Reawakenings And Hunters

~psweuhh~

"The flail?...are these people kidding me, isn't that too early, it's hardly even an hour yet...anyway, let's go to them," Rachel shouted as she thrust her fist into the gut of the final frozen knight-like catastrophe, and she and the rest of them began to sprint towards the flail. As she got closer to the area, she noticed someone crawling ahead of her, so she sped up. She immediately pushed healing potions down his throat, but they couldn't totally heal him; the best they could do was relieve his agony and provide internal first aid to the wound.

She propped him up on her thighs a little bit "What happened with Teyber? Where has everyone gone? " She asked gently so as not to put undue pressure on the hurt.

"...m...m-mons..ss..ster..." the boy muttered slowly and painfully as he stretched his hands towards the ice mound ahead.

"Hey you and you, look after him... avoid all combat till you know he's safe."

Two of them dashed forward, carrying the injured boy, and began to flee, as Rachel and the others continued up the hill. When she arrived, she noticed the humanoid behemoth which was far taller than the ones she has faced, standing on the bodies of her party members it had murdered, as though it was waiting.

She gazed around, seeing their blood all over the snow on the hill, and her rage surged within her.

[You've awoken]

She became aware of a blue interface in front of her. "What in the world is this?" She said to herself, but she didn't care because she was plainly absorbed by her rage at what was in front of her. She gripped her long sword tightly and drew it as she dashed at the catastrophe--,

-Clangg!-

-grrrrh-

--who in response stood up and swung its sword from below to counter Rachel's direct piercing strike, she was pushed back with a shivering but she quickly recovered

-WHOOOSH-

She closed in, sweeping past the wind and swung her fancy longsword from above as the catastrophe lifted its sword above it's head to block, she abandoned the sword as it fell on it's and plunged herself forward, piercing the catastrophes waist with a dagger she had hidden and quickly rolling out of range.

[Reawakening Condition met: React angrily to a catastrophe while in the gate]

[You can use your unique skill: Great Weapon Master(S)]

"Whatever it is, I'm sure I need it right now!" She shrieked as she rolled aside to avoid the beast's powerful downward strike.

-CRASH-

As the catastrophe's sword smashed the ground she was initially standing on, the ground disintegrated and debris scattered.

~shrrrinnnhh~

With a gentle light on her palms, she could feel a surge of esp energy within her.

"What on earth is this?" her eyes widened, "...could this be the reawakening brother was talking about?" She picked up her Longshore, which was three steps distant because it had been flung off earlier, and peered down at the interface in front of her.

[Unique Skill: Great Weapon Master]

[Skill level: S]

[When utilizing a Weapon with a proficiency level of 10 or higher, you can land a one-hit kill,

*When unique skill is triggered, all Weapon weight becomes ineffective and can be used to your advantage and to boost your strike]

"Cool," she remarked, noticing the tingling sensations on the tips of her fingers.

-WHHISSSHH!!-

-SLASH!!!-

She dashed at the catastrophe, her legs faster than before, she heavily spun forward into the air and over the shoulder of the catastrophe as her sword followed through, the impact dividing the wind blasted forth the snow below, the sword grazed the monster's shoulder, and blood splurged out despite the fact that it was metal.

She landed with a smile on her face, exclaiming, "This is great!" She looked back and laughed at the catastrophe, her wrath having been changed into ecstasy by the struggle.

Reawakening...even among esper, there exist real things, the first esper's first awakening is like a prelude to the real thing, all espers can awaken but only a few meet the conditions to reawaken, however, if an esper reawakens he is guided by a blue interface system and can even level up and get stronger, reawakened espers are known as HUNTERS...a specie everyone wants to be..." Gringo scoffs from where he stands, seeing Rachel from a distance.

[Target slain]

[You have leveled up]

Hunter's Name: Rachel Burton

Health Points: 12,300

Esp Energy points/used: 350,000/99,000

Hunter's Level: 002

Hunter's Class: Paladin

Unique Skill: Great Weapon Master(S)

Other skills(0/13):

Weapon Mastery(longsword): lv.6

Weapon Mastery(dagger): lv.4

Weapon Mastery(shield):lv.7

Strength: 30

Vitality: 50(-17)

Dexterity: 20

Constitution: 16

"Wow...even though brother said it, I had no idea this was going to be the case, barely seeing these things proves it, I've reawakened, I'm an hunter!" She jumped in the air as joyfully as she could.

~Step~

"Congratulations on becoming a hunter," said the Gringo in front of her.

"Wait, so this was what it was all about, the sifting and sending us into the gate?" Rachel inquired.

"How would I know, I simply came to tell you not to relax yet, there are still catastrophes nearby, many like the one you just killed..." he stated before walking away.

"Tch!...I should have brought my shield..." she exclaimed as she grabbed removed her dagger from the dead catastrophe's waist and walked away from the scene.

Meanwhile,

[After several minutes of analyzing the gate, I discovered why there appear to be catastrophes from another gate in this gate] Black said.

"Give it to me," Karl said as he stabbed his sword into the jaw of a storm-controlling knight-like catastrophe similar to the ones Rachel fought. Blood poured on him as he drew the smoky dark blade from the catastrophe's jaw.

[Two gates are connected together]

"Huh? "What exactly is that?" Karl inquired.

[Two gates are linked, implying that there is another gate inside this one]

"What?! "How on earth is it even possible?"

[It will take me a long time to get to the bottom of this problem and figure out how it was conceivable, let alone how to unlink it.]

"So, what are you saying right now? We're taking on a two-in-one gate."

[Yes]

"But can you undo it?"

[Yes]

Black responded to him.

"So which monsters belong to the grade B gate? the frozen weak ones...?"

