.
.
Back in their encampment.
Both Rex and Dio were panting heavily as they were sprawled behind two different trunk of trees.
*PANT* *PANT*
"Dammit! That was a Grade-2 power grenade..." Rex cringed slightly when he felt the damage to his pocket after using such an expensive expendables.
"Will you stop it! It was supposed to be used." As usual, Dio talked back to him from a tree adjacent to his.
"...It was supposed to be used for life-saving situations..." Rex still mumbled insistently, causing Dio to be left almost speechless.
"What do you think this situation is!?"
"..."
The other Rangers of their group, including the one that had called for them back at the tunnel, were all stupefied.
Currently, all of their group were present in the vicinity, hiding behind various different makeshift covers to shield themselves from the explosion.
"Go check on the situation!" Rex bellowed, turning serious once more.
"Right...!" Dio also replied quickly to the instruction.
He cautiously stretched his neck out and looked back to see the area behind him. Only after he'd confirmed that there were no more dangers did he signal for the rest of the group to come out.
One by one, the Rangers of the group all got out of their covers and trotted towards the flattened out clearing that had been their encampment moments before.
If ones observed closely at the debris scattered around the clearing, they will see pieces of high-tech looking planks of metal mixed together with some processed furs and fabrics. All of which were broken parts of their tents and shelters.
But more importantly, laying together with those parts were about a dozen or so dead giant wolves. The same kind that had attacked Claude previously.
Some of them had had their stomachs sliced open while some had been stabbed full of holes by the pointy end of the sleek-looking steel rod that the Rangers carried.
None of them seemed to have been killed because of the explosion! The blast had only served to mess up their corpses further.
One of the Rangers who passed by the carcass of a giant wolf kicked the corpse in frustration.
*BAM*
"F*cking dire wolves! if not for their ambush we wouldn't have attracted that damn menace here!" He huffed, still panting from exhaustion.
"Look." Another Ranger pointed forward with his chin.
Following that, all of them turned their attention across the open field to the other end of the clearing.
Slumped over there was the wholly attached lower half of what looked like an enormous frog's stomach and feet. Even what's left of that lower-half had already reached around 6 ft. in height. Signifying the terror that its original size had had.
The upper-half of it though, had been blown to smithereens and spread all around the edges of the clearing, mixed with its own blood and many pieces of broken trees.
Nonetheless, just this leftover piece were already as large, if not larger than the size of a dire wolf.
The Ranger who'd pointed at it carefully walked over to the other side to inspect the undamaged part of the carcass.
When his hand touched the moist skin surface of the creature, he could feel the hardness that was stronger and more resilient than any old tree bark, which astonished him to his core.
"Crimson-scaled Goliath Bullfrog, Danger Grade-2... Amazing!" He exclaimed.
He then turned around and laughed to the group behind him,
"Guess this wasn't a complete loss after all, ha--"
*THUNK*
"Ow!"
Without him realizing, Rex's hand had already reached the back of his protective helmet and slapped him hard.
"It's still a loss for me dipsh*t!"
As he said that, the other Rangers had also started to gather around the frog-like creature to examine it in glee. The man was not wrong, just this harvest alone would net them quite a handful sum of credits even after it's split equally.
This, in turn, made Rex even more exasperated.
"Dammit, let's just clean up the stuffs and go! This place will be swarmed with God knows how many beasts in no time."
"Haha, you saved us Rex! Don't worry, we'll treat you properly when we get back!" One of them, an older middle-aged Ranger, spoke in earnest.
"I'd rather you guys just reimburse me for my grenade..." Rex silently wept.
Seeing this, Dio just tried to hold back his laughter to the side.
.
.
In a distance not far away from the campsite, Claude had been running speedily towards the direction of the group to see what's going on.
*tap* *tap*
'!'
He suddenly halted his steps as soon as he arrived at the site.
He was truly surprised to see the scenes in front of him. Numerous dire wolves' corpses were strewn about everywhere on the ground, not a single one left alive.
And what's even more surprising was that he had noticed as soon as he arrived that those giant wolves weren't the things that were causing trouble for the group of people in front of him.
No, it was rather the large scaly monstrosity at the side that looked comparatively more dangerous than those wolves.
'They're strong... They certainly doesn't need MY help.' Claude thought to himself with awe.
