The rat leaps toward the boy, golden energy enveloping its entire body. Its fast speed propels it into a blurry golden mass.

Possessing all of its limbs, this rat is much faster than the previous one.

Yet it misses the boy as he sidesteps out of the way barely avoiding its lunge.

The rat passes by his side and lands on the floor. It immediately turns around and rushes in to bite at his arm, its fangs glowing scarlet.

The boy swerves backward with a quick backstep, avoiding the rat's bite but it continues rushing in, relentlessly trying to bite and claw at him.

Backing away from the assault the boy grips his sword tightly and unleashes a sharp upward slash.

Seeing the blazing red blade approaching from below, the rat narrowly dodges it by jumping back, creating some distance between the two of them.

“Something has changed.”

The boy thinks to himself.

Just a short while ago, he could barely react to the sharp movements of these rodents. The previous one, despite missing a limb, had still outpaced him in speed.

This rat was fast, there was no doubt about that but he could now react to its fast movements with his own.

The rat glares at him with bared fangs, drool dripping from the curved spaces between its teeth. The golden energy enveloping its body spikes and he realizes it’s about to go in for another lunge.

In a burst of speed, the rat bolts toward him in a straight line, attempting to knock over his small frame but the boy is ready.

He quickly adjusts his stance and raises his sword with the tip facing forward to pierce the lunging rodent in its skull.

Seeing the trap. The rat adjusts its trajectory. It zips past the boy’s right side, clawing his thigh with its glowing red claws.

The slash clashes against the blue barrier protecting him, unable to tear into his flesh.

“Are you even trying? That barely tickled.”

As if responding to his words, the rat makes some high-pitched squeals while glaring him in the eye. The golden energy emanating from its body spikes in intensity again.

A sign the boy has now recognized meant it was about to spring into another dash.

He observes the golden energy flowing through the rat’s body intently, following its soft pulsating rhythm as the rat concentrates the gold aura around its legs.

He remembered the tingling sensation of the golden energy enveloping his own legs back when he had dashed toward his sword.

“I can do that too; I just have to retrace my steps.”

Recalling that sensation, he focuses. Feeling the warm tingling sensation envelope his legs. Golden energy bubbles out of his legs as he imagines himself speeding toward the rat. Just like with the red energy, visual imagination did the trick.

His legs grow incredibly light as the energy envelops them, its golden radiance somehow brighter than before.

The rat breaks out in another blurring sprint toward him but this time the boy meets its dash with one of his own.

its eyes bulge out of their sockets as he materializes in front of it, intercepting its dash. It attempts to stop its motion but its inertia pushes it forward.

Catching it dead to rights, the boy attempts to swing his sword across its surprised head but finds his arms too heavy and slow to move.

“The sword’s become heavy again!”

This gives the rat enough time to stabilize its footing and scamper away from him.

“What the fuck happened!?”

The boy glanced at his hands and instantly realized the problem.

The gold energy was covering his legs but neglecting his arms. Not to mention, he had disturbed the flow of red energy already flowing through his upper limbs.

There was barely any red energy flowing into the sword through his arms and its glow had substantially dimmed in response.

He reignites the red glow in his arms and feels the heavy load grow light again.

“I have to maintain both, the red and gold energies. Red for power and gold for speed.”

The rat backs away from him, wary of his speed. It realized that the boy wasn’t as simple a prey as it had been imagining despite his small size. It would need assistance from the rest of its pack to deal with him.

Keeping some distance, it slowly circles around him, waiting for its pack to show up. Its skin glimmering with faint golden energy.

The boy observes the golden shine covering the rat’s entire body.

“The gold energy engulfs its entire body rather than a specific body part and then concentrates where it needs the energy to go. I think that might be how you’re supposed to use it.”

He refocuses on the tingling sensation of the golden energy but this time instead of his legs he tries to envelop his whole body. The red energy fizzles out as he tries to manipulate his gold energy.

