THE STRONGEST NEXULYTE

"It ran away just like that, must still be afraid or must have returned back to its mother" Glen said with a smile on his face after he stopped laughing. His eyes stared in the direction the snake had escaped to for a while before turning to leave.

Glen returned to the footpath and had only taken a few steps when…

"Hey boy, stop there!" Someone shouted from behind him.

Glen turned to look at who it was and saw two men standing behind him, along with four other boys who were around the same age as him; 17 to 19.

"Umm, can I help you?" Glen asked in confusion since he could not recognize any of them.

They did not answer Glen immediately, one of the men signaled to one of the boys. The latter nodded and went into the bush, it was where the trap was located. He could out a few seconds later and whispered something to the man who in turn glared murderously at Glen.

"So it was you who stole our catch, huh? Do you want to die?" One of the men shouted at Glen as he pointed his matchet at him.

Glen was instantly frightened and raised both hands in surrender.

"I don\'t know what you\'re talking about, what catch!?" Glen questioned fearfully as he stared at the five people before him. He wasn\'t confident in defeating even one, much less five and they were even carrying cutlasses!

" Are you still planning to lie? Our trap had been undone and there\'s trace of blood, who do you think took it?" The man questioned sternly.

" You guys were the ones who hurt the white snak…" Glen instantly covered his mouth with one hand upon realizing that he had misspoken, his eyes trembled in fear when he saw the menacing look in their eyes.

" Ah, so it was a white snake? Tell me more, where is it?" One of the men gripped his cutlass firmly and began to walk toward Glen.

" I-i don\'t…know" Glen replied weakly while taking small steps back.

"Are you still planning to lie? Looks like I\'ll have to teach you a lesson first!" The man spat out, clearly enraged. He raised his cutlass and charged toward Glen.

Seeing the ferocious man charging at him, Glen was scared out of his skin and he shut his eyes tightly while he raised both hands in front of himself in an attempt to defend.

Rustle!!

Hissss!!!

"Ahhhhh!!"

With his eyes still closed, Glen heard the rustling of bushes and hissing sounds which was followed by a painful scream.

He opened his eyes to see what had happened and was stunned by what he saw.

A white snake, much bigger than the one he had saved had appeared out of nowhere and was currently fighting with the man who was about to cut him.

"It\'s a white snake, run!"

"What do you mean, run? Can\'t you see that (name omitted) is in danger? Everyone attack together!"

" Kill the damned snake!"

" Ahhh!"

Glen watched in shock as the five people all attacked the big white snake together, hacking down at its white scales with their weapons.

The white snake, in turn, would swipe around with its tail and send one or two people flying before lashing out with its enormous mouth.

" What…what\'s going on?" Glen mumbled absentmindedly as he watched the fight.

The five people were soon getting tired and injured as the snake kept sending them flying; similarly, cut marks had also begun to appear all over the body of the white snake and a part of its body was soon covered in blood.

Glen suddenly felt a wriggling sensation on his left leg, startled, he jumped back but discovered that he could not shake the feeling away. He looked and saw a small white snake climbing up his leg, it rounded his waist upward before finally reaching his head.

Glen recognized the small white snake after seeing the injury on its tail, it was the snake he had saved not too long ago.

The small snake coiled its body on top of Glen\'s head before raising its head proudly, its posture was akin to sitting on top of Glen\'s head while watching its mother wreck some bad guys.

Glen looked at the tail of the small snake that was dangling in front of his face before looking at the big snake that was still fighting the five people, he raised his hand and pointed out a finger.

"Is that…your mother?" He asked, uncertain if the snake would understand him.

Surprisingly, the snake bent its body so Glen could see its face before bubbling its head up and down while making a hissing sound; it had understood Glen\'s words and even responded!

"You…you can understand me!" Glen exclaimed in a loud voice, clearly shocked.

The next thing that the snake did shocked Glen even more, it made a human-like expression that Glen could swear that he saw the small snake smile! Its smile was so cute!

Glen did not know what happened next as it seemed as if they skipped time, the five people were no longer anywhere to be seen and the big white snake was now covered in numerous large gashes and was fully covered in blood.

It appeared to Glen that the fight must have ended with the five people fleeing.

Glen looked at the big white snake that was easily five times his size and was probably over ten meters long, just how were those five people able to fight this thing?!

"You\'re injured heavily, follow me home so I can help you" Glen said to the big snake. Since the small one was capable of understanding him, the big one should be able to do the same as well, right?

The big white snake stared at Glen with its pitch black eyes for a few seconds before opening its mouth.

"It\'s alright, young human. My injuries are severe and I won\'t be able to survive. I can tell that you\'re not like any other human, it\'s no wonder my daughter took an interest in you.

I came to thank you for saving her but it seems like I\'ll have to trouble you to take care of her more, in return, she will be of great help to you on your journey" the white snake said, its voice was nothing as Glen would have imagined if he even thought of a snake talking. Its voice was akin to a top celebrity singer! Soothing and pleasing to the ears!

But that\'s not the main issue right now!

"What do you mean you won\'t survive? What do you mean I\'ll have to look after her? What…" Glen threw a bunch of questions but was cut short when the small snake suddenly leaped off his head toward its mother, its eyes had small tears in them.

" I\'m sorry, human. But you\'re the only one I can trust to keep my daughter safe " the big white snake said once more and opened its mouth, a red beam suddenly shot toward Glen.

Glen was unable to react before everything went blank.

....

Glen woke up after an unknown amount of time had passed, he found himself in a dark space with not a single ray of light. He could not even see his own body.

Suddenly, texts began to appear in this black space.

CONGRATULATION, NEXULYTE!

YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY AWAKENED YOUR TALENT AND CAN NOW TREAD ON THE PATH OF YOUR ANCESTORS.

NAME: Glen Frigret.               TALENT GROUP: Beast companion.

TALENT TYPE: Combat.        TALENT: White serpent!

TALENT LEVEL: A.         ASSIMILATION PROGRESS: 0%

RANK: Null!

Glen stared at the bold texts in front of him, even though he wasn\'t that good at reading, he was able to understand what those words meant.

He had awakened! He was now a Nexulyte!

Wave of emotions surged within Glen, he could feel tears gathering in his eyes.

Though he had yet to celebrate his successful awakening when he became drowsy again and lost consciousness, the next time he woke up, he was back inside the sleeping pond.

At the same time when Glen was having that experience in his awakening state, Ralph was going through the same thing; only that his experience was different.

He had found himself in a graveyard, dressed in black suit and a lot of people who he could not recognize dressed in similar ways. The atmosphere was heavy as everyone stood in front of a grave in silence, they were apparently holding a funeral for someone.

But things quickly changed as monsters appeared out of nowhere and started to attack people, the whole place was soon thrown into chaos as people ran for their lives.

Ralph, had somehow been separated from the others and found himself surrounded by countless monsters. He also appeared to be injured and his glasses were broken.

Ralph sat in front of a grave with his back leaning on the tombstone while the monster slowly moved closer to him.

Not knowing why, Ralph suddenly became filled with emotions of hate and anger.

"Why! Just why? We were finally able to lay him to rest after all he had gone through, why did you all have to interrupt?!" Ralph let out a shout in an outburst of emotions.

Of course, the monsters would not care about his little whining and continued to approach him. One of the monsters to the side suddenly leaped at Ralph and the others followed its action and leaped at him as well.

But Ralph wasn\'t afraid, he was blinded by rage that he did not care what happened and just shouted.

"Get away from me!"

Boom!!