85 A Broken Duo

A flying bug of light was darting through the air, spectating everything that was going on in the battlefield below while sometimes providing support by ensnaring, blinding or distracting the beasts below.

"Alex! There is a crocodile beast hiding behind the sand dune to your left! Watch out!" A voice came from Alex's watch. 

"Roger that!" Alex (B- rank) replied, cloaking himself and his spear in a tough lightning aura before blitzing behind the dune, taking out the crocodile beast with a quick thrust of his spear, blowing a large hole straight through its stomach. 

"Marth! Keep an eye on your rear! Another horde of low-rank beasts are coming this way!" The same voice rang through pretty boy Marth's watch. 

"Affirmative my lady!" the tall, pink-haired Marth (C- rank) said in a playful and almost flirtatious tone before forming a huge tornado of wind, blowing away all the incoming beast like they were bowling pins waiting to be knocked down.

"Alli! I require some healing! Can you come back to me, I this they have got everything in the bag!" The same voice sounded through Alli's watch. 

"Y-yes ma'am…" the tall, skinny black haired Alli (D+ rank) timidly responded. 

"Jayden! Quickly! Take care of the wolf that is heading for Parson! We can't let him get injured! Without his night vision supportability, all of you would be sitting ducks!" 

Parson (F rank) was a brown-haired, short, scared boy who was always exploited and bullied at school for having such a useful ability for nighttime bullying and fighting. He stood on top of a large sand dune in the middle of the battlefield. His ability allowed him to provide a night vision buff to everyone within a 200-meter radius of him which was an overpowered and invaluable ability for a planet such as this. 

"Sure thing Karen!" Jayden responded with a giggle. 

"My name is not Karen! It's Becky!" She replied with clear annoyance. 

"Hahahahahha! Becky… That's even worse! The name cracks me up every time!" Jayden responded once again, laughing even harder than before. 

"Shut up! Just kill the damn beast before it gets to parson!" Becky (E+ rank) snapped. 

"Whatever you say spirit bug girl!" Jayden replied, trying to hold in her laughter. 

"Ahhhh!! Please don't kill me wolf beast!! I don't wanna dieee!!" Parson screamed like a toddler, putting his right leg and arms up in fear, nearly pissing his pants.

Jayden threw one of her shadow-enhanced daggers at the leaping wolf before it could reach parson with pinpoint accuracy, hitting it straight through the throat, killing it in one shot before immediately returning the dagger to her hand thanks to her weapon ability. 

"It seems like our work here is done! Everyone head back to me!" Becky said in a cheerful tone, retracting her spirit bug back to her side. 

She was the team's battle strategist and scouter, giving the team orders on what to do as they fought. The watch's calling feature was disabled for the student's outside of their assigned team in order to minimize teams cheating and colluding with each other which did not at all hinder them. 

As the group was walking back towards Becky and Alli, Jayden started to hear a slight rumbling in the ground underneath Alex who was walking around 50 meters in front of them. When she looked around at her teammate's faces, she noticed that they looked completely normal. Marth was giving her the lustful eye waiting for his moment to flirt and start up a conversation like usual and Parson was tightly holding his staff, looking at the sand dunes around him with extreme fear and paranoia.

None of them were able to hear the rumbling sound that was coming from underneath Alex which Jayden then concluded that it must be her demon enhanced senses picking up on it. 

She started to panic as she noticed the sound increasingly get louder while her teammates were still completely clueless and had no reaction at all. 

She sprinted straight towards Alex at top speed, startling all her nearby teammates before jumping straight on the unassuming Alex, greatly surprising him, holding him and jumping away from where the rumbling sound was coming from. 

"Hey! What the hell is your problem! Get the fuck off of me you slut!" Alex roared in anger, immediately shoving Jayden away in disgust. 

"I was just trying to hel…" Jayden was interrupted by an armoured, massive brown worm jumping out of the sand like a whale jumping out of water. 

"Huh! What!! Why do you keep risking your life!? Why do you keep trying to save me!! Why are you being so nice!!! Why are you not trying to get my dick like the slut you are!! I just don't get it! Are you trying to manipulate me or something!! I've known you for so long!! This isn't at all like you!! People don't change this drastically in such a short amount of time!!" Alex roared in clear confusion. 

