The mutilated cadet still had his weapon - one pistol, larger than regular ones - in his hand.
Nice grip strength and...
Vlad quickly snatched it from his hand and attached them to his hips.
The Rad-Suit had built-in magnetic weapon holders located around the hips and for larger weapons, in the back.
...I'll make good use of this.
"This feels like grave robbery," The girl said from behind, her voice filled with empathy.
Vlad paused for a second.
"Doesn't matter."
The girl silently walked away, her sword creating a metallic tang, scratching against a rock.
Vlad continued. He quickly took off the cadet's remaining Rad-Suit, revealing a layer of Silkweave.
A skin-tight body suit made of a special type of comfortable silk, engineered to be worn underneath the Rad-Suit to reduce irritation and discomfort of prolonged wear, offering a soft and flexible transition to the outer gear. While not hindering the absorption of NE.
Great, It's not damaged at all.
Before he could move his hands, a sound of stabbing and slicing entered his ears making his head snap.
***
The girl was skinning one of the Vulturovs. After which she cut out square chunks of red meat and placed it on a piece of skin.
"What are you doing?" Vlad asked.
The girl stopped her sword.
"What?"
Vlad stared intently and silently.
"I'm just gathering food since there's a bunch of perfectly fine meat right here," the girl said, her tone indifferent. "Food and water will be hard to get by here."
Vlad's face scrunched. He stared for a few seconds, then his expression softened remembering something.
"Oh, yeah! They're edible! Gather as much as you can. They'll be tremendously helpful."
Idiot! I didn't even think of it. He berated himself mentally. Glad that she's got some sense.
After their belief conversation, Vlad returned to what he was doing. He took the Silkweave of the cadet, who by now, had become pale. He ripped the parts near the stomach which got drenched in blood.
He then tore off the left sleeve of the silkweave and placed it on a rock nearby. And knotted every hole in it - except the one for the neck - for a makeshift carrying bag.
He took the makeshift bag to the girl and gave it to her.
"You can put the meat in here. It'll be easier to carry."
The girl looked at the makeshift bag and glanced at the now nude cadet confused and asked:
"What was that for?"
"I needed something and made it a bag to carry the meat. Win-win, to be honest," Vlad replied pointing his finger at the dead cadet.
"You really are taking "everything useful" huh?" The girl murmured, accepting the bag.
***
Vlad returned to the sleeve he tore off and deactivated the gauntlet on his left arm. The gauntlet turned into a small cylinder with a scale-like design. He attached it to his hip then grabbed his left arm and said:
"Detach part: Tan. Code green."
Rad-Suits had modular components categorized by different areas they covered on the body. The part covering the left arm was called "Tan" and the rest were promptly named: "Cot" for the right arm, "Sin" for the left leg, "Cosc" for the right leg, "Cos" for the torso and then finally "Sec" for the head.
[Tan detached.]
The part covering Vlad's left arm came off from his shoulders like the shell coming off of a boiled egg. He slowly removed it revealing his arm - only covered by a Silkweave of his own and put it on the rock. The cold quickly seeped into him, sending a chill down his body.
He tore off the blood-drenched sleeve of his Silkweave on his left arm and threw it on the ground. Picking up the sleeve he previously placed on a rock, he slid it onto his arm like a very long glove. Immediately the bleeding significantly lessened.
Ah, it stings a little.
"What are you up to?" The girl spoke from behind.
Vlad, startled at the sudden words looked at her and turned his head back around.
"What you said about it getting infected...I figured I could change the Silkweave around the wound with a new one. Without any holes in it."
The girl looked slightly proud and sighed.
Vlad continued:
"Look, it's bleeding less now."
"But the wound is still there, you can't just hide it behind some clothing. You need to be treated."
Vlad flexed his arm and sighed.
"Well, It's better than nothing right now."
The girl walked over to the wall of the cave and sat down, putting the Vulturov meat she collected beside her she said:
"We need to get out of here fast, especially you."
Vlad remained silent and put the Rad-Suit sleeve back on. A clicking sound filled the cavern as it attached back to the main body of the suit. Warmth flooded his arm making the cold disappear.
He quickly put his gauntlet back on, clenching and opening his fist. Surprisingly, even with one-third of it damaged and multiple holes in it the gauntlet miraculously was functioning almost perfectly. Maybe the universe felt pity and smeared a bit of luck on his damned fate.
