I stared at the monster that came out from the shopping mall. To my surprise this monster, or creature or even abomination was out of this world. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. If I had to use a simple word to describe it, it would be the one of the most commonly used monsters for popular t.v series; a zombie! Only the difference was this ‘zombie’ didn’t have an undead feeling to it. Instead of having rotting skin, it was just grey in colour, their looked to be no lips existing, so I could see it’s fangs, and not just a few all of the teeth were fangs, stretching out as if made solely for the purpose of eating raw meaty flesh.

It wasn’t super noticeable now but it’s eyes were a shiny black with its pupils covering the entire iris. It was hard to believe it wasn’t blinded from the sunlight with pupils that large. The creature's body was unnaturally thin, looking as if it had been starved, although I was unable to feel any pity for such a savage-looking creature.

The scariest thing about it? It hands! On it’s hands there not normal looking fingers. Instead its fingers were abnormally long and attached were claw like fingernails that could probably scratch flesh out by the second.

Tyler to my side was slightly shaking and I noticed that even I was too. It was hard not to after seeing such a thing. As I first tried to calm myself down, and only when I was able to breathe normally did I lightly tap Tyler as to not alarm him.

“Tyler, let's go. We did enough for now.”

“...Alright.”

We walked back and normally it would be smart to turn and carefully retreat while making sure we weren’t followed, but instead as soon as we were firm enough to not be heard we ran as fast as we could to our starting point.

--------------------

“Phew.”

“Ryker…. What was that?”

“I have no idea but it’s definitely hostile.”

I wondered myself, what it was countless times on the way back. Even as we arrived, I still had not come up with a sound conclusion, but I did know that I didn’t want to fight anything that looked like that. Whether or not it looked physically weak due to its small stature. In a world like this, with illogical things such as Aether particles and unknown powers, who knows what it was hiding.

“Tyler… Make sure to keep this a secret from everyone alright?”

Tyler gave a surprised look at first but soon after as if coming to a sudden realization only nodded before walking off. I gave a slight nod to that reaction, as it seemed that becoming better friends with Tyler, would be a smart choice in this unknown world.

Even though I said to keep it a secret there were a few people I had to tell no matter what. For example the teachers, Sasha and Leo. While I’m able to act behind the scenes I am entirely unable to speak out and have everyone willingly follow me. Not that I would want to do such a thing to begin with. Even Leo and Sasha would prefer not to, but because people trust them, they naturally had to take up the responsibility. Responsibility is a strange thing as well, even though someone may not want to they will be blamed because they have to ability to act and if they don’t it becomes their fault.

This was important to me because now that my two best friends took up a leadership role, I refuse to allow them to be put in a situation where they can be blamed for others deaths. Specially Leo, as a kind-hearted big softy it was only obvious that he would be hit harder than others in a situation like this.

‘Now, should I tell the teachers or Sasha and Leo first?’

“Ryker!”

Before I was able to make a decision, it was already made for me. I turned to looked at the owner of the voice. It was deep voice so even if I didn’t turn around I know it was Leo to being with anyways. There he and Sasha stood looking towards me with troubled faces. I had a terrible habit of always showing my emotions on my face, and even though I was unable to tell what my current face looked like, my best friends naturally were able to tell something was up when they saw me from a distance.

They didn’t speak up other than grabbing my attention, waiting patiently for me to speak first. I Looked towards them and breathed of a sigh of relief. Truthfully, even to them it's quite hard to tell them about the creature I saw. But i wasn't about to keep secrets that may cause problems in the future, thus it would be better to tell them now. That isn’t to say however that keeping secrets from others isn't’ helpful. It’s not helpful to tell people who would scream and make a big fuss, on the other hand people who were able to think clearly, it just might save their lives.

“I went out to scout with Tyler, by the way he’s not actually a delinquent and is really nice!”

“Ryker.. there’s no need to avoid the problem. Just let us know what it is!”

As I tried to ease into the topic, Sasha slammed an imaginary hand down and forced me to be blunt about it. Once again I couldn’t help but sigh, as I spoke about what I saw to them.

“Oh my god! Are you serious?”

Sasha spoke up in a frightened voice, and I could only nod softly in response. Leo chose not to say anything and only thought to himself. But it was a waste of time to needlessly think about it, after all I thought about it for a much longer time and wasn’t able to deduce anything even after being the one who saw the creature. I could only speak up about the task I assigned them earlier.

“Did you guys manage to find a safe house and food/water?”

