Diir village, the following morning, at the same time Jack was scouting the village from the trees.
"Good morning", Hugo walked into the girl's room/cave with a yawn.
"Morning", Sara said. "Where is Tahir?" she asked, noticing that the captain of the Paladins was not with Hugo.
"I don't know, i woke up and he was gone", Hugo said and just a few seconds later, his stomach growled to express it's discomfort.
"Fuck", Hugo held is stomach in sympathy. "At this rate, i might just ask for whatever we were served yesterday".
"Not if i have anything to do with it", Tahir said, walking in and dragging behind him a large leaf, on top of which was a myriad of what could only be described as fruits. "Misty please tell me we can eat some of this", he begged.
Misty took samples of each of the fruits, and in the end, the only none poisonous one was a pear-shaped fruit the size of a watermelon. It had strange pink colour with the chewing consistency of an apple. Hugo cut off a piece and held it in his fingers, "Where did you get this?" he asked, just to be sure not to have a repeat of yesterday's events.
Tahir chuckled, "From a tree bro, relax", he took a large bite, causing the fruit's blood red juices to flow out from the sides of his mouth. Only when the others witnessed the juice falling onto the ground instead of climbing into his mouth did they each cut a piece, and in no time at all, the large watermelon-apple-pear was gone.
"Let's get to work", Tahir said while checking his battle axes before nodding to himself as if approving of their sharpness. The rest of the team followed his lead as they left the room/cave, heading to Reya's area, where they found Mitt with her.
"I hope you had pleasant sleep", Reya smiled at their arrival.
"Have you never heard of pillows?" Hugo commented while moving his head from left to right with his hand on his neck.
"What?"
"Never mind that......" Tahir was about to say when he was interrupted.
"You need to leave now", Reya said, her change of attitude surprised the Paladins greatly. "The beasts are weak at sunrise so you need to go right now", she added "Mitt will direct you to the next lair".
"Fine". Tahir huffed, turning around to exit the cave systems.
"No!" Reya mind-shouted. "Go this way", she pointed at another exit, opposite the direction of the village, "This way is closer", she explained, backed up by Mitt who nodded while gesturing for the Paladins to follow him. Tahir narrowed his eyes as he looked in the direction of the village.
"Yo captain!, you coming?" Sara called.
"Yeah", Tahir replied, dispelling his suspicions and following the team.
As soon as they left, Reya heaved a sigh of relief as she also left towards the village, where Jack was currently beating up her subjects.
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The Paladins, minus Jack, followed Mitt through the jungle, heading towards the next beast lair. "I really hope we find something this time", Tahir sighed.
"We all do, but tell me something. What is your motivation here?" Sara asked.
"What do you mean?".
"Do you really believe that he is still alive?" Sara said, "And be honest with me".
"Honestly, if what Reya said about the beasts is true, then Jack is most likely dead. The beast which took him obviously saw the corpse of the one we killed first, i do not think it would let him live, i wouldn't", Tahir answered.
Sara nodded. "So we are all motivated by different things. You want revenge by killing off all the beasts one by one, Misty is driven by the hope that Jack is still alive, Hugo honestly wants to help the diir and Pei....i'm not sure about Pei, she just follows Hugo", she said.
"So by that logic does that mean you are just following me?" Tahir asked.
"Oh please, don't act like you don't know". Sara said before continuing after noticing that Tahir really was clueless. "Look at those two", she pointed at Hugo and Pei, who seemed to be having a conversation of their own. "What do you see when you look at them?" she asked.
"I see Hugo and Pei", Tahir shrugged.
Sara shook her head, "Tahir, all the Paladins complement each other. Hugo, the Paladin of space and Pei, the Paladin of technology. During space battles, or space related missions, those two are unstoppable. Then there is Jack, the Paladin of nature and Misty, the Paladin of life. Jack may be able to live for years in the wild alone, but with Misty by his side nothing can hinder them in nature. Then...."
"Then there is you and me". Tahir took over, "You, the Paladin of War and me, the Paladin of Combat. Together we are a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield". Tahir nodded at the cunning of the late Continental leaders. "Don't take this the wrong way, but it seems we were literally made for each other", he said, and Sara just chuckled.
"We have arrived". Hugo announced as the group came upon a clearing, in the middle of which was a building similar to a church hall. It was 50 meters (164 feet) long and 30 meters (98 feet) wide with towers at it's four corners. The damage and colour scheme on the building was similar to the castle they had seen the day before, as well as the cottage where they had killed their second beast in search for Jack.
"Same strategy boss?" Hugo swung his laser swords around.
"Yes, the girls will provide support", Tahir confirmed.
"Ever wonder why there is only one beast per lair?" Pei asked.
"Yes we do Pei, we also wonder why these lairs look more like houses than....well, lairs", Sara chuckled. "Heck even Reya's cave seems more beast-like that this", she set up her sniper's tripod stand before lying on the floor with her eye in the scope.
"You know the story, these buildings belonged to the diir before the beasts came and...."
"Hugo", Tahir said, reminding Hugo that no one listened nor trusted anything he said as long as the diir were involved. They all believed that Hugo was biased in favour of the diir, which Tahir and Sara were still suspicious of. Tahir still had trouble shaking off the feeling that something was happening at the village, Reya had been overly eager to have them leave.
"Let's go!" Tahir and Hugo jumped out the trees and burst through the door, literally, before looking for their target. To their surprise, unlike the last time, the resident beast did not jump out of the corner with it's claws brandished.
Unknown to the two Paladins, in a random room of the same building, the beast was barely able to contain itself 'Drau get your ass over here right now!' it shouted into the mind link