The Carrier had been shot down. I, Wanderer, did everything to ease the impact of the fall for the other, while I myself endured most of the impact when we landed on the ground. It stung a bit and left me feeling dizzy when I hit the ground, but nothing that I couldn't shake off.
Only one of us wasn't so lucky as the man in black had his neck snapped in a way that shouldn't be possible. Some of his entrails were also leaking out of his body from the huge gash across his abdomen. Guess Xylvia's kick did more than I thought.
He was still breathing though.
"That…must suck." I said to the soon-to-be corpse. "Still having to live a little longer through all that agony."
However, fate had a trick up its sleeve.
The man suddenly lifted his hands towards his head and-
*CRACK!*
"-!"
He adjusted it back in place with one quick jerk to the side. Then, he moved his hands towards the leaking entrails and slid them all back inside; he brought the torn skin and flesh back together after everything was back inside.
Once everything was closed back up, he lifted himself back onto his feet as if nothing had happened to him and walked over towards a group of people dressed in mostly white cloth.
"I know I can heal, but give me a heads up before you do that dammit." He cursed at them.
No one within the group responded.
"Whatever. Just carry them onto the boat. ONLY carry them. Any one of you fuckers tries to kill them will get a formula injected into them."
And with that, the group of hooded figures carried the unconscious Rosary, Hiro, and Xylvia to the floating wood that he called a "boat." He then turned to me, a malicious smile carving itself onto his face.
"Should've protected yourself Mistake." H said to me, pulling out a tiny bottle of purplish liquid from within his jacket. "Might've had some time to fight back."
I could see Rosary's hands slightly dangling out of the edge of the boat.
She's a Wanderer…
When we fell, I threw out everything I could to keep the impact from killing them. Even Rosary. Even though I knew she was a Wanderer, I just…couldn't. Even though I knew she'd be fine after a bit of time passed, I just couldn't.
I don't know why, but the idea of just letting her hit the ground like that made me sick to my stomach. I'm not familiar with this feeling…
The man raised the bottle above his head.
"Just know that the amount of pain I have in store for you will be nothing compared to whatever journey you had to make to get here." The man said. "I'm not sure if you things even understand the concept of death, but you'll wish you had learned it."
The bottle came down fast…
"This'll be so much fun!"
*SMASH!*
…and darkness quickly took over.
When I came to, I found myself near what looked to be the ocean. My hands locked behind me by two figures in the white cloaks and a purple-dyed rag tied into my mouth. In the distance, there was a wall of dark, violent looking storm clouds that stretched on as far as my eyes could see. Flashes of lightning followed by the distant thunder could be seen and heard all the way from over here.
The Infinite Storm. A stretch of violent storms all merged together in one giant clump. No one knows how it started, but apparently it's been here since the start of this world.
"Fascinating, isn't it?"
The man in black watched as the boat with Rosarh, Hiro, and Xylvia inches closer and closer into the wall…before completely vanishing inside of it.
"Nothing but storms." He continued as he kept watching. "Nobody knows what started it. Only when. Not even the historians I've met know. Even the textbooks I've managed to get ahold of reveal nothing of its origins. Only stating that it's been around since this world was created…and to avoid it at all costs."
I wanted to clench my hands into fists and punch this guy, but the people behind me kept my hands locked tight. And whatever was in this rag, probably the same stuff that was in that bottle, was keeping me only half conscious.
"Now then."
The man turned his back from the storm wall and walked closer towards me.
"Where were we?"
The scars that this man would soon leave buried deep into my flesh would forever haunt me.
*FLASH!* *KABOOOM!*
The thunder continued to boom shockwaves into my ears as the waves crashed into the sides of the boat, causing it to rock violently and almost tip over. The only thing keeping me from getting tossed around were these metal cuffs around my hands that were nailed onto the boat. Both Xylvia and Rosary had the same cuffs on them as well.
At the very least, I won't have to worry about them getting sent overboard. But more importantly, how the hell am I gonna get these things off? The boat's filing with water and we're getting further and further away from any sort of land.
I tried straining my hands forward to try and break the cuffs right off, but it wiouldnt even budge. The metal looked pretty new, not a single spot of rust on it. It'd be a couple of days of this rain continuously hitting the metal before I could even think about trying to break it off with force.
Unfortunately, I didn't have two days. Hell, I might not even have two minutes with the rate this is going. Come on Hiro! Think!
*KABOOM!*
As the thunder continued to clap at me, an idea sparked itself into my head.
A water jet.
If I can concentrate the flow of water with my magic, maybe I can make it go fast enough to make an imitation of a water jet.
As I let the idea visualize inside my head, I closed my eyes and focused my attention to my hands. Through the rain, wind, lightning, and thunder, my concentration prevailed. I wasn't about to be killed by some storm. And I sure as hell wasn't about to let my friends get killed either.
*KSSSSHHH!*
There it was. The sparks. If I were to explain what these were, they were basically a visual imagine of the user's concentration. The brighter these sparked shined, the better control the user had over their magic.
I wouldn't say mine were very bright, but they were enough to get the job done.
