Rune used several of his spells to make the hovering platform move more quickly. He also decided to fly at a higher altitude as to not run into as many monsters. Occasionally, he sniped some monsters that were under them while they had no idea what was going on.
Of course, after every kill, he jumped down to get the materials or absorb them and flew back up with his Demon King form or his White Dragon form which had grown bigger due to the last dragon he killed. Whenever he transformed he gained a little bit more experience as that type of being and how to move more fluently in such a state.
After the insect incident, the rest of the group decided to rest while Rune stayed awake and ready to watch and guard them if anything came their way. For him, who was the most skilled marksman of the group, he could easily shoot something as small as a mouse from half a mile away due to his skills and spells.
The other thing was that he was the only one who was able to use his Cursed series as no one had his blood running through their veins. His creations of the Cursed series were on par with, if not greater than, miracles that occurred on Earth, like walking on water or turning water into wine.
There were many differences in his curses and the many gods’ miracles. The main two differences were that he wasn’t a god and that his curses were mostly for complete and utter destruction. Also, a god’s miracle would usually be enacted to help someone or benefit the god, unless the god was one of evil intent.
So far, he had only created four different Cursed weapons as he wanted to only give extreme power to the weapons he used the most. His rifle, his katana, his scythe, and his chains.
His rifle had three different settings where the user could fire off beams of energy in three different sizes. The katana had balls of flames hanging around it and devoured blood that it touched except for the user’s. The scythe was able to cut through almost any material and had the ability to disintegrate any being that the user wished that was weaker than the user. The chain was able to be moved by the user’s will alone and would be able to weaken, paralyze, blind, and knock unconscious anyone bound within it if they didn’t have the resistances or immunities.
They were moving on their way quite smoothly until they came upon some turbulence. Dark clouds like dark, evil-looking sheep could be spotted overhead and to the right a bit. Seeing how the Stormy Isles were named as such, he turned the platform to move towards the darkness.
The group that was sleeping now woke slightly at the shifting ground underneath them. The wind was picking up and it was beginning to get harder for Rune to keep it straight and to head on into the storm. They could hear lightning strikes and rain poured down ahead of them.
Rune took the tarp above them and tied it down so that it would have much less of a chance of blowing away. The rain soon started to hit the tarp and everyone became completely awake due to how hard it was. They could hear thunder and see flashes from the lightning and everyone, save for Rune and Rouna, was getting nervous.
“Ahh. A fine day to watch anime. Unfortunately, that doesn’t exist here… yet.”
Everyone looked at Rune as if h was a lunatic because they had no idea what he was talking about. They had no idea that one would usually watch anime inside and they thought it was some sort of sport or such. Everyone became even more perplexed when Rune didn’t decide to elaborate on the subject.
He just looked straight ahead, through the slightly open flaps of the tarp and watched as they sailed further into the storm. Some water was drizzling in through the tarp entrance, but it just poured off of the platform and kept going on its journey to the ground.
The reason why nobody had fallen off yet was due to them being a bit more used to being unbalanced due to the teleporting and, due to that, they were having an easier time not being motion sick and could keep their center of gravity in check. It was quite the fortunate side effect of teleportation.
Of course, they were also very cold and Rune had put away the cold magic tools. He wasn’t too fond of the heat and decided that it would be better to be cold and not die than to be warm and accidentally burn up the tarp. His only option for warmth at the moment was fire and, even with just an accident, he could accidentally cook someone alive.
And so, the rest of the group shivered in the frigid air while Rune didn’t feel anything in his Demon King form. The reason being that that form had a natural defense against weather and temperature and would automatically heat him up if anything happened. However, since it would heat him up, it wouldn’t be able to cool him down and he was the only one who could feel the warmth.
Erin and Rouna were shivering as they weren’t White Dragons who were resistant to the cold and were cold-blooded beings who relied on warmth. Even so, their most perfect temperature that they thrives in was seventy degrees and the heat of the desert was ninety while the storm was thirty degrees Fahrenheit.
After several minutes of traversing he dangerous and stormy skies, Rune could see through several openings that there seemed to be some sort of land formation. It was at that moment as well that fate decided that it didn’t like Rune and a lightning bolt crashed down upon them.
It destroyed Riika’s radio and heir comms as well as made a large hole in their tarp. The ground of the platform was slightly melted and everyone jumped as a fire had started to spread, but was soon put out by the rain.
Suddenly Erin stood, scabbard in hand, and looked ahead at the hovering land masses. He went near the entrance and held his sword up high.
He seemed to be about to shout something when lightning struck his blade and blew it up. Many didn’t know this, but magic crystals could easily become unstable due to a large amount of unknown energy to that crystal. That energy this time was electricity and the blade burst, leaving a massive hole in the platform and sending the unconscious student into the air.
