Chapter 30 - Tier Two

Two-Headed Serpents...they grew upto fifteen to twenty meters in length, and when fully open, their mouths were wide enough for a human child to crawl through. And this one just ate Instructor Reed. As for the four of us that were still alive, we were all frozen in fear, unable to even scream out, as the Mutant stared down at us hungrily.

Damn it, no, I need to calm down! I bit my lower lip, drawing blood, the pain helping me regain my composure a bit. Okay, let's analyze the situation...I should use my ability and go back...doing so wouldn't bring the instructor back to life though, her body would be alive but her head would be empty, but there was nothing I could do about that. Crap, the Serpent was getting ready to strike again, I need to use my-...wait, on second thought, it might be worth fighting this thing a bit before using my ability.

I could get an idea of just how effective I was against a K-Ranked Mutant, and if we managed to kill it, then it wouldn't attack us again after I use my ability. I'll fight it till I'm down to fifty percent of my XFE, I currently had a little over eighty percent, and then I'm using Load...

"Everyone, spread out quickly!" I yelled out, snapping the others out of it.

Both the heads struck out towards Zoya, I swiftly fired four shots from my X-Blasters, aimed at their eyes. I managed to strike one eye on each head, and while my remaining two shots made solid impact, they narrowly missed the eyes. Taayin then shot straight towards the Mutant with his finger-blades manifested. Suri and Zoya were rushing in from either side...looks like destroying a couple of its eyes had given the others some confidence.

The Serpent was still halfway underground, it's head and about nine meters of its body were outside where we could see it, but the rest of it was still underground...good, that should restrict its mobility. I fired another couple of shots at its remaining eyes as the others closed in on it, but it was keeping an eye on me, and turned both its heads the instant I fired, my shots striking the sides of its faces. Some higher ranked Mutants had higher levels of intelligence...how troublesome.

It looks like my shots were doing some damage, the last ones I fired blasted off some of its scales and about an inch of its flesh underneath. Hm, given its size, it'll probably take a lot of my XFE to hit it enough times for it to succumb to the poisonous effects of my Dark Attribute...and while my shots were doing damage, the wounds I inflicted were pretty shallow, probably little more than scrapes and scratches to the Mutant.

Taayin was the first to reach the Serpent, swinging his claws at it, but unable to pierce through. Suri was flinging shurikens at it, but they were bouncing off harmlessly. The Serpent's attention was on Zoya to its left and on me about twenty meters in front of it. It was watching me warily, while the other head looked ready to strike at Zoya. Each head had about seven meters of length to themselves, after which their necks merged into a single body, so it would probably attack as soon as she got within seven meters...

Taayin then let out a feral roar and drove his finger-blades straight at the Mutant, the tips piercing through...he then strained himself and pushed with all his strength, his blades slowly but surely going into the Serpent's hide. It let out a loud hiss and took its left head's eyes off Zoya, turning its attention to Taayin. The other one was still focused on me. The left head opened its mouth, it's fangs pointed down towards Taayin...and a clear liquid shot out towards him rapidly from its mouth.

"Get back!" I exclaimed, before firing a couple of blasts at the venom, vaporizing most of it, but a few drops struck Taayin as he backed away.

"Arghhhh! Damn it...fuck, my skin is melting...!" He yelled out in pain, as bloody patches appeared on his right arm and chest.

Zoya and Suri had quickly gotten some distance too, after seeing that last attack. Getting close to it was way to risky. Should I use my ability now? No, wait, let me see if I can escape it along with the others...I still wasn't so sure that I had what it takes to lead or whatever, but on the off chance that I did, this was a good opportunity to test it out.

"We can't win this...we need to get back to the bunker," I remarked into the communicator.

"That sounds fucking great...so how are we gonna pull that off, genius?" Inquired Suri, clear panic in her voice.

"Taayin, think you could immobilize it with your Secondary Manifestation?" I inquired hopefully.

"Well, I can try...given it's size, I might have just enough XFE left to make it work, but it'll probably drain me completely."

"Give it a try, we'll carry you back if you can't move afterwards, it shouldn't be a problem if this thing is immobilized in the meantime," I suggested, as I fired another couple of shots, but the Serpent turned its heads again, my shots striking the sides of its faces.

"Do or die, huh...now that's what I'm talking about!"

Alright, this can work, we just need to stay calm and avoid panicking...

"The rest of us will distract it, use that opportunity to-...woah!" I began, before exclaiming as the ground began shaking violently...and another Two-Headed Serpent appeared from the opposite direction, bursting up through the ground...this is bad, we were caught between them in a pincer.

Before I could analyze, let alone relay our next move, the ground burst open again as the first Serpent's tail broke through it, whipping out towards us. We were all sent flying back as debris exploded out and a massive dust cloud got kicked up, my back slammed onto the ground, before a medium-sized chunk of debris crashed down onto my right arm, fracturing my forearm badly as I let out a cry of pain. A small rock came flying out and hit the side of my head, dazing me.

