“Fuck that's cold!”

As I was rudely awoken from a nice dream of I don’t even remember what it was, water splashed all over my body. Of course I was drenched, but the worst part was this water was nearly freezing! I unhappily stared at the few people who were snickering after throwing water using their [Aether Particles]. As unhappy as I was, these cowards were simply not worth my time. Thus I stood up and noticed Sasha was bombarding the zombies with fire magic along with the other fire users.

Although the fire users’ magic was somewhat destructive in comparison to Sasha’s they all looked like a tiny ember that could cause skin irritation. When Sasha threw a fireball it would explode with a deep crimson igniting like napalm in the surrounding area. To be honest after seeing this I was somewhat disappointed I even took the time to come up with a plan to get us out of this mess. However as I brooding over this I heard Leo call me in a groaning voice.

“Ryker, are you okay?”

“Yeah, in fact I’m a lot better than you, even if you can heal you look like shit my friend.”

“Thanks.”

What the fuck. He actually took that as a compliment! Although I knew he was happy to take injuries for the sake of overs I couldn’t help but be a little stupefied he was proud of that. Was I just crazy and wounds looked a lot worse than they were? I couldn’t help but think this was true after all I knew Leo more than anyone and although he wanted to protect others he would think about his closest friends first. It wasn’t much use thinking about it and I shrugged my shoulders and looked towards Tyler, who brought an unfamiliar face. Of course anyone he brought other than Sasha and Leo would be unfamiliar to me as I didn’t care about them. Noticing my gaze the girl he brought shrunk back and hid behind Tyler.

‘Hey Tyler, I didn’t even say anything nor do I look that scary.’

Although I wanted to say that I couldn’t say anything as even I knew I would make the girl up more terrified of me. I patiently waited for Tyler to give me an awkward smile and speak out for himself.

“This is Rebecca who I told you about earlier. Hey come on now Rebecca, this guy looks like a hungry tiger but he’s a softy inside!”

“I have this sudden urge to take out this anger from being splashed with cold water on a certain someone!”

“Ah? Really I somehow feel like in the midst of all this mayhem Sasha needs my help, well I’ll leave it to you Leo!”

“...Wai-wait Tyler!.... Don’t leave me…”

The later half of her words trailed off into a silent mutter, and I couldn’t help but think this girl might seriously think I’m a danger to her over these monsters we are currently facing? How scary to I look?

“Rebecca, don’t worry he’s a good guy.”

I gave a thumbs up towards Leo for putting in a good word, I mean it wasn’t like I hated every single existence other than Leo and Sasha. I just couldn't help but hate useless kids who only knew how to rely on others. I mean from the looks of it Rebecca fit that bill perfectly however, I would still give her a chance because Tyler asked for my help.

“Is he really? I heard.. some strange rumours he was manipulating you and Sasha to be friends with him…”

“HAHAHA!”

‘Oh fuck…”

I immediately realized my mistake as I laughed hysterically and even in the midst of the terror around us stared at me, including the zombies! I couldn’t help myself as something ridiculous as me controlling my best friends came from her mouth. It was clear this was the work of the jocks or the jealous women and men who wanted to be as close as I was to my friends. But how could they imagine that we were as close as family? Thus even I couldn’t control the diaphragm in my body as it uncontrollably pushed out the laughter within me.

Even with all the stares it didn’t bother me, well except for looking like a particularly nice dish of food from the zombies bright flashing eyes. That was indeed enough to cause me to shiver however I immediately dragged Rebecca to a separate area, as the current fight was going in our favour I didn’t have to worry about it and could leave it to Sasha.

“Ah!”

Rebecca gave out alight squeal as she nearly tried to run away however as I couldn’t have anyone giving out the wrong impressions I decided to set her straight right now.

“Anyways, I’ll say this right now, Sasha, Leo and I have been friends for years, and I without a doubt am not controlling them in the slightest!”

“That’s what someone controlling them would say!”

‘Yes why yes they would but what else am I supposed to say?’

Is what I wanted to say however it didn’t seem I could convince her otherwise, luckily Leo followed and started to speak as well.

“Rebecca. Ryker is my best friend. Please believe that!”

Short and straight to the point as per usual. Although at this point I felt unnecessarily spewing out words wouldn’t help and being blunt would probably be more convincing to Rebecca. Upon hearing this she looked at Leo for a few seconds, then back to my direction and as we made eye contact she looked downwards.

