the final bout (1)

Team C was still running towards the rendezvous point, not knowing that all of the other teams had diverted from that original point. When they were at the head, they suddenly stopped and turned. As they did, four students' heads were on the ground. This shocked the leader named Kelvin.

"What… what happened? I just sensed something was near, but it attacked so fast," Kelvin thought as he looked at the students' heads that were on the ground. He then turned to the red-eyed wolf.

The wolf said no words as its claws sharpened again and it rushed, killing more of the students. All of them were yelling for help from their teachers, but the teachers themselves weren't even fast enough to know what was going on.

"Now that I've killed 50 students, this will convince you to talk," the wolf said.

"What? You can talk?" Kelvin said.

"Woah, yes, I can talk. Now that you know that fact, that'll not help you with your life. You can now answer my question," the wolf said sarcastically, then his red eyes pierced Kelvin's soul. "Where is the teleporter? Now, I want you to know something before you answer. Everyone who has denied me is dead. Now that I know that green-haired boy came across y'all, he must've said something about me. So ask him—if you ever live. I will not hesitate to kill you if you do not give me the answer that I'm looking for," the red-eyed wolf said, annoyed. He was tired of everyone not telling him what he wanted to know.

"Yes, yes, I'll tell you where the teleporters are," Kelvin said immediately.

Some of the students thought Kelvin did this to save their lives, but in actuality, he did this to save his own.

"No, you won't tell me—you'll show me. Now lead the way."

Kelvin then turned in the direction opposite of where they were originally going, and started walking towards the teleporter.

⸻

Back with the last team left, that being Team B…

Ashley was bombarded by lightning. She was able to dodge all of them, but the huge bull made out of ink ran into her. Ashley then grabbed it with her bare hands and smashed it, making all the ink fall and splatter on the floor. When she was about to rush toward them, she felt like she was being held back—but it wasn't Riven. He was too busy trying to land a blow on Milo. It was none other than Mr. Sable.

Ashley looked stressed and she looked like she was going to change her target to Mr. Sable, but before she could, a wave of sound came her way. All Ashley could do was put up her guard as the wave came over her. Ashley was able to endure it. She then did something no one expected—she took in a deep breath of air and let out a loud howl, making everyone on the makeshift battlefield cover their ears, even the wolves themselves. But this howl did more then just stun Wren, Jordan, and Skye, who was the one that had let out the sound wave in the first place. When the three were hit with the howl, they all flew back. Jordan and Wren recovered quickly, but it wasn't the same for Skye—she hit the tree and fainted. She was out of the fight.

Riven and Leo kept trying to hit Milo with one blow. The special trait of the armor they were wearing was that after one physical hit, that hit would do four times its original damage—but the bad thing was neither Leo nor Riven could land such an attack. Milo just kept dodging. After the howl that Ashley made, Riven saw his brother and Wren and thought of something—but he couldn't leave Leo on his own.

"What are you all doing?!" Mr. Sable yelled. "We shouldn't make students do our job for us!"

The other 39 teachers agreed and all started to rush in. This gave Riven and the others time.

"Everyone, back away," Riven said using the telepathic ability. "That includes you, Harkel—get over here."

Harkel was breathing a bit harder than normal, but when he heard the message from Riven, he did as he was told and fell back fast.

"Aww, what happened? When did all that 'I'm gonna be the one that kills you' energy go?" Xander mocked as he tried to chase Harkel but couldn't. Harkel was too fast for him.

But what he did see was his two ally's facing against the teachers.

"Damn, if Kael was here, he would've been able to easily handle these people without killing them. Speaking of which, where is he?" Xander thought, then started to sniff around to try and get Kael's scent. He was able to sniff him—and the fact that he was next to a group of humans.

"Was he able to convince one of the other groups to lead them to a teleporter? Then there's no point in keeping these people alive."

Xander then ran up and killed 12 teachers in an instant.

"What are you doing? We need these guys alive," Ashley said.

"No, we don't. Use your nose to smell for Kael."

They both did, and they smelled the same thing Xander smelled.

