by L. M. Kerr
thud
thud
thud
'A Morenkai.' His heart began to pound as he listened to its monotonous footsteps, each step rumbling as it moved across the bridge. He looked at the freakish creature, and specifically what it was dragging.
The corpse of a young woman, ripped and bloody, clearly dead.
He clenched his fists, his anger surging. He had seen billions die in his time, yet now that he had a chance to stop that, seeing even a single innocent death was infuriating.
Immediately after, however, he regained control, forcing his rage down. A feeling of coolness swept over him as he began to analyze the situation, not letting his emotions control him.
'It's not a special Morenkai, just one of the regular ones. It appears to have killed recently, that woman is probably one of the new Chosen that went off on her own and paid the price.' His right hand slowly slid to his waist, resting on the hilt of his blade.
'It doesn't sense me yet.' The Morenkai had weak visual senses. Their sense of sound and smell were much stronger, but only when they were actively hunting. When they were simply shambling around, aimlessly, all of their senses operated weakly.
However, there was a positive to every negative.
In terms of raw Strength and Endurance, Micheal was hopelessly outmatched. Even the weakest Morenkai had at least 8 times the Strength of a normal human from Earth, which meant at least 4 times Micheal's current Strength, without even considering their abnormal Endurance that could easily block even bullets. In a head to head collision, Micheal would be directly pulverized.
Without hesitating, Micheal began to walk forward onto the bridge towards it.
thud
thud
thud
He was no ninja, and certainly not capable of hiding his footsteps and making no sound at all. Things like that required special shoes or a unique Ability. His movements, however small, were bound to make some noise. As he got closer to the Morenkai, even someone trying to be quiet would be noticed.
Instead of trying to walk quietly, Micheal timed his each and every footstep to land perfectly in tune with the Morenkai's own movements. Its own somewhat loud steps drowned out his own movements.
As he walked, he made no sudden or strange movements. While the Morenkai couldn't see easily, they could detect movement. He allowed his body to blend into the background, keeping the height of his head, chest, and arms continuous.
thud
thud
thud
Micheal had crossed half the distance to the Morenkai. At this point, he began to concentrate on his body, controlling himself precisely.
The Ability 'Ki Cultivator' was extremely important for the Human Race. The initial purchase of the Ability modifies the human body, causing one's entire vein structure and organs to mutate slightly, though not to the degree that it was considered a 'Type' Ability by the Shop. Micheal had always felt the 'Type' designation by the Shop was rather arbitrary.
The Ability causes one's veins and organs to become tougher and more durable, but even more importantly, it allows one to be able to handle blood that is energized with 'Ki,' a type of cool energy that is absorbed from the environment and can be used to become supernaturally powerful.
This single purchase was extremely important because the 'Ki Cultivator' Ability was an Ability that could be grown without the need for Points. Of course, one needed to get the Ability first to gain the modified veins and organs that allow the Ability to function. That roadblock had caused Micheal a huge amount of trouble when he first started.
Micheal could feel his entire body flush with energy right now. It was this energy that had caused the visible increase in his Strength stat. Because of this, despite looking like a slightly athletic human, he was as strong as a top tier bodybuilder.
By now, he was only a dozen or so meters away from the Morenkai.
Up close, the creatures looked even more horrifying. It's lack of eyes or a nose, or most facial features, was incredibly unsettling. A long slit could be seen where its mouth existed, shut tightly at the moment. Morenkai only opened their mouths when they were eating or on the hunt.
'At least it doesn't smell bad.' The creatures didn't have much of a scent, oddly enough, though the stench from the corpse it was dragging was nauseating.
thud
thud
thu-
Abruptly, when the Morenkai was around 2 meters distant it paused, its head tilting to the side in confusion.
Micheal's eyes flashed. Immediately, without hesitating, he leapt forward, whipping his blade from his sheath.
His entire body was focused on this movement, making the leaping strike with an incredible amount of fluid movement. Despite the fact that his muscles were relatively untrained, the long years of muscle memory he built up non-existent, Micheal managed to perfectly launch the attack with amazing precision.
The instant his sword left his sheath, it was coated in a layer of edged energy thanks to his use of the Grandmaster Sword Mastery Ability. It cut through the air at an incredibly fast speed.
SWISH
SHKKKK
Micheal tumbled to the ground and rolled forward, his movements smooth as he flipped up and around, his sword at the ready. His eyes pierced forward as he looked at the foreboding figure of the Morenkai.
The creature stood frozen for a brief moment. A second later, the upper half of its body slowly slid off, cut cleanly in two. Black blood burst out from the Morenkai as it tumbled, dead.
Killed in a single strike, easily shearing through its incredibly dense outer skin.
.
—- Points Obtained —-
Points: 11
.
Micheal looked at the notification and smiled. He didn't even need to consider depending on his Life Orb Master Ability, or anything else, not for something of this level.
'Now THIS is something I can handle. Let's keep going.'
.
Chapter 10: Meeting Others
"Khari, hit it now! Hit it NOW!" A woman dressed in a pair of jeans and a tight yellow coat yelled out loud as she brought a large metal shield in front of her. She was currently standing on the roof of one of the tallest skyscrapers in the central Stardust Cluster, one that had four separate sheds opening down into the skyscraper.