It takes some concentration but the energy moves to cover his body and head. As soon as it reaches his head, he feels his perception quicken.

The twitchy jerky motions of the rat turn slow and deliberate along with the rhythm of the soft glowing lights coming from the surrounding walls.

He realizes it’s the same familiar sensation of time slowing down that he had experienced when he was escaping from the dark crab.

“So that’s what was happening, I’ve been using this energy on and off the whole time I’ve been here.”

He looks at his arms and body, they shine with a golden flame emanating from inside them.

Next, he focuses on the muscles of his arms, mustering red energy through them and into his sword.

It takes great focus to manipulate the red energy while maintaining the golden aura around his body.

He feels power welling in his arms and the sword grows light.

The gold and red energies on his arms overlap each other and combine to form a golden maroon shade.

The sensation feels light yet powerful.

He looks toward the rat and points his sword at it.

“Sorry about that, some technical difficulties but they’re all sorted out now.”

The rat hisses in response but keeps its distance. It glares intently, taking note of all of his movements

The boy takes one step forward, readying his stance. Then he blurs into a swift dash toward the rat.

The speed startles them both.

He covers the ten paces between them in a flash and goes for a sharp horizontal slash targeting the rat's head.

It manages to respond in time and twists its body out of the way. The blade grazes its right shoulder, slicing through its defensive blue barrier as if it weren’t there.

Red blood oozes down its shoulder as it backpedals away from the boy while hissing and snarling.

However, the boy immediately rushes in for another attack, not giving the rat time to adjust.

He speeds in for a downward slash but the rat side steps out of the way. Not intending to let the rodent get away, he immediately stops the sword's downward trajectory and unleashes an upward slash from that position yet it manages to avoid this attack as well by leaping backward.

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Undeterred the boy closes in and unleashes a flurry of slashes, targeting the rat's limbs and torso. The rat ducks, swerves, and backpedals to avoid the attacks, not letting the blade get near its body.

Despite the boy’s newfound strength, speed, and manipulation of these foreign energies, he is still slower than the rat by a small margin.

He lets out another horizontal slash but the rat ducks underneath, letting the sword pass overhead.

Not making the same mistake twice, the boy quickly flips the sword's grip in his palms and plunges the blade straight down on the crouching rat.

It scampers out of the way and the sword stabs a quarter length into the floor. The boy yanks at the grip to pull the blade out, feeling it slowly loosening but this gives the rat an opportunity to counterattack.

Seeing that the deadly black stick is out of the picture, the rat bolts for the boy’s back. Channeling red energy into its hind limbs it jumps and kicks him in his back with both muscular hind limbs.

The blow reverberates across the boy’s suit barrier, losing most of its force but the impact is enough to send him flying.

His body hits the stuck sword, dislodging it as he face-plants onto the floor.

The rat wastes no time jumping on his back, trying to chew into the nape of his neck.

Its fangs radiate with red energy as they clash with the thin blue membrane of the boy’s suit, straining the protective barrier.

He feels its claws and fangs scrape against his body. The barrier absorbs most of the force behind the its attempts but he still feels pain from the pressure behind the bites and scratches.

Without the suit’s barrier, he would’ve been torn to shreds.

“Get,,,,the……fuck…..off…me!”

His voice strains under pressure as he focuses red energy into his arms to push off the floor.

Feeling his body rise under it, the rat pushes in response to keep him pinned down.

With the previous rat, the boy had lost the contest of strength by a wide margin but this one was a lot closer. Both he and the rodent exert themselves, him trying to rise up while it tries to pin him under.

The rat succeeds in forcing him down and, again, refocuses its efforts on tearing at his neck.

“Fuck, if its pack gets here and I’m like this then there’s no way I’ll make it out alive.”

He knew deep inside that despite the magical barrier-like ability of his suit, it wasn’t really magic but a product of the science of this world.

Science had rules and he had no idea what those rules were for this suit.

For all he knew it could stop working at any moment.

