Light

School grounds, outside.

Thwack!

Lake landed on the ground with his face touching the floor. He slowly looked up at the one who pushed him. Gregory Chor, a boy with Flame Coat (a 3 star ability), an arrogant child with average talent yet looked down at others due to his family.

"Hehe, you trash! What are you still doing here? I thought you'd had enough from the last time." he said arrogantly. His lackeys began laughing behind him.

What he was speaking was something the entire school knew about, that there was boy always being beaten by Gregory. Yet no one did anything as Lake didn't have any abilities. And in this survival of the fittest world, he was deemed not worth it. Especially when his opponent had an extremely prestigious family.

Gregory belonged to the Chor family, one of the three Grand Families of Itor. A power that held 15% of the power in the city.

"Are you so strong Gregory? You got nothing better to do than to pick on me again? Heh, I'm honored." Lake said with a snicker.

Standing up Lake clenched his fist to send a punch but restrained himself, he couldn't afford to get in trouble for fighting with Gregory, otherwise even if the school could protect Lake, it wouldn't be able to protect his mother.

"You should be honored trash. I'm spending my precious time giving you 'pointers'."

"Yeah, you should be thanking Gregory!"

"You're lucky to even be talking to him brat!"

"Hehe, you trained your goons pretty well Gregory. But in the end they're still just dogs." said Lake.

That sentence had angered the students as they tried to attack him afterwards but Gregory stopped them.

"A trash who only knows how to talk is nothing but an ant to me." Gregory said angrily.

At this point Lake felt that talking anymore was pointless as he could see that they were about to start attacking. Looking at the group with cold eyes he silently remembered all their faces.

Sure enough one of the kids came up and kicked Lake in the stomach. "All bark but no bite, who's the dog now?!"

Knocking him down the kid kept kicking Lake's body. Soon the other kids joined in beating Lake until he was covered in bruises. Looking at him the kids noticed that he wasn't responding anymore.

Lake lay there pale faced and with his eyes shut; he was breathing, but it was so faint that it basically wasn't there.

"Haha, what a weakling! Can't even stay awake just from our light taps." One of the kids ridiculed.

"Hmph he's just reaping what he sowed." Sneered Gregory. Seeing Lake unconscious caused a sinister glow to creep past his eyes.

"Now what Gregory?" One of them asked.

"Pick him up and follow me."

After the kids picked Lake up they began following Gregory, they snuck through alleys to make sure they weren't seen until they reached the city walls.

"What are we doing here Gregory?" Soon one of the kids couldn't help but ask.

Gregory didn't speak, he just grinned and moved a large board away from the wall. Gasping the kids couldn't believe their eyes. Before them was a small hole leading outside. It wasn't a large hole, but it was just big enough for them to slip through.

Then Gregory spoke again, "Hehe we'll be doing the world a favor by dropping the trash in the forest, no one will care if a weakling went missing anyway."

After realizing his plan, the kids went pale. They swore in their hearts to never cross Gregory in the future.

Half an hour later, in the Forest Outskirts.

Lake lie with his eyes closed still unconscious from the pain. Sometimes twitching, with the faintest of groans coming from his mouth. His body and face were covered in bruises and it was unknown how many bones were broken.

Unfortunately Lake's problems didn't stop at that. It was at this time that an evo beast slowly approached Lake. With it's mouth wide open and drool coming out it looked like a hyena with red fur and larger fangs, a Blood Hyena.

As soon as it got close to Lake it prepared it's claws to kill him when a flash of light suddenly shone behind it. Turning around it wasn't able to see anything before the light penetrated the hyenas head and killed it.

The light stopped in front of Lake's head and floated there for a few seconds before saying in a mechanical voice, "Compatibility analysis complete. Compatibility rating at 98.6%." A few more seconds went by and the light spoke again. "Compatibility rating accepted. Host acknowledged. Beginning merge sequence."

The light stopped talking there and slowly moved closer to Lakes forehead, it grew brighter and brighter until it entered his forehead in a flash of blinding light.

Then all was still, as if nothing ever happened. Despite the tranquility in the forest a massive change was happening to Lake at this moment.

[Requesting permission to integrate with host.] A voice rang out in his head. "Huh? What is that?" Despite being unconscious the voice woke Lake up slightly. In a daze he asked the voice, "What are you?"

[I am an AI system designed to assist my host in whatever tasks they need accomplished. Due to compatibility rating being acceptable, Lake Halma is accepted as host. Requesting permission to integrate with host.] Said the voice.

'Integrate? Host, is it talking about me?'

Finally Lake mustered up the last of his clarity to answer the voice.

"Ac...cept"

[Permission granted by host. Beginning integration process."] As the voice finished speaking Lakes body began shining when the light abruptly dimmed.

[Error! Error! Error! Unable to begin integration due to damage sustained to host's body. Beginning repair process.]

After the voice faded away a faint green light enveloped Lake's body. Slowly the light began converging on the bruises and they began to fade away. Inside his body the green light coated his bones and the fractured pieces were actually reconnecting themselves!

Unbelievably the light was completely repairing Lake's body, bringing him back from the brink of death. Quietly the light faded away and Lake's body looked almost brand new.

[Host's body is now repaired to 90% performance rate. Integration possible. Beginning integration process.]

After the process began his eyes had a faint green glow to them, like the healing light yet different.

[Host integration at 1%]