Biohuman

The days passed quickly at the Temple. Lee Seng and Keng spent their time making the recruits run around and taking Fae and River on rescue missions whenever a beacon showed up. The last day had come and the temple was filled with laughter. Lee Seng sat outside with his friends, underneath the same tree Keng had always sat at. It had the most shade and he felt far enough away from the noise to feel a semblance of peace.

"Today's the last day, right?" Liz asked. "What're they gonna do after this?"

"I think they have a couple more days of training at the temple before they go home." Keng answered. "Brother Zixin says they'll do the whole march back home. It's more training in of itself." He leaned back onto his hands and smiled. "Sucks to be them. The trek will be long and hard."

"Shut up." Lee Seng glared at Keng. Keng, Evan and Ritsuka laughed louder.

"Are you finally done with your rounds, doctor?" Liz asked Manny, who was slumped over and sluggishly making his way over to the group. Manny planted a seat on the ground, letting out a long sigh as he rested his head on Liz's shoulder.

"Why did I offer to help the infirmary?" Manny asked. "It's so much work… Who knew there would be that many patients."

"Kids are stupid." Evan commented. "I mean, look at Ritsuka, dude tried to jump off a tree the other day and—"

"Shut up!" Ritsuka head locked Evan.

"Okay! Okay! Stop it! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Evan laughed, grabbing Ritsuka's arm. Ritsuka shook Evan around for awhile longer before letting him go. "You're gonna leave a bruise."

"Hey watch out!" A recruit shouted. A soccer ball flew at Olivia, who screamed and threw her arms out to protect herself. Gasps bounced around the temple grounds as Olivia quivered in fear. The embrace of the ball didn't meet her. The ball was frozen in mid-air with Lee Seng's hand blocking the ball from hitting Olivia.

"Watch where you're kicking this thing!" Lee Seng shouted before flicking it back to the group.

"Sorry, sir!" The recruits shouted. They bowed apologetically before continuing.

"Are you okay?" Lee Seng asked Olivia. She removed her hands from her face and looked around. Lee Seng looked at Olivia, who grew red.

"I-I'm good. Th-thanks." Olivia gulped and looked away. Her face grew red as she covered them with her hands. The bell rang and everyone dropped what they were doing and looked to the temple door.

"Lunch is ready!" Nixie shouted. The soldiers all rushed for the temple steps. Lee Seng and the others stayed sat, waiting for the kids to get their meals.

"Leader!" Fae yelled. Keng and Lee Seng both turned to watch as Fae was running while Lily and River were nowhere to be found. "Leader! There's a problem! A huge one!" She sucked in a breath as she lurched forward.

"Hey, what's wrong, Fae?" Keng asked, standing first. The others turned to watch as Fae wiped her brow and looked back at the forest.

"We were with Miss Lily doing our usual training and… We saw it. The thing that's behind all that creepy stuff!" Fae informed them. "And what's worst… We found some soldiers there…" The group all looked at each other and stood up, quickly.

"Where are they?" Keng asked. Fae pointed back the way she came.

"Follow the path… You'll see it." Fae told them. She began to stand up and lead the way when Keng quickly blocked her.

"You're staying here." Keng ordered Fae. "We'll go get Lily, River and the others. You inform Captain Zixin and his men what the situation is."

"But, sir, I—"

"If it's truly the thing Lily's been noticing, I don't want any of you near it, hear me?" Keng looked at Fae and waited for her answer. She began to form words , but shook her head. Keng patted her shoulder and then looked at everyone else. Team Zephyr all rushed down the path.

"Lee, Keng, take point." Manny ordered as they all clicked their comm devices on. Lee Seng and Keng pushed forward, looking in opposite in different directions.

"Up there on the right." Lee Seng pointed out. The group slid to a stop as a dark energy wafted over to them.

"That's… not good." Keng commented.

"What's all that black stuff in the air?" Olivia pointed out.

"You can see it?" Lee Seng looked at the others.

"Yeah." Manny nodded. "Let's… be careful from here on out." The group assumed position and started down the path. Cuts on trees, indentations in the ground. It wasn't until they made it about three hundred or so feet in when they started to see people. Manny rushed over to the first person he saw and checked for vitals.