As I struggled to re-orient myself, I could feel it...both Serpents were approaching me. If I had to guess, these things didn't fully emerge from the ground before in order to leave themselves a quick escape option open, and they had emerged now because they had incapacitated their prey and had decided that we were no longer threats.

The second Serpent turned its attention elsewhere for a sec, but the first one hissed at it, and as it did, the second one turned its attention back to me. My vision was blurry, but I could just about see them ahead of me, as the dust began to clear. The first one was still looking at me warily with both heads...

My head was spinning and I felt nauseous, I couldn't think straight, I felt like I wanted to close my eyes and lie down for a bit...but even in my dazed state, I knew I couldn't do that. I bit my lip and raised my left hand, slapping myself as hard as I could, snapping myself out of it. Crap, they're right on top of me, I don't have any time...!

"<Activate Anomaly, Tier-...>!" I began, but I was too late, as the Serpents struck out at me like whips, and before I could stop myself, I shut my eyes in terror as their fangs got within inches in front of my face...

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Huh? I'm not dead?

I slowly opened my eyes, before stiffening as a familiar pain burst through my body, and blood began pouring out of my eyes, mouth, nostrils and ears, everything going black...

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<...bzz..bzz... >

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Static, huh...and then, silence...

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<Unlock Conditions Met: Failure to Use Tier One Prevent Unavoidable Death>

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<Additional Tier Unlocked>

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<Anomaly, Tier Two: Pause and Play, Unlocked>

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What...what was with that Unlock Condition, what the fuck!? Seriously, I had to have a near-death experience after failing to use Tier One in order to unlock Tier Two? I can only imagine what the Unlock Conditions for the other Tiers were...

As I came to and wiped the blood of my face, I looked around at my surroundings...two Serpent heads were inches away from my face, dust and small bits of earth were floating in the air, perfectly still...woah...

I stood up and stepped back, getting some distance away from the Serpent. Incredible, everything was frozen in place except for me. I poked at a stone that was in mid-air, it moved like it was weightless, but only moved as much as I pushed it. I picked up a chunk of earth and attempted to throw it...and the instant I let go of it, it was frozen in place, not even moving an inch past the point where I let go of it.

So, I can move something around so long as I'm touching it, but the instant I stop touching it, any momentum or force I tried to exert onto it would be nullified. And on top of that, anything I touch or pick up felt completely weightless. I walked over to the Serpents and pushed on one of them...it slid backwards effortlessly, it felt easier than pushing open a door.

Okay, I think I know enough about this ability for now, I need to get going. It felt like this was consuming one percent of my XFE per every six seconds, and I'd had a bit over sixty percent when I unlocked it, which was down to about fifty-five percent, which meant that I had a little over five minutes before I'd run out of XFE. We were about two kilometers from the bunker, so I need to hurry.

I swiftly scaled up the body of one of the Serpents and looked around...the others were sprawled around the area, unconscious and injured. I rushed over and gathered them...I couldn't tell whether or not they were alive since their bodies were frozen in time, but they all still felt warm. Just like everything else frozen, they were completely weightless.

Taayin had missing patches of skin all over his right arm and the right side of his chest, and a few grazes and scratches that were probably from the debris. No major injuries as far as I could see, so he's almost definitely alive. Zoya's right forearm was badly broken, a chunk of earth having landed on top of it, her left knee looked dislocated, and she had a bunch of bruises and scratches. Suri's head had taken a hit, her skull was probably fractured, and her right foot was pointing backwards.

I linked their arms together to form a chain so that I could pull all three of them along at the same time, I had to be careful when bending their arms though, it felt like I could snap their bones like twigs if I felt like it. I paused as I walked by what was left of Instructor Alyssa Reed, considering what to do.

I took off my jacket and tore it up a bit, before using it to wrap up her corpse and taking it with me...I only knew her for just about an hour, but I'll admit, her death made me feel a bit sad, especially after her words earlier impacted me. That, and I needed her I-Watch to get into the bunker.

I considered killing the Serpents before going, but I don't have any time to waste, and given their sizes, killing them would definitely take a bit of time. With the others latched onto me and the instructor's remains under my arm, I raced back in the direction we came from as fast as I could, while keeping track of my XFE levels. My fractured right forearm hurt pretty bad, but it was bearable.

It took me around two and a half minutes to race back to the marked X, I was able to run at top speed thanks to the weightlessness of the others. I then unwrapped the instructor's torso and took out her right arm, pointing the face of the watch at the center of the X...but it didn't work. Hm, maybe the scanning mechanism is frozen in time, guess I need to release my ability. I then slowly set the others down and...

