Portals, and other planets

I practiced all night with my ice needles. Having an almost invisible attack that didn't use much mana would be incredibly useful for distractions, and maybe even disabling enemies. I fine tuned my control over two ice needles to the point that I could send them through, and around obstacles. I could control two ice needles to the point that they could pass through an opening the size of a keyhole. It had been a while since I got a full nights sleep.

Although I didn't know if practicing magic in my inner world still counted as sleep. Ethan joined me in my inner world sometime later.

"What's that?" He squinted at my ice needles as I practiced with them.

"A spell," I snorted, "I wanted to think of a spell I could use without getting noticed, and these needles are what I came up with. They don't take much mana, and they're almost invisible, but they're attack power is weak. I figured if I fine tuned them enough I'd be able to use them to hit vulnerable points. Like the eyes, and fingers."

"Are you just bound, and determined to fight dirty?" Ethan gingerly grabbed one of my ice needles from the air.

"If it keeps me alive," I tilted my head, "I'll kick, scratch, and bite wherever I need to. I'm not against throwing dirt in faces either." I dissolved the ice needles, "Besides," I smirked, "I've got the ultimate underhanded tactic in my mouth."

"Right," Ethan huffed out a breath, and shook his head.

It wouldn't be long until I woke up so I refocused on what I was trying to get done. I needed my needles to be pinpoint accurate. They would be useless if I couldn't hit what I was aiming at. As weak as they were they might still be kind of worthless even if I hit my target, but there's no way that my enemy wouldn't react if one of them flew up their nose or into their eyes. Even if they didn't do physical damage they would at least flinch.

Everyone flinched or freaked out when something flew into their eyes or nose. A split second distraction could mean death if both opponents were close in power. I woke up not long after that. Maybe I'd be able to sleep out in the open when we got to the planet. Well not out in the open, but in a space that actually fit me without having to stuff.

I smiled sleepily before yawning. I hadn't gotten that much sleep since Goliath insisted on raising my stamina. I should've never never told him I was close to having enough stamina for a third transformation. I still couldn't keep it up for much longer than a school day. I didn't know what I would do when the physical camouflage skill stopped being able to maintain a transformation.

As much as I hated pretending to be something I wasn't, there was no way I could deny how useful it was to be able to play human. I kind of wondered if I could evolve the skill. Physical camouflage was an all or nothing transformation skill. I could either look completely human or not use the skill at all. I wished that I had the ability to do partial shifts similar to the way werewolves shapeshifted.

Giving me a close quarters advantage as well as the size advantage. I already had a huge advantage when it came to ranged weapons. My eyesight was far superior to human eyesight, and that wasn't including any of my other types of of vision. Although some beasts had better vision than normal humans as well. Not very many of them were particularly powerful, and most were bird type beasts.

We headed out around eight together. Savannah met up with us as soon as we left the boys dorms. I collected a few extra uniforms, and stuffed them in my bag. I'd probably end up needing them sooner rather than later. I picked up my weapons, and headed for the portal center.

They weren't worried about me using the gun or grenades in the city because of the city protection signal. The signal completely disabled all unapproved firearms with its range. A weapon had to be registered as an approved one to be used in any of the military cities. There were only a few acceptations. Gun ranges were an example of one of these acceptations.

I smirked as I headed into the portal control station with my team. We registered as a team, and headed over to sit on the benches by the walls. If we were lucky they'd open the portals a little early, and start letting the early birds through. If we weren't lucky, as I often am, then we'd be sitting here until noon anyways.

"You said there was a few acid spitting beasts on this planet," I looked at Ethan, "Did you get some neutralizing cream? I bought three tubes for emergencies."

"No," Ethan looked surprised, "Those kind of beasts wouldn't be able to hurt us anyways with the armor you got us."

"Quiet," I narrowed my eyes, "I'm supposed to be broke."

"Besides acid spitting beast pretty much only exist in the canyons," Ethan smirked, "The chances of us running into one are so low..."

Ethan trailed off when he realized I was giving him a dirty look.

"They have to climb out of the canyon before they can attack anyone," Ethan frowned, "Plus every time one comes out they send down a suppression force to reduce their numbers. Then they don't need to climb out anymore."

"Why would reducing their numbers help with that?" I felt my head cock.

"Magical beasts have their own food chain," Ethan started explaining, "Kill the powerful beasts, and the weaker ones flourish. Balance is restored, and the beasts no longer have a reason to come to the surface."

"So normal food chain stuff," I felt a little disappointed by that, "I was expecting something more complex."