‘holy, just how scary to her am I?’

Just as I was thinking this, she spoke up and lifted her head staring at me with her eyes filled with an unknown source of determination.

“Well, If Leo says so, and because Tyler wouldn’t talk to you if you were a bully, I’ll believe in you!”

“No, well Ryker is a bully though!”

“Ah! I knew it!”

“No.. well yeah okay but that’s not the same thing as controlling Leo and Sasha so get over that point already.”

“Hmm. I’ll believe you then..”

Phew. Finally we managed to avoid endlessly going in a loop any longer. Thus the three of us walked back, I noticed that the army of zombies had been cut at least by half. Something I was truly grateful for, however as soon as I became happy as if some power knew to kick me down when I was just getting up, a loud roar echoed throughout the area.

“What was that?”

Rebecca couldn’t help but tremble as she asked. While Leo and I only looked towards each other with complicated expressions. We both knew that such a sound was never a good thing. After all if this were a pack of wolves, a howl could only mean that the Alpha male had arrived. And like in all wolf packs that meant the strongest had shown itself! I wasn’t sure if this was similar however I could tell that these zombies also worked in a pack or at the very least a large pack while hunting. And unfortunately that was exactly what happened. As I stared into the doorways, likewise every student who was shocked still stared at the oncoming figure walking through the doorway.

This figure turned out to be another monster. It looked similar to the zombies in that it had grey skin with long claws. However this monster was not lanky, and definitely not weak looking like the others. Although even they were by no means weak and were incredibly agile and strong. In front of this monster though they were at least half the size as the muscles on its body were bulging out. I wasn’t sure if I could see veins or if my mind was showing me veins clearly outlining how strong this monster looked. It had no hair on top of its head however the sheen of its eyes in the night caused terror wherever its gaze landed upon. Until finally it looked straight towards me. I in return stared back and as if coming to an understanding that the both of us were the leaders behind our respective groups, or at the very least he figured I looked at but above the rest and although I couldn’t disagree I felt somewhat conflicted at being the target of its blood thirst.

To look at my over Leo, it clearly didn’t think that Leo was only brawn, in which it was correct, 100% so. However to be able to determine that it was me meant it was watching from somewhere this entire time observing our moves. This fact terrified me, it meant that these creatures were not as simple as I originally thought and the first thing that came to my mind was to run!

“Leo. I know what I’m about to say might be crazy, but trust me.”

“...Alright. I trust you Ryker.”

“We need to get the fuck out of here right now.”

“.....Okay.”

“Wait! What do you mean by that….”

“I mean if we stay that monster is going to single-handedly kill all of us!”

“He can’t be that powerful… can he? I mean there are still a hundred of us and their numbers have been reduced by a lot!”

“....You don’t understand, that monster isn’t simply strong. It’s smart too. It has been observing us this entire time, and if it’s here, it can only mean that it found a way to kill us all.”

At my words Rebecca stared at shock and looked back and forth between the monster and I wasn’t worried about her conflicted gaze and immediately yelled towards everyone. I didn’t care about their lives, but I wouldn't just let them die standing here. Though first off I called towards Sasha and Tyler.

“Sasha! Tyler! Get over here we need to leave immediately! The rest of you if you don’t want to die I suggest you run as fast as possible. Leo I know you’re tired but we need you to clear the way take Rebecca with you!”

“Got it!”

Sasha didn’t say anything and only stared at me giving me the ‘Is that monster that bad?’ look and I only nodded to her where she immediately rushed towards me grabbing Tyler on the way out. The rest of the students were a second later and screams of horror and terror filled the room. EVen the teachers were screaming out in fright. Although at this moment they were all silenced by the roar of that leader monster!

At this moment everyone except Sasha, Tyler and I stared towards the creature! I rushed towards the back door leading to the exit and just as we managed to escape I heard a loud noise!

Boom!

What followed made my body shiver so hard I nearly collapsed as all the surrounding zombies screamed with high-pitched voices. what followed were the screams and cries of the students and teachers alike. Although I wasn’t sure what the monster did, I had a terrible feeling the moment I saw him that he was like us. A monster that could control [Aether Particles]! Maybe it was because I had the [Void Eyes] that I was sensitive to it even without using it, but I knew the moment I saw him other than that it had smarts, that it alone could wipe us out. Although I can’t say it was lucky, we ran towards a small chance of hope even with the few hundred of zombies that were on front of us. The night was just beginning.