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Part Six

Nick’s eyes were unwavering; his eyes never left the sight of his prey. Those icy blue eyes of his gave off this murderous aura. The beast that were rushing his way started to hesitate.

With a simple flick of his sword he beheaded any beast in front of him.

He did not feel any threat coming from them. To him, they were easy pickings, but to others, they were a difficult challenge.

While most of the beast were easy kills, there were some with higher standing. Nick’s peers found it harder to take them down alone, so they had to gang up on it.

A small blue light swept past his face and entered into the head of a mutated wolf. It’s black fangs oozed silver acid, and its red eyes would cause a normal person to shiver in fear.

The head of this mutated wolf exploded causing blood to splatter around. Nick was already dyed in blood, but no harm was done to him.

His icy blue eyes scanned the field assessing the situation. Data was automatically transferred into his mind, all he had to do was react.

Behind him, he could hear the unsteady steps of people charging forward. Fireballs, ice blast, were thrown towards the mutated beast. Causing them to catch fire, or freeze in place.

“Give em hell!”

A voice shouted out, as the masses of people who just arrived rushed into the horde of mutated beast.

“Let's go! Set up a defensive barrier, cage them in. None shall escape!”

Another voice erupted as walls of dirt emerged from the ground, enclosing the mutated beast horde. A transparent barrier was placed on top to keep any from fleeing.

Almost all the snipers stopped shooting as they could no longer see their targets well. There were only a few who continued to shoot, as their bullets pierced through the wall and transparent barrier inflicting damage on the mutated beast.

Those were the ones who would not be obstructed by any type of barrier. As long as their target was outlined, or they were able to see the essence flow inside their bodies. Those mutated beast were no different from a caged animal that could be killed with the simple pull of the trigger.

Under the bombardment attacks of the students, the mutated beast that were caged started dying faster.

Suddenly the ground started to shake, and a vicious roar could be heard.

The wall and transparent barrier had cracks appearing on them. The defensive students used all their strength to keep the barrier up, but a large black fist broke through. Using both of its hands it ripped the wall apart, revealing its shiny white fangs that glowed red.

Those golden eyes caused the students to become petrified. Although they were winning, just the sight of this one beast caused them to become unstable. Its roar inflicted them with a fear they’ve never known. The eyes of that beast pierced through their hearts.

“Damn it. It’s evolving. Hurry and kill it before it evolves fully!”

A voice shouted out, causing the students to throw attacks at the monster's face. The attacks were weaker than before; some vanished before they could even hit the beast.

Nick saw that they were shaken, this beast was on a different level than the ones before.

The beast emerged from the wall. It’s black fur shined all across its body; it had a charm to it that could not be explained.

Its tail crashed against the defensive division members who were trying to hold up the barrier. Their bodies were split in half, and the transparent barrier broke.

“Oh my god!”

“We’re fucked!”

Cries emerged from the crowd, and many students started to retreat.

The essence within the mutated beast was violent; it’s evolution was unstable. Nick pushed off the ground headed towards the beast direction.

“What are you doing? That is not something we can handle!”

Various voices emerged to voice their opinion out as they saw Nick rush towards the mutated beast.

Matthew’s threw one of his sickles at the mutated beast.

It was about to swipe the small sickle away when the beast suddenly felt a strange weight overcome it. Small craters in the ground emerged under its two large feet.

The sickle dug into the mutated beast right shoulder.

It screeched, causing the surrounding students to cover their ears.

Freya who was lying down looked through the scope of her sniper rifle.

She saw the monster and took aim. She saw the red aura around it, but her eyes pierced deeper into its body. She could not control her eyesight well unless she had her glasses.

Every time she looked at someone she could see through them. She would not only be able to see their flow of essence, she would be able to see their essence core.

Although the essence core is located in the stomach region of EXO users, for mutated beast it could be anywhere.

It gave her a strange feeling when she saw it. The essence core was like a heart; it continued to beat.

With her ability not being held she could now aim at this essence core that was usually hidden away by muscle and skin.

She took a deep breath as she recalled upon a skill she saw before.

Her ability ‘Insight’ let her store and use an ability she has seen before. As long as she understood it, she was able to use it.

The essence she was supplying her sniper rifle was blue in color. Now, it started to have purple sparks bounce between her fingers.

The muzzle of the sniper rifle was covered in a purple light. An electric current ran down the muzzle.

Freya supplied the sniper rifle, and it condensed the essence into a bullet.

She pulled the trigger, and a loud bang caused a ringing sensation in her ear.

The bullet was covered in purple sparks and seemed to get smaller in size until it looked like a small bolt of lightning.

Nick sensed something dangerous and turned his head slightly. He saw the small lightning bolt headed in his direction. More precisely it was headed towards the mutated beast.

A slight grin appeared on his face as he increased his speed a bit.

Nick’s explosive speed caught the eyes of the students, and they could not help but be amazed.

