Chapter No.12: Infrared waves, Level 2 Dreadbeast

Simon continued deep into the city arriving before an abandoned shop after hearing noise from inside. Peeking through a shattered window, he saw five kittens haft a meter in size playing inside with human head remains.

The kittens had fluffy white-fur, they would have been cute to see and girls would surely love them but what he saw which gave him chills.

Like cute kittens from hell.

Nonetheless, Simon recognised these Fluffy kittens known as Silver Cats, which looked adorable when they are young but become blood-thirsty speedrunning demons that killed human in a snap once fully grown.

Simon readied himself as he created five flaming arrows a meter long locked on to them.

A meow entered his ear while Simon was going release arrow.

He looked sideways to see a speeding claw to his face which nearly connected to his face if not for Simon's peak human speed dodging at the last moment.

"Damn it!"

Simon became extremely caution about his surrounding and he glared at the attacking Silver Cat.

It was a meter tall and two meter long with silver fur as well as a pair of blue eyes; that was a true Silver Cat.

The Silver Cat was level 1 Dreadbeast. known for its fast movements, paired with its incredibly sharp claw, it combats strength was a level higher than that of Glutton Rats.

"Let's go!"

Simon attacked with the flaming arrows aiming at its weak spots.

But Silver Cat dodged his arrow easily and struck its claws at Simon's throat.

Its claws were so terrifyingly sharp that they could easily slit his throat open.

"GO TO HELL!"

Simon screamed, creating wall of flames. Blocking its path.

The Silver cat leaped sideways of the flaming wall easily going pass it. Then it pounced on Simon, who greeted it with a Flaming Spear to its face.

True to its reputation as a Speed-type Dreadbeast, the silver cat dodged the Flaming spear, but little did it expect that the Flaming Spear would explode on its face.

The explosion causes the silver cat to be throw away hitting a concrete wall.

Followed by the explosion Simon created Flaming Arrows and shot it embedding the Silver Cat to the wall.

Seizing the opportunity, Simon created a Flaming Spear thrusting it into the silver cat's belly.

Killing it on the spot.

Simon breathed a sigh of relief. Speed-type Dreadbeasts were nasty to handle because of their speed. Lucky for him, his training paid off.

He cut out the Silver Cat's heart, then shot a glance at those silver kittens inside the shop and with a snap.

Boom!

The shop was engulfed in Flaming, followed by an explosion which cause the shop collapse on itself, swallowing those kittens with it.

Simon did not try to take the heart because they were too young, these kittens were not even level 1 Dreadbeasts and their heart were of no value to him. But they had to die because they were Dreadbeasts.

"Help! Help!"

Simon moved on, but before he could make it far, he heard a distressed voice calling for help. Following the voice, he ran over and witness something terrifying.

A Big Green python as tall as two stories building was wrapping itself around a teenager.

The teenager was trying to fight back frantically and calling out for help. However, the python was too strong for him and his struggle was futile.

As the Python squeezed tighter, the teenager's voice became weaker, and the bones inside his body cracked.

"Help- help me!"

The teenager spotted Simon. Knowing that Simon was his last hope, he screamed at the top of his lungs.

Simon looked at kid and knew that he could not let the kid die. In the test they could steal and harvest later, but watching the other die without lending a helping hand was a no-no. even outside the competition Simon belief don't allow him stand down when someone's life was in danger.

"Damn Python, look here!"

Simon raised his hand, and Flaming spear formed as he shot at the open mouth of the python.

The pain caused by the Flaming Spear made the Python loosen its grip seeing this as chance the teenager used his ability.

Strong wave of heat pulsated for his body, momentarily stunning the python.

Seeing this Simon dushed in with a Flaming sword cutting the head of python clean off.

As the teenager escaped.

"Thank you so much for Saving me!"

The teenager looked at the Python' head that was cut off.

"I would have died if it weren't for you!'

"You're Welcome, just be careful next time!" Simon reminded the teenager, patting him on the shoulder.

Suddenly, his view was filled with text making him freeze on the spot.

Name: Adam Nolan

Race: Human

Special Ability: Infrared waves (Awakened, replicable)

"Infrared waves? This man's special ability is Infrared waves! Amazing, this is a terrific special ability! Not to mention, this ability complements with my Fire manipulation skill well!"

Simon could not have been more excited.

Abilities that he copied till now was Fire manipulation, Aerial and Reinforce Muscles over the Six months' time.

But other than Fire manipulation, he could not use Aerial nor Reinforce Muscles in the open like he does with his first ability. Worried that others might find out and associate them with his special ability of copying.

However, it was a different story with Infrared wave's ability. He was not afraid of being found out because it belonged to Fire-elements Astral Lords.

In fact, this skill was naturally acquired by Fire-elements Astral Lords when they become Star-5 Astral Lords.

"I am of the Fire-elements skill user. So, me demonstrating Infrared waves skill, will not rise any suspicious to my ability to copy ability, but they would think that it's a natural ability that come with his Fire-element skill"

With that thought in mind, Simon quietly replicated Adam's Infrared waves skill, after some talking with each other, Simon left.

Simon found a relatively inconspicuous and safe place in abandon build inside the city to install this new skill.

After 10 minutes of excruciating pain, Simon was back on the street resuming his hunt for the Dreadbeasts as if nothing had happened before.

There were many Dreadbeasts hiding around the place but most of them were level 1 Dreadbeasts.

With Simon's current strength, those level-1 Dreadbeasts were child's play. As he killed a dozen of Dreadbeasts along the way.

"National Zoo"

Simon ended up in front of a Zoo. Hearing a heated fight, he followed the sound and arrived to see a group of people attacking a Giant Gorilla that was using a Giant tree as baseball bat.

This ten-meter-long giant gorilla looked like a mini-King Kong.

Furry and wild beast covered in black fur that made its body tough and hard to injure.

"it's a Stuck-Tree Gorilla, a Level-2 Dreadbeast"

As this Dreadbeast was always spotted using giant tree whenever any Astral Lords confront it.

Simon immediately recognized the gorilla. "This people have some guts of steel! Aren't they afraid of that Giant Tree which can kill them with a swing of it"

the mere thought of challenging Level-2 Dreadbeast without even having the strength of Star-1 Astral Lord was baffling in itself.

As Simon was pondering about it, he saw a Flaming Arrow hitting this giant gorilla's head, a technique he was awfully familiar with as there exists only two people attending this test who was able to do this, one being himself and other being Ivan Tarnell who he trained.

Why, he and Ivan are the only people who can use this technique is because this trick need high level of concentration and control over his or her skills, the outcome was massive increase in damage of his attacks.

And seeing Ivan Tarnell among them startled him

"Why is Ivan mingling with these people?" Simon furrowed his brows.

Ivan aside, there was many other teenagers and some guys who looked older. One was a middle-aged man. If he was not mistaken, these people were either an Astral Lord who had awakened independently or the rejected from the previous years.

And why was Ivan with them?

"Come on, Guys! This beast is getting weaker now!" said young man dressed in a sport suit shouted as he readied his attack.

He was Earth-Element Astral Lords. His Earth-Type abilities looked impressive with an Earth spear, Earth Ball and Earth bullets at his fingertips. Plus, his range of attack was over five meters.

Apparently, he was Star-2 Astral Lord.