Universal Power System

Mako planted his hands firmly on the ground and soon a pillar of fire erupted in front of him taking care of the shortest path between the pillar and the remaining spiders. Most spiders had chosen the shortest path to them and were getting barbecued by the flame pillar that reached roughly the same height as the earth pillar itself.

*DING!*

[A Medium-Level Beast Has Been Defeated]

[+500 EXP]

[A Medium-Level Beast Has Been Defeated]

[+500 EXP]

[A Medium-Level Beast Has Been Defeated]

[+500 EXP]

[...]

Several notifications popped up in Mako's head but he just ignored them as he couldn't afford to lose focus at this point in time.

The spiders were not affected by their brethren getting burnt to a crisp in the slightest as they just took a detour around the pillar of flames and continued to climb up the pillar.

As the spiders resumed their climbing, Mako made his way toward the corner where the majority of the spiders were climbing up. Mako opened two fingers from his fist and aimed at the spiders.

[Lightning Strike has been activated]

[Lightning Strike has been activated]

[Lightning Strike has been activated]

Mako shot out several lightning bolts toward the spiders. The strikes weren't powerful enough to kill them but they did make them lose their grip and fall over, plus the electricity chained onto all other spiders that came into contact with the one that Mako targeted.

It took Mako a couple of seconds to deal with the spiders in that corner but that didn't mean that spiders weren't circling around and trying to climb the pillar from a different corner.

As soon as Mako was done with the spiders, he turned around and noticed that a spider had just made it onto the platform and several more were behind it. Mako didn't have a skill that could deal with the spider and the ones that were still climbing all at once. He had to think of something to ward off this wave and soon the time for the paralysis would be over and Bill could help out.

Mako quickly got back to Bill and took out his combat knife. While using the blade, Mako circled around Bill very quickly while extending his arm outward creating a 360-degree swipe in the air aimed directly toward the spider that had lunged toward him with its massive mouth open.

[Flame Wheel has been activated]

Flame erupted from the tip of the blade and extended outward, blowing the lunging spider back and throwing it off the top of the pillar. The flame wheel continued to extend outward, dealing damage and knocking off all the spiders that were about to reach the top.

None of these moves were strong enough to deal a finishing blow to the spiders as besides the ones that Mako had killed using the flame pillar, the rest would recover and try again. It couldn't go on forever but luckily it didn't have to.

Mako was about to circle around Bill once more, but before he could do that, the ground started shaking and suddenly stone spikes started shooting out from the sides of the pillars and knocked off every single spider from all sides.

Mako turned around and could see that Bill could move again. They didn't have time to celebrate or anything as this meant that the other spiders that Mako had paralyzed were also free to move again. They just quickly made eye contact and Bill said," Don't ever do that to me again," to which Mako just gave a smirk and nodded.

Now with Bill being able to move again, the load had been distributed equally and each guy only had to protect their side of the pillar which was manageable.

"Remember, they are weak to fire and penetrating attacks!" Mako said as a heads up to Bill.

"Yeah, I got that!" Bill replied.

Both boys were showing off many different skills as they kept on battling the spiders. Bill used his Vacuum Cutter and Sand Spikes skill the most as they were the most effective. He also used Wind Wall and Stone Spikes to knock off any who came too close to the top.

Mako was alternating between Fireballs and Lightning Strikes to take care of the ones that were coming too close while also mixing in Flame Wheel when a crowd of them came at him at once. He couldn't use Flame Bullet or Flame Pillar because these abilities took too long to charge up; time that he didn't have.

[10 Minutes later]

Mako collapsed on top of the pillar and Bill soon joined him. Both boys were exhausted as they had never used so many skills in such quick succession. This was their first fight where there was no physical contact involved as even a single touch could become problematic since all the spiders had the poison ability.

Mako didn't even know how the poison ability would affect his body as the system had been able to neutralize everything invasive that had entered his body so far.

The boys recovered their energy on top of the pillar while all the spiders lay dead at the base of the pillar. The scene beneath the pillar was quite gruesome. Blue blood painted the white sand and rogue fires kept burning in random places, the entire perimeter was a complete wreck.

After catching their breath, and recovering their energy a bit, They decided to hop off the pillar and collect all the crystals from the spiders.

When Mako first noticed the spiders, the low visibility led him to guess that there were around 20 or so spiders, but he couldn't be more wrong. After collecting all the crystals, the grand total number of spiders ended up being 51 spiders. The kills were hard to count as both of them were just focused on surviving so they decided to evenly split the crystals among themselves.

Bill reviewed 26 crystals while Mako got 25. Since Mako had an additional crystal, both of their totals were the exact same.

****************

With the campsite completely destroyed, and dawn just about to break, the boys decided that it would be best to just pack all their things and start heading toward the center of the island and search for a tablet, plus they couldn't fall asleep even if they wanted to because of the adrenaline pumping through their bodies.

It was decided that the following night, Bill would keep watch for the whole night while Mako slept so that he could catch up on sleep too.

The boys had packed their bags with all the items except for the empty loot crates. The loot crates were too big and would be tedious to carry around the entire day so they decided to just leave them there. They filled their water bottles with the remaining water inside the loot crate and were about to start their journey.

The sun slowly started to rise up as the surrounding became brighter by the minute.

The boys approached the small opening in the jungle where Mako first went through to explore and was about to go in when suddenly, Bill froze in place.

Mako didn't understand why he suddenly stopped and when he asked him what was wrong, he didn't reply. Mako got weirded out by Bill's behavior very quickly and used Analyze to see what was wrong.

[Analyze]

[Profile: Bill Johnson] (Poisoned)

[Ability: Earth (Level 3), Wind (Level 3), Sand (Level 2)] ⓘ

"Poisoned!?" Mako shouted with confusion as he quickly examined Bill's body. He discovered a spike had been stabbed into Bill's forearm and his entire arm was covered in blood.

"NOOO!!!" Mako shouted as he quickly laid Bill down and examined the spike, it looked like the teeth of one of those Sabertooth Spiders, but they had already killed them all. It couldn't be possible for them to attack Bill now. After taking a closer look, Mako could see the fang was a lot bigger and redder in color than the regular ones; however, just to make sure, Mako used Analyze on it.

[Analyze]

[Fang of a High-level Sabertooth Spider] ⓘ

[High-level Sabertooth Spiders often have a skill where they can eject one of their fangs at a target to inject them with their poison. Once they have successfully done that, they will run away to give time for the poison to work on their prey and also so it can recover its lost fang. Once it has recovered, it will return to claim its prize.]

Mako heard some of the bushes rustling in the distance and according to what the system had just told him, it was a high-level spider that had secretly attacked Bill and had now made a run for it. Rage was filling Mako's heart as wanted to give chase to the spider, but he couldn't leave Bill unattended.

Soon the noise stopped and the spider was long gone. Mako wrapped cloth around the forearm to restrict blood flow and carefully removed the spike. Once it was removed, he opened the medical kit that was provided to them and proceeded to disinfect and clean the wound before bandaging it up.

Bill still wasn't feeling better, instead, he was getting worse. His body was heating up and he also began to have a seizure. Mako didn't know what else he could do in the situation. His eyes became watery as he couldn't even register the fact that the first real friend he had in a long time was going to die in his arms and he couldn't do anything about it.

Tears began to roll down Mako's face as he watched Bill's entire body shake violently because of the seizure.

"Man up, Cadet! He's not out of the woods just yet!" A voice came from behind Mako.

Mako quickly turned around and saw a man wearing the standard military uniform standing behind him.

A patrolling officer had arrived on the scene.