[Day 48 {week 6}] - Wednesday - February 7, 0000 A.A

The beetles had calmed down tremendously after the attack on their queen.

It was this period of relative peace and the fact that the beetle corpses had become too rotten and stinky to keep around that the survivor cleared out the piles of corpses that had kept them hidden away from the beetles for a long time.

Though many were reluctant to do this, it was a must, as people were sure to get sick if the beetle corpse remained there any longer. Getting sick at this time, especially since the creatures were from another world, might just be akin to a death sentence. In fact, it was very surprising that no one had caught an alien plague as of yet.

Either way, their prime protection against the beetles had been cleaned out, pilled up outside one of the nearest exits, and burned. The beetles were less than happy to have a fire so close to their Hive and immediately put it out by pilling dirt upon it the moment they found it.

With the corpse barrier gone, the survivors were prone to beetle attacks again. Though the smell of dead beetles should be tricking the smaller beetles into leaving away, the presence of the Megas who could see them, was the only reason they were swarming once more. Even so, the use of the Silvery-Grey energy made it immensely easier to fend off the beetle raid, not only with much more efficient but also with fewer injuries than before.

“Form up!” Commanded Coach McConnell,” Here comes another group of Megas!”

A group of survivors stood outside the barricades with shields, blades, and other melee weapons at the ready. All around them laid more beetle corpses, most being decapitated regular beetles with a few dead from Arrows embedded in their heads. In addition to this, 17 or so Mega beetle Corpses lay at multiple points within the hall. Each has been killed by a multitude of cuts or blunt force trauma.

Responding to the Coaches orders, a bunch of tires and sweating kids, most with a few cuts and forming bruises, group back up together as 6 new Megas began to make their way into the packed hall, climbing over their deceased brethren, screeching in anger with more Normal Beetle or Minors in tow.

“Archers!,” Coach McConnell shouted to the barricades filled with Archers equipped with both Bows and Crossbows,” Team A and B focus your fire on the Megas, the other 3 teams are to support us by keeping those Minors at bay!” Shouted the Coach, gaining numerous shouts of confirmation from behind the barricades.

Troy and the other Shield bearers formed a line in front of the survivors as the first 2 Megas made their way up.

“Steady!” Called out Coach McConnel as he watched the fast approaching Beetles as Arrows and Crossbow bolts shot out from the barricades, some of which were aglow with Silvery-Grey energy. The Arrows and Bolt struck Both Megas and Minors alike. The Minors died soon after, but the Megas shrugged off the arrows easily, however, the glowing ones were not as easily countered as they penetrated deep into their carapace causing them to screech in pain.

When the Megas were about 10 ft away, the Coach Voice Finally rang out to Troy's team,” Charge!

The Shield bearers ran forward, keeping up pace with each other with their makeshift table shields, and met up with the Megas, slamming into them with all they had. Doing this before would have been suicide, buy with their new and improving strengths, the shield bearers managed to halt the advances of the Megas, skidding back a bit as they slowed the Megas down.

Troy Grounded his teeth before shouting,” PUSH!” to his classmates, as silver-Grey energy began empowering their legs as they pushed back the beetles.

“Scrrrchk!”

The beetles screeched out in annoyance, raising their bladed feeler to try and cut them down, but that was just what they wanted. As soon as their bladed feelers were raised Coach McConnel, Ranzer, Niko, Zane, and Callie slashed at them with steel weapons vibrating with Silver-Grey energy. The Megas screech in pain and recoiled back, allowing the Shield Bearers to push them further back.

2 More Megas arrived and began trying to climb over their brethren to join the fight. As soon as their heads raised, they received a face full of Enhanced Arrows and Crossbow Bolts.

The rest of the fighters followed suit, slashing at the Megas and Minors with Vibrating weapons. Minors fell from the walls and ceilings as the archers took care of them, the few that got through or survived the arrow and bolt barrage were decapitated by the survivors who slashed and bashed at them at all intervals.

The Major on the left regained its composure rapidly and began making its way forward once more, while the one on the right kept trying to back away, much to the Annoyance of its brethren behind him.

Coach McConnell moved towards it with a fist glowing with Silvery-grey energy,” let it through” He ordered. The Shield bearers moved out of the way allowing the creature to pass through, but before it could do any damage to their force, the coach threw a punch, releasing the energy he was holding. Though he was too far for his fist to hit the beetle, the energy he was holding back kept the momentum of his punch upon release. Thus when it reached the beetle, its head was crushed into its body as it was pushed back into the major behind it.

