First Beasts

The students raced forward at various speeds, filled with excitement and animation.

Alonso and his two comrades ran up a sand dune and struggled to do so. The ground beneath them would fall under them and so, they awkwardly traversed it to then view the city ahead of them.

Their helmets all gave them a notification at the same time, which called the city Acnei.

They couldn't help but smile as they took in this amazing view. The experience was surreal, as there was no such desert in Sago. Sago was mainly grassland and it simply never got as hot as it was here.

The slight breeze did nothing to cool the air, but they were lucky to be shielded from it due to their mechs. Waves of sand continued to flow over the dunes, and they could see several figures of students in different places.

"We shouldn't stay here. We need to go in the direction of beasts so we can get crystals." Alonso advised.

Alonso had determination and was not willing to slack on this mission. Even if he was going to rank low compared to the other teams, he was going to work as hard as humanly possible.

Their mechs directed them through the use of arrows to an area that was approximately 15 kilometres from them.

With their mechs, they could cover that distance in only half an hour without expending much energy. The smarter students even equipped their mechs with solar-powered modules but these were usually incredibly expensive.

Also, they were vulnerable to being destroyed in the heat of battle and so, they weren't actively used on mechs but were usually utilised in powering larger vehicles and military bases.

They ran at speeds of around 50 miles per hour across this vast desert. The sand beneath their feet exploded upwards in pretty much every single one of their strides, and a chaotic trail of dust followed them.

Soon, Acnei and the military base looked very small to them, and the ground started to harden. It resembled more of a wasteland instead of a desert, and their feet impacted not just pure sand but sandstone instead.

It allowed them to run more easily, and they had consumed mere percentages of their power by the time they arrived in the special zone designated by their scholar operating systems.

Initially, there wasn't much for them to notice, other than the swaying tumbleweeds.

However, the open area made them see threats much more easily and they could see various beasts hundreds of metres from them in different directions.

The beast closest to them was a mammoth wolf that was nearly at their hips at shoulder height.

Its fur was a pure gold that blended right into the surrounding wasteland, and its eyes were a piercing red. What struck them was its razor sharp fangs that it slammed together with ferocity.

"Here we go!" Luciano said, readying himself for the upcoming conflict.

The beast charged at them at high speed -faster than even they were moving- but they remained vigilant. Alonso was the first to blast off and being the fastest out of his comrades, he was the first to attack the beast.

It leaped at him and revealed its large fangs with a growl. Remaining in place, he landed a swift but deadly strike that knocked it right off course.

However, it landed and approached him again in a split-second, latching onto his leg.

Chomp!

The fangs managed to pierce through his mech since they were so sharp. It surprised him and the pain was truly agonising, making him drop to a knee. He grunted in pain and grabbed the beast by its head to try and release himself.

[Mech Damage: Minor]

[Poison Detected: Analysing…]

'The pain! I can barely think straight!'

Through the open parts of his mech that revealed his skin, he could see that his veins were starting to be filled with a weird green substance.

[Poison Analysed!]

[Anti-Poison Repair Activated]

He was too distressed by the current situation to read these notifications, and Luciano rushed ahead to his aid. Before he could reach him through, a thin white blast of fast-moving energy clashed right into the wolf's abdomen, nearly going right through him.

It removed its fangs and snarled upon taking this attack, and another two beams were released that finally stopped it in its tracks.

Michael stood behind his two friends with his hands outstretched, with glowing white circles within his palms.

"I've got you!" Michael said, before running forward himself.

His Basic Repair System also had a built-in anti-poison system and since the beast was clearly at Tier 5, its poison was not deadly.

His wound had sealed in seconds and the damage to his mech would be gone in a few minutes.

"Where did you learn to do that?" Alonso asked, surprised by his powerful technique.

"It's a module we've passed down in our family for generations. For normal people, it would take months or even years for their mechs to adapt to making muon blasts but over hundreds and hundreds of years, we refined them just for this purpose." He explained.

Depending on the genetics of the host and the level of one's mech, some modules would be extremely difficult to replicate through just frequent use. Also, the more modules one adapted their mech to, the harder it would be to adapt to modules of vastly different types.

