Markus (POV)

“Bloody Hell! Why are there Ice-Bugs in Alaska?”

You young man of Irish descent is watching the Bee Paladin defending a mall in Rockville from Icebugs. It is twenty minutes away from his location, which was the reason that it caught his attention.

The young man is overwhelmed by the desire to help the Bee Paladin fight off the swarm. He had the power to turn the tide but getting there in time was the issue. While he was thinking of a way, a Tamer who resembled a Black Phoenix showed up and rained fireballs on the swarm. Working together with Bee-Paladin, the two slaughtered all the Ice-Bugs that remained.

“Damn! Another powerful Fire-Elemental Tamer?”

[Does user Markus still wish to go to Rockville Mall?]

“It doesn’t look like they need reinforcements, but I still want to meet up with these two. Safety in numbers and all that.”

[Plotting the quickest route south to Rockville Mall]

Markus studied the Holo Map projection the AI butler generated.

“There can’t be that much traffic here, so why are all the roads in Red?”

[According to the messages shared by Tamers, the monsters stick to roads as they spread out from the Pink Pillars]

“So Tamers are recommending going off-road?”

[Those who have, seem to have fewer encounters with monsters]

“Kinda strange… but then again… if killing humans is their purpose in life, I guess it would make sense to follow roads. Might as well try flying over the wilderness to avoid those bugs.”

Markus launched the Monster App on his phone and summoned his partner.

A three-foot-tall creature that is a cross between a Butterfly, a heavily armored samurai, and a fire wisp appeared hovering in the air in front of him. It has massive fire-wisp-like butterfly wings and a chubby exoskeleton that resembles an ancient Samurai armor.

“Wisp, I need to meet some people before they leave a mall nearby. Can you fly me there?”

“Keewweee!”

Wisp slowly hovered behind Murkus’s back and grabbed his shoulders before flapping hard to lift him off the ground. But once they reached five feet in the air, the flaming butterfly wings sputtered out, causing them to drop back to Earth.

Fortunately, they fell into a small mound of snow and didn’t get hurt. Wisp slowly got up and walked away to find a spot to meditate. In a few minutes, he collected enough Mana from the environment to slowly rebuild his flaming wings.

“Am I too heavy for you?”

Wisp shakes his head to say no.

“You can’t fly above five feet?”

“Kuu…Keee!”

“Guess we have no choice but to follow the road and kill whatever comes at us.”

“Kiwi!”

“Right, it's always better to hone our skills than just taking shortcuts.”

Markus had been wandering around the territories of the union for three years now. During that time, he gained survival skills by living off the land and taking shelter on tree tops and caves instead of a hotel room.

Markus craved a lifetime full of adventures ever since he was young. He wandered to whichever place grabbed his interest. He was a free spirit that wanted to become stronger through hardship and meeting new people.

A few months ago, Markus decided to explore the wilds of Alaska as it was one of the last untamed regions of the world brimming with primal energy. He always carried an ultrasmart phone around in case of emergencies, but he had little hope of finding a network in the middle of the wilderness.

To Markus’s surprise, the Monster app appeared on his phone and allowed him to watch video messages from other users of the App. Initially, he wondered how it was possible without a network, but after a while, he gave into his curious nature and went on to fertilize the Monster egg he received.

Markus completed all the tasks for fertilization very quickly as his body was already fit from his travels. Not to mention, spending so much time in nature made it easier for him to meditate and concentrate his mind on any task.

When it came time to choose what kind of monster he wanted, he selected options that could recreate a character he grew up watching and playing on the holo screens. When Wisp hatched out of the egg, it resembled larvae in the shape of red hot chili. Though it was not quite what Markus wanted, he assumed that he would have to wait till it grew out of its infant form.

For the next three days, Markus bonded with the cute firebug. He was grateful for a companion who seemed to be tailored to his spirit of adventure. The only limitation was the power source for his phone. Markus had to take out his portable solar panels and wait an hour or more to keep his phone running.

On the second day, Wisp ate the Solar Panels when Markus dozed off. Markus worried about what would happen to Wisp if his phone ran out of juice. Instead of being upset with Wisp, Markus decided to spend the little time they had left enjoying each other’s company until the battery was drained.

The two trekked through the wilderness and ate the fruits from the trees without glancing at the battery. After several hours had passed, Markus wondered why Wisp wasn’t dematerializing. When he checked his phone, he couldn’t believe it had somehow recharged back to 100%.

It refused to decrease its power as long as Wisp was by his side. So Markus kept Wisp materialized at all times to avoid the phone battery from being drained. This was not the only strange ability the phone had developed.