THUD
An instant later, as she brought the shield to bear, the woman was knocked backwards as a large, hulking Morenkai punched it. The woman's body sailed through the air till it slammed into one of the four sheds atop the roof, coming to an abrupt halt. She let out a pained moan as she landed, sliding down the shed.
BOOM
A half second later, an ear-splitting shot shook the air as a rifle bullet slammed into the Morenkai. The impact blew the Morenkai backwards, sending it crashing more than a dozen meters over to the other side of the roof.
"Got it, Lana!" A tall and fit black skinned man, dressed in a set of khaki pants and a vest, blew a plume of smoke off the end of his rifle. He was crouched atop one of the four sheds, his body pressed low against it.
Lana, the original speaker and woman wielding the shield, stood up with a groan, turning to look at the downed Morenkai.
"Riker, is the Sound Barrier still up?" Her voice was pained but determined as she glanced to the edge of the roof.
A short, pudgy and balding man could be seen, his clammy white skin covered in sweat as he held his hands forward. A thin, almost transparent barrier could be seen magically flowing from those hands, surrounding the entire roof.
The man didn't respond, just looking at her questioningly as if he couldn't understand.
"Right, you can't hear me. It's still up. Khari. Prepare another shot! It's just like I said, it'll get back up in a moment!" Lana's voice was cool as she began to walk towards the downed Morenkai.
"My Weatherby Mark V chambers a .460 Weatherby Magnum bullet! We used babies like these to take down diseased elephants that were harming the herd, ain't no way t
hat Morning Rap or whatever is going to stan…" The black man's voice trailed off as he saw the Morenkai slowly shamble to its feet.
A small dent could be seen in its chest, the spot where the powerful bullet had landed. The impact had left an imprint on it, but was otherwise unable to penetrate its dense skin. It didn't seem particularly shaken up as it began to walk towards the former African elephant watcher.
"Khari, reload now! We need to hit it several times to rupture its organs! Keep firing at center mass!" Lana mentally swore as she saw the man hesitate. She ran forward with her shield, her body tensed up behind it as she stayed between them.
As a member of the previous Third Wave, Lana had gained quite a bit of experience over the past year. She was a lower member of one of the smaller organizations in the Stardust Cluster, the Mayoral Alliance. There were about 400 people in her group, making it one of the at least decent sized ones.
Today she was assigned to take out one of their brand new members, Khari, and show him the ropes. Riker was a Third Wave Chosen like her as well, with a unique Ability to block off sound in a certain area via a Sound Barrier.
The Mayoral Alliance wasn't big enough to compete with the other large organizations, and thus they were forced to use more dangerous areas like the central zone to hunt. Still, the terms they offered were generous and it was easier to get Points here than it would be in the Godfather Organization, the Saru Group, the Tobagin Party, or the Black Flag Pirates, the four major powers of the Stardust Cluster.
'But to have to take all the new Chosen out to practice immediately… I guess we don't have time to waste if we want to compete with the others.'
BOOM
A second echoing shot rang out as Khari fired his rifle, this time glancing the Morenkai on the shoulder and spinning it around. His gun truly did pack a powerful punch to send it spinning so many times.
Lana sighed as she saw this. She promptly withdrew a handgun from inside her jacket, a Smith And Wesson .500, one of the strongest handguns in existence.
BANG
BANG
BANG
Three crisp shots echoed out as she fired directly into the Morenkai's chest as it was trying to stand up. This knocked the creature back several meters, sending it tumbling to the floor where it lay still.
"You need to aim for center mass, Khari, and hit it. The only way to kill them with bullets is to rupture their internal organs. It's too difficult to pierce their outer skin. Your rifle is far stronger than my handgun, it should only take a couple of well-placed shots." Lana's voice was calm as she turned and explained herself.
"Y-yeah. I got it. But- Woah!" As Khari was responding he cut himself off, something completely unexpected happened.
From the corner of her eye, Lana saw a dim flash of yellow light. She spun around, her heart dropping as she looked at the Morenkai she had dropped.
Its black body had begun to glow slightly as it raised itself up from the roof. An eerie aura rested upon its shoulders as it turned to look directly at Lana with its eyeless face.
"Shit. We found an Abnormal." Lana stared at the glowing Morenkai, her heart pounding with terror and adrenaline. She slowly raised her handgun, her hands shaking.
An Abnormal. One of the Morenkai that possessed unusual or strange abilities, ones that were much harder to kill than regular Morenkai. Ones they were more likely to encounter here in the central area.
"Khar-" Before she could stay anything else, the glowing Morenkai began to move.
Instead of the ominous shamble that regular Morenkai move with, this glowing one sprinted forward in a powerful dash, covering the distance between them on the roof in a split second. As it moved, it unhinged its freakish mouth, though remaining eerily quiet as all Morenkai did. It revealed multiple long lines of grey teeth, hundreds of them packed together.
