Chapter 4: Mutation and Awakening

"What the hell happened?" Alex turned around to check on them.

Both Brian and Terry were shivering on the ground.

Beads of sweat appeared on their foreheads and their eyes were shut with their eyebrows pulled closed together.

They turned their heads from side to side slightly, as if they were trying to wake up.

Alex placed his hands onto their foreheads and gave out a sigh of relief when his hands touched their foreheads.

At least their temperature was normal.

So, were they having a seizure or something?

He wanted to stop them from biting their tongues if it was a seizure, but their shivering and breaking of sweat stopped in the next moment.

Both of them murmured something and they finally opened their eyes again.

Brian raised his hands and they started to give out an amber glow.

Flames started to engulf his hands and he jumped.

He couldn’t believe what was happening to him and he glanced over at Alex for help.

"Breathe in and stay calm." Alex shouted at Brian and Brian did what he was told.

Slowly, the flames died down and dissipated.

Brian glanced at Alex with his eyes opened wide and his jaw slackened.

Alex frowned and pondered on it for a moment.

It seemed to him that he wasn’t the only one to have awakened an ability.

"What happened to you when you were unconscious?" he asked and Brian thought for a moment.

"There was imagery of deaths and sufferings... then, there were voices calling out to me.

"I could only vaguely hear something that said ’S Level Flame Wielder’ that was intelligible to me."

"S Level Flame Wielder?" Alex’s hunch was right and somehow, Brian and Terry also awakened some abilities of their own.

He wanted to ask Brian if he could control the flames, but the murmurs of Terry stopped him.

Alex and Brian glanced over at Terry, who was also waking up from his slumber.

"Hey guys, I felt like I was asleep for ages." Terry sat up and he lifted his arm, but he was shocked when he saw his skin become tough and it started to change and turn into a metallic color.

He glanced at Alex and Brian frantically to see if they could help.

"Stay calm and rein in that surge of power inside of you." Brian said and Terry inhaled a deep breath to calm himself down.

Slowly, his skin turned back to what it was.

"Did you hear anything in your slumber?" Alex asked to confirm if the awakening process was the same for Terry.

Terry lowered his head, thought for a moment before lifting it back up and said, "I heard something like ’S Level Metallic Wielding Ability’ in that weird dream."

Alex frowned and thought about it.

He didn’t know why it was happening or how rare an S Level Ability was, but he wouldn’t mind the extra help, now that his two friends had awakened.

And he had a theory that those mutated insects, beasts or even plants might not be mutated; they had actually awakened if you view it from their point of view.

But this was only a hunch and to figure out what was happening, he would have to find someone from the Bio-science school to figure it out.

However, that would have to wait.

"You two, gather whatever weapon you can find, and try to see if you can control the abilities of yours.

"We need to go and get Riley soon."

Both of them nodded and they began to see if they could control their abilities.

Alex, on the other hand, picked up his phone and called Riley’s number.

"Come on, pick it up," he said and for once, Riley picked up the call.

"Heh. I told you, didn’t I, they were out to kill us all along." Riley’s voice was soft and weak, but he mustered all he had to put his point across to Alex.

Alex rolled his eyes and said, "It is not the time for this.

"Where are you right now?"

"I’m at the eighth floor of the Business Building, barricaded in the meeting room with some other students.

"But I feel like I need to go into a deep slumber very soon, come here quickly as things aren’t going well at the moment.

"There are crazy rats biting and killing whatever moves." Riley said and shouting about the rats coming again could be heard in the background.

The call ended right there.

Alex was glad on one hand that Riley was most probably going through the awakening process soon but on the other hand, it was the worst time and place for Riley to be doing so.

No matter what, they would have to get to Riley as soon as possible.

Alex glanced at Brian and Terry who were trying out their abilities and he could see that they already had some progress with it.

Brian had a fireball hovering above his palm while Terry’s body was turned into metallic form.

"Try to use your abilities as a last resort," Alex thought for a moment and said.

"But why? We are strong and powerful now." Terry raised his arms, clenched his fist and said.

He couldn’t wait to show the others what he could do now after all these years of being taunted for his plump figure.

Brian nodded his head and said, "Alex is right. We might not be the only ones to have awakened such abilities and who knows how powerful we are relative to them.

"For all you know, we might be the weakest among them.

"And on top of that, we wouldn’t know what they would be thinking of when they encounter us.

"I wouldn’t want to be captured and forced to work under some sadistic bitch."

"Fine." Terry gave out a long sigh and he lowered his arms.

What Brian said made sense and it was better to lie low for the moment until they figure things out. ℴ

"Then, what are we waiting for? Let’s go." Brian said and he walked to the door.

"We are going empty-handed?" Terry frowned and asked.

"Of course not." Brian held his hand up with a bunch of keys in it.

He dangled the keys at them and said, "In case you have forgotten, Riley has an armory in his room."