Chapter 2(Kenneth): Stopping by (2/2)

After we ran for a few minutes I began noticing a flicker and Nicholai's eye, though she seemed to not realize it herself

"Hey Kenneth" When the unknown guy spoke, I felt like I recognized his voice, wait, but he was already a DT, and he looks nothing like him "Well, High ranking officers are allowed to help cadets" A light enveloped him, and when the light faded, it was who I thought it was, Neal

"Hold on, but you...looked like someone else!" It caught me by surprise that's for sure

"Well, One of my abilities involve the mind, err well, being more honest, it's just clairvoyance, I used the drone you were working on, I think you forgot it" As Neal said that the drone I'd been working on beforehand appeared in front of me, it looked like it was attempting to speak

"Sorry buddy" I let it fly onto my hands, which, was kinda hard with us running and whatnot "I couldn't fix your voice box yet" So, Dave could change people's appearances, then I noticed

New Member

Dave
HP 30/30
MP 5/5
Corrupted ??/??

The corrupted category made me curious as to what it was, I could guarantee it'd most likely cause issues though

"We're here" Nicholai broke through my thoughts and made me realize we arrived

"Alright now where t-"a flash went by cutting off Kai's words, then a loud bang could be heard through the air

"Let's...hope that isn't Lee" I raised my spear up. Even though I just got the spear, it felt like I could still fight with it "Alright!" I looked back at the others "We'll look for them, then we'll kill whatever interrupted our trials together"

"I'm with you" Nicholai called out as she ran past me, heading towards where the figure crashed

"We'll look for Sam and the others, well, that's if that figure was Lee" Kai, Alice, and Neal all headed towards the trees, I wondered how they knew where to go, that was until I noticed smoke in the air, seeing the smoke I began to realize other things around me, the air had a metallic and nauseous smell to it. I didn't want to think about it for too long, but, I knew it was blood, and after our talking stopped I began to hear screaming in the distance, right, Raymond said we'd come back if another DT struck us down or pull us our if we were starving and what-not, but...whatever is here, was never predicted.

"Kenneth!" Nicholai called for me, realizing I was taking too long.

"I'm coming!" I ran over to he and eventually catching up "Oh god!" Sadly, the person that did get launched was Lee, I quickly threw up the hud

Lee Anc LV2
HP 1/160
MP 68/68

This guy...he was on death's door

"Raymond...he mentioned that some of our powers tend to relate to our past hobbies and what-not right?" Nicholai's expression never changed, she was still calm

"Ye..yeah" I kneeled down beside Lee, looking for any bleeding

"Then...how about I give healing magic a go?" I looked up at her, I could tell she was nervous

"Sure, If it works that'd be amazing" I laid Lee down "He's all yours" Nicholai slowly sat down while raising her hand, she closed her eyes, probably not wanting to see what happens if she fails. After a few seconds, I began noticing the fact that she was in pain "Nicholai, you don't have to force yourself, he may be close to it, but he isn't dead"

"I know that, just...I need to learn sooner or later" Even though Lee and Nicholai hated each other they still tolerated one another, and maybe...maybe Nicholai wanted to be friends like when we were little. I put my hand on her shoulder and immediately noticed a change on her face.

"Just...relax, if you strain yourself too much, you'll need treatment as well" After the warning I gave, she began to relax more

"Okay, I think I got it" She said it with an optimistic tone so I took my hand off her shoulder. Although it looked sloppy eventually a glow surrounded Lee, she opened her eyes and noticed it "Ha, I got it" After she realized it worked, the glow began to get bigger. It took a while to click in my head but it made sense, depending on the magic our emotions can change the result. While Nicholai was helping Lee, I opened up my menu and looked for a notepad, when I found it I wrote down my finding, well, what we were told at least

Kenneth's Notepad-Open
What emotions affect what magic

My electrical ability - Anger?? Maybe more of cautious

Nicholai's healing ability - Calm, or maybe something else

Kenneth's Notepad-Closed

I looked to the floor, I noticed I had a bag I never opened, I grabbed the zipper and opened it, and when I did, I found a hat. I knew what this hat was for, about a year ago me, Sam, and Nicholai all made him a hat on his birthday, if I remember, it was thanks for leading us during the apocalypse

When I looked back at Lee his eyes were open, I closed the bag with the hat in it, I'd give it to him later

"God, everything hurts" He stood up, I could tell he was still in a bit of pain, but hopefully not too much "Thanks Nicholai, that helped a good amount"

"What happened, or, do you even know what happened" I wanted to know how he got flung, maybe he never saw it?

