Becoming Apex: The System In My Mind

Chapter 2: System Integration

For some reason, it never occurred to me that hell would be dark, but it was. Darkness was the first thing I saw as I woke up, that and the sickening smell of warm blood, accompanied by the occasional crunching and slurping noise that pervaded my brain.

[System integration: 32%]

An eerie robotic voice filled my head, and it startled me up to a sitting position as I grasped my head and groaned. I was filled with grief, but I could not even remember why. 

I heard that sickening crunch again, and squinted my eyes to see, and slowly I could make out the stooped body of the creature from earlier bent over something I could not make out.

I needed to get out of this hell, I needed to think, I needed to find Lian and escape…..wait…..Lian?

A sudden cold swept over me and as I crawled up slowly, still clutching my head. Lian, where was he? I needed to see him, I thought as I stood up.

[Warning: Host body integrity: Critical]

I looked down, I was badly injured indeed. But was it talking about me? Was I the host?

[Auto-repair initiated]

A cold feeling swept over the gash at my side like a compress, then moved on to wrap around my chest. It only lasted for a new second, but I could feel it erasing the mutilations that were so life threatening a moment ago. 

Lian? I thought. The goblin had been alerted to my presence now, and watched me warily, whatever he had been eating laid covered in shadows behind him. Discarded.

[Resource drained]

The voice came again, even more apathetic than before if that was possible.

[Lian Soren (deceased). ]

Lian 

Then I remembered.

~~~

Rage unlike any other burned through me. Lian lied, half eaten beside the goblin that I now had by the neck. It was shrieking, spitting, scratching. But I could not hear, my gaze was on the corpse of my best friend as I tore its flaying hands from its body.

With a loud howl, it released a cloud of foul smelling steam to my face.

[Warning: Toxic substance detected]

With a loud yell, I flung the squirming mess away from me as I rushed to cover my nose. It was still cackling as it skidded away from me. 

I lost Lian to this creature of zero intellect. The rage burned colder as I retrieved the hammer  he had used to save me.

Running at a speed I have never gone before, I was upon the creature before it could make one more forsaken sound, and I swung.

It was a clean swing and I detached the head from its body, I was bathed with a splatter of blood I could not avoid. It was putrid.

[Enemy eradicated. Initiate bloodlink]

“Initiate bloodlink?” Still staring at the dead creature, my wrath was not appeased, not even a little bit.

[Initiation commenced]

What I could only describe as a ball of green swirling energy floated from the corpse of the fallen creature and floated over to me before disintegrating into my stomach core.

The effect was immediate, I felt stronger, stronger than I first awakened as a hunter. It was heady and overwhelming.

But I could sense that the ordeal was far from over, and I was right.

[Thirty monsters of similar level detected. Do you accept this mission?]

With rage inside burning every part of me with a cold fire, there was only one answer. I said yes, and the hammer I was still clutching with my blood covered grip erupted into flames.

~~~

The monsters residing in the deeper parts of the tunnel-like corridor were more vicious and deadly than the one that just destroyed my life, but I welcomed it all. The pain, the anger, the fight. 

Swinging my hands at my side, I gathered aura and transformed it into my bow. With a yell, I ran forward, before kicking my foot on the wall, using it to gain momentum into the air.

They all came at me at once, with growls and yells, and arms bigger than my entire frame as they spouted rage and venom.

 But I was faster, balanced on one of my flying arrows, I tore at them with shadows on my fingertips.

With every one I killed, I could feel my aura increase, and what was I expected to do? Of course I killed more.

Lian….I’ll make them pay.

The dank walls of the tunnel were soaked with blood, and I was soaked even more. Blood covered every part of me, but the only thing I could register was the demand for more.

Finally I skidded to a stop as I slaughtered the last of the venomous ones. The pain was catching up with me now and I staggered and stumbled to my knees. Blood, so much blood. My hands, my hair, my eyes. I was the picture of damnation.

[ The Aura of a Rift lord detected.]

It was not over, I struggled to my feet. I had a rough understanding of the meaning of the word, but my grade was yet to properly cover it as a course. Only classes like grade A (Apex class) and grade B (Battle class) dealt with subjects like Rifts Lords.

[Rift lord meaning: A being ruling a particular pocket of distortion (Rift)]

 So creatures were in charge of Rifts… It was a particularly intriguing piece of information that I would have loved to discover under different circumstances. But was I going to fight one now? It should have scared me. But I was in a very suicidal headspace.

[Warning: Semi sentient being approaching]

The air turned several degrees colder, and I shivered as my breaths fogged in front of me. And what looked like frost swept over and covered the walls. Blood and ice, it was a tragic picture.

A goblin-sized Rift creature darted forward, but then it hesitated upon seeing me standing there, sniffed the air, and a cruel smirk settled on its mouth. Before it thrusted a white cloth at me, the twisted smile was still in place. 

I moved forward, my eyes narrowing. That scarf…..Lian! He was wearing that this morning. The pain in my chest was suffocating my lungs now, but I did not dare move. Its cursed mouth opened.

“Save me…” It begged in a distorted version of Lian’s voice, and the mockery in it was plain as day. I had had enough.

He was forcing me to deal with my grief, he was going to kill me the moment I let it take over, It was written all over its beady eyes.

We clashed in an explosion of fury. It was strong, I realized as it flung me to the ground, and before I could move, it crushed my stomach beneath its foot. The pain was enough to make me bite my tongue. I was dying, but there was also a strange exhilaration to be found as I danced with this wicked beast.

~~

[Enemy eradication quest; success]

This time I was on my back as I gasped and struggled to stop my head from swimming and breaking apart in total distortion.

[Rift eliminated. Transfer of fragment core]

The Rift’s fragment core? I was positive I did not need any part of the Rift close to me. But before I could reject the offer, a pulsing white ball of pure energy, Ae, and Aura, hovered before slamming into my stomach core, disintegrating within.

 ~~

Carrying Lian’s body from that Rift is a pain I never thought I would face. The Rift distorted behind me, A swirling mass of matter and earth before it vanished from existence.

I was met with the student council waiting as I emerged, students milling around anxiously, and the entire teachers council. A flash from my side told me that reporters were also  present, and the clamour increased as they caught sight of me.

I had eyes for only one person, that mass of red hair; Ryo Hasegawa. We locked eyes, but as he slowly retreated, I made sure he could see the venom in my gaze. Made sure he could see the predator I had become. Run, Hasegawa, run.