Lost Origins: SS Ranked Awakening-Chapter 102: Spoon fed

All this happened in one smooth motion without interrupting their pace

Unfortunately, after a few minutes of running, another monster popped out of nowhere, this time it headed for Richard who just burnt it to ciders instantly, still without losing speed.

A few meters ahead three monsters appeared, two heading for Kieran and one for Richard.

These ones were faster than the last two the group had come across before, but they didn’t pose any problems as Kieran duly executed the monsters with two lazer shots to the head, while Richard used a more refined method; coating and compressing his flames in his hand which he used to slash off the creature’s head, like hot knife through butter.

"Pause!"

Kieran said, bringing the team to a halt and he could feel Richard’s irritated and questioning gaze on his back, but he ignored that and stared at the sky.

"F**k!!"

Kieran cursed with a livid expression.

Derrick and Richard, confused with his reaction, also looked at the sky and immediately felt the same. The whole air around the group changed, a dreadful and blood thirsty air suddenly emanating from them as Richard coated both his hands in flames, and Kieran tightened his grip on the Gun.

"Derrick, how far are we from the closed safe space?"

Out in the open, outside the shelter the mountain range of the camp provided, there was no "safe zone" and they all knew that, including Kieran, but Derrick was smart enough to know what he meant by that.

"About 20 minutes!"

Derrick said in a dry tone and Kieran could feel the downward pull on his heart.

20 minutes wasn’t a long distance to run during normal situations but the sky was no longer just dark from rain.

Now that some of the clouds had cleared, one could clearly see twin moons of the planet shining brightly upon them.

RUMBLE! RUMBLE!!

It wasn’t just about to rain heavily on them, they had literally gone from day to night in less than 3 hours. This had never happened before, Kieran knew nothing about it, not from the numerous books he had read.

"Let’s go, we fight while we run. We should be able to make it!"

Kieran said, unsure if he was trying to assure himself or his teammates.

"Hmm"

Derrick gave out a hum of agreement, his eyes wandering around alertly.

Richard seemed like he had something to say before he could,..

BANG!

Kieran turned around without giving anyone time to react, shooting in Richard’s direction, just inches away from his face. He could feel the heat from the laser dry the skin a little before the pained shriek was heard directly from his back.

His eyes widened and he turned around to see the corpse of a dead monster with a burn hole through its head, from Kieran’s bullet.

Whatever it is he wanted to say, he held it in and they began their sprint again.

RUMBLE! POUR!!!

Just then, the rain decided to accompany them in all its might, hitting on them like tiny rocks.

.....

Back in the camp, at the unit building, August stood outside looking off the mountain top into the far distance in Kieran’s direction before letting out a deranged laugh at the sky.

"Hehehehahhahhhhaaahhah!!!!"

"Guess you didn’t see this coming right? We might be nice but we don’t spoon feed you all the information you need."

"You wouldn’t get the experience you need and we wouldn’t have gotten our feared reputation and identity otherwise. Welcome to planet Kirshof kids. Hahaa!"

"Well said, August!"

A steady voice joined August’s from nowhere and without even looking back, he asked.

"What are you doing here old man, you’ve git better and more important things to do!"

He said, waving his hands.

"They can wait, but before that, I brought some wine!"

The voice was calm, a sombre aura matching the dark skies filling the mountain top.

"I see you brought my least favorite person along too" August said and a small scoff was heard.

"I feel the same way about you too!"

"I’m glad!"

August said, leading his guests who had interrupted his entertainment to the front of the dojo styled unit building where they all took a sit, facing each other.

"What do you want, old man?"

August said after taking a few sips of wine.

"Quite simple actually. One of your recruits"

The man across August said in a light gone and August withheld the urge to curse or throw the wine in his face or even a bottle on his head.

’The fuck does he mean my one of my recruits? I paid a heavy price and gambled to pick those three and he just wants one of them?’

The other man, draped in a white lab coat almost couldn’t contain his smile and the joy that radiated out of him at the sight of August being so frustrated.

He could tell even without seeing his face, the way the space around him bent and churned was more than enough to tell. The crazy bastard was impossible to read unless it was with him.

He glanced at the man who acted like he couldn’t see August’s reaction, respect flashing deep within his eyes.

"Calm yourself August. I’m not taking the kid away from you. I only offer my help, you aren’t sure what to do either."

’Not sure what to do? Does he mean Kieran?’

August looked at the man in front of him suspiciously. His face was clear despite the fact that it was now night and very dark.

".....sigh! Do whatever you want as long as you aren’t stealing anyone of my recruits from me"

He said that like he didn’t care anymore about the matter.

The man had a small smile on his face hearing that from August before resuming his drink.

........

Back on the path to the nearest safe zone on the way to sector XA-24, the group of three were having it hard.

Not only was the darkness making it hard for them to see further, even as awakened.

Unlike the rest, Kieran seemed to be the only one that could see the furthest, but even that wasn’t the only problem. The rain blurred their vision and muffled the sound of the any monster that approached.

It was somehow suddenly night time now, the time when those monsters became active and with the thick clouds which blocked out mouat if the light from the moons, and the rain which drained other sounds in its downpour, they had no way of detecting these monsters accurately, all they had were their body reflexes.

If they were currently surrounded right now, they would have no way of knowing.

At least that was what one would’ve thought.

As strange as it was, Kieran’s hearing could cut through the rain and pick up erratic movements that he attributed to monsters. His range of hearing was limited but it was surprisingly effective when paired with this vision which wasn’t haa affected when compared to the other two.

Kieran could feel his blood rush as he cut through the rain, instinctively shooting at random spotts and hitting monster’s that were creeping up.

There was a very ecstatic feeling to it, the way his blood rushed, the excitement he felt, the subtle bloodlust which he exuded, even the voice which yelled "kill" in the back if his head seemed to have faded.

He felt different from usual and something was happening to him, he could feel it, but he just couldn’t tell what exactly it was.

’That’s was impressive. Too impressive for a non awakened! Just what is he?’

Derrick observed from the side, noting the golden glow that shone unknown to Kieran within his eyes.

Just like Kieran, Derrick too wasn’t complete blind in this situation.

A whole back, after realizing how serious the situation was, he threw his boots to the side, using his bare feet to feel the vibrations within the ground. It was difficult with the numerous drops of rain hitting the ground, but that made it easier for him to react when he sensed something off beat. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

With this, he was able to keep up with Kieran’s pace. As for the ones he happened to miss, Kieran’s bullets found their way to them without a single exception.

’I had no idea he was such a good marksman!’

Derrick noted mentally.

Richard on the other hand was like an oddball among the two who had found ways to adapt to the situation. His powers were at a total disadvantage in this situation, but he didn’t seem to be worried.

He had a terrifyingly accurate sixth sense. After the monster that had almost sneaked up on him, his reactions and been terrifyingly sharp, calculated and accurate.

"Just how is he doing that?"

Richard muttered under the cover of the rain while watching Kieran advance like he wasn’t affected by the rain.

The image of the laser flying past his face to a monster that close to him was still fresh in his mind.

He hasn’t sensed that monster, so how in hell had Kieran who was standing a few meters away reacted that swiftly.

"Fuck!"

Richard cursed in frustration.