Nameless woke up and felt and extreme pain. 'I should stop hurting myself…Where I am?'
He recalled what happened before he lost consciousness and fell here.
"Yes…a flying serpent…"
'[Life IV]'
The already familiar wave of green fire covered his body and the pain decreased significantly. Suddenly he felt dizzy.
'It really consumes too much energy…I should find some more efficient ways to heal myself.'
After going through these small "reparations" he stood up and looked around. Very few plants, gloomy gray sky and the black obsidian ground combined resulted in the desolation which surrounded him.
He was alone and suddenly lost. Some of his energy recovered and he used it to try to heal only the points which hurt him.
'It's indeed more efficient this way…But, where should I go now…'
He activated the Boundless Map and examined the surrounding area, but the usual dizziness assaulted him.
'Damn…I have too little energy!'
He thought about this problem while recovering. He activated the map, but this time tried to delete some details from it. The energy consumption really reduced.
'Good, this method really works.'
After that he reduced the space that the map could investigate to only five hundred meters. He sensed the energy loss and could only shake his head before reducing the range to a hundred meters. 'It's the optimal distance.'
Not without headache he remembered in which direction the dragon sent him and decided to go where the lake should be.
'Maybe I will find the others.'
He proceeded while looking for anything that can be useful to find Captain, but without any results. After walking for some time, he suddenly saw something in the distance.
'A flame?'
Nameless was immediately overjoyed but after some consideration he still decided to be careful. He slowly advanced towards the light he saw in the distance.
Once he was a hundred meters away Nameless noticed that it was indeed a flame that produced the light, but it was very cold and ghostly.
Nameless inwardly shivered.
Around the strange flame there were sitting three figures who Nameless couldn't see very clearly. He summoned the Boundless Map and observed the three people.
*Clack* *Clack* *Clack*
Once the he saw the features of the three strangers, he suddenly heard some strange sounds.
'…?...Damn!'
Three skeletons were looking in his direction. They had the same characteristics of Timeless people to be an overlap of many different images but still their skeletons seemed to Nameless very solid and corporeal.
All of them stood up and ran in his direction while producing some clacking sounds with their bones.
Nameless decided to run but the next moment the sky, previously gray became red and a giant face appeared on its surface.
'Captain?!?'
It was indeed his face.
"Boy, I don't know where you are and if you're still alive, but I will leave a mark for you to follow. I will wait you for five hours."
The face made from clouds opened its mouth and a read beam shot form it, hitting somewhere not so far from Nameless's current position.
To his immense regret to reach the new destination he had to deal with skeletons.
He sighed and took out his dagger waiting for the undead chasing him.
*Clack* *Clack*
The pursuers didn't make him wait for too long. Two of them were holding swords while the last one was weaponless. Both of his hands were glowing with ghostly fire.
Nameless didn't wait a second longer and dashed forward near the first skeleton. Some purple light flashed a small tentacle caught the skeleton number two.
*Slash*
The head of the skeleton number one was cleanly separated from the rest of the body and fell on the ground.
The boy jumped dodging the thrust of the number two who already freed himself from the tentacle and slashed back.
The second head fell near the first one.
The last remaining enemy stood still without doing anything.
'Is…Is he observing me?' Thought Nameless. 'Well, I don't have time for this.'
He rapidly approached the last enemy. Suddenly this one also started moving. 'This is troublesome…'
This skeleton was fare quicker and composed compared to his companions, his movement fluid and swift.
Before Nameless could do anything, he already had to dodge three jabs…
…or four.
The last one precisely hit the boy on the rib cage. Nameless even heard his own bones cracking. Some blood appeared on the corner of his mouth. It had a metallic taste.
The skeleton didn't give him any time to recover and other jabs, hooks, elbows rained incessantly on him. Some of them he managed to dodge but these which hit him felt like small mountains crushing his body.
If not for the [Life IV] he would be already dead many punches ago.
'I have to do something! But what? He is too quick and strong this one…'
The skeleton suddenly dashed forwards and hit Nameless with his leg. The boy grinned. 'So, you can use your legs to hit me? Well, too bad for you!'
Then the skeleton tried to pull his leg back he found out the he couldn't. The boy caught it and was holding firmly. He even summoned some small tentacles.
'[Burn]'
Suddenly appeared some purple flame and immediately pounced on the skeleton's leg.
*Crack*
The purple flame consumed it very quickly, but the skeleton was very decisive and directly broke his leg and jumped back.
Nameless smirked. He managed to recover some energy by burning the skeleton's leg and slowed it down.
The fight was won.
But the next skeleton's action caught him unprepared. It dispersed the ghostly flame around his hands and kneeled before Nameless.
The boy slowly approached the undead. 'Is it some trick?'
But the skeleton remained unmoving even that Nameless was extremely close to him. 'Ok, I won, and I have to go.'
He started running towards Captain's location.
*Clack* *Clack* *Clack*
He stopped and turned back. – "Do you want to follow me now?" – The skeleton was jumping behind him. Nameless sighed. 'He is pretty powerful. I would be dead many times if not for the life flame and my reflexes.'
'It would be good to took him away…' – Suddenly he had an idea. – "Come here." – He gestured to the skeleton.
It obeyed. Nameless placed his hand on the skeleton's forehead and activated the Boundless Map.
'[Store]'
The skeleton disappeared. Then Nameless made him reappear to be sure that everything worked well.
'Ok, it works…I need to try this trick with some living being in the future…'
He wanted to burn the other two skeletons but found out that they were still alive, so he also stored their skulls and bodies inside the Map. 'Who knows, even these two may be useful.'
[…]
The destination wasn't very far, and he didn't encounter anything else apart the thee skeletons. He arrived in a small valley and was stuck frozen. Nearly half of the valley was occupied by the body of the winged serpent which attacked them before. He calmed down and after some examination noticed that the head of the creature was separated from the rest of the body.
Not far from the corpse he saw three figures around a small flame. This one was a normal red and warm one.
And the people were Captain, Doctor and Herulè.
Nameless approached them.
"Oh, Boy! You really survived the crash and even managed to arrive here." – Laughed Doctor. Captain also smiled. – "You're lucky that I protected you from the serpent." – Commented Doctor.
"We didn't notice this winged lizard in time, so it managed to attack once before Cap killed it." – Explained Doctor seeing Nameless's gaze. Suddenly he thought about something. – "Kid, try to burn it with your flame!"
"I'm curious if your bloodline can acquire even something from a class VIII creature."
Nameless was also very eager to try so he immediately went near it and summoned his flame. After some time, the flame really managed to burn some of its scales.
"Marvelous!" – Even John was surprised.
The purple flame incinerated a few more scales before Nameless felt the already familiar dizziness and had to stop.
Doctor nodded. – "If this ability of yours wasn't restricted by your energy it would be godly."
"Did you managed to acquire something?"
Nameless was lost for a moment then nodded. He summoned his flame.
'[Space III]'
Purple color immediately changed to a pure white one.
Captain was shocked. – "Space energy? Really?! You really managed to do this!"
"Boy!" – Doctor placed his hand on Nameless's shoulder. – "This is a very great opportunity. Space energy is rare and difficult to sense. At your level, normally even a billion on you could be killed by this creature in les than second so you would be never able to find time and opportunity to burn one of its scales like you did today. For now, you don't understand but one day when you are more powerful, you certainly will!"
Captain nodded.
"But this is about future. Now we have to concentrate on our current situation." – He turned towards Herulè. – "Is the portal far from here?"
"No, just behind that hill."
"Ok, let's go."