Shi Lang had tagged three people by the time the sun came up again. Most of the people were hiding and waiting for the night to pass, they did not have the aid of Zysha, and neither were they unknown about the native activity of this planet. Shi Lang came across a lot of native patrols and hunting parties but thanks to Zysha, he was able to avoid a run-in.

In the morning, Shi Lang and Zysha were sitting at the back of a cave. They were resting. The plan was to let the others come out and they will resume the game of tag. Zysha asked, “Why do you not face the natives?”

Shi Lang replied, “If I managed to kill some of them, the others will find out. Then they will gather more people for help, and this will harden the difficulty of the trial. I do not have such masochistic tendencies yet.”

Zysha asked, “What do you mean by masochistic tendency?”

The youngster could not divert the question so he told her what itr meant. Zysha only furrowed her brows and asked, “How twisted do you need to be to find pleasure in pain?”

Shi Lang shrugged his shoulders and did not say anything, after all, how was he to know what drove these people to seek pleasure by putting themselves through pain. That said, the sun climbed the sky, Shi Lang had rested enough and he said, “Zysha, time to go.”

The tiger stood up and after drinking the water left inside the stomach sack of the deer, the two moved out of the cave. The forest was full of herbivorous animals grazing and napping. The nocturnal predators were having their rest, Shi Lang and Zysha were able to move quickly through the woods.

Something that struck ShI lang odd, was that the natives did not seem to be moving in the noon. He asked, “Zysha, why do the natives not hunt in the noon?”

The beast was walking two hundred meters ahead of him and replied, “They believe that the meat of the predators is what makes them stronger, so they do not hunt herbivorous animals until they run out of options.”

Shi Lang shook his head and asked, “Are there any humanoid species on this planet that do not believe in such lunacy?”

Zysha did not reply, the answer was clear, none. Putting away this disturbing fact, Shi Lang began to tag the people again. After they were done tagging two more people, Zysha suddenly stopped in her tracks.

She said in a solemn tone, “I smell a trace of Terran blood. It is fresh, do you want to find out?”

Shi Lang nodded and the tiger led the way, as they approached the source, they slowed down. Zysha said, “The source is just ahead. What could it be?”

The youngster had a bad premonition in his heart. He said, “I have seen signs of struggle on the way, I do not know, what it was but it was sure gruesome.”

While moving forward the two creatures, bend their bodies and then slowly they were crouching in the direction of the source. Shi Lang had no idea what could it be, when Zysha said, “Natives.”

Shi Lang raised his head and zoomed in to the maximum limit possible on his visor. He found three Terrans being held captive by a group of natives and tied to wooden stakes in a clearing. The group of natives had ten people. They all had dark skins and shiny golden eyes. Long hair and wore animal skin as clothes. The weapons they were carrying surprised Shi Lang.

He asked, “Do they even know, how to use phasors?”

Zysha who was laying beside him said, “You may think of them as fools but they have learned from your species. The people among natives are those, who hunt down animals like me, the sapentias. Our meat increases their intelligence. Then they catch your troops and learn your ways from them. The sad part is that your people do not get to put up any struggle. See the golden eyes, they hold the power of mind control.”

Shi Lang was surprised, and asked, “How can they have such a prowess?”

The beast replied, “Nothing is impossible in this big wide world, that was something Charlotte used to say. However, it only works when you look them in the eyes. If you do not look, then you are safe. But does it not affect your combat ability?”

Shi Lang nodded and said, “Not being able to look at the eyes of the enemy surely hinders some skills but there are ways to counter this.”

Zysha asked, “How?”

The youngster did not reply and took out a handful of nails that he had made earlier. He pinched them between his fingers and flicked out the nails aiming for the heads and eyes of the guards who held phasor guns. The nails flew at a fast speed and when they lodged inside the eyes of the people, they did not budge.

However, that was not because the guards were invincible, but because, they were dead. The nail might be as big as two inches, but that was enough to kill these people. Shi Lang had taken down five guards in one movement. Then he moved forward, holding the two antler knife and daggers to face the incoming five guards.

Quickly evading the attack of a native, who jumped in front, Shi Lang moved to the left and dodged the attack, the next moment his dagger was inserted in the back of the native. The native screamed and his comrades came to aid him against Shi Lang.

Shi Lang gave a message to Zysha to go and free up the hostages. The command was not easy, but as a cat, she was still able to sneak up without getting found. The beast slashed the ropes and the captives regained their freedom. Zsyha did not stay with them, Shi Lang had told her to get away from them, he was not sure if these people will hurt Zysha in some confusion.

Shi Lang did not stay put in one place and battled his way to where the Terrans were standing, however, as soon as he was ten meters away from his confused-looking comrades, he jumped to the right. One of the three people suddenly lunged at him. Only now did he confirm that his comrades were still under mind control.

He did not waste much time and came closer to the corpse of a native, picked up the phasor gun, and in a swift action shot down the five natives who were chasing him with spears and swords. After the natives were down, Shi Lang found that the eyes of the Terrans had regained the glimmer of consciousness.

He asked, “You guys okay?”

The guys looked confused and Shi Lang helped check them. He did not know the reason why the natives had captured the three Terrans, but it was definitely something that could do them good. After he warned the three people about the situation, they moved to find a place where they can hide and wait for the trial to end.

Shi Lang had no problem, when he asked them a few questions they told him that they do not have any memory of the time they were held captives. A few hours later, Shi Lang regrouped with Zysha and the two continued moving.

…

X sat reclined in his chair when a lady came inside the room and stood behind him. The lady asked, “May I ask you to check the situation of miss Quinn?”

X did not reply to her and controlled the screen to share the feed. The lady checked how Quinn was doing and typed a few notes on her communicator. She asked, “Why is she moving in this direction?”

Her voice was soft, but X heard it. He said, “If you are done, you may leave.”

The lady snorted and left. X mumbled, “If only I could kill this person.” his words were intended toward the lady just now.

He continued to watch the monitoring video from the various parts of the forest. The footage of Shi Lang’s fight with the natives and Quinn’s movement in the forest made him come up with an idea. He tapped on his communicator and soon a holographic face of the first general appeared in front of him on the screen.

He said, “Sir, I would like to pit Agent Ace and Agent Quinn against each other. Since the two of them show the most potential.”

Edwards asked in a solemn tone, “Why the sudden change?”

“The others are equally capable, but they lack that edge. Just now, Ace took down ten natives here alone and saved his comrades. While Quinn took down the ten natives she came across. this is a fair competition.” replied X calmly.

Edwards thought for a bit and replied, “Very well, go ahead.”