*SHHHHHHHH!*
A narrow stream of water appeared out from both my palms, like a pair of water swords. I'm not sure if I can hurt myself with my own magic or not, so I made sure to take it slow as to not end up cutting the nerves in my wrist or slicing a few fingers off.
*KABOOM! CRASH!*
The thunder continued to roar throughout the sky as the waves kept crashing onto the already rocking boat. I had to take deep breaths as to not let any sudden movement influence my next move with the water jets.
So, with very slow motions, I inched the jets closer and closer to the cuffs around my hands and-
*VRRRRRR-SHINK!*
I was able to free myself without any accidents.
I quickly lifted myself up and went over to Xylvia, who was still unconscious.
"Alright, here goes." I said, raising my palm up to her face again as my voice was carried out by the storm.
Luckily, this travel was much less time consuming. All I needed to do was grab a sleeping Xylvia out from some dark void and back into the world of consciousness.
A few seconds later.
"ACK! *cough cough!* Haa…Haa…Wh-What the?!"
Xylvia was back, her first reaction being of total confusion and shock.
"How the hell did we end up here?!" Xylvia screamed to me through the winds.
"That man!" I screamed back as I cut her cuffs off. "He cuffed us to this boat and kicked us into the storm! What the hell is this?!"
"It's the Infinite Storm! A cluster of storms all formed into one giant clump! It's basically a dark wall of death traps!"
The Infinite Storm?
*CRASH!*
Before I could think about it, strong waves crashed into the boat once again, sending us rocking side to side violently.
"We'll think about this later!" Xylvia exclaimed. "For now, let's just focus on staying alive! You think you can control the waves that come near us?!"
Control the waves? Is that even possible?
"I…I'll try!" I said, keeping an eye on any waves that looked dangerous.
Is it even possible to control such a violent surge of water like this? I mean, this is the ocean! It's not like some stream of water flowing down a small rocky path! This is literally one of man's greatest dangers of the world!
Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Rosary beginning to move. Thunder cackled above us a more waves continued to crash into the boat, the water nearly sending us onto pur backs.
When I maneuvered myself to Rosary, her eyes had finally opened.
"Thank god you're ok!" I said to her, hugging her tightly. "I didn't think you'd ever wake up!"
"HIRO, HELP ME!" Xylvia suddenly shouted at me.
When I looked over, I could see a large wave, a few feet bigger than us, quickly heading straight towards us.
"GOT IT!" I exclaimed, the sparks cackling within my palms once again.
Shit! It's now or never I guess!
Without thinking about what I should do, I pointed the palms of my hands straight at the waves and then flung my hands outwards as if I were trying to split the wave in two. I was surprised to be hit with a lot of resistance, but I was able to push through it all the way before the wave had reached us. I watched as the split waves narrowly missed the boat as we maneuvered straight through the opening, the waves crashing back into the ocean.
Holy shit. It actually worked.
"What…happened…?" Rosary asked, looking a little dreary. "Where…are we?"
"That son of a bitch got away and took Wanderer with him!" I explained, my voice barely getting through the monstrous storm.
"…what?"
"I don't know what they plan on doing with him, but we've gotta get out of this storm fast!"
"Hiro, if you can find a way to control the waves, we might be able to get back to the island in one piece!" Xylvia explained. "I'll try and keep as much water out of the raft as I can!"
"What about me?!" Rosary asked.
"Just hang tight! Those cuffs should keep you from getting sent overboard! You're not looking good, so we don't want to risk you getting thrown into the ocean!"
And with that, Xylvia and I got to work as Rosary held tightly onto the cuffs.
"We don't seem to be too far into the storm since the waves haven't gotten extremely tall yet, so we should be able to get out of it safely if we're careful!" Xylvia quickly added.
Seriously?! This ISN'T even the strongest part of it?! HOW FUCKING BIG IS THIS STORM?! It looks like it stretches for MILES!
*KABOOM!* "SKREEEEE!!!"
"…"
What the hell was that?
"Um…Xylvia?!" I exclaimed through the winds.
"Yeah, I heard it to!" She responded as she continued to hurl water out of the boat.
*SPLASH!* FLOP! FLOP!*
A fish-like creature suddenly splashed out from the water and onto the boat. It was fairly small and had glowing pink skin with its mouth slightly drooping, a pair of eyes, 4 in total, on both sides of its face.
*SPLISH!* SPLISH!*
It suddenly started flopping its way towards me.
"Don't let it latch onto you!" Xylvia quickly warned.
I heeded her warning and sent a small stream of water towards the creature, sending it back into the roaring ocean.
"What is that thing!" I asked.
"SKREEE!!! SKREE!!! SKREEEEE!!!"
Suddenly, a huge group of them could be seen hopping across the surface of the violent water, all making some weird high pitch noise as the skipped close and closer to us.
Xylvia quickly got sparks flying on her palms as the air around us began feeling really hot.
"We can't let those things on the boat!" Xylvia warned, roasting a few strays that got too close. "If I'm right, then these thing could end up sinking our raft and end up killing us!"
