First Blood

"We've arrived at the scene of the incident and so far five officers have been killed. Witnesses say the officers dove into the water to see if the body of the boys reported dead could be found, but they didn't come back up only blood covering the surface of this portion of the lake" A reporter said gesturing for the camera to focus on the lake.

"You'd think that they'd stop after losing five people just like that" Alexa said sighing as she watched the broadcast on a TV in a cafe she'd stopped at. She had wanted to go straight to the lake to neutralize the bug before eating, but she was famished.

She watched as the camera zoomed in on the bug whose head was raised above the water, they'd tried to shoot it and even threw explosives into the water, but all their efforts were fruitless and after losing five officers without so much as a sign of struggle from either of them, so they didn't dare enter the water again.

-A few hours earlier-

"Dave there's some half-naked guy on the grounds saying he wants to see you and we should all run away, we held him down cause he looks a bit roughed up and a couple of people said they saw him head into the woods with two guys," Reggie said, he was the assistant ranger assigned to dave.

"Let me go check 'em out then, he was probably pranked by his friends and came running back before they could tell him. These silly ghost stories never cease to stress us" Dave replied sighing and headed out with Reggie to where Caleb was.

He'd been cuffed and kept in the cafeteria with a couple of campers who volunteered to watch him.

"Bro do you know how crazy you sound right now? What do you mean your friends were eaten up by some rainbow-colored creature that could speak. You expect us to believe such BS?" A man angrily replied after Caleb had once again tried to explain the ludicrous scenario. Soon enough both rangers arrived.

Dave walked into the cafeteria laxly and saw Caleb's condition, he looked at him with a disgusted expression on his face. Caleb was covered with bruises and was only wearing a swimsuit, but the fear in his eyes couldn't be hidden.

Dave was a perceptive man who had handled several cases in his years of working as a ranger so it wasn't hard to detect the mortified expression Caleb tried to hide in an attempt to properly explain the situation. Dave's look went from disgust to concern as he silently observed Caleb listening to his story.

"Let's go to the lake, and Reggie don't forget to grab the speargun," Dave said and gestured for Caleb to lead the way, of course still cuffed.

"Yes sir, I'll be right with you" Reggie replied grasping the situation immediately.

"Are you going to believe the BS this kid is spouting?" One of the campers who was watching Caleb exclaimed, he was a well-built middle-aged man with a rough demeanor.

"I didn't say I'd be taking just him to the lake, you guys are welcome to confirm the scenario too" Dave replied and the man scoffed and soon followed them.

This was a safety violation on Dave's path but he knew if he left them unchecked they'd spread rumors to the other campers and another ghost story would be born, giving him more work.

Caleb shivered from fear, every hair on his body standing and his instincts on high alert as he led them through the forest to the lake. At this point, it was impossible to dismiss his current countenance and everyone found themselves questioning whether he was speaking the truth.

The party consisted of the three men who were left to watch him, Dave, Reggie, and Caleb.

They walked quietly through the woods and soon enough arrived at the lakeshore where unfortunately it turned out Caleb wasn't lying.

As soon as they got to the lakeshore and saw the clothes lying around and the blood on the lake surface they immediately thought the worst and assumed Caleb had killed his friends, but one of the men looked towards the lake and saw a head floating on the water, it had rainbow-colored skin and gills, but the scariest part was it seemed to be smiling at Caleb.

"Dave, what the f&^% is that?" The man said pointing towards the creature.

Everyone turned to see the thing Caleb had all described to them idly looking at them, when suddenly…

"Bullshit! hand me that speargun that's probably some sort of fish, I'm a fisherman so I know what I'm saying. I've fished this lake for years and have never seen that thing" The man who had challenged dave said angrily.

"Please don't go into the water don't even stay near it," Caleb said crying

"boy shut up, you don't know anything" The man screamed at Caleb

"Gao it's unwise not to listen," One of the men said to him.

