Chapter 94: Beast Link Bands.

Ava’s breath hitched. What did that mean? Had her parents been imprisoned or given a death sentence? Her heart picked up speed as she panicked. "What did you do them? Tell me, I want to know. Are they dead?" She whispered the last question.

She was just a child, and she could not hide the fear in her eyes. Tears were already clouding in her eyes and threatening to spill. Guilt was eating her like a worm eating through the heart of an apple, burrowing deeper until nothing sweet remained.

"Your family is losing most of their individual wealth and business assets," Julia explained calmly. "Your mother, Ritah, has been demoted from Brigadier General to a Chief Warrant Officer of the second class, and posted directly to the border watchtowers at the edge of the Veil. Your whole family has been demoted to middle class in the clan. No more luxuries, no more servants, no more fine wine." Julia’s smile faded, replaced by an icy stare. "And if you refuse to lead this team, or if you go out there beyond the Veil and don’t give it one hundred percent of your effort, your entire family will be killed. Instantly."

Tears spilled over Ava’s cheeks, dripping off her chin onto the cold stone floor. A wave of crushing guilt washed over her, making it hard to breathe.

It’s all my fault, she thought, her shoulders shaking as she wept openly. I should have listened to Yanxi!

Yanxi, her friend at the academy, had practically begged her not to go home. ’Going home will just drag your parents into the mud with you!’ Yanxi had warned her. But Ava had been too scared, too stubborn, too blind to listen. She thought her family was powerful enough to shield her. Her mother was a high ranking Soul maiden and she could protect her.

She had been wrong! Now her poor mother was heading to a freezing border watchtower, and her father was probably counting their last low-grade stones.

Ava wiped her nose with her dirty sleeve, taking a deep, ragged breath. She looked Julia right in the eyes; all the fight left in her voice replacing itself with pure surrender.

"I’ll go," Ava sobbed out, bowing her head till her forehead touched the floor. "I’ll go beyond the Veil. I’ll lead the team, I’ll fight the beasts, I’ll do it with a smile on my face... As long as my family is safe."

Julia nodded triumphantly. "Bring the next one!"

******

By 2:20 P.M, Achilles had left. Zyra was now buying stuff from the system shop to replace what had been taken. The supermarket came with a robot cashier like the ones in the Beast pavilion. Achilles’s men had been doing some shopping since they arrived, as had the Soul maidens and Malia.

Zyra moved to the beast domain after res-stocking the shelves. The place had changed to accommodate Snowy, and she wanted to explore the differences between this anthill and the one in the pavilion. But right now, she had more pressing matters to attend to than sightseeing. She and Beauty teamed up to map out a strategy for the upcoming expedition.

Beauty, stretching her sleek neck, gave a low snort. [Listen, host. You are stepping into completely unknown terrain. If your team gets separated in a blizzard, you are going to lose beasts. It is better for you and your squad to have a foolproof way to track the beasts at all times, just in case things go sideways.]

Zyra nodded, rubbing her temples. "Agreed. And I am guessing that you already have something in mind."

With a soft shimmer of light, two black bracelets materialized directly into Zyra’s palm. They seemed to be made of metal, but felt light like rubber and the surface was perfectly smooth....no buttons, no dials, no complicated runic switches.

"What are these, sleek handcuffs?" Zyra asked, tapping the bracelets with a fingernail.

[Those,] Beauty said proudly, [are Beast Link Bands. Look closely at the center.]

Zyra turned a bracelet over. Embedded right in the middle was a tiny, polished crystal core.

[That little rock is a cheat code for understanding your beasts better,] Beauty explained, adjusting her posture. [It reads their emotional state instantly. All you and your team need to do is memorize the color codes. If it flashes Red, the beast is in distress, terrified, or ready to tear something apart in combat. Green means they are calm, trusting, and loyal.]

"Simple enough. Traffic light rules," Zyra muttered.

[Exactly. Blue means they are sad, physically weak, or feeling helpless. Yellow is the jackpot that means they are happy, excited, and feeling physically strong. But if that thing ever turns Purple, you run. Purple means total confusion, mental disturbance, or dark corruption.]

Zyra’s eyes widened. "Good to know. But red is worse than Purple....even though both are bad news."

[The primary purpose is tracking their exact energy signatures across long distances. As a bonus, the owners can also use them to send audio and video messages. They can make voice and holographic calls and have and infinite battery.]

"Wow," Zyra breathed, a genuine smile breaking across her face. She slipped one onto her wrist, watching it automatically adjust to her size. "Beauty, thank you. This is going to be incredibly helpful. And let’s be honest, the absolute cherry on the cake? They’re completely free since they count as standard beast maintenance gear. My budget loves you."

Beauty let out a dramatic sigh that practically screamed ’Of course I’m amazing and you are lucky to have me.’

[Now, moving on to survival, since the frozen wastelands are brutally cold, you can’t just go wearing your standard light hunting clothes unless you want to turn into a human popsicle. I have some options that will keep your team warm but still leave you flexible enough to fight.]

Zyra inspected the options, studying some thick, incredibly dense material. "I’ll take the fur coats, the heavy-duty trousers, and the insulated boots."

[Excellent choice. Don’t worry about measuring your team, either. They are fitted with a ’one-size-fits-all’ array. They expand or shrink depending on the fat percentage in one’s body.]

"Perfect. Saves me the awkwardness of asking Hunter for his waist size," Zyra chuckled.

[I still have those nude pictures if you want to know...]

"NO!" Zyra shut her eyes, "I do not want to know."

[Ha-ha, It’s okay host. I am sure we will get there someday.]

She snorted. "Buy more of these Link bands, ten for now. If I don’t have enough points, add to the debt."

Anyway, she would put them up in the supermarket and sell them. In a world where most cellphones were trash, this link band was the perfect communication device. Even if she priced them at one hundred thousand high grade stones, people would be lining up to buy them.

The system sent her the ten link bands. Gathering them and winter gear, Zyra thanked Beauty one last time. She stepped out of the Beast Dominion and headed straight to the courtyard, eager to show the new loot to Hunter.

She couldn’t wait to see the new look on his face. Maybe, she could even capture a picture of his silly face with her link band. Perfect blackmail material.

"He-he-he," she chuckled, as if she could see it already.