Chapter 1: A New Beginning?

"It had already been 3 years since everything started. On November 6th 2030, mankind encountered the greatest apocalypse ever, which killed over half of the humanity. Many nations fell and the economy fell worldwide. Densely populated country like ours were the most affected. What seems to..."

Saransh turned off the TV and woke up from the Sofa where he was sleeping. He was already familiar with the situation which took his family away from him 3 years ago. The black shadow which enveloped countless places around the globe was responsible for the disappearance of around 25 percent of the human population. But what came afterwards was much more shocking. Creatures which are now called "manster", emerged from the black fog started feeding on the humans which further reduced the human population by another 25%. And thus because of the fateful turn of events, humanity lost around half of its population.

The world had changed but for the worse. Saransh who was supposed to become an engineer had now become a licensed Huntsman. It wasn't like he had a choice.

The Mansters were skilled predator capable of feeding on human blood. The Military of Humanity was no joke, but it could only hold them off until the first year during which humanity build huge vaults. US, Canada, Mexico from the North American Countries and Argentina, Brazil, Columbia from the South American Countries joined hands to form the United American Territories(UAT), to take down the mansters.

Since the Asian and European countries took the greatest hits, most of the countries perished. But still, China, India and Russia held their grounds. As for the island countries, it was hard to provide support and most of the countries were doomed.

The military might of several countries fell to the power of the Mansters since usual missiles and bullets doesn't have a chance with the Mansters. It was already beginning to feel like they were at the top of the food chain.

But a new hope surfaced when a community of scientists found a way to defeat those Mansters. Specialized equipment encumbered down with "Plasma" was the only way of defeating those Mansters. But the plasma could only be obtained from the mansters. It was an irony through and through.

And nowadays after 3 years of their reckoning, hunting them has become a business. Huge organisations called Clans are now responsible for recruiting and hunting down the Mansters.

'Maybe I should join a clan too.', he thought.

He was already running down the alley around the corner of his room.

'But my job of corpse dismantling is not suited for frontal attacks and it is a much safer field of work.'

'I only have to dismantle the corpse and which makes the extraction of plasma much easier.

Humanity has been staying in huge vaults which masks the presence of humans from the manster since it is built underground.

One could apply for the license once they are 24 and it has only been a week since Saransh got his license.

'How does he always get late.?'

Which is why he has been teaming up with an another huntsman for his dismantling jobs. Anyone can apply for the job as long as he/she has a huntsman licence.

'I think he is late, he better hurry before the "Stem" is closed.'

Saransh was already in front of a huge lift-like structure which was called the stem. It is opened twice a day for the huntsman to get out and finish their missions.

Huntsman missions not only include hunting the Mansters but a variety of jobs such as retrieving manster corpses for extracting plasma which is then used as an energy source for most of the needs.

Saransh had a frustrated look on his face as the last of the stem compartment was about to leave.

'I think I should have made a call.'

"Heyy, bhaii", ('Bhai' is the Hindi word for brother.)

Saransh was very familiar with the voice and it was his teammate Vishal Iyer who was a level 5 plasma caster commonly called as a mage.

"Why were you late again?"

"Aahh... Bahh"

"Nahh...leave it, there's no time."

"Okay bhai!"

And they walked right towards the gate.

"Please show me your license and stem boarding pass."

"Oh, come one, I wouldn't be here, if I didn't have my license and pass to begin with."

"Well, it's my job!".

Saransh gave his pass and license to the lady for her to verify. She was probably in her twenties and had a cute face.

"Okay done! and stay safe."

She replied with a gentle smile.

Saransh nodded and headed towards the final compartment, which was almost full but still had some vacant seats.

"Bhai, did u just smile?"

"Why would I do that?"

"Maybe because of the cute lady."

"Oh... Shut Up"

Saransh looked grumpy and stubborn, and so Vishal had started making fun of him to release the tension.

"Just stop saying stupid stuffs."

"I just thought that you might have a crush on her."

"..."

Saransh maintained his silence and didn't reply.

As they sat on the seats, the doors had already closed and the compartment was ready to leave. The stem supposedly used the plasma energy to carry people in and out from the vault. Since it was an energy consuming and tedious process, stem is only used twice a day. Each time it operates, a maximum of 6 compartments could be transported up or down.

"It is 7am Vishal, why were you late today??"

"I just had an errand to run in the morning."

"I heard that all the elites are coming up today, they've got newbies to train."

"Well, the more the better."

Vishal sighed.

Their compartment was also full of newbies. Most of them are around level one or two.

"Well Bhai, I think I will have a level up soon enough."

"But haven't you gotten level 5 just recently?!"

"Yes Bhai, but when you are in a clan, you will have more opportunities to gain plasma energy by participating in intense battles."

"That is a far-fetched dream for me now. Well you know, I don't have a talent for wielding plasma energy and so I'm still stuck at level 1."

Two years ago, as the situation heated up it became a necessity to evaluate the plasma energy possessed by the creature and hence the scientists all around the globe came up with a device to do so. All mansters are categorised according to their levels.

The same device is now used by the Huntsman Organizations all around the globe to evaluate the huntsman. It is similar to a wrist watch but could be used to evaluate both the huntsmen and the Mansters.

*************************************************************************************

Around the same time on the surface.

"Alright, almost all the mansters above level 5 are cleared in this block. Let's move on and let the newbies take care of the low level monsters."

It was the Clan master, Mr. Arvind Kaushik of "The Pandemias" which was one of the top clans in the Northern India. He had a muscular physique and charismatic aura. The Pandemias was the largest clan in terms of pure number. He was also man with a strong sense of justice and thus he made a clan with all his wealth to support the country when she was falling apart.

