Gavin was a lively city. Too lively… I was defending my cake from hungry seagulls.
“Hey stop it! This is my cake!”
The seagulls were merciless and I looked on with a sad face as a seagull flew off with my cake.
“Assholes.”
The pier was noisy. The salty ocean breeze tickled my nose.
I was looking at the ocean. It had been 2 weeks since I reached Gavin. I had to buy a coat as it was becoming very chilly. It also made me realize something. The winter would arrive while I fly over the ocean. Is this a good idea? Should I wait till spring?
I had a lot of difficult choices. The Hurricane Path was at its strongest during autumn. This sounds like a bad thing but it’s controversial. My calculations revealed to me that I can drastically cut down the time I need to fly to arrive at the continent, this however relies on me hitching a ride on the Hurricane Path.
Not only do these hurricanes wander over the ocean, following some invisible path, the wind between these hurricanes is some sort of wind tunnel or ‘path’ on which I could hitch a ride. It could turn my 3-month flight into a 2-month flight as it will bring me one-third into the ocean.
The problem is that I will have to hop into it first, requiring me to fly through one or two hurricanes before I can get to the high-speed winds between the individual hurricanes.
The second problem is… There is no information on how wide or narrow those paths are, I might get swept into a nearby hurricane.
The last problem is that I will have to fly through one or 2 hurricanes again to get out. This whole plan relies on how skilled I am in flying. It has immobilized me as I am unsure how to score my flying skills. I believe that I’m a skilled flier but I’m sure the hurricanes would disagree.
Avoiding the Hurricane Path is also an option but that would knock 2 months on my travel time for 5 months total, which is insane.
Another option is taking a ship but that will take at least 8 months or more. Why isn’t there a better way to get to another continent?! How did that Imposter get there?
I sighed as I took another cake out of my dimensional pocket for it to get snatched by a seagull.
The world had become unexpectedly cruel and brutal while I was sealed away… I looked on as a child was trying to defend his snack. The seagulls worked together and tried to lift him up. The poor child was crying. When did humans relinquish this city to the seagulls?
I saw another flock of seagulls bombarding a stall with their droppings. Why were humans the most successful race on this planet again? This city is clearly owned by the seagulls and not by humans. Gavin, the city where seagulls reign supreme...
I got up but a seagull targeted my hat. My hat’s self-defence system kicked in and the seagull got fried.
“Hey, you did this to yourself. I have no control over my hat’s self-defense system. It’s a racial ability.” The seagull couldn’t respond as it had already passed away. Stealing the hat of a Misha is a very bad idea. It’s either impossible or an involuntary attack will assault the thief.
It seems that it takes a god to steal our hats… Been there, done that. Several other seagulls tried the same and met the same toasty demise before the seagull community decided that messing with me was a bad idea.
I took out another cake and no seagull dared to come near me.
“Thank you hat.” I ate my cake in peace. This didn’t solve my problem though. Giving up might also be an option. But I had already encountered 1 Blur here in Gavin. I could switch to using the surrounding humidity as an indicator. Locating them is easier when I can use water magic.
Anyway, this Imposter won’t stop until I put her into the ground, again. What would Remi do? Remi would fight off any Blur that approached her while doing her duties. I can’t do that. I want peace and quiet.
What would Paula do? She would probably counter-curse the imposter and send various shadow magic-related creatures after the Imposter. I can’t use curses nor shadow magic.
What would Agnis do? Hmm I actually don’t know. What would he do? Probably ignore it until it went away or if it was messing with his friends get close and personal and tear the whole continent down.
Which makes me wonder. Can I drop a [Meteor] on that continent from here? I tested the range of [Meteor]. It took a while but I saw a red dot sink into the ocean in the distance. It’s a problem if I can still see the [Meteor] hit the surface. It will never reach the other continent. I guess I have no choice. I need to go for it.
Nobody had attempted what I’m about to do. Use the Hurricane Path to hitch a ride. When have I turned insane? I walked over to the beach. It was relatively empty. The wind was strong and it was quite cold. I hopped on my staff and flew off. It won’t get any warmer by waiting.
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The wind was strong but blowing at my back. It made the flight cold but still a bit pleasant. I could use this as I would fly into a hurricane in several hours. The course was set. I would take a nap until I would get near the Hurricane Path. My hat would wake me up.
