Chapter 4: World Of Meta Humans.
The three of them walked off the train and onto the platform. They took a quick look at the holographic map floating in the middle of the platform. Once they figured out which corridor they needed to take, they continued on their route.
As they walked down the dirty corridors, Brakk stopped and pointed at a holographic monitor depicting the scene of a juggernaut attack on the city wall.
"Old man, wasn't this when you were almost killed by that juggernaut?
Drakegrunted as he said, "The thing took my arm clean off. If it wasn't because 2 Grade As came to drive it off, I wouldn't have survived."
Drakethought back to that life-and-death moment. He saw the reptilian visage of the juggernaut as it ripped off his arm like a chicken wing and proceeded to smack him across the head, launching him into a wall 50 feet away. As he laid there in shock, he witnessed the juggernaut bite big chunks of flesh from the ripped off arm. The monster then hurled the remaining parts of his half-eaten arm towards a group of incoming reinforcements, knocking them over like bowling pins. It then jumped three stories high to another platform landing and continued on its rampage. It wasn't long before he passed out from the blood loss.
Drakeshook his head out of that flashback and said, "You would have pissed your pants, kid."
They continued down the corridor as Brakk grumbled in displeasure about being called a kid.
Zarek was going to continue moving onward, but quickly stopped in his tracks when he saw that the scene on the monitor switched to the successful defense from yesterday. The familiar figure along with the floating rocks and rods was shown again, cutting down the zombies as easily as taking a walk in the park.
Zarek was waiting for the camera to zoom in on the figure's face because he was dying to see how he looked. Unfortunately, the figure never turned to the camera. Based on his ability and uniform, he could guess that he was a Grade A in the military. He also had silver hair tied into a braid. From his manly figure that couldn't be hidden by the uniform, he could only imagine the man being young.
"Bro, you got the hots for men now? He the one that saved your ass yesterday? I gotta say, your taste seems a little…outta your league. Of course, if you bring me as your wingman next time, I'm sure…"
Before Brakk could continue, Drakesmacked him across the head and said, "You know Zarek don't swing that way right?."
"Yup, I don't." Zarek grinned at Brakk's ugly face and replied as they continued to move down the corridor.
Eventually, the corridor ended in a wide, open plaza that opened up to the bright morning light. A cacophony of noises submerged the group as they exited the corridor into the plaza.
Off in the distance was the infamous wall, which was now surrounded by some kind of energy shielding. The wind seemed to carry the sound of muffled explosions from mines being triggered beyond the wall.
Something new that grabbed their attention was a portal erected near a large platform. A droning sound started off quiet, but increasingly got louder in tempo before a blue color flashed into existence within the portal.
Men and women came through with several mines placed on anti-gravity plates. Near the back of the group, pylon fragments also appeared on their own plates with men in blue robes following and adjusting calibrations on hand held devices.
The portal shimmered once and the blue color faded away. The newly arrived group proceeded to a transport ship.
Although the lower district couldn't compare with the amenities of the upper district, being the warfront meant that all sorts of amazing contraptions and inventions were constantly on display.
"The Council is really upping their game. We got teleportation and shielding for the wall now. Shoot, how are we still losing? With all this new tech, we should bring the fight to those bastards."
Drake shook his head in disagreement with Brakk's words. Brakk never saw the strength of the juggernaut. He might not have encountered any specially-evolved zombies. Just as new powers were appearing among humanity, so too would new types of zombies and monsters. If anything, humanity was losing terribly since they were down to their last remaining city, Bastion.
The group headed towards a large stadium-like building at the end of the plaza.
On the way, the group noticed a flash in the corner of their eyes and looked over to see a bright ray shoot towards the shielding covering the wall. The light merged with the shielding and the color of the shield became more solid. Zarek noticed that the ray came from what seemed to be an erected pylon on the distant wall.
About halfway to the stadium, the group ran into a few stalls selling some goods. The stalls were ramshackle and seemed put together at the last minute. Zarek and his friends slowed down to take a look at the wares for sale.
Zarek saw many necessities such as ration pills, water pills, Meal ready-to-eat (MREs), tents, guns, and ammunition. He even saw a vendor selling magic rounds. Zarek was tempted to shell out for some, but thought better, as he would most likely get supplies for the mission. Besides, the vendor was asking for an arm and a leg for them.
Near the end of the line of stalls, he came across a vendor selling enhance pills. He had no way to afford these, but wanted to get more information on how much the red colored pill increased strength. After waving over the vendor and asking about it, he found out that the red color pill increased strength, agility, and speed permanently by 10x. The vendor was even kind enough to tell Zarek about the rare purple pill, which multiplied by 25x. Obviously, the vendor didn't have such a pill for sale.
Zarek also learned a rumor that there was a new pill supposedly making the rounds, one that was capable of speeding up the awakening of one's power. Zarek's eyes popped open wide when he heard about that.
Zarek ultimately shook his head at ever getting the chance to even see the pill, let alone eat one.
As the group finally approached the stadium, they noticed other groups had already arrived and were slowly filtering into the stadium entrance.
Most of the men and women had resigned looks on their faces. Strangely, there was the occasional cheering heard from within the stadium as well as the occasional bang.
On the wall of the stadium, he saw a flier depicting the various power levels:
Power Grades (Weakest to Strongest):
F-Grade
E-Grade
D-Grade
C-Grade
B-Grade
A-Grade
S-Grade
SS-Grade
SSS-Grade (Divine Grade)
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Talent Orb Colors (Weakest to Strongest):
Gray Orb – F Talent
Blue Orb – E Talent
Green Orb – D Talent
Yellow Orb – C Talent
Red Orb – B Talent
Purple Orb – A Talent
Gold Orb – S Talent
Black Orb – SS Talent
Rainbow/Prism Orb – SSS Talent
Zarek had never taken the orb test, although he did witness others taking it from a distance. Seeing the rankings for tiers and the associated colors for the first time, he did his best to memorize the information.