Maria’s body was coming closer to the edge of the roof. Jason ran with everything he got. Pushing those two legs of his trying to catch up to Maria. But the wind was faster.

 

Thirty points to agility.

 

His speed went through a monumental change. A speed unknown to the realm of man. A speed that no man could ever encounter. But Jason just did it. His hands grabbed on to Maria's ankle by the nick of time. Her whole body went past the border of the roof. The wind died down and gravity took place. Maria’s weight pulled her body towards the ground and Jason braced himself as he pulled her over.

 

With his immense strength, he brought her over the ledge as she dropped on him on the rooftop. He pulled himself together and checked on Maria’s condition. His hands were trembling, he was clueless about what to do. His eyes were shaking as he saw the pale face of Maria.

 

He came closer to her face and he could feel the slight breath brushing over his cheek. Maria was still alive. A smile just carved right on that face of his. But the situation was critical.

 

Recalling what happened just now, Maria was hit from the side. Jason pulled her shirt and what he witnessed made him frowned.

 

A huge black bruise across her flank traveling up to her torso. It was bad and the kind of bad that don’t mingle well with the living. Jason turned frantic as he placed his hand over to the bruised area.

 

“Minor Heal+,” said Jason.

 

But nothing happened. Again and again, he shouted but nothing came out. The glow that he relied on didn’t show up.

 

“Shit,” he cursed.

 

The status window opened up and he saw why nothing was happening. His EP was empty with no points to spare.

 

“Ten points to energy,” he didn’t hesitate and threw a bunch of points to the energy attribute. Right now, points didn't even matter to him as her life was on the line. A life that he had once cherished.

 

“Minor Heal+…” again and again, he repeated those words as the glowing green light enveloped Maria’s body. He kept on repeating until there was no more of his EP left. It was stupid of him to do so but nothing matters to him at that point in time.

 

He slumped down on the floor as he stared at the woman bathed in green light. He knew she would be healed by his ability but he couldn’t help but be worried.

 

Ignoring the commotion of where the men in black fighting against the dreaded ebony pterodactyl, Jason just sat there with his eyes on Maria. He didn’t give a damn about that ugly flying beast until he saw this woman healed to the fullest.

 

The green light faded down and emerged a body of a woman laid on the cold concrete floor.

 

“Maria?” he came closer and tried waking up the damsel.

 

He shouted her names a few more times and finally got a reaction.

 

Maria winched before her eyes slowly opened.

 

“Ugh, my head,” a massive headache right after waking up.

 

She propped her body up and saw Jason.

 

“Jason?” her vision cleared and saw the face of a man smiling.

 

Jason leaped over and hugged her. His arms wrapped around Maria’s body. His action caught Maria by surprise yet she didn’t deny the affection coming from this man.

 

Her eyes were wet on the verge of crying. Although it was blurry, she did remember being hit by an enormous force. Something that she shouldn’t be able to survive through. She knew she’s alive and breathing right now was because of this man.

 

It had been so long since she felt this way. But the noise coming from around her snapped her out of her momentary bliss.

 

“Jason, the flying monster,” she urged the man to kept their priorities check.

 

Both parted away and both stared at the sight of the ebony pterodactyl. It was playing around with the men in black and at times ate one of them like they were snacks on the counter.

 

“Have you put a point in energy?” Jason asked.

 

“No, not yet,” she replied.

 

“Have many points do you have left?”

 

“Hmm, two,” she replied after checking through her status screen.

 

“Put one into energy and another into e.resist,” said Jason.

 

He watched as Maria reacted to the surprising new development. She stared at Jason in astonishment, speechless about what to say.

 

“So, what did you got?” Jason could saw the thin white glow enveloping Maria’s entire body. He had a hunch about it and he didn’t miss it.

 

“It says here, energy guard,” the same as Jason.

 

Same as mine. It might be a common skill that was easy to get.

 

“and the other one is, Identify? I don’t get what it actually means,” said Maria.

 

Jason was disheartened. He was expecting Maria to earn an offensive type of ability that might be useful in tackling that flying ancient bird over there.

 

“What’s wrong?” Jason’s disappointment was plain for Maria to see.

 

“No, it’s nothing,” he turned his sight at the ebony pterodactyl.

 

He still had no idea how to deal with that creature. He even wasted his EP into overhealing Maria.

 

I was really caught up in the moment back then.

 

He scoffed at himself thinking about how emotionally driven he was during healing Maria.

 

“Why are you suddenly smiling,” Maria felt it was strange for Jason to suddenly smiled out of nowhere.

 

The current situation wasn’t looking so good for someone to smile. Well, everyone had their own reasons.

 

“Are the others safe?” he asked.

 

“They’re fine,” she paused for a while thinking about something. “If it’s about Gina, she’s more than fine.”

 

Maria rolled her eyes just thinking about it. She must have her fair share of difficulty in handling the high maintenance lady.

 

“Get them down to the restaurant below, it’s safer down there than up here,” said Jason.

 

“Roger that but,” she glanced at Jason. “What are you going to do?”

 

“What I do best. Put extinct animals down,” said Jason.

 

“Wait, what? You’re going to fight that?”

 

“Enough talk,” he caressed her beautiful bronze cheek.

 

“It’s time for action,” he left as Maria reached out her hand at him.

 

She didn’t call his name knowing it would be useless.

 

What best for her right now was to stick with the task at hand.

 

Keeping the others alive.

 

Enough of the bravado, how the hell am I going to take this down?

 

He sounds confident and he acted confident. But deep down, he still didn’t know what he was supposed to do.

 

The battle environment wasn’t suitable for the likes of him considering he was up against a flying beast. In this open-air, the ebony pterodactyl was in its element.

 

Jason rushed at the hovering ebony pterodactyl. The men in black were hanging there pretty good considering there were using useless weapons.

 

Running towards the back of the ebony pterodactyl. It would be stupid of him if he didn’t use the opportunity for an ambush.

 

“I’m out of ammo, cover me,” said one of the men in black.

 

But the others didn’t do a good job in covering him. A long snout pecked from above and the man was screaming before being swallowed alive.

 

“Shit, it got Smith,” said one of the men in black. A close friend of his since he had worked with him for a long time, he was about to grieve but his sight caught something.

 

“A man? Is that a man running towards the bird?”

 

Another man in black shouted.

 

“Watch your six.”

 

The man who saw Jason running from behind was hit by the long tail of the ebony pterodactyl.

 

Yet everything happened for a reason.

 

Jason leaped on top of the lounge roof. A single leap was all it took.

 

I need to be higher.

 

Just about then he saw the tall communication tower. With the blinking lights illuminating in the darkness of the night.

 

He ran and leaped, walking through the air before he collided with the iron steel bar of the communication tower.

 

“Woah,” his hand barely gripped over the bar. He was hanging there with the sole strength of his right hand.

 

Jason pulled himself up using the strength of a single hand. If it was him before, this feat of strength wasn’t close to possible.

 

I had been dreaming of trying to do that. Never thought I could do that.

 

He smiled.

 

Jason climbed the communication tower until he reached the top.

 

“Shit, this extinct bird is big,” even with him at the tallest point of the tower.

 

The size of the ebony pterodactyl was too huge. Jumping right above its head wasn’t possible right now.

 

“There goes my one hit one kill ambush,” his confidence was going down but that didn’t’ stop him.

 

“Now or never”

 

With all his strength.

 

Jason jumped.