Chapter Four

I was walking through the thicket. It was getting dark, and sooner or later, I'd have to find somewhere to retire for the night. As I kept walking, a noise reached my ears. Immediately, I turned around. I had my guards up, not willing to take any chances at all. I train my ears trying to find the source of the sound, but the place was eerily quiet. I began to wonder if it was my imagination or not.

Just then, I heard a ruffle in the bushes. At once, a hawk sprang out of the thicket. It flew over me, and landed, facing me squarely. I could tell it was up to no good.

After observing it, I realized it was probably a peak dimension two blood beast. It stared at me for a while, then unexpectedly and without warning, it breathed out hot flames from it's mouth. Or bill.

I was stunned by the unexpected attack. Didn't expect a hawk to spew fire.

"Hold it right there, baby dragon", I said.

I dodged that attack narrowly and rested, trying to catch my breath. Since it was peak dimension two and I was dimension three, it could give me some problems. And it was hell-bent on giving me trouble. It continued to spew globs of fire at me. I neatly dodged all of it and with some ease.

The reason why the initial attack almost got me is due to the surprise factor. But now that it was out of the way, I could safely face the hawk. It seemed like it was getting frustrated at how futile it's attacks were. It suddenly disappeared from it's position, and it reappeared in the skies. It opened its wings in the sky, and soared like the king of the wind. It then started to come at me steadily, and full of murderous intent.

"Sorry, but there's only one king of the wind", I said, " And that's me!"

Immediately, I clenched my fists together, and the wind around the hawk trapped it. Since it was in high altitude, the wind around the hawk was thick, and I manipulated it into a chain which then squeezed it to death. It experienced a slow and torturous death, which I considered fitting since it wasted my time. It fell on the ground with a loud thud, completely lifeless.

I inspected it and realized there was no orb around or inside it. I was quite disappointed because I wanted to leave as soon as possible. Leonardo is strong. He defeated a dimension four blood beast like it was nothing. This meant that he was either mid or peak dimension four. I was quite sceptical though, because our principal was also dimension four, yet to attain dimension five. In spite of this, Leonardo was saying the forest would become dangerous. If that were the case, it means it would be terrible.

Then there's his personality. He's arrogant and cocky, even though he has strength to back it up. But nonetheless, under normal circumstances, he shouldn't give a damn about us. The fact that he did only meant one thing- the matter at hand was serious.

I also considered why we were endangered. That's not what we were told. That's not what we agreed on. This was supposed to be a training-- A training to help us improve significantly, and we were given assurance of being protected by the teachers should things go wrong. Yet me, Jack, Grealish and about eight other nobles almost lost our lives from being attacked by a blood beast. There're probably others elsewhere facing the same fate as we did.

And where the heck were the teachers? Or more like, where the heck are they? I was confused. I didn't understand what was going on, but my intuition told me it was nothing but trouble. I had this premonition, an inner feeling that something was wrong. I didn't want to stay behind to find out. So imagine my disappointment when I didn't get any orbs. Since I needed twenty orbs to get out of here, I realized I had to defeat twenty dimension four beasts or above to get an orb. That was nearly impossible.

But I didn't have a choice. That was far better than waiting here while this place turned into a den of danger. I walked away disappointedly.

The sky was turning dark, and the moon was pulling out, lighting up the dim forest. I decided to call it a day since I was really exhausted and needed some rest. I made no orbs unfortunately.

Meanwhile, in a laboratory somewhere in the world...

The scientists were donned in white lab coats which is associated with them, they had nose masks on, and appeared to be very serious. Each of them seemed hasty as they went around taking care of their responsibility.

The science laboratory was a top secret base where a certain scientist carried out his experiments. Those were the experiments which he hid from the rest of the world. In the middle of the room, this same scientist stood with an ecstatic expression on his face, while urging his underlings to boost their rate of work. Since this was a very big project, he had heightened the security around the lab.

Also, information was not leaked in the slightest. It was kept secret from the whole world and the boss scientist was quite proud of himself. His grey hairs glistened a little in the room, with his round eyes exuding pure unadulterated excitement. Even his lips had curled into a stupid grin.

This project was his biggest project. He had poured life and soul into it, and this was the time for him to make it big.

"Soon and very soon", he clasped his hands and rubbed them in an excited frenzy.

Even the orderly scientists seemed happy since they were also going to reap supernormal profits from the experiment.

"Sir, please the preparations are almost complete", one orderly said to the boss.

"Okay, keep up the good work", said the boss scientist.

He smiled.

'Just a little more to go', he thought.

In a gigantic glass cylinder-like container, a reaction could be witnessed. Things moving, grinding, adding, colours emerging and changing, and so on. Finally, it all stopped. And everybody in the room held their breaths. This was an experiment they dedicated their lives to. Their whole lives were poured into this project. And they were about to reap the benefits. They were about to gain obvious results. The excitement was electric and those present couldn't contain their exhilaration.

The boss scientist silenced them after the jubilation. He was the happiest, but he needed to make sure that he wasn't counting unhatched eggs. He stared through the glass container and what he saw marvelled him. He stood there, like an idiot, unable to speak. His underlings were left in suspense. And the suspense was painful.

Suddenly, the boss scientist let out a loud jubilant shout.....

"YEEESSSSS!!!!", he shouted, while punching his fist into the air like some enthusiastic kid. The orderlies began a second phase of the celebration, this time wilder. They hugged with tears in their eyes, patted each other, and stuff like that. It had been long, but at least, this could complement their hard work.

Inside the glass container, were rows and rows of pills, about a hundred pills in total. And one of those pills was so goddamn rare and expensive. It's price could even cause a cardiac arrest.

Now, they had hundreds of those. They could use the pills on themselves for improvement, but they wanted to sell it. They'd sell it to very large conglomerates and use the money to expand their influence. As long as they had the knowledge of creating it, there would be no problems for them.

How glad they were that after all those fails, they got what they wanted. The boss scientist was in so good a mood that he doubted there was anything that could annoy him. But there was.

"Interesting piece of invention you got there", said a voice. At once, the excitement disappeared, and everyone turned in the direction of the voice. In the left corner of the room, an unknown man stood. He had jet black hair and wore casual attire- a T-shirt and jeans. From his appearance alone, it was obvious he was not among them, meaning he was not needed there.

At once, from all sides, guns were pointed at the stranger.

"Well, well, well, is that how you invite a guest?", the stranger said casually, not caring a bit about the guns pointed at him.

"FIREEE!!!!", screamed the boss scientist. Immediately, the orderlies began to shoot the stranger from all angles.