Void Lycan's Advent

Skilled Aberrant!

Evangeline and the rest froze in shock as their eyes darted towards Orion’s location, unsure of his status due to the cloud of dust that had kicked up after he crashed into the wall.

Evangeline was the first to regain her calm – well, as calm as she could possibly get in that situation. Her body screamed danger as she landed her gaze on the monster that had attacked them. Everything in her told her to leave immediately, to run in hopes of surviving such an encounter.

Yet she shoved past her fear and tried her best to calm her labored breathing as she analyzed the enemy. The monster seemed to be an Aberrant. But it was different, way too different.

It stood at a tall 2 meter tall height, possessing a lean body that contained compact muscles. There were weird markings on its legs. Its eyes, like all the aberrants before it, were the same stone cold white that seemed to peer into one’s very soul.

What made it different was its posture. The monster stood silently, positioned in a weird way with its legs crouched to the side while its arms fell freely by its side – as getting ready for a sprint. It wasn’t as mindless as the other aberrants which would immediately jump on them as soon as they were noticed. It seemed as though this beast had retained a bit of its intelligence, even if they could only classify as instincts.

The second difference was one that shocked her to the core. The aberrant had used a skill!

She could sense with her slowly evolving instincts that the monster wasn’t that much stronger than she was. At most its accumulated attributes couldn’t have possibly surpassed 500. So the only way to explain that insane speed it had unleashed was that it had a skill.

This caused an unknown amount of fear to creep into her heart. If aberrants could gain the ability to use skills, humans would lose their only advantage against these mutated species. Surviving the apocalypse seemed to have just gotten multiple times harder.

But before the fear budding in her heart could overwhelm her, Evangeline threw it to the back of her head. She would mull on the matter later. The enemy was before her at the moment, she had to make sure she would survive this encounter.

Her sweaty hands grasped tightly onto the metallic Shortsword in her hand while a series of discs flew around her in a compact array. A single movement from the aberrant and she would immediately attack. She could sense its senses focusing on her. Letting her know that she would be its target.

Suddenly a loud thud resounded from behind her, distracting for a split second. Upon noticing that delay, the markings on the aberrant’s legs glowed brightly before it kicked off the ground, moving with such a speed it seemed as though it were gliding across the ground to reach Evangeline with all its claws stretched out to resemble a sword’s blade.

Marcus cried in despair, infusing all of his stored kinetic energy into his body, uncaring of the state of his body before he rushed out, reaching a speed that even surpassed that of the aberrant. Unfortunately, the mutated being had rushed out earlier than he had. Dread filled his heart as he knew he wouldn’t make it in heart.

Evangeline’s hair rose on end as she mentally controlled her steel discs to gather before her and block the monster’s approach while her arms adopted the same stance Orion had did.

The bit of hope she abhorred flickered into nonexistence as the aberrant tore through her hastily prepared shield with no change in its expression even as the sharp edges tore at its skin and exposed its greying organs to the air, some pieces of intestines even spilling onto the floor.

Suddenly the monster stopped, suspended in midair for barely a second before it continued its dash. Yet that had been enough.

Orion’s dirtied figure appeared from above her figure, his body twisting, leg muscles flexing and squeezing out as much force as they possible could before he kicked at the aberrant’s face. Unfortunately, the monster’s reactions were quite quick. It had quickly risen its right arm to protect its face from the heavy blow.

The force behind the blow, though, had been enough to stop its charge and send it multiple feet backwards, its feet clawing against the floor as it tried its best to dissipate the energy behind it.

Orion gasped for breath while his arms fell limply at his side, his body leaning onto his one good leg. His left arm was as good as gone – for now, at least. His [Transcendent Regeneration] skill was trying its best to return it to its tiptop shape. But the skill had exhausted all the nutrition inside his body and had started dipping its hand into his already limited Ether reserves. And this was before the resulting force from the earlier kick had fractured some bones in his right leg.

Even his face sported some burns. Marcus had been able to transfer his kinetic force into Orion’s dashing body once the former noticed that the latter would be able to reach Evangeline before him. That split second decision had saved the teenage girl.

It was now that Orion realized how dangerous that skill was. Just that amount of kinetic energy had been able to dish out a lot of damage – both to the enemy and himself. Luckily, not all his limbs were out of commission.

He fished out the gun in his clothes and threw it to Marcus. “Don’t go breaking your body!” He then glanced at the unconscious Alex – the teen had been responsible for the aberrant’s abrupt stop, contributing to saving Evangeline as much as he and Marcus did. “Mr. Derek, Emma, you guys protect Alex and stay back for now.”

Orion then glanced at the recovering Evangeline, her clothes thoroughly drenched with her sweat. He didn’t blame her. Anyone that close to death would have reacted worse. In fact, he was surprised that she was even standing. Still, the danger wasn’t over and she was needed in this fight.

“Miss. Evangeline, I’m gonna need a sword.” Orion flashed his knife and turned his head to the now recovered aberrant, its white eyes locked onto the werewolf in a weird sickening way, prompting a growl from his throat.

Evangeline came to at the sound of that growl, chiding herself inwardly for performing such a mistake. Her fists clenched as she remembered that close encounter with death while her eyes glared at the aberrant who had assumed his crouched stance once more. Her eyes closed briefly before opening once more with a burning resolve. She wouldn’t forget this close encounter but she would try her hardest to never be subjected to such an overwhelming feeling of weakness again.

Her Ether drained even more as she commanded the scattered metal discs on the ground to flow towards Orion’s side, surrounding the knife before merging with it. Soon, the knife transformed into a silver colored broadsword that rested tightly in his palm.

Orion nodded, he was about to check its sharpness when the aberrant suddenly rushed forward again. The werewolf activated his main skill, his eyes turning a bright yellow while his pupils taking a slit shape while his ears extended outwards.

Immediately, the speed of the aberrant slowed down in Orion’s eyes. It was a little but it still counted, every moment within a battle counted. His body shifted to the side while he twisted once more, his grip on his sword tightening and his legs transforming into his werewolf form.

The aberrant passed by him with its legs still shining brightly, missing him entirely. Orion obviously capitalized on such an opportunity. His arm stuck out as he moved, driving his blade deep into the monster’s shoulder.

It glanced at its limp arm that dangled downwards, ready to fall off at any given moment, and stared at the retreating Orion with its indifferent expression.

The werewolf ignored its creepy stare and nodded at Evangeline. “It’ll do.” Indeed it would. The sword had been sharp enough to cut so deep into the aberrant’s arm with a hastily placed Ether Enhancement. This was as powerful as his claws. Unfortunately, he couldn’t use those to battle since their range was lacking.

He stomped on the ground with his two feet, his broken right leg had been fixed during the transformation. It had taken much more Ether than usual to transform than normal but it was worth it – at least he had found a cheat move within his skill. “Marcus fire whenever you see an opening. Evangeline, use your remaining Ether to distract him, your discs don’t have to be as sharp as possible, just enough to nick at his skin. That’ll do.

The two nodded and got into position, Evangeline and Marcus standing behind Orion who held onto his sword while directing the tip of the blade at the aberrant as if baiting it. They would win this battle. No matter what.