"Humans! Why?" The lindworm asked.
Everyone froze. Everyone except Virus. He knew that some monsters could evolve and learn to speak, but this was the real test for the newbies.
But the rest were beyond surprise.
"Y-you c-can sp-speak?" Louisa asked.
"Louisa! Stay back! It's dangerous!" Troy's mind was in full gear. A monster with almost human intelligence. Sympathy was not an option. They had to follow orders. That was the only way for him to be the greatest Hero in the Milky Way Galaxy!
"Surrender now, and I will give you a quick death."
His team mates gasped.
"You're not really going to kill her are you?" Threya asked him softly.
They all knew he could kill the monster. In this mission they had basically been playing supporting roles. Troy was plenty strong.
"Her? Just because it speaks doesn't make it human." Troy thought back through the mind link. But he had to admit, this current lindworm's voice sounded female.
"Louisa, make the earth quake as hard as you can. Don't worry about me."
For a moment, Louisa froze. She clearly didn't want to. But she knew she had to. They were being graded on this. This was their first field exercise as Cadets. Any screw up, and it'll be their last, either by death or by expulsion.
She nodded.
Troy hardened his body to the max. This was the first time he was using it a second time in just a short amount of time in between. He had barely had a five minutes break.
"Graviole: unstable." It was a skill that made the gravitational force around a target unstable, based on the target's movements. If the target tried to jump, the gravity would be strengthened, making them fall. If the target tried to burrow into the ground or establish a strong foothold, the gravity would reduce, making them float. And as they floated, it would return to normal again, banging them on the ground. It was one of his most expensive skills, as it drained his energy reserves like crazy. Coupled with the fact that he had packed his atoms so tight, he was running on fumes. He had thirty two seconds at most to kill this monster, if not, they'd all be eaten for breakfast.
"Louisa!"
Louisa took that as her signal and stomped the ground. The ground shook uncontrollably. Fissures appeared randomly, and some wierd gas escaped from the earth.
Troy had a separate gravitational field around him, grounding him to the ground. The lindworm wasn't so lucky. The constantly shaking ground left it unbalanced. Burrowing into the ground was out of the question. So it did the next best thing. It jumped, trying to get some distance. But that was a grave mistake. The gravitational force around it reversed, slamming it on the ground. Troy was waiting.
Troy punched it on the face, cracking its scales.
Before Troy could follow up with another punch, the monster swung its tail, sending Troy flying hundreds of meters away.
Then it went straight for Louisa.
Louisa was beyond scared. She was terrified. She activated her ability like she had never done before. But it was never enough. The monster was constantly adapting to the changing landscape.
But luckily for her, Troy appeared in time.
The monster was surprised. How did he come here so fast?!
Troy blocked the incoming freight-train-like lindworm. For a moment, he thought, maybe he might be able to stop a real freight train.
–Why am I thinking of that now?–
The lindworm opened its mouth to swallow him. But he used his arms to stop the mouth from clamping down on him.
"A-Amanda!" It was a long shot, but this monster was too strong for him.
"Y-you're in the way!"
"Just do it!"
"Lightning ball!"
Troy couldn't see what was happening, but he felt it. He also smelt the ozone.
The lightning passed from him to the lindworm. His muscles were packed so tightly that there was no space for them to spasm. Usually, the lindworm's scales provided it immunity to external lightning attacks. But now, its mouth was wide open. The remaining ball of lightning entered the monster's mouth, assaulting its inards. The monster struggled to get free, trued to close its jaw, but Troy held on tight, even as his body became numb with all the lightning coursing through both of them.
"Graviole: twist."
It was a skill Troy had developed on the spot. Its base was the 'unstable' skill, but it added some spice. While unstable made the gravity unstable, 'twist' made the gravity twist, creating a phenomenon like an invisible black hole.
The lindworm was flayed and tossed as the conflicting gravitational forces tore it apart.
"Amanda! Again!!"
This time, without hesitation, a ball of lightning charged towards them, from behind. Troy gritted his teeth and endured. The lindworm's resulting screams of pain was worth it.
The monster collapsed, reeking of ozone and burnt flesh.
"Troy! Are you alright?!" Threya yelled as she came into view.
"Yeah I'm–"
She jumped on him and hugged him, as silent tears streamed down her eyes.
"I thought we were going to die. I thought you were going to die." She sniffed.
"There there." Troy said, patting her back. "As much as I love being hugged by a beautiful lady, my body is about to break down."
Threya immediately let go and directed him to sit down.
"Would you look at that." Sanji said as he also emerged. "You wouldn't have done this without me."
"You wish!" Amanda said as she also gave Troy a quick hug. "Troy I want to be like you some day. You're strong!"
"Hehehe." Troy scratched the back of his head. He wasn't hearing anything clearly, but judging by Amanda's red cheeks, she was probably complimenting him or trying to hit on him. He hoped it was the former. He wasn't into lollies.
"You too Louisa." Amanda said as she spun and looked at Louisa. "You're very strong!"
Louisa puffed up her chest, and puffed it up even more when she noticed that Troy was looking.
"Of course I am!"
They all chuckled.
"Humans…"
Troy's eyes widened.
–What the fuck?!–
It was still alive?
Troy pointed at it, ready to blast it with graviole: times hundred.
"Wait!" Threya said.
Huh?
"Humans…why? I just wanted a place for my hatchlings."
"Hatchlings? Do you mean those tiny things crawling around in the cave?" Sanji asked as his ears twitched.
The lindworm nodded and coughed. It sounded disturbingly like a human's.
Troy too had sensed the small life forms. But he had dismissed them since they posed no threat to him.
"Why?" The lindworm asked again.
"Because we had to." Troy said. " You were destroying our forest. We had to kill you."
"I see…but this is the environment I strive the most…I made it like this just for my hatchlings…by the time they become old enough, this place would have returned to normal…"
"You're also a monster!" Amanda said, hiding behind Troy.
The lindworm tried to laugh, but it turned into a sickly cough.
"You humans are the real monsters. You don't want any other of the evolved species to thrive. Now my generation is doomed. My kind don't usually reproduce, but when we do, it's a big event. We are at the brink of extinction. Now all my babies…" The lindworm said, and…sobbed?
Troy looked around. His team mates were second guessing their life decisions.
"I shall put you out of your misery."
He increased the gravity around the beast's skull and crushed it.
"We had to. We had no choice." Troy said to them. "If we had let it live, not only would out mission be a failure, but if the hatchlings mature, it would be hazardous."
They all nodded.
"Amanda. Burn this cave down."
Before she gave herself the chance to second guess her decision, it rained fire, and the cave was set ablaze.
As the screams of the hatchlings filled their ears, they all wondered. Who were the real monsters?