Midnight had struck and the full moon shined its light upon the island where many cadets were trying everything in their power to survive. Some had decent positions with a shelter set up and a couple of cadets watching each other's backs while there were others who were alone or got separated from their group.
These people were the ones that were currently strolling through the island completely lost and vulnerable to any beast attacks. Some were scared out of their minds having to walk through the thick jungle during the night while others felt confident in their abilities and were excited to see what challenges await them.
Inside a particular cave, the sound of clashing finally stopped as Bill dealt the final blow to the last beetle using Mako's combat knife. The ground and walls of the cave were painted with blue blood and Bill was no exception. Piles of dead beetle bodies everywhere that were realizing quite a ghastly scent.
Being in the battle for quite some time, Bill had adapted to the smell and didn't mind it so much now. He didn't leave the battle unscathed as he had also received several injuries all over his body but none of them were too major and would heal completely in a day or two.
Bill limped over to the small hut of earth he made to protect Mako and Leon and opened a pathway for him to enter. Both boys were still unconscious and laying exactly where Bil saw them last.
With no energy left to spare, Bill collapsed next to one of the walls of his barrier hut and whilst leaning on it, he quickly drifted to sleep as his body recovered energy and healed up. Looking toward the people Bill had protected and the feats that he accomplished using his own two hands, Bill could do nothing but smile as the image of his father appeared in his head just as he was about to drift into sleep.
"I wish you could see me now, father," Bill said in a low and drained voice as he finally shut his eyelids and fell asleep.
**************
[Within the main cave system]
The group of beetles that had been sent to check out the noise that was coming from one of their cave pathways hadn't returned in a while. The beetles were by no means intelligent creatures as they had limited functionality and fighting styles. The beetles had evolved to communicate with each other but not freely. They could only emit pulses of electricity from their body using the Lightning ability which they could read using their antennas.
After one of their groups hadn't returned back from the area where they were sent, the beetles assumed them to be dead, and the automatic response they had to this was to awaken the king.
The king beetle was the strongest male beast with one colony of Terra Beetles. Being the strongest and the natural leader of the colony, it didn't work like all the other beetles as it just ate food, procreated with female beetles, and slept. The only job of the king beetle was to protect the colony from external threats.
If a threat was discovered, the beetles would wake up the king and inform him of the situation. The king has to take action and fulfill its promise to protect the colony. If it doesn't, the beetles would stop doing its bidding and rebel. On the other hand, if the king was to perish in battle then, the position of the king was vacant once again.
The male beetles would then fight amongst themselves and kill as many as they could so that they could consume their crystals. It was basically a race to see which one of them could evolve to the next level by consuming the crystals of their defeated beetles. The first beetle to reach the next level is automatically accepted by all beetles as the new king and the cycle continues.
Right now, three beetles had made their way toward the heart of their colony where a massive beetle 3 times their size was slumbering. Using the lightning ability, one of the beetles' antennae glowed bright with electricity and traveled from its antennae to the king's antenna.
The electricity was the wake-up call for the king and soon the king opened its big yellow eyes to deal with the problem that they were facing.
**************
[Back in the small cave]
The moon was about to completely disappear from the sky while the sunshine announced the beginning of the fourth day on the island.
Inside the small barrier hut, Mako finally came to as he slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he noticed just as he woke up was that the roof of the cave had changed which means that he wasn't in his original cave anymore.
Mako quickly jumped on his feet and took on a defensive stance as he didn't know where he was or how he got there, but just after looking around for a couple of seconds, Mako started to piece things together.
He had in fact not moved as the ground had the same texture as before. His things, Leon, and the campfire were all in the exact same place. It seemed that somehow all of this was built around them and Mako quickly understood who was responsible for all this.
Just as the thought of Bill came to Mako's head, Mako's eyes fell toward one of the corners of the barrier hut that was the darkest as the light from the outside didn't reach that area through the ventilation holes that were in the walls.
Mako hadn't noticed it at first as his eyes were adjusting to the light level but soon he saw Bill leaning against the corner and covered from head to toe in a smelly and sticky blue substance. He quickly ran toward Bill and used Analyze to make sure that he was still alive and check his condition.
[Analyze]
[Profile: Bill Johnson] (Asleep)
[Ability: Earth (Level 4), Wind (Level 3), Sand (Level 2)] ⓘ
It looked like Bill was just exhausted and was sleeping to recover his energy bar faster. However, Mako was shocked to learn that Bill now possessed a level 4 Earth ability instead of a level 3. Mako had no idea how Bill was able to do such a thing in a span of one night if he had to guess, judging by all the blue stuff that was on him, Mako was sure that Bill had been fighting beasts and a lot of them as well.
'He must have constructed this bunker to protect us while he fought the beasts that may have attacked.' Mako deduced in his mind.
In order to learn more, Mako had to exit the barrier hut and see what had happened to the cave. Bill was both still not awake and Mako didn't have the Earth ability to create an opening in the wall for him but luckily he knew someone else who could.
Mako walked over to Leon and shook him up a bit to wake him up. Leon had also mostly recovered and so he woke up after a couple of shakes. At first, he didn't realize what was happening as his head was still spinning from just waking up. However, he quickly came to his senses and Mako quickly explained the situation he understood so far.
"I need you to use your Earth ability to open a pathway for us to walk out and assess what happened while we were knocked out cold," Mako said after he finished giving Leon all the details he knew so far.
"Wait! How did you know I had the Earth ability?!" Leon asked in shock as he had purposefully made it so that Mako wouldn't find out his ability which he could use as a surprise to catch him off guard.
To Leon's question, Mako just gave a mischievous smirk as he explained," Did you really think, I wouldn't realize that you used the Earth ability to protect yourself from my flame pillar and then create fake screaming noises to make me think you were hurt so I would drop my guard?"
Leon was left speechless after Mako accurately described how Leon was able to counter Mako so quickly after the flame pillar skill had been deactivated. This was the only time during the entire fight that Leon had used the Earth ability and Mako was still able to pick that up.
In reality, Mako would have never figured that out if it wasn't for the Analyze skill but he couldn't reveal this fact to Leon or anybody else for that matter.
After Leon had recovered from the initial shock, he was slightly embarrassed that his opponent was able to figure out his ace in the hole so easily; nevertheless, Leon quickly got on his feet and clicked his heel against the ground and a hole was formed in the wall.
The first thing that hit both of them was a more powerful and vile form of the smell that was coming off from Bill. The small ventilation holes made it so that very little smell made it inside the hut but once Leon made a pathway from them to leave the hut, The majority of the smell came through and nearly made Mako and Leon throw up.
After taking a couple of moments to adjust to the smell, they took a deep breath as they walked out of the barrier hut to learn more about what had happened during the night while they were knocked out.
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