With Aggros leading the way, the expedition party made their way through the grassy plains filled with unknown flora and fauna. While everyone's guard was up, trying to locate the Caix Tribe which may be spying on them right now, Lev was dreamily staring around the place, mesmerized. Everything was just too good to be true. He may be dead and he may be experiencing the last remnants of his dreams before he died, but everything he could've asked for was there. He was satisfied. 'If I died right here and then, I wouldn't even be complaining.' He said to himself.
'Still, what did they mean about all those Classes? If I remember, Aggros said he's a Panzer Class. A tank? What did he mean by that?' With questions lingering in his head, he quietly followed the group as they tried to track down Lineus's whereabouts.
"Leader," Erina suddenly called out, breaking the silence that befell them. She kneeled on the ground and pointed at something that was all-too-familiar for everyone. Even without her pointing, the object on the ground seemed to be misplaced so one could have easily noticed it.
It was Lineus's scarf, and it was torn to shreds for some odd reason. There were signs of a scuffle on the grassland and speckles of blue liquid that resembled blood. From there, a trail of flattened grass could obviously be seen— a sign that whatever or whoever attacked Lineus dragged him away from the place.
Lineus's communications device was also left on the scene of the crime, adding difficulty to their SAR.
"This is clearly a trap, leader, we should head back." Ion said, his eyes darting about while his Plasma gun is at the ready.
Seeing everyone's anxious gazes and seeing Lineus's scarf on the ground, Aggros realized that this was no time to be playing the hero. Right now, they're in an unknown land and one of their comrades just died. If they were to pursue him, who knows what horrors they'll encounter before they even finished the mission. 'It should've been an easy mission. But out of all places, we landed on one where people of the Caix Tribes reside.' He thought, letting out a sigh.
"All right, everyone, let's head out. We should pro— "
Swish!
No one, except Lev, saw the flying needle that whizzed past and stung Aggros on the neck. The spinning force of the needle was more than enough to shred the collar on Aggros's shirt into shreds before it burrowed on his neck. Even with a bod of pure muscle, the needle still managed to pierce through, shocking everyone as soon as they saw Aggros stop short.
After swaying for a couple of seconds, Aggros fell down with his eyes still open.
"Raka's poison! Erina, you know what to do!" Ion screamed. "Seidrich, seize that Caixian no matter what. We'll take him in for questioning, or kill him if he doesn't cooperate."
With a nod, Erina went towards Aggros and performed CPR on him. On her backpack was an automatic breathing device that automatically did the mouth-to-mouth on Aggros. She specifically made that machine so she won't have to burden herself with kissing someone in an emergency. As for the CPR, however, she still did it personally.
Erina glanced towards Lev, then towards Ion and Seidrich who were looking around, trying to find the smallest of movements. But before they could react, multiple panels opened on the ground, and out came a dozen or so Caixians— members of the Caix Tribes.
At first, Lev thought that the Caixians would look like savages based on how they were depicted in his vast knowledge of everything sci-fi in his brain. But to his disappointment, the Caixians looked like normal humans, except they had an average height of five to six feet and their clothing are a little bit prehistoric— ragged and torn animal skins weaved together to cover the most sensitive of body parts.
"What are you doing here?" A man with a white beard and the countenance of an old man approached the group with his hands raised. "Intruders aren't welcome here, the Yggdrassil greatly suffers because of your arrival."
Although they didn't speak Lev's native language back on Earth, he could still somehow understand them. 'He came in peace, I guess we can talk this out and get out of— ' He started thinking...
... but his thoughts were a jinx.
Without warning, Ion shot at the old man with his Plasma Gun, disintegrating him into smithereens. Once he did that, Ion didn't even have a shred of guilt in his eyes. In fact, he started forming another energy ball on one of his hands, ready to fire another shot at unsuspecting Caixians.
The Caixians, seeing their leader reduced to particles, decided to act. There was no exchange of words anymore and a fight ensued.
"Seidrich, you cover for me." Ion said. "Lev, can you protect Erina and our Leader? We have to get out of here as soon as we get rid of these damned monsters."
Ion shot another Caixian just before he transformed into an unknown flying reptile. Just like the elderly man, that Caixian was also reduced to atoms. Seidrich, on the other hand, started charging at another Caixian who transformed into a rhinoceros-like creature. Together, the two seemed to be fixated on an all-out collision but Seidrich dodged at the last second and delivered a blow to its head. He then ducked as he dodged a Caixian who transformed into a fiery bird.
'So this is what they meant about the Phase Class. These guys could really transform. Wait, this is not the time to be daydreaming, what is Ion doing right now?!' Lev said in his mind. As far as he knows, the Caixians didn't have any malicious intent when they appeared. But now that Ion was the first one to attack, a fight had ensued and there was no way it would stop sometime soon.
Without thinking twice, Lev rushed towards Ion who had been charging his Plasma Gun for the second time. "What are you doing?! Stop this right now!" He screamed
"Stop it, recruit. These damned monsters, I'll kill every last one of them." Every word Ion said felt heavier as Lev listened to him. He didn't know why someone so calm and collected could be so grievous against a tribe that didn't show any bloodlust.
