Within one week, they had the rest of the area explored. It was easy when she could talk to the plants and find out the areas that had not been fully scanned. Easier still because it was Logan's modifications on the machine.
Lana's next order of business was to take a team to the other shelter, the one that had not found by either of the other two. She wondered what happened to stop them. Instead of going straight there according to the map, she wanted to do a sweep. This meant walking back and forth over a specific size of area to better understand the threats in the area. The reports they had were unspecified which made her a bit concerned. She had with her Dobin, Alto, Shalt, Caser, Duff, Rene, Bonnie, and Biff. Bonnie was a telekinesis user and Biff was a wind user.
Rene was a healer who learned something other healers didn't seem to know how to do. Rene could shoot a healing arrow from her bow. Not needing to be near her friends was a clear benefit.
Lana also brought Mandy with her who was rank F as she was not a traveler. Lana had to give her a traveler's ID to bring her along but Mandy was interested in the Plantwell ability. Lana decided bringing Mandy along would be the best way to demonstrate what a Plantwell could do.
Lana didn't want Dobin and Kattie out of shelter at the same time. This was her first time in a potentially more challenging space with the new people. Rene and Bonnie were Rank D. The rest were Cs. They took the dome and the portable lab with them with the intention to stay out until they got to their destination or a month had gone by. Lana had also purchased two vehicles and had the faction market receiver moved to the hanger so she could receive them.
To drive to the edge of the explored area, Lana had to clear more dumping baits but she did so in a straight line along the edge of the forest on the Bree side of the dumping bait area. They left the vehicle at the edge rather than risking it to the unknown. Dobin filled in the holes that remained once Lana took out the few dumping baits she needed to.
The number of miles the dumping baits covered was rather large. If a person stood on top of the largest dumping bait, they could see more of them for as far as their eyes could see within the crescent moon shape. It was best to leave them for now. They were only an issue when it rained anyway.
On the third day, it started to become clear why the exploration never succeeded. On that one day, they encountered two king-tier. It was likely the team sent out this way were not strong enough and were wiped out. Lana and Shalt both inflicted small wounds so the others could kill it. They wanted to spread around this experience. Lana remembered overhearing Leo say the planet was advanced-tier with the rare king-tiers. She had a feeling there would be much more here.
At this point, Mandy had seen enough of Lana's ability and asked humbly to learn. She had no desire to be a traveler until she saw this display. Lana tried explaining to her what the feeling within her would be but Mandy didn't get it. Lana placed her hand on Mandy's back at the base of her spine and sent some of her energy into the girl. Mandy felt quite a bit of pain and collapsed to the ground but a few minutes later, she could clearly hear the trees which were sparse in this area. Mandy then asked Lana to describe the feeling once more. She was able to duplicate it and summoned her first vine whip. Her first assignment was to practice with it.
Looking at the map, the next area they had to cross was dessert. Lana was hoping there would be elemental beasts out there. She worried a bit about Shalt out there. Making her trees would not be prudent in that climate. The tree on Caladi was near the sparse trees in the other area enough that it would be okay for a day. Not this place. It spanned for days worth of travel. They would have to wing it.
Before heading out and packing everything up, Lana decided to have a quick meeting. "We are not going to do a sweeping motion in the desert at this time. It could be far more dangerous than I'm willing to push at this point. We are going straight across but I want an arrow formation with ten feet between each of us. We don't know what threats we will encounter."
Dobin chimed in, "I'm in front then."
Lana raised an eyebrow, "Why should I allow such a foley?"
"Because if we get surprised, it gives you and Shalt time to react."
Lana closed her eyes and exhaled.
Shalt stated, "that may be prudent. Those shelters were occupied for how long yet this trek never succeeded?"
Lana nodded. "I don't like it but it makes sense. However, Shalt, this means we need to be at each of his sides, you can't be behind me or in front of me. Are you good with that?"
Shalt grimaced but nodded.
The formation was agreed that Shalt, Duff, Rene, and Biff were to be one side of Dobin. Lana, Mandy, Alto, and Bonnie on the other. Caser would remain at Lana's side like always. It was the reason Shalt had reluctantly agreed to be so far from her. Caser would do everything he could to protect her.
Four people were carrying bags. All the bed rolls were attached so the others would not need to worry about that extra step of dropping the bag before fighting. Lana insisted they carry the bags that Logan made for the field kitchens and lab because she could put meat in them.
Within an hour of setting out, Lana screamed "Look out!"
Without even seeing the threat, the bags were dropped and they circled into each other so their backs were to one another because they had no idea where the threat was coming from. Lana was the only one who saw the movement. Shalt had his sight effected by the sun even with his sun glasses on. The day was exceptionally bright.
"Straight ahead, see that green and red speck that's getting bigger?"
Bonnie, Mandy, and Rene moved to the back, the rest fanned out behind Shalt, Dobin and Lana. Bonnie used her telekinesis to bring their stuff to her. She then summoned a bunch of rocks to her to use.
The thing in the distance was moving toward them fast. It didn't take them long to determine it was a humanoid scorpion that had a sword that resembled a skeleton of a scorpion tail. Lana was wishing she had Sean with them since he was an ice user.
This beast had a very long scorpion tail, a humanoid torso which had claws attached to the base of its upper body and arms attached to its shoulders. It was a deep blood red and neon green but the green seemed to move all over its body as if the color was alive. It screamed "leave this planet" which was barely discernible in the throaty growling voice as it took a swing with its bone sword. Dobin jumped out of the way just in time but the tail was coming around for attack at the same time. Lana took this as a personal challenge and jumped on top of the tail as it swung passed her. She then ran along it until she was able to jump onto the beasts back while dodging a sword that was swinging toward her. Everyone was throwing their ability at the torso at the same time, water daggers, earth spears, wind slashes, rocks and daggers that were once arms. Only Shalt was able to hurt it. Like with other beasts, the injury he created made it possible for the others to hurt it. The injury started to grow as the team didn't give up. Caser attacked the claws as much as he could, mainly holding them with his tentacles. This kept the injury exposed. The main body was a bit tall for him. Dobin was able to jump high enough because he had the boots his sister bought him, though he didn't need to using earth spears.
Meanwhile Lana was walking all over the back and various areas using the spikes in her armor and swinging her whip. Blood was leaking from everywhere. The beast tried turning around and grabbing her with its arms or claws but Lana was too nimble. It tried multiple times with the tail to spear her but each time she moved and it even got itself with its own tail twice. Eventually the beast fell. Everyone was tired and needed a rest.
Lana closed her eyes and concentrated. She wanted to see if there were any whispers on the wind from the trees but there was nothing. They were only an hour into the dessert and it was silent, not a single plant out there.
Shalt carved out the crystal and Caser had himself a meal. Lana decided they would put up the dome right there since high powered beasts didn't normally travel in groups, and she would prepare some food. She and Shalt would go inside and cook. The rest would stay outside. She did have Mandy watch her more closely as she grew the food she would cook, explaining each step of what she was doing. Once the food was cooked, she had people enter in shifts to rest and eat. She had Shalt stay in there the entire time.
Once everyone was rested, they packed back up. Shalt took the bone sword and cut off the tail wanting to see if it could be used as a weapon. Alto asked if he could carry it and Shalt happily passed it over.
Lana smirked, "an hour in and we got tested already. This is a 3-day trek. Back in formation. Let's see what this dessert has to offer us."
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