The group gave it time, they had even waited a few hours longer to have breakfast. Time had flown by, Vector was standing at the platform waiting. Wu Hai and Kuzunoha wanted to stay longer but they knew it would only lead to them staying well past any deadlines, wrapped up in the situation. The Emperor made a trip to the Garden Dimension, Honey was waiting in the ship, so was Mursayade.
It was fortunate that they had come back, Wu would never have been born, the problem would have raged out of control and Qingchi wouldn't have died alone. Ying Ho stood beside his twin brothers once more. "I wish you good luck."
Wu Hai gave them each a hug and then his parents. "We might not be back for tens of years. The time difference is just too unpredictable. Give my love to my Grandchild.. and give them this." Wu Hai flicked a ring to Hanahaksu.
"Yes, Father. Good luck." Hana stared at the ring in her hands.
"Igenzo. I expect to meet him next time." Wu Hai placed his hand upon the Steele and they disappeared together.
"Hah.." Hana watched them go, she laughed. "If mom doesn't kill you first.." She rolled her eyes, giggled and approached the stone. "Brother, If you need anything, come find me. If I hear about Qingchi I'll give word to Uncle Ho." Placing her hand down, she was gone.
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The disappearance of Qingchi was a hard situation to understand, Wu Hai didn't want to think about it. If she had died, it was in such a fantastic nature that he couldn't be sure of anything, much less how painful it was. The radiant and seven colored fire had an effect on everything around it, even the Purple stone wasn't completely immune to its effects.
Wu Hai had news that he was soon to be a grandfather, it was a stark revelation.
'Time, keeps moving.' The words played over in his head, on a scale of one to ten, it was still only an eight, Qingchi's disappearance was much closer to a Ten. Remarkable and unexplained, it intrigued him and he put his mind to it for the few days before they left. The time off had not been as relaxing as intended, now, they were off again and the next time they would be away far longer.
Coming out near the Steele, the group was confused.
Typically, arrival by the Teleportation Array left you standing at the array. Vector held up his hand in a closed fist and got down among the grasses. It was already a miracle that they hadn't been noticed, across the pasture a patrol of some sort was passing through the area. They had discovered the steele and set up camp beside it.
'Damn.' Vira saw no opportunity to move, some of them were facing their direction but they still hadn't been noticed behind the reeds.
"Where do you think this block came from?" …
"Who cares. It's too heavy." ..
"I hit it as hard as I could, I couldn't even dent it. I bet if we made weapons from it we could move up a level." ..
"Do you think that pie would literally fall from heaven for us? No. grab your shit, we've got a long way to go." .. The leader of the bunch got them all to their feet, after a few minutes, they left.
Only when the group of soldiers was leaving did Vector put his hand down. "We don't know who those guys are, its doubtful that they are a match for us but needlessly drawing fire from an army isn't a good idea." He rubbed his ring and brought out a hammer. "These people are not very advanced, its like they've never heard of a storage ring. We should all bring out a weapon, that way people won't treat us as prey."
"Pass. I don't want to carry anything." Vira shot him down. Kuzunoha put the bow in her hands away, she was in complete agreement.
Wu Hai smiled and pulled out the Ship. "Lets put some space between us and this place, lay a few steeles and get to hunting."
Even Vector was unable to disagree. When the ship opened, Mursayade was waiting by the door. "You're late." She tapped her foot like a shrew and pulled him into their bedroom immediately.
Vira laughed when she stepped inside, her blood was pumping just as hard. The entire week they had been on Shiyan, she had been busy with one thing or another. There was no vacation.
"How long do we have?" Kuzunoha asked Misozi's Avatar.
"If the goal is to put distance between the ship and the teleportation array, the goal has been met. Would you like to go further?" Misozi crossed her arms with a blank stare on her face.
Kuzunoha's hand lit with Whitefire, she smacked the back of the puppets head. "Move the Ship, we'll be in our rooms."
Misozi couldn't figure out why the strike had hurt, she flew at her fastest for about an hour.
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To say there was an aroma spread around the Ship would be an understatement, their bedrooms were both left in a mess. Honey was forced to watch, though, she was not idle in the slightest. The whole group was stretched and limber, ready for what the day had to throw at them.
Misozi was unable to render aid in battle, though, the ship could presumably fly directly into enemies, the risk for headaches was just too much. Rather than that, the group decided to have her follow from a distance. With her reflective features she was difficult to see, her puppets could setup formations and equipment but in battle, she was as useless as a wet paper towel.
A Swamp nearby offered an abundance of life, lots of plants and materials were laying around, there were even the remnants of spirit stones laying in the muck. Shattered, they were of no understood value. Whenever spotted they were cleared with a wave, until Wu Hai uncovered a nest of Red Eyed, Needle Leaf Monitors. They scrambled out of the hollow and a red light traveled in their wake, a bubbling trail of bacterium that wilted the plants nearby.
"More Rot!" Vector tried to freeze the ground around them but it was only so much.
