Pride

Looking around while trying to help the disgruntled Rai, I noticed that Rina and Idris were already standing. I guess they managed far better than Rai.

With the adrenaline simmering down, I notice the air quality. So this is what it feels like to breathe in air that does not have to go through several filters.

We're in a small clearing, probably pre-mediated considering that around the clearing were trees that created a dense canopy above. The ground was covered in grass, occasionally with patches of stones and dirt, and the forest felt alive.

Now that I've had a moment to catch a breath, as a plant elemental, I realized just how much energy is flowing through this forest.

The others probably noticed because they seemed to be waiting for me. For the first time since fusing with a core, I'd finally be able to use my abilities.

I focus my mind, circulating my energy towards my feet. The short grass seemed to stop swaying as if waiting to respond to my call. I need seeds. I envision the grass parting, gathering various fallen seeds before me, and sure enough it happens. I stop upon seeing a handful, I don't want to test my limitations outside a safe space.

Crouching down to grab the assortment of seeds, I figure that maybe I could try something else. I leave a few of the seeds on the ground and like earlier, beckoning them to grow. I try exerting the same amount of energy as I would have back in Solandis. To my surprise, various flowers shot up real fast, almost smacking into my peering face.

"Oh shit!" Rai exclaimed and I nodded at that. "I used the same amount of energy as I did back at Solandis." Well, that just put it into perspective. My rank 2 ass could probably take on an SS-rank Solandian.

"Let's test more of these later, for now, we need to find somewhere to hole up for the night. We don't know how long a day cycle here is." Idris confirmed with Lucian, who gave a light nod.

"I can try searching for water?" Rina raises a hand. I ponder this because water is great, but water also means a gathering of creatures. "Maybe we can try plotting a water source, but we can stay a bit farther away. We're unfamiliar with the animals after all."

Rina closes her eyes, breathing deeply and then turns her body to the side. She points to her left and tells us that she thinks there's one close by. "You're right, it's so much easier to use abilities here, I didn't have to grapple at all. In fact, I had feared calling upon the water underground by accident." her eyes widened as she explained.

We started walking in the direction she pointed at as I asked them, "How do we handle our clothes and shoes?" and I looked down to appreciate my combat boots. "They're convenient, but just looking at us now, if anyone else sees us we'll definitely attract too much attention. Also, we can't really replicate these yet." I'm about to tear up just imagining.

"We'll have to stick with sandals, easier to pretend with. Hide tanning will be a priority, it will still take us a day or two even if we can use our abilities to hasten the process." Idris mused.

"I'll look for tannin, we can use brine, but our salt is limited. It would've been worse if not for you medical cadets. Thankfully, you're required to salt the ice for medical storage. We had salt and salt tablets but far from that amount you had to carry." I must take note of useable trees, I think to myself as I look around the area.

The air was cool and fresh, and the earthy scent of the trees made it much easier for us to keep walking. Rina tells us that we're close, she could feel the water much stronger from here.

It has been a pleasant walk so when Lucian signaled to stop moving, we didn't think much of it until he said, "Something big is coming fast, prepare for an attack."

I approached a tree, willing it to give me a branch sturdy enough as a pole or a bat, any sharp edge would be enough. This feels like home to me as weaponizing plants has been my biggest use case back in Solandis.

It was then that a deep, guttural growl sounded near us. And the ground vibrated when what looked like a giant hell pig charged from the bushes. It came barreling at us, with a surprising agility considering its bulk.

I prepare my makeshift spear and vines for binding when all of a sudden the hell pig clashes into a pillar of stone. With a heavy thud, and the ground shaking at the impact, the hell pig seems to have hit it squarely. I throw assorted seeds into the ground, willing them to entangle the predator into place.

"Avoid damaging his hide." He then tugs at my spear and I let go of it. The hell pig seems to have realized the situation and kept roaring in anger, attempting to free itself from the bindings.

Lucian withdraws his stone pillar and just as the hell pig roars again, his tusks in full display, Lucian rams the spear into the pig's mouth. A very loud squeal and the hell pig begins to slacken. How hard did he drive that in there so that I could barely see the end of my spear?

Amazed, Rai asks Lucian, "Captain, how do we transport this?" to which Lucian looks at Rina. "Can you drain the blood out?" Sure enough, he knows about that. Rina nods, it's pointless to hide since her cousin would surely know.

