A tree? Is it an Ent? Thoughts were racing through Liam's mind faster than light but he forced himself to remain calm. He could feel the power coursing through him from his recent breakthrough, he was ready to face this thing... but then, the tree fell to the left. In its place was a chipmunk. A tiny, adorable chipmunk. It squawked at him as if expecting him to move. When he didn't, it took an aggressive stance on its hind legs. Both fists were bawled up, ready for a fight. Liam held up his hands in surrender, the chipmunk seemed a lot more experienced with fighting than him. He didn't want to face something tiny, adorable, and presumably, quick. The chipmunk seemed to give this gesture little thought, however, as it launched itself towards him.
Liam closed his eyes and braced himself for impact but it never came. He slowly opened his eyes. The chipmunk seemed to be paused in the air in front of him. He took a step to the left to observe this interesting sight. The chipmunk stayed in place. Its beady little eyes staring at the place he was standing... then suddenly, the moved. Liam jumped back, startled, but the chipmunk's eyes were fixed firmly on him. What in the world was going on? Liam took another step to the left, he was out of reach of the chipmunk now, and now that he was viewing the chipmunk from a very different angle, than his initial one, he could see that it was slowly moving. Very slowly. It was so slow that the chipmunk was almost paused in mid-air, it was the reason that Liam thought that very thing just moments before.
Liam was confused, the chipmunk was just floating slowly through the air as its eyes tried tracking him. He would move, then what felt like a couple of seconds later, the chipmunk's eyes would move too. He was also slowly starting to see a look of shock on the chipmunk's face. Something that was eerily human. Then he realized it, this thing is intelligent. "Is this what the system meant?" Liam asked himself. There was really only one way to find out, but Liam wasn't about to kill a chipmunk, no matter how fierce it looked. Regardless of whatever was happening to the chipmunk, Liam decided that it was time to teach it a lesson about following him and then attacking him out of the blue. He walked up to it, the closer he was to it, the faster it appeared to be moving. He reached out to poke it. He figured that a single poke from his newly improved body would be enough to dissuade it from attacking him further. What he expected was for it to be painful but not fatal. What he got was another story altogether.
The moment he poked the chipmunk, he could see its skin rippling outward. His mind no longer registering it as a threat, he pulled back his finger. Just in time too, because the chipmunk shot away from his outstretched finger and into a nearby tree, demolishing the trunk of the tree and splattering the chipmunk. Liam looked at his finger slowly, then looked at the tree that was currently toppling over. At the point of impact he could see the chipmunk... or what remained of it. It had been disintegrated. The only thing that remained of it was its blood. There was blood everywhere. It looked like a murder scene. It was a murder scene. Liam suddenly felt sick to his stomach. He hadn't meant to kill the chipmunk. He just wanted to teach it a lesson for following him. He thought it could take it. Come to think of it, why did the chipmunk speed up when he wasn't concentrating on it anymore. Did he do that? Did he stop time with his mind? Or was it something else? There were too many questions to consider while he was being sick. So he walked over to a nearby bush, peeked his head in, and let loose. The copious amounts of pillow berries that he'd eaten half a day ago pouring out of him. He kept going until he was just dry heaving. That was his first time killing something that wasn't just a bug or spider.
Waves of nausea still washing over him, he made the mistake of glancing back at the tree, and it was back into the bush for him, for the next couple of minutes. He finally finished at the bush feeling marginally better. Still feeling weak from what he'd just done he turned away from everything and started walking away. That was when his status window popped up.
<6,338,811/1,000,000,000,000 Power>
While Liam was still shocked that he killed something like that chipmunk, and so easily as well, he was also happy to see that his talent had levelled up. But he didn't feel anything from levelling up. Is that normal? Wait did the requirements for the next level of talent go down? Regardless, his talent levelling up was a great thing, especially if he were to go to The Academy with the other new Transcendents next week, which he planned on doing. He just couldn't get over that chipmunk's expression before it died, shock? fear? disgust? maybe all three. It scared him that he could just kill something like that, get new stat points, and move on with his day. What if... no, he couldn't think about that right now. His brain wouldn't let him. Well, it was getting dark. Liam should be heading back now, but regardless of his newfound power he was still terrified of his father.
Despite the logical side of himself screaming that he had enough power to take care of the bastard, his emotions won over. He wasn't ready, his father would beat him senseless before killing him. He was going to need far more power to face that disgusting, rancid man in the future. And the best way to get better... train. Liam had one week before Academy agents came around to pick up applicants, he'd have to be ready to leave by then. Thankfully, being home would only provide him with a bed, not food. So there was really no incentive to return home at the moment. Thus, Liam decided to find a new pillowberry bush and then find a camp for the night.
Using his new speed was ridiculously faster, and upon testing his strength he found that he could easily shatter the trunk of a large tree. His eyesight was getting better, he could identify a small bug from over 10 meters away, his brain was less foggy; thoughts came to mind faster. While Liam was happy with his progress so far, it didn't feel like enough. Enough to face his father or get into a better class in The Academy especially with so many exceptionally talented first-years being announced every single week. Just last week the 26th X class talent in the history of Transcendent-kind was announced. That's a potential god level powerhouse and he couldn't wait to meet them, Liam was excited to see where his new life would take him, but for now he would be going to sleep. "Goodnight," he whispered softly to himself. As wisps of energy surrounded him and carried his thoughts off to dreamland.