Henry looked at his own hand, very different from what it was before, it looked and felt a lot better in many ways. But even if it was better he had a hard time liking it, as he dint know what where the intentions of the monster that did this to him and what price he had to pay.
He looked back at his mother and said "I don't really know, just before all of this stuff happened, I had this weird dream, I was in this world, the sky was completely black, filled with thunder.
Then this shadow monster came of the ground, it had like nine glowing blue eyes. It said something about us becoming whole, becoming one. When I woke up all of this begun happening.
Anyway lets get going, see if I dint miss any good food to bring with us."
The two walked back to the kitchen, Barbara checking the cabinets and putting anything good in her suitcase while Henry checked thru the window for any unexpected guests.
Henry was about to release a relived sigh, but then he saw a shadow moving on the yard, quickly noticing that it was the shadow of a giant red mantis on the roof.
"Fuck, one more thing to worry about." he cursed on his mind.
A minute later Richard walked into the kitchen, he said "I found the radio, it stills has batteries."
"Good, we can go now, so we will go to Maple leaf lake, hope the rangers cabin is empty. We have to be extremely careful as dragons and giant mantis exis."
Suddenly many gunshots came from the front neighbors house, starting to get used to unexpected events Henry recovered in a second and said "Lets go, its the perfect opportunity, lets go."
Henry picked his mother suitcase opened the kitchen door to the yard and ran outside, his parents lagged a bit but followed him.
He threw the suitcase and the knife over the fence and jumped over, he saw his neighbors staring at him thru the window, but he dint bother just waited for his parents and went on his way.
Thankful to the gunshots most of the monsters in the area had moved towards it allowing them to safely run for a few blocks.
But just as they got their guard down their luck ended, a red praying mantis jumped from a roof in front of them and screeched, calling two others mantis.
Henry shouted "Run!" but he didn't move, his legs refusing to turn around, his blue eyes glowed in anger when he saw the human blood on the blade arms of the mantis, out of his knife a blue sharp transparent blade grew like extension to knife.
The giant mantis in the middle was the first to leap at him, opening his arms wide to give Henry a death hug.
In Henry eyes everything started moving in slow motion, his level of concentration reaching an extreme level. He took a step forward and swung his knife in a fast upward slash, cutting the red mantis in two, its yellow blood splashing on him.
Wind begun spinning around him as he ran towards the second mantis, reaching twice the speed of an Olympic runner, cutting the second mantis in half with a downward swing before it could react.
The third mantis screeched and was about to leap at Henry when a shot from Richard rifle exploded his head.
Richard ran to Henry, which was looking to the body of the mantis with anger, and said "Son are you okay? Why dint you run?"
"I, I don't know, I" Henry stammered, confused as to why he acted in a way he would never even think of doing before, a blue floating screen appearing in front of him.
"Its okay, its okay, we have to get out of here fast. Come lets go." said Richard gently pushing Henry, the three walking into a gas station store nearby.
The cashier, named Josh, who was hiding behind the counter got up said "Hey the store" but quickly stopped talking when he saw the gun in Richard hand and Henry dirtied with yellow blood.
Richard said "We don't want any trouble, we just want hide from the monsters."
Josh gulped and stammered "They, they dint follow you right? Right?."
Richard just shook his head and Josh released a relived sigh, going back to hiding like a rat behind the counter.
Very worried Barbara looked at Henry up and down touching his arms, looking for any wound, as she asked "Are you hurt? Did they hit you anywhere?"
Henry responded "No, I am fine, they didn't touch me. hey can you guys see this screens?"
Barbara said "Screens? I can't see anything."
Richard asked "Yeah I was going to ask, I can see two blue screen, one says I got a skill Mantis leap while other says I leveled up twice"
Having had his interest greatly piqued in an instant, Josh came from hiding asking "Did you just say level up? Like in real life?"
Henry said "Yes, it says I leveled up three times, and I also got a skill, multiple strikes."
"Wait, Let me, Hahaha, its actually true, yo guys think stat, like think you want to see your status. Haha I can't believe this is real!" Josh did a little dance out of happiness and hit his elbow on the wall, a tear coming of his eye.
Having read and watched his fare share of novels and animes Henry was quick to understand what Josh was saying, not having thought of it himself because his mind was quite disturbed at the moment.
He did like Josh said and wished to see his stats in his thoughts and like he expected a screen appeared, much like one of a rpg game. He read,
"Name: Henry Evans
Race: Devourer (Human form)
Elements: Darkness, wind, arcane, demonic, electric.
God Blessing: none.
Level: 3
Rank: F
Mana: 30,3/30,3
Aura: 30,3/30,3
Stats:
Strength: 2,02
Endurance: 3,03
Vitality: 2,31
Dexterity: 3,04
Mind: 2,01
Magic: 3,03
Level points: 0,3
Skills:
Spells: arcane blade (Rare), Hellflame arrow (Uncommon), electric bolt (Uncommon)
Techniques: Hypnotizing gaze (Rare), multiple strikes (uncommon), darkness cover (common), wind blessing (common).
Passive: Senses of the devourer (Epic).
Special: Devour (Godly)"
Henry blurted "Its actually real." Worried for Henry Barbara asked "What is real? Are you okay son?"
"Mom, imagine that your strength, endurance, dexterity and so on, is a number then wish to see them, wish to see your stats."
"My stats… oh! Is it this blue screen? Can you see it honey?"
Richard said "No, let me try. Oh, yeah I can see it."
As his parents talked about the screen the cashier came to Henry and said "You watched anime right? You know that this means?"
"Yeah, it means we can grow stronger and fight against this monsters."
"Haha, you know it, we can grow, become kings. I can already imagine myself never working this shit job ever again."
Richard butted in angry "What are you two talking about, are you going crazy Henry?! Do you want to die? You almost got sliced by that thing earlier. What if I missed? What if I missed and shot you?"
Barbara scolded "Did this transformation mess you in the head? First you jump on one of this monsters now this. What has gotten into you?"
Henry shouted "I am the insane one? We go to that lake and what? Wait for the monsters to reach there and kill us?"
Richard rebuked "You where the one that said for us to go there. In fact you have been acting completely unlike yourself since you became like this."
"Yeah I have been acting weird, I pass out and wake up like this, the world is ending, a giant dragon and his armies of giant mantis took over the city, our army can't do shit, they responded as fast as lightning and failed like shit.
What do we do? Pray to the god in heaven? If that weird angel can be trusted it was the goddamn gods who did all this. We only have ourselves.
We either coward away and get killed by this mantis or whatever else is out there or we make our base here and kill as many monsters we can, gain the strength of a thousand man."
At the end of his speech Henry stopped and looked at his hands then said almost whispering "What am I saying, What is happening to me."
Everyone stayed quite for a few seconds when they heard Henry, his parents dint know what say or do for him.
Breaking the silence Josh asked "Did you just say you saw a dragon? A real big one? spitting fire and everything? In the city? What was this plan about going to a park? it sound very good, someone will definitely save the world and I can go back to working this wonderful cashier job."