'I guess I had no choice.' Lev said in his mind as he slapped the energy ball on Lev's hand. He knew it would sting quite a bit but he never would've thought that it would burn his palms to a crisp.
"What are you doing, recruit?"
"No, what are you doing?! Didn't we come here to get the Purple Blood? Why are you so keen on killing the natives?"
"..." Ion paused as if trying to maintain his composure, then he spoke with rage in his voice.
"Get out of my way."
"What if I don't want to?"
Ion was about to hit Lev with the hammer part of his Plasma Gun but Lev was a step faster than him. Grabbing the Plasma Gun by the muzzle, Lev then threw Ion out of the way and pinned a falcon-transformed Caixian to the ground. The Rhinoceros-tranformed Caixian charge at Lev as well, but Lev brought its head on the ground, knocking it unconscious in just a few seconds.
"Seidrich!" Ion screamed, implying that Lev was an enemy.
Woosh~
"You traitor!" Seidrich screamed, aiming the sword right at Lev's neck but he was knocked down by a tiger-transformed Caixian. Once again, Lev thought that belonging to the Phase Class was actually pretty cool since you get to have a transformation, unlike the boring classes that only enhanced one of the already normal functions of the body.
By now, as Lev keenly watched the fight unfold, he finally realized what the Classes meant. They were different power-ups for different races, and as for him, he doesn't know what Class he belonged to.
"Come on! This isn't the time to be fighting against ourselves!" Erina entreated with a concerned look on her face. Up until now, she was anticipating a Caixian to attack her since she was in the middle of it all but not one even came close. "What are these murderers doing?" She asked herself, but this was no time to be worrying about the enemy. Right now, Aggros was poisoned with Raka's Poison— a pretty powerful poison from a common species of snake found in most inhabitable planets.
As the fight dragged on, Ion was starting to get more erratic with his shots. "STOP! ION! STOP IT RIGHT NOW!" She screamed in desperation, fully knowing what would happen if Ion continues on his rampage.
Overdrive.
The inevitable came and Ion, just like any other humans belonging to the Plasma Class, stopped moving as a faint light came out of his eyes. He was entering overdrive after pushing his body to the limits.
"EVERYBODY GET DOWN!" This was no time to be playing war with the Caixians and Seidrich was perfectly aware of that, hence the scream. Without further ado, the energy in Ion's body exploded and spread throughout the entire land, sort of like a horizontal firework that hit everything on its way. Of course, the Yggdrassil nearby had no way to dodge and a huge part of it was damaged, almost making it topple.
As mentioned before every planet in the 912-Yggdrassil supercluster has one unique trait compared to other planets, and that is, there's only one huge tree that supported the ecosystem of that said planet. If that tree were to be uprooted— long story short, it would mean the demise of that specific planet.
As such, the Caixian Tribe gasped at the sight of the 'Tree' almost toppling down and ending the planet along with it. To their relief, the Yggdrassil (Yggdrassil and Tree are interchangeable when referring to the single tree on a planet in the 912-Yggdrassil supercluster) managed to tank the hit from that energy discharge and it didn't collapse. Well, almost.
"..."
Now, one thing you shouldn't hand to a Plasma Class during their discharge was the Plasma Gun. Invented by none other than the Plasma Class themselves, the Plasma Gun is a weapon exclusive to people belonging to the Plasma Class, mainly because they're the only ones who could use it. Using the energy they discharge from their body, they feed the Plasma Gun that same energy and use it as a weapon. It is particularly dangerous when the owner of the Plasma Gun undergoes 'overdrive' because too much energy fed on the weapon would make it go haywire, and that was just an understatement.
Simultaneously, just when the inevitable 'overdrive' of Ion occurred, Aggros woke up after battling the poison. He was of Panzer Class so tanking a poison was easier for him than other classes. As his eyes shot wide open, he noticed that much had transpired ever since he was shot to the neck with a poison dart of sorts. But upon landing his gaze on the Plasma Gun that Ion carried, he immediately found the strength to stand up albeit his legs were still paralyzed.
"Everybody! Back to the ship!" He barked, leaning on Erina while he ran with both his legs limping. It was quite a feat, being able to run without feeling your legs.
The Caixian Tribe paused for a moment before giving chase to the others. Lev didn't know what to do next but he thought that maybe Aggros was back on command so he immediately followed his orders. As for Seidrich, he grabbed Ion by the hand and dragged him with him. 'How was he still alive after going into overdrive?' Seidrich couldn't help but think... and he wasn't the only one thinking that way as well. But then again, right now was not the time to be thinking of such futile details.
SHIIIIIIIING!
The sound of a blade being unsheathed steadily resonated through the grassland as the Plasma Gun released a continuous energy beam. Before, the Plasma Gun could only shoot one energy ball at a time and by then, it was already too powerful to obliterate a single person. But now, it was shooting a continuous stream of energy...
... and it was aimed right at the Yggdrassil!