241 A strange item

(Mass release changes read authors note)

Chaos had erupted on the side slope of the mountain. Once the raindrops touched the top of the beasts' head. It had sent them a signal informing them to rise to the surface. The beast was tall and wide and to top it off, they were fast and nimble as well.

Most of the students were still tired from the fight with the advance tiered beast earlier. Most of their MC Cells had been used and they hadn't had enough time to recover. Their instinct told them to run upon seeing the beasts rising from underneath the ground.

However, the beats were just too fast. As if it was a snake, the plants opened their mouths wide and sometimes consumed more than one student at a time, and one of these students was Quinn.

"We have to get him out of there!" Vorden shouted as he looked around at the other students. "Damn it, why isn't there someone with high-level abilities in this class."

Del's class was considered one of the weakest class and they had gotten significantly weaker after Erin had left. Vorden was hoping at one point to come across one of the other classes and copy one of their abilities.

One of the downside's to Vorden's ability was the fact that he would have to wait twenty-four hours before storing a new ability. At most with the help of Raten and Sil, he could store three at a time. Because of this, Vorden was actually cautious about whose ability he copied.

Right now, it didn't seem like anyone's ability was doing well against the plants.

"He's already dead, let's just get out of here," Cia complained.

"No, he's not dead," Peter replied. "I can tell."

Although Cia had no clue what Peter meant by this... the others realised that the reason must be some type of link between the two. That could also be the explanation as to why Peter wasn't going mad right now after witnessing the death of Quinn.

"I'll go get him!" Fex said. The others were surprised by his words. They knew Quinn and Fex weren't close enough, but obviously from Fex's words. He was genuinely concerned about Quinn. But the question was, when did the two of them become so close?

But Fex could tell the seriousness of the situation. He was the only one along with Quinn that hadn't done much during the fight against the advanced tier beast, so he still had plenty of energy.

Fex ran and leapt into the air, but in a blink of an eye the plant swayed its large body to the side, and at an incredible speed struck Fex who was still in mid-air, slamming him back to the side of the mountain.

"Maybe jumping straight forward wasn't such a good idea." The pain wreaking havoc on Fex's body wasn't too bad but he was still a little dazed. When he managed together where he was he could see the plant already coming towards him across the floor with its mouth wide open.

When he finally managed to get up, the plant was already coming for him, streaking across the floor with its mouth wide open— ready to devour him.

There was no panic on Fex's face, just a slight smile. "Eat me then you piece of…" Then— he was gone. Swallowed by the beast plant. It lifted its whole body and raised its head, making sure that whatever it managed to consume would go straight down.

The others, stayed there watching the plant for a few seconds, hoping that Fex had some sort of plan.

There was a lot of popular news established by media centres about some people's miraculous escape after being swallowed by a beast. It was reported that those people killed their way out of the beast's body.

But after watching for a while and seeing no result, the situation couldn't be more obvious.

"Run!" Vorden shouted. "It's all we can do, if Peter says Quinn is safe then we just have to believe him."

Vorden along with Layla was the first to take their advice. Layla was a little behind Vorden so she had a headstart. Seeing this, Vorden decided he didn't have time to be picky about what abilities he had.

If he touched Layla, then at least he would have something to protect himself while fighting. Thinking about this, he ran faster— straight for Layla.

He then reached out and grabbed her hand.

"Hey what are you doing!" Layla complained, but she quickly stopped her complaint as another beast plant was heading straight for the two of them. She held out her hand hoping to slow it down even just by a little bit.

As Vorden turned, he threw one of the sprit spears and it pierced straight through the beast's head. But it clearly wasn't enough, and the beast was quick to retaliate. Swallowing the two in an instant.

"What are you doing!" Cia shouted. She too had rushed off hoping to run away, but she quickly stopped as she noticed there were also several plants behind them. Some groups were still dealing with them but not even one was successful.

The only group that seemed to be doing well was the group led by Teacher Del.

He had taken his large shield with him and was holding it up with his back against the mountain wall. With only one possible angle of attack Del and a few other students were able to block most of the incoming attacks from the plants.

And since the plants weren't able to move from their original position. At most, the group had to block attacks from three incoming plant beasts.

"Let's go over there!" she shouted. "It's the safest place, with my ability we can make it." At this point, she was tugging on Peter's uniform, but he stayed there— still looking at one of the plants.

"If Quinn is somewhere else, then I need to go with him," Peter replied.

"Screw you!" She shouted in anger. "If you want to die, then go die yourself."

A single step, Cia cried out.

She turned around and suddenly realized that all she could see was pitch black. Then, a few seconds later she felt the sensation of falling.

The whole group had now been swallowed by different beats plants. Fex and Quinn, Layla and Vorden, and finally Peter and Cia. A few of the other students had been swallowed to, a few were also knocked off the side of the cliff.

While the majority somehow managed to make it to where Del's position was. Even though they felt weak. With Del doing most of the blocking, the students were able to use their attacks to fight against the plant beasts that managed to reach them.

They continued to do this until eventually, the rain started to stop. The moment the rain stopped— all of the beasts went into hibernation at the same time. They returned underground and turned into beautiful stalks of purple grasses once more.

Amazingly, soil started to form over the purple grasses, and in a blink of an eye. The mountain had returned to its original state. It was as if nothing had happened.

"Is it over?" A student asked huffing and panting, he felt as if he would collapse from exhaustion at any moment.

"I think so," Del replied. "I think these beasts reacted to the rain. They seemed to appear and disappear at the same time as the rain appeared and vanished... Luckily for us, in a place like this, the downpour might be strong, but it doesn't last for long. However, we don't know when the next downpour will be."

"What should we do know, and what about the others?" Another asked.

Del looked around, and he could see there wasn't much blood. Also, during his studies, he discovered that plant-type beasts mostly weren't carnivores. The fact that these plants probably didn't have the acid necessary to digest meat meant that the students were still probably alive.

"I hate to say this but they're probably already dead." Del lied. "It's best if we head back down to where we were. If we carry on going upward then there might be even more dangerous bests."

Some of the students were annoyed by what Del had just suggested.

They had made this suggestion earlier and even said the same thing to Del. informing him there might be more danger up ahead. Still, he decided to progress anyway and now he was saying travelling upward was a bad idea.

Before heading back down the slope, a student spotted another person walking up. As they saw who it was— a huge smile appeared on their face.

"Seargent Leo!" The students shouted.

Even Del was delighted and happy...

There wasn't much that needed to be said, as Leo agreed that he would take them back to the shelter for now. But before doing so, Leo asked for the other students to investigate the area.

Just as the students were about to head down the slope, Leo started to walk over to a strange object. A certain item was giving off energy, similar to that of a beast weapon. He had arrived by the wall of the mountain and picked up the cold solid object.

"Do you mind telling me what it looks like?" Leo asked Del who wouldn't leave his side.

"It appears to be some type of metal flask. Although it has some strange design on it. It looks like a beast's head with fangs. Maybe it's one of the items that the students dropped during the struggle." Del answered.

"I'm wondering, just what is so important that it needs to be kept in a special type of beast equipment."

Leo thought to himself.

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