.....EIGHTY EIGHT

It was getting late and it was almost time for their curfew, so Graham and Void decided it would be best to head back to the dorm rooms.

When they arrived, they noticed that the lights were out and Peter was already in the room fast asleep.

"Does he look okay?" Graham asked, as he noticed Void was looking around to see if he could see any markings on his face or body.

"Yeah he seems fine, but even if he was getting bullied, he could have gone to the doctor's office before coming here," Void replied.

"Well, I still think we should keep an eye on him, there's no way higher levels would just become friends with a lower level for no reason," Graham said.

Void cleared his throat loudly and started to look at himself.

"Of course, there are some exceptions," Graham said smiling.

With the other two now fast asleep, Graham was still awake messing around with his system. He was busy watching the tutorial videos of the Hammer strike. He didn't have enough points in agility to learn the flash step but with the gauntlets, he did have enough for the hammer strike.

The video contained the blonde man demonstrating what to do step by step. It was incredibly detailed, showing everything in slow motion to the point where it also described the feeling the user should have, every step of the way.

Graham repeatedly watched the video, as he wanted to learn and test it out in the game tomorrow. After finally remembering all the steps and believing he had a confident grasp on the skill. He shut his eyes and went to sleep.

The next day Graham had woken up earlier than the other two. He immediately wanted to go to the game to create his character and test out the skill he had been learning all night. Just in case the others wondered were Graham was he left a note before leaving.

When he finally arrived, the VR room was emptier than it was yesterday, most likely because it was early in the morning and not a lot of students had woken up yet.

Graham then went on to do the same as Void had done yesterday, he went up to the pretty lady who stood behind the counter and asked to rent a capsule, only this time for two hours.

There wasn't much use for his credits other than buying late-night snacks and at the moment, not even that satisfied him.

Ever since he had his first taste of blood, food was starting to taste bland. He still got hungry like everyone else but the taste of ice cream and sweets just didn't have the same rush effect it once had. To get that feeling again he could only get it from blood.

But Graham made sure to only consume blood when he needed to or to get himself stronger. He was afraid that he might become addicted to the feeling and if he did it would only cause more problems for him.

Before entering his capsule, Graham looked around the room and noticed some students carrying their beast weapons with them. Not all student used one like Void. But after watching the games Void had played yesterday, he did see a few of his opponents have one.

Which meant most likely that the students bringing their weapons with them, meant that the game was also able to recognize the power of beast weapons.

Just on the side of the capsule, there was a large rectangular box and underneath were the words written, beasts weapons. So it looked like Graham was right after all. After taking off his gauntlets and placing it into the box the capsule started to scan the weapons.

[Scan complete]

[ The beast weapon may now be used with the capsule ]

He then decided to hop in and log into the game. Only this time instead of logging in as a guest, he decided to register an account.

But just before he could get in he received a notification identifying a message from Peter.

Peter had messaged for Void and Graham to come to the training room on the east side. This room was usually off-limits to student since it was also used as a room to store portals.

But after reading the contents of the message, both Graham and Void had rushed offer.

The message simply said that Peter needed their help.

While heading over to the room, Void and Graham had bumped into each other.

"Did you get Peter's message?" Graham asked.

"Yeah that's why I'm here, I knew those friends of his were bad news." Void said, "Graham you stay behind, I can deal with this myself."

"No way, he's my friend too, I'm going to kick those guys asses if it's the last thing I do."

Void could see he was unable to convince Graham so the two of them continued together and had finally arrived inside the training center.

The room was large and there were several large metallic objects with an oval shape in the middle. Each one of them had a glowing circle in the middle shinning with a different color. These where the portals that took them to another world.

There were nine machines out in total, three of each color and for a moment, it felt like they were unable to take their eyes off the things.

When they had entered the room, they could see that Peter was lying on the ground, he looked badly hurt. He laid on the ground just in front of one of the teleporters and it looked like he couldn't move.