Therefore, families tended to come together to establish certain modules that would be advised to their younger members since they would genetically be quite similar. Being of similar status would mean that their mechs would also be of similar quality too.

"You're lucky your family actually has a special trait. Mine's way too weak for any of that." Luciano said jokingly.

Alonso just laughed in reaction because he felt the exact same way. There was no way his family had any sort of 'perk' or trump card. Not many of them even went on to become mech combatants in the first place.

As they laughed together, however, they suddenly stopped once they noticed 5 of these golden wolves approaching them in a circular manner.

They raised to their feet reflexively, with their backs to each other. Michael had his arms extended, while Alonso and Luciano were in their respective stances.

"Alright, we should easily take these things down. Let's get rid of them and get our crystals!" Alonso said, before racing forward.

"Yeah!" Luciano replied, doing the same.

One of these wolves hurled itself forward at Alonso, but he timed his movements well and caught it by the neck before it had the chance to bite him.

He then slammed it into the ground with as much force as he could output, killing it right away.

A second wolf charged at him at full pelt, but he managed to step to the side swiftly to evade it.

Skreeech!

The golden wolf turned itself around and skidded across the rough wasteland before running right back at Alonso once again. It leapt at him and tried to bite him numerous times, but he would dip back to evade the attacks.

On the final leap, he timed a swivelling kick to its body to shatter some of its ribs on impact. The wolf squealed and whimpered on the ground, and Alonso ended its suffering with a quick stab to its brain using his heat slash.

Michael finished off his final wolf in this same time using a muon blast to its head that almost totally opened it up. The sprinting wolf's corpse eventually came to a stop, and there was smoke emitting from its open skull that revealed its scorched flesh and brain.

Luckily, the students had access to a mirror of the MechAtlas. Alonso quickly noticed that this copy of the large database was more thorough and detailed than the one he found in the first pocket realm he entered.

He was able to find information on the beasts they had defeated just now, and they were labelled as Golden Poison Wolves.

Their crystals were said to be located just behind their navels and so, they spent the next few minutes acquiring said crystals. They were an orange that was almost red and a deeper orange than the desert around them.

They wiped off the flesh and blood from the crystals, then Michael revealed a pouch that he had taken to carry these crystals.

Luciano swiftly placed his in the pouch, but Alonso had a safer place to keep his. He pretended to place his own in the pouch but as he did so, he commanded the system.

'Keep those two crystals in my inventory!'

As he did so, he gave Michael's pouch a quick look and he noticed that the crystals within were already glowing blue.

They vanished while he concealed it, and Alonso lightly exhaled with relief before raising up with his teammates.

"If we want to rank high amongst the other teams, we need to be on our way now. There aren't enough beasts in this area." Alonso said, looking at the information given by their military OS.

It was particularly helpful, and they ventured deeper into this wasteland and managed to take down a handful golden poison wolves in their journey.

Approaching the sandier dunes of Kernei, they decided to take a long view of the surrounding area. The students had almost spread out in a circular fashion from the military base and so, they didn't see many other students in the vicinity.

Standing atop a dune, they then started to notice weird movements in the ground beneath them.

It wasn't strong and a rumble like an earthquake but instead felt like light, fine movements. It was as if something was beneath the sand and it was coming from their right.

Fwoosh!

Sand was shot upwards as several odd beings the height of one's shin shot out from the ground. They had glowing golden eyes and gave off light pitched giggles.

They were the same colour as the orange-like dust beneath their feet and resembled armoured goblins.

Their heads were large compared to their bodies. Luciano raised his eyebrow upon seeing them then felt almost totally frozen.

Alonso and Michael took their eyes off these beings to look at Luciano who seemed to be twitching in place.

"They've got hallucinative powers. I don't think we should look in their eyes." Alonso realised, noticing the orange irises that his comrade now possessed.

******

10 POWER STONES BY 10/05/2024 = 4 Chapter Mass Release!

8 POWER STONES BY 10/05/2024 = 3 Chapter Mass Release