"Some weird thing attacked us...Wait, is everyone else okay!?" I checked the hud and scrolled to Sam and the other's stats

Kyle Towa LV2
HP 220/250
MP 20/20

Sam Cal LV2
HP 60/108
MP 80/82

Matt C LV2
HP 120/180
MP 35/35

Kayla Towa LV2
HP 50/100
MP 57/57

Seems like everyone leveled up, but everyone wasn't okay, from their health I could tell they were fighting, and seems like Lee opened his hud and noticed it as well. He walked past Nicholai, It was obvious he was going to try and fight

"Oi Lee!" I grabbed his arm before he could walk past me

"What?" He was more relaxed than I expected

"Listen, that purple ticking thing you have next to your health, it's contagious, you can't g-.... Hold on" I took a few steps back from him

"What do you mean contagious? Nothing is wrong with me, do I look like I have an issue?" After he said that I looked him up and down, nothing to report

"N-No, you...seem fine, but, Kai said something about it being contagious so..." Nicholai tried to make the situation better, although, I don't think he noticed the fact t-

"Kai?...That name...It's familiar" It took me a while to realize his attitude and posture had become more of an aggressive one "Kai.....I remember!" He yanked his arm away and darted towards where Kai, Neal, and Alice went, using the map to help him I assume

"Lee, Hold on!" Me and Nicholai chased after him, what could've caused him such anger? He clearly remembered him.

Eventually, he managed to lose us. which, surprised me, considering the fact you should be able to see him with the hair he has.

"How did we lose him? The guy's a walking landmark!" Nicholai had her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath, while I was leaning up against a tree trying to grab as much breath as I can.

"Kenneth? Nicholai?" I voice that was in pain was behind us, when we turned around we realized it was Matt and Kyle with Matt the one calling out to us

"You two, it ain't safe here, some weird purple freak is attacking" Kyle, assuming, we weren't told its features "That damn thing has some weird transparency and getting close isn't in option, it sprayed some weird mist around it, and supposedly Lee breathed some in" Gotcha, that blinking purple thing was the mist in his lungs, that, for now at least, was the only conclusion I could come to. Nicholai started speaking, after she looked over and realized I was too tired to even talk

"Listen, we already know...Lee ran off, but we should be able to find him with the map" Nicholai returned to her natural posture after catching her breath "But, he should be fine for now, what we need to focus on is Sam and Kayla. A few friends of ours went after them, but I haven't gotten anything yet" Both Matt and Kyle looked down

"That place is a death trap but...Now that we're all here, we might just be able to fight it" Matt summoned an axe, from the look of it, it seemed to have about five holes on the blade

"Seems you figured it out as well" I summoned my spear "Wait, what do you mean all here? I only see us"

"Yeah, but after that warning that Raymond gave, all of our arrows were revealed, and the map showed a symbol, so everyone just assumed that was the enemy, so-" After Matt mention the map I took a look, and sure enough, the symbol matched Kyle's description and I begun to see small transparent arrows surrounding it, with a White-ish pink, grey and Pink one charging towards it

"Everyone, we should charge it now, we'll kill two birds with one stone, Lee, Sam, and Kayla are already charging it, so we should meet up with them and fight it" I suggested to everyone

"It's a risk, but to hell with it, we're already dead after all"

"Good, Matt is on board" The others had no protest "Alright, I'll assume it's a go-ahead, let's get to it" Kyle summoned an axe as well, but it had no holes like Matt's.

After running towards the arrows and symbols we began to see it

"Oh my god" The thing was massive, Overly Massive!

