Stonebrook High School

Chapter 23

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"NO!" Jesse screamed as he shoved Gabriel out of the way, dodging the projectile.

"Jesse?" Gabriel's eyes widened to the size of small plates. "What are you doing here? You're going to get hurt! Get out, now!"

"I'm not leaving you behind!" The boy ran behind a wall as he avoided another blast.

"You have your sister and family to think about! Go home, Jesse!" Gabriel parkour-rolled over a car and ran towards him.

"I'm not going anywhere!"

Gabriel sighed and stared directly into the green eyes of the adolescent. "Fine. But don't get hurt, you hear?"

The boy nodded.

A voice yelled from behind the wall. "Creature, attack!"

The two looked up in horror when they saw the strange machine hovering above them and ran as quickly as they could, leaping up when the blast blew them away.

"Gabriel, please tell me, what is that thing?" Jesse panted heavily.

"... It's a Wither. An industrial-grade creature genetically engineered to be used for military purposes with installed bionic upgrades. However, the military stopped using them when one Wither went out of control, hence why the Wither cores weren't being produced anymore."

"This is what they were using the cores for?!"

Gabriel nodded grimly.

"Then we got to stop this thing!"

Gabriel whipped his head around furiously. "No. It's after me, not you!"

Jesse furrowed his eyebrows in frustration. "Then what am I supposed to do?"

The Warrior was interrupted when the ground started to shake and split apart into large pieces of debris. They separated from the floor and were sucked into the Wither, which was accumulating more and more material until its massive size blocked out the sun.

All Gabriel could do was look up with dread, his eyes dull. "Ivor... what have you done?"

The mentioned man was nearby, laughing. He looked around at the astonished bystanders who were screaming and crying. "Look at him! The mighty Gabriel! Looks like true greatness is out of his reach. He may not be able to defeat this monster, but I can!" He looked up at the massive Wither and pointed at it. "Creature– retreat!"

The Wither did nothing in response but grow in size.

Ivor's previous smile thinned into a line. "Creature– retreat!"

It turned around to look at Ivor directly in the eyes and he glared up at the monster. "Retreat, I said! Retreat!"

"That's not working...!" Jesse exclaimed, standing next to Gabriel.

Ivor calmly looked at Jesse and Gabriel, smoothly saying a few words despite a little bit of wavering in his voice. "No need to be alarmed, my friends. I have an elixir that will destroy this creature."

He pulled out a bottle and threw it at the Wither, hitting it directly where that strange cube with the blinking lights was.

Suddenly, the Wither started to cry this horrifying screech and the three covered their ears. The debris started to loosen from the creature and it came crashing down, the machinery breaking into multiple pieces.