Zayden and his team followed the trail of silver water droplets deep into the street. Wolves would jump out from time to time, but with their strength, defeating the wolves was a piece of cake.
As they advanced, they saw a silver glowing light in the distance, the concentration of cosmic energy in the surrounding reaching an all-time high.
It should be a good thing since cosmic energy was needed for one to level up and evolve, but too much of everything was bad.
A large, sudden intake of Cosmic Energy was a bad thing. How do you think the nulls appeared?
Zayden was already thinking of ways he could take care of this problem when he saw silhouettes in the distance.
The team moved quietly through the ruins. Moonlight spilt over broken rooftops, but the real glow came from ahead, the pond.
In a small crater, they could see a silver glowing liquid. It shimmered like liquid starlight, soft ripples casting strange reflections across the cracked concrete.
Zayden raised a hand. "Hold up."
Everyone froze.
Down by the pond, several men in dark, armoured gear crouched near the water's edge. One dipped a long tube into the pond, filling strange glass canisters. Another held out a bowl of the glowing water to a pack of wolves. The beasts drank without fear.
"Are they... feeding the wolves?" Tyrel whispered.
Valeria narrowed her eyes. "That's the military, I recognise the mark on their gear."
"I don't like this," Amara muttered.
"They're trying to weaponise it," Dare said. "Idiots."
Zayden stepped forward, calling out. "Hey!"
The Military men turned. One of them, a tall man with a silver eyepiece and spiked hair, stood up and waved lazily.
"Well, well. Look who wandered in. You lost, little group?"
"We should be asking you that," Valeria snapped. "This place doesn't belong to you."
The man chuckled. "Doesn't belong to anyone, sweetheart. Not until someone claims it." He kicked one of the wolves gently. "These beauties? Already feeling stronger. Faster. We're just helping nature along."
Zayden's eyes stayed on the canisters. "That water is not safe. You don't know what you're messing with."
Zayden was just bluffing because he didn't want his water to be wasted.
But something was weird; this wasn't what Zayden remembered happening, it wasn't the military that arrived; rather, it was a group of mercenaries known as the hollow tusk.
But thanks to him, they had left the college earlier than usual, so of course, some things would change.
"Oh, we know enough," the man said. "It makes monsters stronger. That's all we need to know."
'You really know nothing, ' Zayden thought with a smirk
Soren took a step forward, cracking his knuckles. "You're making monsters on purpose?"
"They're just test subjects," said another military guy, still bottling water. "When the real fight starts, we want weapons that bite back."
Darian growled, "Back off. Leave the water, and walk away."
"Oh? Or what?" the man said, smiling. "You'll fight us? Right here, right now? After all those beasts you just went through?"
He waved toward the wolves. Their eyes were glowing faintly now. Their fur shimmered unnaturally under the light of the pond.
Zayden stepped forward, his voice cold, "You'd better get out of the way"
Even though they were from the military, the world had changed, and their authority meant nothing.
What Zayden noticed was that they were very low-levelled, and from what he got through the dialogue, they didn't know the use of the pond, or they were just too afraid to drink the pond water themselves.
Seeing the coldness in the eyes of Zayden, the brows of one of the military men furrowed.
He snapped his fingers. The wolves began to growl.
"…force me!!"
"Gladly", Zayden said, his grip around the sword in his hand becoming tighter. And with a boom, Zayden disappeared from where he was standing.
But to his surprise, the wolves were faster than him. Their bodies shimmered with unnatural strength, their muscles rippling, and their eyes glowing like red embers. drool fell from their mouth, hitting the ground.
Before Zayden could reach the leader of this military group, a wolf blocked his way, its eyes crazy with brutality and need for blood. Zayden wasn't worried.
"Scatter", he shouted, his sword blade reflecting the light coming off the starlight pond. In one swift motion, the sword landed on the neck of the wolf, but to Zayden's surprise, he felt some resistance, like he was trying to cut some tough meat.