Graham and Void looked around the room, but were unable to notice anyone. They both then rushed over to his side. He had bruise marks all over him and he scuffed up pretty bad with scratches all over.

"What happened to you, was it those first-year students!" Void shouted.

"Yeah they got me pretty bad, they went out just a moment ago, I don't think they're going to come back."

"Alright let us pick you up," Void said as he lifted Peter's hand over his shoulder.

As the two of them picked up Peter, Graham had a strange feeling, as he looked at Peter closer, he noticed that even though his clothes were badly torn, he didn't look to be in such bad a shape that he shouldn't have been able to walk. Even the bruises didn't look normal almost as if they were drawn on.

[Inspect]

Peter Chuck

HP 8/8

"Void let go of him, it's a trap!" Graham shouted.

But before Void could even realize what was happening. Peter had broken free and immediately pushed Graham as hard as he could. The push wasn't strong and it didn't hurt Graham but it didn't need to be, because that wasn't Peter's aim.

That one little push had managed to push Graham just far enough back to the point where he had entered a RED portal.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" Void shouted.

When Graham shouted and had somehow found out Peter was in on the plan, he panicked, he didn't know what to do and had pushed Graham into the RED portal.

His hands were now shaking as the realization had hit him.

"What the hell have you done!" Void shouted again.

"I'm sorry." Peter said, "You don't understand I had to do it!"

"Yeah let me guess, because you were being bullied? Because you were being threatened?!" Void shouted as he continued to walk towards Peter and at the same time Peter would walk back.

"Do you not think Graham has been going through the same thing as you! He's a level one just like you. And do you think they didn't try threatening me? When I was tied up and placed on that thing. So what if they hit you, they punch you and make you bleed, you can fight back, as long as you are alive you can always fight back!

Void then pointed towards the red portal.

"But what you have done, you have basically sent Graham to death. No matter what there is no coming back from death. He can't fight back now. Did you even try to fight back?"

Peter then fell to his knees as his mind was in a mess. Did Void and Graham truly know what it was like to live his life? All peter wanted was a normal school life, to go through it without any troubles.

And someone was offering that to him, maybe he took the easy way out but he didn't feel that way. He had already gone through his own suffering, before entering the academy and even worse now that he was in the academy. Why did he have to be the one targeted by Earl and the others?

But there was one thing that Void said that did strike a chord with Peter. Did he ever try fighting back? He always thought it was useless, the outcome had already been decided so why get hurt even more.

Perhaps that's what made Earl and the others think he was an easy target in the first place.

Then suddenly, Void started grabbing his head. He started moving all over the place swinging his head like crazy.

"I can't hold him back any more Void!"

"You have to try, if he takes over who knows when I'll get control again."

"The shock is too much for him, looking at Peter is only making his emotions stronger."

As Void looked up, Peter could see his eyes filled with tears, sadness.

Then Void looked towards the portal.

"No what are you thinking!" Peter shouted

Void then turned around and looked at Peter.

"Peter this is for your own sake, but you better hope I don't come back out here alive!"

Void then ran straight into the Red portal, his body vanishing from the room.

When teleportation devices were first discovered there was hope that they would be able to set these to travel to wherever they wanted to. At last, the idea of colonizing planets such as mars was a dream come true.

Spacecraft had been invented but were unable to travel at light speeds needed to make it viable. However, they were able to create large portals that allowed ships to travel through.

But the dream was short lived. The Portals were only able to pinpoint planets at a set location, a place that was not known to their universe, perhaps a whole different dimension together.

No one knew the truth and scientist could only theorize where exactly these portals led to, but what they did find was each of these planets harbored deadly beasts. Beasts that had never been seen before.

Then when the first beast was killed and harvested for research, the beast crystal located inside it was discovered. Inside the crystal contained a power far greater than anyone could imagine.

Although many would say the success of defending against the Dalki was due to the discovery of the originals. This wasn't exactly true, their abilities only took them so far in the war. There weren't many with powerful abilities strong enough to go against the Dalki.