Turbulence woke me up. My hat should wake me up in 30 minutes. I might have miscalculated how rough these hurricanes are. Enormous pillars of swirling wind and water posed an intimidating scene. I was getting cold feet. I didn’t escape from Boshi town to get killed by a hurricane.
I was already struggling to even pretend that I was flying. The wind was tossing me around. I chickened out and retreated. I went back to where the air was calmer.
This is risky. I thought I was prepared but I was wrong. I froze the surface of the ocean, made a large frozen platform, and rested. I started to work on magic skills afterward as I need wind-based skills to make sure I’m not hopeless in that windy violence.
3 days was how long I worked on these. I need to be able to stabilize myself but also speed up drastically to pierce through the wind. I had also devised precautions in case I got knocked unconscious or into the ocean. The hurricanes might not kill me but drowning in the ocean might.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Why doesn’t Witchaven have curricula that teach how to fly in extreme circumstances? The answer came seconds later. I would have never taken a curriculum like that. Misha aren’t known to be good fliers. Just that they can fly but it’s more a way of transportation. Creatures like phoenixes or dragons are different. It’s their life and their identity.
A Misha that can’t fly will be fine. Most Misha hardly ever fly anyway. A phoenix or dragon that can’t fly is most likely going to die very young.
My skills were done. The only thing that was stopping me was my own fear. I might be crazy but not crazy enough to jump into this without being afraid.
I slapped my cheeks and flew up. [Stabilized Flight] would make sure I don’t turn into a milkshake. [Azure Rush] would give me a temporary speed boost, which can be used to rush through a hurricane. It was made hastily so it might have some flaws.
“Here goes nothing!” [Azure Rush] got used and I plunged into the intimidating wall of wind. I got instantly swept away but I didn’t tumble. Fighting the wind seemed futile so I tried to use the wind direction to my advantage.
[Stabilized Flight] wasn’t all powerful so I still had to make sure I didn’t get thrown off my staff. The wind cooled me off a lot. I had to heat myself up with some simple fire magic.
I regretted coming up with this idea. This was exhausting and I've only been fighting against the hurricanes for 10 minutes and my energy was spent. I started to run calculations in my head. If everything went according to plan I should attempt to leave the hurricane in 3 minutes.
Another [Azure Rush]. I followed the wind to pick up speed. The aim was to circle the hurricane several times, pick up momentum and fling myself out of it. Failing won’t be problematic, it will just waste energy.
The plan was successful! I got flung out of the hurricane and found myself between hurricanes. I didn’t do much but I started to speed up as if the wind had formed a path that it was guiding me through. The path was wide. I fiddled with some mana runes and made sure that my staff would fly in the middle of this path until I disabled it. I deserved a nap.
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I woke up and everything seemed stable. I was going extremely fast. It even was a bit of fun. The only problem was my exit. But I will enjoy this speed while I can. This should continue for 4 more days until I have to exit. 4 days of rest. The calm before the storm.
The 4 days were spent improving [Stabilized Flight] and [Azure Rush]. It’s entirely possible that I had survived by luck. I need to strive for excellence as complacency could kill me.
“Wow. Maybe I should write a research paper on this. Adjusting magic circles on the fly is completely different than in a safe environment.” I thought about it. Who would read it? Certainly not the Misha.
The skills were finished. There were still 2 days left. I recalculated my flight. A mistake in these could send me greatly off course, or worse, kill me. I was extra meticulous and calculated the time I needed to exit this path on the minute. 52 hours and 31 minutes until I have to exit and 51 hours and 3 minutes before I have to enter a hurricane to prepare for my exit.
The next step was to work on the skills I would need for the 2 months of flying. There should be 4 islands on my route to Nesher. I would use those islands to rest on.
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The time came. It was time to hop into a hurricane. [Azure Rush] propelled me into the nearest hurricane. I got met with a lot of turbulence but this was to be expected. Only 3 minutes were needed to completely stabilize. Everything is going well.
I started to pick up speed to prepare to get flung out of the hurricane. But something piqued my interest. What would the eye of the storm look like? I don’t need an hour and 28 minutes to pick up enough speed to exit this hurricane. My first time limit was to make sure I hopped into the correct hurricane. Only 19 minutes are needed to get enough speed.
