Chapter 2 Infestation
My breathing was erratic.
The world was spinning, my head felt light. Pressure formed beneath my eyes, and tears began to well.
My back was supported by a tree and my legs were sprawled out in front of me.
I felt something claw its way up my throat. A metallic taste rose in my mouth—vicious coughs began dyeing the grass red.
My whole upper torso—where I was struck—ached with a level of pain I've never known. Like I had been run over by a truck.
But…
I was alive
How was I alive? There's no way I should've been able to survive that.
After the initial shock of the blow, I truly believed that, even if alive, my insides must have been damaged beyond repair.
Expecting broken ribs and ruptured organs, I probed my torso for signs of damage. After a closer inspection, the damages were not that bad—not nearly as bad as they should have been.
How?
Frantic screams bellowed from where I'd been.
My head started to settle down. I looked up to see what was going on.
Ahead of me, another tree—one that had fallen down after I crashed through it. What lay beyond that was the once passive roach, frantically attacking everything in sight.
Its attacks were fast; its movements weren't. Without the wind, it looked like a refrigerator learning to walk. Its arms were a different story; like blades, the creature swiped at my classmates at unreal speed. Somehow matching that, my classmates dodged with an unbecoming athleticism.
It looked like they would be able to run away, but then—
Whoosh
Wind once again braided itself around the beast, cyclones forming on two of its arms. It swiped in two large arcs, wind scattering toward all my fleeing classmates. I saw them as they were flung up into the air—screaming and flailing through the ordeal—only to crash back down with a thud.
With wind still enveloping it, the creature's movements were unrecognizable. It was swift—like the fridge had transformed into a ballerina, gliding across the soft grass. At times looking like it could fly.
Its attacks, now laced with a deadly trailing wind. Its swipes sent scythes of air wherever it swung.
My classmates recovered quickly. The beast's swipes were still easy to dodge, but the following tailwind sowed cuts and gashes along anyone in its path.
The beast danced across the battlefield—its flurry of attacks controlling the battlefield. Anyone caught in its way was met with injury.
A girl was launched into a tree and stunned. The beast quickly began closing in on her.
Sonia
She noticed the beast while recovering and screamed in terror.
The beast opened its arms—just like when we first met it—and stood in front of the girl. Its arms snapped shut in a deadly embrace—the tree Sonia had her back to caught in the attack.
There was a loud crunch, and the trunk of the tree was crushed. The tree soon toppled.
But somehow, Sonia had managed to throw herself out of the way at an impossible speed. With all her might, she jumped right, flying almost twelve meters.
How was this possible?
Everyone here had survived for far longer than we should have. No normal human should have been able to dodge its swipes, or recover so quickly from being blown away.
The biggest miracle—still my survival.
Every step, every movement—they all felt too strong, too powerful. It was like our bodies had evolved—No, like they had been rewritten into something else.
The others realized this as well. They looked more confident. Maybe a little too confident.
One of the swipes grazed past Sonia's head. The roach got ready to follow up with a stab that was about to be fatal.
In a split-second decision, William ran and grabbed the arm that was charging up with an attack.
"No—!" his scream ripped through the air.
Tears were streaming down his face. His screams were hysterical, and filled with desperation.
It was no secret he had feelings for Sonia. Still, to risk his life for her?
The two appendages near William twisted and dug into William. He screamed in pain, but refused to let go.
Sonia quickly recovered and rushed into help. Perhaps sensing a moment to subdue the beast, everyone else rushed in and held back the creature.
Six arms held back by six students.
But what now?
It took everything they had just to hold it back. They couldn't damage it, and it couldn't damage them.
Wait, no—
Wind gathered around the monster once again—cyclones enveloping its legs and arms.
The same buildup to the attack it had used on me!
Except—the winds were stronger this time. It began to flex its arms—the gale flexing with them. Fingers went white, shoes began to slide and lift, but they managed to keep hold.
But only for a bit longer
The stalemate wouldn't last. Worse yet, I knew what came next. The explosion of power that it used to bodycheck me.