1 down 5 more to go.

With no time to cheer, the fighter continued to kill the beetles. Zane’s Vibrating glaive sliced off the leg of the right beetle, taking it off balance, to which Niko beheaded it with his glowing Katana.

2 down 4 to go

At the same time, Seeing that one of the Megas at the back was climbing over the beetle the coach killed to get to them, Ranzer Rushed forward, narrowly dodging the Megas bladed feelers and cutting them with his butterfly knives. Once he reached the pained beetle which intended to ram him with its mandibles, the Shield bearers arrived just in time to protect him. Even so, they were pushed back a fair bit as fighting onto a dead beetle's body was not very effective.

It was them that a very bright arrow, struck the beetle carapaced abdomen from the top, the energy contained in it vibrating the arrow to the point it shattered, creating an explosion and taking a chunk of the beetle with it.

The beetle's screech nearly took out their eardrums as it rolled to the side collapsing upon another Major in the process of being killed. Its weight brought the Major below it to the floor, breaking a few of its legs. Both were easily taken care of afterward.

4 down 2 to go

The Fighter pulled back as the 2 Megas made their way forwards with most of the Minors swarming in front of them as they approached. Though the Minors were easier to deal with, they were vicious and attacked in a frenzied state. The Megas were a bit calmer, attacking only when instincts called upon it.

By now, most of the glowing weapons began to dim as the energy imbued into them began to run out. “We need to wrap this up, people!” Said the Coach taking the lead punching at the Minors that approached him, most of which exploded, literally, from the enhanced punch. The group followed suit, slaying as many minors as the cold before the Megas climbed over their 4 dead brethren as they had done with the many other Mega beetle corpses along the hallway.

Another Excessively bright arrow flew overhead and struck one of the Megas in the head, exploding seconds later, taking its head with it. That beetle's body staggered forward before collapsing dead.

With only one Mega left with a large group of superpowered survivors, this raid stood no chance and was cut down quickly.

~~~~~~

The raid on the left hallway had gone much like in the right. Officer Wheeler had led that team of survivors much like Coach McConnell had done it. With the fight done, the survivors sighed with relief as the second raid since they reopened their halls went without any deaths.

The fighters began to file back into Velysium Hall, tired out of the wits, to rest and recover from a very stressful battle. They had multiple cuts and bruises from the fight, However, the energy had not just increased their physical strength but also increased their healing factor. Most of the small cuts and bruises would heal in about a day, while the more severe ones would need to see the nurse. Luckily for Zainab, he had been affected by the energy enough for his body to heal quickly, allowing him to continue training, although with much more restraint.

Emilia and Arran staggered out of the right barricades, helped up by their friends who began walking them to their rooms. After shooting around 4 exploding arrows each, they were drained and needed to rest.

Leo also decided to take a one-way trip to his assigned room to sleep. After much pestering, he got Coach McConnel to give him his long sword, promising he would shut up after that. But now he was regretting his choices as it proved to be a chore to swing while surrounded by Minor beetles on all sides. He swore if he had to swing the thing again, his hands would fall off.

After the fighters retreated, another group took their place to watch the barricades, while another went out to collect parts from the beetles and dispose of them. The main thing they were looking to scavenge were the 23 Mega beetles, taking their carapaces, teeth, and feeler blades, to make more weapons, armors, and ammunition. Then there is the food they could gather from the chunky creature.

After that was done, all the beetles were dragged out of the school through the roll up door in the wood workshop and left outside. Though there should be a mass of beetle corpses piled here, all of them were taken or eaten by scavengers, who could not pass up the opportunity for free food.

It was clear that a lot of things had changed within these 2 weeks. The most defining factor being the improvement with the Silver-Grey energy, which had been named Sev. The survivors had figured out that not only could Sev be added to different parts of your body to improve them, but also to their weapons, making them more durable and deadly. However it took much Sev was added, that object (or body part most likely) would start to deteriorate, and as it broke down, Sev released in a violent explosion. Though it had been less than welcome when it had happened, it was now a valuable skill in their arsenal. Essentially a grenade.

As for the feats Coach McConnell had done with his bare hands, it was an accidental find when a student was in danger 14 days before on their last beetle raid.

~~~~~~~~(19:23 PM)~~~~~~~~

“Damn.” Said Leo as he fiddled with his karate uniform,” It only been like 6 hours since we took down that raid, can we not do more training today? I’m still freakin tired.” Complained Leo.

