The beast screamed in pain, but was somehow still alive. Lana, still on Kyle's back, fired a vine aimed at its eye, laced with Qi as normal. With no exoskeleton, the beast was dying anyway but Lana put it out of its misery. The scream caused the rest of Lana's team to move faster. They arrived just fast enough to see it fall.
Lana jumped off Kyle's back and ran to the injured. The two on the ground were shockingly still alive. Apparently, they didn't take the full force of the breath weapon. Kyle didn't take healing as an ability, so he swapped out then healed the burn victims while Lana fixed the injured shoulder.
"Who are you people?" one of the boys who weren't injured asked.
Kyle chuckled, "are you okay?"
He nodded, "now. Thank you. We were hunting level-2 beasts and that thing came out of the hole over there and ate our beast after we had it almost dead!"
Kyle smirked, "I guess we get to go down the hole then. Especially if they are coming up and hurting fellow students."
Chekof came up behind Kyle and handed him the crystal. "I'm not sure which of you want this since the shape of the corpse shows you did a lot of damage."
"I think they should all go in the bag and we sort it out later. The book said there could be 3 or 10 of these things. There was a little astrix thing at the bottom of the page. Apparently, they have nests with eggs and such down there. They prefer we just take out the high-level ones so others can come by later."
Chekof looked at him. "You saw the book, what, once?"
Kyle laughed nervously, "well, that's all it takes."
Lana grinned at Kyle, "sooooo…. The last one down is a rotten egg?"
She took off running toward the hole. Kyle quickly overtook her, paused and effortlessly placed her back on his back and continued running.
He called over his shoulder, "last one down is a rotten egg!"
Dobin and Paul looked at each other both seeming to think the same thing. They do know they are in a combat zone, don't they?
As the rest of the team raced to catch up, Lana and Kyle stood waiting for their eyes to adjust to the darkness. They had their light crystals out and noticed the cavern had many openings. Also of note, there were glow-in-the-dark signs directing people.
"They must be serious about not messing with the nests, but I can understand why if their crystals result in good gear."
Lana nodded, "A tourist trap for hunters. I wonder if anyone has ever tried to steal any eggs."
Kyle chuckled, "something tells me yes, and that is why we now have signs…."
Lana laughed, "I wonder how many idiots were weeded from the gene pool before they decided to put the signs in!"
Kyle smiled down at her then kissed her forehead. "An action like that would stir the whole nest. More crystals are not worth such lunacy."
Chekof and Karlen had already joined them but the others finally caught up.
"Such lunacy as what?" Jessy asked.
Kyle explained then headed in the direction the arrow indicated.
"Sounds more like suicide," he heard from behind him and he smiled.
Kyle thought the area was romantic in a haunted house sort of way. He could hear skittering of legs, scratching of legs against dirt which made him think the lioants were digging new exits or places to expand their colony which made him shudder involuntarily.
Humans, that way! Trouble! Kent said suddenly as they came to an intersection. The arrow said to turn right but Kent was pointing left…
"Um… Kent says there are humans in trouble to the left…"
Kyle's head snapped her direction, "are you serious?"
Lana nodded, "he can't tell me how many, but he smells humans and said trouble."
Kyle ground his teeth, "everyone stay here. Lana and I will investigate quietly."
He pulled out his book, seemed to select a different ability then put Lana back on his back. In what seemed like a blink of an eye, they were in a cavern. In the back corner was what looked like a nest with a bunch of glowing red eggs. They seemed to change in intensity between bright and dull. In front of the nests were much smaller lioants than the one they fought on the surface which stood 8-foot tall and had a 16-foot stance with the legs included. These were about Lana's height.
Despite their size, FIRE! Kent urgently said.…
"Breath weapons!" she relayed.
At the same time, "Vine wall, vine all, vine wall." "Earth wall, earth wall, earth wall."
Lana slid of Kyle's back, "drop the fucking egg and move!"
Oddly, the trio of students who remained alive complied with her demand. She had never seen these students before and prayed she never had to work with such idiots again. Kyle sealed their retreat with earth. They'd be able to dig through it, but the humans would be gone by then.
"Tha…" one went to speak.
Lana almost growled, "Don't speak."
Soon they were back with their team. Based on the looks on Lana's and Kyle's faces no one asked about what happened. They just fell in step and continued to follow the arrows.
Lana and Kyle held hands tightly, both expressing their feelings about the situation without words. About 10 minutes later, scent? Kent said tentatively. He was still a baby and he knew human scents but he didn't know that of all the beasts yet so this was to be expected.
Lana pulled on Kyle's hand and they both came to a stop. Her team formed around the three suicidal students. They had been taught hand signals and had never needed to use them before. They used them now and Lana was praying she remembered them correctly.
The team was to split because there were two. Chekof and Karlen could both hear movement in different spots coming up. Dobin and Kyle were to head a group each starting with earth walls. Chekof with Dobin, Karlen with Kyle. Paul with Dobin, Jessy with Kyle. The "new" people were to stay behind Lana. One look at her face and not a single one dared step out of line.
As they entered the large cavern area, Dobin's team ran straight for the one in front of them. It looked like the beasts here expected them as they both used their breath weapons. Kent was saying fire once more just before the fire was seen erupting from the mouths of these beasts. Both boys implemented the plan of earth walls in time. Jessy and Chekof went in for flanking positions while Paul fired his laser and scored serious damage to the underside on the front section of his beast.
While Blaine kept his beast distracted, Karlen tried chopping off a leg with his sword. At the same Jessy threw his spear ripping through the ant-like abdomen. It let out a scream of rage. It shifted its weight and went for a back kick which almost succeeded in knocking Jessy to the hard ground if not for his great reaction speed. Kyle wanted one of them to get this kill so he was just playing a distraction role but he felt they were taking too long. It was only a Level-6 beast after all. Soon, Karlen had taken out two legs on one side making its underside easier to reach. Jessy pulled his spear free and thrust one more time and Karlen did the same in the front of the beast. It fell to the floor in its own pool of black blood.
Chekof jumped up with transformed claws and ripped open the abdomen of his own beast. He was suddenly coated in the contents of the beast's belly. One more shot from Paul, and the beast wasn't even twitching. While the crystals were cut out, the blood was removed from Chekof and Jessy. Not a single person on their side was injured.
Each team now had one crystal. While they were busy, Lana was guiding the lower-level students around the back wall to where the arrow was. She told the students to keep one hand on the wall at all times. This way she knew they were close to it and not near their enemies. The arrow was 20 feet from her when the beast behind her screamed. Her face grimaced. She turned to the others and gave a command that made them freeze.
"Stay!" she hissed.
Not even waiting for a response, she was putting on her stage-1, then stage-2 armor as she ran.
The scattering sound was getting closer and they both closed the distance. A beast, identical to the others, cleared the threshold.
Fire! Kent sounded scared.
A heart beat.
Mom! Kent panicked. She couldn't stop, she was mid-move.
She leapt into the air. She placed her hands on a claw that would have gone for her if she was still that low to the ground. She pushed off it and flipped onto the back of the beast just as its breath weapon burned air. With a vine whip in each hand, she wrapped them both around the neck of the beast. Adding as much Qi as she dared, she pulled them both.
The head separated from the beast and fell to the ground. She jumped from the beast as the carcass succumbed to gravity.
She made sure to land outside the growing pool of blood. That was the worst part of this business. The liquid, squishy, sticky stuff stuff.
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