"Now all we got to do is make sure there are no witnesses," Xander said, with what looked like a smile on his face.

⸻

"So why did you want us here? I was just about to give Xander the work," Harkel said.

"Dude, we can all see your energy bar. Can you get out of that mode and try to recover?" Leo told him.

Harkel realized he couldn't put on a brave face with the system. He then closed his eyes, and the light blue aura dissipated in his hair, falling back to its normal state.

"How's he coming along?" Harkel asked, looking at the boy who was healing Joey.

"Pretty good… I'm sorry, I can't heal all that well," the boy said.

"Hey Riven, we should give him a level 4 wand like how you did with Kira," Nico said, gathered with the group.

Riven realized what Nico said—this meant she must've known he was the person under the hood. Which made sense, since he was able to make all these potions and make armor out of thin air.

Riven gave the boy a level 4 wand—the same one he gave Kira. And just like when he gave Kira one, it gave his ability a 4x boost for ten minutes. The boy started using it on Joey, but his healing was still slow. This showed them it was a big difference between a non-awakened person healing and an awakened person healing.

"So what now, huh? The teachers seem to be distracting them, but how long will that take? He was able to defeat 20 teachers on his own from me and Joey's group, and sure, there are 40 of them—but now there are three of them working together," Harkel questioned.

Riven then pulled the group over, away from Joey and the student. Then his system prompt popped up. He saw the quests and levels. Everyone noticed that Riven was now level 16—this was because of the quest he did prior during the beast horde.

He then claimed that quest that required him to get all his party members back, and the reward itself was a system reward:

⸻

[System: You have proven that you and your party are capable of going apart without one of you dying.]

[Rewards: 10 levels have been granted to all party members.]

⸻

Updated Stats:

Riven (Level 26)

• strength 27 → 37

• speed 27 → 37

• durability 38 → 48

Jordan (Level 24)

• STR: 19 → 29

• SPD: 26 → 36

• DUR: 21 → 31

Leo Ashvale (Level 22)

• STR: 30 → 40

• SPD: 20 → 30

• DUR: 26 → 36

Harkel (Level 22)

• STR: 25 → 35

• SPD: 28 → 38

• DUR: 21 → 31

Tessa (Level 21)

• STR: 18 → 28

• SPD: 27 → 37

• DUR: 19 → 29

Wren (Level 22)

• STR: 22 → 32

• SPD: 33 → 43

• DUR: 26 → 36

Joey (Level 21)

• STR: 13 → 23

• SPD: 25 → 35

• DUR: 21 → 31

⸻

This was the biggest boost the group had ever gotten. All their strengths were being boosted tremendously. But Riven had one more last thing to say:

⸻

[System: System reward. Would you like to open the system reward right now? (Y/N)]

Riven immediately hit YES, trying to make the process go as fast as possible.

⸻

[System Reward: Your party has proven that no matter how far apart you get from each other, you'll find some way to reconnect. Reward: Infinite range on the Party tab.]

⸻

Before this outing even began, Riven himself never knew there was a range in the party in the first place—but now there was no longer any range. Meaning his party members could go anywhere, and he could still invite them and talk to them. Then one last prompt came up:

⸻

[System: Quest to kill the Broken Veil Experiments has been updated. You now must kill: 0/3.]

⸻

Riven knew it was talking about the new two wolves who had to appear out of nowhere. But the thing that really shocked Riven was the quest reward:

⸻

[Reward: Awakening Reward]

⸻

"Awakening reward? What could that be?" Riven thought, but soon shook his head. He needed to focus on the goal in front of him. He then brought out two potions—both being blue in color, but one being darker than the other. He handed them to Harkel, telling him to drink the light blue one first, then the dark blue one.

When Harkel did it in that order, he felt his energy come back—and something more.

The dark blue potion was a 2x potion, which boosted Harkel's energy. He then looked at Riven, and Riven nodded. Harkel then closed his eyes and the light blue aura appeared over his body again. He looked over at Xander and the other two—but something caught his eye: the three had grown bigger.