Star seemed to want to talk so Lana let up a bit, "I didn't assault him. He wants me he just doesn't know it yet!"
Lana scoffed, "if he doesn't know it yet, then he didn't consent which means it was assault. Your own words say he didn't consent."
The girl was crying from pain and humiliation, "no! He wants me! Blaine, tell her! Tell her you want me!"
He sneered at her, "I find you repulsive and hideous. I'll do this for you, though, Star." Blaine looked at Lana, "don't kill her this time. If she touches me again or doesn't stop this harassment, I give you free reign."
Lana grinned and let her go. "Get this trash out of my sight. She doesn't deserve to eat my food. She gets to skip this meal. Only those who help the group get to eat with us. Give her military rations until she learns some manners."
Rene pulled Star from the small room and healed her wounds.
Lana turned to everyone else since the commotion attracted them, "I need this room clear. I need to check his injuries and see if the swelling has gone down."
Lana and Kattie exchanged a glance to which Kattie nodded slightly.
Left alone, Blaine closed the opening once again with earth. He smirked, "you want me to drop my pants, huh?"
Lana's face went red, "just the outer pants. I need to see if the swelling went down."
Blaine dropped his pants and sat on the bed. She approached, touching his leg. Noting nothing there, she smiled at him.
He placed a hand on either side of her hips, "now we need to have a serious talk."
His hands dropped to her thighs and he pulled her into his lap facing him, while locking his eyes on hers. She put her hands on his shoulders and waited for him to speak. She didn't trust her voice at the moment.
"That kiss back there, all of it. Do you know what you mean to me? To us?" He gently put his palm on her cheek making sure to keep her focus on him.
Her heart was racing and she didn't trust her tongue so she shook her head.
With his eyes still locked on hers, "we came to this school with the full intention of ending our life. The task we had would just make the monster stronger. We were going to do it as soon as we got to our dorm room. Then we saw you out the corner of our eye, staring at us. It gave us hope. Is there any way you would consider being more to us than a friend?"
"What about the monster?"
"We'll figure something out. Maybe Paul can help. Maybe it's as simple as changing my identity and going off with you?
"This would endanger Dobin as well, all of our friends."
"Then we'll figure something else out. Lana, I need you in my life. I ache seeing you and thinking we will never be a couple. This hurts and it's worse for Kyle. You've been getting to know me but only recently talking to him."
She felt a switch, "Lana, we need you. We aren't complete without you. I'm haunted by the kiss the monster would have denied me. I promise we will take care of each other, of you and Dobin. Please. Please tell me you'll be ours."
Lana had tears streaming down her face. She could not be strong around Kyle. She nodded and kissed him with intense passion. They stayed locked in that kiss for a few minutes when she finally broke it off, hard as that was for her.
"We are still in a combat zone. Our friends are waiting for us outside. We need to earn some crystals for this outing."
"It's boring."
She chuckled, "And you get to sleep with me in you arms. Let's earn that."
Kyle smiled widely, kissed her again then switched back to Blaine who got to finish the kiss which was quite weird for her. She got up and he pulled his pants back up but with some difficulty.
Outside, she let the teams know his swelling was gone and he was back to full health.
"So, what's the plan?" Chekof asked.
She chuckled, "keep fighting boring beasts? Before we met up, I set the challenge of killing a beast in one hit. What do you guys think?"
There were nods all the way around. Lana nodded back then asked the trees for a current beast configuration.
"Okay, we have more hedgipines off to our left and back that way a bit. We have a snake-like beast called a cottonmouth over there which is a strong level-1 in the guidebook if I recall correctly, straight in front of where I'm facing. Over that way," she pointed left-front, "is a flying snake that is level-2."
Star spoke up, "if we are going to kill them in one shot, we have to start with level-1 of course. Why are we even discussing this?"
Lana nodded, "cottonmouths it is. Order we move in? I suggest Karlen in front, Chekof in back. Archer in back as well and Kattie. Star should be next to Karlen, I think. Almin next to Kattie. Dobin and Alto in front of them. Blaine and I in front of them. Any thoughts?"
"I think I should be with Blaine," Star said.
