.....NINETY
Blood was dripping from the top of his head and started to go trickle down to his eyebrow. He lifted his hand to wipe the blood while holding a dagger made of mud in his other hand.
"What did I say, you got us killed Void!"
"Will you shut up, unless you want to fight the damned thing instead?"
On the floor in front of Void was a single defeated Rattaclaw, and next to it was another one unharmed and injured. When Void had arrived, he had encountered a Rattaclaw out in the wild.
Knowing that there were likely more basic beasts in the area and not wanting to attract their attention. Void had run into the closest building.
It was mainly a large empty warehouse with several broken crates and scrap metal piles all over the place. With only one entrance, he had no choice but to fight.
His skills faired him well. Even though he only had the Level a one earth ability, Void was skilled. He placed his hand on the ground early on as soon as he had step foot on the planet and had transformed a piece of earth into a dagger. It was the weapon he was most comfortable with.
He managed to dodge the Rats attacks at the right time and slice at the beast. The only problem was the Rat's skin was tough and Void's powers were weak.
He didn't have monstrous strength and could only rely on the ability and skill given to him.
But eventually, Void managed to cause enough damage to hurt the Rat significantly and just as he was delivering the final blow, another Ratttaclaw had come up behind him. At the last second, he managed to react but its claws had still sliced the top of his head, causing three small marks to appear.
"Fine, then, let me take control of the seat and I'll fight this damned Rat."
Void then left the seat in his mind and allowed Brayton to take his place. It was a pitch-black room with a single chair, and above the chair was a shining white light. The light above the chair was the only source of light in the whole room.
When Brayton sat down, he took control of the body.
Meanwhile, Void walked off into the darkness and inside was another figure that looked just like Void, only he was sitting on the floor swaying backwards and forwards. Their fingers would constantly roll around each other and part of his shirt was in his mouth.
"How are you holding up, are you feeling better?" Void asked.
"Yeah, is Graham going to be okay?" He said as he continued to sway backwards and forwards.
"I'm sure he's fine, you know he's special. We all did from the moment we first met him."
The other Void look alike then smiled.
"Special, just like Caser was, and Marlin, and Fofo but they all died as well."
Void gulped as he could see the swaying getting faster.
"This time is different, me and Brayton are here to protect you, you can stay here as long as you want and when you're ready you can come out once again. Leave all the talk to me, all the fighting to Brayton and we can do this together."
The swaying started to slow down and at the same time so did Void's nerves.
As Void went to walk back to the seat, he could see that Brayton had already dealt with the beast rather quickly. The Rat was covered in several earth spikes that were piercing through its body from the ground. Its back tail had been cut off and black blood was falling from its mouth.
"Did you really have to go that far?" Void asked.
"That cheeky little crap ruined our body, I can't let it get away with that."
Brayton then stood up from the chair and allowed Void once again to sit in the glowing light and the chair.
Void then proceeded to carve out the beast crystals form the two Rat's and placed them in his trouser leg pocket. It would have been a waste after defeating them just to throw them away.
But just as Void finished extracting the beast crystal, the sound of clanging was heard from behind. Void quickly turned around to see what it was, and to his surprise, it was a fully grown adult man, he had emerged from just behind one of the crates.
"I come in peace," the man said with his arms lifted up. Although the man quickly put his hands down and started to place his hand around his ribs.
Just from looking at him, Void could tell straight away the man was a Traveler and a skillful one at that. The equipment he was wearing was at least at the advanced tier beast level, and he had armor all over his body including two short swords on his back.
The man then sat down on the ground, to have a rest and lent his body up against one of the crates.
Void walked over to traveler cautiously, it was rare to even meet a traveler in this type of place and who knew what the man's true intentions where. Someone had to be at least at a decent skill level to be asked to enter a Red portal planet.
"Don't worry I won't bite," the man said, "What's a kid like you doing in a place like this? I didn't know the military was that desperate that they were now sending a single student to a hell hole like this."
"I got stuck here, it was an accident and I need to find a way out."
Now that Void was closer to the man he had a clear view of him. He had short purple spikey hair and it had several marks on his face. By the way he was holding his side, it looked like he had some broken ribs too.
"Looks like we both have the same goal at least." The traveler said. "The names Ian, I came through another portal and was hunting out a beast in the wild, I was badly hurt and too far away from the original portal, so in a last-ditch effort, I decided to come to this abandoned shelter. I was hoping to either find some medical equipment that could heal me or maybe even a portal that led back to earth."
Ian then looked at the two dead Rattaclaw's on the ground.
"You're seem to be quite skillful to have defeated two of them on your own, especially for someone as young as yourself. You have my thanks, I was too badly hurt from the beast before, that Rattaclaw had chased me into the warehouse and I was waiting for it to go away. I never expected someone else to be here in this shelter."
"You're welcome" Void replied, "Well since we both have the same goal anyway, do you have any idea where the portal could be?"
"Sure, there were a few buildings I spotted on my way over here, it's best if we check them out first."
Void then held out his hand for a handshake.
"The name's Void."
Ian took out his hand and shook Void's hand.
"I look forward to us working together."
As both hands connected, an energy started to surge into Void's body, and a smile appeared.
A few hours had passed since Void had first arrived on the planet and it seemed like it was still night outside. It was troublesome for him and made it harder for him to spot beasts. Especially in the rundown shelter where they could easily hide between buildings.