"I already told you! I changed after I met a certain man! He brought happiness to my otherwise bleak, meaningless existence. He allowed me to better judge others, only hurting people when they hurt you. Not seeing everyone and everything around you as a toy or personal plaything! He taught me to work hard, that I must always try my best to do anything and everything in my power to achieve my goals and dreams! No matter the price! And, didn't you also change! I remember that you used to be the biggest asshole ever when we first met! Then, after we stopped talking for a month or so, you suddenly changed!! So! Why are you still being a dick to me!! Why can't you accept the new me!! We were once really good friends you know!!" Jayden replied with watery eyes and clear passion in her voice. 

Alex looked at the ground with a frown on his face, trying his best to take in everything Jayden said to him once more. He still just couldn't fully accept everything Jayden just said, especially after all the years he has known her.

'It should be impossible for someone to change so drastically in such a short amount of time without faking it… Right… My case was special…Right? Ahhhhh!!! Was Moby not actually manipulated to say what he said? Was he being honest with me, telling me the truth?? Ahhhhh!!! I don't know what to think anymore!!!' He thought with extreme mental conflict and strain. 

Alex quickly shook his head and focused on the big problem at hand, the huge worm growling ahead of him.

"Whatever! Now is not the time for such useless chatter! We have to take down this beast right in front of us! I believe I saw it in the bestiary in the desert section prior to us entering the desert. It is a Brown Terram Sand Worm, by far the strongest beast found in the desert. It is a B rank beast and should be very extremely rare to find. However, the bestiary seems to always be fucking up and getting everything wrong when it comes to this planet so I wouldn't be surprised if the bestiary's description of it was bullshit." Alex explained. 

'Ahhhh!! So this must be the same sandworm that Moby and his team fought. However, this time, it seems much weaker and didn't go for any quicksand manoeuvre! I thought this thing was rarer than a unicorn!! Did we both just get really unlucky??' Jayden inwardly questioned.

The team assumed their usual fighting position. Alex was alone in the front who will engage in close combat. Jayden and Marth were further back providing ranged support and protected parson who was beside them, Jayden with her daggers and Marth with his wind blades. A little further back were Becky and Alli who provided only minimal support in a fight such as this. 

Over the past 5 days, the team had grown exponentially better as a group. Their teamwork was impeccable. This was mostly due to Alex's ability to be a great leader and bring people together, even forcing himself to act fake nice to Jayden so the team's atmosphere doesn't turn sour and negative.

Luckily for them, the worm seemed like it belonged to a lower B rank in terms of strength which allowed them to take it out with only medium difficulty. It was much weaker than the one Moby's team went up against. 

Alex was able to easily dodge most of the worm's attacks due to his lightning-fast speed and reflexes, beating the worm with only minimal damages sustained. 

However, just like Moby's team, they did not notice that the worm was not actually dead, but rather shed its hard skin, burying itself under the sand for a sneak attack. 

Luckily, Jayden was already expecting such a maneuver thanks to hearing Moby's experiences with the fight so she warned her team in time for one of them was swallowed whole by the worm's sneak attack. 

Eventually, the team's constant wailing was able to bring the worm down with Alex seemingly getting the final blow by digging a hole through its stomach. However, the actual finishing blow was snatched by Jayden who expertly threw an extremely enhanced dagger with perfect timing before Alex could deliver the finishing blow. It was a strategy Moby told her to do called "Kill Stealing". 

The team cashed in the worm in for points keeping them comfortably in 2nd place in between team Natalia and Team Abby who were 3rd and 1st respectively, the team took a quick rest allowing Alli to heal all their wounds before Jayden suggested them to go to the forest that was visible in the distance, the same forest that Moby and Natalia laid.

Luckily, her team found no problem with the suggestion and headed straight for the forest in the distance to continue hunting. Jayden had been subtly leading and nudging her team in Moby's direction and it seemed like no one thought that what she was doing was weird or suspicious, not even Alex who always kept a close eye on Jayden's every action. 

'Hahahahahhaha! The time has almost come!' Jayden thought in excitement, trying her best to hide a devilish laugh and a smile under her impeccable poker face.