The three Unlocked looked at the island before them with long faces.
Tai did not know how they would leave this cursed place, but he was sure that they would find a way.
They had found a way to kill a thousand year old mythical level beast, after all.
Sighing, Claire clapped to gain the attention of her comrades.
She made a circle in the air and pretended to turn it around then pointed at Nikki and Tai.
Nikolah frowned deeply in thought.
"You want to drive us?"
Claire shook her head and made the same motion again, making Nikolah frown even more deeply.
"You..", however before she could finish, Tai perked up.
"You want to know if either of us can steer a boat?"
Claire smiled brightly as she nodded.
Sailing in a Time storm was just about as deadly as trying to survive a hurricane on a raft in the Pacific ocean.
That was why only Master level Protectors and above could embark on them.
However, here were three students, of the mere Unlocked level, preparing to go into the Time Storm by themselves.
Nikolah took the steering of the ship, Tai held the ropes for the mighty sails, and Claire let down a gargantuan anchor on the island.
It was better to anchor the ship to that point on the Island so that, were they to miss the time storm, they would not end up at the other side of the island again.
Looking around herself in grim determination, Nikolah frowned.
"Ready?"
Tai and Claire nodded. There was no need for words.
It was either they left the Island in one piece, or died trying. Tai really hoped for the former, though.
With a swoosh, the majestic ship had taken off.
However, this time, they were not going up. Instead, they were going towards the storm cooking up at the bottom of the island.
The ever present gentle breezes of Time began to grow violent the closer they went towards the tornado.
Soon, the ship was swallowed by the mighty gales blowing at the bottom of the island.
Tai felt all his hair stand on end.
The entire world around him was filled with an eerie sense of wrongness.
He could not differentiate between a second and and hour, as their ship continued to plummet towards the black clouds.
The ship was thrown left and right like a rag doll, making the red haired teenager feel sick, and the ship rocked around in a maddening cacophony of creaks and clangs, but the three did not relent.
Nikolah continued to hold her ground and steer the ship towards the harrowing storm.
Then everything stopped as the ship steadied itself and the world went quiet once again.
Tai could not believe it.
"D-Did we just survive the time storm?!"
However, Nikki smirked darkly at his naivety.
"We just passed its outer shell.
Prepare yourselves for the actual storm."
This information was enough to severely bring down his spirits.
They had only passed the outer shell, not even scratched the time storm itself. Sighing, the red haired teenager turned over to Nikolah.
"If the outer shell alone was that bad, then how bad would the actual storm b.."
But Tai did not get to finish his sentence as a deafening crash resonated.
The ship flew forward with terrible speeds as mighty winds threatened to over turn it. There was thunder on one side, and hurricanes howling like maddened creatures on the other.
Time itself froze and unfroze, reality seemed to warp, the concept of time and space crumbled, and the laws of nature came undone, making it seem like the world itself had gone mad.
They had lost all sense of direction, and all fractions of reality. Well, it was not like they needed it anyways, as their only goal was to escape the Time Storm alive.
There was only the feeling of the ship rising thousands of feet into the skies, and then plummeting thousands of feet below, followed by deafening thunderclaps and blinding flashes of white lightening. Over, over, and over again.
Faced with the harrowing wrath of a cataclysmic disturbance in Time, Tai began to respect the Protectors much more.
Each one of them had to bear such a thing at least once every single year, some powerful ones, even up to three times.
Tai himself had not even finished going through this one, and he was already determined to never go near a Time Storm again in his entire life.
The ship was suddenly tossed to the side by some mighty gale or perhaps a streak of lightening, making all three of them fall to the floor.
For a minute, or maybe an hour?, a year? or a day?, Tai felt dazed as he saw stars for a while.
There was no way to tell as time swirled in drunk madness all around them.
Then his face was scrunched into a dark expression as he spat.
"Between this... and the black dragon, I'm definitely choosing the damned dragon!"