Looking at his body, moving his limbs, Atlas definitely felt different. Something in his body changed. Or rather his whole body changed.
“What just happened? My body feels different. As if I got a very good rest, moreover I feel more… athletic? What in the world ....” as he was about to finish his sentence, he suddenly felt an immense pressure coming from behind him. Turning around, he saw the dark beast watching him very carefully. As if it was observing a potential threat.
“Can you feel that I became stronger? Is that why you feel so different now? Don’t worry, I am not gonna hurt you” Atlas tried to reason with the beast, yet fully understood that it does not apprehend a single word he is saying.
“But I need to prove that I am not a threat. Yes, I got stronger, while I am still 100 percent sure, I can not take this beast in a fight.”
Slowly pacing away from the beast, Atlas lowered his head and moved several meters. Now the pressure was much less intense and the beast was no longer as concerned as it was right before.
"I guess it is okay for now. But, what has happened? Why did I suddenly get a body upgrade of some sort? Is it related to my new ability? Or is it the whole place doing it. Well, now I need to test it."
Looking around, Atlas found a somewhat barren part of earth. He drew a line with his finger on the ground. He then took a few steps and drew a second line, about 1 meter apart. He did so for about 6 meters. Then he took several steps from the first line and took a "prepared-to-run" stance. He counted down three seconds and as soon as the countdown ended, he instantly rushed towards the line.
Whilst running, he felt that it was so much easier to run. His speed was a bit faster, yet he felt that his stamina was significantly better.
Now reaching the line he drew, he prepared to jump. As soon as he stepped on the line, he jumped as hard and far as he could.
1 meter…
2…
4…
5…
6…
The lines were gone. He was flying past the mark he wasn’t expecting to reach. After being airborne for a few more milliseconds, he fell down about a few meters past the last line.
Very surprised, he was sitting on the ground, not believing what just happened.
“I am stronger. Much stronger aren’t I? Atlas thought. The sudden inflow of strength was definitely unexpected, yet a very welcome surprise.
Atlas was quite happy, that he almost forgot that he was stuck on a floating island with no one but a dangerous beast.
While in a moment, Atlas stood up and decided to do different physical exercises, to gauge the strength he now possessed. It was pretty obvious that he was not even close to the strength of the strongest of his world, yet he was stronger than an average human. At least that's what he was deducing from his analysis, whilst exercising.
After finishing the exercises, Atlas decided to eat the food he brought. He was not really hungry, even after fighting so many horrors and spending the time here. This was probably due to him absorbing the crystals, as he thought. Getting his backpack from the hole he dug some time before, was quite the task. He tried to walk past the beast without making any movements, which the beast could interpret as aggressive. While being constantly watched, he still managed to get the back pack and get back. Opening it, he found the food and water he placed. He took a bottle of water and drank it. To his surprise, drinking water gave him a great feeling of satisfaction. He probably did not realize, but he was thirsty. He emptied a whole bottle in a few seconds, when he noticed that the beast was slowly approaching him.
“What now!” Atlas cried inside. The beast was slowly marching towards Atlas, yet his look did not appear to be angry or menacing. Rather calm and curious even.
Approaching Atlas, it was looking at the empty bottle in his hands.
“Do you want it? Here” he held out the empty plastic bottle. The beast, without even flinching, generated a charge of black lightning and destroyed the bottle in an instant.
“Now that was scary”. Atlas could not even react to that. “He did not want the bottle. Is he thirsty? Does he want water?”
Taking a new bottle from the backpack, Atlas opened it and slowly started pouring it on the ground slowly in front of the beast. The creature reacted quite positively as it licked some of the water. After tasting the water, and drinking a bit, the horror put its mouth under the stream and started to wash away the blood left around its mouth. It was washing itself until the bottle was empty.
“Are you satisfied?” asked Atlas, even though he was not really expecting any answer.
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However, it looked like the beast was not satisfied, as it looked inside the backpack to spot 2 more bottles.
“I don’t think I can say no, can I?” Atlas stated and proceeded to take the bottles out and started to pour them. Not a minute passed, when Atlas ran out of water. No left with no water left, which is the first important resource to survive, he started to think about the ways to escape. He did not track the time he was on this island, moreover he did not know how much time he was passed out. One thing for sure, he needed to go back. This was when he finally saw something on the horizon. A very distant, dim outline.
“Land!” Atlas shouted. It was loud as the beast looked towards Atlas and then where he was looking at. A visible line, which resembled forest. Now, Atlas had hopes to escape and return back.