Glad you're still alive.
Vlad turned to the girl and gave a determined nod.
The girl got up and grabbed the makeshift bag full of Vulturov meat. As they were about to head out her eyes caught sight of something very interesting.
"What's wrong?" Vlad asked.
"We almost left something of great use behind."
Vlad raised a brow confused at the girl's words.
The girl stood and turned to him, in her hand she held another pistol, exactly the same as the one Vlad had taken from the corpse of the deceased cadet.
He had another one!
The girl twisted and turned the pistol and then tossed it to him.
"Hold on to this one as well," she said.
Vlad swiftly attached it to his hips.
The girl headed towards the entrance of the cave and said:
"Let's go."
***
Both of them stood at the entrance of the cave faced with a major problem at hand. The height. The entrance of the cave was nearly two hundred meters up from the ground and almost one hundred and thirty meters from the tree directly below it.
"How do we get down from here?" The girl asked, looking down.
"Particle Repulsion."
"Can we even use that? Isn't this suit just for training?"
"Since it has the function to detach parts independently it should have Particle Repulsion as well," Vlad replied.
Vlad tapped the gauntlet on his left arm which had miraculously survived. "Besides," he added, a hint of grim determination in his voice, "Either we jump trusting this suit has more up its sleeve, or we become food for whatever monstrosity that lives here."
"And you're sure you know how to use it?"
No. That's what Vlad wanted to say but the situation wasn't right after his motivational speech.
"A little bit."
The girl looked at Vlad with her face drowning in skepticism and doubt.
"We're going to risk our lives off of that?"
"You just have to think about it," He snapped back. "Just think about flying and your brain will just subconsciously do things to your legs and the suit will pick up on it and levitate."
The girl's face had zero signs of any expression, just a blank stare right into Vlad's soul.
"That's...what I was told," He added, looking down. "And even if things do go south, we'll be aiming for that Bentree. The leaves should break our fall.
The girl looked doubtful, her gaze drifting from Vlad to the immense drop and then to the distant, spindly branches of the Bentree.
"We should just climb down-" The girl stopped mid-sentence.
A familiar sound perked up both their ears. They locked eyes for a second, then started looking for the source, lowering down to the ground to make themselves harder to detect. The shriek grew louder by the second.
But after a few seconds, there was complete silence.
"We need to go," he said, grabbing her hand. After a second of silence, he added, "This way if one of us can get the Particle Repulsion to work the other will be fine as well."
The girl looked hesitant.
Then another much louder screech made their heads twist to their rights. A Red Vulturov was diving straight into them with unimaginable speed. The nearly inaudible sound of a Red Vulturov's flight made them not realize its presence until it was too late.
Shit!
Vlad jumped off the ridge they stood on taking the girl with him, making her scream. Right as they jumped off, the Red Vulturov crashed down right where they were, sending small rocks and debris flying.
Vlad managed to twist his body mid-fall fearing that the mutant would come after them. But it was nowhere to be seen, as if it never even existed.
Instead caught sight of a silhouette which sent shivers down his spine, it was twice the size of the Red Vulturov. A realization dawned on him and he just focused on accelerating his fall.
Don't come, don't come!
The girl's shout snapped him out of his daze, she yelled:
"IT'S NOT WORKING!"
Vlad looked at her and then below, the giant leaves of the Bentree were practically at arm's length. The wind whipped around them as he pulled the girl closer and wrapped himself around her.
Work! Please work!
They plunged into the sea of leaves, rustling and snapping filled their ears as the massive leaves scraped against them, momentarily slowing their descent.
But the decrease in speed wasn't enough. They were descending straight into a huge branch of the tree with speed enough to break almost all of their bones on impact if not fatally injuring them.
As Vlad braced for impact he felt something pushing him away from the girl. Right before they crashed into the branch the girl let out a strained grunt and turned them around. Making her the one who was going to touch down on the branch first.
Vlad closed his eyes, but the sound of wind whipping past his ears suddenly died. He opened his eyes to a sight of them suspended in mid-air, their descent abruptly halted.
The girl had managed to use Particle Repulsion.
She did i-
She quickly threw Vlad off of her and onto the surface of the large branch and then fell on it herself, generating a loud thud.
They survived without a single bone breaking.