Cen Yuehuai's scalp prickled. "What is that?"
"A starbug," Yu Yan said, his voice edged with menace. "We need to eliminate it fast."
"I've never seen one like this," Sino said. "Plant-mimicking starbugs are usually animals in disguise, but those vines look too real."
Without the grotesque purple tumor atop it, the thing could pass for an ordinary giant tree. Sino, who'd spent half a year at a frontline fortress studying starbug types, was certain this was uncharted.
"Let's observe carefully," he said, tossing a stone toward the vines. They twitched lazily, showing no aggression.
"Only reacts to living things?" Sino mused.
Baisha, eyeing the mech limb vanishing under creeping vines, readied her lance. "Priority's saving them."
The tumor pulsed. A breeze stirred the leaves, moonlight weaving a ghostly net of shadows. A cloying scent—overripe berries laced with a faint, fishy tang—filled the air.
"Poisonous!" Baisha warned. They activated their mechs' gas filters. Cen soared upward, her arrow tipped with crimson sparks. The shot blazed, a shrieking firebird aimed at the tumor.
As it neared, the tumor's core flashed, and a blue energy wave erupted, reducing the arrow to ash. Two thick vines lashed out like serpents, targeting Cen. Sino's chain-blade flashed, severing them.
The tree retaliated, black vines surging like a writhing snake pit, spreading outward. The tumor pulsed rhythmically, emitting rippling energy waves. "This isn't just a mental barrier—it's a domain," Sino said, perched on a nearby canopy, his panel showing skyrocketing mental energy readings. "Beyond 2S-grade? Impossible."
Greenstar had been scoured for threats above 2S-grade before the selection. This shouldn't exist.
"Our distress signals are jammed," Yu Yan said. The tree's mental field was likely the culprit, though their advanced monitors would trigger a top-tier alert if a cadet's vitals flatlined.
"Xizhou's cadets are incapacitated but alive, or rescue would've come," Yu Yan said, staring at the tree. "Barely alive, maybe."
Baisha clicked her tongue. "I'll break its domain. Yuehuai, hit the tumor with more arrows to distract it. Sino, Yu Yan, cut the vines and free Xizhou's team."
They nodded. Baisha channeled energy into Loneglow, her lance tracing a white arc. She leapt, six radiant wings unfurling, illuminating the night. Her compressed mental force clashed with a blue wave, the impact booming. With a flick, she shattered the wave.
A piercing screech sounded. Cen's massive white peregrine, wings blotting the sky, charged the tumor, three arrows trailing it. Baisha glanced back, noting Cen's pale but resolute face—she was betting on her mental strength.
Baisha fired a barrage of impact shells. Explosions scattered the tree's energy waves. Sino and Yu Yan's thrusters roared, their blades cleaving vines in a storm of steel, exposing the trunk.
About a dozen Xizhou cadets, their mechs in ruins, hung limply from vines, unconscious near the roots. Baisha scanned them—Kaisin Grez was absent. A split team, and this squad had drawn the short straw.
Sino and Yu Yan exchanged a glance: Rescue now. Sino's chain-blade hacked through vines. The tree shuddered, its red fruits quivering. One near Baisha split, a vivid red-green webbed limb emerging—a mutant tree frog, its flat body and bulging eyes fixed on them, blue tongue lashing.
Baisha dodged, countering with her lance. Frogs' tongues coiled around it; she yanked, slicing them off. Cen's peregrine screeched, clawing at leaping frogs.
"What are these?" Cen yelled, pinning a frog with a flame arrow. "Plants hatching mutants?"
Baisha vaulted down, pursued by frogs. She fired her silver-cord lance, swinging to another tree, then skewered the frogs midair. Landing, she shook off their remains and joined the rescue.
"These cadets are barely hanging on," Sino said, inspecting them. "Poison gas or mental energy drain—maybe both."
Starbugs sparing captives was odd. Either it avoided killing to evade detection—a terrifying sign of cunning—or it was siphoning their mental energy, keeping them alive as batteries.
What had Xizhou's team endured? They needed urgent care. Baisha tightened her grip, ready to end the tree, when a flutter sounded—Little White Chirp perched on her lance.
"Chirp!" It hopped, tail flicking. "Chirp chirp chirp!"
"Want to help? Stay out of it," Baisha said, nudging it. "You're no match for Yuehuai's peregrine."
"Chirp chirp!" It puffed up, as if scoffing at size-based judgments.
It soared, eyes closing, wings folding. Its white feathers glowed deep blue, and a colossal shadow materialized—winged, shimmering with aurora-like hues. As the bird spread its wings, the shadow morphed into a majestic kun-peng, parting clouds, its grace summoning a gale.
Dust and leaves swirled. A clear, resonant cry echoed, and a blinding white light erupted. The tree's trunk snapped, its tumor bursting as it crashed, kicking up a storm of debris.
Sino, Cen, and Yu Yan gaped. Baisha froze.
Little White Chirp, reverting to its cheery self, flitted back, nuzzling her finger, chirping smugly: Told you I've got this.
Baisha opened her cockpit, letting it land in her palm. "You're that strong? Why hide it?"
It tilted its head, oblivious.
The others crowded around, staring anew at the tiny bird. "That was epic!" Cen said. "Your Highness, you've been holding out!"
"Its power defies logic," Sino sighed. "Then again, royal constructs laugh at science."
Little White Chirp chirped, darting to the fallen tumor. Baisha followed, slicing it open to reveal a writhing bug. "Chirp!" The bird pecked, killing it instantly. The bug melted into iridescent gel. Baisha bottled it.
"Rescue called?" she asked.
"Used their monitors," Sino said, nodding at the unconscious Xizhou cadets. "They're out, not us."
Airships descended, officers in uniforms carrying stretchers for the cadets. The rescue leader surveyed the wreckage, stunned. "What happened?"
Sino shared recorded footage. "Bad news, sir. We've got a new starbug species."