The Raird pt.3

Akirai didn´t even begin to count the beetles she had slain over the course of a few hours, and just focused on the killing part, she didn´t jump into the fray completly, but focused on keeping their backs clear and to kill of any stragglers that the soldiers hadn´t gotten to in time.

Her arms were stinging from the continued abuse and she was sure she´d have muscle cramps well into the next week, but that didn´t stop her from fighting back- she saw that the soldiers were beyond suprised at the sheer number of these things, and she heard at least one of them cursing themselfs for not calling back up for this, not that she blamed them, this was such a low level Zone, and they were only in the middle ring, that they would have never suspected such a giant swarm of beetles to reside here.

Akirai herself was also cursing up a storm in her mind, because these things just wouldn´t-

"FUCKING! STOP! COMING!!"

She heard one of the civilians voice her thoughts and she could only nod breathlessly and continue on her rampage to extermenate these fucking pests once and for fucking all.

She was breathing harshly and could barely force the air into her lungs at the end of the seemingly endless swarm, most civilians had already fled the battlefield and retreated off into the distance awhile ago and Akirai couldn´t wait to join them and take a well deserved break, but she didn´t- she would do so once these fucking pests were dead and not a threat anymore, so she swung her knife around killing beetles left and right with a swiftness that only someone living in the while would have, and saw a beetle making it´s way over to a woman resting off into the distance, she threw her knife with deadly precesion and hit it in the neck from behind just as it was about to attack- killing it instantly.

She didn´t stop to see her reaction, but pulled a second knife from her other boot to resume her killing spree.

Once she saw the soldiers kill of the last beetles, she made her way to where she´d thrown her bags down and promptly sank to her knees and retrieved her water, chugging it down and then taking a big gulp of air.

She took a look around, a few eyes were on her, not that she cared at the moment, and seeing it to be as safe as they could get, closing her eyes, sinking against a tree trunk, feeling as if her legs had turned to jelly.

She was breathing heavely, greedely swallowing the air and finally taking a break.

--------

A few civilians were looking at Akirai with a new glint in their eyes, they had thought she was weak because of her lack of Beast, but looking around the corpses of beetles- many of them being her kills - they reavaliuated their opinion of her, she wasn´t weak because she didn´t have a Beast, and while she would stagnate later on without one- she wasn´t weak by any means.

They wondered who she was, was she from a strong family and just hadn´t found a fitting Beast yet? Or was she one of the rare people to rely more on their own skills to fight Beasts with?

The girl was out of breath, sure, but unlike most of them, she held on and fought to the end, helping the soldiers and keeping their backs free of beetles and killing off the stragglers before they became a problem, they had some respect for her now- and some of them wondered if they could team up with her.

Someone with her skills was an asset.

The girl opened her eyes after a good while and glanced over to the soldiers who, after a short break, were getting ready to go into the nest, they looked on as one of the soldiers came over to her and held out his hand, she glanced up with a risen brow but took the outstretched hand.

"So? What was that all about?" She asked him, he looked over his shoulder and to the commander, who nodded and turned back to barking out orders.

"That was- is - a Nest, it depends, but they can have treasures in them, or rare plants, or even mutated Beasts, if we´re lucky." He said, and they were momentarly suprised that he was willing to give the information over so easely.

The girl nodded and guestured toward the hole in the tree- the nest- and asked "Are nests rare?"

The soldier made a so-so motion "Here? Yes, absoloutly, in gold ranked Zones? Absoloutly not- thank you for keeping an eye open, the last thing we suspected on our trip was to find a nest. Good thing too, it´s really bad if a King Beast is born in them, Beasts with nests grow stronger, faster and evolve quicker than Beasts without, so this could have been a large problem if it wasn´t spottet in time." The soldier thanked her, and they remembered that, yes, it was her who called out the hole in the giant tree.

They momentarily felt emberrassed, how did they miss that hole to begin with?

"What´s a King Beast?" The girl asked, earning a few suprised glances, although she wasn´t the only one puzzled. "King Beasts are Beasts with a golden Halo around them- instead of Ranking up- they choose to become a King Beast- so every King Beast- no matter the Rank can fight a Beast of a higher Rank, no one knows how it´s decided who becomes a King Beast, it just happens."

The gir nodded again and asked "Is this a Zone fusion or Beast migration? I´ve looked the Zone up before," She began, guesturing to the forest. "but I haven´t seen these beetles anywhere, and they are rather memorable, aren´t they?" She asked and the soldier did a double take. "Wha-?"

He turned to the beetles on the ground and his brows furrowed, he scampered toward the captain and, while they couldn´t hear what was said, they had a general idea of what was going on.

If this was a Zone fusion then they were in deep trouble.

The cpmmander said something in reply, and the soldier let out a sigh of relieve before walking back to the girl with a relieved smile "Don´t worry Miss, it´s only a migration- all the other surrounding Zones have the green light."

The group of civilians, as a collective let out a sigh of relieve- A green light meant that the King of the Zone was fine and everything was under controll.

Yellow meant that they didn´t know if the King was dead, but that the Zone had no signs of fusion.

Orange meant that the King was dead, but the Zone showed no signs of fusion.

Black meant that the Zones were fusing.

And White meant that there was no recorded King.

Migration of Beasts was rare but far from unheard of, it just meant that the Zone had a better climate for the Beasts to breed and live in.

The girl and the soldier talked for a bit more before he turned and walked back to the other soldiers.

They took their flashlights, and with now due caution, went into the hole to explore what lay in it- the civilians debated whether to go in or not, but remembering the countless Beasts opted to stay away from this death trap.