Druak was panting, he had been travelling with a serious injury for quite some time and he was beginning to stumble over his own feet every few steps he took.
It wasn't long before he began to wobble back and forth uncontrollably as he tried to follow closely behind Isacc.
Then just as he was walking a rock hit his leg causing him to stumble over it. A grunt of pain escaped his mouth as he tumbled to the floor.
Isacc rushed over, almost falling over, he was constantly looking around to see what each and every noise was after the Lava Elsks attacked.
This time was different, however as he knew almost instantly what the noise was.
As he looked down at his friend writhing in pain his face instantly dropped.
"Are you okay." Isacc asked as his words began to stumble out of his mouth.
Druak was sweating profusely from all over his body and was losing colouration on his face.
It seemed as if the attack from the Lava Elsk did much more damage than Druak originally thought.
"Idiot, this is all your fault!" Isacc said as he paced back and forth biting his nails.
"Calm down, I'll be fine, just need a little rest."*Cough* Druak tried to speak in a calm tone to relax Isacc but it didn't seem to work as Isacc pacing continued to increase as did his nail biting.
Druak began to try to think of any possible reason as to why he still hasn't recovered from such a wound.
He still couldn't understand why he was like this, yes the creature badly wounded him but he didn't believe it wounded him to such severity.
As he continued to think he realised something, the pain wasn't bad till only a few moments ago.
Suddenly a thought came to mind as to why he was in such a state despite being fine mere moments before.
'What if the Elsk had some kind of poison and its tail was still lodged inside my gut, which caused me to get some kind of poisoning.' This crossed his mind as he couldn't think of any other explanation.
Druak hadn't thought of this before for numerous reasons, the main one being no one ever spoke about Elsk tails being poisonous, even in his previous life.
"Isacc I need your dagger." "This may seem like a terrible idea but I feel like s**t and can't think of anything else right now."
Isacc seemed to stop once he heard what Druak said but Druak just lunged forward and grabbed the dagger.
"Thanks for the dagger, you might want to look away from this." 'Here goes nothing.' *Slash* The dagger went directly into the wound as blood dripped everywhere.
Isaac's face grimaced, as he stared at Druak's wound and this became even worse when he saw what Druak did next.
Druak then proceeded to put his entire hand inside his stomach.
Blood began to drip even more profusely from his wound as he continued to wiggle his hand around his stomach.
"Found it." Druak's hand began to leave his stomach and in his blood-covered hand was a small fragment of the Elsks tail.
It was barely big enough for him to hold and appeared to be some kind of small stone-like fragment that looked almost identical to obsidian.
"Damn that hurt." Druaks face was still distorted in pain but began to lessen after he calmed down.
"Isacc would you mind closing the wound back up."Druak asked while still breathing rather heavily.
"Um, oh yeah, just give me a second." Isacc then proceeded to approach Druak and slowly began to heat up his wound.
"You don't have to be so careful, I can take the pain and we need to get to the Volcanic Isles soon, we still have a time limit after all."
Isacc then began to speed up and seemed to stop sweating as much.
A few noises escaped Druaks mouth and his face occasionally grimaced a bit but after the wound was closed his pale face and sweating began to lessen.
They rested for a bit while Druak recovered and once his complexion began to go back to normal they continued on their way to the Volcanic Isles.
Isacc rambled on about how great he had been but Druak blanked most of it out only responding occasionally.
"I'm pretty amazing aren't I." "Yeah, I completely agree." Isacc then proceeded to laugh at Druak. This caught his attention causing him to turn around."What, why are you laughing." Isacc ignored Druak's question and just continued to laugh.
They proceeded to walk and talk as they approached closer to the Volcanic Isles Entrance, sweat dripping down both their brows.
Looking ahead, both Druak and Isacc began to see some kind of gate-like structure.
As they approached it the full visage of the entrance began to come into full view.
'Wow, this looks beautiful.' Druak had never been here before so the sight of the enormous gate engraved with runic symbols astonished even him and the two giant snakes to the side of the gate only added to its greatness of it.
As they approached the gate they noticed that above the doors to the gate there seemed to be some kind of runic inscriptions.
"It seems we need to know what the runic inscriptions say to be able to enter."Druak said as he observed the runic inscriptions on the gate.
"What do you think they mean."Isacc asked.
Druak began to slowly approach the gate almost as if possessed. "They say beware of the Viper King and Queen for those who dare enter shale perish." Druaks face began to widen.'How did I know that, I never learned runic in my past life.'
The symbols then began to glow almost straight after Druak spoke those words.
The enormous snake statues then began to sliver down from where they once were and proceeded to slide into the lava forming a bridge for both Druak and Isacc to walk across.
Isaacs stared at Druak with his mouth wide open then began to speak."How do you know the runic language."
Druak paused for a moment as he thought."I don't know the runic language, I just heard those words from a traveller and they happened to work." 'Sorry, Isacc but I can't tell you how I knew as I don't completely know myself.'
They casually walk across the bridge, staring at both sides of the bridge.
'Hopefully, there are no creatures inside the lava, I've never been here in my previous life which doesn't help.' Druak was even more cautious due to the lack of information he had on this place.
As they crossed the bridge Druak heard Isaac's voice."Ouch, that hurt." "You alright Isacc what caught you." "It's nothing just some lava spat out at me."
Druak breathed a sigh of relief and proceeded forward constantly looking at the lava around them for any signs of movement.
As they walked across the bridge Druak put his hand back."Stop I think I just saw something moving in the lava."
Isacc then looked at the place Druak pointed at.*Splash* Ripples of lava were visible as an enormous snake-like creature rose from the lava.
"Run it's a Magma Serpent." Druak knew exactly what this creature was as he saw one take out entire villages, it was a 3rd stage creature.
Not all creatures and beings were the same strength as each other in each stage, but Druak knew this Serpent wasn't one of the weaker 3rd stage creatures.
Both Druak and Isacc sprinted across the bridge as the Serpent slivered towards them.
"We aren't going to make it. "Isacc yelled. "We are, just trust me and keep running." Druak then turned around and directly faced the creature before him.
"Hey ugly worm, look at how pathetic you move, can't even fight us outside of the lava."
The Magma Serpent looked at Druak for a second then*Hisssss*it charged straight for him leaping out of the lava.
Druak smiled as he looked at the Serpent before him. 'I just need it to get a little closer.'
"What are you doing Druak, we can't fight that thing we need to run." Druak ignored Isacc and began to walk towards the Serpent that was charging directly for him.
Druak began to grip his rusty sword and stopped dead just a few feet away from the Serpent.
The creature was before him with its mouth wide about to snap at Druak.
Isacc looks away, not wanting to see the death of his only real friend.
*Crack* Isacc heard the sound of something cracking behind him, but it didn't sound like bones. He then begins to turn his head seeing a running Druak and the snake writhing in pain and slamming it head against the bridge.
"RUN, what are you doing just standing there." Druak had now passed Isacc.
Isacc realised the creature could still attack them so he followed not far behind Druak.
"Huff, Huff." Both Isacc and Druak were finally off the bridge although they were also laying on the ground.
"Hahaha, well that was fun hu." Isacc had a massive grin on his face as he chuckled away.
"We're finally here, it looks amazing." Druak stared all around him at the wondrous sight that beset his eyes.