The rat desperately gnaws at the boy’s neck, the scent of his flesh driving it into a bloodlust frenzy.

One of its fangs nicks against the boy’s bare skin on the nape of his neck, causing him to redouble his efforts in shaking the rodent off.

“I have to use my whole body….not just my arms.”

He had been concentrating red energy on his arms to channel it into his sword. This meant the red energy’s power had only extended to his arms unlike the golden energy which he had successfully managed to flow it throughout his entire body.

It only made sense the same was possible with red energy as well.

Under unrelenting assault from the rat, the boy channels explosive red energy throughout the muscles of his body.

Perhaps due to his active fight or flight response it doesn’t take much effort, the energy flows through without obstruction, bubbling out from every pore on his skin.

It envelops his body, filling him with overwhelming power.

As the unwitting rat continues to chew into his suit’s barrier, the boy positions his arms and legs.

In one explosive motion, he pushes against the floor, utilizing all the muscles throughout his body.

The startled rat loses its grip and its hind limbs lurch off the boy’s back.

It immediately uses its close body contact to push and wrestle the boy back onto the floor but he resists, using his legs to push off the floor.

He places his hands on the rat’s torso, attempting to push it back.

Engaged in a physical struggle, both bodies spike with flashing red energy as each tries to knock the other down.

The boy’s arms strain to hold back the furless rat towering over him while it uses its deformed frontal limbs to claw at him, using its whole body as leverage to try to push him over.

He grits his teeth as he feels his body begin to give under the strong pressure.

The rat was stronger by a tiny margin, but still stronger nonetheless.

As his body bends under the rat’s push, his eyes drop down to its legs, mainly on the two nuts hanging between its legs.

“Why hello there.”

The boy grins and knees the rat in its nuts with all of his strength, concentrating the glow of his red energy into his knee for more impact. The rat’s barrier dissipates most of the impact but some of the force passes through, causing more than enough damage.

The rat freezes and lets out a short squeak before slowly bending over, frantically petting its genitals with its deformed frontal limbs to assuage the pain.

Watching its head lower down, the boy ignites his right arm with red energy before landing an explosive uppercut on its chin.

His burning fist collides with the blue barrier covering the rat’s skin and breaks through it.

The rat’s head snaps back with the force of the blow and its hind limbs give out from under it.

Like a puppet with cut strings, its body crumbles down on the floor.

“That punch broke through its barrier!”

The boy notices with astonishment.

As the rat falls to the floor, the jolt snaps it out of its daze. It pathetically attempts to raise itself up but pain and concussion have seriously affected its movements.

The boy pants, looking at the disoriented rodent attempting to pick itself up. He walks to his nearby sword, picks it up, and walks back to the suffering rat dragging the sword behind him.

Hearing the harsh metallic grating of his blade, the rat quickens its attempts to get back up on its four limbs.

As the boy nears, it unsteadily stands up on its shaking limbs.

Its eyes glazed with rage and bloodlust, the rat attempts one last pitiful lunge.

The boy swings the glowing blade from behind him in one smooth upward arc. Faint flickers of blue flash outward as the blade severs the rat’s barrier, its right limb, and its head in one clean sweep. Blood erupts from its headless neck like a bursting geyser as its body flops back onto the floor.

“*pants* That was much better than before but still needlessly tougher than it had to be. *pants* I got to stop letting them knock me over.”

The boy slumps down to the floor with exhaustion.

His throat was completely parched, making it hard to breathe. The lack of food and water was taking a toll on his body now.

Just like before, a white mist rises out of the dead rat’s corpse. It floats in the air, drifting aimlessly but a small piece breaks off the whole and flows toward him as if pulled by something.

The boy examines the small wisp curiously as it swirls toward him, absorbing into his body.

He feels a rush of energy flow throughout his body, from head to feet.

It was hard to describe, the sensation felt exhilarating.

He looks at the sword and picks it up. The sword felt even more light, its weight now as heavy as an aluminum bat.

