Theo exhaled slowly, his fingers tightening around the edge of his bed. His heart was pounding like a war drum in his chest.

  “Five more minutes.” He mumbled

  Five more minutes until midnight. Until his twentieth birthday. Until he awakened a power.

  Outside his apartment window, the neon-lit city stretched endlessly, its skyline flickering with holographic advertisements. Towering buildings pulsed with electric blue and crimson lights, the hum of distant traffic blending into the background.

  Then, the Titan’s Wake recruitment ad started playing again.

  A massive display flickered to life across the side of a nearby building. A ruined battlefield. A lone warrior.

  “Commander Rook Garran. Power: Unyielding Defense.”

  The man stood motionless as a beast erupted from the jungle—a monstrous fusion of bone and flesh, serrated limbs dripping with acid. It lunged towards Rook but he didn’t move. The creature’s claws slammed into his chest with a deafening crack. A sound of something breaking. But it wasn’t him.

  The beast screeched in pain, recoiling as its own claws shattered like brittle glass. A shadowed figure appeared behind him, raising a hand wreathed in fire.

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  BOOM.

  A roaring fireball engulfed the creature, leaving only a pile of smoldering ash. The deep, commanding voice echoed again.

  “Commander Rook—an immovable force on the battlefield.”

  The scene shifted to a warzone.

  Twenty wolf-like creatures charged across a shattered street, their fangs bared toward a lone woman. She wore no armor. No weapons. Just a flowing silver coat, the insignia of Titan’s Wake emblazoned on her back. She exhaled and a fine mist hurled into the air freezing everything.

  Every claw, every mouth, every creature locked in place as if time had shattered around them. One wolf stood mid-sprint. Another mid-swing. One’s claw was mere inches from her throat but she barely blinked.

  A second figure appeared, cloaked and masked. A ripple of sound pulsed from their lips.

  CRACK!

  All twenty frozen enemies shattered like glass. The battlefield was empty before the first corpse even hit the ground.

  “Captain Selene Vaughn. Power: Frozen Breath.”

  Her piercing blue eyes locked onto the screen, as if staring into the soul of every watcher.

  “Control the flow of the battle.”

  “Decide who moves and who doesn’t.”

  It shifted to another scene

  A sniper perched on a burning rooftop, hitting a target from miles away.

  A soldier’s veins glowed red, his body turning into living magma.

  A blade-dancer weaved through enemies at inhuman speed, their swords moving too fast to see.

  Then, the final message appeared in bold, blazing letters:

  “THIS IS TITAN’S WAKE.”

  “PROVE YOURSELF OR BE FORGOTTEN.”

  “TITAN’S WAKE IS RECRUITING.”

  The ad shut off and the city returned to normal. Theo released a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. His fingers unclenched from the window frame. His legs felt heavy as he walked back to his bed, sitting down, staring at the clock.

  11:55 PM.

  His heartbeat was thundering against his ribs. He whispered to himself, “Five more minutes…”

  Five more minutes until his power awakened. His entire future depended on what happened at midnight. If he got a strong power he could choose any faction he wanted to join.