Chapter 1144 Evolution tiers
A medium sized ship approached the Shelter on planet Humding. Usually Shelters would be built on flat ground, in a square type shape with walls on all sides. Soldiers, Mechs or Travellers would be stationed on top of them to protect those inside.
On the other hand, this planet's Shelter had been built on top of a large hill, or more accurately the main base was located there. There were several large tubes that had vehicles passing through them.
These would descend down the hill into different areas that had small bases of buildings and people around them. Shockingly there were no walls surrounding them like the main Shelter at the top of the hill, instead there were people protecting the entrance to these large tubes.
"Humding is a little unique for more reasons than one." Nathan explained as everyone was staring out of the window looking at the unique architecture. "Although there are beasts on the surface you have to watch out for, the greater danger comes from the countless sinking spots all over. The tubes you can see down there lead to some sinking spots the main base has discovered and deemed relatively safe since they are being cleared regularly to use them as entry points."
"Humding is rich in crystals, making it a very important place for the military. Unfortunately, the majority of beasts are also subterranean and don't like it when the military tries to mine those crystals."
Quinn remembered seeing places that were filled with the natural blue crystals, but there was one planet where he saw them more than ever. The Vampire Planet. It was even more reason to keep it a secret from the humans, especially since they were running low on the ressource.
Flying past, they could see many things being transported through the tubes. Vehicles carrying such crystals, and more. The other common thing they saw were Mechs. There seemed to be more here than the standard. It looked like the machines themselves were used to mine for crystals at a faster rate than human hands could.
"Are those robots fun to pilot?" Fex asked. "It would be cool if we could try one out."
"If you want to try it out, we have some back on the Cursed ship." Logan replied. "However, for someone like you it won't be much help. They are mainly given to those who have weak abilities and show no promise in battle or to fulfill menial tasks such as you are seeing them do right now. If Sam hadn't joined the Cursed faction, he might have been given one of these machines."
Quinn had a wry smile on his face when he thought about it. It wouldn't have just been Sam. He, Shiro, Peter. All of them would have been asked to fight against the Dalki, and without his system they would have all been considered too weak and would have had to learn to compensate by using the Mechs.
When they had reached the main Shelter on top of the brown dark mud hill, they noticed something else going on as well. Two Mechs seemed to be battling it out against each other, while wielding giant beast weapons. Surrounding them was a crowd of soldiers who continued to cheer at the top of their lungs.
"The Colonel is a bit of a mech enthusiast, so if you want to try one then he might let you." Nathan said.
The Shelter had been made aware of their presence since Nathan had called ahead of time. They knew that the ones that were coming were part of the Cursed faction, but they had naturally not been made aware that the Cursed faction leader himself would arrive, nor that those who came were particularly close to Quinn.
Once the ship landed, there was the normal greeting that was to take place. Nathan saluted a man, who was dressed in black army uniform and had a golden badge on his side.
"I am Colonel Molitar Longblade." The man stated, looking at the others behind Nathan, although his greeting to Nathan wasn't as formal as to the others. Instead it was as if Longblade was just talking to his own soldiers.
'Looks like Nathan was right. Since these guys were under Innu, it's already great that they aren't too openly hostile towards our Cursed faction. I'm glad Peter isn't here.' Quinn thought.
"While you are here, you are under my command! I run this Shelter, I make the rules for this Shelter and everyone has to obey, understand?!" The Colonel commanded.
The others looked at each other for a second. They certainly weren't used to this kind of managing style. They were actually all leaders of a faction that was of equal size, yet it wasn't something that anyone of their Cursed faction imposed.
Still, they all looked at 'Bucky' who quickly replied by saluting. "Understood, Sir!" Instead of openly challenging his authority, it was smarter to play along for now and let Nathan handle everything later. Seeing their leader act like that they all mimicked him.
According to Nathan, Longblade used to be a Head General under the old system. He had been in charge of one of the eight bases, but after they had reconstructed the system to just three Head Generals, his group got put under Innu.
After their display the Colonel seemed to be in a better mood and he personally showed them the place where they would be staying while on Humding, also providing them with information for what they needed. Walking through the Shelter, they could feel the eyes of everyone staring at them.
"Hey, aren't they from the Cursed faction who harbor those dangerous V?"
"Yeah, I recognise that girl. How can we allow such criminals to just walk out here so brazenly? Head General Innu wouldn't have attacked them for no reason."
With Quinn being disguised, the only V they could identify from the broadcast were Layla, and Fex, who therefore naturally got the brunt of angry and evil stares. The others had gotten a pass.
"We have to deal with this in that other place, and now here too?" Layla weakly complained to those near her. Their current treatment was very similar to when they had been to the Vampire World. To now suffer it in the Human World as well, did they truly not belong anywhere?
While walking around, they could see a group of soldiers who had entered the base, and were injured. They were being rushed to one of the large buildings which appeared to be their medical facility. The wounds though, didn't look like ones that were made from beasts. Some of those looked like powers and beast weapons.
'I guess it's true that Pure really is here.' Quinn thought.
"Hey do you notice something about all the soldiers here? They all have swords with them as their beast weapon." Fex whispered.
"That's because the sword is one of the best weapons out there." Longblade clarified, overhearing them from the front. "I'm a master swordsman myself, and my skills have saved me time and time and time again on the battlefield. As the one in charge of this Shelter I have been teaching everyone how to defend themselves with the best weapon."
Longblade sounded proud of that fact. Quinn certainly understood how strong a great master swordsman could be, but he also thought of somebody who could probably put all of the people here to shame.
"On an individual basis or preference that's fine, but don't you think that's a bit stupid for a battle or war?" Logan, in his usually charming manner, questioned him. "It helps to have a variety of beast weapon users. What happens if your opponent can fly and attack from the sky? What about support from your ranged users, and protection from each other when fighting in a group?"
"There is a reason why there are multiple weapons in the first place."
Suddenly, Longblade stopped and turned around. "Oh really? Then what beast weapon does someone so scrawny as you use? Talk is cheap, so any of you can challenge me to a battle of the sword and I would be happy to demonstrate which weapon is better."
Out of the current members of the Cursed group, none were sword users or had beast weapons in the same style as it was being used here.
"Say, Molitar, could you give us more information on this humanoid beast that has been spotted? How did you come to find it, and why haven't you been able to defeat or capture it?" Nathan asked, trying to break the just created tension.
"Have you ever hunted underground? It's completely different terrain and the beast is smart enough to be able to use it to its advantage. It's easy enough to track it at any time we wish, though. It leaves behind a certain trail." Longblade answered. "Wherever it goes, it leaves behind dead beasts and all of them have one thing in common. The humanoid beast has killed them in one strike by targeting where their beast crystals were."
The others were in shock. Was the Colonel claiming that a beast was killing other beasts and taking just their crystals?
"It doesn't seem to care that this makes it easy to find. Although it hasn't confronted us, it also doesn't seem to be too afraid of us.We have already made a plan to capture it, by using that arrogance."
'Quinn, did you know that there are some beasts that are able to evolve?' Vincent asked. 'It's only natural for beasts to kill those who enter their territory, but they usually don't consume the crystals. Beasts seem to know about their own limits in evolution. However, if this one actually hunts other beasts for their crystals, it can only mean that it's capable of evolving further and going up in tier.'
'Are you telling me, the humanoid Demi-god tier beast is killing other beasts because it's trying to evolve into a Demon tier beast?!'
If that was true, the simple task was getting more complicated.
*****
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