Blood mixed with sweat on the tall man's face as he swung his saber again. The weapon felt like it weighed fifty kilograms now, not the five it actually was.
"Left flank!" Six shouted.
The red-haired woman tried to pivot, but her legs barely responded. Four hours. Four hours of this grinding combat, and they'd managed to kill exactly 2 Dregs.
Two.
Her battle suit flickered, the invisible energy wavering. Almost out of power. Almost out of everything.
The Asian woman beside her wasn't doing much better. She'd been trying to absorb the essence from their first kill for the last fifteen minutes, sitting vulnerable while the others protected her. Her face contorted in concentration, pulling at wisps of silver mist that barely moved toward her.
"I can't... it won't come to me properly," she gasped.
"Keep trying," Six said, his breathing still controlled while theirs came in ragged gasps. "Non-ability awakened have to work harder for everything. The energy doesn't want to obey, you just can t aborb it because you are subconscious ly of the corrupt energy burning you. But that's part of the process! Just! Do! IT"
The blonde man stumbled backward as another Dreg lunged. His gun fired, energy bullet sniping the creature's shoulder. Not even a deep scratch. Witch what was happening all the way. It feels so weak!
"Ability users make this look so easy!" he shouted in frustration.
The Dreg's claws raked across his battle suit. The material held, barely, but the impact sent him sprawling. The tall man tried to help but moved too late, too slow. They collided, both going down in a tangle of limbs.
Six moved like liquid, his saber taking the Dreg's head before it could capitalize.
"Focus! You're getting in each other's way!"
"We're trying!" the red-haired woman snapped, exhaustion making her temper short.
Another Dreg circled them, those multiple eyes tracking their weakest member—the Asian woman still trying to absorb essence. She'd managed to pull in maybe a tenth of what was available. The rest dissipated into the air, wasted.
"I need to stop," she said. "My core feels like it's going to burst."
"Then stop," Six commanded. "Non-ability cores can only handle small amounts at a time. Rest, then try again."
The blonde man laughed bitterly. "At this rate, it'll take us a year to reach Second Core."
"Most non-ability awakened never reach Second Core," Six said bluntly. "This is the reality. Every centimeter of progress is earned through pain."
The tall man wiped blood from a cut on his cheek. His battle suit had failed to protect him completely when he'd dodged too slowly earlier. A rookie mistake that almost cost him his face.
"Will we ever be strong enough to matter?" he asked quietly.
Six didn't answer immediately. Another Dreg was approaching through the trees. Their fourth one today. It might as well have been a Ravager for how exhausted they were.
"Some of you will. Some won't. But every awakened counts, even if—"
The Dreg charged.
This time, the red-haired woman's legs gave out completely. She dropped to one knee, saber falling from numb fingers. The blonde man's gun clicked empty—no energy left to fire. The tall man swung wildly, missing by a meter.
Six sighed and stepped forward, ending it with one precise strike.
"Rest! All of you!"
Without even thinking they collapsed where they stood, the grinding repetition having worn them down to nothing. Four hours. Three Dregs dead. Barely any essence absorbed.
This was the reality for those without abilities.
---
Border Defense Camp - Eastern Sector
Arya stood in her command tent, ice-blue eyes staring at her phone screen.
*"Arya I awakened successfully...miss you xoxo"*
Rael's message from hours ago. Simple. Direct. No details about abilities or power level.
*He's entered this world now.*
The world where eighteen-year-olds fought monsters. Where awakening meant becoming a target. Where power was everything and those without it died quickly.
Her little brother was out there somewhere, probably thinking he was invincible with his new awakening. Every newly awakened thought that. Right until reality showed them otherwise.
*Should I have stayed with him?*
But she couldn't have. The borders needed every high-level awakened. Without them, humanity's last territories would fall. Still, the thought of Rael facing even Dregs made her chest tighten.
"Captain Arya!"
A scout burst into her tent, face pale.
"Pack incoming! Fifty-plus monsters, mixed Xiphers and Ravagers!"
Arya stood, her concerns about Rael pushed aside by immediate danger. "Where?"
"Surrounding Beta Team's position. They're pinned."
Beta Team. Twelve awakened, mostly Seven and eight Core. Against fifty monsters holding 9, they'd be slaughtered.
"I'm moving."
She stepped outside into chaos. Awakened soldiers ran in every direction, preparing defenses. In the distance, roars echoed through the morning air.
Arya moved.
Not ran. Moved. The difference between her and normal awakened became immediately apparent. Where others took steps, she seemed to glide across the ground, ice forming beneath her feet to eliminate friction. Where others went around obstacles, she went over them, platforms of ice appearing and disappearing in perfect timing.
She reached Beta Team's position in thirty seconds. A journey that would have taken others five minutes.