“If you don’t shut that mouth before the coach hears you, I’ll do it myself.” Responded Callie threateningly, not wanting to spend more time than necessary during this training.

Leo clicked his tongue but said nothing as their group walked to the martial arts room where the coach was waiting.

“Oh no.” Said Neo,” it’s sensory training today.” he said with an obvious dread in his voice as he noticed the bandanas in the coach's hands.

“The hell are you worried about?” Asked Zane,” you're good at this. Richy's the one who needs to be worried.”

“Hey!” said Richy

“I know, but that doesn’t mean I want to do this.” Replied Neo.

Around 30 people sat around the coach, all of them starting to get sore from the previous battle they had to deal with. The Coach handed out bandanas to 4 students and told the rest to get ready.

Sensory training was simple. A group of blinded students were put in the center of others and would have to try and use their other senses to catch those who were sneaking on them. It was because of this type of training that the survivors so easily managed to avoid falling beetles from landing on top of them. The training was meant to increase their senses of incoming danger, and with the energy improving their rate of growth, they were seeing great improvements.

With the 4 students, Niky, Von, Leo, and Irene, ready to begin, the other 28 people began to spread out and slowly approached them. The purpose of the training was as much meant to let the students focus on their other senses, as well as let their instincts guide them. Niky was easily paranoid and every little sound seemed to distract her, still, she managed to hold out and had gotten a bunch of students out. Von didn’t like this training very much, since he didn’t understand how the hell people were doing. His senses were muddled with his sense of hearing seemingly overriding his instincts. To him, it sounded like there were a million ghosts walking around him and tapping him on the shoulder in the dark. Leo was well….being Leo. While Irene was doing her best to run into a wall when trying to find people.

They did this a few more times before calling it and moving on to sparing. Though hand-to-hand combat wasn’t something that could be learned in a few weeks, the situation was pushing a lot of people to learn it as best they could. Within these 2 weeks, the Coach and Officer Wheeler had been teaching everyone some hand-to-hand combat, as well as Martial arts, which Zane and the rest of the martial arts club were more than welcome teaching.

The sparing of the martial arts club members, the coach, and Officer Wheeler, was enough to send the other people sweating. Still, there was little they could do to get out of something like this. After getting paired with someone, they spared for about 2 hours more before calling it quits for the day. Callie and Leo had the misfortune of getting paired together.

With the 2 weeks of accelerated growth forwarded by the energy, a lot of people had changed a lot. Richy, who had just about been the shortest person around, had grown taller and bulked up quite a bit. He was still scrawny in comparison to everyone else, but with time that would change. Then there was Homer Decker who had a very overweight teen, but in the weeks he’d miraculously survived he’d been losing a lot of weight from constant training and battles.

Either way, with this groups training done, the next group was due to come in about an hour. Thus everyone gathered in Velysium Hall left to either get chores done or laze around till they fell asleep.

Josiah Mcpherson, one of the students trapped in the school, left for his assigned room with 3 more people in tow. All 4 of them shuffled past a group of guards going to their shifts on the barricade and passed by a girl carrying a basket of clean laundry to a drying rack they had set up a while ago. Finally, they arrived at the staircase and climb up to the second floor to get to their room.

The room they had chosen was 3 down from Mrs. Stillwater's room, and upon entry, one could see 17 people, some seemingly passed out, while others seemed to be deep in meditation, likely gathering energy in the Zone.

Looking at the time, Josiah and his 3 other friends proceeded to inject some of his energy into a few people to disrupt their gathering process, signaling them to pull out.

One of the custodians, only known as K, opened her eyes and began rubbing her temple as a few more students were pulled out of their meditation. “What happened?” She asked in an irritated voice,” Why’d you pull me out?”

“Sorry Miss.” Replied Josiah,” but it's about time for you to go on your shift on the barricade.”

K rolled her eyes in annoyance before standing up,” Damn. I got nowhere with this one. Still no progress.” She said before she followed Melvis Ron, another one of the janitors, along with a bunch of students out to get their jobs done.

As she left, Josiah and the 3 people he came in with went to their respective makeshift beds and went into their preferred position to try and solve the mystery.