If it was him, he wouldn't even know how many times he had to 'die' before finishing just a couple of these wolves. One might not be much of a problem, but what about two, or three.
.
At the center of the clearing, just like how he'd noticed them, the group of 6 Rangers had also noticed the stranger that was coming their way.
At present, they were all in the middle of cleaning up the field. Some of them were pulling spears out of dire wolves' body while others were carving through their carcasses to extract some materials.
"Claude! Over here!" Rex waved to him as he shouted.
Unlike the rest of them, he was in the middle of cleaning up after the tents and other equipment when he'd noticed Claude coming over from a distance.
"Oh, he came here by himself! And in one piece no less..." Dio mumbled.
*THUNK*
Another slap was released, to the back of Dio's head this time, "Oi!"
"Stop jinxing everything!" Rex scolded.
Claude had also heard the comment and could only give a wry smile in response.
.
.
It was high noon.
The group of six were still in the middle of packing up all their harvests and equipment.
"So, Dio... What's the deal with the naked hunk over there?" Rita, the only female Ranger of the group turned her head and asked Dio who happened to be standing close by.
Not far from them, Claude was engaging himself in some kind of conversation with Rex.
"Oh, it's... A long story?" Dio himself wasn't feeling too sure with his answer.
"How long can the story be! You guys were just gone to clear out rubble from a hole!" She retorted in annoyance.
"Huh... I guess you're right." He nodded, "We found him trapped inside a bunker in that hole."
"Really? How did he get himself trapped in there?"
"He said it's a long story."
"..." The vein on Rita's forehead started to become more visible than ever.
Noticing it in time, Dio hurriedly tried to change the subject, "What's it to you anyway, had a crush on him or something?"
"He's alright. He's no Commander though..." She replied with lackluster attitude.
"The Commander is married."
"So?"
"The Madam will kill you." Dio answered nonchalantly.
"..." Rita who had been relaxed previously suddenly felt a cold chill on her neck causing her to shiver.
.
"An Alliance?" Claude asked with amazement.
"Yep, the Elken Rangers Alliance, a.k.a ERA."
"We're not just a community or an organization. We are one of the largest civilization within the Forest Biome: Eden, spreading all across numerous ecosystems. Although... Our way of life is also the most extreme..." Rex lamented,
"You sure you don't know any of this? You seem to know your name and why you were trapped in that box..." He asked in passing.
Rex didn't put his nose in too much regarding Claude's matters. After all, if he were to bring him back to Sector-07, the Alliance are going to do a thorough investigation on him one way or another.
And if Claude decided that he didn't want to go back with them, that means he's not even his problem to deal with.
"Haha, I wonder myself..." Claude also replied in an ambiguous manner,
"The way you said it, there should be other civilizations in this place right? Were there ever any conflict between you?" He continued his questions without minding too much.
"The Great Eden Association and Research Society. GEARS, they're considered the largest and most advanced civilization in Eden--"
"And of course not! Us humans are almost at the very bottom of the food chains here, you think we can afford to fight amongst ourselves when the survival of our species are put to the test every second of every day?" Rex sternly chided on,
*sigh*
"Though... I can't say much about the situations within GEARS. Those people..."
"Nevermind, you can learn these stuff out in your own time. If you ask me, you're better off spending your time thinking about how to survive rather than minding others. I'm only telling you all these because I don't want your death on my conscience."
He gave Claude a sidelong glance before returning back to his work.
"And I appreciate that very much." Claude nodded and replied with a polite smile.
'If there is no war happening, then at least there's something to be appreciative of from the humans' current condition.'
Claude didn't really feel any particular sympathy for them. From his point of view, a fight for survival is a far better sight than a fight for profit.
Though he doubted very much that there aren't any conflict at all amongst mankind.
'That just seems impossible for them.'
"So, are you coming back with us to Sector-07?" Dio approached the contemplating Claude from behind.
"I could only imagine so. Nowhere else to go I'm afraid." Claude also turned his back to face him, still maintaining the same smile as before.
"True enough. Then I guess I should introduce you to the rest--"
"There's me and Rex, of course. And the woman over there is Rita." He pointed a thumb to his back,
"Then there's old man Raul, and lastly the two brothers A and B. That's all of us!"