The scene was carnage waiting to happen. Fifty-three monsters had formed a closing circle around twelve terrified awakened. Xiphers ( 8th cores ) slavered in the front ranks while three Ravagers commanded from behind.
"Form up on me!" Arya commanded.
The Beta Team members scrambled toward her voice, hope flooding their faces.
A Ravager charged, its massive form covering ten meters in a single bound. Core Density probably around 9000. Almost enough to flatten the entire Beta Team.
Arya raised one hand.
A Ravager charged, its massive form covering ten meters in a single bound. Core Density probably around 9000.
Almost enough to flatten the entire Beta Team.
Arya raised one hand.
The Ravager froze mid-leap. Not metaphorically. Literally froze, ice spreading from its feet up through its body in less than a second.
It hung in the air, a perfect ice sculpture of death, before she flicked her wrist and it shattered into a million pieces.
The other monsters hesitated.
"Northwest quadrant,"
she said calmly to Beta Team.
"Stay behind me."
What followed wasn't a battle. It was a demonstration.
Where the new awakened in Area 110 struggled to kill single Dregs, Arya eliminated dozens of high-level beasts with gestures.
A wave of her hand sent spears of ice through ten monsters at once.
A stomp of her foot created an ice wall that bisected a charging group of Xiphers.
The insectoid nightmares stood three meters tall at the shoulder, their segmented bodies stretching four meters in length.
Black chitinous exoskeletons gleamed like obsidian armor, pulsing with veins of corrupt silver energy that ran beneath their surface like malevolent circuitry. Each possessed six legs thick as tree trunks, ending in razor-sharp points that gouged deep trenches in the earth with every step.
But it was their eyes that marked them as true abominations. Dozens of compound eyes clustered across their elongated skulls like malevolent jewels—some large as dinner plates, others small as marbles, all glowing with that same look that marked every corrupted beast.
The eyes moved independently, creating a nauseating display as they tracked multiple targets, analyzed escape routes, and communicated with their pack through rapid blinking patterns.
Their massive mandibles clicked menacingly—each one capable of snapping a human in half. Acidic saliva dripped from between their teeth, hissing where it hit the ground, while their antennae twitched constantly, sensing chemical traces of fear and blood in the air.
When monsters tried to flank, Arya didn't even look—ice erupted from the ground, impaling three Xiphers before they could coordinate their pincer movement. The spears pierced through their obsidian armor like it was paper, dozens of eyes going dim as the creatures collapsed.
The two remaining Ravagers attacked together, using the surviving Xiphers as cover. The insectoids moved with disturbing coordination, communicating through rapid clicking sounds and synchronized eye-blinking as they tried to surround her position.
"Predictable"
The ice princess murmured. Her eyes shaping into crescents and a smirk on her rose lips.
She pressed both palms to the ground. Ice spread outward in a perfect circle, but this wasn't normal ice. It was so cold it burned, so pure it sang.
Every monster it touched didn't just freeze—they ceased, their molecular movement stopping entirely. The Xiphers' countless eyes went dark one by one as the ice claimed them, their segmented bodies becoming crystal monuments to their own aggression.In twelve seconds, fifty-three monsters became fifty-three ice statues.
Beta Team stood in shocked silence. They'd been preparing to die. Instead, they'd watched one woman turn a hopeless situation into abstract art.
"Thank you!"
"We thought we were—"
"You're alive," Arya cut them off. "Report back to camp. Tell command the eastern approach is clear."
They scattered, leaving her alone among the frozen dead.
She touched one of the ice sculptures, and it crumbled to powder. No effort. No strain. What would exhaust others barely registered to her. Life and death battles. It was her daily life. Forged. Etiher you become steel or molten iron.
*This is what being strong means.*
But it was lonely. Others looked at her with awe, fear, respect—never as just a person. Never as someone who might need support too. She was the Ice Princess, the untouchable prodigy, the perfect soldier.
A memory surfaced. Her parents, three years ago
They'd left for their trip. The invasion's first wave had caught them on the road. She'd never even found their bodies.
*I'm protecting everyone. But who protects the protectors? What if a star level group of beast come tomorrow? What then?*
Another alarm sounded in the distance. More monsters. Always more monsters.
She looked at her phone one more time. Rael's message glowed on the screen.
*Stay safe, little brother. This world we've awakened into... it only gets harder.*
Her protective instincts screamed at her to go to him, to make sure he was properly trained, properly equipped. But that would disrespect his independence. He was awakened now. He had to find his own path.
Even if that path might lead to death...
Another roar echoed across the battlefield. Duty called.
Arya moved toward the sound, ice spreading beneath her feet. Behind her, the frozen monsters began to sublimate, their essence dissipating into the morning air...