2 weeks around when people had learned that if Sev was infused with different parts of the body, that area would be greatly enhanced for the duration Sev was affecting it, someone had the brilliant idea to test it out the brain to see if their intelligence or cognitive function could be improved. The second they tried to put Sev into their head, they passed out and didn’t wake up for 3 - 4 whole hours. People, especially the teacher, had freaked out about it, but we’re thankful that the person who tried it was still fine and had no problems when they woke up. A few more trials were conducted with Mr.Val on the action, however, they all yielded the same result, so it soon fell out of everyone's priorities as they had more important things to worry about.

However, a select group of people didn’t give up and wanted to figure out why the brain couldn’t get infused with Sev without someone passing out. Thus they managed to get themselves a room to practice on the second floor, with Mr.Val joining them every now and then with his own findings.

In the 2 weeks of their experimentation, they had learned a lot of things. Unlike the body which didn’t seem to care where Sev decided to go unless it was in large concentrations, the brain was extremely sensitive to Sev and thus if Sev was directed to it incorrectly it would essentially shut all functions to the body as a safety precaution to not damage any nerves...well that was the running theory.

The way they found they could somewhat use Sev on the brain was through specific access points and pathways. It was found that the brain, or its metaphysical position, had access points that Sev could flow into. These access points, all of which were closed, save for one, were connected to pathways, which were much like a maze that people had to get through. And like every maze had twists and turns as well as has dead ends. However, if the walls of the pathway were touched, the brian would take precautionary measures and knock them out.

The Locations of these Access points and even the layout of the pathway maze were different for everyone, so no 2 people could help each other out in getting through the maze and finding their most recent discovery yet.

Though they weren’t sure if it was the end of the pathway, many managed to reach some sort of wall which was different from a dead-end and seemed to be in place to prevent them from going any further. When Mr.Val had told them this, the people involved in this mystery had tried multiple ways to get through the way. Most of which had ended in failures.

Josiah himself had done much of the same. You couldn’t go under, over, or to the side of the wall. Touching the wall not only knocked you out but also left a nasty headache. The last time Josiah had done that, he felt like someone was deliberately jackhammering his head for 2 days. It was horrible. To make matters worse they had to hide this from Coach McConnell and a few of the other adults so they didn’t freak out about the headaches. It was not easy.

Either way, No one wanted to find out what it felt like to actually hit the wall if touching it left that bad a headache.

Entering his pathway, Josiah made his way through, careful not to touch any of the pathway's walls. Going through the pathway was very surreal. It felt like he was in VR, making his way through a dark maze with night vision goggles. This incorporeal body floats through the pathway and making it towards a glowing wall upon a much bigger space.

Josiah got to work and made no progress whatsoever in finding his way through the glowing wall. He was expecting this as he was basically limited in what he could and couldn’t do. He had stayed there thinking of ways to get through only to come up with contradictions that tossed his ideas out the windows.

While contemplating if he should do what others had done and try to find a different path, they might lead behind this wall, he felt a foreign flow of Sev go through his body which prompted him to get out of his Brain pathway.

“It's Dinner time.” Said Hamila, before she went on to wake someone else.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Dinner had gone by fast for Josiah as he was still busy trying to think up a way to bypass the wall. He wasn’t willing to give up like most people and truly believed the wall was the answer they were looking for.

Right after the painful, but now bearable beetle soup stomach ache, he got back to it. While he thought up a plan he decided to familiarize himself with his pathway. He was fond of always going slow when trying to reach the wall and wanted to get there quickly to start working out how best to get through the wall.

He went on like this for hours, until he was damn sure he could go through his pathway to reach the wall with his eyes closed. Still even with all that he still had no idea how to go through.

Still deep in thought, Josiah sped into the large space in which the wall was in for the 49th time. Before he could stop himself, he felt a foreign strand of energy enter his body again, which distracted him from the object for a second, and before he knew it, he was too close to the wall to stop.

‘Oh, Sh*t!!!’ was his final thought before he crashed right into the glowing wall.

[Day 49 {week 6}] - Thursday - February 8, 0000 A.A

Josiah woke up the next morning expecting a headache like none other. One that would likely make him wish he was dead, but instead was met with...well nothing. In fact, he felt refreshed.

He wanted the check what he had done, but looking at the time, he had to get not only his chores, and barricade guarding duties on, but also attend the mandatory training sessions. Thus he had no choice but to pick himself off his blanket and rush out to start the day.

Josiah practically sped through the day to the best of his abilities, he wanted to check out what he had done but was worried that if he entered while on break he would pass out and not wake up for a long time. After crashing into the glowing wall, he had most definitely been passed out for much longer than 4 hours. He didn’t want to do it in case the same thing happened again, putting him in trouble with the adults.