The hovering platform shook as time seemed to slow for Rune. He couldn’t act fast enough, but he could watch as it all played out.
Erin was sent off of the platform first. Riika seemed to try and move her hand out, but it was too late. The explosion sent her off in the opposite direction. Rouna saw her fly off and jumped to save her while Elisa was in the middle of being shocked. Rena was being cling onto by Hika when the two of them fell through a hole that was made when the platform broke. Rune was too late in catching all of them and decided to at least save one.
The explosion created by lightning and Erin’s sword caused the magic crystals the hovering platform was made of to become unstable as well. They were now on a large bomb.
Rune reaches and grabbed Elisa and flapped his wings once to leave the platform. In the next second it exploded, their stuff littered all around the platform was now destroyed and no wreckage was left.
As he flew, he realized that Elisa was feeling cold and was shaking. The rain and cold air had gotten to her and she was in the middle of having a cold. Her skin was pale and her cheeks rosy as she felt lightheaded and promptly passed out when he was carrying her.
Rune couldn’t see anyone else as they descended into the island. Underneath them was a large amount of land that was covered by either vegetation or rivers. He could hear some strange animalesque cries that sounded strangely like dying birds and strange mewls along with growls like a dog.
The reason why he couldn’t see the others was due to the heavy rain, flashes of light, and the dense bunchings of trees. He was now stuck with Elisa and had to take shelter as quickly as he could.
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They landed in between a bunch of bushes where there were thorns, but Rune’s thick skin and Elisa’s armor protected them from it. IT was a good thing as well as the thorns actually had paralysis effects on them. The effects were strong enough to knock out a Regular Dragon, but not strong enough to pierce through armor and was only effective in the bloodstream.
Rune was, instead of holding her like a satchel under his arm, carried her in a fireman’s carry and stepped out of the bushes to find mud everywhere with roots of trees. But, what made him the most nervous, was the strangely large amount of bones lying all around.
The ground di have bushes, but it was more open than he thought and you could clearly see in most directions for a decent distance. The ground was muddy everywhere he stepped and he was forced to wade his way through the calf high mud.
The trees seemed to be creepy as they were curved to make strange J shapes upside down. The leaves seemed to be as sharp as blades and the few patches of grass laying on the ground were like razors and were sharper than swords.
As he walked through the strange forest, he heard a low growling and slowly turned around. The growling was coming from the behind him and his right hand, that was not occupied with carrying Elisa, was moving towards the katana handle.
His eyes saw, in his peripheral vision, that a creature with fur that was a pale green color with mud stains all over it was poking its head through the bushes. It looked extremely similar to a husky and Rune was tempted to keep it as a pet, but he had no time for that at the moment.
The wolf being got closer and he realized something different about it. It was more like a Chimera than a wolf with wings like a bat and a tail that seemed to branch into several different snakes. There were at least twenty snakes that slither around and the wings were folded up on it’s back.
It opened its maw to reveal the two rows of sharp teeth that would easily shred and rip apart Elisa in an instant. Rune drew his blade as calmly as he could.
Then, without any warning, it pounced. It was fast, faster than most of the Hierarch Dragons he had faced before which basically meant that these wolf beings were faster than the two weakest Hierarch Dragons he faced.
Even so, he sliced upwards with a quick draw. The blade found itself outside of its sheath and the being flinched for a second after being faced with an enormous amount of killing intent from out of seemingly nowhere.
The blade cut upwards and blood splattered everywhere. Some of the blood even followed Rune’s blade and seemed to cling to it until it suddenly stopped. The blood flung upwards and painted the trees around them. The two halves of the wolf slid on the ground, but, instead of both halves going around him, one fell to his left and the other fully hit his legs and sank Janet the mud a bit. Quickly, he absorbed one half and stored the other and wiped the blood from his face. His blade had no blood on it while he sheathed it and it seemed like Elisa had gotten some blood on her armor.
Rune turned the other way and started walking. It was annoying for him to wade in the mud while carrying a person, but he couldn’t fly underneath the trees as there wasn’t enough space and he didn’t want to be above the trees in case he missed something or something attacked him from the cover of leaves.
While looking for a cave, he found several more wolves and managed to store a partially intact one as she had choked it to death with a single hand. The snakes tried to bite him, but his skin was too thick and he had activated several skills that made the fangs break on contact.
And, as luck would have it, he found no cave. Instead, he decided to climb a tree after he cut off all he dangerous leaves on it. He placed the sleeping Elisa on the tree and pulled out a pistol.
He started to enchant the rounds and make it a Cursed weapon. It was a fairly short ritual which made the object into a Cursed one and all he had to do was pour in enough mana or bathe it in enough blood to become something extraordinary.