"Do you want it drained here or elsewhere?" Rina seems to calculate how long it'll take to drain this giant pig. "Here is fine, there's already blood here."

I decided to help by suspending the hell pig upright, allowing the blood to drain by itself so that Rina could do it faster with the help of gravity. If not for all the bloodshed we've witnessed back in Solandis, we'd probably be scared shitless by now. The amount of blood this giant pig has could turn any crime scene I've seen into child's play.

I take out knives from the standard-issue kits I pulled out from my space, handing one to Lucian while I wait for him to signal when to start.

Bewildered by the sudden appearance of knives, Rai asks us about what we're planning to do. I looked at him incredulously and answered, "Will you be able to carry this pig like this to wherever we're going?"

I use the vines to hoist the pig away from the pools of blood, we need this as clean as possible after all.

Taking a deep breath, I approached the pig, tracing the thick, leathery hide. I've never seen such a thing save for in books so I need to learn where to cut and what to get. I decided to start with the beast's belly, making a long incision from the chest down to the hind legs. Peeling back the hide revealed the layer of fat and muscle. But as usual, this was much easier because blood wasn't spraying at me. With this beast being so big, it wasn't long before Lucian joined to skin it, which made it much faster.

This was something that we had done back in Solandis, we just had to deal with more shells than hide.

Lucian severed the head and the hide we'd been cutting for a while now was free.

We decided to divide the meat into smaller parts so that we can fit them into the vacuum bags that we've repurposed. They didn't have handles so we just used vines to carry them like packages. But they're heavy, each bag weighed about the same as a modern adult pig.

We resumed walking towards our goal, and soon enough we heard the sounds of rushing water growing louder with each step.

Before us, a waterfall cascading down a rocky cliff fell into two layers of crystal-clear pools below.

Wow. "If we hadn't just been attacked earlier, I'd think that we're here for a vacation." I look at the pools at the base of the waterfall and could clearly see small fishes darting about just beneath the surface.

"Rina, do you detect anything weird with the water?" Idris asks Rina and she shakes her head. "Seems okay so far. I just don't know how potable that is. Let's boil it to be sure."

"Let's check if we could stay somewhere there. I point towards a couple of tiered cliffs. It'll be good if animals can't get to us easily." That's also far enough from the water source, but close enough to walk. It'd be dangerous to keep on encountering animals looking for water.

There was a very shallow cave on the other side of the valley where the waterfall was. "Is it possible to deepen this opening?" I ask Lucian, who instead of answering, directly attempts to push back the stone to create a bigger cave. The ground is shaking with the slow movement of the boulders. But it's clearly working because now there's a large enough space. Our very own excavator.

We're all pleasantly surprised at this and I couldn't help but ask. "Are you able to make small rooms? Can you make me one?" I ask. You can't blame me, even if I roll in dung, my plant abilities won't get me a room.

"Sure, call me daddy." He cocks his head to the side lazily, an explicit challenge.

"Okay, daddy." I easily retort, smiling sweetly. Bitch, don't think that will scare me. Pride won't get me a room.

He's taken aback, probably not expecting me to say that. And even the others are surprised and Rina's just trying to hold back laughter.

I cup my hands in front of me indicating that I'm waiting for the promised room. He looks at me weirdly but still makes a small one to the right of where we're standing.

"Thank you," I wink at him before walking towards the room, finally laughing as I go. Scary, no?

I saw Rai clutching at himself, repeatedly looking at Lucian and me like he'd just witnessed something impossible.

He kept on tapping his ears. "What are you doing?" Idris asks him, brows furrowed.

"I think I'm hearing things, so I'm trying to see if my ears are okay." Seriously tapping his head against his palm.

Rina's still laughing while she said "Lucian-0, Eli-1." as she follows behind me.

In the small room, well small hole, Rina says in between chuckles, "You're going to piss him off, you know?"

I shrug at her, "Hey, he set himself up for that!" I laughed. "I've been calling him Captain for the past 3 years, "Daddy" won't kill me." We both snicker.

We don't have to stay here, but this will be a great changing room. I use vines to make a hanging curtain. That I can easily do. After all, we need to keep watch tonight, we don't know what happens at night.