E.Guard down to critical level. E.Guard : 15/470

Jason rolled on the ground as his body felt a dull pain over his torso. A dry cough escaped from his mouth as a glowing green light engulfed his entire body.

“Stop!” said Jason as he held up his hand towards the soldier. The panicking soldier calmed his nerve as he saw who it was.

“Human?” the soldier asked, “Who are you?!”

The soldier shouted at the suspicious man as he felt wary of seeing a human male within a forest lurking with monsters.

“Hold up, I’m human. Don’t shoot,” said Jason as his body started to glow in green. The strong glow of greenish hue was hard not to notice within the darkness of the forest.

“Why are you glowing?” the soldier asked yet something else came into mind, “You’re one of the Awaken.”

Jason’s ears perked up listening to that single word. A word that was referred to him.

“What do you mean by Awaken?” Jason asked.

The answer he wanted was put on hold as the vibration he felt underneath was getting stronger. His eyes glanced back at the sight of those monsters who were closing in on them. The line of monsters that span across the whole forest was something he wasn't prepared for.

“They-” the soldier wanted to answer but Jason cut him off.

“Let’s talk about this later,” Jason reached out his hand at the soldier, “we’ve got to go. Now,” said Jason.

The soldier hesitated since an unknown Awaken popped out of nowhere, but hearing the nightmarish growling of those monsters from behind made the soldier decided. He grabbed on to Jason’s hand. Jason didn’t just aid him in standing up as he grabbed the soldier by the waist.

“What are you-” even before he could say a thing, the soldier was lifted off his feet and a rush of wind blew over his face. Jason ran through the forest as he put a distance between them and the incoming stampede.

The soldier was amazed by the feat shown by this stranger. Jason threw his caution away as there was no time to sneak around. He was fully sprinting down the forest floor leaping over shrubs and jumping over overgrown roots. The night vision was like a deliverance for Jason.

Ten minutes was all it took for him to left the stampede in the dust. Yet, Jason wasn’t smiling about the situation. It didn’t make any sense of how a stampede could be slower than him, even the kobold was much faster than them. It begged the question of what kind of monster could be that slow?

He stopped behind a tree trunk while catching up to his ragged breath. On the other hand, the soldier was down on all four as he vomited everything inside his gut. The rough ride was too much for him as it gave him motion sickness. Leaning on the tree trunk, Jason took out a bottle of water and chugged it down. He glanced at the pathetic sight of the soldier who was still vomiting as he grimaced. Jason wasn’t fond of dirty things.

“So, why do you call me an Awaken?” Jason asked.

The soldier wiped his mouth and took a seat on the ground. Glancing at this man who just saved his life, it made him forgot how Jason was the cause of him vomiting everything out. He was deep in thought thinking whether it was a good idea of revealing this to a civilian since the information he had was considered classified even within the military itself. While deep in thought something else crossed over his mind. He glanced at Jason.

“How are you still alive? Didn’t I just shot at you?” said the soldier. He remembered it well of how he pulled the trigger and released numerous bullets at this man yet here he was standing tall as if everything was okay.

“Don’t change the subject. What’s an Awaken?” Jason had no time explaining about his defensive capabilities. With this soldier indebted to him, he had the chance of obtaining information pertaining to the military.

The soldier had some sense in him as he saw Jason had no intention of explaining anything about surviving those bullets.

“The military dubbed people with special powers as Awaken…” the soldier continued explaining how the Awaken came out from the shadows after the end of the first invasion.

Unknown to the soldier, most of these Awakens are found through videos posted on the internet, some showed off in front of a camera while some accidentally caught on camera. The military themselves are quick in acting out, and with the aid of the government intelligence agency, these videos never see daylight as they were quickly deleted. It wasn’t only happening in Canada but all throughout the rest of the whole world, every technologically advanced nation had the upper hand in dealing with this new phenomenon. Within two weeks, Awaken citizens were recruited under the highest security. No one knew except for the military. As of now, the general population had no idea about the existence of Awaken, the only hope of humanity.

The soldier even told of how their Colonel encouraged to kill any monsters as they were told of how it was the only way of turning them into an Awaken. Yet killing one was hard enough seeing all their weapons are rendered useless.

As expected, the military already knew about this.

It wasn’t surprising to Jason as the advancement of technology was enough for them to know that such phenomenons are emerging within the world.

“and there’s this Awaken assigned to our company, he was quite a dick since even the Captain had to show respect to him,” a look of loathing on the soldier’s face.

Jason was intrigued hearing about an Awaken like him except he wasn’t an arrogant person or is he.

“So how is he?” asked Jason.

“Dead,” said the soldier.

Jason was surprised hearing that, he wasn’t expecting such an outcome for someone who might have survived through the first invasion.

“But how?” Jason asked.

“Our company was stationed to the southeast of the provincial park, we’re getting to ready fight against the UCs which were heading on our way but the moment those monsters came, that dick ignored the Captain’s order and went on charging by his own self. He said that he ain’t going to share anything, whatever that means. So this dick kept throwing out these floating lances made out fire at the UC, it was amazing it was just like ma-” the soldier was getting too excited and derailing from the main point, Jason had to cut him off.

“Get to the point,” said Jason.

“So, he kept throwing these fire lances, and a few UCs caught on fire while some kept on charging, but then something else appeared,” the soldier paused as if he was reliving those scenes inside of his head. Jason waited patiently.

“This man, no. It’s more like a werewolf and even from afar he was huge and that wasn’t the best part. This wolfman was riding on top of a sabertooth tiger with a huge crossbow in his hand, he was the one who killed that dick. Well, to be fair that dick did provoke him or it. He was throwing those fire lances at the wolfman and that wolfman didn’t even budge as he took it straight on, but what came next was impossible. One of our snipers relayed a message that the wolfman’s crossbow started to glow and the moment the wolfman took the shot, a laser beam came out decimating everything in its path. If you were there, you would know. A number of our soldiers went down and that dick was wiped out from the face of existence, not even a shred of that dick’s skin survive that blast,” the retelling the story of what had happened made Jason felt goosebumps all over his body.

In Jason’s opinion, the flame lance dick was an idiot but the more pressing matter was the kobold riding sabertooth tiger. For a crossbow to unleashed a laser beam that itself didn’t make any sense. It reminded him about the Scarlet Rex terrifying laser breath. It got him thinking.

Can I take on that kobold?

He wasn’t sure since he didn’t know the level of that kobold but for now, it was safe to say that he wasn’t ready to face off against that type of opponent.

“So where are the others?” Jason asked, curious about why this soldier was alone.

The soldier swallowed a big gulp as he said.

“I’m the only one left, the whole company is dead.”