RED 🔞 (Tracker #1)

2

“That’s the old First Edition ARK suit.” 

Freyja saw the figure who called himself Red walked into The Cage from the huge screen in front of her. She was bored and since Blake was busy with something, she went to the Lair to have some fun, when she found out that the rookie called Red had challenged the Top Ten Ranks all at once, and she was very intrigued.

Since she was staying at the VVIP room that was reserved for family members, she didn’t have to be down there to see the actual match since it was being displayed nicely inside.

“You mean the first gen suit Kai made back when the Academy was being built?” Freyr – who sat beside her – observed the suit with interest. “But didn’t Kai tell us that it was not up to par and immediately made the second gen with a lot of improvement? That one should be out of commission and replaced by the second gen free of charge.”

“Maybe he didn’t get the notification?” Byakuya – the other figure who sat beside Freyja and ate spicy potato chips – chirped in. He was dragged in by Freyja when she saw him lounging around with nothing to do after he finished the job from Noah.

As the Devourers, they didn’t need the battle suit since it was made to protect the lesser and weaker being when they went to the front line to fight the monsters. The distribution of the suits was also being handled strictly, with only the Academy students being the ones who were able to get their hands on it.

“Or maybe he’s an Academy student?” Freyja surprised herself when she became interested in the person behind the outdated suit, and she had never been interested in humans before. “Let’s watch the fight first.”

The fight was done according to the rank, and in front of Red was the 10th rank – a beastwoman.

The beastwoman was big and tall and covered in dark brown fur with round furry ears on top of her head – a clear sign of a descendant from bear beastmen. She was purely muscular and she was very strong, she could break a huge boulder with her bare hand alone, and now she looked over at the strange creature in front of her.

She could not make the gender of the person behind the all high tech suit and mask. They were tall and slim, but other than that, they did not make any sound that could identify themselves and the all matte black high tech suit hid everything else. 

When the bell rang to start the fight, Red clapped his hands and the lining of the all black suit turned to red and he moved very fast to attack the bear beastwoman with speed.

Of course he knew that he couldn’t beat her with speed alone, but that was why the suit came for. He knew that the suit had its flaw with the power source, but other than that, it was fine, so he recalibrated the suit to adjust to his power source and the suit worked better than the second gen.

When he was right in front of the beastwoman, he immediately attacked her by throwing a punch to her solar plexus, and since it was done at lightning speed, she was barely able to protect herself and the force of the punch threw her against the Cage’s wall and made her bleed.

She coughed and spit out the blood, and then she smirked.

“For a skinny one, you hit harder than 9th place.” Then she got ready with her boxing stance. “Now let’s do it again. This time, I will shred you into pieces.” Her eyes glinted and she moved forward faster than Red expected from her big body. But then again, she was a beastwoman, so she had the advantage of being able to use the beast’ power – in this case, a bear.

Red only shrugged and he taunted the beastwoman to approach him first by curling his finger. 

The beastwoman extended her long and sharp claws just before she reached him and attacked Red right across his face, but he moved slightly back and missed the claws by a mere inch, and it caused the beastwoman to roar in frustration.

“You need to do more than that to be able to catch on to me.” Red teased her and she went berserk.

“Watch your mouth, you puny human! You only can dodge, so you just wait until I catch you and tear you apart!”

“I can only dodge, you said?” Red tilted his head and put his hand under his chin white the other supported it. “Well, let’s see if it’s true. Come now, hit me with your best punch, I will not move from my place. If you can make me move even an inch, I will yield and you’ll be the winner.”

“Hmph, what a show off! Let me teach you a lesson then boy! Don’t be surprised by the power of my punch!” She then attacked Red with all her might and focused her all on the brat’s face – when she heard a loud crack.

At first she smiled knowing that at least she had broken his nose, but then she felt the sting on her hand, and saw that it was angled strangely.

It took her a few more seconds to realize that her hand was broken, and when the pain spread, she howled with pain and fell on the floor – and the fight was won by Red.

The crowd was shouting and cheering and booing at the fallen beastwoman, when number 9th entered the Cage to continue the fight. He growled and snarled at Red – who looked at the werewolf with disdain.

“This won’t do.” Red mumbled to himself as he snatched the mic from the host. “All of you, from 9 to 1, please come into The Cage at once. I will fight you together.”

When the crowd laughed, he continued to speak.

“What are you? Chicken? Afraid of losing against one skinny brat?” He mocked them and finally he got the response he wanted – the rest of the Top Ten went inside the Cage together.

“We’re going to teach you manners, brat.” One of them growled and started to change his form to a huge tiger – and he was number 3.

“Sure, you can all teach me manners after you beat me, which I’m sure you maybe could… in your next life.”

The crowds burst with laughter – and mocking and obscene gestures everywhere, alongside wolf whistles and screaming and yelling – but Red ignored them all as he saw that all of the other Top Ten were already preparing themselves to fight him together.

“So, how much have we won?” 

They were inside the private changing room near The Cage for privacy, after Red finished off all of the Top Ten and Miri was back with a huge bag full of gold.

“Almost a hundred mils in gold.” Miri looked so satisfied like a cat after lapping a can of cream.

Red pressed the button on his chest and the suit retracted back into the black necklace – revealing his long black hair. 

He actually wanted to cut it short, but every time he did so, the hair grew back to the same exact length – right on his waist – so he had no choice and just let it be.

He changed into a comfortable pair of old jeans and a white t-shirt, then he put on another white shirt to layer it and pressed his necklace once more to put all the gold inside. 

The necklace was with him ever since he could remember and he could put all the gold he had been hoarding inside it for safekeeping. He did not know why he had to collect gold, but he always felt that he needed to do that for something important.

Maybe when the amount was enough, he would be able to remember the reason why, but for now, he would have to be satisfied with hoarding them like a dragon.

“Good. Now, what should we do with the flies who followed you?” Red pointed out at the shiny truck full of beasts who were obviously targeting the gold.

“Eh, leave them to me, you have to prepare yourself for tomorrow’s new student’s orientation at the ARK Academy. I’ll meet you there as soon as I finished with them.” Miri smirked and Red could see the gleam in his eyes, and he chuckled.

“Have fun, and don’t be late tomorrow.”