Beast Leader

Nexus remained silent as she stole a couple of glances towards him.

Clearly, she wanted to answer his question but was rather hesitant about how she should respond. It was then Alex realized that it was his fault, 'I was too excited when I unlocked the wind element and wanted to quickly do some experiments, that's probably why'

"Did I leave too soon earlier?" Alex asked with an acute smile.

Nexus nodded, she wasn't able to tell him about the new feature because he left too soon.

It was then she followed by explaining what each aspect does.

Power and range aspects are the easiest to comprehend, both improve the power output as well as the distance that Alex could control the wind element he unlocked. Precision improves the ability for him to control the element, which as Nexus said will help him bend plasma bullets.

Lastly, resistance is self-explanatory, allowing him to resist wind element attacks better.

Alex ingests the information with a pondering look.

'I have four energy bars right now, and the cost of improving one of the aspects is three energy bars, so I could only upgrade one aspect. For wind element which has a disorderly nature, I think increasing the precision will help me the most'

Aside from bending bullets, increasing the precision will also improve his soundwave attacks.

If he could condense the soundwave thinner, then it would've been more powerful.

Deciding that the only good choice would be upgrading the precision aspect, he clicked the plus button at the end of the precision aspect on the holographic interface and paid three energy bars to Nexus to increase it by one.

[Elemental Upgrades - Wind]

Power: 0

Range: 0

Precision: 1

Resistance: 0

Out of nowhere, the nanites inside the mana within his body caused a fleeting feeling again.

It lasted only a few seconds before returning to normal.

'I'll see how much control I improved from increasing the precision aspect to 1. Although it might not be as potent, I really hoped that even bending bullets would be possible with this upgrade' Alex nodded his head, deciding that he would need to do some experiments again.

However, he didn't leave too early and turned to Nexus.

"Say, Nexus... Can you read my mind?" Alex asked, observing Nexus' facial expressions.

Upon hearing this, Nexus bowed politely again, "Are you uncomfortable with it, master?"

"Yes, don't do that again. If I want to know something, I'll ask you directly, don't probe into my mind again" Alex replied in a cold tone, he didn't like that one bit. 'I guess she will be here forever, so it doesn't matter if she knows what's on my mind. But it's better this way since she can feel emotions'

Realizing that she displeased Alex, her body trembled a little.

Maybe Alex found this a small matter, but it was not a small matter for her. Bowing even deeper, she blurted out a genuine apology, "I will not do it again, master. Forgive me for displeasing you, I'll make sure it never happens again"

"Don't fret, it's a small mistake. I'll be going now" Alex replied, his body started to dissipate.

Alex regained back his consciousness before he stretched his body.

It was quite tiring to train outside in the cold and also in the middle of the night, however, he did manage to make a substantial improvement, almost able to cast the Body Visage spell that would mask his physical prowess from Natalia's visionators.

Glancing at Natalia, sleeping soundly, Alex shakes her head, "I'm glad she's a heavy sleeper"

"Leaving in the middle of the night would be way harder if she's not" He added.

Positioning his body comfortably, Alex then decided to get some shut-eye and droused into the dreamland. Oblivious to him, Natalia had her eyes wide awake and heard what he was mumbling to himself earlier.

But she didn't do anything and closed her eyes once again.

A new day has come.

Effectively, this is the fourth day since the beast horde appeared and they were abandoned.

Alex and Natalia are currently scouring around the area in search of a stray beast that would supply their food reserves. It was depleted yesterday, and they would need to do the old-fashioned way of hunting beasts and cooking them.

In the middle of the day, the two managed to catch one and cook it.

While the two were eating beside a bonfire that they created, Alex stole a glance at Natalia and found that she was checking the navigation device a couple of times. He caught her doing this numerous times already, and he didn't know the reason.

"Care to tell me why you are checking the navigation device repeatedly?" Alex asked.

Upon hearing this, Natalia gazed up in surprise, "Nothing..."

"I'm just being cautious about the beast horde, is that wrong for me to do?" She added.

Pausing for a second while taking a bite from the roasted meat, Alex raised an eyebrow questioningly, "So which one is it? Your answer? Is it nothing or you're being cautious about the beast horde? If you want to lie then be consistent at least"

"Geez, why would I need to lie?" Natalia rolled her eyes, annoyed by his remarks.

She then crossed her arms in front of her, "It seems like you're suspicious of me for some reason. Come on, don't you know that it's uncomfortable for me if you're being suspicious like that? I'm not mad at you about that comment of yours, I swear!" Natalia averted her face away, depicting her annoyance.

"In that case, you leave me with no choice but to make you uncomfortable too" She added.

Alex looks at her in confusion, he doesn't know what she meant, "Hmm...?"