Their technology was too advanced compared to humans, nuclear weapons would be teleported out somewhere before they even hit the ships and bullets did no harm to Dalki skin.

But then a new discovery was made with the beast crystal thanks to Richard Eno once again and that was the discovery of beast weapons. Human combining their abilities with powerful beast weapons was the true turning point in the war, but not many people remember this fact as they were too fascinated with the discovery of abilities that happened nearly at the same time.

As Void jumped into the red portal he felt a tingling sensation all over his body. The world around him started to warp and displace and his mind felt like it was melting.

It wasn't a horrible feeling, in fact, the feeling received when travelling through the teleportation device even felt addicting to some.

A few moments later and Void had arrived at his destination. He opened his eyes and the first thing he noticed was the place was incredibly dark.

The sky was black and the only light source available was from the two moons out in the distant sky. Around him were crumbled down buildings and structures, as if at one point the place was used to live in.

Void still had his hands held by his head but when he opened his eyes the pain started to go away and his mind started to clear up.

"It seems like the little one has finally calmed down," Void said. "Any longer and he might have come out and done something."

"What does that matter" Brayton argued, "Do you even know where we are, you jumped through that Red portal!"

Void then started to look at his surroundings, it was strange to see building structures around them. Buildings were the sign of human or an advanced civilization and so far when discovering other planets there had been no signs of this.

When there was building work, it would usually be Dalki structure but this was clearly not Dalki based.

"Aren't the red portals meant to be unsheltered planets? This place looks like a broken shelter."

"I think you are forgetting something." Brayton said. "While orange may mean it's in the process of being taken over and sheltered being places, Red can also mean it's too dangerous to build a shelter in the first place. You have basically given us a death sentence."

"What do you mean?" Void asked.

"Are you really being so stupid, sure you might have run through that portal so you didn't kill your friend but what's the point if we die instead. The only ability we have right now is that weak level one earth ability. If we run into a deadly beast we're doomed."

That wasn't the only problem, the place wasn't exactly thriving with people. Not many people had access to teleporters in the first place. Only green teleporters the public were able to use, and they were strictly monitored by the company that owned them.

Meaning the only people that would be around here would be travelers. With no people around and only beast, Void was stuck with his one ability and it would only last him 24 hours.

Then a thought came to Void's mind. Graham . The portal was unable to send you to a pinpoint location but it did put you in the same general area, at least within ten miles of each other. Still, ten miles was a great distance to cover and with the chance of beast being around every corner, it would be hard to find Graham.

For now, Void would look for a Portal back to the academy while also searching for Graham.

*****

Somewhere on the same planet, Graham had also arrived. His heart was beating rapidly as it was the first time he had experienced such a thing.

"Peter, what the hell was that!" Graham thought, "Damn it, he must have pushed me through the portal, Where am I?"

As Graham looked around, he could see the similar buildings around him all crumbled torn and fallen down. The place looked like a city had once existed but had been left behind for years. However, there was one saving grace about the whole thing, on the planet it was currently night time.

Meaning Graham didn't feel weak and had a better chance of surviving. However, before Graham had even moved from the spot he was in, he spotted something from the corner of his eye.

He was standing in the middle of a street surrounded by crumbled buildings on both sides. But whatever was moving around was quick and was using the buildings as cover.

Graham tried to follow whatever it was with his eyes but it would constantly move around until it had eventually stopped just underneath a pile of rubble from one of the buildings.

"In the movies, this is where the person would go check it out." Graham thought, but there was no way he was going to do that. He was on an unknown planet and all alone and whatever it was, it was clear it didn't want him to see it.

Graham started to back away making sure to keep an eye on where he last saw the figure, then when he was a safe enough distance away, he finally turned around.

In that instant, a sound could be heard from behind, Graham immediately turned around and could see a horrible figure running towards him, it clearly wasn't an ordinary animal and something he had only ever seen in books and TV, it was a beast.