"What the hell is that! What did Raymond ask us to fight!" Nicholai got behind us "I- I mean, I was never a fighter so...But I promise, I won't do nothing, I'll help wherever I can"

It took me a moment but after looking around a bit I saw them

"Guy's over there" I pointed at them and the others noticed immediately. We ran over to them only stopping when something sharp hit my leg and forced me to fall "What the!?" I turned over and noticed a lanky tentacle piercing my leg

"I got it!" Matt rushed over slamming his axe onto the tentacle causing it to recoil away and in the distance, I could hear a high-pitched scream. After regaining my composure I noticed some form of mist flooding the floor, I attempted to stand only to be tackled

"Hey, wha-" I couldn't focus, therefore I couldn't prevent the person who tackled me from putting something on my face. When I did focus, however, I realized it was Lee who tackled me, and he put a gas mask on my face "Where'd you get this? And whe-"

"Who knows where Kai and the others are, and to answer your first question, it was complimentary from the field" I didn't understand at first, but when I looked down I noticed he had a bag full of gasmasks

"You found these?" He gave a sharp nod and extended his hand out. I grabbed it, a bit saddened that the gasmask Alice gave me was pointless "Thanks"

"Thank me later" He looked over at the me and the others more clearly, just as Matt got his axe out from the ground "5 fighters and a medic, ha, yeah, that seems right for us" Five? So maybe Sam and Kayla learned how to summon their weapons as well "We just have to hold out till whatever team gets here, supposedly their trained just for taking these things out"

"Ready for when you are Lee" Sam popped up from behind us, following her was Kayla

"How about you four? You all ready" Kayla showed some sense of cockyness, but what was I to expect from Kyle's sister

"Do you really have to ask?" Kyle put his axe over his shoulder "I was born for this"

"I'm ready" Matt gripped his axe

"It's settled then, Lee, take charge from here" I walked over to him putting my hand on his shoulder

"Why me?" All of us looked at him

"Isn't that obvious" Sam peeked over at Lee from behind me "You led us before, so what's the difference now? Jeez it should be easier now! You can see where we are and our health" Lee smiled

"Alright, alright, I'll take charge, you don't have to tell me so much" He took a deep breath slowly letting it out "So, Sam should've given you gasmasks, except for Kenneth, I gave it, either way, we have gasmasks, unlike other cadets we can get close, our weapons also are close range" He walked over to Nicholai handing her a gun "Nicholai, in case anyone goes rouge and decides they want the glory for themselves, use this to provide support, Kayla, assist Nicholai"

"Understood, come on Nicholai, let's find a vantage point" Kayla grabbed Nicholai by the wrist and went off into the tree

"Kenneth and Sam will come with me, we'll go after those guys" Lee pointed over to a few purple, lanky, transparent creatures "Raymond sent me a message mentioning how these were weak ones, so we should be able to handle them"

"Alright! Let's do it!" Sam jolted her right hand up In cheer. After Sam's cheer the tentacle from before seemed to come back ready to attack

"It's probably connected to that" Lee motioned his head towards the massive creature

"So the giant one helps restore the smaller ones, makes sense" I aimed my spear towards the before-mentioned creatures

"So..."Sam trailed off "The plan is to hold out until the real team to take them out gets here right?"

"that's about right" Lee rushed towards one of the creatures

"Hold on! What're you doing!?" I called out to him, his reckless nature was apparent every now and then

"My new job!" Lee's pointy headband began to glow, it was oddly weird, of all the things to glow, his headband? After I turned away from Lee's glowingness, I noticed that the creature raised its arm to slam it down afterward.

Sam and I both tried to rush over to him to help, but as the arm hit the "ground" I heard clash. The smoke caused by the impact began to clear, and I saw Lee with a sword clashing against the thing's arm. Matt may have been able to chop it before but that was the massive one, or maybe, the front of the arms for these things are strong, it would make sense after all, since it was able to pierce my leg.

"Come on guys! You two have weapons don't you!?" As Lee realized he couldn't hold it off much longer, he flung his sword up with both hands, dodged to the side, and when the arm pierced into the ground, he made a straight cut from the ground to its arm, cutting it off

"Come on Ken! Let's go help" Sam's headband also began to glow after rushing the enemy. It got me thinking, the hairbands of those two are probably glowing due to it being their most prized possession, after all, I remember hearing something about our magic and weaponry being affected by our emotions, so that's why I was able to summon my spear, but really? The main emotion to trigger my spear, is fea-....Wow, what a joke, I swear magic is always teasing me, games or not

