Chapter 59: Snail

Going through a sandy terrain, four figures could be seen exploring the vast waste land, filled with sand as far as the eyes could see. They were all covered in dust and black blood, which depicts their encounter with beasts.

"The closer we get to the snail, the stronger, sturdier and fiercer this beasts are." one of them said.

" Don't dispute the fact that, they are all below the snail in term of tier." Another said

"The most annoying part is their team work." The third one said.

Silence reigned as they continued walking.

"Can we defeat an hyper tier beast on our own??" the last one of them broke the silence

The word struck them all and they pondered on it, seeing that the others were deep in thought, one of them decided to speak up.

"Sam, you don't have to ruin the group's morale. We weren't asked to defeat the hyper tier, we were told to get it's exact location and send it back."

"Relax Noah, he isn't ruining our morale, he just stated the obvious." Another responded

"In that case, what would have if we get the exact location of the beast and something came up, maybe we get surrounded or so, wouldn't we be left with no choice but to fight for our lives??" Sam asked

"That has being at the back of my mind, with the frequent team work the beast are displaying. If we end up falling into the trap of stronger beasts, it would be a very tough fight if not our end." Timmy said

"If that ever happens, we are left with no choice but to give it all we've got." Noah responded

"That said. James, have you being able to find a safe location for us to rest??" he asked

James was actively tinkering with some inscribed object, he moved his fingers weirdly through ir, the gold coloured inscription on air changes shape into a map.

"My snakes detects nothing in this location. I also found nothing of harm in my coordinates." He replied without taking his eyes off the map.

"Let's rest here, we will continue at dawn." Noah said

The group decide to rest, instead of immediately dropping on the floor, they all stared at a certain figure who was busy with his inscribed map. Sensing the gazes on him, James looked up to give them a questioning glare before realizing what he was meant to do.

"You guys are so helpless that you can't really do without me" he mumbled as he tapped the golden bracelet on his wrist with responded by glowing, he punctured certain figures for few second.

A fiery energy shot out to the centre of the group. The golden flame begin to increase in size then it started changing shape before finally becoming a gold tent emitting fiery gold flames

" You are lucky to have gotten that artifact, it sure does wonders" Timmy said

"Don't shower him with praise so he won't start getting cocky." Sam countered before walking into the tent, without waiting for the rest , he immediately took a suitable position at a corner in the tent for himself.

James just ignored them, he took a golden chalk, created from the bracelet and drew some weird formations on the sandy terrain around the tent. When done, he placed a crystal from one of the beast they had killed, he placed the crystal at the centre of the formation, a slight glow emanated from it before it vanished into tin air.

He rechecked to see if there wasn't any hiccup before standing on his feet.

"That's set" he muttered. " For every crystals I use , you all will repay me back, every single one of you must handover a crystal each." He said

"What?? That's having three of the crystals to yourself, isn't that extortion??" Sam shouted from within the tent

" Call it whatever you want, I keep losing my stash just to keep your sorry ass alive while you guys keep yours and you can't repay me by giving one crystal each." James said

"You guys will do well by staying out of my protective formation and out of my tent." he smirked

"You!!! Sam could be seen at the entrance of the tent, gritting his teeth.

Noah walked toward him and placed his hand on Sam's shoulder "Give it a rest bro, remember what happened the last time."

The thought of the last occurrence surfaced in his mind, giving him no choice but to go in disgruntledly.

' I wonder why he takes it serious, the others don't seem to care.' James scoffed

They all settled in for the night and ate quietly before going to sleep. The tent is spacious enough to fit in the four of them.

............…

Yawn

A loud yawn resounded at a faraway location on the sandy terrain of planet Satum.

Cleaning his eyes..."What the….." the figure mouthed

"What are you so fixated on??" a voice came from behind the figure

"Come and see for yourself."

"Oh my...when did this happened , how did all this happened??" " there was no sound nor noise that would have alerted us."

"Yeah you can't, because I placed a sound proof formation in the tent, so as to get a peaceful sleep." A third figure said. Without further ado, he moved to the scene that unfolded in his sight.

"I didn't expect to get this much meat and mine of beast crystals." The figure laughed and begin to ransack the pile of dead beasts that filled the area. He went to a nearby beast and brought out a knife from his garment, before carving a hole at the mid region of the beast.

"Yes, I gat a new crystal." He muttered.

"What type of beast is this again??" he seemly asked no one.

The beast is known for it's distinctive features, they possess a black mask-like pattern around their eyes, a ringed tail and dexterous front paw, a pointed snout and a grayish –brown coat of fur.

"This beasts are known for their intelligence and their problem solving abilities." Another human figure who was busy carving out as many crystals as he could at a fast pace.

"Tell me more Sam." James said

"You serious man?? You can't tell me you don't know a raccoon." Sam said. "I've got five more to go." he muttered.

"You seriously expect me to know about an evolved specie of animal? I am a formation master, a partial alchemist for your information!." James retorted

"I know man, you don't have to yell." Sam said

"Hey don't you think that's enough?? I was the one who made all this possible , I should get the highest share." James said out loud

"I was wondering what killed them." Sam said while ignoring James tantrum

"More so, what brought them here" Timmy said

"About that, I placed a formation that beckons to every beast in the vicinity, it draws them all here." James said with pride exuding out of him.

"Here he goes again being prideful." Sam said irritated

"That doesn't explain how they were killed." Noah said

"Oh that, this tent is more like a base for us, it's protected by different formations, ranging from clones. I mean beasts clones, my tamed beasts, fire power like machine guns, ones that Bright talked about in one of his crazy state." James explained

"Crazy state but here it is being effective to you, I should have known when I saw holes in the beasts bodies" Sam said

"Nah, your low brain couldn't think of that. I will have to tell that dude to give me more details on those crazy weapons of his." James smirked

"My beasts can tame others by defeating them and passing on my golden flames into them. Also the tent can protect itself by shooting series of explosives like grenades, lasers and whatever that crazy guy said and...…..." He added but was interrupted

"Oh oh oh okay, we've heard you, that's enough. Let's just harvest this free crystals and move on from here" Sam interrupted

"You don't interrupt me when I'm talking" James said angrily

"You can rant on for all I care but I gat a stash of free crystals, numbering in hundred on the ground, they are all begging to be harvested." Sam said

The word seems to trigger a reaction from them all, they immediately sprang into action.