"I told you Blake, RUN!" A familiar voice echoes out in his dream, annoyance bubbling up through his oncoming fear.
"You know me, I can handle these….. Guys." A false confidence tries to fill his shaky voice through the lie. Terror fills his expression, trying to form a smile through it all.
"I won't let them hurt you….. I WON'T!" His eyes gleam with resolve, the image burning itself into his dream unable to be forgotten.
Running forward with all he has, a new arm has already regenerated. Curling the freshly formed fingers into a fist. He delivers a heavy blow to one of the hunters.
"Even if I'm terrified, I refuse to sit by and let them hurt you. Not while I can do something!" A wide nervous grin breaks through his terror. Standing strong through the agony beating him down.
"You have others to protect Blake!" The boy says, standing tall.
"Now GO!" He cries out his golden eyes flick back sending him off, trying to suppress the Despair in his voice.
His body continues to move through the waves of primordial fear, not yielding to their screams. A thick slash meets his waist, severing his torso in two. Flesh starts to stitch back together immediately.
"DAMIEN!" A blood curdling scream finds its way into the waking world as his consciousness returns stirring awake from the dream.
Green eyes shake rapidly opening with terror only to be met with a familiar hovering screen chiming away as usual. Impatiently spamming him with new notifications.
[Quest Complete]
[Level up!]
[150/1000 EXP]
[Reward: +10 stats in your choosing]
[Randomized ability complete]
[Sharks Teeth: Manipulating your energy you can form a set of electric shark teeth over your own. Cost 15 Energy]
"What the hell happened to me?" Blake says to himself, rubbing the crust out of his eyes. His awareness begins to sharpen as an unfamiliar ceiling comes into view.
Brushing his hand over his chest. He's met with fresh scars. Jagged teeth marks litter his lower torso, along with a purple bruise covering the right side of his face. The system continues to chime away aggressively, forceful gaining his attention.
"I levelled up?" Memories of the exam break their way through, delivering the disturbing events within his mind. Flashes of his possession become clearer with each second.
Horror forms in the pit of his stomach at the recollection. The previous detachment becoming harder to ignore disorientating him, his hand finds its way into the strands of his hair ruffling them back down.
'Am I even Blake anymore?' He asks himself, the confusion becoming harder to deal with each day. The image of himself becoming less understandable.
'Would I have even have passed without that things help?' Doubt sprouts in the center of his mind.
'I have to get stronger. I can't let this thing win. I cant let it take over me.' He says to himself, resolving to stay in control, Clenching his fingers into his palm digging his nails into the flesh.
'It's already leagues ahead of me.' He recounts his determination clashing against the horror and worry of the event.
"Status." Responding to his thoughts, Immediately a system screen opens up displaying all of his stats and vital signs.
[Blake Asteria]
[Level 2]
[Energized human]
[HP 30/30]
[Energy 50/50]
[Endurance 20]
[Strength 7]
[Dexterity 15]
[Intelligence 15]
[+10 stats of your choosing]
'If intelligence is everything to do with the mind I'm going to need way more of it if I'm to combat that thing.' His inner thoughts spread out trying to brainstorm ideas.
'I was very close to black out after that fight, I need to start investing into my health pool. It might not just be death waiting for me below 1HP.' He reflects already forming possible theories.
'It will have to be a mixture of the two if anything.' Coming to a final decision he balances the points evenly between the two.
[HP 35/35]
[Intelligence 20]
"Hopefully that helps to keep whatever that thing is at bay." He sighs, slamming his finger into the confirm button.
[Stat changes have been incorporated]
Immediately the feeling of an artificial rush flows throughout his body strengthening and changing certain parts at the microscopic level.
The neurons in his mind firing with a slighter precision than normal. As his muscular structure weaving together more intricately becoming even denser in the process.
With a deep exhale he adjusts to the rapid restructuring of his body. Stepping onto his unsteady feet, he draws the curtains of his bed. Opening his view to a familiar ward. Blue hair sticks out of the pristine white room as a familiar figure meets him.
"Azure!? You weren't kidding about being manned for all the exams". Blake says surprised to see her once more.
"I swear kid, your vitality scares me the more I treat you." She says, her ocean blue eyes not breaking away from Blakes vital screen, barely a change in her flat tone.
'I haven't seen anyone with this much vitality before.' She comments to herself becoming more intrigued by Blakes physiology.
"You healed even faster than before." Her cold tone hints at her suppressed astonishment . A familiar expressionless fills her face not shifting away from the Holo-screens.
"My question despite all of this." She says her unwelcoming eyes pierce through his.
"Is just how do you know Damien?" A fierce curiosity pours out of her. Her gaze locking with his.
"He's been gone for years. Nobody outside our immediate circle should know him". The holo-screens disappear, her body language becoming more serious as she approaches him getting up close to his face.
"So where do you fit in?" She demands with a stern tone.
"He was my best friend!" Blake responds, digging up at his old wounds.
"I lost him in the massacre 4 years ago." He answers unable to meet her gaze, the memories to painful to linger on yet. A sadness tries to form, only for it to hollow out and collapse in itself.
"He forced me to escape in the slew of chaos! I tried, I did everything i could, But i wasn't strong enough!" Blake laments curling his hands into his knees as tears break through his emotional defense.
"He was always gravitating to more reckless resolutions, especially if the situation was dire enough to require it." She sighs, digging her thumbnail into her inner finger staffing off tears.
"He thought himself as the one who should sacrifice the most, because of his powers he would always dive in head first, never thinking about what just might happen." She recounts, pain and regret looming in her chest.
"I kept telling him a cool mind will let him keep his head." She says her flat tone bubbling with a flicker of irritation.
"You must've been the one he constantly talked about a friend he couldn't seem to shut up about. What was it you two? Oh yes illegal roof hopping in the poorer districts." She recounts with a smile, nostalgia brimming up waging an invisible war against her pain.
"So many stories of your injuries and adventures through Boreal. I can see you've inherited his recklessness" She remarks, seeing reflections of her student in Blake.
"Many days i spent teaching him how to heal others injuries, instead of needing me. I kept telling him to prioritize his own growth." She recounts choking up a little with grief in the process.
A storm of emotions forms, barraging endlessly against Blakes mind. Only for it to fall apart in the same moment, allowing only the eye of that storm to center around him. Sorrow blocked unable to form.
"Yet despite all that he would always ignore that warning." Azure says, her emotions finally breaking through, tears cascading down her thin face. The waves of hair spotting up some of the forming tears.
"He was my student!" She cries out, choking on the regret. An anger starts to boil inside her tempering her determination to get him back.
"I haven't given up on him yet, there's still hope! I can still feel his dimming energy signal despite all this time!" She cries out, her pale hands rising to her face, wiping away the tears revealing a determined light in her eyes.
"I will get him back, the military has already failed me once. I cant rely on them for this."
"So I will do it myself, I've waited long enough!" She states, her dissatisfaction and anger clear as crystal.
"So Blake, will you help me get him back?" She asks, her eyes lock with his still holding remnant tears.