Lana insisted on heading in first, the others right behind her because she could understand what the beasts were saying. It was one of her secrets. She hadn't even told Dobin yet. While he got a new ability on their birthday, so did she. She thought it was nice to talk to Sven. She didn't want Kattie to feel inferior because her ability was to tame a beast and control it in combat situations. The beasts learned to understand human commands. What Lana did was different.
Over time, humans had developed a universal language, though dialects still existed in various regions. It appeared the beasts were in a similar situation. She had noticed the insects communicated by sending pictures, which seemed rather unique to her.
They all did their best to walk quietly. The cave seemed to slope downward. The air was getting cooler as they descended. They noticed holes that let in light and fresh air. After some time, Lana called them to a stop.
She turned to Blaine, "they are in the back of the cave. The intent is to kill them and eat them, but they want a fresh kill. Apparently, these monkey-creatures like their food seasoned… there's over 50 in there…"
Blaine nodded, Chekof smirked, and Karlen gave her an indescribably look. She was unable to determine what he was thinking. She also just realized she let on a bit of her secret in telling them this, but she didn't have time for that right now. Two students were invited to dinner and she wanted to eradicate the need for a menu.
As soon as the scimmias were in sight, Blaine let out the biggest fireball they had ever seen. Lana realized Kyle was in charge and smirked. The vast cavern quickly filled with an additional stench as 30 scimmias found themselves screaming as their bodies were suddenly ablaze.
Lana's vines were in the air as she fired them off like missiles. Karlen and Chekof raced into the room leaving Rene under the protection of the couple. While Karlen and Chekof made short work of most of the remaining beasts, six remained. They had been throwing rocks, one used two bows at once. It fired into the melee, hitting the two roommates. Though no vital spots were hit, it was enough to slow them down.
Lana and Blaine both saw. "Go. I have the arrow guy." Kyle said.
"And Rene?"
"I'll heal her once he's down."
Lana nodded and was off. Blaine and the arrow scimmia kept each other busy. Karlen had three attacking him while Chekof had two which amazed her. Their superior speed and strength were the only reason they were still mobile. She threw a vine whip around the neck of one on Karlen and pulled. Despite these things being shorter than her at 4' tall, this thing was heavy and strong. She withered her whip and switched to a climbing rose vine.
While she hadn't done any damage to it, she did get the scimmia's attention. It let out maniacal laughter then closed in to swing a stick. As it made this move, Lana swung her whip after channeling even more Qi into it. It sliced off the top arm on her right. She had seen Karlen perform a move and decided it was now or never.
She copied his movements as she remembered them then suddenly, she was behind the beast and used her whip once more. She had left an after-image of herself as she made the move. It was very fast and hard to follow with the naked eye.
The scimmia was now down to two arms and was bleeding. It screamed in pain and rage as it swung around, swinging a stick with precision. Lana tried to dodge but realized her whip had gone through the top arm and was wrapped around the one on the bottom. She was being pulled as it turned.
The blond girl withered the whip as the stick impacted her side. She screamed as the second one hit her other side. She placed a hand on either shoulder and flipped over its head then turned and delivered an axe kick to a shoulder. She aimed for the head, but it was already moving and missed her target.
She heard a bone crack and the arm on that side went limp. The beast's other stick-wielding appendage struck her arm and she knew it was broken. She screamed again in pain while rage built up inside her.
"I won't be beaten by a monkey!" she growled as she slammed her foot into the side of its head. It wasn't dead but it did fall over from the impact. She threw her whip with her good arm. Despite her movement being impaired, she was able to slice off the hand of the scimmia. It was unable to get up but Lana wasn't done. She pulled energy into her body and stomped on the head of her enemy. It shattered. She noticed there were spikes sticking out of her boot. Somehow her armor had extended its thorns.
Karlen and Chekof were both done and watched the last move with pride. Kyle had killed his scimmia and was healing Rene. Karlen took a sip from his flask after going behind wall, saying he needed to relieve himself. While Kyle was busy with Rene and Lana waited for him to finished, Chekof took his last kill and the one that fired bows off to a dark corner. He needed to make sure noone saw him eat his lunch.
"They are still alive. Can you heal them after healing me," Lana asked Kyle.
He nodded, trying hard not to look at her. He was angry he was unable to prevent her injuries. He felt he failed her. Blaine was screaming at him in his head, trying to take control to roast the dead once more as if that would make it better.
After Lana was healed, she and Kyle ran to the back of the cave to heal the captive students.
"I believe introductions are in order. I'm Lana," She held out her hand to the first boy. His watch said level 2.
Dante, he winced as he offered his hand. "That fight was insane!"
She offered her hand to the next boy. He returned it, "Tobias."
He let out a grimace, "I'm a level 2 wind user."
She nodded. "Rest."
Within 30 minutes they were all as good as new. Blaine then took her in his arms and held her tight.
Lana looked around. There were some corpses in the back corner, opposite from where they boys were found. She decided to investigate and called the others over with her. A lot of the equipment on the corpses was destroyed but Lana found a bracelet for herself. Tobias took a dagger that had a slight glow to it. There were some speed boots on one that fit Dante quite nicely. Rene found a bow but no arrows. The string was also broken. The others found nothing but had higher budgets for gear anyway.
Chekof and Karlen carved out the beast crystals. Blaine watched for more scimmia. Once they were ready, she looked back over the scene. "These things are truly evil… we did a good thing here."
Karlen and Chekof told them to divide the crystals in half between the two parties, even though Lana was the only one there from her party. She now had 42 scimmia crystals.
On the way back, they were met by Sergeants Tanaka and Rage, just after leaving the Purple Forest as she named it.
"Where's the rest of the class?" She asked Nis.
"We are evacuating the planet, the whole military. I don't know the details but it's being re-designated as a level 6. We need to get back."
After the day they had, there were no complaints or questions.
As they approached the shelter, Lana noticed all the soldiers were already packed. Most had bags at their feet. The students were standing around. There seemed to be a bit of an uproar. The civilians that supported them were first in line to leave the shelter. A few soldiers were gathering up the last of the gear.
Lana said goodbye to those she just met, shared a look with Blaine who was now in charge of the body, and rejoined her team, going to Kattie's side.
As their turn for the portal was coming up, she leaned over to her, "do you know how to make baby beast formula?" she whispered, then they went through the portal with a startled look on Kattie's face.
All the students gathered in the hall upon returning with their teachers. Blaine's and Lana's groups coincidentally were in the same area and were able to exchange what they endured on the planet they just left, wondering why the evacuation happened They hoped the answer would be in each other's stories. While they were fascinated by what happened to Blaine's class, they were disappointed to learn that neither party knew the true reason for the evacuation.
Lana decided it would be best to wither her armor since it had blood on it and she hated blood. When she did, she noticed her uniform was torn and put vine armor back on to cover herself.
Not knowing how long they would be there, Lana took a sandwich out of her bag and handed it to Paul. His team had gotten hungry while waiting to leave and he shared his supply. Watching him eat, Lana wondered once again if Paul should be alone to enjoy his food. Perhaps she had found the reason he doesn't eat in the DFAC?
The teachers took count of who made it back then released the students. They were meant to be on mission the entire week but were only out from morning to night. The teachers needed some time to figure out the rest of the week. It was almost time for curfew, so the students didn't really have much of a choice. To their rooms, they went.