Chapter 1 - Awakening
In a research facility hidden somewhere on the barren desert surface of the planet Tyrios…
In a dark chamber with several large cryotubes containing sleeping youths…
There is a teenage boy no older than 16, in a cryotube filled with liquid, sleeping…
Suddenly, one of his finger twitches…
And he slowly gains consciousness…
He slowly opens his eyes…
The door to the chambers opened, letting the bright light of the corridor in. Instead of flinching and closing his eyes in response to the bright light, his eyes which had never witnessed light before instantly adapts, allowing him to see a person slowly walking in.
He listens to the muffled footsteps clearly through the vibration of the fluid and he slowly observes this new found feeling of his senses as well as keeping his eyes trained on the person entering.
“Good evening Doctor Ava, specimen 1128 is awake.” A robotic voice resounded through the room.
“Awake? That shouldn’t be possible…” a female voice replied in turn.
Doctor Ava approaches the panel next to the boy’s cryotube and examines the settings.
“With the current dose of anaesthetic at level 4, there is no reason how can he still be awake, it’s enough to put a class E magus to sleep for good. Cyrus, it would seem we have a special one on our hands, keep an eye on him and increase his dosage should he show signs of waking. Now is too soon for him to wake.”
Magus are beings that can wield and bend the forces of magic to their will. They are proven to possess far superior will and mentality than that of normal beings. This allows them to be especially resilient to anaesthetic through sheer will alone.
“Affirmative doctor.” The A.I replies.
Cyrus the A.I increases the anaesthetic dose by a level.
The boy tries to fight against the drowsiness that begins seeping into him.
“Still able to fight it, quite an interesting one you are indeed.”
Cyrus increases the dosage by another level again, up to level 8 and the boy slowly drifts into a quiet sleep.
***
Several days after the event
Doctor Ava enters the cryotube chambers again.
“Cyrus, what’s the status of specimen 1128?”
“Doctor Ava, specimen 1128 showed signs of waking 12 times, I increased the dosage by one level each time as instructed. Current dosage levels are at level 16.”
“Level 16?! That’s enough to put a peak A class magus to sleep. Although he is a genetically enhanced being but still…”
‘Even among genetically enhanced superhumans, the total amount of A class magus in the entire galaxy is only a handful... For him to be on par with those monsters… I have high hopes for you, my little monster…’
**
Several years later
The boy opens his eyes once more. Finding himself once more awake in the cryotube.
This time the room lights were on, lighting up the completely white and pristine room. The liquid in the cryotubes drain and the cryotubes slowly open. Every child in the room starts to crawl out of their cryotube and fall flat on the floor in a coughing fit, trying to dispel the remaining liquid in their lungs and unfamiliar with their new senses and surroundings.
The boy falls to the ground on all fours and starts coughing out the remaining liquid out of his lungs.
“Please exit the room and proceed to the main hall.” A robotic voice said and the doors opened automatically.
The youths look around for the source of the voice except for the boy as it is a voice that he is familiar with so he proceeds to examine his surroundings and examined other boys and girls.
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“Please exit the room and proceed to the main hall,” Cyrus repeated.
He then stumbles out of the room and down the corridor leaving the rest of the confused teenagers behind.
He slowly gains his balance and walks uneasily into the corridor. He sees a door at the end of the corridor and walks towards it.
Upon reaching the door down the corridor, it opens automatically to reveal a large white hall. The boy enters it and quickly took notice of the glass window near the top. The ceiling of the hall is 10 stories high. His eyes could make out a silhouette standing behind the glass.
He then looks around him and notices that there seemed to be long tables arranged side by side to the left of the hall with several long wooden staffs on top of them. He walks over and grabs a staff, trying to get used to the feeling of it.
He could hear the rest of the youngsters entering the hall from the sound of their footsteps and it would seem that they too can walk properly. Some of them glanced at him and proceeded to grab the staff from the long tables wondering what to do with it. The others started wondering about the room. Throughout the entire time, not a single word was uttered.
CRACK! The sound of stick hitting stick resounded through the hall.
All eyes turned to see two boys with dark hair locking staffs staring each other down dead in the eye. Everyone turned on each other so quickly within a split second. Boys and girls alike started to attack the ones next to them and the entire hall turned into a roughhouse.
