King of Lies

We huddled up and had a little discussion, with nearly everyone having something to say except me. Surprisingly the freak I saw smiling earlier had a lot to say and honestly, I thought he'd be one of those weird weebs with no social skills. His name is Malcom.

He was happy to share what he learned from his short time experimenting with the abilities we discovered.

First, we drew the energy needed for it from our bodies, I already figured that out myself, and everyone could sustain it differently. For example, Malcom could sustain his for twenty minutes at full power, while I could only sustain it for five minutes.

Second, we could adjust its intensity and that directly affected how long it could last. Malcom could potentially keep his up at low intensity indefinitely.

I could barely reduce the intensity of mine by half, while his was barely visible. I'd say he reduced it by eighty percent.

Freaking talented bastard.

Third, our energy regenerated passively over time.

The older man with the white aura surpased everyone by a large margin this time. He could keep his ability at high intensity for a very long time, because his energy regenerated at an insane rate, but he couldn't sustain the white aura.

It diminished after every use, and he had to pray to activate it everytime.

His name is Gabriel.

Fourth, not all the wolves gave out abilities.

Those that had already been touched and all the smaller ones didn't cause any reaction.

They were twenty in total and only ten gave out an ability.

Lastly, I was increadibly weak. I had the worst control, the worst regeneration, the worst efficiency and the lowest energy. Even the two sixteen year olds were much better than I was.

It was frustrating.

Of the original 23, only 15 of us survived and out of the 15, only 8 of us had fought at all. More of the braver ones lay dead either from sheer stupidity or a lack of support.

We could have dealt with this without any casualties if those cowards had just helped. It wasnt like the wolves were that difficult to kill. We had very well maintained weapons and the wolves were not that bright.

The only thing the wolves had on us were their unnaturally sharp claws. Other than that, they were light and quite stupid. It frustrated me to no end.

We decided to let 2 of the more willing idiots take the last 2 available abilities. One of them was a calculating bastard and the other was a woman that watched her husband get ripped apart in front of her.

Their names are Milo and Zara.

I felt sorry for Zara, only because she lost someone so close to her. As for the other guy, I'd love to see him die. He hid behind two other much better men that gave their lives to delay the wolves at our rear.

All he had done was run and hide behind others more willing to protect.

After all of that was done, it was time to rest. We decided to keep watch by turn. Two people were to stay awake for an hour while the rest of us slept. Malcom and Zara took first watch.

I was last with Gabriel and was very grateful.

I took a nice nap.

I was woken up 4 hours later. My body still aching all over, and the injury I sustained from that damn wolf's claws had scabbed over.

I was glad it healed nicely, but seemed a little too fast?

Mark, and some guy named Kreg, happily switched with I and Gabriel.

They were so happy to get back to sleep, but the forest had other plans.

The sun was rising, It was a beautiful golden hue, and it was multiple times larger than the sun on earth. I could even see little tongues of flame dance around its edges.

As the sun came out of hiding, so did the beasts. An orange paw burst out from the cover of the trees and planted itself firmly on the ground.

There was a short delay as the rest of its body pushed through the thick foilage.

"Everyone wake up!!! It's a fucking tiger!!" I heard myself shout before what i was seeing even registered into my head.

Kreg was the first to spring into action. He slapped Mark awake and proceeded to do the same to everyone still asleep.

The tiger was stalking us, taking its time to circle our group.

It was a great idea we all huddled together because knowing what I did about those things... We would have been fucked.

The tiger sensed our unready state and realized we would only get more people up the longer it waited.

The thing charged right at me. It could probably sense I was one of the weakest in the group., but Gabriel didn't let it get to me. I heard a prayer leave his lips as that familiar white glow covered his body and his sword flash gray for a while before mixing with the white to create a pretty light grey color.

His feet left the ground with an unnatural burst of strength and the white glow around his body dimmed a little.

We all watched in utter amazement as he caught the tiger unnawares and cut its head clean off. We were all about to celebrate when we heard a few more growls. It wasn't alone... we were surrounded.