Chapter 13: 16. Adaptation Part 2

“Ajax, can you make an icicle or something for me? Something really hard and sharp from your ice.”

“...Why? You’re not going to kill me for fucking up like that, are you? Haha, ha… are you?” Ajax knows that he was responsible for that fall. He lost his attention for a split second when he should have been more careful. However, he had thought his fall would be just a fall, not a brush with death.

He had underestimated his own speed.

“...No, that wasn’t about you fucking up, you were running at my speed. Everyone trips every once in a while, especially two people not used to running as fast as cars. Come on now, just make me one. I need to get more info.”

Ajax checks out their surroundings for a moment–

“Nothing too crazy nearby. We’re safe for a good while, hurry up though.” Ajax frowns at her impatience. When Shaula gets her mind on something, she can focus on it like a laser beam.

Ajax creates a thirty centimeter icicle lance in his hand. He has gotten the trick to getting his ice to be colder and harder. All he has to do is take out more of that unknown latent energy from the ice. The ice will get colder and any water in the air will condense on the surface. This will make the icicle bigger until no water remains in the air nearby.

If he takes out enough of the energy, the icicle he makes will become harder than solid rock. Shaula would not have asked for it, but she cannot use the sharp rocks nearby for this test. If there are any foreign bacteria around that she is not immune to, she could get sick.

She carefully takes the icicle out of his hand. She is careful not to melt it with her own heat ability. She starts her experiment cautiously. She uses the tip of the icicle to prick her palm.

“...So, you’re going to test your healing too?” Ajax realizes her plan. He is not happy with the idea of Shaula willingly injuring herself.

“Might as well, Ajax. This is about both mine and your survival. If we have such durable bodies, we should check their limits. You just checked yours with that fall, you can basically heal broken bones and torn up muscles. I should check mine too, it’s not like everything about us is identical.” She is right about that. After all, while Ajax received an ability to freeze things, her ability was related to heat.

Ajax closes his mouth. Shaula is looking closely at her palm. She then tests out her hand, squeezing it over and over. She shows him her palm. A tiny bit of blood stain and no wound remains. But of course, she is not done yet. She is much too rigorous to stop there.

Shaula uses the icicle to make a longer scratch on the forearm of her other arm this time. Both she and Ajax can see small drops of blood and the cut closing in real time. It took maybe half a second. She tests the muscles in her forearm and stretches a bit. There is no lingering pain at all.

She then carefully digs into her forearm at the long scratch that has already closed. This time, she makes a small but deep and sloppy cut, almost as if stabbing her own forearm. Maybe if the skin is too damaged and the cut is messy, it would heal wrong or leave a scar. She then pulls off a small yet noticeable bit of skin to further check her hunch.

Is the skin being reconstituted and repaired or purely regrown?

“...Shaula, you didn’t have to do that.”

“But, you see though, right?” They both see her wound return to clean and clear skin within two seconds. The bit of skin torn off remains in her palm while whatever skin was lost on her forearm completely regrew. The new skin is not pink and there are no scabs remaining either. This detail is interesting to her.

“My skin heals, but it isn’t healing like it did when we were on earth. There’s no pink skin, no scarring, no scabs…” Her body is not exactly human anymore, perhaps it isn’t even biological in nature.

“Hm. Before we continue, just tell me, what are you gonna do with that rock?” Ajax points to Shaula’s left hand that just picked up a flat rock.

“You’re not gonna…” Ajax’s eyes tremble in understanding. Shaula has always been more bold compared to other people. He already knows what she’s about to do. The problem is, he doesn’t have the strength or speed to stop her.

Crack!

Shaula has used the flat rock to break her forearm. She winces and yells out loud at the sharp pain.

“Fuck! That fucking… fuck…”

She has broken a bone or two in the past so she knows the pain of it already. But, she has never willingly broken one. If she is wrong about her theory of healing, her left arm will be out of commission. This will be annoying for both of them since it will affect her ability to run. He wonders how she can be so impulsive.

It does not matter however because her forearm heals back up within ten seconds. To her credit, it was a clean break rather than a compound fracture. Shaula intuitively understands the limits of her own body. She tries out a few punches to see if there is any lingering pain. Nothing.

