A whole day had gone by and Yuga hadn’t returned to the area where he and Kirveas last saw. Kirveas had just returned from his daily search ready to start training. They were supposed to be moving on to the next thing today but Yuga was no where to be seen.

Had he finally decided to leave? Or did he meet his end fighting an opponent beyond his strength? That would be a disappointing end but also unlikely. Kirveas had a feeling that even if it came to that he’d still pull through somehow.

The sound of loud thumping coming from the nearby forest, interrupts Kirveas' thoughts and draws his attention in its direction. Speak of the devil, he could sense Yuga approaching, along with something else.

The trees part and a large beast, its height rivalling the top of the trees, walking on four legs comes through with Yuga sitting on its back. Its entire body was covered in thick fur, its paws lacked claws and it had no tail.

"Where did you find yourself a mean?" asked Kirveas. "And tamed it too."

"This isn’t what you think it is.” replied Yuga.

Kirveas raises an eyebrow. Yuga jumps down from the beast, points at his shirt and the large beast shrinks, turning into an extra layer of clothing that wraps itself around him.

Kirveas’ expression turns serious and he asks in a low tone, "What is that thing?”

"I don’t know, I was hoping you could tell me.” said Yuga. "I found it yesterday. As a tree. It can change its form to whatever it observes. Anything at all."

"Anything?" asked Kirveas.

"It even transformed into me.”

"That is.... incredible.” said Kirveas.

"Do you know what it is?”asked Yuga.

"Even less than I know what you are.”

"I’m probably human. A really rare kind. Didn’t you say only humans can use drive ?” asked Yuga.

"That doesn’t exempt other possibilities.” replied Kirveas.

Kirveas raises his left arm and taps something on his left wrist, just like he’d done when Yuga first met him, and many times after. It was a bracelet that much wider than normal. He points it at Yuga and holds it there for a few seconds then withdraws his hand.

"That thing on your wrist, it’s what allows us communicate, right?” asked Yuga.

"Yes. It’s called a voyager gauntlet. Every voyager has one. It has a lot of useful features. Like scanning for example.” Kirveas replies all the while looking at the device. “I don’t know what that creature is and it’s not in the database of this thing either.”

"How unusual is that?” asked Yuga.

"It could have come from an unknown, unexplored planet. But that would still be unusual, all the planets near Lehrone have been explored. It must’ve come from somewhere very very far.” replied Kirveas.

"Did you hear that mimic? Guess we’re both rare. One in a whatever number of people and creatures there are”

"You named it mimic? How uncreative. And it listens to you?”asked Kirveas.

"Yeah." answered Yuga, tapping the creature wrapped around him as a shirt.

So not something strange about himself this time but a strange creature thought Kirveas. “Now that we’re over that, I said we’d be doing something different today. Not necessarily different, you’ll still be fighting beasts, just a different kind and in a special place.”

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"Let’s go then.” replied Yuga stretching his body.

"Follow me."

This time they don’t walk. Kirveas breaks into a sprint and Yuga follows. He had no problem keeping up with Kirveas at this pace. They cover miles in seconds and after a minute of running they came to a halt.

The place they stop at was warmer than others they’d been to. The air remained chilly but most of the snow had melted and was running off as water, revealing a vast field of light green grass with few trees scattered around.

More notably, the land in front of them was barren. Out of the vast green grassland, a large circular patch of it was barren as if it were a world on its own and didn’t adhere to the laws of nature.

In the middle of it was a hole surrounded by monsters. Insect-like looking creatures that had four limbs and stood on two legs. They had no appendages on their upper limbs, instead their limbs curved into deadly sharp blades. They stood still as statues, if you weren't told they were alive you could have mistaken them for an insect themed piece of art.

"These are your next opponents." said Kirveas, gesturing at the creatures.

"Stay on that tree for a while" Yuga tells mimic. It transforms into a bird and perches on a nearby tree. He walks towards the barren land and crosses the boundary, foot first but quickly withdraws it and puts up his guard. “What was that?”

"You could feel it, couldn’t you? That ominous aura rejects your very existence." Kirveas replied. "The space you see before you is a 'danger zone'. A danger zone is any area which is deadly enough to cause serious harm, render incapacitated or even kill a voyager. Not every danger zone feels like this one here but the majority of them do. They’re a lot of them through out the regions, on every planet and even in space. This a tier seven danger zone, the lowest and least dangerous tier. Step into the zone and eliminate the creatures."

"Right." Yuga breathes out then braces himself as he attempts to step into the zone again. He walks into it and winces a little but quickly regains composure. He takes a few steps further in and looks back. Mimic is prancing up and down a tree branch. Kirveas just stands there expressionless.

