Side Story: Finding the Vanguard

  Mike Hale hadn’t always been a fighter.

  He used to be an ordinary guy. The kind of person who worked hard, played hard, and spent weekends at the gym pushing himself to new limits. He wasn’t a hero—he didn’t think he had it in him. But the world had changed, and now, Mike was fighting for his life just like everyone else.

  Before the apocalypse hit, Mike had been training for a different kind of fight. His passion for physical fitness and combat sports had kept him in top shape, but he never imagined that the real battles would be this savage, this brutal. He had no idea what he was up against.

  When the Cosmic Tide hit and the world started to unravel, Mike had been trapped in his gym. The walls shook as the first waves of energy tore through the city, warping reality and unleashing horrors that defied logic. It didn’t take long before the first Aswangs appeared—twisted, chitinous monsters that had once been human, now corrupted by the very energy that had bent the laws of nature.

  The gym had been Mike’s safe haven. At least, that’s what he had thought. But as the days wore on, the safety of the building became a trap. The barricades he had set up were starting to fall apart, and the mutated creatures outside grew in number and ferocity. With every day, more of them arrived, and Mike could feel the walls closing in.

  He had been fighting off street dogs at first—mutated, feral beasts that had been infused with the same chaotic energy that had ravaged everything else. They had no sense of humanity left in them, just a hunger, a thirst for destruction.

  The first few fights had been instinctual—Mike used the gym’s equipment to defend himself. A weight plate became his shield, a dumbbell his weapon. Each time he killed, the energy surged within him, but it wasn’t enough to save the others. There were survivors scattered throughout the gym, but they were weak, injured, and untrained. No amount of brute force would help them escape the doom that was closing in.

  In the midst of this growing chaos, Mike heard a voice. It wasn’t one of the survivors, nor was it one of the Aswangs. It was a call, urgent and direct—someone was coming.

  Adrian.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Mike had heard whispers of the man before. The rumors weren’t clear—some said he was a ghost, a myth, a figure who had come from nowhere and who knew how to control the energy. Some said he was a savior. Others said he was a tyrant, playing the apocalypse like a game, manipulating the chaos to his own ends.

  But none of that mattered now. When Adrian showed up, Mike’s instincts kicked in. He wasn’t sure who this man was, but he was the only chance Mike had to survive.

  The first time they met, it was like everything Mike had done so far had been a warm-up.

  Adrian entered the gym like he owned it—confident, unshaken by the horrors outside, like he was ready for whatever the apocalypse could throw at him. Mike saw the way Adrian moved—effortless, calculating. He wasn’t just surviving. He was in control. And that made Mike pause, if only for a second.

  But then, Mike felt it—a surge of power unlike anything he’d ever experienced. Adrian’s presence seemed to fill the space, and the energy in the room seemed to bend around him. He wasn’t just an ordinary man. He was the one who had tapped into the System—the one who had figured out how to filter the chaos into something tangible.

  And that was when Mike knew. This man wasn’t just another survivor—he was their leader.

  Adrian hadn’t said much when he first arrived—he didn’t need to. Instead, he simply observed, scanning the gym and taking stock of the situation. Mike had been too tired, too worn out from the constant fighting, to do anything but nod in agreement when Adrian gestured toward the exit.

  “We need to move,” Adrian had said, his voice calm but firm. “The first wave of the Hive is getting closer. We won’t survive here for much longer.”

  Mike didn’t need convincing. The gym was no longer a safe haven. The world was shifting, and it was time to adapt.

  As they walked out of the gym, the wreckage of Mandaue City lay before them, a twisted, war-torn landscape. The world outside was barely recognizable, full of horrors that no one could have predicted. But Mike was beginning to understand. The battle wasn’t just against the monsters; it was against the very forces of the universe itself. And Adrian wasn’t just fighting to survive—he was fighting to control it.

  Adrian had a plan. He wasn’t going to fight randomly, throwing punches at whatever monster came his way. No, he was building something. A team. A vanguard. And Mike was going to be part of it.

  Adrian had seen the potential in Mike. He knew that Mike’s physical strength wasn’t just a tool for brute force—it could be harnessed. It could be turned into something more. Mike had fought without the System’s rules, without understanding the forces he was tapping into. But now, with Adrian’s guidance, he was ready to evolve.

  Adrian explained the concept of kinetic energy conversion—the idea that Mike could take the hits he absorbed and turn them into raw power. Instead of just getting stronger by hitting harder, Mike could convert the energy around him, using every blow he took to fuel his own strength.

  At first, it felt like a trick. But then, when they fought together against a group of Aswangs that had ambushed them on the streets, Mike felt it. He absorbed the blows, felt the power surge through him, and suddenly he wasn’t just a man using his muscles. He was a force of nature.

  It was a game-changer.

  After the battle, as they stood together over the fallen monsters, Adrian looked at Mike with a knowing smile. “You’re ready.”

  Mike felt a rush of adrenaline, the weight of the transformation settling into his bones. This wasn’t just about survival anymore. He was part of something bigger. He was going to help take down the Typhon-Aswang Hive, and maybe, just maybe, they could save the world from the cosmic chaos.

  Adrian had found the first member of his vanguard.

  And Mike Hale was ready to fight.

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