The next morning, Midas and Dufus once again stayed behind to work on their training. They did their normal thing. After the meeting, Minx sat with Quinn and his team to discuss the plan.
Quinn was adamant about being near each other while she was on the planet so he could make sure she was safe. They went to the quest board and found advanced tier beasts she had not fought yet. There was intermediate near by but it was far away from the shelter. Minx got Quinn's attention and pointed at the two. She raised an eyebrow, "I pay for a vehicle?"
Quinn smiled. "Let's do it."
They put in everyone's tags, got their vehicle and Minx filled him in on her conversation with Blip. She answered all his questions to his satisfaction. They spoke quietly so it was just him surrounded by her team to prevent the person in black, that she knew was Linda, from hearing. He was quite pleased with the plans for the way forward. Though he wasn't happy about only Shalt and Caser watching over her. Still, he felt more secure with her following her plans with Nate there.
This time Minx's bag was full of snacks because her field kitchen was in Midas's house. She took everything with her, which meant the luxury kitchen was there as well. She still had all the blood packs from the school that she arrived on Earth with because Shalt didn't need any in her absence. His flask contained her blood.
Linda parked the vehicle long after Minx explained the stuff on her planet, Minx filled in the silene by updated him on the projects Logan was working on for her. She refrained from talking about Logan's personal issues as it wasn't her place. Quinn was happy to hear a teleporter would be installed soon. Not long after the thorough explanation of her future capabilities, the vehicle came to a stop.
Linda reminded the groups what was discussed back in the shelter. The intermediate and advanced tier beasts they were hunting were actually in the same lands and had a symbiotic relationship, so they protected each other. These were not often hunted because it was so challenging.
Minx was excited. She got out of the vehicle with a big smile on her face. Quinn gave her a hug. "We will have a good and safe hunt today, right?"
She giggled, "sure."
She put up a tree and handed her bag off to the tree. In this one, she placed a room up in the branches like she had a bedroom before.
She then smiled at her friends. "Resting place complete."
She then headed off in the direction the map instructed her to go. She was not being as cautious as Quinn thought she should be, but he never did understand her ability.
Minx saw purple blazing against the grass and immediately put on her two layers of armor. Then got her whip out because this thing was way faster than she was expecting even from the description.
With her friends so close behind her, she decided to run toward it. She swung her whip at it just as it came into range. The whip never made an impact. Her vine disintegrated in her hand and she didn't do it. She quickly moved to the side, leapt in the air and saw a liquid get spit at her by a much smaller creature on the head of the one she was targeting.
Minx threw a whip out at it to knock the gorf off the head of her beast after landing on its back. She extended the spikes from her feet and started walking up its back. The speed started to decrease. It tried to turn its head to get in a bite attack, but both teams were there and Shalt was permitted to take the shot.
"Don't touch the top of its head!" she shouted. "That small frog-like creature. Its acid is on this beast's head."
Shalt transformed his hand into a three-sided blade and rammed the blade through the open mouth, into the brain.
Kazz killed the intermediate beast with a crack of her whip.
With the beast dead, Minx had more time to get a good look at it. This was a purple, blue and green lizard with 12 legs. The tail resembled that of a crocodile. Its back had armored plates that ran from the top of the head to the start of the tail. Its head was flat, probably an adaptation so it could carry its acid-spitting friend. This thing had to be 20 or 30 feet long. The teeth were dripping something green.
"Paul, is that acid or poison in its mouth?"
"Poison, looks pretty bad, too," he responded. "But I think I can handle this one if we get bit."
She nodded. "Thanks, Shalt and Quinn for letting him get the kill. That was unexpected of you." She smiled.
Quinn smiled, "What's his job again?"
She smirked. "Thank you. I screwed up a bit. In my excitement I forgot to add my Qi to my whip. It would never have been affected otherwise. I had Qi on my armor and my spikes still didn't sink as far as they should have past those armor plates on its back. I would say we can hurt it the back but not much. Let's focus on the head and tail areas."
Shalt pulled out the crystal while she explained.
"Guess we really are working together on this one, but I think we can split into two groups, what do you think. Half of you with half of my team?"
"Yes," Minx replied, "but we will need to be at each other's backs so we don't get flanked. I'll give you Aqua, Revlis and Raven."
Quinn nodded and gave her Fex, Paul and Kazz. In an interesting turn of events all but one vampire was now under Minx for the day. She pulled everyone out of hearing range of the others.
"Do any of you also have the issue of time with your rings?"
Paul and Fex affirmed they had the issue.
Minx nodded. "What we've been doing is having Shalt rest under the tree for an hour then join back in the fight. I often time lunch with it so it doesn't look strange. Shalt was also our weakest when we first started this, so it made sense. As you can see, he still has not evolved but he has gotten a lot stronger. Maybe today is that day. Let's see what we can do while staying as safe as we can, okay?"
Kazz had a question. "I know this isn't related to today's events, but the 10th leader has not provided me any updates on where you are in your portion of the mission."
Minx nodded. "There's nothing to report just yet. To live on my planet and establish my family to help the 10th accomplish the mission, I must be B-rank. I will tell you we snuck away for a few days, just myself and Midas to start building our shelter. We will be doing a little each week but if my progress towards ranking up slows, that will have to change. What I can say is Midas killed a beast there and the system here accepted the scan so we may be able to cheat it a bit that way."
Kazz nodded, "thank you."
"Now, let's go kill some gorfs and duodeniles!"
She looked to Shalt. "You take the lead today. I want you to push as hard as you can."
He nodded and used his vampire sight to find the next target.
While he did that, Fex asked, "Why are you wearing shades all the time?"
Just as Shalt spotted one in the distance, "so my eyes won't be seen if they glow red. Minx stated that it's common for security people to wear shades, so it won't be seen as strange for me to wear them. This way please. Minx stay behind me."
She chuckled. "Soon you will be stronger than me."
Just like last time, the beast charged them. It also had gorf on its head. Shalt went in toward its head but swiftly moved to the side as the gorf spit acid. As soon as it was done, Fex used his string ability to remove it from the duodenile and Kazz used her whip to kill it. They now all stood around watching as Shalt pushed his limits against a monster.