My Tribrid System: More than a Monster

Chapter 80

”Van! Your VMS gear now!” Trisha’s voice sliced through the chaos.

Van spun around to see her sprinting toward him, her silhouette blurred by speed.

Behind her, Kai trailed at a desperate pace, limping heavily as he clutched his blood-soaked side, his face a mask of agony.

As she ran, Trisha was already in motion, kicking her legs upward and tugging frantically at the reinforced straps of the specialized boots on her feet.

”Hurry, now!” she commanded.

The shout snapped Van out of his momentary daze.

He dropped to a crouch, ripping at his own fastenings.

Within seconds, his boots were discarded, leaving him barefoot on the jagged earth.

”Toss them to me!”

Van pivoted, his eyes locking onto the struggle behind him.

”Chloe! Control!” he roared.

Chloe’s face was a deep, pained crimson; she was barely holding the fading Bruce steady against the Aberrant’s onslaught.

But, fueled by a raw determination to survive, she extended her second hand toward Van.

The moment he hurled the boots into the air, Chloe’s telekinetic pulse caught them mid-flight, guiding the gear directly into Trisha’s reaching hands.

Without losing a beat, the girl strapped the VMS gear over her own boots.

”Weakness?” she asked, her voice an icy blade over the ear-piece.

”The nape!” Van replied urgently.

Trisha didn’t offer a second word.

With a firm, explosive push, she vaulted into the sky.

The VMS gear hissed, signaling her ascent, and with a mid-air kick of her second leg, she was propelled forward like a blue streak of lightning.

Meanwhile, Bruce was fighting on borrowed time.

He was leaping from side to side in a frantic, one-legged dance, occasionally clawing at the shallow gash he had carved into the Aberrant’s neck.

Every swing from the monster was a death sentence, and he was evading them by mere millimeters.

If it weren’t for Chloe’s occasional telekinetic boosts, the creature’s claws would have claimed him long ago.

In his desperation, Bruce stopped blocking entirely.

He was a creature of pure offense now, fighting only to deepen the wound on the nape before his strength evaporated.

’Come on! Ten seconds left. What should I do? Curse this weak body!’

Then...

Pfffff—!

Bruce glanced upward to see Trisha hovering for a fleeting moment above the fray.

She coughed, a mouthful of dark blood splattering the air—a sign she had pushed her Meta-Force far beyond its safety limits—but her eyes remained cold and fixed.

From her outstretched hands, four jagged ice spikes shot downward at a rapid velocity.

The Aberrant felt the sudden chill and began to tilt its head to avoid the projectiles, but Bruce was faster.

He smashed his remaining fist into the monster’s snout, pinning its head in place just long enough for the spikes to strike the existing gash.

The ice pierced the meat of the neck, digging half a metre deep.

Blue blood erupted in a violent spray.

’One... more... attack,’ Trisha hissed through clenched teeth, fighting the encroaching blackness at the edges of her vision.

She had reached her absolute limit.

One more move would cause her internal damage, but before she could risk it, Bruce seized the opportunity.

He leaped high and crashed back down with the weight of a falling star, hammering his foot directly into the ice spikes protruding from the Aberrant’s neck.

It was as if a charging bull had collided with the creature’s spine.

The force sent the Aberrant’s massive body tilting forward, its face inches from the dirt.

The spikes tore through the internal structures of the neck before finally splintering and shattering apart.

The moment the path was cleared, Bruce saw it: the Aberrant’s pulsing, hideous heart.

’No!’ the creature’s mind screamed.

”Don’t worry, we’ll send more of your kind to meet you. Goodbye!” Bruce snarled.

His claws glinted with the very last of his energy.

’One second left.’

”NOOO!” the Aberrant screamed, attempting a final, desperate spin to dislodge the predator.

Chloe, seeing the monster move, gritted her teeth until they bled.

She stopped boosting Bruce and shifted every ounce of her remaining willpower toward the shattered concrete wall nearby.

With the veins bulging in her neck from the strain, she swung her arms.

The massive slab of masonry whistled through the air, smashing into the Aberrant’s face—hard.

The blow stunned the monster for a solitary, golden split-second.

That split-second was all Bruce needed.

He crashed into the Aberrant’s neck and, with a violent, sweeping motion of his hand, he took a massive swipe at the heart, ripping it free from the tangle of veins and vines that anchored it within the beast.

Blood sprayed into the air like crude oil erupting from a fresh well.

The Aberrant’s eyes widened in a final, agonizing surge of horror as it felt its heart—the very core of its monstrous existence—disconnected from its body.

With one final, involuntary push off the ground, the creature was sent crashing lifelessly downward.

Within a second, the massive beast hit the earth like a toppled, ancient tree.

THUD—!

BAM—!

Dust exploded into the air instantaneously as a yawning crater opened beneath the creature’s immense weight.

A violent gust of wind blasted outward with incredible force, throwing Chloe off her feet and doing the same to Kai.

It even knocked Trisha out of the sky, sending her colliding hard with the ground.

All this from the mere impact of the Aberrant hitting the floor.

’F*ck. I’m done for,’ Bruce groaned inwardly.

Lying helplessly in the center of the settling dust with the Aberrant’s heart still clutched in his hand, his body began reverting to its human form at an alarming rate.

The thick fur shredded away, and the elongated, beastly teeth and claws receded.

In short order, he was turning back into Ray.

But one terrifying thing remained: half of his side was still gone, leaving that hollow, gruesome hole in his torso.

Before his fangs fully disappeared, however, Bruce cast a desperate glance at the heart in his hand.

Without hesitation, he sank his teeth into the organ.

He ripped a huge chunk away and began chewing rapidly, as if he were devouring a steak at a fancy restaurant.

Within a few frantic seconds, the heart was entirely consumed, and at that exact moment, the last of his werewolf features vanished.

The body looked completely lifeless as it lay unmoving for several seconds while the thick clouds of dust finally began to settle.

The other Aspirants groaned loudly, pushing themselves up from the dirt only to see Ray’s human form lying there, still and silent.

Not a single twitch was seen.

Van’s heart thudded in pure fright.

”No, no, no. Not again... RAY!” he shrieked, his voice thin and desperate. Even Kai looked paralyzed with fear.

’Is he dead? No. This can’t be happening.’

The two boys dashed forward, covering a distance of five metres in a blurred minute of panic.

Ray lay just two metres further away from them, but as they took that final step toward his body...

***

”Elyon, it’s your turn.”

***

A brilliant, blinding radiance immediately consumed Ray’s body.

The light was so intense it made him look like a burning building, and with the glow came a sudden, violent reaction—

WAM—!

Another burst of wind blasted outward, pushing everything in a two-metre radius away from Ray while his body continued to shine with an otherworldly brilliance.