“Yes… My group found a slightly messed up recreation center. Because it has a swimming pool it has the running water still. So our immediate water source has been found and shouldn’t be able problems for now. It hasn’t been cleaned fully yet but it will do for now.”

“Alright that’s good news.”

I nodded my head in satisfaction. I might seem like a downer or not care about anything, and while for the most part that's true, I do care about living. So it was only natural that I would be happy about such news. I finally looked towards Leo who then took it as his turn to speak up.

“Luckily there were a few stores of dried foods in the super store. We were able to procure non-perishables for now. It didn’t have much as it looked like it had already been ransacked, but it’s enough to last us a week or two.”

“Ah… well I guess we can’t expect too much now can we?”

“Ah Ryker… Now that we finished our tasks we should have some free time. As it’s almost night why don’t we discuss about each other’s ability?”

“I honestly forgot about after all this time. It’s too hard to get used to having a supernatural ability out of nowhere.”

“I know right?”

“Ya.”

Leo and Sasha quickly agreed to my forgetfulness, but luckily Sasha brought up the detail so we were able to discuss about our abilities. While Sasha and Leo gave me a soft stare as if telling me ‘You have to go first’ I rolled my eyes and told them.

“First I have this [Void Ball]!”

Just then a purplish black ball appeared out of thin air and rolled around in the palm of my hand. Sasha and Leo stared curiously at it and even I did. It wasn’t like I tried it out and for some reason its ability wasn’t told to me in my gained memories. Thus I could only truthfully explain that.

“I’m not sure what it does to be honest. My memories didn’t mention anything about it.”

“That’s so strange….”

Sasha spoke up but because it wasn’t too important I continued with my next skill.

“Truthfully, I think my next skill is quite unique. My [Inherent] skill is the [Void Eyes] skill. I’m able to see the strength of Aether Particles and the Aether Organs in an X-ray like world.”

“Wow! Maybe we can use that for some advantage against the monsters?”

I was startled with a sudden realization. Because I freaked out so fast when I saw the monster I didn’t even think to use my [Void Eyes] ability. Somehow I regret not doing that earlier. It might have helped in finding out how strong the monster actually was. But because it was already over and done with, as I didn’t have any plans to return in the meantime, I could only shake my head and wait to hear Sasha’s and Leo’s ability. Because Sasha was already bouncing up and down she continued after me.

“Hehe! Open and your eyes and look at my powerful might!”

As she spoke a red light started to flicked in the space above her palm. Just then out of thin air an ember ignited and turned into a small blazing fireball! This fireball did not overly look dangerous but it was incredibly hot as I could feel the temperature already starting to make me sweat.

“You’re a dragon?!”

“No!!”

Just then Leo who had kept quiet for some time smacked his fist onto his palm and I swear a light bulb appeared above his head as he said.

“A fire salamander!”

“NO! It’s called the [Flame of the Phoenix]! Jeez, I was even so happy to show you guys and you just make fun of me!”

As I chuckled watching Sasha puffing out her cheeks unhappily. I looked at Leo and for some odd reason he also looked unhappy. I might be wrong here but I swear he was disappointed by the fact that she didn’t have the fire of a salamander. I had no idea what a salamander meant to Leo but I felt it was best to move on so I spoke up.

“What about your [Inherent]?”

“Actually I also didn’t info on one of my skills and that happens to be my inherent ability. My flame can be shot out like a fireball in a video game but my [Rekindle] I have no idea about other than the name. Sorry..”

“It’s okay.”

Leo spoke up and pat her head to comfort her. She felt guilty being unable to answer our questions. After all, knowing more about our abilities would let us come up with better strategies and teamwork in the future.

Finally I looked towards Leo and even without making eye contact he spoke up.

“My abilities are [Fusion] and [Body Enhancement]. My [Fusion] allows me to turn other materials into part of my body, which I can reconstruct my body or make it into a golem like figure. [Body Enhancement] just increases my overall physical abilities.”

When Leo started explaining he also started to fuse with the concrete on the ground. It wrapped around his hand and look like a thick hard skin that covered his hand. It was really cool to be honest. Sasha also thought it was great except for a different reason.

“That’s great! You’ll be able to heal if you get wounded, that’s definitely great to hear Leo.”

Sasha gave Leo a compliment while Leo nodded in satisfaction. Honestly I felt his abilities suited him perfectly. As a kind-hearted guy he would always jump in front to save people, but now he could do it and get hurt and still recover easily. It was definitely a plus to our team.

With that we had all discussed the basics of our abilities and decided to chat about other things to take our minds off of the reality of the situation. Few minutes turned in a dozen and the sun started to set. It was the end of the first day in our second lives.