"Alright, let's go assist" Now that I got the hang of it, I grabbed my spear, and threw it at the creature's other arm. Afterward, I noticed Sam's weapon, Dual short swords. Due to my ignorance, however, my hand got pierced by the thing's...other arm? "This things arm can regrow!" A shot rang out as what felt like thousands of pounds weighed down my arm. When I looked almost the entire arm was entirely gone, with not even a speck left over besides for the part in my hand. I turned around and saw Nicholai and Kayla looking at the gun in surprise

"What kinda cannon did you give her" Sam looked over at Lee in confusion, he could only respond with a shrug and a few words

"The thing wasn't like that before..."After Lee's words, Matt dashed past us finishing off the creature

"You guys need to pay attention you know?" Matt looked at us with a sort of face that expresses annoyance

"Our bad, thanks for the assistance though" Lee gave a thumbs up towards Matt.

"Right...you guys deal with them, and we'll continue to deal with the other stragglers" Matt jumped back, running to continue to deal with the others.

"The cavalry has arrived" Voices behind us caught our attention, it caught mine mainly for the fact that it sounded like Neal

"Let's get this over with" Luckily enough it was, with Kai being the one to the right of Neal and Alice being to his left. I thought that they were other cadets, but it turns out, from the armband they had, they were a high rank.

"Tsk, alright, I'll tolerate them for now" I wasn't paying attention, so I didn't know what Lee was responding to, but I didn't have much time to pay mind to words. Neal practically teleported on the left of the creatures using a sickle as a weapon, Alice from the looks of it took Nicholai's gun, although I assume she duplicated it, after I noticed she had the gun she duplicated herself with the gun and opened fire at the opposition, Kai though summoned a sword and got into a stance, his legs were bent with one arm on the blade itself and the other arm grabbing the handle, he seemed to be waiting for an opening

"Everyone, let's help them and create an opening" Sam practically took the words from my mouth, but at least Lee was cooperating

We hacked and slashed to the point we felt like we would drop, ammo for Nicholai and Alice were becoming an issue. I heard a clash behind me, I turned and noticed Kayla, her weapon at least from its looks, was a whip type of weapon

"Hey! Can ya pay attention!" When I did as she said I noticed she saved me by clashing with something coming for me

"Right! My bad, I owe you one" I readied my spear again and began attacking. Killing the things was oddly simple, take out the arms then destroy the glowy thing that pops up when you do. Although, it seemed like the more we killed the stronger and less predictable they become and so I decided something "Hey! Lee!" I called over to him, resulting in him dashing over "This is gonna sound weird, but with the things we have, by chance could you make a vial"

"For Nicholai right? To find out more about these things" I nodded "Alright, we've got some plastic and whatnot....I..I'll see what I can do" He sounded in a way disappointed in himself, maybe he thought he couldn't do it, to be fair to him, the guy has weird hobbies just like the rest of us.

"Gotcha!" It seemed like Kai's ability was done, after I finished killing one I turned and was practically blinded by a bright light, when I opened them, I only saw Kai standing. Kai shoved his hair out of the way and looked at me with a smile "What's the matter? Impressed? Not like you saw what I did" Honestly I was impressed but more confused, why are they hiding as cadets? Is it to see who's worthy of something? I turned and saw an explosion a distance away, resulting in the massive version of the creature to retreat.

"Hey, Kid, step aside, we'll handle this" The person who practically shoved me aside looked way more professional than me or Neal's group. The guy's team wore helmets showing their face through a protective shield in the front, the person who talked to me was an exception, wearing a different uniform from his team

"Ahh!" Kai noticed the guy and ran towards him "You're the team meant to help right?" The cocky guy who just shoved me aside earlier looked in awe

"Y-Yes, I'm Zach, I'm the platoon leader of Regiment 13" Kai looked at him with a warm smile, honestly, it was hard to understand why Lee hated him "We're part of the CEF"

"Yeah, I got that, so no more experimenting on them? Or did the CSF perhaps disband?" How could Kai and Zach be having a conversation, I mean, Zach's team was handling just fine but...

