NOVEL NEXT Chapter 25: Burning Secret
Mikasa, Connie, and Sasha were hiding in the bushes to get the jump on the sleeping Kecha Wacha. It took a while for the thing to sleep, gliding from tree to tree, eating some bark and playing with some branches. It nearly caught them swiftly looking back at them but they managed to hide in time.
If it weren't for Connie's power, it would've been much more difficult to keep up with it. When it finally fell asleep, hanging on a massive tree, using its tail to latch to the thick branch with a big patch of grass surrounding the trees with the closest batch of bushes being 10 feet away Connie and Sasha whispered finally and high-fived each other.
"Good for you guys," said a tired Jean.
"Oh, come on Jean. You were in the top 10 in overall athletics. I thought your stamina was better than that."
"Oh, fuck off. Half of the team can turn into leopards and you were on Connie's back."
"Wait, Mikasa, you made him run?" Sasha asked.
"Yes but I kept my eye on him, so he didn't get lost."
Jean leaned on the closest tree and slowly slid to the ground. "Man, my shoulder is killing me. Anyways, do you have a plan now?"
"Well,the only plan I have right now in my grey noodle up here is to ambush it and surround the tree in all directions. Connie goes to the right side, Jean goes to the left and Mikasa goes to the other side."
Jean groaned before he slowly got up and carefully started walking to his designated spot. Connie nodded and jumped to his spot giving a thumbs up. Mikasa got up and decided that instead of going around, she would go across to get to her spot faster. Mikasa crouched and carefully reached her spot, gripping her sword tightly.
'I have to be careful not to wake it.'
Mikasa saw a thin branch before grabbing it and throwing it out of her way. She looked up at the sleeping monster before making her way to her spot. Now, she was only a couple of feet away from the tree, almost just below the Kecha Wacha.
'Halfway there,' Mikasa thought.
"Mikasa!" She heard a whispering shout.
Mikasa turned to see Sasha pointing upwards before she looked up to the monster. It was still hanging on the tree, sleeping.
"What about it?"
"It moved!"
Mikasa stiffened as she slowly looked at the monster. One of its ears slightly moved, exposing one of its green eyes.
'Shit!'
She was about to unsheathed her sword but the Kecha Wacha had the drop on her, falling from the branch and shooting a ball of mucus at Mikasa, covering her in a lukewarm sticky slime. The raven-haired teen tried to get up but the massive amount of mucus on her made it harder to move. The monster swiped its claws at Mikasa but Jean managed to block it with his barrier.
'Was this thing even sleeping?'
Connie turned into his hybrid form and jumped on top of the barrier and punched the beast in the face. Sasha shot an arrow at its trunk piercing it through. The Kecha Wacha looked at its blue trunk seeing that an arrow was now jammed in its trunk. Sasha ran to shoot a round of arrows on its leg but it swiped its tail,deflecting most of the incoming arrows but a few landed on its tail. The Kecha shot three balls of mucus at the brunette but she dodged them and shot another arrow but it dodged it and climbed up the tree.
"I got it!" Connie ran up the tree to follow it.
Mikasa tried to get the mucus off but to no avail the mucus was latching on her.
"Ugh, disgusting."
Jean laughed a bit before Mikasa glared at him.
"Sorry."
Mikasa groaned. "I could hardly move with all this slime on me."
"Only if there was a way to get it off of you," Jean said.
Sasha ran to the teens before pinching her nose. "Ew,you stink Mikasa."
"I wonder why."
"If only there was water nearby," The three teens heard shouting coming from the tree to see Connie falling, landing on the ground and the Kecha Wacha jumped from the tree before its trunk swelled up.
"He's going to shoot more mucus!" Sasha warned.
While gliding down, it shot mucus around the area. Mikasa managed to dodge them but with all this slime on her. It felt like she was wearing a heavy-weight suit.
'I need to get this slime off of me.'
Unfortunately, Connie got hit by a mucus ball, making it harder to get up. Sasha ran to help him up but the Wacha was too fast and swung its trunk, flinging the teen in the air. Jean formed a barrier before Connie landed on him.
