As soon as we are out on the gravel road in front of the base Karl looks over at me and Mary.
"Now that we're away from prying ears, I've got a bit of information for you. The portal we're headed to is a mix of deciduous forest and grasslands. No humanoid life found in the drone scans, but the same odd energy signatures from the local wildlife. I'm pretty sure this is going to be another magical beast collection point.
Reports say it's unstable, so we'll be closing it after we finish, but we might stay inside overnight to collect materials. I've got a bag enchanted by a mage with a specialty in spatial magic, it links to a secure storage room in the base so we can send back anything we want this time. I suggest we remove any mana gems first though."
"We can discuss what to do with the gems afterwards. None of us really know how to cultivate as Lala described, but even the base experiment that we succeeded with would make the Mage Corps a force to be reckoned with on this planet. Enough so that it causes concerns for the power balance and some megalomaniac trying to take over."
We all sat in deep thought for a bit, wondering what the best course of action might be.
"Could we create a special forces team, and give them the treatment?" Mary suggests. "It'd be lower risk than just handing them out like candy."
I shake my head "Maybe we should wait until we find out what you're actually supposed to use these things for? I mean, there's got to be more use to them than the one we stumbled across because Karl finds cat blood tasty."
Silence returns right up until we reach the portal.
"Kit up ladies. As I said, we can deal with that later. Kat, you're on point, wedge formation, I'll take left, Mary can take right. You're comfortable with the energy whip spell by now, right?"
Mary summons a bright pink whip in response, perfectly matching the pink ruffles on her mostly black, below the knee length, long sleeved lolita style dress. How she decided that was the best battle uniform I will never understand. But it's enchanted, and it covers everything from her neck down, so it is somewhat functional.
Not even a minute passes after we enter the portal before we're set upon. A dozen white wolves with blue electrical sparks crackling over their fur quietly surround us, slinking along with their bellies low to the grass.
I drop down into an arms spread combat stance, showing off my magical claws and challenging the lead wolf, larger than the others by a whole head, to attack. And attack he does. Like a flash of lightning a streak of white fur is flying at me, teeth latching at my right shoulder before I even have time to properly react.
Gahh, Moon Goddess does that hurt. Trapping its body to me with my heavily injured right arm, I dig the claws on my left hand through its throat, effectively decapitating the beast.
Just as I let the body fall, another is on me. Swinging wide, I force it to alter course, driving it away from Mary and Karl, giving it no chance to launch an opportunistic strike at their backs. Pulling energy from the pool formed in my abdomen during our experiment a few days back, I circulate it through the area of the bite, feeling the wound close and immediately begin to regrow flesh and muscle tissue.
A few minutes and I'll have use of my arm back properly. The question is, do I have a few minutes?
A second wolf joins the first, seeing my injured state, snapping its teeth at me and expanding the crackling energy on its fur to make a loose field of lightning almost a meter from its actual body.
"Everyone see that?"
"Yup, we see. Switch to shotgun if it's too dangerous to let them into melee range, I'm not sure how much of a punch that lightning packs." Karl responds, casting a fresh shield on me. A shield that the first wolf bit through in a single strike.
I guess it's time to break out the big guns.
Literally.
Swinging my shotgun from over my shoulder, I pop two quick blasts into the wolf at my right, dropping it in an instant. Turning to follow up, I'm just in time to see a dark purple whip drop what appears to be the last of the pack.
"The whip spell is amazing" Mary gushes "It's much easier on mana than throwing energy bolts everywhere, but it burns through defences like nothing."
Karl nods, brushing a bit of charred cloth from his pant leg "That lightning was no slouch either, I wish we'd have been able to take one alive to study. Third strike was enough to drop my barrier and burn my pants."
Pants which are now slowly mending themselves back to pristine condition.
"Looks like the difficulty level has increased. Good thing we came alone" Mary chimes in.
Agreed.
Knowing what's needed, I grab some snacks and water from my pouch, enough for the 3 of us, while Karl and Mary set about collecting the usable bits of the beasts and removing the mana gems.
"Kat, come look at this. The gem from the first one you dropped is different." Indeed it is different. It's not a semi squishy gem like the others, it's a hard and perfectly round ball. Translucent white in color, but with little arcs of lightning streaking inside of it.
It's actually really pretty, almost mesmerizing to look at. Looking it over, I decide it's in need of further examination later, so I dig out my storage sash, a long bit of dark red silk with many latching pockets sewn into it, dropping the stone inside and tying the sash around my waist, giving my look a positively pirates of the Caribbean, Penelope Cruz type flair. Karl produces black leather weapon sling with a fancy brass buckle and secures it to my shotgun.
"All she needs now is the hat!" Mary giggles "But it'd be hard to keep it on your head in a fight, and it'd hide your ears" Mary adds, looking over my outfit. "Maybe a sword instead?"
Bunch of Jokers. But maybe the sword might be a good idea after all, I can still use it even with the claws mounted on the back of my hands.
I give my best begging look at Karl and he sighs, but still produces a rapier with a delicate looking hand guard, then takes another 5 minutes to cast some sort of enchantment on it.
"There you go" He summons a leather belt with a scabbard attached that matches the weapon sling he created earlier and ties it around my waist, sheathing the sword "Enough fashion show for now, let's get some of these monsters cleared before it starts getting dark in here."
He doesn't actually look upset though.
As if his words were prophetic, I see the grass rustling and alert my teammates to the incoming threat. "Whatever it is must have smelled the blood"
We're back in formation, waiting to get a proper visual on the new threat, but it's still low in the grass, until finally at 10 meters away, we can see it anyhow. Snakes. Huge pythons of some sort, easily 10 meters long and too thick to wrap my arms around.