Akirai watched the soldier leave and gathered herself and her supplies, she was still tired but she really wanted to see what was in this nest.
She went over to the soldiers and asked "Are we allowed to come along?" She asked, tilting her head to the side, he looked her over once, but nodded "We won´t watch you down there." He reminded her and she nodded, the contract stated that should anything out the ordinary happen- the commander had full controll over what to do.
She wondered why they let her come along so quickly but decided that maybe it was standard protocol.
They carefully climbed down into the hole, it was moss covered and a few plants were growing inside, illuminating the cave with a soft green glow, the soldiers lit up the cave with their flashlights and marched on.
She stayed at the back and looked around, the further they went down, the more the hole became a cave, there were winding paths along the way, too small for a human to fit in and stones lined the walls and petruded from the ground.
They encountered a few leftover beetles and swiftly killed them off.
The cave was rather small , and the reached a dead end soon enough, Akirai wondered where all the beetles had come from if this was it.
Seeng no other way the soldiers turned and were about to turn around and leave, but one of the soldiers Beasts- a two tailed dog, started barking at the wall.
The soldiers regrouped and planned a bit, she didn´t make a peep and let them do their thing, in the end it was decided that they would see what was behind the wall, but this was to be done with caution as the wall stopped the smoke from spreading, and so the chamber behind it could be filled to the brim with beetles.
An earth mole from the soldier she talked to dug the wall away and revealed the chamber behind it, contrary to what they had expected the chamber was big, but mostly empty- although the floor was covered in Beasts and in the middle was a cocoon, a few scarce beetles walked around, seeming to patroll the area.
"So that´s the Queen huh?" She wispered and the friendly soldier from before turned to her, shaking his head "That´s a mutated Red Scaraph Queen, not just a Queen- and those beetles patrolling are Red Scaraph Soldiers, all Bonze-Ranked- the Queen being in the Silver-Rank."
"Wow, that thing must be expensive around here." She muttered, he nodded.
"Do you want to back out?" He asked her, she looked over to him. "I have no intention of backing out now, but rest assured, I have no interest in the beetle." She said and he gave her a smile, but then furrowed his brows as the soldiers flooded the chamber to kill the guards, only a few staying behind to guard the entrance.
"Why are you here anyway? Is it to catch a Beast?" He asked and she nodded slightly. "Yes and no, this was to get a feel of how the Zones work, but yes my plan was to catch a Beast."
He nodded and looked back to the battlefield "Do you think those Beasts are still alive?" She asked.
"Why do you ask? Even if they are, they´re lost causes, The Red Scaraph Queen sucks their blood out with her mandables , they´ll die of blood loss soon."
She pursed her lips and walked toward one of the Beasts on the floor, it was a brown moth like creature, she knelt down and let her hand glide over it´s body, it was soft to the touch. "I´m sorry I can´t help you." She told the moth with the broken wing and mangled antenna, she took a bit of her water and poured it over the moth, hoping to see where it´s wound stemmed from- it was usefull to see how and where the attack of Beasts affected others- and mybe it would come in handy later, who knew?
The wound was a bite that went trough the moths wing, and she knew that if the blood loss didn´t claim it´s life, the broken- mangled wing would be it´s death scentence.
She sighed but nodded sadly, although she perked up when the soldiers called them all over to clean up anything usefull.
She hummed and turned to her... friend? Could she call him that? And asked him to teach her how to skin and dismantle Beasts, she´d read about it but didn´t know exactly what she was supposed to do, she just couldn´t visualise it.
He nodded and they walked to one of the beetle corpses while the commander tried to contract the Queen, and told her what was worthless and what was worth taking, the mandibles and wings of most insects, if intact, fetched a good price- and the hard carpace could be used to make armor, so they were pricey as well.
Akirai found this to be very enjoyable and was engrossed in the task, so she, along with the soldier didn´t notice the Queen make a last ditch effort and attack them.
It shot out a red coloured blade of wind, and while the Queens target dodged, Akirai and her companion didn´t have to time to do so.
The wind blade had nearly reached them as they swirled around, but there was no time to dodge.
Akirai was sure her she would be badly wounded or even killed by the attack as a black ball redirected the windbalde by clashing against it, thus saving the two of them, the group turned to search for the unexpected savior, but found nothing, no Beast of theirs had shot an attack like that.
Akirai blinked and turned to the moth, one of the only Beasts who had been alive in here except for the beetles and the Queen.
Originally, she hadn´t planned on doing anything to or with the Beast, but now? Akirai always repayed her favours, so she went over and picked the bloody, muddy and now wet moth up and into her arms. "Did you do that?" She asked lightly and she could hear someone scoff, though he was cut short when the Beast sent out another black ball in his direction to shut him up.
"And that´s that then." She commented dryly.
She heard someone snort and rolled her eyes before speaking up. "I´m taking her with me, yes?" She asked and saw the commander come over, he had evedently succeeded in contracting the Queen.
"With your contribution, I have nothing against this, but I advise you to take another Beast, that´s a Shadow Moth, they don´t live long and it´s already matured, it´s livespan is less than a week." He spoke, her brows furrowed. "A week? Are you kidding?"
Well that came out wrong, she didn´t mean to question his knowledge, she was just suprised.
He shook his head "No, Wild Shadow Moths live two weeks tops- Contracted, or rather not pregnant Shadow Moths live up to Three Weeks." He informed her, luckely not taking offence to her rude question.
"Why do they live longer when they aren´t pregnant?" She asked, now intruiged.
"The Shadow Moths hatch out of eggs that are as nearly as big as their full grown body, when the mother lays the egg, her organs and internal live is squashed because of the size of the egg." He said.
"Ouch." She commented. "Is she pregnant?" She asked, guesturing to the ball of Moth in her arms, he shook his head. "I don´t know, I´m sorry."
She sighed yet again. "Whatever, I won´t contract her, but I will take her with me, she saved my ass, the least I can do is make her last days good." She said, he shot her a look of dissaproval, likely thinking her to be too soft, but she didn´t care, she was never one to hide her emotion, why start now?
"Will you continue on with the Ant Raid?" She mused, and he shook his head.
"We´ve called in another platoon, this took priority, they can deal with the Ant nest. A few soldiers will escort you all back home the next morning." He said to her before turning to the others.
"We´re setting up camp! Guard the caught Beetles and set up shifts, Hop ,Hop, you know what to do! Code 15!" He barked and she tilted her head to the side.
"Do you have someone who can take a look at my Moth?" She asked and he turned to her, nodding and calling one of the Soldiers over.
She handed the Moth over with suprising reluctance.