Sil, hearing the urgency in his wife's voice, shot an ice arrow the size of himself into the air pushed by telekinesis. Sil was rained on by black blood. Minx watched as the black blood that would have hit her went around her instead on its way to the ground. She exhaled, Thank you Daphne!
The beast was injured but very much alive.
Another massive lightning strike erupted, this time flaming tentacles attacked them both. She screamed as swung her Qi infused whip at them before they could reach her. Sil used the same attack and more black clod rained down on him and flowed around her.
The tentacles retracted as a scream of pain echoed from above.
"Caser! Get over here!" Minx called. He appeared to be trying to find a way to climb and get to the huge beast that was floating over their heads.
"Hope this works!" Sil fired a earth arrow at the beast, used telekinesis to manipulate it and encased the beast. The beast started falling. Sil grabbed his family and they went to the side as Caser pushed from behind.
Minx looked back. "It's still not dead."
Sil built several earth walls and encased the beast, squeezing in until the beast was undeniably no longer drawing breath. Earth was much easier to use on the ground than firing it into the air.
Minx stared at the dead beast while Sil cut the crystals out of all of them. It turned out the big one was emperor tier while the smaller ones were king tier. Minx wondered to herself how she could be thinking only a king tier when only a year ago, intermediate beasts were a challenge.
She smiled at her beautiful husband as he collected his last crystal.
Sil stood back up and looked at his wife and he smiled. He walked up to her and kissed her after wiping away the beast blood.
He looked around to see if Caser was okay, remembering his injury early in the fight.
He leaned down and kissed his wife tenderly. "Let's get you two back to the shelter."
They smiled at each other, held hands and exited the cave.
Minx saw all her friends as they stepped back into the sun, blinking. It would be going down in another hour or so, but it was still bright. They decided to set up the shelter just outside the reach of the dumping baits and set a watch. She needed to rest and regain some MC before she could grow food to cook.
Sil snuggled with her on the bed while Minx closed her eyes for a while. About an hour later, she was feeling somewhat refreshed. They left the lab portion and asked Mandy to grow the food for dinner. She wanted to wait for her own MC to return in case she needed to demonstrate something. Mandy had a few mishaps but ultimately succeeded.
Mandy had also recently taken an interest in learning to cook. Initially, she wanted to focus on food as a farmer for the family and faction.
For the last week, she had watched what Minx was capable of doing. She realized this ability wasn't just about making the people well-nourished. A lot of good could be done. She felt like she could be part of something bigger if she could step up more.
Mandy entered the kitchen area and watched for a few moments before asking if she could help.
"I want to do more than just shadow you. Your ability can do amazing things. I want to learn everything."
Minx smiled, "I'm glad to hear you say that. Do you know why I ultimately chose to form this family?"
Mandy shook her head.
"This is between us. Actually… Let's discuss it in the lab once we are done in here for the night, before we go to sleep."
Mandy nodded and they focused on getting everyone fed.
In the privacy of the lab after dinner with just Mandy, Sil and Shalt, Minx was able to explain rather succinctly. Mandy learned about the idea of intelligence gathering with their ability as well as the mission they had already undertaken being about finding missing people.
Hearing that, Mandy immediately stated she wanted in. Minx explained the level of training required and the amount of dedication it required. Mandy stated she was the girl for the job.
Mandy climbed into her top bunk that night, thankful she was rescued by Minx because now she could help rescue others as well.
Sil tenderly placed his wife in bed, then climbed in next to her. They would be back at the Botan shelter tomorrow. He'd be able to give all his crystals to Daphne and get measured. He knew Quinn had big plans and was part of them. He didn't want to disappoint his family.
That fight he had earlier was more of a challenge than he expected. He wasn't going to complain about it though. They both gained experience from that.
Sil looked at his sleeping wife with pride. He then reached over and turned off her light crystal, cuddled with her and soon drifted off to sleep.
After doing their normal morning routine, they struck their little camp and headed West toward home. Minx didn't want to wither the dumping bait beasts on the edge, so she had the team enter the forest to the south then went up to the field of them.
She made everyone stay a safe distance except Mandy who was tasked with helping her wither them. Eventually, her trainee had mastered the skill to this level. Minx beamed a smile at her.
It rained twice. Both times the ladies had to dash into the trees and wait for the rain to stop. This slowed their progress. It was late afternoon when they arrived. The couple went straight to log in Sil's crystals. He insisted she get credit for the emperor tier as well. Sil went from rank D to rank B. Minx had the feeling it would have been A if he had not shared the points for the emperor tier with her. No one really knew how much each crystal was worth outside of the Green family who created the system.
Next stop was Daphne. The others all broke off to go rest and get dry clothing. It started raining really hard not long after entering the cleared area just outside the shelter. However, now that those dumping baits were cleared, next time the vehicle could make it almost to the other side to the other side and pick them up. They left a few on the edge to use as a barrier.
While Daphne was examining the crystals and measuring Sil, Minx checked in with Sam.
"I'm glad he ranked up! We have another problem here. With Quinn out hunting, the Parasites are once again being a menace. We are waiting to hear from them about what an acceptable solution is. They are not listening to us or respecting us in any way."