Just as he reached the wooden Mecha of Sera, Lance slid sideways, entering the safe zone behind Sera.
Sera's mecha is eighty five percent within the safe zone, but fifteen percent of it is not.
Worst yet, sera knew, as long as the star beasts break through the wooden walls before breaking the roof, they will not be detected by the mothership's radar.
As such, the mother ship's automatic killing laser will not be applied to the beasts attacking her. Everyone involved will get away with murder.
At the same time, she can not let go of the plant in her hands !
At this point, if she lets go of the energy transfer, the recoil will blast her to pieces. She has only two choices. Die slowly, or Die instantly.
Sera decided to fight till the last moment, dying slowly.
' Please let this plant die quicker ' She prayed in her heart. She transfers vitality at the rate of a million per second now ! If the little weed still has enough energy to last, then she really must be killing the ultimate mutant plant that can roam the space all on its own, swallowing up planets left and right !
' Kachak ' The sound came through the window.
The Ribbits are biting through the wooden shell of the mecha.
Sera's heart jumped to her throat, but she did not let go of the plant in her hands.
'Craw..craw..raaak..kra… kra.. ' The sound came through as the star beasts gnawed through the wooden shell.
" Sera ! I am so sorry ! I am too weak to help you. " Charlene said on the global intercom, that's audible to the entire school.
Peter, who was the last to arrive at the site as he was covering for Charlene and Lance, stopped and removed the Ribbits from sera's mecha. He threw them into the safe area, so that they could be killed and collected by the mothership.
" Sera Dustwood ! Abandon your mecha, and come aboard Peter Allen's mecha. " the instructor called through the intercom.
Sera did not speak.
For one, she did not want to expose her innate ability. Energy transfer is reviled. She would be arrested the moment she reveals her innate talent.
She continued absorbing energy, and let Peter clear the Ribbits.
After fifteen minutes passed, the students realized, perhaps this is a cheat code to get more grades.
After all, if their mecha stays inside the radar detection area, the mothership kills any star beasts heading towards their mecha. At the same time, they could swing their weapon outwards. If the beast is already injured and died due to their weapon, it counts as their own kill, thus it's points counting towards the graduation exam.
Slowly, but steadily, all the students came down.
The position right besides Sera is the most coveted one. The star beasts always went to attack Sera's wooden mecha rather than their own metal ones. They could literally spear right through the necks of these beasts as they choose to go for Sera.
Thus, the next day passed, with her friends covering her from all directions.
The damned plant is still not dead yet. It's been five days. Sera's level is approaching two hundred. It's not a small amount. She has long past quintillion, and by the time the plant finishes, she may as well have a gazillion as the vitality value !
Sera put up curtains around the toilet, but the windshield is still transparent. Fortunately, the Ribbits pasted themselves on the sturdy glasshield all over. Otherwise, Sera would really be worried about peeping toms as she did her business.
One after another, the mechas beside her changed.
In the night, Peter Allen and Eileen Tucker have taken guard duty, for they are the ones in most need of grades.
They killed, killed and killed.
Perhaps, they are about to fill all three warehouses of the mothership with Ribbit carcasses at this point.
The processing factory on the mothership is running full power.
The skinning robots with two cameras for eyes like the misshapen sloth, and a fletching knife for the hand, cleanly dissected the ribbits and put away the skin to the side, hanging it on a frame. A standing frame drove itself straight to another scanner, where a scanner scanned through the skin, and sewed all its sides to the drying rack, then put it away in a rack. The rough frames returned to skinning robots once more to collect the skin.
The meat went through a short conveyer belt, straight in to a water tank, then in to a saline solution, which seemed to remove any and all blood in the Ribbit meat, then, a little repeating motion hook fell into the saline solution, fishing one Ribbit carcass at a time, then placed it on a plastic wrap. The wrap is then folded, vacuum packed and put away with a ring to hang.
" Sir, we have filled thirty five percent ! " the assistant to the pilot in shock.
Usually, the starship could fill to the capacity of fifteen percent when they come out to hunt.
" Do we have enough fuel to fly at the full capacity ? " The captain asked the engineer in charge as soon as he received the report from the warehouse manager.
" Oh My ! we actually don't ! " The engineer team responded, his face full of sadness.
Food is a scarce resource than fuel. Ribbits make up for the most of the meat eaten by commoners, as its energy value is low, and nutritional value is high. It is the only meat safe for consumption from a toddler to an old man.
Given these beasts are solitary, and extremely agile, even with the help of detection systems, they can't hunt many of them before the time runs out.
However, to day, they have encountered the rare situation where Ribbits are throwing themselves at the ship.
The warehouse manager and captain did not see star beasts !
They only saw it's raining sausages !
It's raining drumsticks !
It's raining hamburgers !
How could they give up such a good opportunity ?
They absolutely can not.
They must and should try their best to gather as many beasts as possible.
The instructor agreed.
" All the students are advised to go down and hunt as many beasts as you could manage while staying within the safety perimeter. " The instructor announced.
Thus, almost all of the students came out, and hunted the Rabbits together.
Like that, the fifth day turned into the sixth day.
But at the end of the sixth day, they had the spaceship at ninety five capacity.
Even with the extra fuel that they could recharge in space, their time to leave this planet has come.
" Sera Dustwood ! Please board one of the mecha's from your friends ! your mecha is made of wood, it will not last against the Ribbits. " The instructor announced within the stream.
Sera looked at the window plastered with Ribbits, and the little weed still full of vitality, sighed.
It seems that she arrived in another world only to suffer more in death.
" Sera ! Are you hearing me? This is Peter. If you do not respond, I will drag your mecha over to the mothership. " he threatened her.
However, Sera knew. Despite looking like this, the wooden mecha is the biggest among all the deployed Mechas. They do not have the power to tow her mecha anywhere.
She kept silent.
" Sera Dustwood ! This is your first warning. The system you have received could not only detect your living status, but also whether you are unconscious or not. Sera Dustwood ! I know you are hearing me. I can see your vocal nodules are functioning just fine. If you still stay silent, we will assume you are willingly staying back here. Please prepare to come aboard one of the mechas to arrive at the mothership. " The instructor repeated.
However, at this point, Sera knew.
There are far too many Ribbits.
There are no lifeguard type Soldiers on the mecha, so, it should be students who rescue her. Namely, it should be instructor, Charlene, and Lance.
None of them wanted her to live.
It's all too easy to create a small accident while she is climbing out of the mecha, not that she could abandon this weed and go out.
" I can not come out. Please wait for me ! " Sera pleaded.
The time limit they are supposed to stay here is seven days.
It's only six and half.
The instructor replied back.
" Sera Dustwood ! The energy of the spaceship will not support it for another eight hours. We must leave now. Abandon what you are doing, board the rescue mecha right now. The number of starbeasts is closer to forming a beast tide, our ship can not get mired in a beast tide ! " The instructor negotiated.
' Danger of a beast tide, my ass ! ' , Sera scolded internally.
The mother ship is in the air, using antigravity, which does not take any damage no matter how the Ribbits try.
The mechas themselves are safe, they only take time to wade through the Ribbit crowd, but they don't get eaten away like her mecha.
" Students, return ! " The instructor ordered with subtle glee in his voice.
The Ribbits covered all over Sera's mecha, biting into it with extreme ferocity.
The mothership flew up, slowly turning from a flying castle into a distant star.
Sera was left on the planet to die a death worse than dogs !