Book 6, chapter 20

A glob of spittle splattered on the stone beside her, narrowly missing. Instantly, corrosive plumes of gas filled the air as the spittle melted rock and lava stone alike. Sweat ran down her back as Zee kept moving, narrowly avoiding more of the corrosive liquid. The heart of fire beat in her chest, slowing her perception and increasing her speed.

Her previous thought that the lava fields were going to be a grueling few weeks was right on the money. The oversized centipedes were just the first monsters to contest them.

Six legged salamanders that spewed toxic gas stalked the darkness, their hissing cries echoing off the rocks. The monsters were elusive, hard to find, and even harder to kill. They were not the smartest in terms of monsters, but they had a matriarch who led them. Much smarter than its underlings, the matriarch had been using hit-and-run tactics for days to harass them.

The constant harassment had them all on edge, and the sweltering heat didn't help either.

To make things even more irritating, they had found only a couple low mid quality spiritual herbs. They were plants that could survive the desolate environment, small plants with thorny brambles. 

The lava fields were looking to be a place with all risks and very little rewards. Just then, another barrage of corrosive liquid shot her way, and she leaping forward into a roll, scraping her back on the rough stone. Scowling, Zee expanded her senses. Just then, she noticed something move on a nearby crag. There you are! 

With its gray and black scales, the long sleek salamander blended in perfectly with the rock, launching its deadly acid from a distance.

It took her much longer than she cared to admit to find the sneaky bugger. 

The moment she turned and ran its way, the damned thing, then turned to flee.

"Oh, no you don't!" Zee growled. 

Her energy drained rapidly, and she stabbed the air, unleashing her only restrictive skill. The agile salamander leapt to one side, narrowly avoiding a hole that formed in space. 

The matriarch was quick, but not quick enough to escape the radius of her gravity well skill. Clinging tightly to the rock with all six legs it hung on for dear life as the gravity well exerted an immense pull on the area. 

Despite its precarious position, the pesky salamander struck out with a long forked tongue. The matriarch's speed was incomparable to its much smaller counterparts.

Zee frantically lurched to one side, pain lancing across her ribs as she failed to fully avoid the strike. 

Blood dripped from its barbed tongue as it pulled it back, cocking back its head in a familiar motion. To hopefully counter its numbing venom, she tossed an antidote pill in her mouth just as it spat more of its corrosive acid at her. 

She staggered, her antidote pill could only do so much to counteract the middle beast king's venom. 

Her head swam, the venom hindering 

her energy flow, slowing activation of her movement skill. She stumbled, frantic to get out of the way before that acid hit. 

Zee would have been a goner if not for one simply thing. The monster failed to realize one simple detail as said spittle was caught in the gravity well and dragged back before it could reach her.

As it turns out, the salamander's corrosive acid was more than potent enough to melt through its own scales. 

It flailed, frantically trying to wipe the spittle off of its face. In the process, the monster failed to notice a ethereal ghost peek up from the rock.

Zul's raspy voice seemed to make the world river itself tremble in fear.

"The goal of all life, its death," 

A spectral bird slammed into the salamander, and it screeched, losing its grip on the rock as its body rapidly started decaying.

 There was a terrible crunching sound as the creature was dragged into the gravity well, its body being crushed to the size of an egg. 

Zee didn't have time to congratulate herself on the kill, as she whirled, scanning the area for more. These buggers were never alone, and killing the matriarch would doubtlessly make them angry. The darkness lit up by a fiery inferno in the distance.

Zee locked in on it, her boots scraping across the ash covered stone. 

She moved like a ghost, her sense spread out,

as she pushed to the limits to detect any movement. The heart of fire drummed loudly in her chest, slowing her perception, and heightening her senses. 

All the while, she could sense Zul following her under the stone. How he managed that without seeing was still a mystery. Covering several hundred meters rapidly, she arrived just as the flames dissipated. Her team was standing in a loose circle facing outward, with a dozen corpses and puddles of corrosive spit around them. 

Taylor was tending to a nasty wound on Yuknas arm, but as expected, Greg was the first to notice her arrival. In one fluid motion, Greg pulled an arrow from his hip quiver, knocked it, drew, and released. It was so quick Zee would have been impaled if she hadn't immediately ducked behind a large rock. 

Lightning quick, he already had his bow fully drawn, an arrow swirling with darkness trained on her hiding spot.

"Greg, don't shoot! It's me," Zee called out, her hands aching as she crouched behind the boulder. 

"Sorry!" Greg called back.

Grumbling, Zee slowly peeked from cover. When it looked like she wouldn't be greeted by another arrow, she stepped into the light cast by a still burning salamander.

"Sheesh, you almost hit me. What gives?" Zee asked.

"Sorry, I have been a bit jumpy. These damned salamanders keep ambushing us," Greg explained, looking bashful.

"Zee, where have you been? We have been getting harassed for an hour now," Allison said, annoyance in her voice. 

Zee scowled. "I have been searching for the matriarch like we discussed. She was a sneaky one, so it took me a while to corner and kill her," Zee explained testily. 

"Took you long enough," Malden grumbled. He was drenched in sweat, ash and gore, looking absolutely miserable in the heat. 

Wiping sweat from her forehead, she glowered at Malden. "I would like to see you catch one of those things. You would be lucky to find your own toes, much less the matriarch," Zee snapped, glaring up at the oversized house cat. 

Allison stepped between them.

"That's enough for you two! We are all a bit worn down and agitated. How about we take a break and cool off. Yukna would you please set up the defensive arrays, Bastion you and Taylor get some food going. Greg, you are on watch. 