He continued to watch this violent scene until a staff appeared right in front of his face and his instincts kicked in, everything else seemed to slow down to slow motion. He casually swatted the staff aside with his then spun his body around, using the momentum to bring his staff crashing into the side of the blonde girl attacking him.
He picked up the sound of bones breaking as his staff came into contact with her ribcage and she grunted out with pain. The impact sent her flying into the air as she recovered mid-air and landed on top of the long table, squatting down and clutching onto her side. She glares at him seething with hatred and charges at him hoping to return the favour.
**
Meanwhile behind the glass window…
‘What on Tyrios is going on? Why are those idiots fighting each other?! The first thing that comes to their minds is to beat each other up with the weapons?! Not what I had in mind at first but oh well, let's just get this show on the road.’ Dr Ava thinks while rubbing her temples.
“Cyrus, open the concealed blast door."
***
Everybody in the hall stood stock still and stared to the far east end of the room. Some on top of each other grappling sticks, some wrestling with others, but regardless of what they were doing, everyone froze. Their instincts screaming at them that something was coming.
SOMETHING was coming from the far east end of the room.
What seemed to be an unsuspicious wall gradually slides upwards to reveal a dark passageway. He lowered himself into a bracing stance at the other end of the room slowly backing himself towards the wall, with one hand holding his staff behind him. The girl next to him follow suit. The situation in the room was tense, he unconsciously tightens his grip on the staff. It’s coming.
A gush of wind rushes through the door and a black blur flashed before their eyes. The boy with red hair that was closest to the open door dodges to the side with inhuman speed, moving purely on instinct while the other boy with red hair behind him was torn to shreds, his innards sent flying across the hall, dying it crimson.
They could see it now. A pitch black creature on two legs with fangs the size of a large kitchen knife, protruding out of its jaws. It had no eyes and had sharp talons instead of fingers, now dripping with blood and what seemed to be what’s left of the boy. When the smell of blood wafted into its nostrils, it released an ear-piercing shriek. Yet none of them was running or screaming in fear, they just observed the scene that played out in front of them calmly.
When the warm blood splattered onto their faces they started to leap into action. Some of them charged towards the monster with frightening speed unbefitting that of a human and swung their staffs towards it. Those that were unarmed retreated back to the west end of the room in the hopes of retrieving a staff.
The creature simply swatted them aside with blinding speed in response, only some were fast enough to react and attempted to redirect their course but was only able to mitigate some of the impact and were sent flying. Those that weren’t fast enough exploded into meat paste sending chunks of meat and blood everywhere.
The creature then disappears into a blur once more and some of the retreating youngsters exploded into blood and gore while another was missing a head, with blood spurting out of her neck like a fountain.
Despite the carnage unfolding before him, he closed his eyes knowing full well that they were undependable and brought the rest of his senses into focus. Then he could feel it, everything slowing down once more, the girl that was next to him rolling away to the side in slow motion and in his mind he could sense it clearly. It was right before him with its jaws wide open.
Moving at the very last millisecond with a speed too fast for even the creature to react, he lodged the end of his staff onto the corner of the wall behind him with the other end pointed towards the creature.
The creature impaled itself on the staff with its jaws open wide intending to devour the youth that stood before it. Before it could shriek out and struggle in pain, the boy broke his staff in half, grabbed hold of both ends, one to hold the creature in place and stabs the other into the creature’s skull which gave way with a crunch. Its blood came oozing out, covering the boy with its black juices.
This seemed to kill the creature as all its movements came to a halt and it’s arms hung limply at its sides. The boy simply threw its corpse aside nonchalantly.
Completely covered with the blood of the creature, the boy glances across the hall to see the walls and almost everyone else had been painted red with blood. Of the 30 of them that entered this hall, there were only 14 left standing. The rest of them stared at him with gazes filled with awe, respect, some with indifference and even some with envy. The girl next to him still seemed to have a bone to pick with him, still holding a gaze filled with anger albeit watered down after recovering from current events.
A few moments passed and another hidden door opened. This time it revealed a slim brunette with a ponytail in a white lab coat slowly walking into the hall while clapping her hands in a slow and pompous manner.
“Good evening children, I am Dr Ava. Welcome, quite a splendid show that was. Fascinating isn’t it? What genetically enhanced beings like yourselves can do relying on your raw instincts alone. Congratulations, on passing the first test.”