Prey

'ahh, i can feel it, my body has changed…no, it's something deeper than that, down to my soul….' 

He thought as he was brought into a room with a broken light,no windows or anything else beside a table in the middle with 2 chairs. This was clearly an interrogation room.

They sat him down, didn't cuff him but the soldiers were standing right behind him. 

They were being over dramatic as if they knew what happened to him.

The commander then entered with two coffee cups, one for himself, the other also for himself. 

He sat down at the other side of the table, took a sip of his coffee and began going over the report he received about vell.

"It says here you killed one of these creatures with your bare hands, when asked how you did it, you mentioned something about a crystal. What is this crystal you mentioned and where is it now?" 

Vell heard the question and was aware of his situation but that was not what concerned him right now. 

'kugh, i feel it, power flowing throughout my body, all my senses have been doubled…tripled…no, more….my mind feels foggy, if i am not careful, i might lose control and kill the commander.'

He continued staring down without answering the questions, if he did that, they would end up going back and forth which had a high likelihood of triggering him.

The commander was still calm so he asked again.

" Listen son, we don't have time for, we have reasons to believe that a stronger wave of monsters will come out of those towers eventually so we need any information we can use to take them down, will you cooperate?" 

"..... sure, i don't see why not but i will only say this once, after that, i will get up and leave." 

He looked at the commander and the commander felt something wrong, he got chills just gazing into his eyes, it felt like he was prey. 

"Ahem…very well."

"The monster that attacked us was a wolf type, it was massive and lethal. I defeated it by shoving my arms down its throat and grabbing the crystal that was located where the heart would be. After pulling it out it died and I passed out holding the crystal. After that, I woke up here, I don't know where the crystal went. That's all " 

He stood up and slowly walked away, the pain was still strong. 

"And you have no idea where the crystal is now?" the commander pressed

He ignored the question and continued walking.

 Maybe that little girl might kno-" 

The temperature in the room plummeted. It was as if the air itself froze in an instant. The commander gasped, his throat tightening, and for a brief moment, fear seized him, choking out all rational thought. Vell turned back slowly, his eyes locked onto the commander. He didn't say a word, didn't need to. His presence alone communicated everything.

The commander was paralyzed, consumed by the overwhelming fear that radiated from Vell. The soldiers behind him instinctively stepped back, though they didn't draw their weapons. Even they could sense it—the danger emanating from him was too palpable to ignore

"HAHH, HAHHH..." The commander gasped for air once Vell was out of sight. His face was pale, and his hands trembled uncontrollably. "Get them out of the bunker. Now. I don't care how. Just get them out!"

The soldiers hesitated for only a second before rushing out to carry out the order. But by the time they reached Vell's quarters, he and Maya were already gone.. 

" He left and no one noticed him? How is that possible?"

Erza couldn't not think of any reasonable explanation for how they left, they had guards on all entrances, cameras everyone but none of them saw anything, they just…. vanished. 

At the outskirts of town, vell came falling from the sky with Maya on his back screaming.

"WE ARE GOING TO DIEEEE!!"

"Hahaha, this is fun!"

"YOU PSYCHO, HOW IS THIS FUN!" 

As they neared the ground, Vell tightened his legs and made a sharp impact, the ground beneath them cracking but leaving both of them unharmed. Maya jumped off his back, wobbling for a moment before collapsing, her face pale and her body trembling from the adrenaline.

"Why... did we... leave in such a hurry?" she panted. "And what's happened to your body? You look leaner, younger... but somehow you have superhuman strength! Was it the crystal?"

He glanced at her before turning his attention to his hands, clenching and unclenching his fists as if testing their strength. "Yeah, the crystal… but I think there's more to it. When that monster bit me, something changed. It feels like... its DNA is inside me. It must have reacted with the crystal, mutating my body."

"So you are half monster now?"

" Kind off? I don't know, maybe it's temporary." 

She rubbed her temples, trying to process the information. "And why did we leave tho?"

His expression hardened.

 "Instinct. That place might have seemed safe, but people are desperate. Desperate people do dangerous things to survive."

'shouldn't take them long to notice the huge hole i left' 

"I understand….but will be safe out here, most of the monsters have been killed by the bombs but i am sure there are still many left and something tells me those towers won't just stay closed like that."

"That's true but we will survive somehow and there was something I wanted to test." 

He walked over to a dead monster, smaller than the wolf type but still bigger than most animals roaming earth. He tore it apart with his bare hands and took out the crystal.

"It's smaller than the one I absorbed but i can still feel that the power it holds is no joke " 

He placed it at the bite marks but nothing happened.

"What are you doing?" She watched him with growing concern.

—---------

"Hm? Was I wrong?" 

The crystal shone and seeped into his body. 

There was a brief, sharp pain, but it was nothing compared to what he had felt before. He flexed his hand again and smiled, a predatory grin that sent a chill down Maya's spine.

"I knew it, my body is now capable of absorbing the crystals thanks to the mutation." 

"Are you sure it's a good idea to keep doing that? I mean... this doesn't seem safe."

"I need strength, Maya. If I'm going to protect you, if I'm going to survive... I need to get stronger but just in case, I wont over do it."." 

He looked motivated and excited.

"...its a bit cringe hearing you say that but thanks, i am lucky to have you look after me." 

She sighed, but there was a warmth in her gaze as she looked at him. "...It's a bit cringe hearing you say that, but thanks. I'm lucky to have you looking after me."

He smiled back at her, but before either could say more, a massive shadow appeared overhead. A bird-like monster swooped down, grabbing Maya in its talons.

" Well look what we have here, my first prey."

Within seconds, he was on the creature's head, staring into its eyes with that same dangerous smirk. 

Time left until earth destruction: 10 days