The Fox spirit coughed up blood as they weakly held onto their wound. Manny began to heal while Keng and Lee Seng split off and checked the nearby soldiers.

"Mass heal." Keng and Lee Seng whispered. A bright light washed over the nearby soldiers and the two looked down the way they came.

"We're gonna check down there." Keng told the others.

"Alright, we'll stay here with Manny until the healing's done." Ritsuka nodded. Lee Seng and Keng moved in unison, jogging down the path.

'More soldiers?' Keng telepathically spoke through the comms jewelry.

'How many groups were hit here?' Lee Seng asked.

'Dunno, but we should feed them pills. Healing them will take a lot of energy.' Keng looked at Lee Seng. Lee Seng nodded and Keng plucked out a bottle of pills from the Void Storage. It was a clear bottle with the words Emergency Pills written in Fox tongue. Keng handed some pills to Lee Seng and the two quickly moved around the two groups of soldiers, inserting a pill into their mouths.

'That should do.' Lee Seng sighed. He looked further down the path. A scream erupted followed by a crash. The sound of discordant music fighting against the familiar noises of Lily's music. Lee Seng and Keng rushed over, jumping over broken trees.

"Argh!" River grunted as he slashed at the large creature. The silver blade clearly cut through the creature but have no effect. The creature swatted River away, slamming him against a tree.

"River!" Lily shouted. She lifted a hand over to River, pulling him back to her. "Heal!"

"GRAA!" The large monster shrieked. Wooden tendrils and flesh erupted out of its darkened body, crashing into Lily's energy zone.

"Shield of Faith!" Lily shouted. A bright gold and pink energy erupted, blocking the tendrils. She grunted, sliding backwards as she dug her feet into the ground. "Argh!" Lily pushed the tendrils backwards, watching the shield break. Wood and flesh tendrils broke through, plunging themselves all around Lily and River. Lily groaned as a couple tendrils plunged into her. She could feel the thing force energy out of her as she tried to speak the next incantation.

"Gravitum: Piercing Flash and Dash!" Lee Seng and Keng shouted. Gold and silver lights bounced around the area, severing the tendrils and pushing the monster backwards. Lee Seng and Keng slashed at the blackened body, clearly registering they had hit it before sliding back towards Lily.

Lee Seng flicked his fingers upwards and a golden shield appeared. Runes fluttered into existence as Keng scrawled.

"We didn't hit it." Lee Seng observed. "Heal." Lily and River gasped as the holes in their bodies repaired itself quickly. "What do we do to hit something we can't hit?"

"Identify Curse." Keng swiped a rune in front of him.

"It doesn't take physical attacks! Magical attacks don't have that much of a difference either! River and I've been trying to stop that thing from eating the soldiers that were around here."

"That explains all of the injured bodies down the path." Lee Seng commented.

"It isn't a curse!" Keng shouted.

"Why does this thing have so much curse energy then?" Lee Seng asked. Keng swiped all of the runes and fired out all sorts of elemental attacks at it. Lee Seng and Keng watched as the monster absorbed the attacks.

"It does that." River pointed. "I can't knick it!" Lee Seng's eyes scanned the blackened beast. It had an absurd body full of void. Tendrils of wood and flesh billowed out from it while six jagged legs kept it up.

"Ritsuka, get over here as soon as you can. Bring Evan, too." Lee Seng spoke aloud.

'Roger! What's happening?!?' Ritsuka responded.

"You're familiar with void energy, right? I want to know if this thing is made of void or not."

'Void energy?'

"It's eating all of our attacks… What's the easiest way to fight against Void energy?"

'You just have to fill it, right?' Evan spoke up. 'Void must mean there's a surplus of space, right? What happens if you create a space in it where it absolutely has to exist?'

"Ah." Keng smiled. "I think I get it."

'It's only been a theory. I still haven't figured out how it works.' Ritsuka added. 'We're almost there! Just wait for us!' The void creature hissed as its tendrils fired outwards, again.

"I don't think our guest wants us around anymore!" Lee Seng shouted.