And you two, help me drag these monster corpses away from the camp," Allison said. 

Despite Zee's foul mood, she walked over to a salamander corpse, and drew a knife ready to harvest.

"What do you think you are doing?" Came Taylor's disapproving voice. 

"Harvesting this corpse," Zee replied, not meeting his eyes. 

Zee had been hiding her pain well, but how could such an injury go unnoticed by their combat medic? 

Taylor sighed at her obstinate response. 

"How am I supposed to help you stay alive if you hide your injuries?" Taylor asked. 

"I already ate a healing and antidote pill. I'm fine," Zee replied.

His scowl deepened. "I will be the judge of that," Taylor replied.

Deciding to just get it over with, Zee took a seat on a scorching ashen boulder. Rolling up her shirt, she exposed her ribs, which were sickly green..

Zee immediately regretted her earlier stubbornness as she took in the sight of rotting flesh. Grumbling to himself about idiotic blockheads, Taylor placed his fingers around the wound and conjured sanguine blood. 

Like a snake, the blood entered the wound on her side. Zee yelped, biting her lower lip hard. It felt like maggots were burrowing under her skin as puss oozed from the wound. It was a distinctly unpleasant sensation, though a welcome one. 

She had thought the wound was getting better, but it appeared not. The numbness in her side had been a double-edged sword, dulling the pain, but also hiding the severity of the wound. 

"Shit nuggets, oww!" Zee exclaimed, grimacing. Waves of pain radiated up her side as more of that puss like infected blood was extracted from her side. It was horrifying to see how much toxins were pulled out, with her blood eventually turning a comforting red. 

Taylor clicked his tongue in disapproval, eying the puddle of putrid yuck at their feet. 

"I hope you have learned a valuable lesson today. Pills and concoctions are not the magical cure that everyone seems to think. Most healing pills and antidote pills are designed to target certain ailments for greater effect. For example, based on the energy still coursing through your body, you took an all purpose antidote and an all purpose healing pill. Not a terrible choice as it delayed the effects of the poison, but you would be in big trouble within a day,"

Feeling like a blockhead, Zee mutley listened to his lecture, letting the pain in her side be a reminder to be more vigilant. It had only been a grazing cut, and yet the venom from the matriarch could have done her in. She could have done without one of Taylor's sleep-inducing lectures, but those were par for the course. 

Honestly, one day, he would make a great professor. He would doubtlessly put the entire class to sleep with his endless rants, but that was beside the point. 

By now, after several weeks in the lava fields, they had all gotten more than one earful from their combat medic. Taylor had learned a lot in the academy, and more during their time aboard the fist, and was excited to share his knowledge. 

It wasn't just Taylor, either. Everyone on the team had grown in various ways, from power to knowledge and skill. After a year on the star teams, the elite fighters of the Lorocan navy, Allison and Malden had come a long way. Not just in raw power, but strategy, 

and command. 

Greg was even more deadly with his bow, and Yukna's contraptions were scary powerful. Then there was Bastion who, despite fleecing half the crew out of their life savings, and participate in cooking competitions, still manage to keep up?

Was Bastion just that talented, or was he training in secret? 

It had crossed Zee's mind before, but she had always dismissed it. While Taylor healed her wound and lectured at her, she pondered the interesting conundrum. Come to think of it, Bastion had always been a bit laid back when it came to training. 

He did training, sure, but she had never seen him out practicing by himself in his spare time like the rest of them. Now that she thought of it, compared to how much she and the rest of the team trained, he was a bit of a slacker. Even now, he was humming a jaunty tune while he stirred a pot of stew. 

But then, how did he manage to keep up? The whole team was progressing at what one might call a shocking pace, pushing through most of peak E grade in one year, and yet Bastion managed to keep up. As a combat Cultivator, Bastion would have needed to kill hundreds of monsters or people to advance through the grade. 

Doing that in just over a year wouldn't have been possible without significant effort. For a moment she thought he might be pill popping like Taylor had, but that wouldn't make sense. 

His aura didn't have the stench of pill toxins like Taylors when they first met, nor did it have hardly any traces of impurities at all after using her family's cultivation technique for years. 

Noticing her stare, Bastion gave her a cheeky smile and winked, as if he knew what she was thinking. How could someone look so laid back while surrounded by monster corpses and in a hellish environment like the lava fields? 

Zee snapped from her wandering thoughts as Taylor stood to leave. 

"Did you even listen to half of what i just said?" Taylor asked sternly. 

"Of course, I would never space out when you are spouting your words of wisdom," Zee said.

"How could she pay attention to that drivel? Nearly put me to sleep," Bastion said, sauntering over with three bowls of soup. 

Taking one of the offered bowls, Taylor sighed.

"Why do I even bother?" 

Bastion slapped the tall lanky healer on the shoulder.

"Don't be like that. Your lectures are great for when I have trouble sleeping," Bastion said. 

"I stand by my first statement," Taylor grumbled, gingerly tasting his bowl of soup. 

The blood witch's expression brightened.

"That's good," Taylor commented. 

"It's just a little recipe I have been working on," Bastion grinned, twirling his spoon casually between his scarred fingers. Zee took her own bowl, scooping a mouthful of broth, and nodding in approval. 

From an outsider's perspective, it probably looked bizarre, the three of them there eating soup surrounded by blood gore, and corpses. Most would find the scene repulsive, but for her team, it was normal.

Even the fact that she took a serious injury, was taken without comment from any but their healer. It was just another day in the lava fields.