Mako slowly got up on his feet and made no sudden movements so that the cadets didn't feel threatened and started attacking him all of a sudden.
"Look, I don't want any trouble. I was just very hungry and took a couple." Mako said as he put his sticky hands covered in mangoes in the air.
"Yeah right! Like we are going to believe that! The moment we stepped out of our area to get water, you show up and start munching on our supply!" The same cadet shouted again, leading Mako to believe he was their leader.
Using Analyze on all of them, Mako realized there was nothing special about these guys. They were only two level 3s while the rest were level 2s. They most likely just signed up for the test so that they could try and get a higher class in the military school.
'At least they had the guts to jump out of the plane,' Mako said to himself, considering he wasn't going to jump if his grandmother hadn't knocked some sense into him.
The group of five cadets were most likely friends and decided to stick together in a quiet corner of the island and wait out the 15 days so that they would still gain some recognition and won't be at the bottom of the barrel even though they weren't strong.
Mako tried negotiating with them and telling them that this was just an honest mistake, but the cadets were not in the mood for listening. After a bit of back and forth, it became clear that these cadets had already made up their minds about attacking him because, in their minds, this was a free takedown which would make one less competitor and more points for them.
A few minutes had passed and when the quest notification timer buzzed in front of Mako's eyes, he remembered that he didn't have much time. He still had only recovered a quarter of his energy but if he was to engage in combat right now, he could easily defeat all five of them. After all, Mako did single-handedly defeat all those guards in the warehouse, but this would drain his energy again.
Seeing as there was no other option, Mako took on a cold serious look. He didn't have to be nice and understanding. His and his best friend's life was hanging on the line and he couldn't waste time dealing with these cowards.
"ALRIGHT, LISTEN!" Mako shouted in rage which took the cadets by surprise. The person in front of them had a complete 180 switch in attitude.
"My friend has been poisoned! He is going to die unless I find an anti-venom! If you guys have found any then please let me have them, I can trade them for something that you want. If not, then please just let me go. I promise won't set a foot in your space again!" Mako stated his purpose to the cadets and also gave them a choice.
The cadets looked behind Mako to see another cadet who looked completely pale in color and was sweating profusely. He could barely keep his eyes open and looked like he could die any minute.
There was a moment of silence between them as the cadets thought about what to do next. They were starting to believe that the person they were dealing with was strong otherwise he won't be so confident while speaking to them. while on the other hand, he might just be lying and trying this stunt as last resort to get out of danger.
The cadets decided to believe the latter and thought that they could get some easy points by eliminating two cadets from the tournament.
"You're not getting out of this scot-free!" The leader said. " We don't have any anti-venom but you still owe us for the food. Give us your backpacks and you can go otherwise we are going to have some trouble."
Mako couldn't believe the words that he was hearing. This was humanity's truest nature; survival of the fittest. No empathy or remorse for the weak, ill, or dead. The leader's words reminded Mako of the world he lived in and how stupid people can be just so that they can gain benefit.
Rage started to build up inside Mako but he couldn't engage in battle because his energy reserves would be used up again. Instead, he decided to take a different approach to the situation.
[Electrical Discharge has been activated]
A pulse erupted from Mako once again and quickly spread out hitting all five cadets before they could even react. They were all paralyzed in place and unable to move.
Mako picked up Bill who was once again paralyzed and wrapped him around his back once again.
[Dash has been activated]
"Sorry about this, Dude," Mako said to Bill as he started sprinting away while the cadets remained paralyzed in place.
Mako sprinted away deeper into the jungle. He had to keep to get as far away as possible because two of those cadets were Lightning ability users and would be able to break the paralysis faster than the others. The only reason why they got paralyzed in the first place was that Mako had a higher ability level than them.
Using Dash multiple times, Mako was able to keep up his fastest speed for a whole minute and soon reached a river.
[High Jump has been activated]
Mako hadn't been able to use this skill much but it sure was handy in an outdoor situation like this where it is very helpful to be able to cross large distances with ease.
After landing on the other side of the river, Mako could finally slow down a bit as he knew the cadets won't chase him this far and the river was most probably where they were trying to get water in the first place.
Mako stopped using Dash and instead shifted to once again using Analyze and Motion Sense to continue to find more loot crates.
*************
[In a different area of the island]
A boy could be seen kicking another boy who was bloody all over and looked to be on the verge of death. The cries of the boy were being echoed in the quiet jungle but that didn't stop the other boy from continuously kicking him in different areas. The boy who was kicking finally stopped and quickly ran a few feet back.
From the way that he moved, it was clear that he had the speed ability. After making some distance between them, he sprinted toward the beaten boy who couldn't even open his eyes anymore. As he approached him, he extended his right leg backward and proceeded to kick the beaten boy's head like a football.
The leg came forward at full force and was about to make contact with the boy's head, but just before the foot could touch the head, a hand appeared out of nowhere and grabbed onto the foot, completely stopping it from making contact.
The boy was quite surprised that someone was able to stop their full-force kick just like that, but as the dust began to settle it became obvious why he was so easily stopped.
A patrolling officer had made it just in time to stop him from ending that poorly beaten boy's life. The boy kept struggling trying to make contact with the other boy's head, but the officer's hand was like an iron fist that didn't budge at all.
"Leon Czolgosz! Stand down now or you will be eliminated from the test immediately!" The officer announced.
It was Leon! He was the one who was about to kill the boy.
After hearing the officer, Leon finally let go and stepped back from the poorly beaten boy. He tsked at the beaten boy as if to show his disappointment for him not being able to finish him off because of the officer showing up in the nick of time.
The officer picked up the beaten boy in his arms and was about to exit the scene but before he did, he decided to give Leon a warning.
"Leon Czolgosz! This is your final warning. You have put three cadets in a very critical state and would have violated the rules of the test if I hadn't intervened! If you engage with anybody going forward, you are to leave them be once they have been defeated. If you violate this order, you will be removed from the test immediately!" The officer said before sprinting away and going out of sight.
Leon was left alone in the jungle with a pool of blood next to his feet. He ignored everything that the patrolling officer had just said and was on the move once again looking for a target to completely destroy with his strength.
"Where are they?! I need to find them! I need to settle the score once and for all!" Leon said to himself as he continued sprinting through the jungle, not stopping for anything as he was determined to find an individual who he wanted to destroy more than anything else.
The cadets that he had brutally injured up to this point were all those who were unfortunate enough to come in his way and slow him down.
Both Mako and Leon were actually doing the exact same thing. Both were desperately running around in the jungle, but they had separate goals. Mako was trying to find the anti-venom to save Bill while Leon was on the hunt to end Mako's life.
Leon was not going to stop until he finally defeated and humiliated Mako Grey, and this time his father won't be here to stop him.
