Team C was still running towards the rendezvous point, not knowing that all of the other teams had diverted from that original point. When they were at the head, they suddenly stopped and turned. As they did, four students' heads were on the ground. This shocked the leader named Kelvin.
"What… what happened? I just sensed something was near, but it attacked so fast," Kelvin thought as he looked at the students' heads that were on the ground. He then turned to the red-eyed wolf.
The wolf said no words as its claws sharpened again and it rushed, killing more of the students. All of them were yelling for help from their teachers, but the teachers themselves weren't even fast enough to know what was going on.
"Now that I've killed 50 students, this will convince you to talk," the wolf said.
"What? You can talk?" Kelvin said.
"Woah, yes, I can talk. Now that you know that fact, that'll not help you with your life. You can now answer my question," the wolf said sarcastically, then his red eyes pierced Kelvin's soul. "Where is the teleporter? Now, I want you to know something before you answer. Everyone who has denied me is dead. Now that I know that green-haired boy came across y'all, he must've said something about me. So ask him—if you ever live. I will not hesitate to kill you if you do not give me the answer that I'm looking for," the red-eyed wolf said, annoyed. He was tired of everyone not telling him what he wanted to know.
"Yes, yes, I'll tell you where the teleporters are," Kelvin said immediately.
Some of the students thought Kelvin did this to save their lives, but in actuality, he did this to save his own.
"No, you won't tell me—you'll show me. Now lead the way."
Kelvin then turned in the direction opposite of where they were originally going, and started walking towards the teleporter.
⸻
Back with the last team left, that being Team B…
Ashley was bombarded by lightning. She was able to dodge all of them, but the huge bull made out of ink ran into her. Ashley then grabbed it with her bare hands and smashed it, making all the ink fall and splatter on the floor. When she was about to rush toward them, she felt like she was being held back—but it wasn't Riven. He was too busy trying to land a blow on Milo. It was none other than Mr. Sable.
Ashley looked stressed and she looked like she was going to change her target to Mr. Sable, but before she could, a wave of sound came her way. All Ashley could do was put up her guard as the wave came over her. Ashley was able to endure it. She then did something no one expected—she took in a deep breath of air and let out a loud howl, making everyone on the makeshift battlefield cover their ears, even the wolves themselves. But this howl did more then just stun Wren, Jordan, and Skye, who was the one that had let out the sound wave in the first place. When the three were hit with the howl, they all flew back. Jordan and Wren recovered quickly, but it wasn't the same for Skye—she hit the tree and fainted. She was out of the fight.
Riven and Leo kept trying to hit Milo with one blow. The special trait of the armor they were wearing was that after one physical hit, that hit would do four times its original damage—but the bad thing was neither Leo nor Riven could land such an attack. Milo just kept dodging. After the howl that Ashley made, Riven saw his brother and Wren and thought of something—but he couldn't leave Leo on his own.
"What are you all doing?!" Mr. Sable yelled. "We shouldn't make students do our job for us!"
The other 39 teachers agreed and all started to rush in. This gave Riven and the others time.
"Everyone, back away," Riven said using the telepathic ability. "That includes you, Harkel—get over here."
Harkel was breathing a bit harder than normal, but when he heard the message from Riven, he did as he was told and fell back fast.
"Aww, what happened? When did all that 'I'm gonna be the one that kills you' energy go?" Xander mocked as he tried to chase Harkel but couldn't. Harkel was too fast for him.
But what he did see was his two ally's facing against the teachers.
"Damn, if Kael was here, he would've been able to easily handle these people without killing them. Speaking of which, where is he?" Xander thought, then started to sniff around to try and get Kael's scent. He was able to sniff him—and the fact that he was next to a group of humans.
"Was he able to convince one of the other groups to lead them to a teleporter? Then there's no point in keeping these people alive."
Xander then ran up and killed 12 teachers in an instant.
"What are you doing? We need these guys alive," Ashley said.
"No, we don't. Use your nose to smell for Kael."
They both did, and they smelled the same thing Xander smelled.
"Now all we got to do is make sure there are no witnesses," Xander said, with what looked like a smile on his face.
⸻
"So why did you want us here? I was just about to give Xander the work," Harkel said.
"Dude, we can all see your energy bar. Can you get out of that mode and try to recover?" Leo told him.
Harkel realized he couldn't put on a brave face with the system. He then closed his eyes, and the light blue aura dissipated in his hair, falling back to its normal state.
"How's he coming along?" Harkel asked, looking at the boy who was healing Joey.
"Pretty good… I'm sorry, I can't heal all that well," the boy said.
"Hey Riven, we should give him a level 4 wand like how you did with Kira," Nico said, gathered with the group.
Riven realized what Nico said—this meant she must've known he was the person under the hood. Which made sense, since he was able to make all these potions and make armor out of thin air.
Riven gave the boy a level 4 wand—the same one he gave Kira. And just like when he gave Kira one, it gave his ability a 4x boost for ten minutes. The boy started using it on Joey, but his healing was still slow. This showed them it was a big difference between a non-awakened person healing and an awakened person healing.
