of course the other reason was that I trusted him but I chose the best person for the job it was a simple as that.

    ¡°Do you trust me Tyler?¡±

    ¡°Well, even if I didn¡¯t Ryker, cause you¡¯re a prick, I would  still do it for Rebecca.¡±

    ¡°Haha well then let¡¯s go down together, after this if we truly do live, you¡¯ll be a true friend of mine!¡±

    ¡°Oh thanks, how I always wanted a heartwarming friendship after dying.¡±

    ¡°Are you guys idiots?¡±

    ¡°Aren¡¯t we men?¡±

    ¡°True.¡±

    Sasha looked on at our conversation and couldn¡¯t help call us out.  I only responded with the obvious, aren¡¯t all men idiots in the face of death?  We could forsake everything for the sake of protecting those we care about.  And if we survive a new beautiful friendship could be born from such hardships.  The moment to fight back had arrived as we heard the roar of the Alpha male.