During their wait for the beasts' head start, Colt spent his time counting how many squirrels had run across the street. So far, he had reached forty.

Hisa sat beside him, humming the tune of some song.

"H-Hisa! You listen to TATU?" he asked.

"Yeah! Do you?"

"For years." He sat up, "What's your favorite song by them?"

"I love them all, but I'd say You and I." said Hisa, "What's yours?"

"Fly on the Wall. My girlfriend used to play it so much, and I found myself liking it too."

"Colt," Hisa grabbed his shoulders, "We need to have a music session together! We have the same taste in music!"

"I'm down with that-"

Dakota cleared her throat, "I almost forgot, if you kill any of the beasts, you'll be disqualified."

"Come on, Dakota..." Hisa slouched over and whined, "You're making it boring!"

"It's for a reason, and if you fail in any form, you have to start over from the beginning." she said, "And if you get disqualified, you have to wait out the entire hour before starting over."

"Wow..." Colt scratched his head, "This is gonna be harder than I thought."

The sound of Dakota's alarm echoed throughout the vacant area, prompting Hisa to leap up and dash into the forest immediately.

"She's fast!" Colt sprang up and ran after her, "Hisa! Let's work together-"

Wait, she's probably better off on her own. I'll try to hunt on my own for a bit.

He continued to run into the forest, scanning the area for any core beasts.

Hisa's voice reached out from the depths of the forest, "I got one!"

How in the hell did she catch one already? She's a monster...

Colt channeled core energy into his feet and dashed deeper into the forest. He searched through thick shrubs, dense rows of trees, even in small pits scattered amongst the ground. Twenty minutes had elapsed, and not a single beast had shown itself.

"Colt!" Hisa ran over to him, wiping blood from her nose, "Did you catch any beasts yet?"

"No, but what happened to you?"

"Oh-I got juked by a core beast and ran face first into a tree." She crossed her arms, "These guys are good at hiding. I can smell them a little bit, but they keep running from me!"

"They're faster than you?" he asked.

"No, whenever I try approaching them, they launch attacks and run away before I can strike back!" She stomped her foot and sighed, "If I could actually hit them, we would've been finished already!"

"Have you been able to catch any more?"

"I got ten more of them, but the rest of them are smarter." said Hisa.

"That leaves us with twenty one more of those little bastards," He rubbed his face, "I think we're going about this the wrong way."

"Hm?"

"These guys are only C-Rankers, we shouldn't be having this much trouble. Maybe there's an actual technique that we're supposed to be using to make this easier." he paused, "Just like with actual fights, brute strength may help you win, but actual planning and technique increases efficiency."

"But brute strength makes it fun..."

"It probably has something to do with our original task, but how in the hell does a game of cops and robbers help us conceal our core energy?" He leaned against a tree, "What if Dakota's just messing with us-"

"What if we concealed our core energy to sneak up on them?" asked Hisa, "That'd be pretty cool."

"H-Hisa!" He held her shoulders as a relieved smile formed on his face, "You're a genius! That's it!"

"I am?"

"Yeah, the core beasts can sense our core energy, that's how they can detect us before we even see them!" said Colt.

"R-Right!" She let out a triumphant huff and puffed out her chest, "I am a genius! I'm glad I figured it out before it was too late."

Now, the problem lies in practicing the technique...

Hisa giggled, "Maybe we can try lowering our power levels, like in Dragon-"

"I'm sure it isn't that." said Colt.

Reflecting on all of his past escapades for a clue, one thread of thoughts presented itself.

Whenever he wanted to strengthen a part of his body, he'd move his core energy to that desired part. Dakota did the same with her demonstration earlier, so the inverse had to be true.

If pushing core energy outward helps others sense it, drawing it inward must make it impossible to sense!

"Hisa, I got it!" said Colt.

"Colt for the win!" she leaned onto his shoulder, "What's the plan?"

"I think we need to find a way to compress our core energy into a single point in our bodies."

Her face went blank, "Uh...I don't really get it, but I'll try!"

Ok...Imagine all of those emotions, like a visible aura leaking out of your body...and move that aura into your...stomach!

He could feel his stomach heating up as he continued to visualize the scene of flowing aura. "I think I did it!"

Hisa pouted and tugged on his ear, "Tell me how! I wanna know too!"

"Ok ok...Try to move your core energy into your stomach."

She closed her eyes and clenched her fists, and Colt assumed that she was doing the same visualization he did earlier. Her expression quivered a bit, before relaxing into a blank state.

After about a minute in pure silence, her eyes shot open.

"I can't do it!" she said, "Can I just go with my own way?"

"What way?"

"Bomb rushing them all! I've already caught a lot of them!"

"But...don't you want to pass?"

"If we catch all of the stupid monsters, we'll both pass!"

"That's true, but the whole point of this exercise was to get us to learn how to conceal our core energy." said Colt.

"So? Concealing core energy is stupid..." She threw herself onto the ground and stared up at the clouds, "It won't help us learn how to do a critical burst, so what's the point?"

He didn't really have an answer to that question. He was also wondering how concealing core energy would help with learning the critical burst; However, he knew that this was all fundamental knowledge that would ultimately accumulate with him learning the technique in the end.

He decided to keep it to himself, since Hisa appeared to be dead set in not hiding her core energy.

"Well...I'm not your dad, so I can't make you do it. Let's go get 'em."

"Okay!"

