Sylvia observed the dead squealer and noticed the strange gray skin tone. Upon closer observation, she also noted that the skin was somewhat wrinkled as well and the size of the squealer was not right. It was almost like it was a mini-squealer.
She pointed at the squealer and a blue sword came forward from behind her and slowly pierced where the hide was supposed to be the thickest, which was the hind legs. The sword didn't meet any resistance at all and slid right in up to the hilt.
She waved and the sword returned behind her. She looked over at one of the women near her and told her, "Go up and use your sword to try to pierce near where I did just now. Not the same exact spot though."
"Yes, Lady Sylvia."
The woman complied and moved up. The blade of her sword slowly neared a spot right above where Sylvia had penetrated and the blade slide right in just as easily as Sylvia's sword did. The woman pulled her sword back out and stepped back while bowing in respect.
"This makes no sense. I have killed many of these horrid creatures and all their corpses retained their incredibly thick skin. Why is this one like this? Someone step forward and tell me exactly what happened here?"
The same woman who followed her directive earlier, once again stepped forward and detailed everything that occurred in their encounter with the squealer.
"So, you are saying that the change to its skin and its shrinkage occurred soon after Kain was launched into the air?"
"Yes, Lady Sylvia, that is correct." replied the woman.
Sylvia looked towards the unconscious Kain and noticed some ration pills on his chest. There were 10 of them…wait, why did one just shimmer and disappear? Hmm, it seems like his skin is cracked and peeling? No, not peeling…shedding is the more correct term.
Sylvia brushed away some dead peeling skin and revealed shimmering skin underneath. Her eyes widened in shock and immediately grabbed Kain's wrist. Her shock became more magnified the longer she held his wrist. She finally let go of the wrist with a serious look on her face and waved her hand.
The blue sword behind her moved over and attempted to pierce into Kain's hand but only made a superficial wound and couldn't go in any further. Sylvia raised her hand and made a forward pushing motion and the sword shivered as it tried to push further into Kain's skin.
Finally, a drop of blood revealed itself and Sylvia stopped pushing her hand forward. She waved and the sword returned to its spot. Her eyes were practically glowing as she rubbed her hands together.
"Oh, I can't wait till you wake up."
Sylvia just then noticed that there were now only 3 pills left on Kain's chest. She waved her hand and 300 ration pills appeared and laid them in a pile on Kain's chest.
She muttered, "There, that should hold you over till we make it back to base."
Sylvia had grown up in Taria Academy and her father was molding her to be his future successor as principal of the Academy. Therefore, she grew up learning many theories behind the powers that sprouted in the human race.
In accordance, she also determined many different ways to assess the talent of an individual through their pulse. It was quite a valuable skill and not many were privy to how it worked. Call it a family trade secret, if you will.
Her excitement came from the fact that, without a doubt, she was correct regarding Kain. She was about 80-90% convinced that Kain was a diamond in the rough. However, she found out just now that it was in terms of magnitude where she completely missed the mark.
She was guessing that she had found a pebble-sized diamond, when in fact it was a boulder of a diamond. The size of that boulder may even be as big as a mountain.
What was a world-shaking power? Whatever Kain had, was it.
She had seen many like Gerris, who felt that they were on top of the world being a Genji. In fact, there were already 100+ Genji just within the walls of Bastion alone. This didn't include any survivors who escaped into the ground, or the possible survivors on the Moon and Mars colonies.
How many years has it been? Only 5 years and already there has been so much progress in terms of meta-abilities. What is to say that in 5 more years, the Genjis are a dime a dozen? What then, is above the Genji tier? Sylvia was confident that Kain, as long as he survived, would shatter the ceiling above the Genji.
It irked her to no end that she couldn't fly back to Taria Academy right this minute with Kain in tow. Unfortunately, she had responsibilities to C-squad and knew she couldn't. She would have a sleepless night, waiting for dawn to arrive because all she could imagine was the shock and awe on her father's face.
"Base? Lady Sylvia, are we going back to Bastion?" asked a woman nearby who heard the mutter.
Everyone looked at Sylvia as their hopes rose and awaited her answer.
"No and Yes…I have set up a temporary base on a nearby mountain…wait, that is incorrect, it is a mesa now. I will bring everyone back there while we wait for Lord Gerris to return after his hunt."
Everyone looked at one another, before someone gained the courage to ask, "Lady Sylvia, how many survived the attack? Is the mission still a go?"
Sylvia's face darkened as she replied, "Lord Gerris is adamant about continuing the mission, but we have lost more than half of C-squad and many are still missing. We have agreed to move separately. He has continued on to the target location to retrieve the core. I will stay with all the survivors until tomorrow morning when transport will arrive. That will be when we evac."
Everyone gave a hearty cheer at learning the plan, but the cheer quickly died down as they worried about zombies being drawn over to the sound.
"Cheer on, no worries. I have wiped out every zombie and monster for miles around." Sylvia stated nonchalantly as she waved.
The cheers doubled in amplitude and everyone was hugging and high-fiving one another. They were so close to surviving this whole horrendous ordeal.
"Wait…what happened? Why is everyone cheering?"
Everyone turned to look and the fainted woman had come around and was sitting up while floating in midair. The faces of some of the men grew red at the memory of a few moments ago.
The woman who had everyone's attention was shaking her head and found that she only had a blanket covering her and was nude underneath the blanket.
Suddenly, everything came rushing back to her and she screamed as she jumped up standing from the middle of the air and the blanket covering her fell to the ground.
The woman didn't even care about her surroundings as she immediately put her hand in between her legs. She breathed out a sigh in relief when she confirmed that her chastity was intact. When she realized that she was naked in front of everyone, she promptly fainted again.
Most of the men turned away in good conscience, while a few couldn't help but take in the eye candy. Besides, the woman was incredibly well endowed with huge breasts.
The ones who were staring were clocked upside the head by others who noticed their shamelessness.