Elsewhere,

Inside the ‘Defense’ vault, a special regiment assigned to investigate the infiltrations across the country was reporting to the Defense Minister.

“Sir, it seems the attacks were not natural but were pre-planned. “

“Pre-planned you say??”

Nara Lokesh was a little amused. He had been fighting against the mansters for the past 3 years and it was because of his unwavering patriotism for the country that led to India’s survival in the first place. But now after all these years, something unforeseen had happened.

‘Unless… Its them.’

Nara Lokesh had a clear picture of what’s going on.

‘Even then, wasn’t the mechanism behind the transparency of the vault a trade secret?’

Nara Lokesh was more than just amused now. He had resolved to solve it before it’s too late.

He looked at the special regiment’s commanding officer Mr. Akhilesh Tripati, and asked.

“How many vaults were abandoned?”

“Five of them. Sir”

Commander replied right away.

‘Even after sending all the reinforcements we could possibly have, we still lost five vaults to the enemy.’

Lokesh sighed at the commander’s reply.

After seeing the DM’s reaction, Akhilesh added.

“But there is a possibility that the storage vault could be recovered.”

“And the reinforcements are on their way towards the vault.”

Nara’s face brightened up a little.

“Secure the vault at any cost.”

He said.

He knew that for any region, storage vault was an irreplaceable one as it had food and manster resources.

“Yes Sir!”

The discussion was over. Finally, when Akhilesh was about to turn back and leave, an officer barged into the room as if it was some state of emergency. He handed over the phone to the Defense Minster.

“Hello! It’s the Defense Minister of India.”

After speaking into the phone, Nara heard a greeting with a familiar voice on the other side of the phone. It was the president of the huntsmen association, Mr. Yury Lavrov and what came after it, totally took him off guard.

After a minute or so, he put the phone down. He had a pale look in his face. He wasn’t worried about the call but his suspicions about the series of attacks which were becoming true.

“We’ve been called to Russia and fatefully, ‘they’ have returned.”

He finally spoke to Akhilesh who was worried after seeing DM’s reaction.

Meanwhile,

*[She is not level 5. She is level 15!] *

Saransh received a shocking notification from the wrist band.

*[It seems she was masking her overall plasma energy.] *

“Could that be done?”

*[Yupp, if you have a skill to do so or probably an equipment.] *

Saransh was very confused right now.

After receiving a critical hit for the second time, the manster became enraged. It started swinging its sword towards Diya. Since Diya was still close enough to the manster, she couldn’t avoid the vital assault to her hip.

*KRAAANG*

The sword made a terrible sound when it hit the armor and it threw Diya into the air. The manster didn’t stop there. It swung its sword for the second time while she was in mid-air. The manster had frightening agility for its huge stature. But this time, she had a trump card. She shouted while being in mid-air and confronted the manster by swinging her sword against the huge long sword.

“Turbulent Pace.”

It was a rare sword-based skill which could increase one’s agility and reaction time tremendously for a short period of time.

*BAAAANG*

The two swords clashed and created a huge shockwave. Diya who was halted in the mid-air when the swords clashed, used the opportunity to climb on to the broad surface of the enemy’s long sword. Her reaction time was frightening.

Shadow manster tensed up since it had seen someone rivalling its own power and it started swinging its sword to shake off Diya from its sword. But she didn’t stay in that location for too long and jumped again swiftly while pointing the sword the manster’s shoulders.

“Violent Slash”

She activated the skill while piercing the area between the manster’s shoulder and neck. It was a special skill that could negate the mansters defenses while attacking.

*KRAAAAAA*

The skill was powerful enough to penetrate the manster’s shoulder and give it a terrifying injury. The manster was in terrible pain and cried out loud. But it didn’t loose it composure and started swinging its sword again towards Diya who was still in mid-air after the attack. But unfortunately, her skill ‘Turbulent Pace’ had worn off and her reaction time had restored to the point where she couldn’t react to the manster’s long sword coming her way.

*KRAAAANG*

It hit her armor on the shoulder and threw her into a distance. She collapsed onto the ground after being in the air for about 3 seconds.

“EHHH”

She coughed out blood. She was gravely injured after being hit by the shadow manster twice in her vitals.

*KRAAAA*

Shadow manster’s eyes had turned into pure red color. After being injured thrice by the same person, it had gone berserk.

