Hikaru dashes toward the deer to grab its antlers, but the deer kicks him away. Hikaru lands on his feet after the kick, and the deer blasts the debris right in front of him.

“Same trick doesn’t happen twice.” Hikaru hid under a pile of rocks and destroyed machines. After the Dust settles, Hikaru is nowhere to be seen.

“Hiding somewhere, aren't we?” He looked up, and he saw nothing. He looked left and right, and he saw nothing. The ground crumbles, and all of his feet are buried. Hikaru digs up behind the deer and kicks him in the jaw. The deer is knocked from the fight, and he roars in joy.

“There’s no time to rest….”  Hikaru is a little dazed at the fight, but he continues to walk to the door. Before he is about to leave the room, a chill from behind made his skin crawl.

“Well… Well… I guess they're down for the count.” The smoke continues to spread through the huge metallic room. A silhouette inside the smoke slowly emerges, and the huge bear. He immediately slashes Hikaru on his right arm, and he howls from the pain. He immediately jumps away from the bear, trying his best to cover his arms.

“Damn! I let my guard down!” Hikaru grits his teeth

“I can heal your body, but it might further exhaust you since I’m not the one who is personally doing it.” The voice offers its help.

“You knocked me down twice in a row; that's an impressive tactic. Taking down the strongest first so you can deal with the weaker ones easily.” The bear slashes the smoke to clear it out.

“It’s fine to go for it, I will push my limits.” Hikaru continues to hold his arm.

I guess the slash is having a huge toll on my body, and I'm slowing down drastically.

While the voice is slowly healing, Hikaru's wound, the bear continues its attack. He may not be slashing Hikaru, but the weight difference is taking its toll.

“I have to end this with one blow.” Hikaru kicks the bear with all his might, and the bear flies again. Then Hikaru jumps toward the bear to knock him out, but the bear slaps him back while he is mid-air. He flew to the metallic wall and he almost lost consciousness. The bear roars, and he charges towards it. 

“How did he survive the attack…”The bear tries to slash him, but Hikaru dodges it. After he dodges the bear's attack, He swiftly moves to the left side of the bear, punching him multiple times on the ribs. Then he backs off a little, and the bear roars in pain. 

“You got me good, but prepare for the worst.” Hikaru starts to breathe heavily even though he is trying to heal and compose himself. Then the temperature slowly drops, and Hikaru looks around. The ventilations are off, but the room is getting colder by the second. 

“Please don’t tell me what I think it is.” The voice has a nervous tone and warns Hikaru to back off from the bear. The bear's fur turns beige with white on the tips. Ice slowly forms around the bear's neck, and an ice gauntlet with ice claws is taking shape. His size grew twice, and now he also has a larger set of teeth.

This… is… a joke, right?” Hikaru smiles bravely while his body can’t move from the pressure he is receiving. The bear roars, and starting from his feet, the ground transforms into a tundra biome. Huge chunks of ice transform everywhere, leaving Hikaru trapped.

“Run Hikaru!” The voice warns him.

“I shall give you the experience of what hell is.” Hikaru starts shivering, and the bear is approaching fast. The bear slams its fist into Hikaru, but he blocks it. Each hit feels so heavy that it makes his arms feel numb. Hikaru could not do anything but block and dodge the attacks.

The bear stops the barrage, and he inhales deeply. A blizzard spews out from the bear's mouth and freezes any surface it touches. Hikaru didn't have the time to dodge it, and the bear got him on his right shoulder. Hikaru jumps away from the bear again and tries to make up a plan.

“Got any plans?” The voice offers help again as he continues to heal Hikaru.

Hikaru runs in circles to find any weak points, and he finds a small glowing symbol under his chest. Hikaru used his left arm to dodge and moved like an acrobat on every attack and blast from the bear.

“Why didn't I see that earlier?” Hikaru maintains eye contact with the bear.

“You're keeping your distance from me, little fella?” The bear looks around and he roars again. The room got colder, and the bear doubled in size again. A massive ice armor starts to form on his back.

“You've got to be kidding me….” Hikaru hisses, and he runs around the room again. His injury from his left arm finally healed, but he is getting more exhausted. His victory is getting slimmer, and room temperature continues to drop.