On the third day, Markus tripped and dropped his phone down a hill. He found the device had shattered into pieces with no hope for him to fix it without professional help. Wisp had dematerialized when it happened, and thus Markus feared the worst and mourned for his partner. He placed the pieces in his bag and set out to find a repair center.

A few hours into his journey, he sensed something was vibrating within his bag. He opened it up and found Wisp had rematerialized inside, and the phone had been repaired with no evidence that it had been damaged.

This was when Markus realized that the Monster App was beyond human technology and entered the realm of the supernatural. It made him believe in Fluffals and his doomsday prediction on new years eve.

The following day, Wisp evolved and obtained skills that seemed a bit overpowered than the ones obtained by Tamers he watched.

[Tamer: Markus Bright

Monster Namer: Wisp

Monster species: Hades Butterfly

Combat Style: Equipment transformation

Monster Type: Mind, Sun, Dexterity, Insect, Metal

Skills: Hades Greed (Beginner), Hades Spirits (Beginner), Hades Judgment (Beginner), Hades Flames (Beginner)

Hades Greed: All lifeforms killed by the monster and its skills will have their corpses incinerated, converted into mana, and then absorbed.

Hades Spirit Sword: A swarm of Flaming Butterflies can be summoned, identical to the monster. Each of these can transform into a sword which will lock away 5% of the Monster’s mana. Their size can be manipulated based on the Mana provided to them. The swarm's range of movement is within fifty meters of the monster.

Hades Judgment: When this skill is activated, the Hades Spirit Swords will combine and shoot out a beam of fire up to fifty meters away. The Mana pool has to be above 25% to activate this skill.

Hades Flames: All skills with ‘Hades’ are immune to kinetic-based attacks. On the downside, they cannot block or deflect Elemental or Energy based attacks. In addition, the monster can wrap its entire body with these flames for one minute before a three-minute cooldown]

The description of his new skills forced him to rub his eyes twice to be sure he didn’t misread them. Had he been blessed by Hades himself? Were there other Tamers with ancient God names in their skills?

Markus found several other Tamers who had been blessed by different deities. There could be more who haven’t publicly shared it, but it was disappointing to know that he wasn’t unique. However, he was happy because he had a week to spare before D-Day and spent every minute preparing for it.

D-day arrived with a bang! All the Pink Pillars fell so far away from Alaska that Markus was glad he had chosen to stay there instead of returning to the cities to celebrate the new year. At first, he thought he was safe until the military collapsed, and the Ice-Bugs began moving North.

The Ice-Bugs out of Huston and California’s Pink Pillars hated the hot weather. But they didn’t migrate to the north. Instead, they used their elemental abilities to block out the sun and cool down the land. While Markus stumbled upon the Battle over Rockville video while monitoring all the video reports.

As Markus walked down the road toward Rockville, he could sense the Earth shake beneath him. Cracks appeared on the asphalt, and Icicles slowly poked out from them. At least a hundred meters of road suffered from this phenomenon.

Markus kicked one of the icicles and was surprised at how solid it was. He kicked it three more times with more power, but it didn’t even leave a crack.

Markus assumed that it had to be the work of an Ice-Bug. But he wondered why it was doing this to the road.

“Beep-Beep!”

Car horns blared as a convoy of vehicles appeared out of the dense forest and headed towards Markus. The Black Phoenix Tamer and the Bee-Paladin were flying above. Markus was surprised and happy to see that the people he wanted to meet had come to him. Then he suddenly realized that the Ice-Bug was setting up a trap for the convoy.

“I have to stop them!”

Markus ordered his butler to activate his combat style, transforming Wisp into a complete body armor made of Insect carapace. It was orange in color and had flame wisps flowing out of the joints. The helmet looked like it belonged to a Samurai from the Sengoku Jidai period.

Markus. “Hades Spirit Sword”

A dozen Wisps appeared around him, identical to the original. Each of them transformed into flaming Katana blades and continued hovering for a command to attack.

Markus. “Hades Judgment”

The twelve flaming katanas fused until they transformed into an Odachi blade. Markus grabbed the weapon, aimed it at the road covered in unbreakable icicles, and poured all his Mana into firing a beam at it.

The intensity of the attack melted the asphalt and the icicles in one go. It also caught the eye of the convoy and its fliers. The vehicles hit the brakes while the Bee-Paladin and the Black Phoenix flew down to protect them.

Markus knew they must be wondering why a Tamer was melting their road. There was suspicion in their eyes as they regarded him as a threat. He didn’t have time to explain as the Earth under his feet cracked apart to reveal an army of Ice-Bugs crawling out of the hole.

