My heart pounds, feeling like it will burst through my chest. The creeping noises are now accompanied by heavy breathing, drawing closer. I turn to my side and see Hunter hastily tending to his broken arm, his face tense, aware of the threat behind us.
The breathing intensifies. Hunter's arm snaps back into place with a painful grunt. His eyes widen behind me, and I slowly turn. I can feel its fetid breath wash over me. Hunter snatches the orb from the floor and takes off, and I follow without a second thought.
We run for our lives, my energy completely drained. Hunter's face shows no intention of fighting either. I trip on a tree root, my heart skipping too many beats to count. Hunter turns back and finally sees what has been chasing us. In that still moment amidst the chaos, a drop of water drips onto my head.
The silence shatters as Hunter punches something, and a large wave of electricity erupts. I look up to see a horned beast with glowing blue eyes. Its sharp teeth and claws intimidate me, freezing me in place. Skeletal-like armor encases its body, holding water within.
It shrieks as Hunter's fists discharge electrical waves. Its mouth splits into two separate pieces, and a buildup of shards fills the air. Hunter yanks me to my feet, and I immediately scramble up. Two spikes of water form, collecting all the loose shards. I sigh in relief. "It's just water, you don't have to worry." I turn and leap toward the Monster, but Hunter pulls me back, pointing a shaky finger at the forming spikes.
"Look...at...that!" The water spikes harden, reinforced with the collected shards. It's too late to turn back now; the spikes have finished forming, and one is hurtling directly towards me.
I remember the scroll One gave me, but my mind goes blank. I've forgotten how to form the gauntlets, and no amount of adrenaline can help me recall. I can't even access the Fifth Technique; my shards haven't recovered. That leaves me with one option: RUN. The shard-reinforced spike is now an arm's length from my face, and I can't think of anything I can possibly do. My brain freezes, the world slows down, slow enough for me to capture every detail of One moving at impeccable speed to kick the spike out of my path.
"That's enough!" he shouts, his eyes glowing with a godlike light that washes the fear right out of me.
"Took you long enough," I say, trying to sound like I wasn't terrified.
"I wasn't planning on saving you," One replies, his voice level, "but I wasn't planning on letting you die either." He hardens his fists, and his gauntlets form again: white iron gloves with golden edges, manifested from his shards.
One's face is angered, and he doesn't even take a fighting stance as he stares down the monster. His voice becomes firm and sincere. "Zero, you've done enough. You managed to learn a True Technique without a master or prior experience with a scroll. This marks you as a B-class operative from hereon. Hunter, your physical prowess has evolved; being able to move with an arm broken that badly also marks you as a B-class."
Hunter and I fist-bump, a smirk playing on both our lips, our long-standing rivalry growing stronger. Hunter looks back at One and asks, "What was the threat you were referring to earlier at the mission center?"
One hands Hunter a paper depicting a humanoid being. It wears a robotic mask that doesn't conceal something human; its eyes are red, devoid of pupils. It has a smirk, a smirk with deadly intent, as if it has killed countless others, creating a chilling silence around its image.
The monster throws its second spike at One, shattering the still moment. One grabs it and hurls it back, creating a gaping hole through the monster's chest, yet it heals faster than when hit by a True Technique.
"B-class is the threshold to destroying mountains. You'll notice the jump in power soon, but not now," One says clearly. He leaps at the monster and, in One's ordinary fashion, obliterates it into pieces, sealing it just as quickly.
"One's incredibly strong; he took on that monster with ease, although we barely made it out alive," Hunter says, shaking his head.
"I want to become stronger than him," I glance at Hunter and smirk, "Right after beating you first." We both share a heartfelt chuckle.
One approaches us, holding the water monster's orb. He crushes it in his hand. My eyes snap open, fully expecting the monster to reappear, but it's just shards that One absorbs, making the monster's entire presence vanish. One smirks at us, giving a rare, friendly glance. "Just to add to what I said earlier about orbs, they transform whatever monster was inside into pure shards, ready for consumption. This is how you will get stronger." My mouth hangs open, and Hunter's too.
The trauma of nearly being killed by the monster keeps our guards up. I sigh once more and take out the Fifth Technique scroll One handed me earlier. The writing isn't readable anymore; it looks like gibberish…