Honey had chosen to stay in the Ship, she had no intentions to fight but the energy that Kuzunoha, Vira and Wu Hai were giving off made her shiver in a good way. She refused to be left behind a second time, Kink had not come home in several years. Misozi and Honey spent the battle watching and discussing tactics.
The Air below in the swamp was not much better, some of the bubbling had produced a gas that swayed in the wind.
Vira didn't care, she'd dealt with plenty of pestilence. Her hands were wrapped in a thick amount of energy. Blades of red energy came from her sword, the hurled at the Monitors but they were deflected by the chromatic scales across their backs. Covered in a thicker layer She dove into the nest and spun with her sword in hand.
Kuzunoha spread her fire and slashed with a white hot blade of Galaxium. The sword chipped with every swing, forcing the Empress to use a spear. She aimed for the eyes, the scales provided too much armor and getting underneath them was physically impossible. They scurried across the ground like a pack of dogs.
The Ice was somewhat a problem but the temperature of the affected areas left the lizard beasts rigid and slowed, Wu Hai came crashing down Armored Whitefire Spikes, the spot had converged its form into sharp cones. Their weight helped drive them in between a few scales, prying them off as the creature spun. He wasn't able to penetrate its skin but there was an opening.
Mursayade fired from the left, her attacks were absolutely horrid. It made her wonder why she had even come along, frustrating her throughout the fight. She served as a distraction, her flare abilities only sent out a bright red light, the force behind it was lacking in every sense of the word. When her one of the flares hit the opening, the creature fell over.
It cringed in pain and its throat swelled. It vomited its guts which then burst into putrification on the ground. They boiled the soil, everywhere except for the Ice.
Vector saw the trail of his attacks, it was all that was visible on the ground besides the creatures and their mess. He focused himself and spread the frost out as far as it would go, it gave him and the group some breathing room.
There were still more than ten of the beasts circling them.
Vector's breath was getting colder, the more he focused the colder it got. Icicles began to form across the air and fall. "Get. Behind. Me." Vector took in a deep breath and released.
He blew as hard as he could, thousands of shards of ice sprayed out that clung to the beasts. They became even slower, three of them retreated into the trees.
Wu Hai threw out his fire infused claws and raked them across one of the creatures, scales broke and tumbled into the dirt. "These things are pretty hardy! See if you can break their scales!" The frost that had slowed each Monitor also helped to shatter their defenses.
Vector whipped out the hammer, bringing it down as hard as he could swing. "THE HAMMER FALLS!" He screamed his master's mantra, hoping it would have a dramatic impact.
The Hammer fell, it sent shards of scales scattering in many directions. Only nine of the monitors remained but they were backing away and prowling around the Ice perimeter. He sent out another breath and trapped them in a circle.
Vira shot out her spear and tried using her finger beam, she cleaved one of their feet away. The beast crumpled to the floor and gave out a strange wail, more rustling in the trees around them could be heard.
Kuzunoha drew her bow and fired arrow after arrow of light, the arrows were unable to penetrate the scales or skin but they did an excellent job of blinding them all with each shot. She kept up the pace and saw Wu Hai and Mike both draw their hammers into the sky.
"THE. HAMMER. FALLS!" As they swung, waves of their force collided, sending a ripping wave into the monitors that were still encircled. They were blown into the air, a result of the earth beneath them exploding up.
Kuzunoha was able to see their bellies as they traveled through the air, she never stopped firing. Several of her arrows pierced each of them, more than fifty arrows had been fired in the three seconds of airtime. It wasn't as momentous as Zhan or Khan Ni but her speed was growing with battle. "And I hate the bow." She smiled.
"Gather the Stones." Wu Hai picked up the claw and scales that scattered the ground. 'They stayed..?' "Hey guys.. I think I figured something out."
Explaining his findings, they were all somewhat understanding. During all of their battles, they had not cleaved any part of the creatures away from the corpse, except for maybe from blood the bodies had remained in tact. "Whatever we separate from the whole remains." Wu Hai held up the claw from one of the lizards and in the other hand he had a fist full of scales.
"Well, that solves one mystery." Vector pulled out the tooth. "Mursayade. Use this." He threw it.
When she caught it, it was a comical attempt. The weight was something she couldn't ignore, she fell from the sky. Mursayade landed hard against the ground. "Asshole, you could have warned me."
"Sorry, I'll make it up to you." He passed two spirit stones over.
"What are these?" Mursayade fumbled with one in her hand and put the other away.
"Spirits. I started to call them spirit stones because.. why the hell not? You have to meditate and absorb them or you'll starve of energy in this place." Vector stored his away and passed the rest out.
Wu Hai's face twitched. 'He didn't explain even this much to her? No wonder his backyard was on fire.'
Kuzunoha saw her Husband's expression and started to laugh. "Lets go absorb these, recover and go back to hunting again."
Everyone nodded, Wu Hai called Misozi over. She came down from the sky and laid out an entry door. Zao had no issues with the upgrades but he really wanted her to be more intuitive. Perhaps within the next hundred years, Shiyan scientists would catch up to the demand of modern technology, even surpass it.