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“I told you, didn’t I? Sometimes, you gotta run first.”

Shaula continues testing the limits of her body for a few more minutes. She makes larger and larger wounds on the surface of her body. At a certain point, Ajax lost interest in her methodical tests and decided to test his own body. All his test wounds healed back up easily. He felt he could take the initiative because the pain was always short.

Now, he watches Shaula’s work. He cannot stop her self-harm so he waits for her to get bored. She has learned some important things. She knows now that even injuries where she loses large amounts of blood can be healed nearly instantly. Muscle, bone, blood, skin, all of it regenerates extremely quickly and completely. Her blood loss does not even impact her mental state. She never gets woozy or dizzy or anything.

Ajax was able to convince her to stop. Shaula had started asking if he could break her neck or cut off her fingers. She had gotten a little carried away with her experiments. She wanted to see whether nerve damage and paralysis heal quickly. Furthermore, would entire pieces of her body just grow back as if she was a starfish?

Ajax learned something important as well. He gained just a bit of insight into how far she was willing to go for their survival. He does admire her resolve.

This information can mean the difference between life and death in this alien world. He did not have the right to stop her even if he hated the pain she felt.

After their detour, they can only continue running. This time, they keep to a speed of thirty to forty kilometers per hour. This is a speed where the pain of a fall should not be too bad. Ajax will need to become a better runner before they try to go that fast again. However, they meet another obstacle.

Ahead of them are multiple groups of unruly monsters. But, they cannot just move around or go back. They can now see the boundary of the forest a few kilometers away just past this monster grazing spot. Past the boundary, Shaula can perceive a series of plains. She cannot smell the blue-leaf trees there, but she can smell green grass.

If they try to go around through this thicket of enormous trees, their chances of getting lost again become higher.

Left with no choice, the two of them move quietly through the field of monsters. Ajax holds his breath. The most common monster he sees in this area is a large two legged beast. It is roughly the size of an adult racehorse given anabolic steroids. It is also covered all over in a thin layer of blue, white and yellow feathers. Its snout is like that of a dragon, the ones that he would see in various tv shows. Its entire look is draconic and dinosaur-like. He is seeing a land dragon for the first time.

It is beautiful. Powerful. Perhaps hostile.

Luckily, they are able to keep their distance and they pass through the area quietly. The land dragon packs were spread far enough apart for a somewhat easy passage. Without incident, they reach a few hundred meters away from the edge of the blue-leaf forest. This is when Ajax notices something else.

“Shaula… I was… wait.”

“Huh? What is it? You alright?”

“I was… I was just holding my breath for a few minutes. I completely forgot to breathe after a point…”

“Are you alright? You’re probably lightheaded, huh… why did you need to do that? I don’t think those velociraptors have a sense of hearing as good as ours… Well, it wasn’t exactly a bad instinct–”

“N-No, Shaula, that’s just it. I don’t feel lightheaded at all. In fact, my breathing reflex or whatever just turned off. I only even needed to breathe when I wanted to ask you about those monstrosities back there.” Ajax had noticed that he could not speak because he had no air left in his lungs. Shaula looks at him with slightly bored eyes.

“...Well, just add it to the list of observations, I guess. You don’t need to breathe and I’m guessing I don’t need to either. *Sigh* Come on, let’s just get out of the forest first. I’m tired of this smell. Oh wait, I guess I don’t need to smell it if I don’t breathe, cool.” Shaula just walked forward while Ajax stood there for a moment while looking up to the sky.

“Right, you’re right.”

Putting this new detail aside, the two of them went past the edge of the blue-leaf forest. As soon as they exit, they see a wide grassy plain. These flatlands extend for many kilometers. Until a certain point.

Neither Ajax and Shaula were certain. They could not tell if this planet has intelligent life from the forest alone. But, at the end of the wide grassy plain, they saw their first bit of clear proof.

A large, walled city. Within the walls are massive, exquisite towers that could never be forged through the random forces of nature.

This place does indeed have intelligent life.

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