Ancient Forces (2018 Reboot)

Chapter 43 - Skills and Knowledge

It was five in the evening, the base was busy with work, and the reports were in. Zayne didn't know anything about what was happening, but from what he did hear it didn't sound like something he was going to be getting involved in any time soon. Some individual named Tiberius was running wild in the streets attacking anyone who got in his way. But everytime a report would come in of an attack he would be gone by the time government forces arrived. What startled Zayne about this whole thing however was the fact that they were using a word he didn't think he'd be hearing about a villain anytime soon. Tiberius was running wild again they kept saying. Meaning this guy had been loose before, and had somehow evaded capture or defeat before. Zayne wondered who could have failed to capture him the first time, or maybe even the second time if this was a repeating occurrence? Everyone here was so skilled and prepared, and with the backing of the government they couldn't fail. Zayne began to worry about it until Miller came by and brought him to the training rooms once more. Everyone else was already there.

Miller explained how each room was an upgraded, more difficult, version of the rooms from the cave base Zayne had used before. Room One was already tested, so they now had rooms two and three to do. Room four was for another time, Miller had said. Room two was just like the one Zayne remembered as they walked in, the forest and river, the calming sounds and the sky above. But there was one difference Zayne noted. This room was a lot bigger, which made Zayne wonder just why exactly they needed so much space. In each corner was a dome, half of it a metal plating while the top half was made of glass. A hatch rested in the bottom metal portion for one to open and close at will. The group of five looked back to Miller who tapped a few final commands into the console.

"Room Two has been upgraded to make the difficulty almost impossible. The max level three at the old base? That's hardly even scratching the surface of level one in this room. The wind power and natural fauna destruction has been drastically increased to make it even more difficult to get away. Oh, and they've added more people that you have to save. Instead of one or two, level one has ten that you must work together to rescue before they get sucked away," Miller explained as the group took in the information with slight amounts of fear.

"Are we gonna be okay after this?" Austin asked with genuine concern, something he never really expressed all too often.

"Nah you'll be fine," Miller turned around and pressed a button to form one of the domes around himself and the console for protection, "You just might not be able to train for the next couple of days if you lose."

Suddenly the entire room shifted and changed, the trees warping and stretching towards the center as a hole opened up. A pitch blackness below opened up, swallowing the world around it as the wind currents whipped up and the difficulty of this room became all too apparent. Zayne, Damien, and Eli all immediately took off running. They jumped and flew from tree to tree struggling against the wind. But quickly they realized this was indeed much harder than what they were used to. They could only stay a few feet away from the edge of the gaping hole with everything they had in human forms. Going to a half form gave them a little more power, but only a few more feet's distance. Down below Aries and Austin struggled against the overpowering force. Austin was constantly teleporting them both ahead, away from the edge, while Aries used his pouch of mythanium to make grapplers that they used to pull themselves further away. Then they saw one ahead. A person flying towards them from the forest screaming the whole way down.

Reacting quickly Austin used a portal to catch the person and throw them at Aries, who shifted his grappler into a much bigger pouch and safely stuck the person in it. Austin then used another portal to move Aries further up the way. Aries struggled to keep his own weight from giving out with the wind and the human sac behind him. Despite the power Aries managed to stay steady where he was, but he wasn't making ground, and if he needed to catch another person he didn't know whether he could carry them or not.