The sky was quite beautiful this early in the morning, don't you think?
The numerous stars that blanketed the sky gleamed brilliantly, although, this was just a normal view to the inhabitants of this world and even others too.
Currently, beneath this sky was a boundless ocean. And yet, while this ocean seemingly stretched infinitely, just beyond the apparent horizon were insurmountable mountains!
Indeed, this was, in fact, the Yellow mountains! Its base was so wide it covered the northern, northwestern, and northeastern side of the horizon entirely! Its peaks were so high it easily penetrated the clouds.
Not only were these mountains absolutely huge in scale, their ecosystems were just as abominable. If you tried to make a house there, you'd have to clear all the overgrown plants and trees first. And once you clear them down, they would rapidly grow back! If left uncleared, the mountains would eat your dwelling right up. That's why no one soul lives there. Why would they have to waste their energy doing that kind of menial labor to live there when they could simply live somewhere else?
Of course, in a way, the giant golden serpent lives there; well, it's more like the mountains live on him! Ugh, I can feel my back hurting already.
And yet, two ships were racing in that very same direction!
BOOM!
The bloodthirsty… Bloodthirsty piranhas attacked and the water immediately gave way. In order to not risk damaging the ships, the both of them weaved about in the reflective waters.
This, however, was wrong! Wrong wrong wrong!!!
Oh, oh this is bad. S**t! No one noticed, but by doing such drastic maneuvers, both ships were starting to go off course!
Of course, while both ships' runic systems can correct for this, that didn't stop them from separating! How was Queenie supposed to see Rans handsome face now!?
What's worse, while four of them were rank-5 and thus beatable, one of them was rank-4!
Can you guess which one it was? Of course you can, we're all smart here.
Ah, poor Ran, what luck he and his group have! Yes, while Queenies group has four rank-5s and are able to contend against the four piranhas that followed them, Rans group didn't have a single one! And even if they did, it wouldn't be enough!
What kind of discrimination is this!?
Ugh, now I have to think of a cheesy way for them to somehow escape.
…
Looking a little into the distance, Ran gazed upon the flying figure that followed them. Their gazes met, but no words were said, and no emotions were felt.
This was life or death; there was no room for discussion.
The Bloodthirsty piranha's eyes were cold. He said nothing, but his mouth unhinged.
Just then, a set of sharp, red, teeth manifested itself in front of it. Except, the soul jaws were no longer the cookie cutters that the children had shown before.
No, this one was big enough to easily fit five humans within its juicy jaws! Just looking at it would make you feel as if your body was chomped into little itty-bitty pieces.
The red jaws clamped down a couple times, creating a sharp shearing noise, before hurtling towards the ship!
Ran flinched and immediately ducked, as if the action could save him, but the ship had already swerved out of the way.
Boom! The jaws violently smashed into the ocean, causing it to erupt in a frothy rain of over thirty meters in diameter! Although Bob had successfully saved the ship, they couldn't completely escape the shockwave in time, causing the ship to lift a foot into the air before slamming into the water again.
The three just stood there, in sheer terror of the might that this fish had shown them. And worse yet, this fish was still steadily catching up to them! With each jaw flung out, the distance is lowered and the more effect the next jaw would have. This was truly worthy of the name Bloodthirsty!
In fear of his ship getting hurt, he ran up to Bob who was frantically thinking of what to do.
"Bob, can we go any faster?"
"Of course we can!" Bob had a resolute face on as spoke.
"But… I'm not sure it'll help." Bob shook his head the next moment.
However, how could Ran give up so easily? How could he let someone hurt his friends… and his ship!?
Immediately, he asked Bob to step aside as he took control of the ship.
Going to the speed settings, a bar could be seen. Most of the bar was blue, but about twenty-five percent was dyed in a crimson red. Worse yet, the slider was already at the threshold.
Without hesitation, and a little curiosity in his eyes, Ran used his slim finger and brought the slider to the end of the bar!
"WARNING! GOING TOP SPEED WILL INCREASE THE RISK OF DRAWING UNWANTED ATTENTION. DO YOU WISH TO CONTINUE?"
Instantly after moving the slider all the way, bright red words flashed on his face as the ship cautioned him.
Before he could confirm his action, he felt his ship lift into the air and he almost lost his balance. Seeing this, he could only confirm his choice, though the risk it presented was undeniably dangerous.