He continues walking till he's just a few feet away from the beasts. They don't react to his approach at all and maintain stillness. There were about twenty of them gathered round the hole.

Yuga fires a blast of energy in their direction and as soon as it got close, one of them suddenly became animate and used its blade limb to slice the bolt of energy in two. The two halves of it fly off and explode in the distance.

Before Yuga can even think, one of those limbs blades fills his vision, only a hair’s breadth away from his eyes. He pulls his head back and the blade slashes through the empty air, missing his head by a millimeter. These things were really fast, he was nearly unable to react. Three more of them attack him at once and he bolts out of the way in a flash and appears a few meters back, leaving their blades to cut into the ground where he once stood.

One lunges at him and he crouches, swings his right leg in a wide arc and sweeps it off its feet. Then he front kicks it, sending it crashing into another one following behind. He uses the force of the kick to launch himself into a backflip, lands on his feet and skids to a stop.

Yuga immediately rushes at the nearest beast and assumes a boxing stance. He weaves and dodges a slash and counters with a straight punch that sends its head flying clean off of its body. Another attacks him from behind aiming for a spot below his right arm. He stops the blade with his hand and the razor sharp edge digs into his palm till it draws blood. He grits his teeth and squeezes the blade till it shatters, turns around and drives a shard of the blade into the creatures head, killing it instantly.

More of them coming.

He tries to dodge an attack from one them but for some reason he’s too slow and it slashes at his thigh. He moves back to gather himself. His vision had started to blur and his body felt heavier, as if his muscles were now made of rock.

Is it an effect of the zone?

Kirveas stood at the edge of the danger zone, observing Yuga's performance. One thing he’d learned about Yuga from watching his battles was that while he might've been new to being a voyager he definitely wasn’t a stranger to battles. His battle senses were sharp like that of an experienced fighter. Wherever he was before now, he’d fought a lot and the experience was engraved in his body.

At the moment he seemed to be having some difficulty, his movements had slowed and he’d resorted to balling up himself in defense while trying to avoid attacks. The effect of the danger zone had finally kicked in. Yuga had been affected by the danger zone like humans were.

Still.... when Yuga had entered the danger zone the monsters paid him no mind, only attacking when provoked. And the effect was only getting to him now. That was something that never* happened. Even more reason to question his nature.

It was time to go searching again. He'd spent a little over two weeks on this planet and made little progress on his search. The warpgates were destroyed so there was no way to report his progress. Yuga would probably be fine, or die off but that wasn’t his concern at the moment. He turned around to leave walking slowly for a short distance before vanishing out of sight.

.

.

.

Can’t continue in this condition. I can barely defend myself and I’m too slow to attack. Focus, shake off the feeling.

With this resolution, Yuga's vision became more stable and he felt a little lighter. He’d managed to shake off some of the effects but a new problem quickly arose. From the hole in the middle of the zone, vines burst forth and tangled his feet, dragging him towards the depths of the unknown. He tries ripping them off but it was too tough so he gives up and remains still. Waiting.

While he was being dragged, the creatures didn’t give up their attack and came at him in their numbers. The first to get there was unlucky, the moment it tried to attack Yuga he suddenly awoke from his still state. In a flash he formed his hand like a blade and swiped, breaking off one of the creature’s limbs. He catches the severed limb off the air with his right hand and brings it down on the creature's head, splitting it in two and then uses the blade to cut up the vines, freeing himself.

Now free to move, Yuga scrambles away from the horde of creatures. Once he'd given them considerable distance he gets off the ground and faces off with them. The insects continue to rush at him, their blade limbs ready to rip him to shreds.

Yuga holds out his arm, facing it towards the pack of creatures and begins gathering mal energy. Raimeh were easy to kill with small blasts of mal energy but these creatures were much tougher, he'd need something more powerful on this one.

The energy he gathers this time is far more concentrated, fitting for a technique of this potency. He aims at the approaching beasts and fires.

Venerable Lance

Yuga had successfully performed Kirveas’ technique though a lot less powerful than the original. The energy shoots forward with incredible speed, the very essence of destruction made manifest. The beast at the front of the pack attempts to split the attack with its blade as was done before but this was a far more powerful technique and it simply shatters the blade. The bolt of energy continues on its path, destroying its head and wipes out the rest of the creatures behind in a huge explosion.

The zone was clear. All the creatures had been defeated. Yuga turns to leave but stops his movement when he hears the sound of scrambling against earth. It was coming from the hole and continously grew louder. At the peak of the sound, more of the insect creatures burst forth from the hole in droves. This batch was twice the number of the last, everyone of them heading for Yuga.

Come.