The monster swung its hook-like nails at Sasha but she stepped back and shot it in one of its eyes. The monster flailed around as the blood squirted out of its socket.It used its ears to cover its face and roared, echoing throughout the area.
"Uh oh, it's angry!" Sasha announced before the monster chased after her. Sasha ran behind Jean as he formed a barrier wall but the kecha leaped over it and swiped at Sasha. Mikasa tried to block its swipes but the tip of its hook-like nails stabbed her side.
Mikasa screamed in pain before she sliced off the nail from the monster before she pushed it out of her side Connie ran and punched the monster but it countered by hitting him with its trunk, flinging him across and slamming into nearby bushes. The kecha slammed its hands down but Jean made a dome barrier and blocked it.
"We have to fall back!" Jean shouted.
Sasha nodded as she helped Mikasa stand up on her feet.
"I'm fine…"Mikasa tried to say but the sharp pain in her side made her legs give out, landing back on her knees. She pressed on her wound and used the end of the scabbard to push herself back up on her feet.
"Come on, Mikasa. Let's go!" Sasha carried Mikasa, piggyback style and ran back into the bushes. Jean and Connie ran back a couple of minutes later, barely evading some mucus shots in the process before it retreated in the opposite direction.
"Why is this mucus so heavy?" Connie touched his mucus-covered shirt.
"Most of its mucus is water so it would seep into your fabric, making your clothes heavy," Sasha explained as Jean took off his jacket to tightly wrap around Mikasa's waist to put pressure on the wound.
"This isn't good. Mikasa's hurt and that thing is going berserk," Jean said, crossing his arms.
"We got an eye so that's good," Connied nodded.
Mikasa coughed a bit into her left hand,when she saw her hand,the palm completely was red.
'Stupid mucus slowed me down too much,' Mikasa thought as she used her sword as a cane to get her up.
"We…need to find…some water…" Mikasa struggled to say, making small coughs after.
"She's right. We need to wash off the mucus," Sasha agreed. "Do you need help walking?"
"No, I'll be fine," Mikasa tried to assure them. She can't afford to be a liability now with the monster going berserk, her team had to focus on killing the beast.
"Mikasa…you don't need to overexert yourself," Sasha went under one of Mikasa's arms to help her stand straight.
"What do we do now?" Connie said in a slightly worried tone. "Mikasa's almost down for the count and now that thing is super angry, it's gonna be harder to bring it down."
"Stop it."
The three teens looked at Jean. His arms were crossed before he aggressively sighed and placed his hands on his hips. "There's still three of us here and we have something that the damn monkey thing doesn't have."
"Uh…planning skills?"Connie guessed.
"That and we have training. We've prepared for this for three years, so let's not start worrying now."
Sasha, Connie and Mikasa looked at each other before nodding in agreement.
"Jean's right," Mikasa agreed. "Right now,we have to kill that Kecha and pass this test. Connie, still remember the scent?"
"Unfortunately. Its scent is all over me. Not gonna be hard to match it."
Connie turned into his full leopard form as he walked in the front to track the monster. Jean was in the middle and Sasha was helping Mikasa walk while she was using her sword as a cane.
"Sasha you don't have to do this, I can walk fine."
Sasha immediately let go and in a couple of seconds, Mikasa stumbled, landing on her knees as she breathed heavily.
'That nail must've stabbed one of my lungs.'
Jean and Connie turned to see the injured teen.
"Hey! Why did you-"
"It's not her fault. She was just testing me and I failed, "Mikasa said, gesturing to the brunette to help her stand again. This injury is much more severe than she thought. One of her lungs is severely damaged and the blood loss is messing up her balance. Luckily, there were no hills or slopes so it would be easier for Mikasa to move around.
She felt her blood continuing to trail down to her foot as she started to feel light-headed, falling in and out of consciousness as she felt her side slowly getting hotter. Connie was following the scent of the Kecha Wacha before Mikasa leaned into Sasha a bit, surprising the brunette as she nearly fell to the ground. Sasha told the boys to stop walking as she sat Mikasa down, leaning her back on a nearby tree. Sasha looked at her clothes to see that there were red smudges on her shirt, shorts and hands.