"So what now, huh? The teachers seem to be distracting them, but how long will that take? He was able to defeat 20 teachers on his own from me and Joey's group, and sure, there are 40 of them—but now there are three of them working together," Harkel questioned.
Riven then pulled the group over, away from Joey and the student. Then his system prompt popped up. He saw the quests and levels. Everyone noticed that Riven was now level 16—this was because of the quest he did prior during the beast horde.
He then claimed that quest that required him to get all his party members back, and the reward itself was a system reward:
⸻
[System: You have proven that you and your party are capable of going apart without one of you dying.]
[Rewards: 10 levels have been granted to all party members.]
⸻
Updated Stats:
Riven (Level 26)
• strength 27 → 37
• speed 27 → 37
• durability 38 → 48
Jordan (Level 24)
• STR: 19 → 29
• SPD: 26 → 36
• DUR: 21 → 31
Leo Ashvale (Level 22)
• STR: 30 → 40
• SPD: 20 → 30
• DUR: 26 → 36
Harkel (Level 22)
• STR: 25 → 35
• SPD: 28 → 38
• DUR: 21 → 31
Tessa (Level 21)
• STR: 18 → 28
• SPD: 27 → 37
• DUR: 19 → 29
Wren (Level 22)
• STR: 22 → 32
• SPD: 33 → 43
• DUR: 26 → 36
Joey (Level 21)
• STR: 13 → 23
• SPD: 25 → 35
• DUR: 21 → 31
⸻
This was the biggest boost the group had ever gotten. All their strengths were being boosted tremendously. But Riven had one more last thing to say:
⸻
[System: System reward. Would you like to open the system reward right now? (Y/N)]
Riven immediately hit YES, trying to make the process go as fast as possible.
⸻
[System Reward: Your party has proven that no matter how far apart you get from each other, you'll find some way to reconnect. Reward: Infinite range on the Party tab.]
⸻
Before this outing even began, Riven himself never knew there was a range in the party in the first place—but now there was no longer any range. Meaning his party members could go anywhere, and he could still invite them and talk to them. Then one last prompt came up:
⸻
[System: Quest to kill the Broken Veil Experiments has been updated. You now must kill: 0/3.]
⸻
Riven knew it was talking about the new two wolves who had to appear out of nowhere. But the thing that really shocked Riven was the quest reward:
⸻
[Reward: Awakening Reward]
⸻
"Awakening reward? What could that be?" Riven thought, but soon shook his head. He needed to focus on the goal in front of him. He then brought out two potions—both being blue in color, but one being darker than the other. He handed them to Harkel, telling him to drink the light blue one first, then the dark blue one.
When Harkel did it in that order, he felt his energy come back—and something more.
The dark blue potion was a 2x potion, which boosted Harkel's energy. He then looked at Riven, and Riven nodded. Harkel then closed his eyes and the light blue aura appeared over his body again. He looked over at Xander and the other two—but something caught his eye: the three had grown bigger.
After getting the biggest level boost that they had ever gotten, and after getting this boost and getting two potions to help him get his energy back and double it, Harkel was ready to go back in, fight, and get rid of the one known as Xander. But Harkel could see a change. The three wolves all got bigger, and the energy around them changed even more. Just then, that told them everything—they were holding back until this moment.
"What the heck are they?" Nico said, coming down to her knees from the immense pressure that the three were giving out.
The others also fell, including the students behind them and the one's who were in the battle trying to help out the teachers. The only ones that were up were Harkel—thanks to him awakening to the second level —and some of the teachers, but not all of them could. Some of them were still only at the first awakening.
"Dang, even with the armor set, I still can't get up," Riven said out loud. But he looked at Harkel, who was rushing in toward Xander.
Riven then got an idea. He pulled up the system, bought several Awakening Potions, and started to drink them
Riven knew he didn't have that many system points left after buying all the armor, but he had to try something. When he brought the potions, he just drank them on the spot.
Harkel rushed in toward Xander and threw lightning at Xander, who—instead of dodging like he did before—this time held his hand out, grabbed it, and smashed it in his hand. But when he did that, Harkel was already in his face and threw out a heavy punch, knocking Xander down. But he quickly recovered, and while hitting the ground, he kicked Harkel into a tree. Harkel then caught himself and launched himself off the branch.
Xander then ducked under the blow and punched him up. This was Harkel's first time taking a direct blow from Xander, and he thought one thing:
"It hurts. Like, it really hurts." But Harkel caught himself and then looked down at Xander. He waited for his body to fall down so he could try to catch himself using air—but his body never did fall down.
"So, are you gonna stay up there, or are you gonna come down here and fight?" Xander questioned.
"Ah, hold on, give me a second," Harkel yelled back. "What the heck is going on? Why am I not falling? Is it a trait of the armor?" Harkel thought. But when he checked the armor abilities, it didn't show such a thing—meaning this must be a trait of his true awakening. But while he was up here, he decided to take a look at the armor's passive and active abilities to get a good look at it. He didn't use the system to turn the flight ability off.
Harkel then began to free fall. When he did, Xander looked to be ready for anything. Harkel held his hands below and started to rotate them. When he did, a cyclone surrounded Xander's body and started to lift him up. Then lightning started to be seen crackling around, then all coming to strike Xander at the same time.
