My Tribrid System: More than a Monster-Chapter 144: Backup?

Chapter 142

A Few Moments Ago!

Ray was still immersed in the rigorous gear training session alongside Kai, yet a persistent shadow of unease clouded his mind.

He remained deeply unsettled by Van’s unexplained absence throughout the day’s curriculum.

The lack of information regarding why his friend had missed every single class caused his heart to thud with a rhythmic sense of dread.

This anxiety, coupled with a sudden, involuntary twitch in his left eye only moments prior, rendered him completely unable to concentrate on the physical tasks at hand.

His performance during the drills suffered significantly; he stumbled through maneuvers and miscalculated his timing, errors that did not go unnoticed by the surrounding students.

It was an anomaly.

Ray—the individual who typically demonstrated the most fluid mastery of the VMS gear among the entire group—was faltering.

Usually, he only needed to observe a technique or perform an action once to grasp its complexities, yet now he was failing at the very fundamentals he had practiced countless times before.

Kai observed this uncharacteristic display of clumsiness but remained silent, waiting for the right moment to intervene.

Hours gradually bled into one another until the gear training finally concluded, leaving Ray leaning over and panting softly from both physical and mental exhaustion.

Kai approached him, his expression a mixture of confusion and concern.

"What happened out there? You haven’t been yourself for a while now," Kai noted, his voice low.

With a heavy exhale, Ray straightened to his full height, his gaze distant.

"Van... where is he? I haven’t seen him since this morning."

Kai sighed, crossing his arms.

"I noticed his absence as well. But he’s probably just engrossed in a new invention or some technical project that caused him to lose track of time and skip the training."

Ray quickly shook his head, his brow furrowing in disagreement.

"No. Something feels fundamentally wrong. Ever since I had that dream..."

He trailed off, his voice barely a whisper. Kai lifted a brow, intrigued. "Dream? What dream are you talking about?"

Ray quickly shook his head again, dismissing the thought. "It’s nothing important."

Kai opened his mouth to press for more details but paused abruptly.

His eyes caught a flickering movement on Ray’s wrist, and he wasted no time calling his friend’s attention to the phenomenon.

"Why is your watch blinking like that?"

"Hm?" Ray lifted an eyebrow, slowly tracing his gaze down to the device strapped to his arm.

Indeed, a pale, rhythmic light was constantly flashing on the interface, as if desperately trying to capture his attention.

"I didn’t notice it until now," Ray admitted.

Quickly tapping the screen, he saw an incoming notification.

It was a message... a voice recording. And it was from Van!

Ray’s eyes lit up with a mixture of hope and fear as he pointed at the display.

"It’s a voice message from Van!"

Kai heaved a visible sigh of relief.

"That means he’s likely fine then. But still, play it so we can be sure."

Ray didn’t need any further prompting; he immediately activated the audio file.

Van’s voice filled the space between them, but he sounded frantic—panting heavily as if he were in the middle of a desperate sprint.

"List—listen to me, Ray. Something truly disastrous is about to happen, and there is a very real chance I might lose my life in the process.

Even though we are close friends, I don’t expect you to come and risk your life for me, which is why I’m sending you this warning. Get a Captain down to the room used for the tech aspect class immediately!"

The message cut off abruptly, leaving the air heavy with tension.

Ray’s heart thudded loudly against his ribs as he and Kai processed the dire contents of the recording.

A deep frown etched itself onto the blonde-haired boy’s face.

"Something disastrous? What could possibly be happening in the tech wing?"

Ray wasn’t about to hesitate or wait for a committee meeting.

He didn’t know the exact coordinates of the room used for the aspect class, but he knew of a power that could guide him.

Closing his eyes for a fraction of a second, he opened them to reveal a sharpened focus.

A faint, blue misty trail—a spiritual or energetic tether—manifested in his line of sight, leading away from the training grounds.

Spinning around on his heel, Ray was already dashing off, propelling himself forward with every ounce of explosive strength his body could muster.

"Wai—wait! Don’t we need to go find a Cap—" Kai started, reaching out a hand, but the sentence died in his throat.

"And he’s already gone."

Kai could only facepalm in frustration as he watched Ray disappear into the distance.

****

Dashing back toward the Corps’ main building, Ray’s eyes remained fixed on the fluctuating trail that connected him to Van.

For some reason, the spectral tether was flickering in and out like a lightbulb on the verge of burning out.

This instability only served to heighten his anxiety, fueling a desperate need for speed.

He bashed through crowds of startled Aspirants, leaving a wake of shouted curses and confused faces behind him.

His gaze never wavered from the trail, even when he collided with other students; he didn’t even register their presence as he continued his frantic sprint.

"Huh? Where is brother rushing off to with such velocity?" one boy muttered, staring at Ray’s vanishing back with a bewildered expression.

"... Why does he look so terrified?"

Even with Ray’s enhanced speed, it took a significant amount of time to navigate the sprawling complex.

The sheer scale of the Corps was immense.

However, the thin trail—which had been as slender as a thread only moments ago—suddenly grew more robust and vibrant the closer he drew to Van’s location.

Finally, he skidded to a halt at an entrance where the heavy doors had been violently blown off their hinges.

Stepping into the wreckage-strewn room, he took in the scene: Van stood battered and trembling, surrounded by a hostile group, with a weapon leveled directly at his chest.

All of that had led to the current standoff, with Ray slowly rising to his full height after stabilizing Van’s condition.

Van’s eyes darted around the perimeter of the room as if searching for reinforcements. When he saw no one else, his flicker of hope began to dim.

Panic seeped into his voice as he asked hoarsely,

"Uhm... Ray? Where is the Captain I asked you to bring?"

The Tribrid didn’t offer a verbal reply at first.

His back remained turned toward his friend as he leveled a lethal glare at the enemies before him.

"No one else is coming," Ray finally stated, his voice dropping to a dangerous, icy register.

"It’s just me and these motherfuckers."

At this moment, Ray felt he didn’t require any further assistance.

He was internally prepared to tear every single person in this room—save for Van—to shreds.

[Lunar Claws Activated!]

[-15 Energy Points]

Ray’s hands underwent a terrifying transformation, shifting into deadly, elongated claws with tips that gleamed with an obsidian, predatory glow.

Everyone in the room froze at the sight of the supernatural weaponry.

He immediately dropped into a firm combat stance, blue sparks of static crackling deep within his eyes.

Bryce glanced around at his guards, shaken but still commanding, and issued a sharp order.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Erase him!"

The guards stirred from their momentary hesitation, shifting into their own aggressive stances.

However, before they could even take a single step forward, a rain of crystalline shards erupted from above, pelting the area.

In a practiced maneuver, three of the guards moved to the front of the group.

A translucent barrier materialized into view, absorbing the impact of the shards, which simply bounced off the energy surface like rubber balls.

Elysa, reacting with her own instincts, dove behind an overturned table to avoid being pinned by the projectiles embedding themselves into the floor.

One of the guards within the barrier snapped his head to the side.

With uncanny speed, he thrust out his palm, catching a physical punch mid-air.

’Fuck! What kind of monstrous strength does this kid possess?!’ the guard thought, his arm trembling from the sheer force of the impact. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

As the guard strained to hold back the blow, another figure came into view, a confident smile playing on his lips.

Ray paused, confusion flickering across his features as he recognized the newcomers.

"Huh? Kai? Felix?"

"Yo, brother," Felix grinned, his fist still pressed firmly against the guard’s straining palm.