Chapter 205. The Shadow Space
True to Shizuka's words, three white dots appeared on the far corner of the screen.
Sergeant Faye nodded, seeing the tracker.
"Once we locate the students…in whatever shape they are in…we can head for the training center." She replied, saying a certain fragment of her sentence under her breath, causing Shizuka to glare at her. "It was the place the Portal on this planet was last recorded to be, and we can see if it's still safe or not."
Shizuka nodded. She looked up at the walls of the shelter, which could be seen in the distance. "Alright, let's get moving."
***
Back in the training center, the group of three friends returned to the spot in the center of the arena, where they had been when Quinn and Vorden had filled Tsukuru in on what had happened so far on the planet.
"Alright, guys." Vorden replied with a serious expression. "We've searched this place for a good hour now, and have yet to find out where the Portal might be. We need to come up with a decision." He turned to look at Quinn, then to Tsukuru. "Do we stay here in the Training Center? Or do we head outsideto look elsewhere?'
Both Quinn and Tsukuru's faces tensed as they thought hard about this decision. Eventually, Quinn spoke up.
"Before any of that." Quinn replied, causing the other two to turn to him. "I want to get the hang of my new Ability."
Hearing this, Vorden smiled.
"That sounds reasonable." He replied.
He was interested in Quinn's new Ability, and thought that he could help. He was quite experienced in using Elemental Abilities.
Tsukuru nodded.
"Yeah, that's fine." He replied, looking at Quinn. "We've already seen that 'Shadow Cloak' of yours. What else ya got?"
***
Back in the forest clearing, the retrieval team headed towards the walls of the shelter. As they did, they came across a sight that made them all pause.
"Holy shit." Del muttered, his eyes wide.
The retrieval team had just about made it into the shelter from the forest. However, that was when they had come across…something else that gave them pause. Right between the edge of the shelter's walls and the entrance to the forest, there was a scene that looked like the after-effects of a forest fire. The ground was completely scorched, and the nearby trees were blackened. And in the epicenter of the destruction, there were the charred corpses of three more Palewalkers.
"What…What happened here?" Faye asked.
Shizuka narrowed her eyes. She walked forward to investigate the scene. As she did, she noticed that there was something else other than the charred corpses littering the area. There were…blackened metal fragments. Shizuka reached down near one and picked it up. As she felt it in her hand, she could tell that it wasn't glathrium.
As Shizuka was examining the metal fragment, she heard footsteps approaching her.
"Is that…shrapnel?" Sergeant Faye asked in surprise, as she knelt next to Shizuka to get a better view of the fragment. "Like the kind from a fragmentation grenade?"
Shizuka narrowed her eyes.
"Given the state of the area around us, it's more likely that it was an incendiary grenade." Shizuka replied. "But…it's strange."
Sergeant Faye raised an eyebrow.
"What is?" She asked.
Shizuka turned back to her.
"The shrapnel…" Shizuka replied. "Doesn't it look…too big to you?"
***
Back in the training center, Tsukuru and Vorden were both staring at amazement at Quinn's shadow on the ground. The first Skill Quinn had decided to test was his Shadow Space Skill. Like with everything else in his System, all Quinn had to do was think about using the Skill, and it would activate. As Quinn had activated the Skill, his shadow on the floor began to wiggle and swirl about. It looked like there was a small, black whirlpool on the ground in front of Quinn. It constantly moving.
"Huh," Tsukuru muttered, staring at the spiraling shadow. "You ever seen anything like that, Vorden?" He asked.
"Nope." Vorden replied, unable to look away from it, as well.
While the two were staring at the now-moving shadow, Quinn picked up the metal chair that Vorden had thrown at him earlier. He slowly reached down, pushing the chair into the shadow. Instantly, the chair began to sink. It was as if the shadow was made out of quicksand, instead of just a shadow being projected onto the ground.
Tsukuru's and Vorden's eyes widened in amazement as they watched the chair sink through. A moment later, it was gone.
"Heh, that's kind of neat." Vorden said with a smirk. He looked back up at Quinn. "Can you get it backout?"
Quinn responded by reaching into the swirling shadow. The feeling felt weird to him. It was like reaching his hand into a bog.
Tsukuru and Vorden watched as Quinn began moving his hand back and forth. He looked as though he was searching for something in a bag.
With Quinn, his face scrunched up slightly. He could feel nothing in the strange place. However, once he thought of the metal chair, he could suddenly feel something in his hand. He slowly pulled his arm out, and as he did, the chair came out with it.
"A storage Skill, huh?" Tsukuru muttered, causing the others to turn to him. "I've seen characters with powers like this before in countless TV Shows." He then glanced to the side. "And if memory serves, there's an actual Ability out there like this called "Endless Void". Tsukuru was completely unsure if this was true. But seeing as how every other Ability that had popped up in Ray's adventure turned out to be real, there was no reason that Ray's "Storage Skill"shouldn't be real, as well.
Tsukuru then put his index finger under his chin.
"It's also just like my System's Inventory." He replied.
Hearing this, Quinn's eyes tensed imperceptively.
***
Back in the clearing, Sergeant Faye's eyes widened in realization, as she took in Shizuka's words. She was right. The shrapnel from a fragmentation grenade was small. Small enough that you had to remove it with something like a pair of tweezers. However, the shard of metal that Shizuka had in her hand was quite large. Large enough that it could be used as a makeshift dagger if needed.
"Shrapnel that size would indicate that the 'incendiary grenade' would be the size of the vase for a house plant." Faye muttered. "If not bigger."
Shizuka nodded. She then glanced downwards at the ground at her feet. It was still damp. It was as if the planet had recently had a heavy downpour. Shizuka's eyes narrowed.
"Hey, help me gather up the other shards." She replied. "I got an idea."
Over the course of the next few minutes, the two sergeants gathered up all the pieces of shrapnel they could find.
Once they couldn't find any more, Shizuka got to work. Using her Ability, she lifted the still-damp earth off the ground, giving it a clay-like consistency. She then used the mud as a sort of glue, and began gluing the piece together. Sergeant Faye watched her work, Shizuka looking like she was assembling a 3-D puzzle. Eventually, Shizuka was done. Quite a few pieces were missing, likely embedded into the nearby trees, and the bodies of the Beasts, but the general shape of the object could still be seen.
"What is that thing?" Faye asked, an eyebrow raised in confusion. Between Shizuka's hands, she held some kind of thick, small, metal cylinder. However, it was something Faye had never seen before in her life.
Shizuka let out an amused snort.
"I'm not surprised that you don't recognize it." She replied. "These things haven't been used since before the Dalki War. They're a relic of the old world." Shizuka looked up at Faye. "It's called a 'propane tank'. Back before the discovery of Beast Energy, people used these things to store a flammable gas, propane, to be used for both cooking and heating." Shizuka's smirk widened. "Looks like little Tsu-Tsu used one as a makeshift firebomb."
A bead of sweat dripped down the back of Sergeant Faye's neck.
'So he can make firebombs, now…' She thought. 'That's…lovely.' It seemed that she would have to have a word with Tsukuru about not using these…firebombs…while on the base.
***
A short distance away, Del and Sergeant Leo were standing in front of a large square made of white plastic the width of the floor bed of a pick-up truck, and the height of a small teenager. It had a red, circular cap at the top in the center. Near the bottom of the front, there was an industrial-strength hose attached to it.
"Wait, is this…a water tank?" Del asked.