"Tempest Gale Cyclone!!!" Harkel yelled out.
As the cyclone seemed to disappear, Xander seemed to have scars on his body—but they quickly healed away.
"Damn it. Looks like when it comes down to these guys, I need to perform a quick blow. But then the other thing—am I ready to kill? I mean, sure it looks like a beast, sounds like a beast, and even acts like one…"
"But the fact it can talk in general shows that he has a soul." Harkel was conflicted by this revelation—at least that was until he looked behind Xander. Both Ashley and Milo were showing what looked to be no mercy, killing teachers and students alike—even the ones who couldn't defend themselves. This told Harkel all he needed to know. They have souls—but ones of vengeance—and would kill anyone who got in their way. He knew all this thanks to Riven telling everybody what happened to the wolves with the telepathic link.
"I feel bad for you, yes, but that gives you no excuse to kill others to accomplish your goal. Maybe if you would've just worked with us instead of killing us, we all could've convinced the Academy to go against the Broken Veil or the Ascension group," Harkel yelled to Xander. He then charged up his sword with lightning, ran up to Xander, and sliced him in the neck.
Xander lifted up his guard like the first time—but something was different. Harkel's sword was cutting through his arm and through his neck, cutting his head off. Harkel then looked at the black-eyed werewolf with not a look of victory, but one of somberness.
"What did the Broken Veil do to you? How did they do this to you?" These are the questions Harkel asked. But before he could say—
"Harkel, look out!" a boy yelled in his head—it was Jordan.
Harkel then turned around and saw the yellow-eyed wolf in his face, and he delivered a blow to Harkel's face, making his body fly toward one of the many trees. When he did, he couldn't move—the blow was heavy and hit a vital spot.
"Xander, you joked around too much. Maybe if you just took the boy a little bit more seriously, you wouldn't have died," Milo said, picking up Xander's body and doing something that nobody expected him to do—he started eating Xander's body. With the crunching sounds and how gross the scene looked, everyone looked away from what Milo was doing.
"See, something we learned while being in this place—we're the more we eat, the stronger we become," Milo said with a smile as he was walking up to Harkel. But before he did, he made sure Ashley was alright. When he did, it looked like she was in a stalemate with the other students and teachers, but some of them were already dead. So he thought she could handle herself. He then made his way to Harkel.
"I am now stronger than Xander—meaning, even if you had your full strength, you couldn't win against me. So your only use is just to be a meal and help me grow my strength," Milo said all this with a smile.
He then opened his mouth, ready to bite down on Harkel. But before he could, Harkel shot a blast of air into Milo's mouth, making him become a little dazed. When he looked where Harkel was at, he could see that the blue-haired boy was gone. He looked around but still didn't see him. He then looked up—where he saw Harkel. And he also saw something in the boy's hand—a lightning bolt. But instead of being yellow in color, it was now blue. Then Harkel, with the lightning bolt in hand, threw it down at Milo.
Milo was able to dodge it, but a boy with a greatsword and a brown-haired boy who looked similar to the black-haired boy with a sword—both were in the same set of armor—then slashed at Milo.
A few minutes earlier—
"We need to help Harkel," Leo said, now being worried.
"He's right, but I can tell our attacks will do nothing toward him—more like just shove him off and then he'll still go to Harkel," Jordan said, agreeing with Leo.
"Not if you both did more damage than you usually can. You won't be able to instantly kill him, but we won't be a love tap either," Riven replied back.
He then was able to auto-equip Jordan with the same armor he originally had, along with Leo, that made them do 4x their damage—but with only one attack. Then, waiting for the perfect moment, Riven teleported the two. When he did that, he quickly started drinking more of the white potions.
Back in the present—
Both boys sliced their weapons at Milo. When they did, it went deep into his skin, even almost going past the bone—but it stopped at a certain point. Milo looked enraged. And before he could do anything, Jordan, Leo, and Harkel all disappeared in the blink of an eye. Milo was getting angrier by the second—the fact that all these people kept hurting him and he couldn't deal a blow back. Then he looked where the three ended up—where the main group was. Harkel then fell to his knees—the punch that Milo delivered was devastating. And even though he still had energy left, his body still felt tired.
When Milo was about to run up toward the three, he was stopped by gravity. He had felt gravity before during this battle, but this one's pull was much more powerful. He was even thrown back but was able to catch himself before he went any farther. He then looked around and saw a boy. The boy had a purple glow swirling around him with his hair standing up—just like Harkel's. It was Riven—and he had awoken.
Back with Team C, they were still on their way to the portal.
"This is taking forever," the red-eyed wolf named Kael said
"I'm sorry, but the students can't keep up with us, and I don't want to lose them while we're running," Kelvin replied back. But truthfully, he didn't care what happened to the students. He just wanted to buy time for another team to come and they could try and gang up on the beast.
"Oh, that's the problem? Well, that's an easy fix." Kael then turned around and sliced out toward the air. When he did that, all of the students' bodies fell. They were all dead.
"Now we can go at full speed without anyone holding us back," Kael said with a wicked grin.