CHAPTER 66
"Ack… ugh…"
Thud, Thud—!
Ray's body could be seen skipping across the jagged ground before he stabbed his fingers into the earth, clawing his frame to a forceful, jarring halt.
The metallic taste of blood was prominent in his mouth as he proceeded to cough out a thick crimson liquid from his lips.
Everywhere was incredibly hazy, as a massive cloud of dust billowed into the skies, obscuring his entire field of view.
"Van… Van? Wh-where are y…"
"Right here, cough, cough."
Following the muffled sound of the voice with his sensitive ears, Ray staggered over, navigating through the thick haze to find his best friend on his knees clutching his side in pain.
Heaving a heavy sigh of relief, he crouched down beside him.
Van lifted his head, straining his eyes until he finally saw Ray's silhouette beside him.
"Wh-what was that?" The moment the words left his parched throat, the dust finally settled.
Instantaneously, a piercing scream shredded the silence of the air.
— AHHHH!
— It's an Aberrant!
"Ba…thump… Ba…thump." Ray's heartbeat could be heard thundering in his ears at the sound of the terrified scream that reached him.
"An… an Abb-Aberrant?" He stuttered in pure disbelief as he slowly lifted his head.
He didn't want to believe that the panicked Aspirant was right for even a single second.
Raising his head, he could see the other students rising up, including Kai, as they all tensed up at the visual monstrosity towering in front of them.
Ray's breath hitched instantly as his pupils dilated with shock.
In front of them stood a genuine Aberrant, but contrary to the usual norms, this creature stood at five metres tall instead of the typical nine.
This height made it look almost like a child compared to others of its kind, yet it was not one bit less terrifying.
Its yellow slanted eyes bore into the humans as a wicked, inhuman grin curved its lips.
Its tail was seen swaying rhythmically left and right like an excited dog, with jagged, rock-like armour lining its body.
This natural plating started from the top of its head, flowing down its back and surrounding its entire torso.
Then, the armour continued down its tail all the way to the tip.
A single, bone-white spine jutted out of its back, proving that it was part of the weakest ranks of its species.
But to these Aspirants, a one-spined Aberrant was a mountainous, near-impossible challenge for them to overcome.
Its long, wicked claws gleamed in the sunlight as it beamed at them, revealing rows and rows of razor-sharp teeth that lined its cavernous mouth.
In short, the creature was nightmare incarnate.
To those who had never seen one before except on the news, they froze up in an instant, their muscles refusing to move.
'Ho-how is this possible? How is an Aberrant here, in a gate no less? What is happening?' Ray pondered in mounting dread as he stared at the monstrosity.
Memories from a month ago flashed vividly into his mind—the destruction these monsters had caused and the agonizing way he had lost his only family.
The moment the thoughts of his deceased family crossed his mind, his eyes narrowed into deadly, focused slits.
His teeth were audibly grinding back and forth as he squeezed his hands into tight, white-knuckled fists.
'... Shoot! What is an Aberrant doing here? F*ck. How do we handle this with a bunch of inexperienced Aspirants? Some aren't even strong enough to battle a basic awakened beast,' Kai wondered, his mind racing as he took a combat stance, ready for anything to occur.
For safety measures, purple crystals began surrounding his hands as he prepared himself for the worst-case scenario.
The Aberrant, on the other hand, was seen sweeping its predatory gaze over the humans as if observing them one after the other, evaluating their worth.
"Humph… weaklings. Only kids are here."
The creature continued scanning them until its eyes landed on a frozen, petrified Aspirant standing near the front.
The moment that pair of demonic eyes locked onto him, the boy immediately broke out in a cold sweat.
His hands were shivering uncontrollably, and he looked as though he was about to collapse from pure terror.
"Aaaargh! I can't take it anymore!" He shouted in a voice cracked with pure agony, suddenly spinning around and dashing away from the towering creature in a blind panic.
"Hm? Am I truly that terrifying?" The Aberrant tilted its head in mock confusion, its yellow eyes tracking the retreating Aspirant with predatory interest.
'Damn you, fool!' Kai scolded inwardly, his muscles coiled like springs.
His gaze remained fixed on the creature, waiting for the inevitable moment it would strike.
And it did move!
Its focus shifted entirely toward the fleeing student.
Before anyone could even process the movement, the creature vanished, reappearing at lightning speed.
The retreating Aspirant heard the heavy, rhythmic thud of footsteps directly behind him.
Instinctively, he glanced back while still in mid-stride, only to see the Aberrant looming above him like a shadow of death.
Its massive leg was lifted, poised and ready to grind him into a bloody paste against the earth.
As before, his body petrified in a state of absolute shock.
He was unable to shift even a fraction of an inch, forced to stare in silence as the lethal foot descended.
Pfffff—!
The violent hiss of compressed gas echoed out with full force as a blurred figure shot forward.
The newcomer shoved the petrified Aspirant out of the trajectory, both of them rolling aside across the gravel in a tangled mess of limbs.
This split-second intervention allowed them to evade the foot, which crashed into the ground with a low, resonant boom.
A wide, jagged chasm suddenly splintered open beneath the point of impact.
Springing up with athletic precision, the savior revealed herself.
Trisha!
Her icy cold eyes were locked onto the Aberrant, who merely tilted its head in silent confusion at her audacity.
While the others had been gripped by a paralyzing chill, Trisha had momentarily succumbed to it as well.
However, she had regained her composure far faster than her peers, swiftly centering her senses to study the monster's posture.
She watched for even the microscopic twitch of a muscle that would signal its next lethal move.
She wasn't naive enough to believe the crowd would remain perfectly still.
In every high-stakes situation, there would always be a rebel or a coward who broke rank, and it hadn't taken long for that individual to appear.
The moment she sensed the Aberrant's intent, she triggered her VMS gear and intercepted the strike in the nick of time.
Now, the demonic eyes of the Aberrant were focused solely on the two of them.
"How dare a mere insect interfere?!"
Trisha offered no verbal reply as she lowered her center of gravity into a firm combat stance.
Frost rapidly encased her fists, turning them into blunt instruments of ice as she glared back at the creature.
"... Are you mute? It doesn't matter. You will simply perish here with no one left to salvage your remains!"
This sentence finally elicited a flicker of emotion from the typically stoic girl.
She straightened her back slightly, tilting her head with a chilling lack of fear.
"Will I?"
Pfff—! Pffff—! Pffff—!
The staccato bursts of VMS gears being ignited suddenly filled the clearing.
The sound caused the Aberrant to spin around, only to see a blonde-haired youth rocketing through the air.
His hand was cocked back, heavy layers of jagged crystal manifesting around his arm.
Behind him followed more of the emboldened Aspirants, with Berg leading the charge as volatile flames consumed his palms.
"There is no use being terrified of this f*cker! Can't you see? He is significantly shorter than the others, which means he is far weaker! We can actually do this! Show this blasted creature the true might of humanity!" Berg roared into the sky, his voice a rallying cry, and then—
Bang, Bang, Bang—!