"No sir...the CSF still exists, it's just" Zach looked over at the massive version of the things he's fighting "They can't exactly handle that"

"Fair enough, alright, get going now" Kai patted the guy on the shoulder and he went on his way

"Hold on, Kai. He called you sir, and looked like he admired you." Honestly from the semi-casual clothing, I expected him to be a low rank, it was already a surprise to see Neal here. Although, taking a closer look I began to notice things on his uniform

"Yeah, I'm actually one of the highest ranks here...I decided that people coming to me was a bad idea, so instead, I decided I'd scout them out" More explosives went on behind us, and I began to see Lee and the others fall back to let the "CEF" handle it

"Hey Kai, why does Lee hate you?" Kai stood for a moment, thinking of an answer to my question

"Honestly, if he does hate me, then I could kinda see why. Raymond came to me talking about how you guys still had your memories when you were alive, and it surprised me" I opened my mouth to speak but he stopped me "Yeah I know what you wanna say, it's normally meant so your duties as a DT isn't clouded, the only memories you're meant to remember is the people you're brought back with." In a way I could see why Lee hated him, but I don't think this was the reason that he had, But, I'd be lying if I said I didn't know where he was coming from, from what I can tell this was a dangouras job, and while we had the choice to accept it or not we chose yes, and having memories of us being killed would in a way be risky, as we may do things that endangers others, and the memories we do keep, the ones of the people we came with made sense as well, after all our abilities work on emotions, and the whole R thing next to people's names on the hud tells that our relations with others also affect it.

"I see, well, good like...with whatever" I walked past Kai and went towards the others

"Oh, Ken, here" Lee ran up to me holding a very scuffed vial, but, it worked well for what I needed, it even already had a sample "Yeah, I know you wanna laugh, it's the first time I made a vial so it was kinda hard, especially since I barley had tools"

"No, no, It's fine, thanks" I took the vial and put it into my shirt pocket, let's hope I don't fall and break it, No I wasn't jinxing myself, the minute I could I'd put it away someplace safer

"You guys held your own I'll give ya that" Without us realizing Neal was part of the circle that we mistakingly formed while talking "Although I guess that's the whole point of the trial, pit DTs against each other so they learn their powers and weapons then bam, easy field training, sorry though that you guys fought them day one, luckily it was the weak versions, but I can't guarantee it'll stay that way" In all honesty, when Neal started that second sentence I wanted to punch him, luckily though, my quick assumption was wrong

"Yeah, we worked well together just like back then" Sam being optimistic as usual, although, it felt refreshing from the normal realist that is Nicholai, although, even she started to be different, I swear, if being a DT changed them, then we're gonna have problems.

"Well, I guess this concludes that, here" Our huds opened and an X formed on the map we had, it was on a building I saw when passing over here "The graduation is being held there. I hope to see you all again at the top" Neal waved us goodbye.

"Hold on! Before we go" Sam took a few photos of the area

"What the, when'd you get your camera?" Lee stood beside Sam looking at the camera she was holding

"I don't know, When I tried summoning my weapons I thought of something else and got this instead" She extended the bipod that was attached to it fixing some settings

"Heh, her first weapon was a camera" Kyle joked while making his weapon disappear, I mimiced his motion and it worked.

"Come on Sam, we don't wanna be late" Lee lead the way towards what looked like the main building.

I looked around more as we left the "Arena" as Kyle calls it, yet while looking I began to noticed every now and then Lee held his head

"You alright?" I put my hand on his shoulder, ready to support him if he needed it

"Yeah, yeah" A part of me knew touching him was risky, but I hadn't gotten infected yet so there was no need to worry, at least in my opinion "I guess I just pushed myself too hard" He wasn't wrong, got snagged in the leg by a bear trap, got flung through a tree and is using magic that uses the brain to work, its probably been a long day for everyone, but I knew for sure at the very least we'd graduate, and who better the graduate with other than the people I call family.

After chapter repor-

"Ahh! we won't be able to do reports anymore will we Raymond?"

"We will, just not as much"

"Well, what about this time?"

"Heh, sadly no. Maybe a few days from now"

"Aww, damn, I wanted to do this soon"

"You'll be able to, just wait a bit longer"

"So, "They graduated", nice, nice...I don't have much to say this time around, they handled their own well and even learned some magic and how to summon their weapons, sadly a few casualties were unavoidable, Sam even got her old camera back, but that was probably just sheer luck...Anyhow, that's all this time around, till me meet again reader."