"Do we need to go over this again, Star? Be happy he asked me to spare your life."
She got all pouty and looked at Blaine who made a gagging noise.
"Why do I need to be in front?"
"Because I don't want you behind me."
"Almin, take that bag off and put it in the tree." Lana said then did the same with her own. This would be their base of operations. There was no need to carry the food around. She took out her light stone and a few small things then had Blaine seal the tree back up.
They left and soon found their quarry. Star screamed but had her telekinesis in action quickly as a white ball-like shape was heading her way. She had complained the whole way about bugs and mud and how only servants did this type of thing. This meant the beasts knew exactly where she was.
Karlen, who got the ability of super speed, saw the black 10-foot long snake spit the white ball. As its mouth closed, he stomped on its head, killing it instantly. He dug out the crystal as if he already knew where it was and placed it in a bag. The mouth and the first foot were 4-inches in diameter making it easy to figure out where the crystals were. It tapered off from there making the back end look more like a traditional snake.
"Heads on a swivel, guys. They are coming from all directions now. Keep screaming Star. We could really use these crystals. It will be great to tell the whole school your greatest contribution to your team was your ability to scream."
Lana heard Sven take flight and the twang of a bow. Chekof then Dobin sounded off, "one shot!"
"Does it count as a one-shot if Sven did the killing?" Kattie called from the back.
Lana chuckled, "of course."
"Okay, got one!" Kattie called from the back.
"Got mine," Blaine said with cheer in his voice.
"Karlen, you're too fast!" Lana chuckled.
Lana decided to use a vine whip on a branch and climb up. "I got your 6, Blaine."
As the snakes opened their mouths to spit their poison balls, she shot vines down their throats. It had such force it ripped the back of the heads open. She smirked. These were easy.
"Almin!" Lana exclaimed having seen what he just did, "we got our one-shots at the same time!"
"Alright, support Alto, Rene and Star. Don't let them get overwhelmed. They keep coming. We'll get a lot of crystals in this outing."
Lana watched as the snake's only tactic was to surround the group and spit a white ball of poison at the group of people. The snakes didn't get opportunity to do anything else. Sven looked very happy that his dinner had come to him. He spit the crystals back out understanding Kattie needed them. Chekof had gotten hit a few times but he seemed unaffected by it. Lana thought they'd fare better against these beasts than hedgipines.
Alto and Rene had several kills, just nothing in one hit. Star was using her telekinesis to prevent the poison balls from hitting her but nothing else. Lana touched a few buttons on her watch and jumped off the branch right on top of one near Star.
"So, are you not taking this event seriously?"
"Ew! Why would I want to do servants work?"
Lana nodded, "do you want to return to the shelter then?"
"Not unless Blaine does."
Lana scoffed, "We'll see about that. Go back to screaming, though. It's increasing our crystal count."
Star rolled her eyes and kept quiet. She stopped screaming with Lana's earlier comment. She didn't want to help Lana in any way. Lana hit the button on her watch once again.
Lana was far more bored than she was willing to admit. With Karlen in front, Blaine to her left, and Dobin behind her, there was nothing for her to fight. She decided to sneak past them and see if Alto could use some advice. She watched him for a sec and realized it wasn't lack of ability, more like lack of tactics. With a bit of advice, he quickly got his one-shot kill. Rene was next but just as she got to her side, Lana realized she heard and executed the tactic she told Alto to use. Simply to shoot them in the mouth. Both now had their one-shot kill.
Soon the swarm was over and they could collect crystals. Normally the one who got the kills, got the crystals. With this being a party effort, there was more sharing. Lana knew Chekof and Karlen were competing with each other and Blaine was trying to beat both to them. His team was far superior to hers even with Star not contributing. Still, because she was guiding them, they decided to give some of their crystals to her. They had discussed it before with Rene. The goal was to have both teams at the top. They wanted the special outing at the end of the year.
**********************************
Join me on discord at https://discord.gg/wuNsfeGP Or Patreon at patreon.com/MindyLeeCrouch
If you'd like to donate to me via PayPal, https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=8PCLHZTXAPFPC
Constructive criticism is welcome as it helps me become a better writer.