"I don't want to ask this, but you brought this for yourself," Natalia said before she leaned forward, a peculiar look adorned her enchanting face. "Who's Delilah? I heard you mumble that name a couple of times in your sleep. Is it your girlfriend?"

Caught off guard, Alex coughed a couple of times.

But he quickly cleared his throat and averted his gaze away, "Let's just eat"

"Hah! You don't like it if I make you uncomfortable now, do you?" Natalia smiled in triumph.

Rumble!

As the two bantered during their meal session, the ground beneath them began to tremble, intensifying until it shook everything around them. Both of them snapped to attention, their expressions furrowing as they scanned their surroundings.

"What's happening? An earthquake? Or is the beast horde?" Natalia exclaimed in puzzlement.

It was quite peaceful earlier but it turned like this almost instantly.

Closing his eyes for a moment, Alex touched the ground and activated the Detection spell that he learned recently. A pulse of white mana expanded to the surroundings, like a ripple that was created on the surface of water by a droplet.

Only then that the frown on his face become even more evident.

"No, this is a-"

Before he could finish his sentence, a thunderous, animalistic roar echoed through the air.

Roar!!

Alex and Natalia instantly realized that the beast horde came to be because of an aspiring leader who was about to awaken, and the beast horde itself was trying to secure the entire forest before this beast leader woke up.

"We're in trouble, this is not a regular beast" Alex mused with a troubled tone.

Natalia was also feeling the same, "Let's get away from it first!"

Deciding that their best course of action was to sprint as far away as possible from the source of the roar, Alex and Natalia immediately bolted in the opposite direction, leaving behind the roasted beast they had caught earlier.

However, the crisis that builds inside of them is not solely directed to the beast leader.

Gazing up to the spaceship, Alex clenched his jaw seeing that it was moving.

'This is bad...' He pondered.

Since the academy would prioritize the safety of the aspirants onboard the most compared to them, the probability that the two would actually be abandoned for real becomes quite high thanks to the beast leader.

If they were abandoned, then both of them were totally screwed.

"Look! I think the ship dropped something near the peak of the mountain!" Natalia shouted.

Upon hearing this, Alex looked back up again and saw what she was saying was true. It seemed there was a small spacecraft that was dropped from the spaceship's hangar and landed near the peak of the snowy mountain they were on.

After doing that, the spaceship floated higher into the planet's atmosphere.

Realizing that there was still a chance for him and Natalia to reach safety, Alex's eyes flashed determinedly. 'I thought they would be heartless and leave us behind, but it seems they were not going to leave us without giving us a fighting chance. Good.'

"Natalia! Let's pick up our pace!" Alex said before he started to speed up with the Dash spell.

Surprisingly, Natalia has no problem following from behind.

Both of them blitzed past the forest without even looking back at the beast leader who was already fully awake. The aura coming from it was humongous, and it wouldn't be surprising if the beast was a Type-3 Beast.

Gazing at a tall cliff standing in front of them, Alex readies his Soundwave Gloves.

Swiftly, he grabbed Natalia's waist and pulled her close.

Swoosh!

Blasting the soundwave below them, Alex managed to propel both of them onto the cliff before continuing their sprint without stopping. However, their eyes widened finding that the beast horde was right beside them on their right.

"You don't have any bullets left, I'll deal with them" Natalia volunteered and tilted away.

Since the plasma pistol was already drained of energy, she thought that it was empty.

Oblivious to her, Alex could use his mana to keep on using it if he wanted to, but he wouldn't do that unless necessary. It would be unfortunate for Natalia to know about his unique ability when even Casper is already slightly suspicious of him.

Alex praised her when he saw her taking care of the beasts with her Psi-blades easily.

'She's composed and strong, maybe I can recruit her as a crew member for when I have my own battleship' He pondered, mentally writing in his mind that Natalia might be a potential crew member for him.

It took quite some time before the two eventually reached where the spacecraft was.

Climbing vigorously, Alex eventually reached the place.

From above, he started firing his plasma pistol to help Natalia who was chased by five beasts. Now that he has an excuse for getting an energy capsule from the spacecraft, he could help her.

Natalia eventually also reached the place, panting heavily.

"Where did you get the energy capsule?"

"I found it near the spacecraft, but that doesn't matter"

But as the two took a brief break, Alex glanced to another side and found two other aspirants wearing the same environmental suit, albeit torn and completely broken reaching the place. Clearly, they were also abandoned here and tried to reach the spacecraft.

A moment later, the two aspirants made eye contact with them.

However, one of them shifted their eyes to Natalia before his eyes suddenly bulged in anger.

"YOU BITCH!" He shouted furiously.

Upon hearing this, Alex tilted his head in confusion. 'Huh...? What's going on here?'