The other top clans were also holding a joint training session for their newbies led by the Pandemias. Usually they clear the high level mansters and leave the low level ones for the newbies.

Most of the newbies had a worried look on their face. They were frightened just by seeing the environment. The air was stiff and a grey fog covered the atmosphere which made the sun with a blue sky, just an old dream. The corpses of large mansters were lying on the corroded surface which was almost the color of rusted iron. No sign of greenery, just barren sands and abandoned buildings. This is what one would call a post-apocalyptic setting.

The Newbies who got their license recently were the most scared ones. They were just level 1 or level 2. The level of the huntsman is dependent on the amount of plasma energy they possess. The wrist band which they got after passing the huntsman exam measured this energy and displayed their level on the screen. As soon as the clan leader said that he would move on, the newbies tensed up. They made the face of a hatchling which was just abandoned by the mother bird.

"Don't worry, I've got high scores in my license exam."

Viswanath said with arrogance. He was also a newbie but had much more experience compared to everyone else currently present there. The score one gets in the license exam is highly affected by the plasma energy they possess as well as how skilful are they with their equipment.

"Thank you Bhai."

Most of the newbies shouted with a sound of relief.

*KREE KREE*

*KREE KREE*

Small statured mansters started approaching them in a group of 4. They were the lowest level mansters knows as the tugged rats. Tugged rats were about the size of a human but had huge claws to pull in their enemies and bite them around the neck.

"Mages get behind the Swordsmen and start triggering your plasma equipment. And swordsmen follow my lead."

Viswanath shouted. Everyone else nodded and started doing their part.

The line-up was led by the swordsman who tanked the attacks from the rats, the healers who were ready with their healing plasma equipment and finally the mages who were the main damage dealers. This was the common line-up which they were trained in at the Simulated Training Session. They formed a circle to focus on all the directions with the mages at the centre. Rats weren't the best predators but were a difficult bunch for a newbie to handle.

The fight went on for around 30 minutes and soon enough the rats started withdrawing.

"Yay, we won…"

"Viswanath, thanks for leading us!!"

Everyone were very happy at the situation. It wasn't their first battle but it was first battle they had won without the help of the higher level colleagues.

"Wait…, It's not over."

Viswanath had a pale face. He was sweating all over as if spooked by a ghost. He pointed at a huge shadow lingering around the fog and said.

"What's that?"

Everyone who were happy a minute ago, suddenly started shivering. It was a glimpse of despair. The huge shadow started approaching them and it grew bigger each time it took a step.

*THUD THUD*

"It was definitely a level 15 monster!"

"No, from the plasma energy it's dissipating, it could be worse."

*GRROOOR*

The fog started clearing up from a single roar from the huge monster. Now everyone could see a huge reptile with a huge tail standing in front of them. Just the sight of it could make anyone uncomfortable.

"Listen up…"

Someone shouted.

A muscular man who was wearing the clan badge of "The Pandemias" was standing in front of them. It was their clan's vice leader Mr. Jagdish Kaushik, the brother of their Clan Master.

"I was left behind by the clan master for situations like this."

Jagdish said.

"But this is not something even my brother anticipated. I have made a distress signal to the Clan Master and he will be here in around 20 minutes."

"New Recruits, you don't have to force yourself. Leave the premises immediately and take shelter near the gate until the clan-master arrives." He added.

"Sure Sir."

The New recruits understood the situation and started sprinting towards the stem gate.

*BAAM*

With that sound, the last compartment had surfaced. But when they came out of gate, they were left in pure shock. They could only stare at the huge manster which was roaring at a couple of hundred metres from where they were standing. They were all newbies and didn't know what to do.

"Let's go back!!", someone shouted.

"That's not possible, stem has run out of energy and it will need 12 hours before it could be fully charged with plasma energy." someone added,

"What do we do??"

Meanwhile newbies from the Pandemias Clan arrived. They already knew that they couldn't go back to the vault.

"Oye Vishal, what do we do?" Saransh asked.

"I don't think we stand a chance against that thing and I have never heard of such a reptile."

Vishal unlocked his wrist band and turned its measuring device on.

"At the very least we can measure its strength."

The Gauge Level on the metre was pumping up by each second until it displayed.

*??*

With a voice *Measuring Limit exceeded*.

The ones who were looking at them measuring the manster were frozen stiff.

"Metre can only measure up to 30 levels of energy and that means." Vishal added.

"Holy sh1t!"

Saransh never thought he would see a monster that couldn't even be measured by human standards. There wasn't a single person on Earth who was capable of defeating such a manster. Even the highest level humans were only level 18.

"How is it possible?"

"But…", Vishal pointed at it and said.

"It hasn't started attacking yet! Even though someone from the Pandemias clan is holding it off by pouring all of his attacks, it isn't retaliating.", he added.

"But, why would that be?", Saransh asked.

"Probably, because it is waiting for something." He replied with a much scarier look than he had before.

**THUD THUD**

**THUD THUD**

A shadow huger than what was casted by the reptile was approaching them from the other side.

Everyone already shocked by the emergence of the Giant Lizard were spellbound by a figure that was twice as huge as the Giant Lizard.

The Giant Lizard which wasn't responding to any of the Vice-Leader's attack started reacting.

*GROOOOOORR*

It roared as if to notify the other being of its presence.

And suddenly it started shedding off skin from its back, as if it was waiting for this very moment and after a moment wings started protruding out from where it shed its skin. If ancient myths were true, then what they were witnessing is truly a dragon.