Markus jumped out of the way and started slicing away at the bugs trying to take a bite out of him. Quite a few of the Ice-Bugs bodies were melted by the attack before. "Hades Greed" incinerated the corpses, converted them into Mana, and absorbed them into Markus’s armor.

The Ice-Bugs soon surrounded him, forcing Markus to change tactics. The massive Katana split back into a dozen blades that flew around Markus, slicing, stabbing, and deflecting attacks that came his way from all directions. "Hades Flames" was activated, wrapping his Samurai carapace armor in flames.

No physical attack could harm his body or the swords. When the Ice-Bugs noticed close combat was not working, they resorted to Ice-elemental attacks, but a flaming sword would appear out of nowhere and pierce through their heads before the attack could be fired.

Some of the Ice attacks did get through, but all they did was freeze Markus’s body in place. The Hades Spirit Swords kept on eviscerating all who came near. When one of the swords was hit by Ice, they dematerialized, and another one would take its place because Markus could still create new Swords from the Mana he gained from kills.

The flaming Katanas cut through the Ice-Bugs like a hot knife through butter. Even though the enemies were being slaughtered, their single-minded pursuit to devour Markus did not relent. They summoned more brethren to come out of the tunnel to destroy the human who had ruined their ambush.

As the number of kills kept increasing, Markus’s Mana pool was refilled to the brim. He spent half of it summoning more sword clones to assist in his defense. Markus did not have to give them any order or micro-manage their actions as Wisp was the one who seemed to be in control of his clones.

Two minutes after the battle began, two dozen fireballs rained down on the swarm battling with Markus’s Sword clones. The explosions caused the Ice-Bugs to panic and forced them to retreat into the hole they came from. The Bee-Paladin charged into the swarm, skewered, and savagely ripped apart the Ice-bugs with his drill lances.

Markus could hear the convoy unleashing their firepower on the Ice-Bugs still coming out of the tunnel. One of the Federation soldiers brought out a grenade launcher and began rapid firing at the tunnel until it collapsed and sealed the passage. With no room to retreat, the bugs that made it to the surface committed suicidal charges at the Bee-Paladin, Black Phoenix, and Markus’s swords.

Several minutes later, all the Ice-Bugs were wiped out.

The Bee-Paladin hovered over to Markus, landed in front of him and bowed. His armor is covered in bug slime, and quite a few cracks marked its surface.

“You saved us from that ambush! You have our thanks.”

Markus. “I was on my way to help you guys in Rockville. I was too late for that, but it looks like I still helped you in the end.”

“Then Lady luck Or destiny should be praised! My name is Zao, and this is Dale.”

Zao pointed at the Black Phoenix, who flew down and landed next to Zao.

Dale. “Some serious firepower on this one. Mind sharing your name?”

Markus. “Ah! I am Markus Bright from Ireland. Wanderer and Adventurer.”

Dale. “Dale Sander, Babysitter, and Gamer. May I ask what is an Irish man doing in Alaska?”

Markus. “Been wandering around the Union to get a feel of the wilderness in this part of the world.”

Dale. “So Markus… We are all heading back to my Bunker for food and rest. Do you want to join us?”

Markus. “Do you have any room left to spare?”

Markus eyed the convoy filled with people.

Zao. “Fortunately, Dale says his bunker has the tech to build more room for all of us and the residents of Rockville.”

Dale. “Not exactly Tech, but a friend of mine has a monster skill that can help with that.”

Markus. “Quite a few elderly people you have there. Why didn’t you leave them back in the town?”

Zao. “If there was another Ice-Bug attack, I doubt any of them would have survived without Tamers or soldiers to protect them.”

Dale. “We could still take them all to Military Bunker in Seward. That's where all their young folk went to hide.”

Zao. “If those fools abandoned the elderly and sick to save their hides, then I don’t trust them.”

The Federation was well known for worshipping their ancestors and never ill-treating the elderly.

Markus. “You expected more Ice-Bugs to come to Alaska?”

Dale. “People will be fleeing up North over the coming days. Ice-Bugs won’t be far behind them. Might as well help those we can while we still have time to make a bigger shelter."

Zao. “Or they might be sending scouts ahead like the ones we fought just now.”

Markus. “These were scouts?”

Zao. “I was in Washington when the Pillar fell. I saw Bugs of all kinds and shapes. The bugs we are standing are classified as scouts… the warriors are as big as a three-story building and look like beetles.”

Markus had seen a few Beetles in the video reports. However, recording from a distance made it difficult to measure their height.

Dale. “We can discuss what to do next in the bunker.”