No Hope

The group stood obviously tired out from their fight while the three deadly hounds lay dead before them - each had their head split to ever prevent them from coming back to life - and a very unlucky beast who happened to get involved in the fray getting killed in the process.

"Do we need to keep going forward?" Kay complained. Her voice depicted she was out of breath.

"You know the Academy, don't you?" David replied. He was like the boss here which went pretty well with everyone. Well... except for the system.

"They'll look for an excuse to exempt you from the teaching institution and probably just make you a scout."

******"

Scouts were those who weren't part of the teaching institution or any other. Instead, they were a group of guys for some other purposes. Scouts had ranks which include;

Grade 5 - Low keyed guys with limited access to the Academy and served mostly as servants or other duties.

Grade 4 - They are mostly guards also with limited access to the Academy, but well taken care of.

Grade 3 - These include guardians or scout guides of the Academy, mainly for expeditions

Grade 2 - These are warriors for preventing an encroachment or a sudden attack on the Academy. The are really tough.

Grade 1 - These are hunting machines. One of the problem of the Academy was food. The grade 1 scouts are well capable of bringing in a large amount of food from the outside world into the Academy. Put it literally, they can survive out there.

****

"One of the excuses would be "You didn't push yourself or test your limits or probably, you didn't strive to do more" Pete chipped in in a rather mimicking way of the teachers.

"In that case, let's keep going" Jim stated tired of keeping silent.

The group headed forward in the same formation as before, heading into an area covered by trees, huge trees. Jim was more cautious as there's could be an attack from anywhere. He decided to view his stats since the generous rewards he was given from the previous encounter.

STATS

Agility: 25 (+1)

Strength: 16 (+1)

Energy: 20

Speed: 17 (+1)

Thought: 4

Fear: 6

Rage: 7

Other skills: Rage

Well, Jim could classify himself as average for now.

"Don't let your head get too big boy. You are still far from being termed strong I'm this world, though you have the potential. Just focus on getting more stronger. The system stated

"I guess I'll just stick with what you say. I don't even know what I want to do with my life..." Jim was interrupted immediately as he was picked up from the ground by a strong wave of energy.

"JIM"

"JIM"

Jim stabilized himself while landing on the ground coming down safely.

'Sigh'

He looked up and was shocked to see everyone else on the ground attempting to get up except for Davis who was covered in a golden yellow bubble which prevented impact.

"What the hell hit us just now?" Davis inquired.

"Holy hell" Jake exclaimed as he pointed towards a tree.

Standing on the tree was a towering figure, the figure of a human with a magma like liquid cruising through his entire body. Even the large tree trunk was beginning to break down. Sweat broke out from Jim's face as his legs began to wobble. Infact everyone else began to get weak. It was a humanoid monster, a fire type. A Dracoid.

"There's no hope against this thing, no hope at all" Jim cried out remembering his fight while his fight against the Autonomous beast.

The chest of the Dracoid began to glow red until....

SPLOOSH

A liquid like fire spurted out of the mouth of the beast consuming the entire forest.