Awakening

"BOOOOOOOOOM!"

A dilapidated building fell. A giant arm rose from the ground, accompanied by the sound of thunder. Another building fell, and another, and another, and another. A barrage of missiles hit the arm. BOOM! A large explosion which could be seen from miles away occurred. Silhouettes could be seen rushing towards the arm.

"ROAR!" The arm pulled back into the ground and the round started rumbling. "Watch out!" a man exclaimed. A few seconds later the arm emerged, encased in an earthen armour. It dusked the ground below only to act slam its hands down right after as a support for the towering beast that had yet to emerge.

"Its an Earthen Giant!" A woman exclaimed. It was considered an A-rank (Special) threat, anywhere from 2 S-ranks awakened to 5 A-ranks were required in order to subdue it. The Earthen Giant was a special case. According to the topology and geology of the environment, it's difficulty would change. Due to the battlefield being in the middle of an abandoned city, the difficulty was rather low with the Earthen Giant not being able to use its full power. Though, that did not stop it from instilling fear into the hunters.

The ground started trembling as a massive figure eclipsed the ruins of the abandoned city. It slowly stood up, each movement of its causing boulders to collide and fall off it's earthen armour.

"Quick attack it! Team 2 and 3 will focus on immobilising and reducing casualties while team 1 and 4 will be the main damage dealers. Team 5, divide yourselves into to 2 groups and go to team 2 and 3 and tank for them. Now go!" a deep, authoritative voice spoke out. "Yes Commander!" The silhouettes shouted before disappearing one by one.

Not soon after, the Earthen Giant was bought down on it's knees. Just as the last hit was about to be delivered, the Earthen Giant released one single roar loud enough to shake the planet itself and deafen all those present. The trembling became stronger and stronger until another giant arm exposed itself along with another not far away. Two more Earthen Giants clawed their way out of the ground, mortifying those present. They started cursing over their luck and praying for their survival. The giants dwarfed the remaining buildings by 5 to 6 times, each step of theirs shaking both the very souls of the hunters as well as the earth beneath them.

The despair in the eyes of the hunters solidified, and just as their deaths stared them in their eyes, the sky darkened until no one could see anything. Both human and monster alike bared their eyes confused at the scenario. The hunters thought they might have died already while the giants thought the pests had blinded them.

Soft, dim lights systematically lit up in the sky. Millions of Koi could be seen emitting the lights, slowly closing in with each other until they formed the shape of a Giant Koi. compared to the size of the Giant Koi, the Earthen giants seemed subpar at best. Those who recognised the school of Koi cried out in joy will those unaware were cautious and scared of it, though all admired it.

The Koi made its way down to the Earthen Giants, when a hunter regained his consciousness and realised the situation, he shouted "Don't worry everyone, that is the Koi Princess Cyprinus. The SPADES-rank awakened". This simple sentence broke everyone out of their stupor. They all regained their fighting spirit and gripped their weapons tighter. Those with protection skills all activated them and huddled together. They knew what the appearance of a SPADES-rank awakened symbolised. It symbolised hope, hope in this despair of staring death in the eyes.

The school came and encased the three giants at breakneck speed, breaking the sound barrier along with the continued noise of thunder. After a few minutes, the school finally reached it's end, the tail of the Giant Koi finally left the spot where the giants stood. Nothing was left anymore. All proof of their existence was nothing more than the destruction they caused and a few boulders. Nothing more, nothing less.

On a building not far away stood a girl with reddish orange hair, seemingly in her teens, dressed in a Koi coloured kimono, enjoying the view. She smiled and then disappeared, a Koi appearing in her place. Not far away, a boy wearing rags and what seemed like animal skin could be seen watching the whole thing play out.

He had purplish grey hair and eyes with an eyepatch on one eye. He seemed shook by everything happened, his eye still basking in stupor. 'What. Just. Happened.' he thought to himself. Once he broke out of his stupor, he immediately realised his situation. He was defenceless while he was distracted, a flaw, a weakness, just that was enough to get himself killed. One should never show weakness, weakness is a sin, nothing weak survives in this hellbound world of beasts...

He surveyed his surroundings, one could never be too cautious. He learned it the hard way...

Once he confirmed his situation, he dashed away to the top of the tallest building in his immediate vicinity. He reaffirmed his situation. He was safe, for the time being with the hunters nearby. He wandered around until he found some resources in the debris of a building near the battlefield away from the hunters, but close enough to be rescued if his voice is heard. While collecting the hard clay like remains of the boulders he spotted something shiny out of the corner of his eye.

it caught his attention like a diamond in a pile of coal. He grabbed it as if it was his life. He examined the core and muttered under his breath "Jackpot". Beast cores were the essence of beasts; the stronger the beast who held the core, the more precious it was.

A beast core could be used for a multitude of things, (Energy source, Armor infusion, evolution of skills, etc.) But the most important thing a core could do was to act as a catalyst for awakening.

Awakening was the process of unlocking skills and becoming a hunter. There are 2 ways to awaken, one is for it to occur naturally and the other is for it to be forcefully induced using cores. While the former is more safe and awakened skills are more suited to the awakener, the latter has a rather high risk and might not offer a skill as suitable to the awakened as the former, but the biggest risk was that in case of a failed attempt, the person who attempted to awaken would be crippled or even killed in the process.

While the latter would have a higher success rate the more suitable it was for the awakener, the essence present in the core would matter much more. If the core used was of a weak monster the lower the requirement of the body, making it easier to absorb and in turn, awaken. Though this had 2 problems, first was the scarcity of low level beast cores and second was that the skill awakened would be a low level skill, this was a glaring problem in a world where strength mattered more than anything.

The high level beast cores were used, the lower the success rate of awakening and the bigger the backlash of failure. Though the rewards that existed within were much greater. Not only would the owners body gain an elemental physique and greater affinity to the element of the beast core, but they would also get an equally powerful skill. Though beast cores also served another purpose, that was evolution. Now evolution would happen to a lot of things, may that be skills, summons, beasts and even humans themselves. All of this made even an F-rank beast core worth a couple ten-thousands per core, not to mention one that dropped from an A-rank beast.

The boy wasn't one to take his chances, he darted away and ran like there was no tomorrow. The hunters were busy bickering about the distribution of beast cores, if they found someone like him stealing from them they wouldn't hesitate to resort to drastic measures. Small pockets of dust were belatedly raised making a trail of dust coming from behind him, though in a war.

Once he went far enough to be left unnoticed by the hunters, he climbed a building to its top floor and sat down. He took out the beast core and marvelled at it for a moment before checking around to ensure his safety. Once he was done he sat down and swallowed the dry beast core. It barely went through his throat and he started feeling the beast core in his body. It was the most primitive and unsophisticated method along with the most dangerous but he couldn't do it otherwise due to all the other methods being hoarded by those in power.

It was easy to feel in his body due to it transforming his body into stone from the inside. Sweat dripped down his face, while he tried to 'safely' awaken.

The core petrified his body slowly and painfully. He was close to being fully petrified when a wolf came up to him. It walked around him slowly and had what looked like a mocking grin before abruptly lunging at him. Lightning gathered around the wolf's claw and became what looked like another larger, more menacing, and shining cyan claw.

The wolf clawed at the boy's body and pierced his heart before an outburst of lightning surrounded the boy.

[Singular Evolution System Activated]

"What?" The boy though to himself.

[Skill Detected: Skin Hardening]

[Elemental Affinities Detected:

- High Earth Affinity

- Extreme Lightning Affinity]

The boy, waiting for his demise, stared at the holographic scene in confusion, "How.... am I not dead yet, and what is this... uhm.... Singular Evolution System?"