She watched as Nis visibly exhaled, "I'm glad to hear it. We are on a rescue mission looking for you right now. There was another team out there as well. Have you seen a student by the name of Worthington? His team is missing as well."
Lana shook her head, "I have not. If you are searching, I'm sure you can locate our position now that Blaine and I are on the surface. You are welcome to stop by. We are going to go back out hunting once we are dug out of the snow."
Nis looked down, presumably to find her location. "It looks like we are…. wooooooah!"
Lana watched as Nis slid down and was alarmed until she realized Nis had simply slid into their little ravine created by Kyle melting the snow. He had created a tunnel that led back toward town so the run-off would water the plants at the lower elevations. It didn't snow there as he could still see green far off in the distance.
Lana smiled and waved toward her teacher, turning off the call and putting her gloves back on to fight off the chill. There were four teachers in all, but she only knew her own.
"It's good to see you, Sergeant Rage."
"It's good to see you're safe and sound! Is that silver dome there your shelter?"
Lana nodded as Nis pointed in the direction of her dome. "Believe it or not, it folds up small enough to fit in a backpack!"
The eyes of all four teachers grew as they went wide with shock. "It's a prototype of another field kitchen that Paul Techno created. The other two have already been tested and are on the market. He had to modify this one because it was only built to support one team and three needed to take shelter. I can show you the interior once Blaine is done. I'm trying to make sure he doesn't get attacked while he's digging us out of the snow."
Nis nodded to the teachers who immediately took up sentry duty to help the students. Lana and Nis watched as Kyle put in stairs and slopes to make it easier to climb to the top of the snow when they were ready to leave. Soon, it was clear enough for the team to be able to safely move and no beast had shown up.
Lana smiled at Blaine, who switched back before talking to any of the teachers, but he was happy to let Lana do that anyway. They all entered the shelter and the first thing Lana did…
"Alright everyone. Listen up. There were four missing teams. With us found, there is still one out there. I won't speak for the other teams but mine will help in this search."
"So will mine," Blaine said with no hesitation. Paul said the same thing, just seconds after Blaine.
[Quest updated: Progress toward friendship: Dobin Plantwell 85%]
[Quest updated: Progress toward friendship: Kattie Beastiary 45%]
[Quest updated: Progress toward friendship: Chekof Starskiy 70%]
One of Paul's team members objected. "Why should we help? They have two other teams." This was Jessy. He was 6'7" and broad.
Lana smirked, "how about the fact this shelter is MINE and no one can open it but me. You are welcome to part ways and get caught up in the next snow."
There were no further objections. "Get your stuff packed up. Leave NONE of your things behind or the shelter will not fold up."
Lana then took the teachers on a tour of the shelter so they would feel more comfortable with the students using such a thing. While doing so, she helped her team members by stowing things in her bracelet.
Once everyone was done packing and out, she did one more look to make sure everything was picked up. She then hit the clean and pack button on the control panel. She walked out and 5 minutes later, they were looking at a silver cube. Lana packed it back in the bag and stowed it in her bracelet. It sure was getting full in there but at least they put a dent in the food with extra mouths to feed.
They all stood looking up the mountain. They could see caves higher up but they had no clue where to go from there.
"Sergeant Rage, if you could give me a few minutes, I might get us a better place to start. I can see the trees below, maybe I can contact them?"
Nis nodded and Lana turned around, facing them while concentrating really hard. This was a great distance and she knew she'd get tired fast if she weren't careful. After a few minutes of focus, she was able to get a last-known direction which was better than nothing.
"Sergeant Rage, they entered way down that way and angled this way but the trees could only see so far. The blizzard hit and blocked visibility pretty quickly. I think our best bet is one of these three caves up there," as Lana pointed at each one.
Nis turned to the rest, "you heard her. We start with the one that's closest and go from there."
"Nis, is there a reason you are asking a student who doesn't even know the students in question and hasn't seen them," came a voice Lana recognized, that of Sergeant Kai Tanaka.
Nis explained Lana's ability to Kai and the sergeant simply nodded. "That way it is, then."
Lana smiled though no one could see it. They all were fully covered to protect against the elements. She was having another issue as well. A certain cute and fuzzy beastie was laying on her shoulder to be more comfortable in her winter suit and he was apparently dreaming. His little paws were going like he was running and he was making little grunting noises. This was a concern because the teachers didn't know about her little friend yet.
Lana noticed Dobin, Blaine and Kattie all get closer to her making it clear she wasn't the only one who heard her little stowaway. Soon, Kattie asked Sven to take to the skies and see if he could find the missing students. Sven circled over the cave they were heading toward and Kattie called him back.
"Lana's right, sergeants. Sven agreed with first cave." Kattie reported.
With that, the twenty people picked up their speed as much as they could in the snow and headed straight for the cave. As they approached, the teachers instructed the students to stay back. Since this was a rescue mission, they wanted to evaluate the situation before running in.
The instructors crouched down and stealthily approached the cave, 2 on each side. They all peeked in and Kai was able to see three students in the far back of the cave. In the middle of the cave was a bear-like beast standing on its back legs like it was a normal stance. It took a bite of something that screamed.
The students heard the scream and ran as fast as they could. The teachers appeared to be using hand signals to figure out who was going to do what… Lana, Blaine, Karlen, and Chekof were the first to arrive. Lana saw the same thing Kai did and immediately started instructing her fellow students. They were to go rescue the students while the rest kept the beast busy. She commanded everyone who had a light crystal to pull it out and activate it.
The teachers threw their plan out the window to see what the students would do, taking an observation role. As Lana's fingers went do to zero, the higher level students raced in and engaged the beast. When it was sufficiently busy, the rest ran passed the combat to the back of the cave.
Lana could tell the beast was a level-6 but asked those level-5 and higher to engage with her. This meant that from Blaine's team all but Tobias would be included. From Lana's team, all but Duff, and from Paul's team, Sean who was a level-4 ice user and Marie who was a level-3 with a phasing ability were all asked to rescue the students in the back. Even though Lana had just given Sam an ability, she wanted to see his martial arts in action.
Lana decided to stand back and see how the teams fared together against this beast before she added her strength. Kattie threw a new dagger and it bounced off the beast's tough hide. Lana suddenly realized her folly. Sven was a level-3 beast. He had no chance and her teams weapons topped out at level-4.
"Kattie, back off! You too, Alto!" Lana yelled before her teammates, her friends, got hurt. Almin's weapon would be useless but he sensed for metal and began manipulating it. He threw an arrow made of the metal in the area at the beast's head and it, too, failed to penetrate. He backed off and joined Kattie and Alto.
While Dobin was forming an earth spear, Blaine let off a blast of fire which caused the beast to howl in anger. Its fur was singed and it was clearly hurt a small bit by the attack. Karlen ran in with a sword of deep red that was glowing. Lana had noticed it before but this was the first time she saw him use it. Normally he used his fists. Karlen was keeping one arm of the beast busy while Chekof went for the beast's midsection.
Sean decided to occupy the other side. He went in for a crescent kick against the beast's knee but never made it. The beast saw the attack coming and swung its powerful arm with attached claw. It hit Sean so hard, he was flung into the cave wall, bleeding and no longer responsive. Rene had been prepared with a healing arrow in her bow and let loose his direction, the second his body settled on the cave floor. She then ran to him to see if she could help him further.
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