My Tribrid System: More than a Monster

Chapter 81

”Ahhh!” Chloe’s scream pierced the air as the violent blast of wind struck her with the force of a physical blow, sending her body tumbling across the jagged ground like a broken doll.

Trisha, displaying her usual icy presence of mind, grabbed onto a half-broken iron rod protruding from the rubble.

She stabbed it into the earth, anchoring herself and steadying her body before the gale could send her flying too far.

Nearby, Kai lunged for Van, grabbing the boy and digging his own feet into the dirt with all his might, refusing to budge an inch against the localized storm.

Slowly, the supernatural wind receded, and the young Aspirants could finally regain their footing.

They coughed out specks of crimson as pain tore through their exhausted bodies, yet the two boys remained focused on only one person.

Ray!

His form was still engulfed in that brilliant, blinding light.

It looked as though white, ethereal flames had entirely consumed his silhouette.

Van and Kai’s hearts skipped several beats in unison as they bolted forward, finally coming to a halt just two feet away from the body that was still burning with divine brilliance.

Right in front of their eyes, they watched the impossible: Ray’s body was mending itself.

The light flowed through his broken frame like a river navigating a new pathway.

The half of his torso that had been utterly blown off by the Aberrant was rapidly stitching itself back together.

Flesh coalesced and knitted back at an alarming rate, and the sickening sound of bones cracking back into place echoed through the clearing.

Shattered fragments were being regenerated at a frantic, supernatural pace.

Throughout the entire process, Ray’s eyes remained peacefully closed.

Trisha and Chloe eventually made their way to the crater’s edge, and they too stood paralyzed by the phenomenon unfolding before them.

”What the hell is this?” Chloe voiced in pure shock, her eyes wide as she watched Ray’s anatomy rebuild itself from nothing.

Even Van didn’t know how to react.

He stared on, praying silently in the depths of his soul that his friend would survive this transformation.

For some reason, Ray didn’t scream or even twitch; he remained perfectly still while the others watched the light perform its miracle.

Soon enough, a new arm burst forth from the raw flesh—pristine and fully functional.

His leg, which had been vanished by the monster’s strike, was next to manifest.

Finally, a soft glow concentrated in his empty eye socket as the organ was meticulously regenerated.

The Aspirants stood in a silent vigil for about five minutes before the light finally receded, leaving Ray’s body to glow with a soft, fading luminescence.

After a few seconds of absolute silence...

Gasp~!

Ray drew in a sharp, hoarse breath. His head jerked up suddenly, startling Chloe, who shuffled backward in fright.

”Cough, cough, cough!”

A few moments later, he looked around at his surroundings.

He took in the Aberrant’s massive, dead carcass lying just a few metres away, and then his gaze moved to his comrades, who were standing over him with a chaotic mix of expressions.

”Ra—Ray?” Van stuttered.

He watched as his friend stared at them with a strange, detached intensity.

”Oh. My apologies. But Ray isn’t exactly ’on seat’ at the moment,” the body spoke.

The voice was calm, melodic, and almost enchantingly beautiful.

The figure suddenly flashed the group a soothing smile—a look so serene that it made the hairs on Trisha’s neck rise in an instinctive warning.

”Hold on. He will be back out in just a moment,” the body said, and then the eyes drifted shut.

Two seconds later, the eyes snapped back open.

The gray, familiar look in the boy’s eyes reappeared as he stared at the people gathered around him.

Seeing the shift, Van hesitated before calling out again.

”Ra... Ray?”

”It’s good to be back,” Ray muttered, a small, nearly imperceptible smile touching his lips.

He groggily pushed himself up from the ground, pausing for a moment to stare at his new hand.

He flexed the fingers tentatively. Even though the limb had been destroyed and then reconstructed from scratch, it didn’t feel foreign to him at all.

’Hmph. Elyon did a fine job here.’

The wind rustled loudly through the ruins, biting into his skin and causing a sudden, sharp chill to run down his spine.

He looked down, and that was when the reality of his situation finally hit him.

He was bloody well half-naked.

His pants were in tatters, barely hanging onto his hips and providing only the most basic coverage.

His shirt had been completely incinerated during the transformation, and his VMS gear had shattered the moment his limbs had elongated into the werewolf form.

At the moment, he only had a few tattered strips of fabric preventing him from being entirely exposed.

’Fuck.’

Noticing his predicament, Kai and Van stepped forward quickly.

They pulled off their own jackets, with Van wrapping his around Ray’s waist like a makeshift kilt, while Kai draped his over the tribrid’s shoulders—effectively wrapping him in a layer of much-needed warmth.

Once he was fully clothed, the others stepped back, staring at him with a volatile mix of expressions ranging from awe to deep-seated suspicion.

”What happened?” Kai couldn’t help but ask, gawking at Ray as the vivid, bloody images of the earlier transformation played on a loop in his mind.

Ray blinked a few times, his gaze scanning their weathered faces.

”I don’t know. I...” He was about to voice his confusion when a torrential cascade of dings suddenly erupted within his skull.

A flurry of translucent system panels materialized in his field of vision, nearly overwhelming his senses with their glowing text.

[Quest Completed]

[Quest Completed]

[Congratulations on helping your group win the beast hunt competition]

[Congratulations on defeating a one-spined Aberrant]

[Rewards for helping win the beast hunt: +200 EXP, +5 INT stat, +1 stat point]

[Rewards for defeating the Abb...]

∆∆∆

”Ray?!” Van’s sharp voice quickly snapped the Aspirant out of the digital haze.

”Huh?”

”What happened? You suddenly zoned out on us,” Van asked, genuine concern written across his features.

”I... I’m fi—”

”This is not the time nor the place for a round of questions and answers,” Trisha smoothly interrupted, her expression as stoic and unreadable as ever.

”We have less than a few minutes before the gate collapses. We need to move. Now.”

”That’s right,” Kai added, letting out a small, sharp wince as he clutched his bleeding side.

”So, did you two actually manage to defeat the boss-class beast?” Chloe asked, a hint of apprehension coloring her voice as she stared at the pair.

Without uttering a single word, Trisha reached into her pocket and pulled something out.

It was a gleaming object, roughly the size of half an egg. It was deep red and pulsed with a soft, rhythmic light.

”Now, can we leave?” she asked, her brow furrowing with impatience.

”Alright.” Kai nodded, though he glanced back at Ray, who was still oddly fixated on the Aberrant’s massive, cooling carcass. ”You good?”

”Hm? Uh... yeah,” Ray replied, finally tearing his eyes away to face his friend.

”Shall we head out?” Kai pressed.

Ray cast one last, brief glance at the Aberrant’s body.

For some reason, he felt a magnetic pull toward the corpse—an inexplicable, primal draw that urged him to examine the fallen monster just a little longer.

But the clock was his enemy.

There was no time left for curiosity.

They needed to exit the gate immediately before the portal sealed them in this graveyard forever.

”Uhn.” Ray nodded firmly.

With that, the battered group began limping at the highest speed their exhausted bodies could muster, racing to reach the gate before the world turned to shadow.