One of the creatures suddenly jumped up at me from the side, but I quickly caught it before it could…
"…!"
Its mouth…was filled with razor sharp teeth! Sharp enough to pierce through flesh without any effort probably. It was like a combination of a lamprey and a cigar shark!
*SCHLICK!*
I got caught off guard after seeing those teeth. The creature suddenly lowered its droopy mouth down into my arm and sank its teeth deep into my flesh.
"AH! SHIT" I screamed, quickly pulling the thing off and crushing it in my hand before it got another bite in.
This not only hurt, but it burned really badly as well. When I examined my wound, I realized that a nearly perfect circle of skin and flesh was completely carved out of my arm. It was like someone had planted a cookie cutter into my arm and took a slice out!
So much blood was spewing out, making me a little dizzy.
"Gaah! Goddammit!" I cursed my own stupidity.
Can't believe I just went and grabbed at it like that. Damn sixth sense of mine.
"HIRO, THE WAVES!"
I quickly turned and brought up my arms to send them away again, along with a few more of those lamprey creatures; I was extra careful not to swing my injured arm too hard.
This wound was really starting to hurt, but the waves weren't letting up at all. Keeping my footing was proving to be near impossible as well. The boat constantly rocking around unpredictably along with my prosthetic that I haven't had much time to get used to wasn't helping. Best I can do is run on it for a few seconds and that's it.
"Dammit, there's too many of them!" Xylvia exclaimed as she did her best to incinerate most of them.
The ones that did get on board flopped around the boat, trying to get closer to us. I quickly kicked as many as I could off with my prosthetic, but…
"AHH!! NO! GET THEM OFF!!"
I quickly turned to see a few of them latch onto Rosary, biting off chunks of her flesh from her legs and sides of her stomach. The cuffs on her hands prevented her from protecting herself.
"NO!!" I screamed, running as fast I could to her with the jet stream water.
A few of the creatures leapt at me, but I quickly did away with them with a couple of slashes with the water swords. Then, I knelt down next to Rosary and began carefully cutting off the cuffs from her hands.
*CRUNCH!*
"GGAAAAHHH!!!"
One of the creatures latched itself onto my hand right after I finished cutting the first cuff off, crunching right onto my index and middle finger.
"HIRO!" Xylvia said, trying to help but getting knocked onto her back from the waves that crashed onto the sides of the boat.
I could feel the bones in my fingers being crunched off as more blood gushed out of my body. I felt myself growing light headed, the jet stream water starting to fade a little in its power.
The sight and smell of blood. My own blood…
No…not again…
*CREEEEEEEAAAAAAAK!*
There it was. Dimly lit up within the darkness… A large rusty grey door with a trail of blood leading from it.
…
…
No. Not this time.
In one swift move…
*SNAP!*
In one swift move, I brought the jet stream of water under Rosary's second cuff and snapped it off. Once she was free, she grabbed at the creatures chewing through her flesh and pried them off. So much blood from Rosary and I had splattered onto the floor of the boat, getting washed away every now and then by the relentless waves.
*CRACK!*
I couldn't feel them anymore. My right index and middle fingers were ripped off by one of those things. I could only watch as blood spewed out from the open wounds, a bit of the bone from both fingers peaking out.
"Graah!! Ffuuuuuuck!" I winced as I held onto the wounds to stop it from bleeding too much.
*FWOOOSH!*
A tornado of fire suddenly formed around the boat, roasting all the lamprey creatures around us before they could hop in. Several flashes of lightning struck the ocean around us, accompanied by the ear-shattering thunder.
This fire had come from none other than Xylvia, who looked utterly exhausted from the boat constantly rocking around and the creatures continuously trying to hop into the boat.
I noticed a gain glow of light coming from a wall of clouds.
"That's the way out!" She exclaimed. "Hiro, get us over there! Rosary, stay close to me!"
I did my best to ignore the burning pain from my flesh wounds and took control of the water around us, trying my best to stay concentrated and send us through the wall.
I took a quick glance at Rosary, who's wounds were slowly starting to heal on their own. Heh, lucky.
She didn't use her power to free herself from those cuffs. They looked relatively new and tough to break, but I knew that even she could still break them with those tendrils.
I guess the stuff in that man's bottles is really potent against them.
As we got closer to the faint light, the storm began to grow less and less intense. Even the creatures practically stopped showing up. Just a few rough bumps here and there, but we managed to get through the worst of it without anymore injuries. And then…
*Fwoosh…*
We finally emerged through the dark clouds, the warm tropical air meeting our faces. We weren't exactly where we got pushed off into the storm from, but the island was still in view about 60 meters from us.
After having the waves send our boy as far away from the storm as I could, I felt myself grow extremely lightheaded. That brief feeling of safety must've been enough for my body to finally shutdown after moving solely off of adrenaline. I had also lost a lot of blood and was still bleeding. The thought of living life without a few fingers hadn't even hit me yet. And we still had to get Wanderer back from that man.
Only god knows what's happening to him. And unfortunately, she can't even help us…