With how furious the wind was this time, I knew it was going to be even more powerful. It had them.
I had to act
My classmates must think I'm dead. The creature definitely does too, with one more person maybe we could hold it back—
No!
I had to kill it
I stared at the beast with its back to me. There was a strangely detailed design on its back—glowing with a purple light. But right now it was—
Irrelevant
The object of my focus—the back of its head, the softest part of its body.
How strong was I? I didn't have time to gauge it. I psyched myself, preparing to land an attack.
Time began to slow down as I took in every twitch in the atmosphere. My mind felt like it was on fire.
A warmth spread through my body—like strength itself was flowing through me. I focused every ounce of strength I had on my legs.
Then—like firing a muscle I never had, I launched forward. Ten meters passed in the blink of an eye. My body almost lost control due to the sudden acceleration, but somehow I caught myself and adjusted.
My foot touched dirt. A second step. A second acceleration. I wanted speed that wouldn't allow the beast to react to me. Just like it had once obtained against me.
I gave a third step. Only one more, and I will have reached the insect.
I cocked back my fist and aimed my entire body at the back of its head. With the next step, I exploded forward and drove my fist into it.
I felt my hand touch flesh, and then that flesh scatter. Blood exploded out from its wound, making sure to cover everyone.
The wind began to dissipate. From a raging vortex to a ferocious howl, and finally back to the calm hiss it was before.
I had killed it
Eyes began to dart toward me.
Their faces were riddled with shock and disbelief.
"You're alive!" Arjun shouted.
Nat's face contorted as if she was about to ask me how, but she quickly made sense of it. It was no secret that our strengths were beyond human.
Her expression softened into a warm smile. "For a second… it looked like your eye was glowing blue."
What? What was she talking about?
Nat noticed my puzzled expression and quickly added "I must've just been seeing things. Sorry, don't worry about it."
Okay then.
Arjun patted me on the shoulder with a grin. "That was some great timing."
Sonia, held up by William, slowly made her way over here as well.
Everyone began to thank me for saving them, and congratulate me on surviving.
The praise was nice, but my mind was too occupied to take it all in.
At first I thought only to myself
What was that thing?
It looked like some horrific experiment—something only a lunatic would create. Sure, something like that may even be possible with modern science, but why would anyone make that?
The more pressing, and scarier question, however
How was it able to control the wind?
That was something truly supernatural. There's no way any form of science could have allowed for such a thing to be possible. Unless…
Enthrons?
No. From what little I knew about them they couldn't allow something "like that" to be able to do that. No human had come close to that kind of manipulation. Even if enthrons were theoretically capable of making it happen, a human can't control them to that degree.
And if a human couldn't do it, there's no way a creature, without higher intelligence, could.
Then what the hell allowed it to?
I quickly suppressed this line of questioning because it was clearly getting me nowhere. A more immediate mystery was in the back of my mind anyways.
"What happened to that guiding 'feeling'?" I blurted.
Eyes began to turn my way once more. Everyone, who had been busy chatting amongst themselves, all went silent and began to ponder my question.
"You're right, it's gone. I wonder why?" Arthur said aloud.
Yes, thanks for repeating my question Arthur. That was so very constructive of you.
I kept my taunts inside for the time being.
Then a soft voice that could belong only to Sofia spoke up, "I think it may have come from the bug. Like a sort of predatory ability designed to lure in prey"
"The glow on its back!" I quickly exclaimed. "As soon as that engraving on its back stopped glowing, that's when the feeling went away I'm sure of it."
A mystery had finally been resolved, but the truth was no comfort. Our one form of guidance had turned out to be a supernatural fishing line.
What could I trust anymore?
There was a shiver in the bushes. I heard footsteps approaching. The rest of my classmates quickly went on guard, unsure of what to expect.
A girl stepped out of a small opening.
She was a little taller than Nat, with a toned, athletic frame and long black hair tied back in a ponytail. Her eyes — mesmerizing, bright — cut through the gloom like glass catching sunlight.
