He never lost a friend like this before. Well, he doesn't have a friend like this but even those he knew as casual friends never died.
These emotions, Elias didn't know how to process them, just tears silently came out of his eyes in sadness.
Elias' body was starkly different from everyone around. Since they moved in a hurry out of the clinic, he was still in shorts, his red skin exposed and people were ogling him like he was an alien and eyes were on him understanding her death hit him hard.
"Something is not right!" said one of the robust guards that created perimeters around them. Each with shields that could expand into a Dome.
A contingency to survive Elias' suicide lightning storm.
"Yes. Elias would have turned everything to rubble."
The officials blurred toward the ruined gate and peered inside, then they waved at them.
Elias bolted forward with all his might, didn't know when he used gravity to reduce his weight but still others were faster.
By the time he reached the clinic, the tent had been repaired. As he was still a patient, he was allowed in, while those that reached before him were stopped.
Sasha sat on her bed, her hand rested on the head of her brother who had his head resting on her lap. He was still crying, "Why did you scare me like that? It's not fun. I thought I lost you!"
He kept repeating while she was replying, "I'm sorry. I won't do it again. Please, stop crying. Your teammates will laugh at you!"
"So what? I don't care!"
The image of him was like a big child before his mother while she tried to calm him down.
"Please. Come on. The doctors finished the repair. Just sit normally. I don't want my brother to be looked down on!"
The nurses and doctors ignored the man-child as they inspected her body. She was thinned but unlike Buddhist Hand. she was also tired, eyes drier but still retained that fire.
She sensed Elias' gaze and she said, "Wait, are those tears on your face?"
"Ha. You wish. It's just dust that fell in my eyes!"
"Haha!" She laughed back, a bit unhinged.
"You scared the shit out of us?" Buddhist Hand reached them, still supported by someone.
"Ah. You lost your... what happened to your body?" She wanted to ask about his speech being less stoic but noticed his skeleton form.
Before Buddhist Hand answered, Elias smugly smiled and said arrogantly, "Looks like I'm the only one that is okay. Talk about untold greatness."
Yes, he was the most normal among them but even he had that crazed wild look they all had from surviving the dream.
"Ah. I bet you cheated!"
Elias was confused and said in a funny voice, "Is that your best comeback? How could one cheat on this!"
"Yes. You cheated. I can already imagine you relying on your talent to scare it away. Maybe that is the reason why we suffered more than you!" She said, genuinely annoyed.
"Hey, calm down. I don't want your Platinum Brother coming down on my neck, but our dreams were different. And yes, my talent saved me but that is not cheating."
"It's cheating!" This time it was Buddhist Hand that concurred with her.
"Hey, where is your stoicism? Besides, using talent is not cheating. I am my talent, that means I saved myself by myself!"
"That's not how it works!" Sasha shouted, her hand raised pointing at Elias in accusation. "You need willpower to resist it and then defeat it. But you just waiting for the talent rescue is cheating. The monster will just run away and bug one of us!"
The banter was real, the two were siding against Elias' method.
Elias Thunderspark raised his head from her lap and glared at Elias. Elias trembled and quickly said, "Ask the doctor who was here. My talent devoured the monster and spat on my chest. Look, here is the mark."
"Haha. Haha." By now all the nurses and doctors were laughing at the trio, especially at Elias who first acted smug but was now shaking in his boots due to accusations of cheating. As if there was rules mandated how one defeated an enemy.
***
It was hard not to sleep for 24 hours. They were all tired and the banter they had was draining. Now they sat on chairs, numerous IV settled on their bodies, one was to keep them awake but it was not working properly.
Elias Thunderspark stood beside his sister like a sentinel. He hadn't said anything to anyone. It was even Sasha that told them how it happened.
After her heart stopped moving, she was aware deep in the murky darkness drowning. She knew she had gone beyond the point of return but heard his last words of dying with her.
She said she didn't know when she felt a new boil of willpower and tore the dream apart, awakening and taking control of her body. What accompanied that was her lightning surge that singed and burned away her tainted body and the beast. The rest of the lightning shot up and blasted the dome.
Now, above the Clinic was a huge hole that allowed the breeze of night and starry skies.
After she finished her short story, a man came in, wore a long robe, well-trimmed beard and golden eyes. He nodded at Sasha's brother and faced the trio.
"Congratulations. You have won the war and the battle against one of the most dangerous Rank 1 Calamity Beasts known to man. You have earned yourself a ticket to a special Lecture: How to Gain a Class."
Buddhist Hand, due to weakness, couldn't hold back his excitement. "Really, sir?"
"Absolutely. That is the whole reason we made this arrangement. Truthfully we make this arrangement in each ruin but the Pioneers..." he gazed at Sasha who blushed and looked away, "usually were subpar, so we seal that part away and just let it be for exploration."
The man smiled, "Even Elias Thunderspark ran away from the ruin he opened because he couldn't handle what he found. We sealed his mouth to make the experience fresh and educative to newbies."
"Thank you, sir," she said.
The man became serious and said, "What you faced is one of the Fearmonger Calamity Beasts. Intelligent, manipulative. It influences people and beasts to fight it, harm it and even try to kill it. It feels no pain, and unless it is disintegrated to atomic level, it will spring up and heal.
"It also doesn't kill physically. It maims, traps and lets one leave. What you face in the dream is the way of it feeding." The man paced around.
"While you are struggling in the dream, we are watching its main body. It was growing, improving, the fear you felt, the terror at your heart directly fueled it. It didn't matter what you did, it fed on your fear. But, if you also follow it, then it placed a seed on you. You would be in suspended animation, not living not dead, in an endless dream making you experience all sorts of things, harvesting fear in you until your body couldn't handle it and collapsed and died."
Buddhist Hand's body trembled, "Does that mean it had recovered?"
"Yes. And it's even halfway through evolving to Rank 2. You people fed it well."