His hands were quick as he appeared underneath the monster's legs and cut its tendons.

As quick as he approached the monster, he vanished just as fast. The small bolt of lightning pierced the left chest of the beast. Under the weight and injuries, it could not do much.

Blood leaked out from its mouth, nose, and eyes. Those vicious roars it was unleashing stopped, leaving behind nothing but deathly silence.

The beast crashed into the ground unmoving.

“Wow!”

“That was awesome, who is that guy?”

Many of the students who did not know who Nick was asked very curiously. They saw how bravely Nick rushed towards the mutated beast and how it died.

The students seemed to forget about Matthew who helped bind the monster.

However, it was not Nick who actually killed the beast. It was Freya who was not in their sights. That attack of hers would kill off any one of them, but she used it for this beast.

Nick could only imagine the amount of essence she used inside her body.

Nick’s eyes swept across the field; there were a dozen or so bodies that belonged to the students. However, the majority of the field was dyed in the blood of the mutated beast.

Although they survived this attack, it showed Nick that the students were not ready for a real confrontation. This was still early in the school year, and they had a lot more developing they needed to do.

A crowd of students surrounded Nick and asked him a boatload of questions. He ignored them and made his way over to Matthew instead.

Matthew was just finishing his conversation with another male.

The male bowed a little before he left.

“That was Anthony; he is a part of the offensive division.”

Nick did not really care about the male. What division they were from did not matter, as long as they were skilled. He was not even interested in what the two were talking about.

“I believe this situation is a bit abnormal.”

“Same, there is no way a horde of mutated beast would attack us. A dozen or so, maybe. However, not that many, they were prepared.”

“Right, I feel this is just the beginning.”

Freya walked over to them, and she heard the end of what they were talking about.

“There was something strange about them. Normally an essence core would be bluish in color, but theirs were pure black. Like it was corrupted or something.”

Freya stated what she saw.

Nick could not see their essence core, but with him being able to see the flow and type it is easy for him to determine where it is located.

When a person used the technique Darius taught them; they would be connected to each other. So it is easier to sense the core inside their body and focus on it.

For Freya to actually see it without being connected to them was something else. It gave her an advantage over her peers, and if she could damage or destroy their essence core that would be the end of them.

A mutated beast heart was its essence core, but that does not mean that it would be in the same location as a heart would be. Sometimes it could move around making it hard for one to determine the exact location.

This caused Nick to look at Freya in a whole new light.

“Black?”

Nick started to think about what she said. He never heard of an essence core being black in color, nor about one being corrupted.

His sensei taught him various things about being an EXO as well as what some were capable of. Corrupting an essence core was not one of them.

Although his sensei did not tell him everything she knew, she taught him all the important things he needed to know. For her not to tell him of this would mean she did not know about it.

Matthew himself was different than Nick as he seemed to recall something. He snapped his fingers together causing both Nick and Freya to look his way.

“That's right if I remember correctly there is an organization called Frost that worships the demon gods. They were working on a potion of some sort that had something to do with the mutated beast. This could be the results of their work.”

Nick shook his head.

“No, I don’t think so. What would they gain from having these beast attack us? It has to be someone with a motive. However, it could be that these beast stumbled across some foreign substance that changed them.”

“All of them?”

Freya gave Nick a questioning look.

How would they all become that way? They did not all eat the same kind of food, and the water was clear as day.

Nick shrugged his shoulder.

“Let’s not think of how they changed, for now; we should determine why they attacked us specifically. Do you two have any ideas as to why that might be?”

Matthew asked them.

Freya shook her head.

“No.”

“Useless.”

Matthew told her.

“What? You’re the useless one!”

Before they could start anything, Nick stopped them. They should focus on the matter at hand.

“Honestly I don’t see how, or why someone would do something like this. With our abilities, these mutated beast stood no chance against us. Granted, the students were afraid at first but still, it was within our capacity.”

Matthew said as he sighed.

“If a person was capable of controlling these mutated beasts and they knew of our strength. The most this would do is buy them time.”

Matthew added.

Nick felt like a bolt of lightning hit him. He was focused on fighting that mutated beast that was evolving and figuring out why it was happening.

He glanced over his surroundings, and sure enough, she was missing.

He let out a cold breath and looked past the masses of people.

She was silent, and she was new, not many people really talked to her. Whoever wanted her dead now had a perfect chance to finish the job.

“Freya, I'm just curious but aren’t you cold?”

Matthew asked her.

She furrowed her eyebrows trying to catch the meaning.

Matthew motioned with his eyes, and she nearly forgot.

It was not that she forgot on purpose, it was because it was not really chilly outside. In fact, there was a warmth in the air that made her feel comfortable, which made her forget about the fact she was not wearing her skirt!

She tightened her fist and got ready to punch Matthew.

There was nothing showing that people could see because her shirt covered it. Even if they could see something, they would be disappointed, because she was wearing boy shorts.