[Yes, the storm-controlling species called: Theilroids ones appear to be from this gate. And they appear to share a lot in common, even the catastrophes are from the same familiae and genus]

"Call of darkness"

New dark troops sprang from the bodies of the dead catastrophes, all wearing hard black heavy armor and emitting a blue freezing aura mingled with darkness. The storm controllers lacked eyes, but their razored teeth were blue and emitted a blue smoke-like aura.

[Status Interface]

Warrior name: Division too low to be named.

Level: 1

Division: Trainee

Warrior Class: Storm Knight

Attack Power: 100

Temperment: 10

Defense Power: 180

Attack Speed: 100

Perks: Locked

Unique Perks:

"Black this is really beginning to annoy me, what is with all these measly numbers"

[Catastrophes are nerfed]

"WHY?!"

[Because you don't have the dominating power to govern them]

"Way to throw it at my face."

"Well, that brings my dark force arsenal to 47 warriors so far... and we have yet to confront truly powerful catastrophes" Karl stated as he gazed around the cave entrance where he killed the storm controlling catastrophes "Well, whatever's in here must be a hot shot if it's guarded by 17 storm controllers"

[Theilroids]

"... let's go in," he said throwing hos face forward and moving ahead on his own, holding two of his dark shadow swords.

.....

"Damn, we just saw her take down a monster, this isn't a joke... she's strong," says one.

"And what was that light, Hunter? I can't believe that instructor said that, does he think this is a joke?" "I know, I don't even get to hear that word very frequently; I forgot it existed."

"But you guys... if what the Instructor is saying is true, does that mean that we might be able to reawaken as well?"

"Dream on... did you know she's from the world's second best clan?"

"But look at that white-haired guy; I'm very sure he's a hunter as well."

"Now that you mention it... it could be real, or he could just be a powerful esper."

After seeing Rachel stroll off on her own, the rest of the squad got into a heated debate. It was as though they had given up on the reason they were in the gate.

"But we lost a lot of people... we definitely should've just listened to the Karl," a shy boy admitted.

"Uh? "Who exactly is Karl?" Amidst them, an arrogant voice shouted out.

"Don't you know, the white-haired kid?" said another.

"Tchii! "You think we came here to have our asses ordered, or to wait for some strong dude to kill us some catastrophe?" the arrogant voice's owner stood up as he spoke, grabbing his white coat and his two swords.

"Everyone is on their own, no place is truly safe... those catastrophes may meet you here, otherwise you may prove to be valuable and fight for yourselves."

"You might be arrogant, but you really should've been the one to lead the squad... why have you been silent this whole time?" said another.

While the others sat there waiting, two others rose up, and the shy boy cautiously stood up as well.

As they walked away, the rest of the group gazed at them.

Meanwhile, Gringo continued to search for Karl but was unable to locate him; he eventually gave up because he needed to keep an eye on Rachel, who was stabbing through grade S storm controllers and laying waste to them, but at the expense of her stamina as she approached a cave, she looked around and saw dead bodies laying around, she let out a soft chuckle. "...he's here," she continued inside.

Gringo came to a halt at the cave's entrance "I can't believe she's going into that cave without thinking twice; did she forget she's in a grade S gate, and what's the deal... I've never encountered two different types of catastrophes in the same gate..." "I have to go and watch the others...and leave these ones to their luck...come to think of it, is the white haired kid reawakened?" he looked back and said as he vanished once more.

As Rachel ventured deeper inside, she saw more and more corpses; it was becoming too much for her, and she was becoming concerned. '...are these catastrophes supposed to be this big?' she wondered. After a 20-minute trip inside, she drew her sword as she noticed catastrophes gathered front of her, and as she plunged forward, she swiftly jumped back as dark colored after effects of sword strokes flowed in the air, in different trajectories as the wielder soured through the catastrophes, flinging them in the air and stabbing through them.

He was using only a dark shadow sword, but his strikes were explosive yet aligned, not to mention the dark-reddish aura that followed each arcal strike enticed the atmosphere itself, the streaks of aura flowed so beautifully she wanted to jump into it, she was consumed in the beauty of the sword that she did not know when Karl's sword was pointing to her.

'...good thing I wasn't too consumed, she may have seen more,' Karl thought as the dark shadow sword faded away.

[Awesome... now extricate]

Black who had gone back into hiding within him, said into his head

'No'

[Why not?]

'Because I don't want her to see my abilities... didn't you say concealing information about your unique ability is a wise thing to do'

[Will you lose over a hundred troops because of this?]

'It's fine, and it's a good thing I chose to fight alone.'

"What exactly are you doing here?" Karl inquired.

"What was that?! I swear I've never seen anything like that!! Can you show me? Is it some family heirloom or something?!!" Rachel responded with a lively tone.

"Huh?" Karl was taken aback by the tone in her voice and so many questions, "I asked a question first," he stated firmly, with a stern expression on his face.

"Ha... I have to defeat the gatekeeper in order to get everyone out quick and safe, you see... we lost close alot already"

"What? how? Did you miss my message? "Karl stated this with a scowl on his face.

'This guy... did he really expect us to wait for him?' Rachel pondered.

"Well... whatever, you all can keep dying for all I care, I was just trying to take responsibility for hauling a lot of weaklings to a high grade gate but it seems like it wasn't even worth it," Karl said, turning around and walking deeper into the cave.

"You genuinely care about us?" Rachel murmured as she caught up with him. "But you act as if you don't," she pointed out.

"Look, kid, I don't care what you do...just don't get in my way," Karl stated as they neared a large open area within the cave.

Rachel took her sword in her hands. "Status Window," she said as she looked down, scanning her status.

'Did I just hear her say Status window?' Karl's eyes widened.