My curiosity won and I headed for the eye of the storm. This was met with a lot of resistance because this hurricane wanted to throw me up and out and not down and in. Is this where the human idiom ‘Curiosity killed the cat’ comes from? Because my curiosity might kill me here.
It was hard and mana intensive but I made it. And my eyes fell on something that I did not expect. I was looking into an enormous eye. Is this a joke? What is an enormous cyclops doing in the eye of a hurricane? Cyclops? Cyclone? One eye? Someone must be messing with me! The cyclops roared and the eye of the storm, which was supposed to be wind still, started to become windy. [Wind blades] and [Wind scythes] flew at me and an enormous Cyclops hand was reaching for me.
“I’m so sorry for disturbing your stroll! I will get out of here!” I scattered azure petals to intercept the wind attacks flying at me. The cyclops had created an enormous updraft which hindered my maneuverability. Going up was the only direction that was allowed it seems.
I was unsure if this was a streak of luck. But I had learned [Heavy] by dispelling it off me. I cast [Heavy] on myself to increase my stability in the updraft. Fighting this thing is stupid. It must be an ancient beast!
The sky behind me lit up.
“What is it this time?” I looked behind me and the eye of the cyclops started to gather light green light.
“Hey, Cyclops how about I give you a kiss if you stop doing that? I might even let you braid my hair as a package deal!”
I discovered to my horror that this cyclops had no ears. It had a shiny bald scalp though.
“I hate this…” I stacked more [Heavy] and fell down. It caused me to narrowly evade an enormous light green beam of light shooting out of its eyes.
“Now I’ve seen it all. Laser shooting Cyclops. I want to go home…” I [Cleansed] all the [Heavy] and got catapulted upward. I used the speed to dive back into the hurricane. I had to keep applying [Heavy] and [Cleanse] to myself to control my altitude as my [Stabilized Flight] wasn’t created to accommodate this stunt.
A light green laser tore through the hurricane. I wanted to scream but screaming in a hurricane is a terrible idea. 43 more minutes before I have to exit this hurricane. How am I supposed to survive these lasers for this long?!
My options were: dodging lasers for 43 minutes and probably getting vaporized, or get the fuck out of here and deal with a slightly altered flight plan.
Making this decision was easy. I needed at least 19 minutes to gather enough speed anyways. But a cyclops inside the hurricane. It was easily 4 km tall, maybe more. What is it doing here? Is it trapped in this hurricane? I would also be pissed and shooting lasers if I was trapped in this hurricane.
Another laser that I barely dodged. Screw this Cyclops! He gets no sympathy from me! The eye of the cyclops glowed quite bright while charging up the laser, which gave it away. It made dodging the lasers easier.
The longest 19 minutes of my life but it came. I got flung out of the hurricane. I had to follow up with [Azure Rush] as I felt that I was slowly getting pulled back in. I kept flying and flying. As far from the Hurricane Path as possible.
I looked back. The walls of wind were still intimidating. It made me wonder how I would return to Kaledon. I might have to go through the Hurricane Path again when I do. I got shivers through my spine.
So many questions. But this proved it. This world has so much interesting stuff! Who would be crazy enough to jump into the Hurricane Path? Has anyone researched this? Or those Cyclops. Where do they come from, and where are they going? What do they eat? How do those lasers work? So many questions!
It made me a bit excited. Not because I have found more research topics. Oh no! I’m not going back there but I would enjoy reading the papers of those who are crazy enough to get in there to conduct research. It has been a while since I’ve been happy about my life span. As long as I don’t do anything stupid and get myself killed, I will live to see the day when some lunatic writes an extensive research paper on this phenomenon.
All the possibilities and hypotheses flowed into my mind. I had no way to confirm or support these but it kept me busy. Is that the only Cyclops or does every hurricane have one? If they are all walking, it makes the Hurricane path, really a path. What would happen if that Cyclops had hit another one with a laser? Or does have every hurricane a different creature? Wind related? One eyed? Starts with a ‘C’? Big? Small? Or is that Cyclops one of its kind?
I continued nerding out when it started to rain.
“Ah right, I need to correct my course.”
3 days had been added to my original flight plan. Not the end of the day. The most difficult part was yet to come; making sure I didn’t die of boredom in the next 2 months of flying. And my first choice was continuing to nerd out and come up with ideas on how and what that Cyclops is.