That night went smoothly, Bronk and the others hadn’t received the same attention, so they considered the possibility that Drako had drawn attention to himself as he was in a higher evolutionary stage.
The next morning they left for the next portal; Drako asked permission to get away from the group a little, to see if the theory that the eyes were on him as possible.
As Sarah had announced the day before, they would now face the wild creatures. But, unlike what they expected, none approached them. So Aiden was somewhat disappointed. He wanted to invite a fight, but Sarah told him that they wouldn’t. They would only respond to the attacks.
After some thought, Aiden regretted what he wanted to do and apologized to the creatures inside.
Two days later, they arrived at the next portal; no creatures attacked them on how they found very suspicious.
– Do you think your teacher is blocking them?” Adolf asked Tom as he prepared lunch.
– No… unless it’s something hazardous, I guess…” answered Tom after thinking about it a little.
– Now that you mention it… Did any of you come across them,” Aiden asked as he looked at the creatures on his team
They all denied it, but in fact, Drako, who had the most movement, had run into them. But Noelle told him not to say anything about it, so he kept his word.
While this was going on in Tom’s camp a few miles away, Noelle was fighting the creature about to attack the children.
***
Since they arrived in this world, Noelle and Batze have stayed at a regular distance from the children. She had applied to monitor Tom’s team when she learned that they had ordered the teams to visit this world to polish their survival skills as part of the training.
Because she was the personal teacher of one child on the team, they accepted her application.
One reason she applied for the job was to get away from the current Vyndra environment. However, it was paradoxical that they sent the children into this world as part of their war training.
Obviously, they would let them have fun if their journey was smooth, but considering this world’s situation, the children would have to be alert and prepared for any situation.
Their role was to intervene if a threat appeared beyond what they could handle.
Fortunately, the first week was quite calm, as the children dealt with their own kind. Thanks to them, they had no problems. Most likely, the children also wanted to be distracted from what was happening and rest, so they let them do what they wanted.
And even though he was working, that didn’t stop him from admiring this world; it surprised him how the colors seemed to be more impressive in this reality. He was surprised to discover that most vegetation and animals consumed were based on those of the mother planet. Some of Vyndra and others that the intelligent species that made up Vyndra would recognize from their home planets, but most belonged to humans’ past.
The intention was that the tamers would never think of consuming the creatures. Although among the creatures, it could happen.
Thanks to Batze’s evolution, he now possessed the ability to feel what the plants perceived, and he could also extend his roots to collect more information. Although it was a bit abstract considering a plant’s capabilities, he used what he got correctly.
So I catch the creature that was monitoring the children.
The night Drako and Iska perceived that they were being watched, the creature was preparing at a distance where the gatekeeper could not detect it and where he could tell if the children were leaving the safe area.
When the children left the next morning, Batze had caught the creature’s feet and stopped him in the middle of his march. He asked Noelle’s permission to confront the child herself, even though Noelle’s original idea was to have the children fight the child.
Noelle hesitated a bit, but Batze promised not to drag it out and had a way to immobilize it as well. He accepted on the condition that it would be about ten minutes at the most; they couldn’t get too far away from the group.
Batze’s new look was not much different from the old one; it was taller on average, about 5 feet 7 inches, and the blades that covered it now looked like armor and were sharper.
He urged his enemy to explain why he was following the children, but the enemy did not respond. Noelle thought perhaps he was a savage and was only looking to “eat” the children’s creatures to strengthen himself.
The creature she was facing had a feline appearance when it was standing on its hind legs. It had strong limbs, and it had metal details on its powerful forearms and legs.
Noelle looked for information about the creature in the bracelet’s application. She had a hard time identifying it, as it appeared to be some mutation. It was supposed to move in pairs, but it was alone. She looked around, but there seemed to be no other fence.
I ask because it looked different from the catalog. In the confrontation, she stopped and noticed that she had some black veins in the scars she had with no hair. He wasn’t sure why, but he thought he had seen something like this before.
The creature escaped with impressive speed. The sudden change of scenery somewhat dazed Batze.
– Batze,” Noelle said.
He immediately spread his roots and began searching for traces in the area.
– It looks like it’s in this area,” she said a few minutes later.
– All right, let’s go after the kids. If he follows them, we’ll face him again.
Now they were facing the beast again, but it looked a little different from before. It was bigger than before, its claws were longer, and its coat, which used to be blue, now seemed to be dyed black in some areas.
In the previous confrontation, one could say that Batze and the creature were evenly matched. This was not the case now. The creature’s onslaught was more ferocious than before, and its speed had increased to the point where it cornered Noelle’s partner.
The creature jumped directly at Batze with its claws ready to cut her, at which point Batze formed a sword with its roots, taking advantage of the moment his opponent was in the air to stab him. His enemy responded instantly by moving his muzzle and biting the tip of the sword and breaking it.
Batze expected this and immediately ducked while extending his arms to strike with the blades covering his forearm into his opponent’s belly.
The creature crashed to the ground in a roar, and Batze kicked the ground as roots extended into his arms, forming sharp rods to stab the beast.
– Batze!
Noelle ran as she fired a blast of air at the other beast that had appeared to knock Batze off his course. Immediately afterward, she heard the new enemy hit a tree.
– This time, we go together,” Noelle ordered as she prepared the needles within her domain.
The beast that appeared had a mutation similar to the one Batze was already facing. She knew her partner could take one, but she wasn’t sure if she could take two.
So she intervened to clear the scene and monitor the children again quickly. She estimated that they would be in the safe zone by now.
She still did not know why she was uncomfortable with these creatures’ strange mutation; no, she was sure that the problem was not the mutation since it was something common in the creatures, if not those black veins, they had.
Her opponents stood up again and positioned themselves to attack. Noelle waited, the needles floating around her within her domain. They were deciding what to do. She saw how, on one side, Batze was preparing to attack at any moment.
– Human, wait a minute,” blurted a voice.
The creatures heard this voice and growled. Noelle felt that something alien was within her territory, and when she looked to her left, there was a creature about three feet away.
The new visitor looked like a humanoid bird wearing red plate armor with gold details covering its upper body that had a cloth that went down between its legs, bracelets, shoulder pads, a helmet that only covered its front, and feathers that came out of its back like small wings and a feathered tail.
– Please let me take care of them,” asked the creature as he emitted an oppressive aura towards the mutated creatures.