"Whatever I'm still going in" Gao responded and started heading towards the lake, when Dave stopped him.

"I can't let you do that. If the boy was right about seeing that thing here, it's only right to believe his claims considering there's nothing to refute it" Dave said to him calmly, but Gao quickly punched Reggie who was standing beside Dave, grabbed the gun, and quickly swung it at Dave who brilliantly dodged.

"Like I said I'm a fisherman. I just know a thing or two about fighting," Gao said smiling and headed towards the water.

The man who had spoken earlier sighed and shook his head, while Caleb began slowly moving back.

Gao soon stepped into the water and started thrashing around, he made sure not to go too far and stayed close to the lakeshore aiming the spear gun immediately he got the creature's attention when something suddenly grabbed his leg before he could react everything immediately went black and he was pulled to the depths of the lake.

everyone watching the scene only saw Gao fall all of a sudden and was being dragged into the lake without the slightest resistance when they heard.

"I-not-like-noise" The creature spoke in a very calm voice but had the diction of a toddler. Everyone was frozen from fear and shock at the incident that just unfolded when they heard Caleb crying as he fell to the ground.

"We're doomed, we're all doomed," He said, tears rolling down his cheeks to the ground.

-Present time-

Alexa paid for the food she ordered with money she'd stolen from one of the customers then immediately headed towards the lake. The news of the 'Monster of the lake' was spreading fast and she needed to take care of it quickly. She would've used minor teleport since she had a map that told her the exact location of the bug, but she didn't because she wanted to get accustomed to her new body.

"The place wasn't so far after all" Alexa thought as she walked in mid-air camouflaged watching the heavy security the police had placed around the forest.

According to the details of the bug, she needed to destroy its core which was located at the center of its chest guarded by the toughest of bugs' scale.

"It can't kill me since it drains a person's life energy and then eats the body, considering I don't have any life energy to give, but it's really strong, fighting with it underwater will be a bit tough but I can win, I've got a couple cards," Alexa said smiling as she sat above the lake watching the creature.

"What would happen if I die? I imagine there'd be some respawn point right" Alexa chuckled turning the situation into some sort of in-game boss fight.

"I have a couple of seconds to pull this off if I miss the timing by the slightest bit I'll find out where I respawn. It's a win-win," Alexa said chuckling. It was time to test her power.

"The bracelet in her arm transformed into two pistols as she dove into the water, one of the pistols glowed blue while the other was a dazzling gold color.

she landed into the water a couple of centimeters away from the bug and fired both pistols simultaneously at point-blank range to the bugs core, the glowing gun shot a bullet covered by a blue hue which immediately froze the scales and exploded leaving the core open for the other bullet to pierce and destroy.

The tentacles couldn't harm Alexa because even before she fired she'd frozen the water around her and created a dome to shield herself, holding her breath in the water-filled dome.

She heard the bug scream from pain, turn into light particles, and vanish. She smiled and destroyed the dome around her then used her telekinetic powers to push herself out of the water and used cloud steps to stay standing mid-air.

She looked like a mermaid diving out of the water with a huge smile on her face.

"Damn it I look sexy, but this attire doesn't fit it," She said grumbling as she walked away from the scene.

Everything related to the incident ceased to exist the moment the creature was destroyed, and the people headed back to their respective locations mindlessly with no clue of the event that had just occurred.

"So this is Morpheus' power," Alexa thought seeing the people as she left the scene.

"This is merely a fraction of my power Alexa. Good job on your fight, turns out you're smart after all" Morpheus said calmly

"Thanks. I don't expect the others to be this easy though" Alexa replied laughing.

"Neither do i" Morpheus replied then cut the call.

"She is strong Varden," Morpheus said to a young man seated on the floor resting on a pillar in the border. He was the same age as Alexa but carried a mysterious and powerful aura, this was Varden the first Bugged reincarnate

"I know, but power isn't cheap" The man replied coldly