When Leo came to Nathan's office to request to form a team to rescue Erin and Fex, he was surprisingly already considering it. Nathan had struggled with coming up with a team to help rescue the missing students as the two didn't come from any big name families, and he was considering it too risky to even ask.
However, Leo had a special reputation among the military staff, which made it easier to convince a few military staff members to join his mission.
There was only so much convincing having Leo around could do, however, and so, the group tasked with finding Erin Heley and Fex Sanguinis was small. Nathan did try to convince Del to join them, but he was adamant that he needed to stay for teaching reasons. He couldn't convince him to budge, so they let him be. He wasn't the only one as a few other teachers when asked refused.
In the end, the group tasked with saving the missing students were Leo, Hayley, and Faye.
They were all standing together in the very storage room that Erin and Fex were in before they were teleported. Leo, Hayley, and Faye all stood there together looking at the portal, its ominous red color illuminated the room.
"Let's make this as fast of a mission as possible," Faye said, determined, "The report stated that this planet once had a shelter, but was destroyed when hoards of strong beasts attacked it. Thankfully, those hoards are no longer around, meaning that this is the best time to arrive. Who knows, maybe those students of yours might actually be alive."
Leo hummed, acknowledging Faye's comment, before they all held each other by the hands and entered.
They all knew that this was a quickly put together mission, and the longer they stayed on the planet, the more likely they were to risk death. They didn't have a lot of time to finish this before their other duties would require them again.
As they arrived on the other side, a bright light shone before three human figures suddenly appeared on a dark planet. They had found themselves in between two broken down buildings in an abandoned city which was only lit by its two moons.
"Are we all accounted for?" Faye spoke again as she looked at the other two staff members, "Just because the reports state that the strong beasts are no long around, that doesn't mean we shouldn't slack off. Stay alert"
Since they were going to a red portal planet, they had to be geared up. Even though Faye and Leo were quite strong, and Hayley could defend herself, there was no guarantee that a hoard of basic tier beasts couldn't surprise and overwhelm them. There was also the potential that there could be dalki around.
Hayley was in charge of holding the gear and teleporter back to military base 2. Despite her weaker stature, she was assigned to hold the portal due to the fact that she wore a lot of beast armor, which granted her strength and speed that she wouldn't otherwise have. Since Faye and Leo were fighters, it was better to have their hands free.
Shuffling the portal on her back a bit more, Faye took notice of Hayley's armor, and how it made a normally pretty nonthreatening person look frightening. Her beast gear was large, with a chest piece that was sharp and had a scary looking face on it. She also had a jagged toothy sword hanging on her waist. If Faye didn't know any better, she would've thought this nurse was a professional traveler.
The armor she wore was of the advanced tier, and since her mother was the head general of the base, Hayley had access to the highest tier beast gear money could buy. It made Faye's and Leo's light armor look plain in comparison.
"I know that we might need to make an emergency exit, but couldn't we have packed lighter?" Hayley asked as she rebalanced her center of gravity. Even though they brought a portable teleporter, it was still large with quite a bit of weight.
"You should know it is better to have something and not need it, then to need something and not have it," Leo replied, "And besides, the portal here could be destroyed."
Hayley sighed, "I should put in a request to make these teleporters have wheels…"
"Okay, with that said and done, let's head for the training center. It was the place the portal was last known to be, and we can see if it's safe or not. Leo will lead the way for us." Faye said as she nodded towards him.
Leo walked ahead of the group, and used his ability as they traveled. Due to the nature of his ability, he was able to sense things that others weren't. Namely auras.
He could easily detect beasts with their red outlines, differentiating them from a human's yellow outline. Because his ability allowed him to sense things from a 360 view, they were easily able to avoid any confrontation with beasts.
On their way to the training center, Leo noticed something with his ability. The group had traveled to a very ruined building to investigate, and spotted a dead beast on the ground right next to it.
"It's an advanced tier beast," Leo noted, as he was able to sense the energy from the crystal inside.
Looking at the scene around them, it looked like some sort of battle occurred with how the rubble from the building nearby looked recently destroyed. The stone was still sharply cut, not worn down from years of waiting. Not only that, but the beast's corpse was still around. Normally beast bodies don't last very long after death, and while the beast's crystal can help it stick around for a little bit longer, it wasn't by much.
"It's still fresh," Hayley pointed out to the red blood splattered around the dead deathbat, "Who could've been strong enough to kill it? A traveler? Another beast?"
Removing the beast crystal from the deathbat, Leo responded, "No. If a traveler were to have come by, then they would've collected its crystal. Most travelers wouldn't give up a chance to get an advance tiered crystal, especially after going through the trouble of defeating it."
"Or if there was an even stronger beast nearby," Faye reminded.
But Leo had other thoughts. There was a surprising lack of beasts in the entire area, even with him using his ability. None of them even had to take out any of their swords. There just wasn't nearly enough beasts around that made him think they were on a red portal planet.
"Let's move," Leo said as he pocketed the crystal.
The group started to move again, but Hayley couldn't help but feel the tiniest bit disappointed. She went on this mission to help the students, yes, and that was definitely the biggest reason why she was even out here at all, but a little part of her wished she could've used her beast gear. Work was rough, and it wasn't every day that she had the opportunity to let lose on some beasts.
Instead, due to the lack of beasts, she decided to fill in the silence a bit.
"So, how does your ability work, Leo?" Hayley said.
The two stopped, and Faye looked to Leo, not quite sure if he would respond. As far as they knew, Leo was the only one with his ability, making him an original. Originals were normally pretty tight lipped about their abilities as they were the original users of their powers, and that usually came with secrecy about their abilities.
"If you must know, it allows me to see the auras of people, beasts and dalki," Leo simply replied.
"Well, I know that, we all do, but if it can only do that, then surely someone like Faye could beat you in a fight, right?" Hayley said, "No offense by the way, Leo."
"You say that, but I can confidently tell you that Leo is actually the stronger one out of us two," Faye responded, "Back then, when Leo was only a private he had done so many accomplishments, it felt unbelievable. We practically had to beg him to join our ranks after the first war, but he only did after the one request that he would like to become a teacher."
"Huh," Hayley said.
They continued walking again, and despite the conversation about the man, Leo stayed silent. Hayley couldn't help but wonder how exactly his ability helped him in a fight. It was a powerful ability, yes, but that was purely due to the amount of MC he had. Was there something more she just wasn't aware about?