Yet, now, the only thing he could do is wait. It was still about an hour wait before the island collided with whatever was in the distance. Atlas decided to use this time to train. He wanted to replicate the black lightning he previously created. Well, rather he created a spark, a very remote resemblance of the lightning the beast produced.
An hour passed with all the attempts of Atlas trying to create the mysterious powers, yet with no luck.
“Well, we should be pretty close to the forest now. I should pack my stuff”. He stood up, packed whatever was left in his backpack and looked towards the forest in the distance.
It was a large forest which looked the same as the one he was initially. It was so close that they would collide any minute now. That was when Atlas thought of a very important question.
“How do these islands even exist? Shouldn’t they just explode when they hit something bigger?”
And as he asked himself this question, 3 stonemoles appeared almost from nowhere and looked at the forest simultaneously. Then something intriguing to Atlas happened.
Stonemoles started to crawl and hang on the side of the island, the side which was about to hit. Hiding their heads behind their claws, they were hanging on the side of the island.
“What are they doing, they are just gonna hit the cliff and die. Their shells are not gonna protect them, not against a collision of that size. No matter how hard they are, they are too small…” And that was when it hit Atlas. He understood what they were doing, and how the island did not shatter this whole time.
“They cover the hitting side of the island with their bodies, so that it does not shatter. If there are 100, no, about 200 hundred of those, they could probably protect it. But…” Atlas looked at the beast “We killed almost all of those creatures on the island… We screwed up”
The island was about to hit the cliff, the forest was on and Atlas knew, even at that speed, the island would definitely take some serious damage, due to its mass.
“Well, then jumping it is. I need to jump a few meters before the hit and I should be alright.”
Atlas prepared to jump, and saw the beast did the same.
“About 15 meters before the collision” Atlas was trying to measure the distance.
Activating his ability, Atlas concentrated his energy and tried to concentrate more of it in the legs. He thought, maybe with that, he will jump longer.
10 meters… The beast already started to run towards the forest.
9…
8…
“Now”
Atlas started to run. Using all his strength, he ran. Ran. Ran. When he was about near the edge of the island, he jumped. Never in his life, he expected to jump this long. The sheer propulsion power of this jump felt as if he was using some trampoline. He flew over the gap between the island and the cliff and was flying towards the large tree. He never expected his jump to be this strong. Neither did he aim where he was to land in particular. Therefore the hit against the tree was both unexpected and quite painful.
A thud was heard, as Atlas was lying in front of the tree.
“OUCH!” he cried. Although the hit was hard, he thought that it was not as bad as it should’ve been.
“Is that because of my now enhanced body?” He stood up and checked whether his body was fine.
“Well, that was better…”
Before he could finish the sentence, he heard a very loud bang. He instantly knew that that was the sound of the island colliding with the cliff he was on. He felt like the ground was shaking.
Atlas was very curious to see what would happen to the island. Is it just gonna crumble or is it gonna fall down. Yet the worst thing he was not expecting happened. The island cracked in the middle with the crack going diagonally towards the bottom front part. This made the back part of the island push on the front part. After hitting the cliff, the front part started to rise, rotating around the collision point upwards, as if it was a giant door closing on the forest.
The whole front half of the island rose up and was about to flip on the forest.
Watching at this terrifying sight with eyes full of dread, Atlas could only think of one plan.
“Run!”
He ran into the forest, hoping to outrun the falling part of the island. He ran like he never did.
He started to hear the trees cracking behind him.
Atlas was running without thinking about anything, when he felt his foot hitting something. Was it a branch, or a stone, did not matter. He fell down.
Now having no time to stand up he saw a large shadow of the island covering him.
“There should be something I can do!”
He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on the energy inside of him. And he felt it. the energy gathering inside. Quickly trying to replicate the spark he did before.
The form, the flow. He copied everything as he remembered. Opening his eyes, he threw his hand behind, he activated the ability.
Zap…bang.
A big lightning appeared in front, exploding the ground and propelling Atlas in front.
Flying out of the danger zone, Atlas felt relieved. He saw the island crushing down behind him.
“I made it!” he said feeling very proud of himself as well.
hit…
He flew towards another tree and proceeded to hit it with as much force as before.
…
Opening his eyes he saw a blue sky and tall trees.
“I guess I should call myself - Lightning Atlas. Both me and the lightning tend to hit trees quite often.”