"Let's take a break for now," Sasha said.
"Why?!" Jean asked impatiently. "The quicker we kill the monster, the quicker we get Mikasa some medical help."
"We still need to figure out what to do first," Sasha said. "We need to know what to do with Mikasa before we go and fight that thing."
Sasha kneeled to Mikasa and began to shed tears. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
Mikasa held her injured side and straightened herself. "What for? It's not your fault. It's better that it was me than you."
She unwrapped the jacket off her waist for a cloud of hot steam burst from the wound.
"What the fuck is happening to you?" Jean stood next to Sasha to get a better angle.
"It looks like it's healing itself," Sasha took a closer look at it.
"Yes, my ability is not just copying but I can somehow heal as well. I found out about it a year ago when I accidentally cut myself while making a fruit salad and I noticed that steam was immediately coming from my wound and it was completely healed within a dozen seconds. That's how I found out that I can regenerate my wounds. I don't know exactly where I got it or the limitation of it but I have it."
"No wonder you took the blow," Connie said. "You knew that you could heal from it."
Sasha wiped her face and smiled. "That's such a relief. You had me so worried."
"Sorry for making you worry," Mikasa apologised. "I've never been hurt this badly so I don't know how long it would take before I'm completely healed but let's just wait until I'm ready."
The three teens agreed as they sat down to look at the steam that Mikasa was involuntarily producing.
"Does the healing process hurt?" Connie asked.
"No, the only pain I'm feeling is the wound the monster made."
"Lucky you," Jean said. "Wish I had that power, would've gotten rid of my shoulder pain in an instant."
Mikasa looked down to see that the hole that the nail made was noticeably getting smaller. She remembered when she told her father what happened to her finger and he chuckled before revealing to her that he could do the same, proving to her by grabbing the same knife and making it small cut in his palm and her seeing a bit of steam emitting from his wound.
'If me and my father have this same regeneration capability then, most likely Mako will have the same ability as well,' Mikasa thought.
But the issue for her was that she never met anyone in her father's family as both her grandparents died before she was even born. So, she can only assume that it's some genetic mutation that her father's side of the family has. Mikasa tossed Jean his jacket before he looked at it and sighed.
"First, it was holes and now it's blood. My jacket can't catch a break this week," Jean said, placing his jacket on the ground.
"The week isn't over so, who knows what will happen to it?" Sasha said.
"Next time, keep my jacket in my room," Jean told himself.
"Your jacket has been very useful, Jean. It helped stop the bleeding so I can heal faster so thank you," She bowed her head toward him.
"T-t-thanks. A-anytime," Jean said nervously.
When she pulled her head back, she saw his cheeks were coloured pink, hugging the jacket tightly.
"I thought that you weren't going to use your jacket anymore?" Sasha said with a smug face as Connie began to chuckle.
"Shut up! I do what I want with my jacket!" Jean snapped back but that led the two laughing.
Jean continued to shout at them as Mikasa looked again at her wound and started to take deep breaths and realised that her lung was healing as well. She looked to see that her purple shirt had a big tear on the side.
'I have to sew my shirt when I get back.'
The steam emission started to subside, signalling Mikasa that she was fully healed. She got up and did torso twists.
Sasha stood up."You're healed up now?"
Mikasa nodded. "I'm fine. A bit lightheaded because of the blood loss but besides that, I will be fine."
The boys got up as well with Jean wrapping the jacket above his hips. Connie turned into his full leopard form to track down the monkey-elephant monster, Jean stayed in the middle as Sasha was beside Connie and Mikasa stayed in the back.
"Are you sure you're ok?" Jean asked. "Don't push yourself too much."
"I can assure you that I'm fine," Mikasa assured. "I don't know how much damage i can take before succumbing to it and I don't want to find out.Right now,we have a Kecha Wacha to finish off."
Jean smirked. "You're right on that one."