The pistol glowed a light yellow color and red energy surrounded it. It was truly a sight to behold as it glowed with such an energy that it was like a second, slightly dimmer, sun appeared in his hands.
Then he loaded in a cartridge and flicked the hammer down with his thumb. This pistol was in the shape of a Desert Eagle and was now enchanted to fire off an even more powerful explosion that would send the bullet out of the chamber at mach 3. The gun was also enchanted to paralyze the enemy and to not allow recoil from the bullet at all, including the time when the bullet leaves the gun’s vicinity.
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Rouna was gliding down with Riika on her back. Currently, she was in her dragon form and was trying to find a good spot to land in. They weren’t in any danger at the moment, but Elisa needed silence and to be still if she wanted to find the others using her farsight gift.
She soon spotted a slightly open area which had a rock in the center of it. Mud was all around it and it had some strange, glowing moss growing on the rough surface.
Since the rock was larger than her, she decided to land on it and placed Riika down. Riika sat up and held her head in her hands. She was dizzy from the flying and the explosion and was very confused.
However, as soon as she sat up and when Rouna was in her human form, the ground shook and the muddle rippled as it was more liquid than solid. Rouna looked towards the left and then towards the right, but found nothing that could cause the quake. Unfortunately, the source was right underneath her.
The rock rose upwards and Riika started to slip off of the rock and seemed to lose her grip on it as well. Rouna, with lightning fast reflexes, caught her and stabbed her hand into the rock formation to hold on. Her skin, even in her human form, was sturdy and durable enough to not get damaged by even swords swung onto her.
However, this rock was different and her hand became bruised and bloodied just by digging a simple hole. Apparently, this rock was made of a special substance that could harm even her.
Underneath the two of them, a large Rock Elemental appeared and was looking around. It had limbs of solid rock imbued with magical essence to make them harder than even several layers of refined steel. The limbs were connected using magic and a light blue energy could be seen in all the joint areas. The head was directly connected to the body and was somewhat circular, but more of an oval shape. There was a dim, blue glow where the eyes would be and it had no other facial features. For fingers, it had eleven rocks to make up three fingers and one thumb for each hand. The shape of the arms and legs was like a rigid and rocky log that was rounded out on both ends.
After twisting its body several times, it moved its right hand up to the top of its head where Rouna and Riika were, but it had no idea that they were there. As the fingers and hand got closer, Riika became more and more uneasy as the situation seemed to get worse.
Just as the hand was about to either touch or crush them, Rouna spat out a ball of poison that was concentrated enough to send the hand away. To be more precise, she had opened her mouth and the poison appeared in a ball in front of it before it was sent off as a projectile.
The Rock Elemental moved its hand, slowly, in front of itself, confused as to what happened. Then it noticed something odd, something that wasn’t on its hand before. There was a strange, green substance that was oozing in between its fingers.
This time, with both hands, it swung towards its head to try and crush what may have been on it. It was a stupid and unintellectual being who only slept for years until bothered or did what interested them.
Originally, the floating isle that the group had found themselves on was one where the ground was literally pulled from underneath, creating a chasm of darkness and frightening curiosity where no one traversed.
The trees were already on the ground before the soil and rocks were uprooted from the sand around them. The reason why everything became muddy was due to the heavy rain that covered the isle 24/7. Then, due to the amount of magic keeping the isle up and how it is leaking into the soil, the plant life has grown to be quite deadly with all of their qualities being able to kill. The animals have learned to adapt in the past several centuries they have been on the isle and thus became natural killing machine adept at killing even the most pesky of weaker dragons.
Currently, this was the only Rock Elemental on the isle as it was inside the ground when the isle was lifted. It had been bothered several times in the past, but those beings mostly became flat chunks of meat by the time it was done with them.
Rouna, with her quick agility, dragged Riika’s hand to the area she was holding and made her hold on tight. Then she transformed into a dragon and swiped at the arms of the elemental. It was useless as, with each attack, the giant became more and more furious and it moved faster the more rage it had.
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Rena and Hika were falling through the air at a decent speed. They weren’t too worried about the fall, mainly because Rune enchanted their boots with a feather fall enchantment. What they were worried about was the looming danger they felt from the forest beneath them.
Suddenly, leaves shook and strange looking bird appeared from the trees just to disappear back below. Then, in the distance, a rocky figure could be made out and they saw a mound of rocks moving. It looked around a small bit before moving its unnatural hand towards its head just to be repelled by a green substance.
They decided to move in that direction once they were done falling.
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Erin had crashed a while ago and was feeling dizzy. He was the only one who felt the fall from such a height and was in the middle of trying not to drown in the six-inches of mud he was in.
When he got up, he looked around and decided to lean against a tree.
On his way, he was cut by something and he looked down. He was now bleeding heavily and he looked for the culprit. A tall strange of grass.