Lana turned toward her friends, "I need you guys to stay here and help the class. Kattie, have Sven patrolling the skies. If the scimmias come back, you need warning plus the raptors could be a problem. Keep your heads on a swivel. From here, once you finish this area, head back toward the shelter. Following the river the way we did means there's an area between us and them that has not been scanned yet. Plus, we need to get back in a while for the evening. Stay safe."
With that, she was off. Nis' voice faded behind her as she raced toward the purple mountain.
Lana ran at top speed, sticking to the trees. She only slowed as she approached the foot of the forbidden area. There was very little light penetrating through the purple above her head. The color seen from a distance was trees with massive canopies. And they weren't talking to her. In fact, this whole area was quiet. Ominous. The bark was almost black, a very deep brown. The branches were thick, hard, unyielding. The lack of sun made the air cool on her skin.
The ground was covered with broken branches and drying leaves. No other plants existed in this forest. After traveling straight in for about 10 minutes, she heard a singular voice.
"She's brave."
Lana released a small smile, "You are beautiful."
She maintained her pace. The plants she had been speaking with didn't prepare her for this level of difficulty.
"You look for the others. Those that look like you," the singular voice said.
It was gruff but not menacing. It felt to her as though the tree had been hardened by life experiences.
"Yes. My boyfriend is among them."
Silence.
Lana had no idea if she was heading the right direction. She was still heading the direction she had been given but the class could have changed direction since then.
Another 10 minutes later, "slightly to the right Brave One."
Lana felt the trees were judging her based on her actions and the pressure was on. What species are they?
Still, she listened and soon heard the sound of scimmias enjoying their acts of violence. Lana decided it was safer to be in the trees and raced along the branches once more. She heard screams and abilities of all kinds being used. She followed a small trail of scimmia corpses, some charred beyond recognition. It only took another minute before she was upon the attacking horde and Blaine's classmates.
Without hesitation, Lana flipped from her tree and landed on the shoulders of a scimmia. Its knees buckled under the sudden weight. She placed a palm on its head and fired a Qi-infused whip. It penetrated the scimmia's skull, killing it. She looked up to see Karlen using his sword and Chekof punching the scimmias. The class was huddled in the center, strongest on the outside. Blaine was firing targeted attacks to reduce impact on the trees. The last thing he wanted was to start a fire.
Lana and Blaine both fired at the same scimmia, one with fire, one with a vine. His eyes turned to her. She watched his expression go from surprise to fear then something like anger.
"Lana, what the fuck are you doing here?"
She smirked, "rescuing you."
Lana then heard another familiar gruff voice, "they took three to a cave."
Lana nodded. The others saw her nod, but it didn't seem to be an appropriate response to Blaine, especially when her facial expression turned serious. Within a few more moments, the rest of the scimmia present were defeated. Those in the center began breaking up to collect crystals.
"Panteri approaching," the tree told her.
Lana turned to the others, "stay where you are."
"Cadet, who do you think you're ordering around? I'm a sergeant!"
"And you'll be a dead one soon if you aren't quiet!" she hissed.
Lana heard a twig snap behind her and quickly turned around. She was soon confronted by a whole bunch of what the trees called panteri. She counted 10 as they circled around the class. She observed they were different sizes, the smallest had 2 sets of tentacles. The bigger they were, the more tentacles they had, always in sets of 2.
The growling one in front of her looked just like the panther-like beast she saw the scimmias kill, the one who's baby she now carried. She observed the baby had four legs while all these had six.
She dropped to a knee and gently removed the baby, holding it tenderly to her chest. She maintained her eyes on the beast, watching for any reaction. The beast's growl went from threatening to angry. A glint in its eye reflected rage.
In her head, Lana heard, "how dare you have one of ours! How did you get it!"
Lana told him the whole truth. She watched as he twisted his neck as if cracking it. It reminded her of an angry person preparing for a serious fight.
"She was my partner, my soul. This is our prince. I leave him to your care. I have hunting to do."
With that, he let out a violent snarl and the rest of the panteri followed him as he raced the direction she had come from at a pace faster than their arrival.
Lana was stunned. He left her with his only son? She wasn't even the same species! Why would he trust her with the important task of raising his young?
She heard footsteps behind her, "What. Was. That…"
It was Blaine.
She stood up after quickly stowing the baby safely and turned to him, shaking her head. "Not now, not here."
He grabbed her and held her close, "you are going to get me killed…" He kissed the top of her head.
She giggled, "I could say the same for you!"
To the gathered students, "collect the crystals. Make sure they go to the appropriate people."
Sergeant Rudy approached her, "how did you know?"
"My ability of course. Some of your students were taken by the scimmia."
Tabitha nodded, "that way," she pointed.
Lana nodded, "take the students out the way the panteri went. That way should be clear. Blaine's team will help me rescue the others."
Tabitha raised an eyebrow, "I'm not sure I should allow that. This place is very dangerous."
"Sergeant Rudy, if sergeant Rage is okay with me out here by myself, surely you can be satisfied if an entire team joins me?"
"And where is your team?"
"I left them behind to monitor the situation. Those scimmias had been in the area before I led the class there. I was afraid they would return. Kattie has Sven. They will be alerted in time. Every second we stand here talking is a second less those students have to live."
Tabitha nodded, "go."
Several crystals were turned over to Blaine. Lana noticed his team was short one. Rene was missing.
Holding Blaine's hand and heading in the direction the missing students were taken, Lana called out, "Karlen! Chekof!"
Sergeant Rudy was leading her class in the direction Lana told her to. Their friends quickly joined them. Soon Chekof's nose twitched and Karlen tightened his grip on his sword.
"More of those four-armed monkey things are coming," he spat, clearly unhappy.
"The trees call them scimmia. At least they are after us instead of the class. Let's teach them a lesson." Lana retorted.
Blaine looked at her, "they come in large groups…"
Lana nodded with a grimace. "I know… Plenty to go around. Go all out. It's just us here."
He nodded while Chekof and Karlen glanced at each other. She saw a barely perceptible head shake shared between them. She smirked, knowing they were both strong enough they didn't need to worry about it.
A moment later, the scimmias were upon them. While they were armed with sticks and rocks, some in all four hands, Blaine somehow still had energy and the Chekof had eaten meat during the break. Karlen had taken a sip from his special water bottle he always carried. It was small and compact like a flask, fitting easily in his pocket.
They started off in the middle, back to back allowing their foes to approach. Blaine used distant abilities while Lana fired off her vines. Both were dropping the approaching scimmia while some chose to stay in the back and observe.
As soon as some got within melee range, Karlen and Chekof exploded into action. They were both skilled martial artists. Lana watched some of Karlen's moves. She hadn't seen some of these before. He was using martial arts and his sword since the foes were stronger. It looked like a graceful dance of death and destruction.
Blaine chose to target the observers. Lana also took out a few then joined her melee friends. The scimmias tactic seemed to be overwhelm with numbers, the strongest survived. In this case, there were no survivors. With being on a rescue mission, they couldn't risk meeting this troop again. Crystals were quickly gathered and they were on their way again.
About 5 minutes later, they were just outside what looked like a cave when they heard moaning. Lana rushed over while the boys posted watch. They could hear the sound of scimmias inside the cave. Crouching on the ground, Lana found Rene. She was battered and in a lot of pain. It appeared she had been knocked out. Lana didn't have time to heal her but offered her a quick sip of water as she was waking up.
Suddenly alert she sat up quickly then winced in pain, "Dante, Tobias…" and she looked toward the cave.
Lana nodded, "can you walk? I don't want to leave you out of sight."
Rene nodded and offered a hand to be helped up.