Clicking the holographic confirm button, Ran waited for the ship's speed to increase.
One second passed.
Then two.
Then three.
At this point, Ran was sweating. What the hell was going on!
"WARNING! THE SHIP HAS INSUFFICIENT POWER TO RUN THE SPELL: WHIRLWIND! REQUESTING A RANK-4 POWER SUPPLY…."
Ah, I see…
WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST SAY THAT EARLIER!
Alas, the ship said nothing else, leaving Ran at a loss for a couple seconds. Now, he could do what he has to.
Lowering down, Ran looked at the circular hole in the middle of the pedestal. This hole was for none other than the power supply. Basically, you dispense cores into it, it would absorb the juice within, and it would power the ship. Alternatively, you could also directly pour your own soul juice to power it.
This is how Ran usually powered his ship, he would give it a rank-5 core every week, only having done it twice already.
But now, the ship was requiring even more energy. And while Ran did not have energy with the rank-4 quality, he did have a absolute s**t ton of rank-5 cores!
While the spell might not work so well with the rank-4 cores, he should be able to overwhelm the system with enough energy to make it work.
Thus, he did what he had to. He took off his necklace, which he still had on for some reason, and directly willed for the cores to come out. Placing the necklace on the hole, the sound reminiscent of marbles clattering soon began ringing in his ears.
Seeing all those cores being consumed by his ship, Ran didn't even bat an eye. He was already a pretty generous guy as we've no doubt seen in the past. However, the same couldn't be said for the rest.
Especially Ann; seeing all these goodies being thrown into the runic system, she almost cried. That was more money than she had ever seen! And as for using them, she didn't have such thoughts.
Bob, too, couldn't help but sigh in envy for Rans wealth. Ran had already told them about what happened, and while surprising that he was now part fish, finding so many cores was infinitely more so! After all, there were already legends of people acquiring powers after consuming something and while it was technically given to Ran, there was precedence.
But, finding so many within a tiny ruin? And what about these so-called ruins anyway? It had to be known that most cities and buildings made by humans were made using soul juice in combination with runes. And when such places are abandoned or discarded, the world will take the liberty to consume it, virtually erasing most evidence of its existence. However, this one wasn't and it wasn't the only one either; there are other ruins that are basically exceptions to this special rule. And indeed, some legends originated from such places as well.
Basically, Bob was surprised by Rans superb "luck". Although, what he didn't know of his own superb "luck" as well.
And he never thought about using them either; it wasn't because Ran wouldn't give him any, rather, neither him or Ran could consume them. Basically, the energy inside the cores was too intense to use safely currently, though they could try once they reached rank-6.
Once about a hundred cores were dispensed into the ship, the entire ship's runic system lit up a resplendent green.
Then, out of nowhere, green wind started coalescing around the ship. The green wind rushed back and forth around the ship before it all gathered on the sails, forming a green rune that vaguely resembles three curved blades pointing outwards.
The green runes flashed brightly with power before the ship received a big boost in speed, causing it to slightly tilt backwards.
They were escaping!
"Hmph! Thinking of escaping? Don't worry, I'll make sure no one will have anything to mourn over."
The Bloodthirsty piranha, seeing Ran and the rest slowly slip away from his grasp, a mocking smile crept up his face. His eyes were bloodshot and his mind was filled with nothing but madness and vengeance.
He quickly dived into the water again and instantly, with his affinity for water, his speed shot up; surpassing the ship once more.
"Heh, nothing more and nothing less. Let's see where you can run now!"
The Bloodthirsty piranha activated his skill and a soul jaw coalesced in front of him. However, unlike last time, he didn't just throw it.
He grabbed the jaws individually and began prying them apart! The creaking noise resounded and Bob's ears curled in slight irritation.
"Eh? What do you think he's doing?" Ran grabbed the railing and leaned forward to see what the approaching fish was doing. He was quite curious about this skill as he hadn't seen others like it and he got a certain feeling from it.
"Tch, why are you worried about that thing? Shouldn't you figure out a way to get us out of this mess?" Ann was tempted to kick his *ss overboard right this second, but she ultimately withheld from doing so.
While they were bickering, suddenly, within the ocean, a clear and extremely loud snap was heard followed by the sound of shattering.
Now, within the piranhas two webbed hands, two, jaw-like, jagged blades shone with a dangerous light.