Meanwhile, outside the laboratory, Kyuuzaki sits behind a bush, and he is focused on the drone’s screen. While keeping his body safe if an animal tries to attack him, One simply scouts around while keeping an eye on Kyuuzaki and around him. While One is walking around and he notices the temperature is starting to drop. He looks around to investigate, and maybe a machine is malfunctioning. He found all the machines to be dead or destroyed. Now he looks at the sky and everything seems to be normal. The sun is high, the forest breezes gently, and the birds chirp and sing. One went inside the building and ignored what Kyuuzaki said earlier. The temperature seems to have dropped a little bit more.

“Kyuuzaki, does your drone read the temperature or not?” One looks around inside the abandoned building.

“No, why? This drone I have at the moment is just a scouting type. Why did you ask?” The drone follows One. Kyuuzaki just sighs since One is inside the building, and hopes he is safe inside. 

“It feels a little bit chilly inside, and it feels odd.” One states and sees an elevator door, and the stairs beside it are frozen. One told Kyuuzaki to go inside the building and look for it for himself.

“Alright, I'm coming, and it's weird why there is an Ice patch here.” Kyuuzaki continues to hover the drone around One. A couple of minutes have gone by, and Kyuuzaki arrives where One is. He grabs his small drone and puts it in his back pocket.

One examines the frozen stairs, and Kyuuzaki looks closer at the ice crystals. Then Kyuuzaki states that this can't be a bizarre nitrogen leak or A machinery that explodes then causing the lab to be cold. Then they realize what it can be or might be.

“Runes.” They both said it at the same time, and they both got up and look around.

“So, a wolf might have a rune, is that even possible? Kyuuzaki looks at the frozen elevator.

“I’ve met animals with runes or some type of abilities in the past. So yes, it is possible, and you have not met anything like that on your past missions?” One asks with a slight confusion.

“No, I have not, and I never had any beast-type mission in the past.” Kyuuzaki shrugs.

“Anyways, should we take the stairs or ride the elevator?” One grins while trying to fry the frozen elevator door.


“Nah, let’s just take the stairs, and it is safe that way. There might be ice in the middle of the elevator shaft, and it’s dark in here.” Kyuuzaki walks to the frozen stairs and slowly descends to it.

While One and Kyuuzaki are descending the stairs, One is theorizing that the wolf might have the frost rune. Kyuuzaki focuses on not slipping on the floor and looking ahead of them. He tells One to focus and warns him to be careful not to slip on the icy staircase. The temperature drops significantly and continues its descent.

Meanwhile, Hikaru has an idea on how to defeat the bear, and it might work. So he stretches his arm again and runs around to look at the symbol.

His skin is thick enough at this point that my punches are nothing. He has armor behind his back, claws, and on his neck. His size is quadrupled from a regular bear. I'm at a massive disadvantage… What can I do at this point? Hikaru picks up Icicles or any sharp objects on the ground. He hurls it towards the bear, but the bear catches it with its mouth. Then he crunches it into pieces, and the bear roars at him.

“You thought that would work?” The bear smashes the floor, and the stomp causes a massive earthquake. The big chunk of ice rattles, and it spreads in the giant room. Hikaru stares in shock as the attack erupts, and he has no time to dodge or room to run as the jagged ice chunks hurtle toward him. The jagged ice rocks pierce Hikaru, sending his body flying from the impact. The Ice chunks bury him and paralyze half of his body. His left arm is broken, and His right hand is between the ice chunks. His head starts to bleed, and it is gushing down through his eyes.

“I don't want to die like this…” Hikaru mutters while his eyes are dull, and the ice is crawling to his face.

“Hikaru, wake up!!” The voice yells at him, but Hikaru’s eyes are shutting down, and his consciousness is fading. The Voice keeps on encouraging Hikaru to wake up while healing his body. While the bear starts to sniff out where he was buried, he finds where he is located. The voice didn’t want Hikaru to die, so it tried to take over for Hikaru. 

“So you end up there, huh?” The bear snickers and he rushes towards the mountain of ice. 

“I… have…. to… survive!!!” Hikaru roars in pain to push out the ice above him, and a burst of ominous energy starts to radiate through the room. A dark substance starts to crawl out of the ice slowly, and the mountain of ice explodes. After Hikaru roars, his eyes glow in purple, A medium-sized crimson red bat-like wing flutters at his back, and one small crimson horn grows on top of his forehead. A dark purple cloak is continuously surrounds his body to heal the damage from earlier. Hikaru roars one more time, and he flies towards the bear. The bear anticipates the attack and smacks Hikaru’s body towards the chunk of ice.

