Endzone: Simulated Apocalypse

It didn't take long for the beast to wake up from the shock status ailment, a minute at most.

When it did, naturally, it was confused. Still in a daze, it wondered. Where was he? What happened? How did he end up like this?

As its systems rebooted and it returned to a functional state, it soon realized its core was exposed. But that's not all—a long katana was pointed directly at it. One more inch, and the beast would be terminated.

Of course, its first instinct was to immediately try to get away, but a young man's next words cut it off coldly.

"Don't try anything. The moment you move, will be the moment you die."

The beast, hearing this, instantly froze up. And after several seconds, to Kirika's surprise, it opened its mouth—not to blast another death ray at the two humans, but to negotiate.

Yes—it talked.

"Humans… what you want from me?"

The voice was deep, mechanical, clearly masculine, and growl-like, but it was very clearly speaking human tongue. Whether that was due to the game's auto-translation system or something else, the two didn't know, but it didn't matter. What did was the fact that this beast was capable of intelligent thought on levels close to a human, and it was trying to communicate with the two.

"So, you're smart enough to realize the situation you're in," Cyanide murmured to himself, rubbing his chin. "Not bad."

"Put frankly, we want you to join us," Kirika said from a short distance away, sitting on a fallen log. "Though… you really don't have much of a choice. I mean, we have you at gunpoin… er, bladepoint?"

"… Hm." The beast snorted a bit. "You seek my alliance, humans?"

But Cyanide raised an eyebrow at this. "Alliance? No. You're getting the wrong idea. First of all, this won't be an alliance. This will be a master-servant relationship, with me as the master. And second… I'm not 'seeking' anything. This is me stating a fact to you, and if you don't accept it, well… you die. It's that simple."

"Ugh, Cyanide… you really don't know how to negotiate, do you?" Kirika sighed deeply, facepalming her own forehead, but…

"Ha!" The beast gave a powerful laugh. "Me likes you, human. You got guts, and you did defeat me, fair and square. Me will lend you my power."

… Once again, Cyanide had managed to pull off something she never thought possible.

"Wha…" Kirika dropped her jaw at how that actually worked, and Cyanide only gave a cold snort as the beast reached deep into his own underbelly before pulling out a opaque black cube of some sort.

"Here. Me give you my core. You need this to Imprint on me, do you not?"

Cyanide nodded, then took the core in his hands without any hesitation, and narrowed his eyes at the object. Unlike Doctor Finch's mutant core, this one had purple comet-like rays of light running along the narrow lines on the cube's faces instead of red. He figured purple represented Stage Five Mutants, as that was undoubtedly what this beast was.

At the touch of Cyanide's fingertips, the black cube suddenly began emitting a powerful purple light, so bright that both Kirika and Cyanide had to cover up their eyes, especially at nighttime when it was more bright than usual due to the darker surroundings.

After a few seconds, the shining stopped, and Cyanide stuffed the core back into the beast's underbelly. It wasn't even groaning despite having its core removed from its body for so long, unlike a certain someone.

As the sabertooth tiger slowly rose to its feet, Cyanide received a pop-up message in front of his face:

[New Mutant Imprinted]

[Sabertooth Tiger]

[See the Companions tab for more info.]

"Hm… the Companions tab, huh?"

"Yes, Cyanide," Luna said. "This didn't appear last time with the Doctor, but that was because he was the only Imprinted mutant you had at the time. Now that you have multiple, though, this new tab has opened up, allowing you to view all of your Imprinted mutants with ease, and even Oathsworn allies as well. From there, you can keep track of their location, their stats, their skills and equipment, and current status in terms of HP and the like."

"I see…" Cyanide fell into thought, planning on checking the new tab out, but…

"Master, it is advised we leave as soon as possible," the sabertooth mutant suddenly said. "Me thinks it is dangerous if we stay here when the sun is down. Me kept the other creatures of this forest in check before… but after witnessing my defeat, they will become restless. Arrogant. We should leave now, while we have chance."

Ultimately, Cyanide decided to listen to the beast, and save the whole Companions tab thing for later. Unfortunately, due to the lack of a saddle, it was impossible to ride the ferocious new pet he got just yet, as the scales on him were too sharp to withstand. As a result, they had to return by foot, but…

"… Hey." Cyanide stopped in front of Kirika, who sat on a fallen tree log. "Can you walk?"

"H-Huh? Ah, yeah… I should be able t- ngh!"

As she struggled to her feet, she suddenly lost balance and fell forward. Cyanide, of course, instinctively dodged out of the way, and let her pitch face-first into the forest soil.

"Angh…" Kirika moaned in pain. "You were supposed to catch me, idiot…"

"… You said you were able to walk. Is it wrong of me to believe a partner's words?"

"Well, no, but-" Suddenly, she stopped, and glanced at Cyanide in surprise. "Wait… what did you just call me? Partner?"

"No," Luna cut in before Cyanide could, and in a slightly jealous tone at that. "He most certainly did not. You are nowhere near qualified to be his partner, but… an ally should be a fitting title."

"An ally…" Kirika echoed, even though she was certain she had heard 'partner'.

Still, 'ally' made her happy. At least, she was growing closer to this cold, mysterious man known as Cyanide, no matter how little that growth was. She was certain he didn't even come remotely close to considering her as a friend, but that was alright. Progress was still progress.

Yes, he was unorthodox. Yes, he was somewhat strange from an outsider's eyes.

But his methods worked.. And that's all that mattered.