There was a fine line between nervous and excited and, as Gary stood there in the white room, he didn’t know how he felt. A way to grow stronger, what type of beast would come out this time.
Yet at the same time, he knew how dangerous this was, these creatures were trying to outright kill them, and there was the warning from Tom. Before the assessment was to start, Gary looked up where the glass screen was being seen. Now he knew the type of people that were keeping an eye on him.
“Hey Gary.” Wu said, as he was already punching the air warming up. “You know we have to impress the people as well to stay in the lessons, you heard them right. So give me and Snow a chance.”
“Give us a chance, what are you talking about?” Snow angrily complained.
Wu never acted like this before, even after the last assessment. Yes, he knew Gary was good, but the way they were talking to him made it sound like he was on another level.
Of course, this was Wu’s evaluation after seeing him take on the debut students and fighting with Jayden.
A buzzer sounded off, and they had no time to argue or fight against each other, because now in front of them, was the beast that they were ready to face. The door opened wide and unlike the last time they could see nothing coming straight at or through.
There were no heavy intimidating footsteps which made them wonder if there was a type of mistake. That was until they could see it crawling out from the side of the wall. Its body was the size of half a car, but the length of it was almost that of a small train, and it had hundreds and hundreds of legs that could be heard scurrying as it walked on the side of the wall.
There was a hard outer shell, which made the beast this time look like that of a centipede and the two large claws in front of its mouth didn’t make it look any less like one.
“Is it going to stay on the side of the wall?” Wu asked, as his two antennas were already sticking out of his head. Seeing what looked like another bug, his instincts were kicking in.
Bug type Altereds were dangerous for a few reasons, one of their main strengths being they were far superior in strength and speed compared to humans. As insects, they were already fast and when increased in size, it made them even more deadly.
Now, seeing a beast of one, Wu felt like this was going to be a tough one. After saying his words, the beast started to climb halfway up the wall, making it hard for them to reach, and was going from the side wall to the back wall at an incredibly fast pace.
“This isn’t the beast we have on file?” Tom asked in the observing deck. “I thought we were still giving both teams the same type of beast to evaluate the students’ limits.”
There was something worrying Tom, perhaps it was the fact that he had never seen this beast on file. Meaning he didn’t know what type to categorise it at. Through research, they were starting to learn from the crystals that the beasts left behind after death, it collated a lot with their strength.
So from the plenty of fossils they had, they were able to tell if it was a basic tier beast, an intermediate, advanced, and so on. Yet if it was a beast that wasn’t on file it meant that they had no idea what tier it was at either.
The other students also realised that this wasn’t the same beast as they fought against, and the first thing that Apollo noticed when looking at this one, was it was a lot faster and a lot more agile than the one they had gone against.
“You’re right, I switched it.” James answered. “However, you have nothing to worry about. From our research we are beginning to understand the level of beasts before they are created. Don’t worry I wouldn’t let something so dangerous out with a bunch of amateur retrievers. What type of person do you think I am?”
That was the thing, Tom had no clue what type of person James was. He was always smiling and friendly to everyone but at times would do wild things with the experiments or the teams that he ran as well.
“Based on their last assessment, I just thought they could do with more of a challenge.”
n0νEℓnEXт
“James!” Crowley shouted. “Remember what I said. If these students are seriously hurt because of something you did, I don’t care what organisation you have behind you. I will do everything in my power to hurt the one that is responsible.”
James just looked at the teacher as he nodded, and continued to watch the match as if it was no big deal.
——
Snow, seeing it up on the side of the wall so high, was getting frustrated and he couldn’t take it anymore. Eventually transforming his body, and the bottom part of himself had once again become that of a rabbit, while both of his small ears had become large as they flopped.
‘That bug thing is pretty high up. I know he has strong jumping power but how is he going to reach up there?’ Gary thought.
The only thing he could think of was using his claws to climb up the wall. The problem was, then he would be in a vulnerable state. Which was why Gary thought it was best to wait for the beast to attack them first.
Taking a deep squat, Snow was directly up against the wall, and then jumped up high, reaching around halfway up the wall of the large room, but the centipede was nearly as high up as the ceiling itself.
When it looked like Snow was slowing down and about to fall, he pushed his legs again in the air. There was nothing for the rabbit-like Altered to push against, but somehow and some way it looked as if he was on the floor again, as a burst of energy sent Snow upward.
With his hand, Snow threw out a fist towards the centipede. When Snow got close though, using its body like a whip, it swung its body with the main weight being in its large head and hit Snow out of the air, and right into the wall.
Now all they could see was Snow slowly sliding down the wall.
‘I’m quite happy that I didn’t decide to go through with my plan now.’ Gary thought, as he imagined that he would be in the same situation he had done. The beast was incredibly fast and due to the segmented parts of its body, it was able to create a powerful strike just like a whip.
There was an indent in the wall form where Snow had been hit into, but Snow was the number two student, so something like this wouldn’t kill him, at least that’s what Gary hoped anyway.
However, the centipede was now on the move, moving on the wall again, and it looked like it was going right for where Snow would land on the ground, aiming to finish off its injured prey.
When Snow touched the ground, the centipede opened up its two large pincers, ready to cut him in half. Snow was slightly dazed, but he was coming to, and had only just seen the beast.
“Don’t worry I got you!” Wu said, as his forearms grew larger and the skin tone changed to a dark brown which was almost black. Stretching out his arms, Wu stopped the pincers’ strike. His arms were shaking but he was unable to stop its body.
The momentum carried on, pushing Wu into the air. He held his hands out at full width, stopping the pincers from crushing him while holding on as well. Although Wu hated it, the only one he could rely on now was Gary and he could see him already having been transformed.
Seeing all of this, Gary saw an opportunity as he ran forward towards its body. Yes, the beast was fast, but so was Gary. As he swung his arm, the segment of its body suddenly twisted the other way, and Gary’s claw had hit nothing but the air.
“Was it bad timing?” Gary thought, as he ran after the bug beast again and swung his claw at a different bit but the same thing happened again with the beast curling its body avoiding the strike.
‘But its head is focused on Wu, and it isn’t looking this way. This must be some type of sixth sense the beast has…’ At first Gary was worried, but a smile appeared on his face. ‘I guess this is an opportunity to try that, my new skill.’
*****
MWS Webtoon is now at 21 Chapters, be sure to check it out, and see all the charecters come to life. Please support the webtoon as well, and maybe one day there can be an MWS Anime!
62e886631a93af4356fc7a46