Evolution Island: Kill to Survive

Apex Predators

With the last Zone Guardian defeated, the players were exuberant with joy. Isabella and Madeline hugged it out, while the boys celebrated with their signature fist bumps. After being taken by surprise, the players had pulled off an impossible victory. Every single member of the team had played a vital role, but it would have meant nothing without Aaron’s quick thinking and ingenious strategy.

“You were right,” Madeline admitted at last. “You are a better leader.”

“It was a team effort,” Aaron replied.

Forgetting all their initial differences and past exchanges, the players gathered for a group hug. Though Madeline and Zach were still far from seeing eye- to-eye, the hostilities between them had ceased.

A round of applause, followed by a dazzling fireworks display announced the major victory. Team Draconis had been removed from the challengers’ list. Now there were just two teams: Team Aaron and Team Merlin Alliance. The global display lit up the sky and a massive holographic screen displayed the message they had been waiting for.

[*Final Zone Guardian Defeated!*]

[*Primal T-Rex killed by Team Aaron!*]

[*Diamond Loot Box Dropped!*]

[*New Island Unlocked: Ashenfort!*]

[*Solaris Base Unlocked: Access Granted to Team Aaron*]

Soon after this announcement, a strange looking orb formed by twisted green filaments floated up from the lake. It was the evolution stone, containing the DNA of the T-Rex they had just defeated. Just like the evolution stone dropped by the Mutated Bloodworm, this too could be used for unlocking an evolutionary stage and ranking up. This time, however, there were two main contenders for it—Madeline and Aaron. Madeline could use the evolution stone to rank up and reach Supreme Aeromancer rank, while Aaron could absorb it to unlock Pyromaniac rank.

“Ah s**t, here we go again,” Zach sighed. He was expecting another fight to break out between Aaron and Madeline, but neither of them approached the orb.

“You can have it if you want. The victory wouldn’t have been possible without you and your sister,” Aaron spoke at last.

In response, Madeline walked up to the orb and caught it in her right palm. But, instead of absorbing it, she took it back to Aaron. “Take it. You’re the leader of this group now.”

Aaron accepted the orb with gratitude and thanked the two girls for joining his team. This was the first time Aaron had managed to get his hands on two special Evolution Stones in such a short span of time. Playing with a full party of four certainly paid off.

Pressing the evolution stone in his palm, Aaron spoke aloud, “Evolve to Pyromaniac rank!”

The stone emitted a burst of bright blue light and then turned to dust. The Z-band sensed the activation of the stone and released a bright red light. Aaron’s genetic structure changed again, as the new evolution started taking effect. His skin turned a darker shade of red with scorch marks appearing on his forearms. The flames in his eyes brightened, his pupils enlarged and his hair turned fiery red. As he looked at his palms, he noticed that he could see liquid fire running through his veins.

Seeing this transformation through a screen was a lot different from experiencing it firsthand. Aaron could feel his body temperature rising, but it didn’t make him uncomfortable. In fact, he felt even more powerful than before. After the transformation was complete, all his stats increased along with his skill damage. At this new rank, Aaron gained access to a whole new set of summoning skills. So far, he could only summon groups of weak Firelings to distract the enemy, but now with these brand new unlockable summoning skills, he could call upon a variety of powerful creatures.

By killing the most powerful Zone Guardian, all the players quickly acquired a huge number of experience points, pushing them up several levels. Aaron, Madeline and Isabella were all level 30 now, while Zach had reached level 25.

Madeline used her 5 newly acquired skill points to modify her existing skills to make them more powerful. Isabella, on the other hand, focused on unlocking new crafting skills. She learned level 2 alchemy and level 3 crafting.

Zach decided to use his skill points to learn a few unique debuff skills which would help against large groups of enemies.

Aaron had a wide selection of summoning skills in front of him. At this point, he was truly spoilt for choice. Some of the summoned creatures were high DPS elementals, while a few of them were great for soaking hits. Among the huge list of summoned beings, there was one which caught his eye—the Crimson Phoenix. This was the most recent summoned creature introduced in the last patch. On paper it looked really impressive, but no one had actually tried it out in-game. There was only one way to find out if the skill was actually as good as they set it up to be, and that was to use it.

“Unlock skill: Summon Crimson Phoenix!”

As soon as Aaron made the selection, his Z-band unlocked the skill and displayed its detailed information.

[*Skill Unlocked!*]

[1.Summon Crimson Phoenix: Summons a flaming phoenix which can be used as a mount, giving the player the ability to fly. While on the Phoenix, the player can use all skills without using any energy points. The phoenix is invulnerable to physical attacks and can only be harmed by magic. The skill consumes 500 energy points.]

Everything about this skill looked insane, including the super high EP consumption. Using this skill just once would drain all his EP. To top it off, the skill came with a really long cooldown time, which made it impossible to use the skill more than twice each day. On the plus side, it did grant the player the ability to soar across the sky and traverse difficult terrain, but the Crimson Phoenix was a slow bird, making it easy to target with ranged skills and spells. Aaron had to be really careful about when he used this skill.

When all 4 of them had carefully studied their newly unlocked skills, they opened the Diamond loot chest and shared the loot among them, each taking the items which suited their class and play style. It was a good haul, certainly good enough to give them an edge against the other unknown team on the island.

Since they had defeated the last Zone Guardian as a team, all 4 of them were granted the title of Apex Predators, which meant they could all use the base on Solaris and modify it according to their needs.

Aaron opened the map on his Z-band and announced, “Our base is located inside Elden Forest. It’s got fast travel unlocked. We can just teleport directly to it.”

“Ready when you are,” Madeline said, putting away her brand new pair of silver axes.