"What?" Martyr said.
There was too much going on right now.
No way was he gonna be able to forget about this during the trial.
"Remember those names! I think they are important." Blair had a few fingers on her purple scar.
It was glowing unearth her light brown fingers, making them glow red like a tiny flashlight was being shined through them.
"Aurora? Gilgamesh? Al…Als…Asperigus?" Vanagloria said from two seats behind him. He couldn't really see her face with Samsara's head in the way he could sense the distress in her voice.
"Do any of those names sound familiar to any of you?" Vega asked.
"No." They all said without even a trace of sync.
"This has to be a talk for later. We've already reached our first destination." Vega said next to him.
Martyr looked down at the forest. The ground was unbelievably far away. Martyr could see tons of small towns and lakes scattered among the valley. The mossy mountains were everywhere, it felt like every few seconds they passed by one.
The speed at which they were traveling was insane as well. It didn't feel like it but Quetzalcoatl's speed must've been comparable to a plane on earth or even the islands fastest runners.
"Wait, I don't see El Dorado." Blair said, her voice getting worried.
"I know. Just head in the direction of that mountain over there for a few days and you'll find it." Vega pointed to a nearby mountain.
"What about the knight?" Samsara asked, looking out into the distance for the capital of the forest region.
"You'll meet them soon enough. Martyr signal to the dragon again."
"Oh… yeah I can do that." Martyr snapped his fingers towards the sky and created a tiny DIY firework. It soared back way behind them from their speed.
As soon as it exploded the whole world seemed to flip on its head as the ancient goddess flips upside down to face the island.
"Good luck on your first trail! Your knight will show you the way!" Vega says as the vine seats behind her and Martyr untangle from the feathers of the goddess and start to plummet down towards the ground.
Martyr is just barely able to see Blair, Samsara and Spectre screaming as they fall down before Quetzalcoatl flips back over to fly straight once more.
"Good luck!" Vanagloria yells from behind Martyr during his disorientation.
"What the hell Vega?!" He says to the champion. "They can't fly!"
"They'll be fine, calm down."
"Better be."
Vega was scary. She had too much power. The fact that she asked him 'the question' was enough to make him uncomfortable just sitting next to her. It was scary she caught onto him so fast.
If anyone found out he would be screwed.
Although, she did interrupt him before he could respond. And by her attitude she didn't seem to care. Maybe she was just like him.
It was impossible to tell though. Martyr couldn't see any of her expressions under that mask.
Why did she even need to wear one in the first place?
Because of it, all he could use to tell what Vega was thinking were her dark green eyes. People say you can tell someone's emotion through just their eyes but she looked like someone trained for deception. Not to mention her whole feud with Vulcan, honestly he's surprised he didn't get murdered as soon as she saw him.
Although if Vega did, who knows how long it would take Flugel to hunt her down.
So Vega was definitely not the person he wanted to rely on in a jungle filled with dragons. By far the most dangerous species of creatures on the islands.
Every creature on the island has some sort of weird magical power. Like how humans have elemental powers, or how dullahans can survive without their head, or the Phoenix's power to ressurect, or even small things like how little wisps can fly without any wings.
But every different species of dragons had their own magical power. On top of that, the sheer size and intellect adult dragons possessed far surpassed that of any other creature on the island.
Dragons were the ultimate apex predator. The only thing stopping dragons from completely dominating the islands were the population of humans. The ratio of dragons to humans was almost 1 to 1000.
Humans and dragons generally coexisted by staying away from each other. Humans got the center of the island while dragons got the outskirts of that circle in the form of the wildlands.
Humans were powerful no doubt. The average human on the island was capable of taking out creatures much bigger than them through using their intelligence and elemental powers. But not many people could solo a dragon all by themselves.
Which made Martyr worry if he really was up to this challenge.
There was no doubt Vega could take out a dragon by herself judging on the fact that she was a champion. But that didn't entirely ensure his safety if they were going into the one of, if not the most dragon infested place on the islands.
Thankfully Vega didn't seem worried at all, which made him feel a little better.
Although the thing that worried him the most was Vanagloria.
She was doing incredible with her training so far and already showed she was capable of some really impressive things with her element, but he wasn't able to train her in combat yet.
At least he knew she was experienced in combat, as she was ranked in an A class for school without an element which is very impressive. But elemental combat was very different from normal combat, he knew from experience.
He was probably gonna have to teach her some things while they were in the jungle. On top of surviving in there, which he had absolutely no experience in.
Right now she was his top priority. Sure he could get endorsements, but he knew he was strong enough to get their recognition without one.