The surprise lasted for only a second as Zayden channelled his law of darkness into the sword very quickly, corroding the body of the wolf, enabling him to kill it quickly.
There was no need for him to hold back anymore.
A wolf leapt off a building, its maw open in a bid to chomp off Zayden's head. Tyrel raised his hand into the sky, thunder crackled, and a bolt of golden lightning came down very quickly, hitting the wolf and turning it into a skeleton.
At the same time, the red aura around Darian towered, covering his whole body, the horn on his head glowing a furious red colour.
He slammed his body into one of the human-sized beasts, throwing them off balance before swinging his axe at the beast.
His axe cut into the body of the beast, attempting to swiftly cut off its head, but to his surprise, he felt some resistance. His expression didn't change as he increased the power output, barely killing the beast.
"They are tougher than before", he barked
Isara slid across the asphalt, leaving a trail of ice in her wake on the cracked ground. She raised her hand into the air and froze a wolf mid-lead. It shattered a few seconds later from Aiden's precise arrow fired from above a broken car.
"We need to take out the one controlling the wolves", Valeria shouted, her blade glowing with golden holy energy. She blocked the claw of one of the beasts, ducked down almost immediately as her golden aura flared up.
She blocked and countered the attack from the two, swinging out her sword while releasing a semi-circle of golden energy to kill both beasts.
"Too many wolves", Dare shouted, crouched down behind a broken-down car. There was a holographic screen in front of him, with a drone high up in the sky, giving him an aerial view of the battlefield.
Other spider drones were shooting out energy beams, slowing down the beast as the rest of the team eventually killed them.
Amara stepped forward, her peach flowing in the wind, and from her shadow, chains appeared. She swung her hand out, the chains following her command.
They latched onto two wolves like a thorn-covered vine, and with another swing of her hand, they were flung towards her. She clenched her fist, activating her necrotic hands.
Both fists landed on the faces of the wolves, so strongly that a shockwave was created in the air. With the strength of the attack and properties of the necrotic touch, the heads of both wolves were blasted open.
"Zayden", she called out, "They are drawing from the pond, we need to cut it off"
Zayden nodded his head, his gaze locked on the leader of the military group who was calmly watching the chaos.
"Let's end this"
In a blur, Zayden dashed forward, his sword cutting through the throat of one of the wolves while dancing in the air, its arc glowing. He reached the leader and swung the sword down swiftly. The man parried with a hidden blade, grinning.
"You're fast", he said, "but you're not the only one who's evolved"
Of course, Zayden knew that; he could see that the man was at level twelve, which was good at this stage of the apocalypse, but he was still stronger than the man.
Their blades clashed, sparks flying everywhere. Zayden dodges a wild slash from the man and sweeps low, kicking the man off balance. He followed with a quick stab, but the man rolled away and quickly whistled.
More wolves leapt from the shadows, aiming for Zayden.
But Tyrel was alreadt there. He swung out his hand, releasing an arc of lighting that killed the beast.
"You're not touching him", he roared
Valeria and Soren came in next, clearing a path through the chaos. Valeria struck with radiant light, slicing down enhanced beasts, while Soren tackled one bare-handed, wrestling it to the ground and pounding it into stillness.
"Zayden!" Valeria called, "The canisters! They're still drawing from the pond!"
Zayden threw his sword. It spun through the air like a silver comet and smashed through two canisters.
Aiden rained arrows down on the last few soldiers. Dare's drones exploded near the edge of the pond, knocking the remaining canisters into the water.
The rest of the military men, seeing that things were going awry, took to the road, leaving their leader on his own.
Finally, Amara raised both hands, and the shadows dragged the leader down, wrapping around him like chains.
"We're done here," she said coldly.
As if he had heard something amusing, the man started laughing.
"You're not done, you're just getting started", he said
And as if to confirm his words, the pond started bubbling and rising from the depths of the crater...