Lost Origins: SS Ranked Awakening

'4… 3… 2…'

Kieran counted down internally, but when he hit zero, the confrontation he expected didn't happen.

SNIFF! SNIFF!!

GROWL!!!

Hearing the growling sound from all the way behind the building, Kieran felt his body turn cold and instinctively rolled out to the open street.

BAM!!!

The sound of a plasma bullet making a hole through the spot he was hiding behind the building was heard. If he stayed a moment longer, his body would have a hole along with the building.

"Raxt tu dis dald!"

The beast spouted some strange words Kieran couldn't understand.

Luckily whatever language the beast had used was already in the military's archives, so, his watch translated it automatically into his ears — an unlocked feature they got to assist them on missions.

The raxt mentioned by the beast was like the version on a rat on this planet.

'It can speak?!'

Unfortunately, Kieran had no time to complain about being called a rat, he was currently in a state of minor shock at the fact that they weren't like the other beasts driven by territorial instinct and lack of intelligence.

He pinned their organized action on the existence of a leader amongst them that had mutated, giving it a higher form of intelligence, but that theory had just been slightly altered by the beast in front of him.

'Now!'

Kieran rushed out towards the beast that was looking at him with a snarly expression. He didn't know if they had any means of communicating through long distances amongst themselves and he wasn't going to wait to find out. If that happened, their plan would fall apart in no time.

SWOOSH!

Kieran swung the blade of his scythe towards the head of the beast aiming to end the fight as soon as possible, but the readers of the fourth wall didn't approve of this and the beast managed to dodge his blade with ease.

"Hekhke, raxt tu bish dud!"

Kieran didn't need the automatic translation of his watch to know that the beast was mocking him. He could tell from the nasty smile he had seen all his life on the face of people like Richard.

'You want to play huh? I'll humor you!'

Kieran thought, subconsciously releasing little amounts of bloodlust.

BAM! BAM!!

The beast also didn't waste any more time as it fired shots of plasma bullets towards Kieran, but all it managed to hit was the ground. Kieran had already rolled to the side after seeing the beast's aim.

Dashing towards it, Kieran aimed for the hand holding the gun this time around, but like earlier, the beast managed to dodge narrowly.

This time though, Kieran didn't make the same mistake as earlier.

BAM! CRACK!!

Shifting his stance, he swept the pole of his scythe at the legs of the beast, this time getting the desired feel of his weapon hitting the target with a satisfying crack of its legs.

"Agwg—"

Puchi!

A weird cry of pain erupted from the beast's vocal cords as it dropped its weapon and went on the floor, clutching Its legs. Its pain didn't last long though as Kieran used the sharp tip of the scythe to pierce into its skull and brain, instantly killing it.

Kieran stood there for a few seconds, staring at the corpse of the beast before Ruby's voice snapped him out.

<01 are you there?>

She asked, using the numbers they had allocated to themselves to make things easier.

Kieran said, giving a short warning to the others.

'This isn't really going to go exactly as planned, is it?'

Kieran questioned himself, setting up some extra measures just in case something unexpected like this happened again.

Dragging the body of the creature away from plain sight, he searched through its body to check for any form if military or rudimentary communication devices and he found none.

Honestly, he didn't know if he was to be glad or not. The things he had learnt about were like things straight out of a fantasy story for him, so, it wouldn't be a surprise if this specie of beasts were capable of telepathic communication. He had read about a few that had that ability on the planet.

...…..

Jake and Ruby reported to Kieran, letting him know that they were in position to start the final part of their plan.

Kieran made known to them looking at the shabby array of sticks with the skulls of beasts set on top of them.

There were about twelve of those beasts on the outside, all of them in an alert state. They couldn't be blamed!

Their patrol squads never returned after they moved out. No matter how stupid the beasts were, they were going to realize that something was wrong later on and they already did, putting them in their current state of alert.

Kieran had modified the plan mid way. They resorted to luring the beasts using the blood of their clan mates. This removed the surprise effect they aimed to achieved when attacking the base of the beast, but neither Jake nor Ruby understood what was going on in Kieran's mind.

<5… 4… 3… 2…>

'Let's end this already!'

Kieran thought before the last second went through and...

BOOM!

Jake burst out slamming the side of his great sword on the head of a small beast, blasting it into pieces upon contact.

His restrained urge and frustration had finally found an outlet and he could let loose, even if it was a little.

Kieran noticed his lack of concern for the plasma weapons in the hands of the enemy, but this wasn't the time to caution him. The soldier could fend for himself, Kieran had enough belief in this.

BOOM! BANG!!

The sound of the plasma and laser bullets flying across the air accompanied with the collapse of buildings was heard.

Ruby had also joined the play and she didn't joke around, opting for the railgun right away.

Despite their few numbers, the beasts had the advantage of destructive military weapons they had found in the abandoned outpost.

Jake and Ruby were currently dealing with the twelve beats outside at an extremely quick pace, all the smaller ones had been cleared out, leaving them with seven big ones the size of a normal male human like the one Kieran had encountered.

Not bothering to join them in their rampage, Kieran requested cover and rushed towards the command building where he expected whatever was leading them was stationed.

'Huh?'

While rushing in Kieran notice six of more of those beasts running out, they were different from the ones they had identified earlier. The beasts were bulky, their veins popping out of the muscles and they stood as tall as Jake who was considered a small giant among their year.

Kieran reported to them before disappearing into the building, he planned to have a chat with whichever beast was behind this and he couldn't let it escape.

...….

TAP! TAP!!

The sound of Kieran boots on the metal floor echoed in the empty hallways of the command building.

The building was not the biggest in the outpost so it would only take him a few seconds to run to the top where the actual command center was.

He wasn't just running blindly to the top of the building, the beasts could have picked a random room to operate from, it wasn't a human after all.

He had used his watch to run a small-scale scan that managed to cover the whole building the moment he stepped in. The whole place was empty except from the top with a cluster of beasts that numbered more than what he had anticipated.

A perk he had got when he found out he had been promoted to a level five first year recruit.

He got to the top floor of the building a few seconds later and he didn't bother making any extra preparation, bursting into the singular room on that floor.

BOOM! CRASH!! BAM!!! BAM!!!!

"Err richt beetsh…..—DUUUU!!"

"BISHHHH!!!"

"%#$@@"

A series of unintelligible noises and screams were made by the unsuspecting beasts as Kieran rushed in managing to kill five during their momentary pause of surprise, reducing their numbers to nine, all of them just as menacing as the ones he had seen step out earlier. He even thought he heard a human like curse from one of them.

Now that he had lost his surprise effect, he did waste much time among to bring their numbers down by one more, but unfortunately, these beasts weren't as slow to react as their size might have suggested.

They were even faster then the human sized ones Kieran had encountered along the way.

BAM!

His shot missed, leaving the wall with a gaping hole instead. Before he could move to pursue the beast, he felt the hairs on his neck tingle and he dropped to his feet only to feel a huge gust of wind above him.

He had managed to avoid getting his head smashed into bits like the beast that took Jake's first strike.

His attacker unlike the others didn't wield a military weapon but had in its hand a huge club made of a black piece of rock he had long gotten used to by now.

The other eight beasts also wielded similar weapons made of the same rock.

Slapping his gun to his thigh, he instantly switched to his scythe, sweeping at the feet of the beast aiming to slice off its legs.

'Good thing I swapped my railgun with a lighter weapon from Ruby!'

Kieran thought, but his thought of thanks died the moment the blade of his scythe came in contact with the leg of the beast.