It rushed towards Diya who was still lying on the ground fatally injured. But suddenly,

*PIYYYYUP*

A straight beam of plasma blasted off and it hit the manster’s shoulder where it had the wound.

*KRAAA*

The manster snarled after being hit in the same spot twice and it turned its head towards Saransh who was now on the ground. He had left from hiding on the platform after seeing Diya beaten up by the manster and closed the distance to increase his accuracy.

But unfortunately, something unforeseeable had happened. His location was found out and the ‘Paralyze’ effect was not activated.

“Holy Sh1t! What happened to ‘Astro’ Skill?”

He sweared.

The shadow manster had a fatal wound on its shoulder but was still not bleeding as if it had no blood in the first place. It no longer focused on Diya and it started rushing towards Saransh who was dumbfounded since his ‘Astro’ Skill was deactivated for some reason.

‘There is no point in running away.’

He started aiming his gun towards the manster right away. But unlike the mansters he had faced so far, this one was totally out of his league.

Even though the manster was still at a distance, it had already swung its sword once.

“AAAAAH”

Before Saransh could react to the attack, he was hit by the huge gust of air which threw him into a distance of couple of meters from where he was standing. It was the same attack used to knock off Sanjay onto the ground, who was one of the strongest mages they had at the moment.

*[You have received substantial damage to the ribs.] *

He coughed out blood while lying on the floor. He could already feel his broken ribs even without Mira telling him.

On one end he could see the shadow manster dragging its sword on the ground and walking towards him gradually and on the other end he could see Diya lying on the ground.

“This makes me reminded of the movie which had this same kind of tragic scene.”

He could barely speak but he always already comparing the situation to a Bollywood movie.

*[Stop joking when you are on death bead.] *

‘Oh! Saniya is also here.’

He could see Diya being healed by Saniya who had come out of hiding after seeing Diya in danger.

‘Atleast, she won’t die.’

‘Why did I have to do something so stupid.’

His thought process took a 180 degree turn.

‘It almost felt like my body moved on its own after seeing her in danger.’

“Haven’t I seen an anime like that?”

*[Hey! You have started thinking out loud.] *

Saransh had started thinking randomly after seeing himself at death’s door.

The manster was already standing close to him and had stopped moving. It raised its sword in air and swung it towards Saransh who was still lying on the floor. Saransh gave up on moving from the spot since there was no way he could escape from that beast.

“AAAAAHH”.

His abdomen was sliced apart by the manster’s attack and huge amount of blood started pouring out from his fatal injury.

‘I’m starting to feel cold.’

‘Is this what dying is?’

‘If Mira could have read my thoughts, she would have responded with the notification ‘Probably…’’.

‘Wait, had the manster stopped attacking?’

The manster had stopped attacking him and headed towards Diya since he was already half-dead by its second attack.

Saransh was eventually loosing his consciousness. He could barely feel his limbs because of the loss of excess of blood.

‘Didn’t something like this happen 3 years back?’

He had a similar experience during the first wave of the manster’s attack three years back.

‘I think I was on the verge of death back then too.’

‘But wasn’t I rescued by someone. Why don’t I remember anything else of that incident?’

‘The only thing I remember is waking up from coma after being in the hospital for almost two years’.

He was starting to remember things which he had forgotten before falling into deep sleep three years back.

‘Oh! There was a pretty girl too when I saw those creatures for the first time.’

‘and she looked so much like Diya’.

‘What am I even thinking?’

‘Wait… there was someone else too!’

‘Not just someone. But a group of people who came to our rescue.’

‘Wait… is this all my imagination?’

He was barely conscious and he opened his eyes slightly to look at Diya. Even though she wasn’t healed completely, he could see Diya still fighting for her life.

‘Oh! She is still alive.’

Saransh had almost lost his consciousness now. Before he closed his eyes, he received a notification from Mira which she spoke out to him.

*[ Congratulations!] *

*[ You have received the recognition of the ‘Creator’] *

*[ You have earned the title ‘Creator’s Disciple’] *

*[ You have acquired new passive skills!] *

*[ Would you like to activate the passive skill ‘regeneration’ permanently?] *

As Saransh could hardly listen to any of that, he said “Yes” half-mindedly after receiving a yes or no question.

*[ Regeneration skill is not on a sufficient level to heal completely. Partial remodeling of tissues has started. ]*

“Ehh?”