"Oi f*cker!"
"Did you just call us A and B!?"
Two people with relatively similar facial features suddenly stood up from their chores and threw piercing glares at Dio. The rest of the names who were called either waved or gave a passing nod to Claude.
'This feels nostalgic.' He felt refreshed as he watched the dynamic of the group around him.
The sense of camaraderie and the occasional banters were all things that he had been familiar with during the two times he'd participated in wars in his lifetime.
Somehow, he could see the overlapping images of two different military units. Of teammates that he had been familiar with, within the group of six.
There's a certain sense of incongruity to it, seeing as the three groups of people were vastly different with one another be it in terms of origins or time period.
'...'
Three different groups of close friends, with him being the only common denominator among them, tying them together through time.
'Well, not this time. I am way past that.' Claude gently closed his eyes.
As he thought that, the images around him also slowly dissipated out of view as he suppressed his sentimentality.
He was not the same as his younger self. He had come to realize that an Immortal should never carelessly forge a bond or make connections with others. The repercussion of each bond is something that one had to bear and live with forever.
'I've had enough to bear.' Claude shook his head.
"What is it?" Dio seemed to notice the subtle movement of Claude's action and asked in concern.
"Nothing. Just reminiscing."
"I thought you were supposed to be an amnesiac here..." Dio could feel his eye twitched in irritation.
*rustle*
'!'
Just as Dio was about to retort further, he noticed the body of the dire wolf behind Claude gave a slight twitch before it suddenly jumped out to strike him from behind!
*ROAR*
'It's still alive!?' Dio's eyes widened,
"Hey!!! Watch ou--" He tried to shout out desperately in an attempt to warn him.
However, Claude who had been the first to notice the change in Dio's expression and line of sight, had reacted even quicker and pulled out a dagger from Dio's waist before swiftly turning around to face the the danger behind him head-on.
The wolf was stretching its mouth and baring its fang towards Claude as it lunged forward. Seeing the opportunity, Claude also matched his timing and lunged forward together with it.
This was its last ditch attempt at surviving.
Regrettably, before its sharp teeth could collide with his shoulder, Claude quickly spun his body sideways and stretched out his arm to shove his dagger-wielding hand down its throat.
*STAB*
In the end, the wolf didn't have enough time to close its jaw before losing consciousness, forever.
The whole thing happened in just a split second at the most.
After everything was done, the crowd who had noticed a little too late the commotion that had happened also started to gather around the wolf and Claude.
"Did It play dead? How clever!" Raul exclaimed.
Some of them looked approvingly at Claude while the rest were somewhat stunned, including Dio.
"Ha! No wonder you managed to stay alive down there!" Rex gave a light comment. He thought that someone with a good survival instinct like his must have had a few tricks up their sleeves to survive a trapped room.
Though in truth, he couldn't be farther from the truth. Claude only managed to stay alive in that bunker by relying solely on his ability as an Immortal.
Seeing the 'knowing look' on Rex's face, Claude knew that he had caused some kind of misunderstanding to this poor guy, but he only smiled back in return.
Dio came out of his stupor a few moments later, he couldn't help but to ask the question that was bugging his mind,
"Why did you target the inside of its throat? Wouldn't it be much easier to aim for the neck?"
"I don't know how hard its hide is, I thought its insides would be more vulnerable." Claude plainly replied to him.
"You don't know..." Dio felt a headache coming.
'He thought that much in that split second? This guy...'
*sigh*
"...You're really something else." Dio shrugged his shoulder, accepting the explanation.
"Thanks."
Even the rest of the group were amazed. In their eyes, the strength that Claude had displayed were actually somewhat average or slightly higher than normal people at the most.
It was incomparable to theirs.
But the combat sense and survival instinct he'd displayed in making that split second decision were something that only a few veterans in the world possessed.
It was the mark of someone who had learned the struggle of survival for a long time.
The question that was then appeared in their mind was, 'How did he survive for so long with so little strength?'
"..."
"Alright, stop standing around looking stupid! Do you want to be surrounded by beasts?" Rex opened his mouth to get the group back on track.
The smells of blood around the campsite should have already started to attract some unwanted attention of the forest. They really couldn't stay there any longer.
"Let's go. Back to Sector-07!"