He thought of leaving it there but a darker part of him wormed up inside him.
He had obtained talent points from killing the mutated deer, now he wondered whether he'd obtain them again through killing the grounder.
He needed to grow stronger quicker, he realised that a second too late in dodging that spear and he'd be dead—Clarke being too far away to heal him and probably would have died to try and get to him.
His current capabilities weren't enough as the strength of the grounders was way too abnormal from what he knew of them, and this was probably just a scout.
And he had the ability to take others abilities, would the grounders abnormal strength count?
He didn't take long to think it through, his hands which were outstretched coming together and clasping.
Metres away from him the coccon moved, coiling and tightening around the grounder.
"Arghhhhhh...."
A small groanful scream echoed just for a second from the coccon before silencing, blood now staining the blackened wood coccon and dripping to the ground.
" Markus...." A call caught him, bringing him out of his stupor as he looked back at his group who stared wide-eyed at him and the dangling bloody coccon.
Immediately after he felt lethargic again, a quick look at his IP reserves told him that he had just been about to run out again.
[—Name - Markus 'Quinn' Blanc.
—HP - 87%
—IP - 11%
—[-]—
Breathing in he grabbed the vine rope again, then swung back to the other side.
Immediately after landing he looked at the others who had shell shocked eyes.
" Are you all alright?" He asked, his voice low as his flora senses tried picking up any other grounder stragglers but finding none.
" Was that...." Octavia muttered, breathing hard as her eyes never strayed away from the coccon.
" A human, but that's impossible...." Clarke muttered to herself, shocked about the events that happened all in the span of a few minutes.
" There shouldn't be any remaining living humans down here after the fallout." She kept on going.
" Well clearly whoever came up with that assumption was wrong." Markus muttered, after finding that all of them were fine he walked up towards the coccon and the others followed momentarily.
Markus stopped a few metres from it, stared at the blood dripping down to a puddle of blood and scrunched his nose at the smell.
Then with a wave of his hand the coccon opened, letting an unnaturally bend and broken carcass of meat and bones drop to the floor.
*Gag* *Gag*
Markus didn't turn when someone behind him gagged and started vomiting, even he felt queasy staring at what had once been a man and he'd been the one to do it to him.
" Well that's one way to die." He commented, still staring at the results of his own actions and the bell notification at the corner of his eye.
Just as he was about to open it, he felt a sudden pain to his jaw and his vision immediately swimming.
" Wells!!"
Clarke screamed the name of his attacker but he was too busy trying to reorient himself and not fall or pass out.
Through sheer stubbornness he managed to hold himself, then he brushed his thumb against his lip and found it bursted.
He then looked at his attacker and felt his anger spike to lengths that he had never felt before.
" WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU! YOU KILLED SOMEONE, NOT A FUCKING ANIMAL AND THATS WHAT YOU CHOOSE TO SAY WHILE STANDING OVER THEIR BODY!?!?" Wells shouted, trying to get to him and failing as Jasper, Monty and Finn held him while trying to placate and stop him.
" Wells, calm down!" Clarke shouted, standing infront of Markus and Wells.
Clarke turned to see whether Markus was fine and froze.
Immediately she felt goosebumps run through her body, she stared at him and felt her chest tighten.
His eyes glowed a predominantly black and secondary green and blue before a white glow joined and his expression scared her, not because he showed anger at the situation but because he was expressionless—simply blank.
" Let him go." Markus spoke slowly and immediately Clarke found herself walking out of his way to Wells.
She felt like she should speak, de-escalate the situation and stop whatever was about to happen but she just couldn't bring herself to it.
The boys seeing his sudden change of personality paused, even Wells who had been struggling quieted down as the others let him go.
But seeing the wound on the arm of Markus and the way he was breathing he gained confidence.
" I'm tired of you Markus, always acting high and mighty as if you're better than me and not caring for the consequences of your actions." Wells spat out, regaining his anger as he let his hands be coated with bluish electricity.
Markus though didn't move, he stood rooted at his spot staring at him in a way that made Wells feel like he was staring at nothing at the same time.
That quickly fed to his anger even further as Wells lunged at Markus, throwing an electric coated punch at his jaw already seeing that his first hit had disoriented him to some effect.
Just as his fist was about to connect, Markus raised his right hand in a split second, grabbing the electric punch.
Wells eyes widened, surprised at the speed and then at Markus who even feeling the electricity coursing through his veins and burning him at the same time only produced a grunt.
" My turn." Markus said softly and threw a left hook so fast Wells didn't even know when it connected or even when he found his head hitting the ground staring at the viscera of a corpse.
Then he saw nothing but darkness as he passed out.
" Pathetic." Markus grunted, staring at his right arm that was singed with burns and internally scoffing.
" Someone carry him, I sure as hell ain't." Markus quipped, walking away from the further shellshocked stares of the others.
As soon as he was a few metres away from them the entire altercation left his mind as if it were nothing but a common breath, instead focusing on the reason for his sudden speed and strength he showed.
[—Ding! Through Death's Feast[A+] You've Assimilated the Ability – Grounder Physiology[D] - A genetic evolutionary ability birthed from those that had night-blood in their veins even as little and have lived in an Iner-Proto rich surrounding, causing their bodies to mutate and strengthen. Grants a +10 to the Body Stat, sharpens senses, physical reaction time and boosts self-healing.]
Seeing the ability and the boosts it granted him Markus grinned, it atleast put a balm on his heart that his actions had some rewards—though he now needed a real balm for the cut on his arm even though it wasn't bleeding as much anymore courtesy of his new ability.
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