“That was underwhelming.” The bear scoffs while he is looking at Hikaru.

“Hikaru can you hear me?” The voice is nervous for Hikaru.

Hikaru rises from the ice chunks and flies straight ahead to the bear. The bear tries to grab him, but Hikaru dodges the attack. He flies down, and he punches the bear on the gut. Hikaru mimics what the hawk did earlier, so he flies straight up to the room, then he looks down at the bear. Hikaru dives bombs into the bear and punches the ice armor. The ice armour shatters into millions of pieces, and Hikaru sends a barrage of punches. The bear screams in pain when he tries to fight back, but Hikaru rips out the bear's arms. Then he continues to barrage him with punches.

“I WILL SURVIVE!!!” Hikaru roars, and he continues to punch the bear multiple times, and the bear screams in agony. He grabs a giant ice shard and stabs the bear's face multiple times. Blood gushes from his eyes and mouth. The bear fights back by charging up his abilities, but Hikaru closes the bear's mouth. The bear’s abilities backfire and cause him to freeze his own head. Hikaru punches the bear’s face and shatters its frozen head into multiple pieces.

“Stop kid, it's over.” The voice is frustrated and trying to calm him down.

 “STOP IT.” Hikaru continues to punch the bear even though there is no sign of life coming from the animal. Hikaru tosses the giant bear across the room and treats him like a rag doll. 

“Damn it.” The voice doesn’t want to take over his body, but he is left with no choice. A dark smoke starts to surround Hikaru's body, and dark tendrils wrap around his arms. Hikaru continues to lash out, but the tendrils continue to bind him.

Meanwhile, on Hikaru's consciousness…

Hikaru’s body is wrapped with multiple binds of dark treads while he is unconscious. While his body in the real world continues to lash out, and breaks free from the black tendrils. The voice feels guilty that he gave the abilities way too early to Hikaru, and now he is suffering from it.

“I'm going to fix this.” The voice forcibly took over Hikaru, and a black smoke started to envelop his body. The voice felt Hikaru's pain and will to live while he heals his body. He looks around the chaos, and he feels guilty because he should have been the one who handled the situation. But at the same time, he also wants to see Hikaru grow on his own, but this might have pushed his limit.

The room is now silent, and the carcass of the bear continues to linger. The two other animals are knocked unconscious, but they are barely breathing. The room is filled with giant ice blocks, and the chilliness of the room continues to linger. He roams around the room since it’s a total mess he looks around at the door.

While Kyuuzaki and One are running down the frozen stairs, Kyuuzaki’s right chest pocket starts to glow.

“Kyuuzaki, your chest is glowing!” Kyuuzaki stops for a moment and opens his chest pocket. Kyuuzaki takes out the purple rune from his pocket and holds it out. 

“This is the shard that we got from the abandoned ship!” One holds on to the cold railing.

“It’s probably because Hikaru is using his abilities?” Kyuuzaki replies, and they continue to descend the frozen stairs.

“Perhaps.” One wonders about the purple shard since how can it glow to begin with? He kept his mouth shut after and simply said that it also happens to him whenever he activates his abilities. But something is weird about it because he knows it is the actual requirement for it.

“Alright, let’s go One.” One nods and follows Kyuuzaki.

Thank god it wasn't the flame shard that was glowing. If it were, I would have to eliminate him right here. They continue to descend even further, and the ice is getting thicker. It slows them down a little. They try to keep the pace up while maintaining the balance on their footing.

‘Hikaru’ found the three huge doors, and he fries them open by punching every single one. Then he enters where the bear is, and after a long walk he finds himself inside a room again. This time there are multiple doors and a long hallway.

“I still can’t believe he managed to reach this stage so early. His body and mind are not ready in this current form at all. Since he has not passed that trial yet, I will be there for him in the future. Perhaps he would be able to see me clearly when that happens, and I can’t wait.” ‘Hikaru’ finds an open door, and the room name says “Subject-005”, and he sees a falcon inside a case. He approaches the bird, and the bird simply tilts its head at him. Since the bird felt no malice and only curiosity. ‘Hikaru’ releases the falcon, and the falcon does not do anything.

“Why are you not threatened by me? You're quite an interesting fellow.” While he is waving his hand to signal the bird to fly away. He glows his eyes to scare the falcon away, but it did not budge.

“Ok this is starting to get weird… I’m out of here.” He continues to walk in the long hallway to find where the Wolf kept the fox.