There was no lights source anywhere since nearly everything seemed like it had been destroyed years ago and the only thing that was giving off light where the two moons in the sky.
Meaning while they were inside, it was even harder for him to see.
"Do you know when the sun will rise?" Void asked, "Maybe it will be best if we travel once the sunlight comes out, then we can spot beasts easier."
"You really don't know where we are, do you?" Ian replied, "This Planet spin cycle last an entire year and right now, we are only six months in. I'm afraid we won't be seeing light for a very long time. but if you want to wait six months, you go ahead."
With no sunlight, it was hard for Void to tell how long he had actually been on the planet and he could only guess. This was a problem for him. Right now Void had the earth ability as well as Ian, the Travelers ability but without knowing when 24 hours had passed. He wouldn't know when an ability would disappear.
After waiting a few more moments, Ian was able to stand up again, he winced a little as he stood up and placed his hands on his side. Void noticed it before but now he was sure of it, the man was badly hurt.
"You're probably wondering what happened aren't you." Ian said, "I was out hunting an advanced beast requested from a company. I don't know why they wanted it so bad, but it was from a specific beast that could only be obtained from this planet."
"Did you get it?" Void asked.
Just then Ian pulled out a crystal, the same size as Void had gotten form the Rat, only this one shined a lot brighter and had a clearer layer on the outside. The core itself of the crystal could be seen better. The clearer the crystal meant the higher tier beast it had come from.
Once the two of them were ready, they decided to head back outside, while Ian took the lead. They made sure to travel close to the buildings rather than in the middle of the street. If anything spotted them they could quickly dart inside for combat.
"Hey Void, I have an idea." Brayton said, "Why don't we kill the adventurer while he's weak and get that crystal of his? We could sell it for a fortune or even make some really good equipment out of the thing."
"Are you an idiot, once we kill him then what would we do? His ability would only last for twenty-four hours, if we don't find a way out of here in time we would completely be done for."
Then suddenly Ian stopped as he spotted something.
"Look over there." Ian pointed.
In the middle of the street laid a single dead Rattaclaw, the two of them looked around before proceeding to move closer to it. When they arrived, they could see that the Rattaclaw had his head completely bashed in.
"It looks like it wasn't killed too long ago and it's had its head pounded in," Ian said as he bent down to get a closer look. Then he suddenly pulled out a beast crystal. "Whoever it was they didn't have time to remove the beast crystal, they were probably being chased by something else. Strange, I didn't expect to see one person here but it looks like there's now another."
"Hey, do you think that's your friend," Brayton said.
"Maybe, it's hard to tell, we don't even know what Graham is capable of after all," Void replied.
"Actually," Void said out loud. "I wasn't the only one who came through here by accident, my friend came here with me and I was actually hoping to find him."
"I won't ask for details." Ian said, "But don't get your hopes up, I was surprised to see you alive never mind your friend."
After hearing from Void that there was another student here. Ian felt like he should try help out. At least confirm whether or not this friend of his was alive. He knew that the Rattaclaw's rarely travelled solo which meant most likely he was chased by a few more after defeating the first one.
He started to inspect the Rattaclaw on the floor and found a trail of black blood. Single drops leading somewhere.
"Come on, let's go see if we can find that friend of yours."
The two of them continued to follow the trail until it eventually led them to a three-story building, as they entered the first floor it was mostly empty with no signs of anything, but Ian decided to continue to follow the trail of black blood that led up the set of stairs.
"What happened here?" Ian thought. As they walked up the first set, they could see more and more black blood splattered everywhere on the walls. Then when they walked up even further, the two of them were stunned at the scene.
Lying on the ground where ten Rattaclaws dead, completely still each one with their beast crystal carved out.
"Who did this? Are there more people here, maybe another team on a mission?" Ian said. "I'm sorry, I thought perhaps the Rattaclaw outside was killed by your student friend but it looks like I was wrong. You would need at least a small team to take out ten at once like this."
Even Ian who was a well-established Traveler felt like he would struggle taking out Ten at once. Although the beast whereof the weakest tier it was hard to imagine fighting ten of them and coming out unscathed.
"Do you still think it's your friend?" Brayton asked.
"Probably not," Void replied, "But if there are others out there. I'm a little worried, just where is Graham?"
The two of them then decided to climb to the roof. This way Ian had a bearing of where he was and could decide where to go next. They stood on top of the roof and looked down, that's when the two of them spotted something.
"Get down quick!" Ian said.
As the two of them laid on their front, they slowly peaked over the ledge of the roof to once again confirm what they had seen.
It was a beast that walked on six legs, three on each side, its body stood upright like that of a human while the bottom half was like that of a scorpion but then where it's head should be, there was a single large mouth, four arms, and it had four large claws. It was a hideous beast that clearly wasn't from earth.
"An intermediate beast," Ian said.
As they continued to watch it, they saw the beast slowly enter into a building.
"Hey what's that building?" Void asked, as he noticed the building was in good condition. "Could the portal be inside there?"
"That's the storage room." Ian answered, "I doubt the portal would be inside there, usually those places get targeted by thieves and such so they tend to not make the portal area so obvious and even if it was in there, it would be best if we let the beast leave first. The way I am now I would stand no chance against that thing."