Colt and Hisa finally managed to capture all of the remaining core beasts, bringing them back to Dakota. For the most part, they stayed out of one another's way, sticking to their own trusted methods.

"Good job you two! You actually managed to catch them all!" said Dakota as she stifled a laugh, "Even though it took fifty minutes..."

"Look!" Hisa folded her arms, "Those extra rules were stupid! If I could've killed them, we would've been finished!"

"Hisa...you look horrible. Did you fight any of them?"

"No. They kept attacking me whenever I started chasing them!"

"But how did they..." Dakota looked at Colt before the explanation hit her, "So. You didn't conceal your core energy?"

"Nope. It's for cowards anyways." She cracked her knuckles, "If someone wants to come for me, let them!"

"Hisa...what am I going to do with you?"

Hisa giggled before walking over to the horde of core beasts, "Can I kill one now?"

"Actually, yeah." said Dakota. "We're gonna start focusing on the actual attack now."

"Really? Yay!"

Colt looked at his hands and felt a wave of concern wash over him, "I don't feel any different though...Do you think we'll be able to do it?"

"Yeah. Doing that exercise helped you learn how to alter the wavelengths of your core energy. Now all you need to do is match it with your opponent's, and you're set." said Dakota.

"Oh." He pumped his fists and smiled, "I can't wait to try it then!"

Dakota sat back down and yawned, "But you'll first need to know how to read someone else's core energy. Go ahead and try it out on one of those core beasts."

"N-Now?" He walked over to the horde of core beasts and pulled the largest one towards him. "I don't like picking on smaller people."

Deep breaths...deep breaths...

"Ok. I'm supposed to read his energy first?" he asked, receiving a nod from Dakota.

It should be the same as when I moved the core energy into my fists...Project it forward-

A burst of core energy shot exploded from his hand, blowing a hole through the chest of the beast.

"What the fuck was that?" asked Colt.

"Woah!" Hisa's lit up as the large beast fell over, groaning in agony.

Dakota grinned, "You definitely made some growth, but I didn't want you to obliterate the damn thing. That was a core energy blast. Most people can fire them off easily. You probably poured too much core energy into your hand at first. Try toning it down."

"M-My bad..."

I should let the energy flow out, like a gentle river or something...

Closing his eyes, he held his hand out in front of the injured beast. Some strange force clashed against him, as if it were attempting to push his core energy away.

It's the beast's energy!

Colt pumped his fists, "I did it!"

"Great." said Dakota. "I like teaching fast learners. It saves me the irritation..."

"Now...I need to match my wavelength with his..." He clenched his fist and sized up the large beast.

It's trembling...probably due to the fact that I blew a hole through it...But it healed, so it should be fine now.

The beast's chest heaved up and down as it held its hands out, surrendering to the superior human. Tears began to stream down its face.

It's scared out of its mind. Sorry, buddy.

The feeling of his core energy clashing with the beast's had vanished. It was now replaced by the feeling of the beast's energy flowing in tandem with his.

Now...

A large burst of core energy shot through the forest as Colt's fist slammed into the face of the beast. Its dark colored brains splattered across the floor, forcing the other beasts to flinch in response.

"I did it! That's what happened when I fought that roach!" shouted Colt with a smile.

"Uh..." Dakota shook her head, "I'll ignore that for now, but you did it!" Her exhausted tone made her words come out far more sarcastically than he knew she meant.

"Hell yeah! I hit a critical burst!"

"And it only took you less than a day. It took Jax a while to do it."

"Damn...I feel refreshed too!"

"That's probably because you stole the beast's energy. Do it again, just to make sure you've actually mastered it." said Dakota.

"Alright."

He punched a random beast in the chest, landing another critical burst.

"I did it again!"

"You're a natural Colt!" Hisa jumped onto his back, "I can't wait until I fight you!"

"Please...no..."

Dakota kicked one of the beasts towards Hisa, "Alright...your turn."

"Kay!" Hisa got down from Colt's back and caved the beast's chest in with a furious right jab. "Was that it?"

"No...you slugged the shit out of him though..."

The beast dropped to its knees and started wheezing, clutching at its chest as tears fell from its eyes.

Dakota facepalmed before pointing her finger at the beast, "It doesn't have the ability to heal itself, so it's useless now."

The space surrounding the beast twisted and contorted, stopping with an audible pop sound. With no traces left of the creature, they were forced to stare at the bloody stain left in the dirt.

What the fuck did she do?

Colt's heart started racing as the smoke from the "remains" reached his nose. He gagged from the suffocating gas before covering his nose.

"I'll keep trying!" Hisa proceeded to murder the rest of the core beasts one by one with brute force, not landing a single critical burst.

"Ok..." Dakota held back a yawn and pulled out her phone, "It's getting pretty late..."

"Late?" Hisa tilted her head, "It's only eleven in the morning!"

"Late for me, Hisa. I need to go to sleep...We'll call it a day for now..."

"Aw..."

"Um...Dakota?"

She turned back to look at Colt, "What's up?"

"Why are you even helping me?"

"Huh?"

"Well...To you I'm just a random guy who survived a core beast attack. Why are you letting me live in your apartment complex, and training me to get stronger?"

She stared at him with her signature deadpan expression, but there was a hint of wonder behind it. "You wanted to get stronger right?"

"Yeah."

"Well...that's why. I don't need a reason to help someone if I know I can."

"I...guess you have a point there. Never mind."

She laughed before walking away, "You think too much, y'know that?"

Would you look at that...she is one hell of a person. I definitely owe her a lot...