Hunting

As the two of you explored the Abandoned City, you passed by and encountered a few groups of raptures who instinctively started attacking you, mainly because of Eight.

Those same raptures focused on attacking the Nikke, who was defended by your tough body before doing a quick counterattack by the form of parrying the bullets back, pure physical strength, or Eight's bullets.

Regaining energy is quite an easy task, because simply eating the cores of the raptures were enough to restore lost energy and even give you around 150 to 300 Evolution Points each.

Nikke are a better alternative though, but you preferred if they're dead and cannot be ressurected.

While scavenging for stuff on a large part of the city, Eight found ammo, supplies left by Nikke teams and humans, and even weapons for Nikke she decided to use in case using her weapon wasn't enough.

There were weapons she didn't want, such as a Misillis Model shotgun and two sub machine guns, so you tried eating the three weapons.

Then, the strangeness you'll feel when you are evolving was felt on your body, mainly on your vulcans and pincers.

[ Vulcans Upgraded!

> +45% Faster Firing Rate

> More Capable of damaging stuff

> Now fires in a straight line ]

[ Evolution Obtained: Shotgun Pincers (Automatically equipped)

> Located between your pincers, these bad boys can shoot sharp pellets that deal incredible damage to a target!

> Short Range, use with caution

> Capable of parrying ]

[ Evolution Rank Up: 11 > 13 ]

"This is good!" You expressed your delight by thinking of testing the two weapons out later if you find an Elite Rapture to hunt.

".... I won't back down on a challenge." You told yourself as Eight glanced at you with some confusion.

"Hey, Metal Crab. You okay?" She asked, and you replied by nodding your body.

"Good, let's continue by searching for good stuff around. Maybe we could find something useful?"

You two did not find anything useful.

But, as a day passed you found a small group of raptures going to your direction. At this time you were around 5 kilometers north from your base.

Eight crouched down behind a large boulder she could take cover on, observing the area on the distance at a short interval.

And you only stood there, observing the group, carefully analysing the numbers of the raptures.

Through checking your knowledge, you conclude that were 20 enemy raptures, which were the following:

- 12 Husks, 9 on the ground and 3 on the air

  - They were Strikers, Abettors and Skimmets

- 4 Mono Eyes on the corner, and 3 Runners, all at servant rank

- And One Elite, classified as a Peacock (image below)

Their numbers may look troublesome, but a single squad of Nikke is enough to defeat them, and their numbers are not even that big to be like fighting in the game's regular stage.

And, you're here to test out some weapons before deciding to raise some raptures.

"Let's act territorial." You told yourself as you extended your pincers to the sides and tapped your legs on the ground.

Seeing your movements, the raptures seemed at each other, blinked their cores, and then the Elite class rapture moved forward, thinking you are challenging it.

Therefore, it leaped and landed right in front of you. Showing off its massive body that was at least three times bigger than yours.

Its metallic body seemed incredibly tough to crack, some parts of its body had hexagonal plates acting as armor. There were two turrets floating at its sides and like most of the raptures, it has four legs.

Fun fact: It's a weaker version of a certain Lord-Class Rapture named Armstrong.

And despite its size, you're not intimidated by it as you walked forward and aimed your pincers right at the bigger rapture, opening them as you did.

Then...

.... A battle starts!

The Peacock blinked its core, before firing several shots from its arms at you while it moved, keeping a close enough distance from the two of you.

In response, you moved at a similar speed, firing your vulcans rapidly towards the enemy rapture, hitting the thick carapace and other parts of its body.

The bullets from the enemy rapture hit your body, you feel like a bee has stung you. Small dents were on your body, and there were some bullet holes on weaker parts of your body.

In comparison, your vulcan's damage output was equal to your enemy's own.

Soon it decided to quickly smash its body to yours.

However, what it didn't expect was that you had parried its charging attack. Instead the rapture was launched back just by you swinging your pincers hard.

Confused, it charged forwards again to attack with its sharp legs to which you parried the legs.

Aggravated, the Elite rapture screeched, sending the signal to all raptures under it to attack.

Said raptures moved into their positions, and their target is you.

Now bullets, missiles and bombs almost seemed to rain down against you while you stood your ground, ready to parry, dodge or tank as many of these as possible.

On the sidelines Eight was observing the area in front of her, before she decided it was time and briefly exited her cover, aiming at a weak rapture flying on the air.

With her sniper rifle preemptively charged, she released the trigger, letting the bullet fly through the air and pierced through the target's core in the blink of an eye.

"One." She muttered, swiftly aiming for another flying rapture.

"Two."

*Bang!*

Another rapture fell to the ground, and now all of them started to notice her.

".... Three."

It should be noted that the raptures fire in short bursts while charging up their weapons and at the distance your enemies were at, you could simply leave them to Eight who would kill them in a good distance.

Projectiles were punched towards several raptures along with the elite who could barely dodge that strange return-to-sender technique that they don't have any good defenses against.

Safe to say, it took less effort taking care of the mobs, but the Elite was quite tough.

Just using your vulcans won't do anything good, so you charged right towards your opponent using your own pincers like they were fists.

Safe to say, it worked, stunning and giving your opponent a good, effective beating.

Eight, who exited her cover, observed you beating the crab out of the Elite in wonder.

"Damn, feels like I'm watching a macha beat another mecha in person!" She commented, before cheering at you. "Go!"

"Shotgun pincers, ready!" You told yourself as you aimed the barrels on your pincers to the enemy rapture who was at a state of recovery.

It was about to leap away, until you blew off two of its legs with your shotguns.

"Woah!"

Shotguns are rad, so you began shooting the carapace until the damage was enough to leave the enemy rapture unable to continue fighting.