"<Activate Anomaly, Tier Two: Play>."

I let the flow of time continue, and tried again...this time it worked, and I quickly stepped off the X as it began to open up, the platform rising up as it did. Suri's head was bleeding again, along with the others' injuries. I dragged them onto the platform slowly, before using the instructor's I-Watch to make the platform descend back down.

After we reached the bottom and the ceiling closed up again, I re-activated my new ability...

"<Activate Anomaly, Tier Two: Pause>."

I then took the others to the infirmary and popped them into the Healing Pods, before releasing my ability in order to activate the pods. I was down to less than a fifth of my total XFE, and I felt really tired...I don't think it's an issue of stamina, I've already experienced this tiredness...it was from the blood loss I suffered when unlocking Tier Two.

I might be better off using Tier One to go back in time, but if I did that, the instructor would be in a vegetative state...normally, I wouldn't care, but I really was grateful for her words, they had given me some confidence, so I'll let her stay dead instead of being stuck in a vegetative state. And besides...I'd rather not go through all that again, especially since things weren't guaranteed to go the same...I might end up facing off against even worse odds.

I got in a Healing Pod myself in order to heal my fractured forearm, which took about fifteen minutes, after which I got out of the pod. I could have spent longer in it to fully heal up all my scratches and bruises too, but they weren't a big deal. The others were unconscious, so the pods they were in would automatically open up after they're fully healed, which would likely drain their stamina.

There were a few beds in the infirmary, I flopped onto one of them with a tired sigh, taking off my glasses and rubbing my eyes with a stifled yawn. If I spent too long in a Healing Pod, it'd eat up my stamina, and at least one of us should be awake in case someone tries to contact us or something. Although, I can't deny that I am pretty tired...maybe I'll just close my eyes for a bit and...

...

...

"...-wake up! Hey, wake up!"

Huh...where am I...? I opened my eyes groggily and blinked a few times...oh, that's right, we were in the bunker. How long had I been asleep?

I sat up and glanced at my I-Watch...crap, it'd been over five hours, I might as well have slept in a Healing P-...eh, whatever, I still felt tired, and couldn't really bring myself to care. Wait, who just woke me up?

"Oh, Taayin...guess you're all recovered, huh," I remarked, my voice a bit hoarse.

I could use some water.

"Yeah, I'm good, kinda drowsy though...so, hey, I'm guessing you brought us back?"

"Hm? Yeah, I guess...," I replied with a shrug, as I filled a glass with water and gulped it down with a sigh of relief.

I then noticed that the other two Healing Pods were also open, meaning that the two girls had woken up too.

"Heh, I kinda freaked out when I woke up in total darkness, thought I was dead or something...took me a while to realize that I was in a Healing Pod. The other two woke up a little while after I got up...that was like, half an hour ago."

"I see...so where are they, anyway?"

"Dunno, I think they're just roaming around. The blondie was kinda in shock," He responded.

"Okay...for now, let's all regroup."

A few minutes later, the four of us gathered in the dining hall of the bunker, opening up some canned food and water.

"Hey, Four-Eyes...how'd you manage to escape those snakes AND drag us back here?" Inquired Suri curiously with her mouth full, wolfing down some food hungrily.

I definitely can't reveal how I did that...

"First off, don't call me Four-Eyes. And as for how I got you guys here, I...I don't know, it's all kind of a blur...I think I panicked and unloaded a barrage of shots from my guns when the Serpents moved in to attack them...that must have blinded them, which made them shrink back in caution, and I was probably running on pure adrenaline while dragging everyone back here...my arms and back are really sore," I lied, making it up as I went along.

"Yo...that's pretty wild, color me impressed," Remarked Taayin with a wide-eyed expression.

"You saved us...if it wasn't for you, we'd have all been eaten," Added Zoya, her expression looked like she was still in shock.

"W-well, like I said, it's kind of a blur...I wasn't really thinking, I just sort of reacted."

"My head is kinda fuzzy and I don't remember exactly what happened too clearly...where's the instructor?" Asked Suri, rubbing her head.

Her injuries had been healed, but she had taken a pretty heavy hit to the head.

"You really forgot? She got eaten when that snake first showed up, remember?" Answered Taayin, as he took a sip of water.

"Oh...oh, that's right..."

Talk about a heavy mood...

"We should be thanking you, Kilzachs...we'd all be dead for sure if you hadn't saved us...you'd have had a better chance of survival if you had escaped on your own...I might have done that if I was in your position," Said Zoya, bowing her head gratefully.

"Yeah, I owe you big time, man," Added Taayin in agreement.

"...what they said," Nodded Suri, averting her gaze.

"You're making a big deal out of it, it's really not worth making a fuss over," I replied awkwardly.

Of course I saved them...after all, if I had been the only one to return alive, I might have failed the exam...

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