BANG
BANG
BANG
Lana fired three more shots. Each bullet hit the Morenkai center mass. However, instead of knocking it backwards, the bullets seemed to interact slightly with the glowing light that surrounded the Morenkai, their impact absorbed into it. It slowed the creature down somewhat, but not enough.
THUD
Lana felt her entire body explode with pain as the Morenkai collided with her shield, punching out with one of its long arms and slamming her into the ground, sending her handgun flying from her hand. Her Mortal Ki Cultivator Ability had strengthened her body and the shield she used was a special one from the Shop, an Iron Ice Shield that helped nullify impacts, but despite that, she was completely overpowered in an instant.
In her entire year of experience here, Lana had never encountered any of the special Morenkai. She had only heard of the leader of the Mayoral Alliance fighting one before, eventually managing to kill it by luring it off the roof into a dangerous free fall from the skyscraper.
"Arrgh!" She involuntarily yelled as she felt several of her bones crack. Her head felt dizzy as she looked up at the Morenkai, her heart exploding with emotion.
'Is this where I die? After all of the past year, all the pain I went through?' Tears welled up in her eyes as she looked at the Abnormal.
"No! Lana!" The African man off on the side struggled to reload his rifle, his hands shaking with adrenaline and horror as he saw someone about to die in front of his eyes. He had just arrived here from Earth, stuff like this was completely foreign to him and well outside of any training he had had.
Even Riker, his hands still raised as he maintained the Sound Barrier and blocked out the sound of their gunshots, looked on with horror, unable to help. If he lowered the Sound Barrier to try and help while they were shooting very loud guns, they would attract a horde of Morenkai this deep in the central area.
All he could do was watch on and pray for a miracle.
Just as everything seemed as if it was all over…
Yet another completely unexpected thing happened.
WHOOOOSH
"Wo-woah! Hup!"
From out of seemingly nowhere, the body of a teenager that looked to be around 17 or 18 came flying crashing through the air at a very fast speed. This boy flew down into the Sound Barrier and slammed into the towering Abnormal Morenkai.
BAM
The impact sent the glowing, grotesque figure several meters away, tumbling down hard on the rooftop.
The teenager, meanwhile, agilely flipped to his feet from the impact, his body spinning around and smoothly canceling off the extra momentum. As he spun, his legs twitched slightly and the young man frowned, as if his body was not following his orders perfectly.
From behind the man, a pair of blue orbs floated up and began to slowly orbit the man's head.
"Whoops, my bad. Sorry for interfering with your kill." The teenager turned to the stunned onlookers with a cheerful smile. As he spoke, he tapped a ring on his finger. Immediately, a steel sword appeared in his hand.
The trio just stared on in shock.
"W-w-what?!" Lana stuttered out.
Meanwhile, the Morenkai that they had been hunting slowly shambled back to its feet, like a creature from a horror movie. Its black body was beaten and bruised, but still completely fine.
"W-watch out!" Khari yelled out as he saw this, finally managing to reload his Weatherby Mark V. He pulled the rifle forward to aim.
BOOM
He missed.
"Careful, it's coming back!"
The Morenkai began to lunge forward, its gruesome mouth opening wide again as it charged at the teenager.
"Khari! Quickly! Shoot again!" Lana desperately called out, clutching at her cracked ribs as she spoke. Unfortunately, the former elephant watcher was too slow. He was an expert at taking care of elephants, but far from an experienced shooter. The fear and excitement of everything had overwhelmed the man.
"No!" Lana could only watch in horror as the looming Morenkai ran right up to the strange teenager that had saved her life…
SHKKKK
WHOOSH
…And
then tumbled down to the ground, its body split into two as black blood sprayed outward, collapsing.
"…"
"…"
"…"
"Huh?" All three of the trio stared, their jaw's collectively dropping.
"What?"
.
Chapter 11: Fly
.
—- Points Obtained —-
Points: 38
.
'Ooh, not bad. The Points aren't crazy, but it's still much more than the regular ones.' Micheal glanced at the notice that appeared after he killed the glowing Morenkai, smiling ever so slightly. This was the 8th Morenkai he'd killed in the past couple of hours, wracking up more than 120 Points now, in his first day.
Abnormals, or Abnormal Morenkai as they were officially called, were a type of Morenkai that had mutated powers of various types. They were usually stronger than the regular Morenkai thanks to that, though some were actually weaker.
The one he had faced here seemed to be a bit quicker than average and had some type of energy layer making it tougher. Still, that wasn't enough to challenge him.
He would only need to worry if he faced down a large number of Morenkai at once or some of the truly powerful Abnormals.
They were a feature of this world. The reasons the Morenkai existed, the weird setup of the Clusters, everything here was all related and all connected to the big secret of this Layer. A secret that wouldn't be discovered, in the normal timeline, until it was far too late.
A secret that made it possible to get tens of thousands of points very quickly, the hidden way to hit the official Point Wall of the First Layer.
'Still, I'm a long way from getting there.' Each Layer had a certain maximum amount of Points one could hold at a time. The wisest researchers of humanity had theorized that this was due to the Layers themselves, how the higher you went up the Layers, the more durable and stronger reality seemed to become, allowing your soul to hold more Points.
