[Time: Nearly High Noon]
Barely ten minutes passed and already, Grim and his fleet of five ships were shot down from the sky by rocket-like mechanisms which didn’t only render their ships flightless but also killed their electronics.
The Granians were trapped; stuck on a planet they were completely unfamiliar with in a biome they had never stepped foot in before. To make matters more interesting for them, Cion the Cyclitharan and Skyler the Human sensed multiple lifeforms heading in their general direction.
At first, the Granian, Humans, and Cyclitharan thought that the lifeforms were the beings that shot them down from the sky, most likely Ethisians, however, that changed once they studied their situation further.
To begin with, their ship crash-landed in a marsh-like biome with thick blankets of mud, shallow puddles of what looked like water, and thick clouds of fog surrounding them on all sides.
Because this was a wild biome, the four of them figured that whatever it was that came charging at them weren’t Ethisians but in fact...
"The Planet’s Wildlife." Cion, using his Eneraflux skillset, made the final call as he drew his traditional weapon, a blade-like tool that looked as sturdy as he. "They’re reacting to the ship’s state."
"Hostile?" Skyler inched closer to Ace and asked, "You somehow always knew whether something was hostile on Earth or not, so I’m wondering if you do now."
[System Scan Skill: Unavailable] The most update n0vels are published on 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭•𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢•𝓷𝓮𝓽
"No, not this time," Ace grumbled but not as severely as he used to. After trying to use the system scan skill multiple times, he became less and less agitated whenever his system reminded him of how useless the skill now was. "We’ll have to fight and see for ourselves."
Through the fog, Grim, Ace, Skyler, and Cion were able to make out what it was that came charging at them and indeed they were the planet’s wildlife. As the beasts got closer, their gnarls, snarls, and growls became louder and louder, making it obvious to the four.
Immediately, Skyler furthered her transformation by making her reinforcing her entire body with scales and a bulkier form. Her body changed from its normal human orientation to one similar to that of a fantasy beast.
Her skin was tough, scaly, and bumpy, so much so that the three standing next to her figured it would take some serious effort to cut through. Her frame was tall, partially lean, and well-built with pillars of muscle intertwined. Once the transformation was complete, Skyler resembled a humanoid dragon-like thing that beamed with incredible strength.
"Here’s my proposal," Cion stood before all of them while the beasts inched closer. With his sword raised, he aimed it at Ace and said, "Since he self-declared himself to be the strongest Human, let him defeat all of these beasts. They’re not Ethisian or intelligent life forms so of course it’ll be easy for one person, right?"
"We don’t have time for that," Grim angrily zoomed past Cion and attacked the first creature. The beasts looked like overgrown fleas with excessive amounts of fat and flesh hanging from their sharp teeth so he, Grim, ripped through one beast’s flesh and punched its jaws so hard that they caved into its mouth.
This happened in less than a second and already, Grim was onto the next, and the next, and the next. Seeing this, Skyler zoomed past Cion too with her claws jabbing deep inside the bodies of the flea-like beasts.
With her newfound strength, she killed them much faster than she previously would have. She really did increase in strength thanks to One Horn’s efforts.
"Coward," Cion mumbled at Ace and then turned to face the creatures. Sadly for him, Skyler and Grim handled them all, leaving only a few too wounded to want to live anymore. "You refuse to prove the reason for your self-declaration."
"I didn’t declare that, did I?" Ace questioned with a small playful smirk on his face. "I don’t know where you heard it from but it certainly wasn’t from me..."
"Enough," the former Lord regrouped with the others with arms and armor smeared in blood. Already agitated, the black-scaled Granian couldn’t take any more of Cion and Ace’s foolish bickering. "We’ve already wasted enough time entertaining these creatures. If we don’t get out of here as quickly as we can, we’ll either get discovered or the fleet floating above us will.
"Let’s hurry and find the others. I’m sure they’re not that far off..."
While speaking, the sound of heavy gunfire screeched from a distance. Looking at it, the four noticed blue lights repeatedly coming on and off, meaning that someone was firing at something.
Upon seeing this, Grim ran towards the blue lights and the others followed. As they got closer, it became more evident that the ones firing were Granian soldiers, the ones he came with on one of the five ships.
However, the ones the Granians were firing at were Ethisian soldiers, those in the Legendary and Upper Legendary class. Because these were high-ranked Ethisians, the Granians were defeated but none were killed.
"Twelve soldiers," Skyler counted as she and the others took cover behind some bushes, "they look like a scouting party sent to find us."
"Shall we proceed to go and attack?" Cion questioned Grim while gripping his sword tightly.
"That won’t be necessary," Grim answered, "they’ve not killed them so it most likely means that they’re taking them back to the Bastion. We’ll follow them and see what to do from there."
As the twelve Ethisians dragged away the five Ethisians, Grim quickly scurried through the remains of their wrecked ship but alas, he wasn’t able to find any electronic device that was still functional.
The Granian sighed heavily but he didn’t give up yet. With the communicator from his ship and this one, the Granian began tinkering about while the others followed the Ethisians. His plan was to get them working as soon as they arrived at the Bastion so that his fleet would come to their aid but how quickly was he going to be able to pull it off?