He gives it a few swings with one arm and it barely requires any effort.

“The white mist from their dead bodies makes me stronger.”

He did not understand how or why but that was his observation.

He raises his arm at the rest of the white mist twirling above him but unlike the wisp it doesn’t absorb into his skin and simply dissipates.

Wondering what the mist is all about, he hears clanging coming from above.

Understanding what the noise means, he waves his palm in front of him and the map screen pops up.

On the screen, two red dots were closing in on this chamber while six dots were lagging a short distance behind.

The air vents did not directly connect with the other chambers but formed a path that covered the outer length of the whole facility.

The rodents must’ve had to scramble through the entire perimeter of the facility to reach him.

“I only have a bit of time before the cavalry arrives *sigh*. This was a bad idea. “

Despite saying that, the boy felt differently. Killing the rats was changing something inside his body. The increased strength and speed were a game changer and the earlier overwhelming might of the rats was now feeling a lot weaker.

“It might be because I’m delirious from hunger but I think I can take them”

Killing the two rats had given him a tremendous boost in his abilities, what would happen if he killed all of them?

“Since I’m already on this route, might as well take it all the way to the end.”

Making the most of the little time he has, the boy lies down on the cool floor and closes his eyes, trying to catch his breath.

As soon as he does so his sword morphs back into a ring on his finger as if sensing the calm before the storm.

“Conserving energy for upcoming battles, just like old times.”

He had been used to fighting without food or water for long periods of time in his past life although that was in his adult body rather than this child one.

However, it was puzzling.

This body was unusually strong and fast compared to a typical 8 or 9 year old’s abilities from earth, not exactly on an adult’s level but not far behind either.

In fact, right now he could probably beat a majority of teenagers and adults from earth in a race, excluding military personnel and athletes.

“Of course, strength and speed here are entirely dependent on how well one is good at channeling their energies so maybe that’s what’s playing a bigger role.”

The energies were a strange phenomenon.

Up till now, he had witnessed about four different colored glows.

Blue, which acted like a barrier that protected its user.

Red, which gave a boost in explosive strength.

Gold, like red gave a boost, but in speed.

White, which he wasn’t exactly sure about but it also gave him some type of permanent boost in strength and speed. Not to mention it only came out of dead bodies.

There was also a brief flash of green that he had caught when his sword had sliced through the rodents and the dark crab’s tail but he hadn’t the faintest idea what it represented.

He had only seen a handful of the native life forms of this planet but they were all capable of using these energies, just like himself.

“It seems like all fauna species of this planet are capable of manipulating these energies.”

The dark crab and rodents had been using these energies naturally as if they were using any other part of their bodies.

Fighting the rodents, he had learned that it was possible to envelop the entire body in these energies and probably it was the most effective way to use them.

The aura of red and gold energies together had given him an insane boost and that was just two, there was the blue energy as well.

“I should be able to create that blue energy as well by myself.”

His suit was doing most of the heavy lifting when it came to using the protective blue energy but it was all and well since his hands were full just using the red and gold energies.

“Not only do living things have these energies but inanimate objects can harbor them as well. The people in this world must have an entire science behind them.”

In the 24 hours he had been here he had only encountered animals and creatures but not people.

There obviously had to be people on the planet since this whole facility did not materialize out of thin air and if there were, then there was a very high chance that they utilized these energies as well.

“The only reason why I or this child would be carrying a sword is because primary weapons for the people of this world are melee weapons.”

The faint clinking and clanging sounds grow louder as moments pass. It was only a matter of time until the bloodthirsty rodents were upon him.

He raises his hand to inspect his ring.

The double-ring insignia gave a tinge of dull gray in the soft atrium lights.

“A people that are advanced enough to make morphing weapons and high-tech facilities like this but still use swords.”

It was ridiculous and that is precisely why he needed answers.

He also had to quickly learn how to use these mysterious energies to fight.

An image of the dark crab crosses his mind and he shudders.

The rodents were just the tip of a very big iceberg.