So after dinner that evening, when he was free for the rest of the night, he finally decided to enter his pathway.

The first thing that tipped him off that he was onto something was that the pathway was no longer dark, but lit up by the Silvery-grey energy. The second was when he found a spider web of cracks where he had crashed into the wall from which the energy was escaping.

‘Were we supposed to break through like this the whole time?’ wondered Josiah as he realized what this meant.

He went back to the beginning of this pathway and sped his way through, however, he felt that he wasn’t going fast enough and thus tried again and again until he was certain he could get the momentum to break through the wall.

Rushing forward, he sped through the winding paths of this brain pathway. Sev was pooling around him as he went. Then as he neared the glowing cracked wall, he closed his eyes waiting for the impact and the blackout.

As his incorporeal form struck the wall, Josiah barreled through the glowing wall as it shattered like glass.

It took him a few seconds to figure out that he had not passed out and when he open his eyes, he found that he was in a much more spacious area, where numerous strands of Silvery-grey energy flowed in unison.

‘This is it?” though Josiah? Where was the secret he was looking for? The Magic?

As far as anyone wanted to argue, Sev was not magic, more of an internal force meant to strengthen the body. It couldn't control the elements or summon water. Josiah and a bunch of other optimistic nerds trying to see if solving the mystery with the brain was the key to magic had already tried to make fire with Sev, but it yielded nothing.

Now Josiah felt hopeless as this space looked much like the Zone, but on a smaller scale and in his head. It was disappointing. And now he would have to be the guy who ruined everyone's hopes and dreams or at least break the news that this wouldn’t work.

Sighing Josiah left his brain pathway.

It was already night by the time Josiah stood off his bed to stretch. Most of the people in his room with him were asleep or deep in meditation.

Josiah made his way to the water fountains, waving at the few people he saw still roaming the halls, to get the drink of water before going back to his room.

Still disappointed at the time wasted trying to figure out what was behind the wall, Josiah decided it was time to put it behind him for now, and actually focus on getting his core to store more Sev. He had been slacking off a lot lately and needed some time to recover from the disappointing revelation.

Entering the Zone, Josiah was assaulted with colorful lights that flowed around much like the Silvery-Grey energy from before. There were hundreds if not thousands of different colors melding togethering, each with a seemingly different feel to them which assaulted his senses at once. It was suffocating.

The Shock that coursed through him and his overwhelmed senses made him dizzy for a while, almost causing him to exit the zone entirely. After he began to get used to it, excitement set in as getting through the wall had indeed done something after all.

He couldn’t contain himself as instead of focusing on the silvery-grey energy that seemed to be much more abundant than everything else, he looked towards a radiant red strand of energy and used some of his energy reserves to move towards it.

Upon touching the radiant red strand, the hot feeling overcame all the other feelings he was getting from the other strands. Josiah suddenly felt blazing hot, as if he was standing in front of the fire. He grinned with glee as he hoped the energy would do exactly what he thought it would. And with no other precautions began absorbing as much of it as he could.

[Day 50 {week 6}] - Friday - February 9, 0000 A.A

It was way past midnight when Josiah called it quits and left the zone.

He was drop-dead tired. And wanted nothing but to sleep right now, but he wanted to see if the energy he had done something to him and reentered his brain pathway.

Instead of the Silvery-Grey energy being the only thing there, a second energy source took root in his brain pathway, one that wasn't red, but purplish-blue.

Josiah was happy it had done something but was too tired to figure out what for now. He would try one last thing before going to sleep.

Exiting His mind pathway and returning to a dark room where practically everyone was asleep, save for the few who were in a crisscrossed position on the floor gather more energy or practicing their control of Sev through their bodies.

Josiah then gathered his energy to his hands wondering if it had changed color. The same Silvery-Grey energy coiled its way to his hands, with no other colors making any appearances. It didn’t take him long to figure out how to bring out the Purplish-Blue energy, but how to use it was beyond him. Josiah signed and decided to worry about it later as he really needed some sleep.

Still, he couldn’t wait to figure out if this could help him become a fireball-slinging wizard, lobbing fireballs at the blasted beetles left and right.

It was at that moment that a small flame materialized in his palms illuminating the room.

Josiah stopped moving for a second as he stared down at the flame in his hands. The Euphoria he felt in the very moment would be the greatest in his whole life.