Even battered, even dirt-streaked, she was beautiful.
Her plain white shirt and leggings clung to her frame, accentuating her build, and her missing sweater only made her look... more unreal.
"Jenny," I breathed, longing in my voice.
My heart clenched at the sight of her.
She was here, the most important girl in my life. Tears formed in my eyes, and I ran to embrace her.
"Simon, I'm so glad you're alive," she said with a soft croak while wrapping her arms around me.
We slowly pulled away with tears in our eyes and bright smiles.
Behind her, I saw a handful of people step out. People, from that very same party.
Did that mean everyone had been transported, just to different places?
With worry still in my heart, I flooded Jenny with questions.
"What happened to you? Where did you wake up? Did you find any other groups before ours? Did you encounter any monsters in the forest?"
She steadied her face and looked me in my eyes as she answered "We woke up in a small, grassy clearing."
Just like us
"There was a strange sort of pull coming from deeper within the forest, and we followed it. But as you probably guessed we were met with a strange monster—like the corpse of that one over there." She paused, pointing toward the creature we had killed.
Impatiently interrupting her I asked "What happened to it? Did you kill it like we did?"
She turned back to me with a look of slight annoyance that turned into a sigh "No, we ran away and managed to lose it. Somehow we were able to run as fast as cars, and jump up onto trees. It was shocking at first, but it really aided in escaping."
"Then we got the same feeling again, and followed it again"
"WHAT?" I yelled louder than I meant to.
"Why would you do that when you know what it leads to?"
A small smirk appeared on her face. "Well, I theorized that if the others were here, but separated, they would also follow that feeling at least once. We were confident in our new abilities to escape that thing, so we decided it was worth the risk to find more people."
"Oh. Yeah… good point."
Right. Right. Three steps ahead of me as usual. I wonder if that idiot, Aria, had figured this much out yet.
Jenny spoke with worry in her voice. "You're the first group we've run into. I'm assuming the others are out there as well, but I don't know if they're alright—even with our new abilities."
"I'm sure they can handle themselves. Don't worry too much" I assured her.
Jenny smiled at the attempt but continued "Yeah, but I think we should try and find them quickly. We'll all be stronger as a group."
"Well in that case, I guess it's pretty good that I feel a new direction tugging at me" I replied with superfluous confidence.
She giggled at my theatrics. "Yeah, I guess it is. Let's explain to the rest of your group what our plan is and get going"
"No need to explain anything to these idiots. They have no reason to doubt us and will follow our lead anyways"
Before she could reply to my remark I began yelling out
"Hey everyone! I'm sure you all noticed that strange feeling again, and want to stay the hell away from it"
Extravagantly pointing in that very same direction I continued "Well, we're doing the exact opposite of that. Any objections? Too bad, I honestly don't care."
I began turning my head toward our next destination. "We've had enough rest. Now get off your butts and let's get go—"
…
Shit
Ahead of me was the same type of monster we had just killed. It was failing to hide behind a tree as it stared at our group. What's worse was…
"THERE'S A DOZEN OF THEM!" someone screamed out.
They began slowly trudging forward. The wind began to howl and gather on every one of them. It was as if a tornado was about to form right in front of us.
Three of them stepped forward ahead of the rest. Those dreadful cyclones began to form on their limbs.
I recognized their attack. The same one that had sent me flying—except even one of them individually was at least twice as strong as the previous one.
And there were three of them.
It didn't matter how strong we were—if this hit—we're dead.
Panic clawed at my brain as I tried to think. With the clock slowly ticking till our demise, I yelled the first idea that came to mind.
"Everyone, run back! Spread out and use the trees as cover. Don't make yourself an easy target."
I grabbed Jenny's hand and prepared to make a sprint away from here.
Only before I could even turn around
Whoosh
I heard the wind howl behind me. I recognized the sound. The same attack as the ones the three insects in front of me were preparing.
Dread filled me.
There was nowhere to run
In an instant, an explosion blanketed the area where we all stood.
The world before me had vanished into the wind.