It groaned weakly as you cocked back your pincer, and with a swift flick, the  pincers dug into the enemy rapture, and between them, the core.

"Get over here!"

You grabbed and pulled the core out, before inspecting it. It wasn't as large as you thought, and its as big as a regular heart.

[ Elite Rapture Core (Peacock) ]

[ > The Core of a rapture that was freshly pulled out, still alive and still beating

> By devouring it, you will obtain 2,500 Evolution Points and an Ability that it has (first time only) ]

"....."

You proceeded to eat the rapture core. Bit by bit, piece by piece.

As the entire core was consumed, you felt another change in your body. After blinking a few times, you began to notice a few changes in your body as declared by the system.

[ Evolution Obtained: Hexa Pattern Armor

> A pattern found on most heavily armored raptures to imitate the Atlas Pattern

> This pattern heavily increases your armor's resilience and toughness, also makes it vetter to repair

> Works best against explosives ]

[ Evolution Obtained: Pack Leadership

> An ability that allows you to tame, command and lead packs of raptures

> In the rapture world, strength and size is power! But with your intelligence and other stuff, you might be able to make an entire rapture society!

> Wonder how humanity will react... ]

[ Evolution Level: 13 >>> 15 ]

[ Current Evolution Points: 5,400 ]

[ You have now become an EXID-class rapture ]

Aside from feeling that you have tougher and more resilient armor, parts of your arms gained an armor with a hexagonal pattern.

You also became a few inches taller and wider, and you feel like you have more energy to spare.

Before we proceed, what are EXID-class raptures?

Here's the answer: They're Servant-class raptures that are close to evolving to the Elite class. Also, they're naturally bigger than ordinary Servant-class raptures.

You had this feeling that you're going to have to leave this city soon, and as you glanced at Eight, you gestured at the other fallen raptures.

"Blue, what do you want me to do again?" She asked, and then you brought her a Servant-class rapture's corpse, tapping at its core.

"....?"

You pulled out the core and gave it to her. At that point, she understood what you meant.

"You want me to eat it?"

You responded with a nod, and the Nikke became silent, wondering if she could really do it.

.... So she took a bite and chewed on the core like it was one of those candies that became soft with a bite; the only thing bad is that it won't soften because of its composition.

"...!!!!"

Soon, an uncomfortable feeling rose up from her stomach to her chest, almost making her feel like throwing up; however, she knew something was strange about her body.

'... 8 percent of my energy has recovered and... I got battle data from it? How was this possible?'

With her hesitation being worn out, she decided to eat the other cores given by you until her core's energy has reached an incredible level.

At that time, the uncomfortable feeling started to go away.

Normally she has to save a lot of her energy because she has to move and fight raptures, gaining experience the more she spends her time with you.

She should just get used to sticking around with you. She does not consider herself a "Goddess of Victory" for humanity anymore.

But if that really was the case, she should be treated like a human, right?

No. She's just a tool, a mass produced weapon handled without care because she is replaceable.

You, a single intelligent rapture treated her more like a human than them. Her meeting you was just a fortuitous encounter for her.

"...."

You were taking a look at your evolutionary tree on the system, wondering what to spend your points on.

[ Evolution - Elite Class

> Automatically unlocked after you reach specific requirements:

  > Evolution Rank 30 (×)

  > Skill: Leadership (√) ]

[ After you evolve to Elite Class, you will unlock various Evolutionary Nodes ]

"...."

Naturally, to obtain Evolution Ranks, you either upgrade any skill you have or gain a new skill. So, you thought of upgrading your skills just for later.

But for now, there was somebody you have to take care of.

Eight.

"Hey, what is wrong with you?" You asked yourself, feeling like you should be very serious about her since something is definitely wrong.

She was on a silent trance, staring at the ground with terrifying intensity.

Only your touch was enough to snap her out of it.

"...."

She looked at you with her crimson eyes filled with solemnity. You have corrupted her and you already knew it would happen way earlier.

"Hey, Blue." She said, before shaking her head. "Forget about it. Let's return home."

She should let go of her past. There's nowhere to go but with you anyways.

As you returned to your base, you failed to notice a few Nikke on the distance.

These Nikke were Mass-Produced, thankfully.

"Hey, did you see that?" One of the Nikke said. "Are my eyes fooling me?"

This one was a generic mass produced Nikke not manufactured by the Big Three who had a generic green bodysuit.

"Apparently not. A Missilis Nikke and a Rapture are going together. Quite an unusual sight." The other said, narrowing her eyes.

This one was just like her fellow generic Nikke, but her color was a bit different.

"Let's report this to our commander. We'll see what will happen next." She said, before they marched out of the area together.

When they did report this to their commander, that same commander became silent.

"A rapture and a Nikke, together? That's ridiculous, that rapture might as well kill that Nikke." Their commander replied nonchalantly, waving his hand in disbelief.

"But, we saw them!" The Nikke responded.

"Really? Describe their appearances then." Their commander replied.

"The rapture is blue and looks more like a crab than those other raptures."

"...."

Their commander pursed his lips together, as if trying to remember something.

"Like that rapture a month ago? Eh, those guys down there didn't really believe me though, said that I just panicked and hallucinated because I was not getting enough sleep." He spoke, before ending it with a sarcastic grunt, spitting on the ground.

"Well, whatever. Our job here is to scout the area, not to hunt down some special rapture or subjugate an irregular. Let's leave the area, I'll go report this to Deputy Chief Andersen. He's much more better to talk to than the other two Deputy Chiefs anyway!"

What will happen to the two of you now?

{{ ×~× TO = BE = CONTINUED ×~× }}

Gib me stars

Oh, and Eight's corruption?

About that, that's not dangerous to her or the Main Character.