Vanagloria showed too much promise to be great for him to not help her.
Plus he couldn't let his new little partner in crime die.
"The wildlands." He heard her say from behind him.
Looking past the dragon's rainbow feathers he could see the trees grow larger and develop a darker more menacing green in the distance. Clouds got greyer and closer to the tops of the trees. Thick leaves on the top of the rainforest covered the inside of it from Martyr's vision.
Villages on the border of each land looked destroyed and lost by time. Massive creatures the size of houses prowled around ravaging the areas.
The air started to grow damp and warmer as Quetzalcoatl soared past the scenes, descending slightly below the dark clouds.
Martyr had to put up his hands in front of his face to stop an increasing onslaught of warm raindrops from hitting him. The small bullets hit him all over his chest and shoulders as they zoomed past the treetops.
Quetzalcoatl was practically gliding at this point, growing her already incredible speed by the second.
"Can we get dropped off now! I think we made it into the forest!" Martyr yelled to Vega over the whizzing winds and rumbling thunder in the clouds above.
"Not yet! This isn't the rainforest we're looking for!" Vega was studying the forest below them.
'BOOOOOM'
Martyr looked back at the sound that came right behind him to see Vanagloria with smoke coming off the top of her scalp. Her hair was all standing up in one big frizzy mess.
"Ho ho ho ho! Did you see that!" She laughed, like she had just been through a roller coaster.
'BOOOOOOOM'
Before Martyr could respond Vanagloria got hit again.
Lightning was coursing around outside her arms and shoulders, popping in and out of the veins in her wrists and her right eye.
It would have looked extremely cool if it weren't for the fact that her hair made her look like a mad scientist.
"Turn that off! We can't have that happening!" Vega shouted next to Martyr.
"If Quetzalcoatl's feathers get set on fire we can't ride her for much longer!"
'BOOOOOOOM'
"I can't do anything about it! I think I'm just like super conductive or something!" Vanagloria argued back, she seemed pretty pissed off earlier at Vega but now she looked like she was having too much fun to get mad.
"Shit, I knew we should've brought that water girl!" Vega shouted as she ripped off her vine seatbelt.
When she stood up her hood flew off her head revealing a long chocolate brown ponytail that flew back way behind her. She had an ear piercing of a silver arrow on her ear, gleaming in the dark sky. Her mask was still on, flapping around in the wind. She looked a lot younger than she should be for a champion. In fact she might've even been his age.
"QUETZALCOATL!"
The amphiptere continued to cut through the air, continuing to push the limits of her speed.
'BOOOOOM'
She whipped out her massive silvery bow that had been attached to her waist and pulled out an arrow with a hellish red tip from her quiver.
"Gimmie a light!"
Vega shoved the tip of the arrow right in front of Martyr's face.
"Uh…"
"Fuck it."
Vega lunged over towards Vanagloria with the tip pointed right over her head.
'BOOOOOOOOM'
With the arrow fully on fire now Vega flys way behind them and catches her ground once again way farther back down the dragon.
She pulled back her bow with the fiery arrow in it and started to let the wind carry her down the goddess's body.
She then turned around and jumped off the tail of Quetzalcoatl, plummeting towards the forest below.
Along with her gone the vine chairs collapsed and Martyr fell to the fluffy floor of amphiptere feathers along with Vanagloria who looked like she had enough electricity around her to power a small electrical plant.
Martyr holds back the pain of getting shocked as he grabs Vanagloria's hand so she doesn't fly off the edge of the goddess. With the other hand he holds onto a massive green feather for support.
'BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM'
An ear shattering boom comes from way behind Quetzalcoatl as an arrow that just broke the sound barrier zips right over their heads towards the front of the goddess.
'BOOOOOM'
A fiery explosion blows up right in front of Quetzalcoatl causing the goddess to run right into it.
A horrifying half-bird half-draconic screech bellows throughout the dark sky and shakes the whole rainforest.
The goddess flails around in anguish and flings Martyr and Vanagloria straight off her back.
They soar straight up towards the dark clouds above them.
Martyr keeps his death grip on Vanagloria's arm as they continue to fly up closer and closer to touching the thunderstorm.
Martyr feels the soft touch of the cloud as he passes through. Slowing down more and more to the inevitable fall.
But as Martyr stops at the peak height of his launch he simply stops midday. Positioned midair he just sits there for a second and looks down at the ground below.
He then looks up at his arm that's keeping him from dropping and sees the reason he's stuck in the air.
Vanagloria,
surrounded in laces of gold lighting,
floats mid air just above him as she holds him up from plummeting to the rainforest below.