The following day marked the day where I finally end this hunt of Vicissim.
It was time to hunt that snake. I was already strong enough to handle it. I even had good weapons to top it off, although I'm not gonna use it until I'm proficient enough to handle it.
I attempt to walk outside the room where we were staying, but Kai and Talia saw me.
"Hmm..? Zion? Where're you going? It's still early in the morning." Talia asks, confused.
"I'm going to hunt. It's our way of moving to the next floor!" I say with excitement.
I impatiently sprint down the stairs with excitement and curiosity. At the exit of the temple, their yells make me stop on my feet.
"Where are you going? We're not letting you go unless you take us with you." Kai says with a smug face.
"Haha... you guys.." I smile in disbelief.
"Then, let's go! We don't have time to waste!" I continue.
We walk outside the temple and inside the forest covering the heat of the shining sun. As we were walking, we encountered some monsters along the way, such as scargiver bears, mutated giant gemstone roaches, and such.
But, after a few hours of hunting and resting, it happened.
"Hey, don't you think it's been too long? Are you sure Vicissim really exists?" Talia asks.
"Yeah, I'm telling you it does!" I reply with frustration as we hadn't found it yet.
We given up on trying to find Vicissim, but as we walked throughout the forest, me and Talia hear a malicious hiss and gunshots from a distance.
"What was that? Gunshots?" Talia exclaims.
She closes her eyes full of effort, collects mana around the air, and concentrated on her eyes for amplified hearing. Which then, she yells.
"Over there! It's coming from the left!" Talia exclaims.
"Left?! That's the opposite direction from the temple!" I say.
"Zion, there's no use. If we want to get out of this floor, we have to hunt it down. You were the one who said it right? Now lets go!" Kaiser says, while having a worried look on his face.
We rush in the forest deeper while having nervous expressions, and as we reached the core of the unsettling noise, the snake and the eaglemen were present.
It's the eaglemen..! Me and Talia think in anger. But as our mind was overflowing with killing intent, a thought infiltrated our mind.
Zion, Talia, whatever you do, don't release that much killing intent, we're going to get caught.
Kai?! How can you hear our thoughts?!
It's called telepathy magic, we don't have time to explain. We need to somehow land the final hit of Vicissim. I'll think on my own on how to land it while you guys figure it out too.
That's it! I could use my magic! I thought.
I concentrate on my magic power, and once I charged it, I immediately concealed it so that the eaglemen couldn't detect my magic.
They wouldn't even notice it anyway, because they're too focused on trying to defeat Vicissim.
I close my eyes in concentration, having the location of Vicissim and the reverse scale memorized in my mind, I thought.
They don't know its weakness. That reverse scale, is its weak point.
Time it.
"Retreat back to formation 1!" Kiyazato commands, while they form a rectangle formation as the tanks as forwards and the mages in the back dealing damage to the snake.
Not yet.
"Dealers, deal as much damage as you can! Tanks, protect the mages! Mages, chant buff magic on the dealers and attack magic on the snake!" Kiyazato exclaims while trying to remain calm.
"Aargh..! come on! Die already!" Numerous eaglemen yells while they attack the snake with knives, RPGs, guns, longswords, rapiers, and more.
Almost..
"Everyone, attack! The snake is at its breaking point!" Kiyazato exclaims.
I widen my eyes immediately after hearing. My eye color turned red and felt like burning, it made me see better and could focus more accurately and precisely.
"Stygian Magic, Desuaro!"
Zion!!! What are you doing?!
Great timing, Talia! Use telekenesis on the drops of Vicissim to strengthen yourself, alright?!
An arrow flies throughout the air, and Kiyazato notices it, but it was too late.
It hit exactly on its reverse scale an instantly die. Its corpse enveloped in blue flames and black smoke, and a green crystal was present from it.
The eaglemen was stunned and tired from all of the work and they couldn't muster enough power to attempt to exterminate the stealer, and that was enough time for Talia to use telekinesis on the crystal to bring it to them.
"Run!!!!" I yell.
"Eaglemen!!! There's a stealer!! It's Zion and Talia from the bounty!" Kiyazato exclaims.
He pulls out his secondary weapon which was a handgun, and attempted to shot at least one of us to slow our pace of running, which hit Talia in the leg.
"Aah..!" She screams in pain.
"Talia!!! Damn.. the eaglemen..." I mumble.
"Zion, Talia!! There's not enough time to treat her, let me carry her!" Kai yells in nervousness.
Kaiser then carries Talia as she fainted, sprinting away from the eaglemen.
Shit. Shit. Shit!! Kaiser thinks while gritting his teeth.
We can't die here!! Grandma Miori is waiting for us... We haven't even gone up to a floor yet!
It's the first time that I've been treated like a good uncle... I won't die like this. Wait for me, my fucking parents.
I'll find you and find out the reason on why I was abandoned on this floor.
Kaiser's body began to be surrounded with a fiery blue aura, his sclera began to redden, and he began to sprint faster than before.
"Huh..? Kaiser?" Zion asks.
Why are you crying? I wonder while running away from the eaglemen's sight.
Isn't that the same look as I had while in that oasis and in that cave?
If Kaiser is awakening a new power inside of him... I might as well too!
My eyes began to have a red color and a red aura surround it, and managed to catch up to Kaiser.
We then found ourselves in a dead end, specifically an extremely steep mountain blocking our way.
"Kaiser! The gate, I see it! It's on the steep mountain!"
We look up in shock and looked down again to view our surroundings. Then, the eaglemen caught up to us.
"Now, would you explain on stealing our kill, kids?" Kiyazato asks.
"Damn..." Kaiser irritatingly smiles.
Kaiser closes his eyes in concentration and collected the mana in the air, and gathered it all on his feet.
"Zion, Talia, grab on to me as hard as you can."
"Oh..? What do we have here?" Kiyazato asks playfully, while smiling.
"O great tree of Risutin. Grant us magic for eternal protection, Volare." He silently chanted.
We immediately began to rise in the air, and the eaglemen follow us.
"Kill them!" Kiyazato commands.
Bullets began to fire out of the eaglemen's guns, attempting to hit Kaiser, but he was simply too fast.
The mountain was very steep and high, and it would take a while to even fly up.
But, Kaiser was hit on the arm, releasing his grip onto me. I began to fall, but luckily, I managed to grip Kai's leg on time.
"Continue flying!!" I yell.
"Stygian magic, Desuboru!" I exclaim.
I gripped Kai's leg with one hand and used my other hand to throw death balls onto the eaglemen to suck out their life force and convert it into power.
Surprisingly, when I hit the first eagleman, It bounced off but then disappeared after seconds on the air.
Wait... that, might work.
I chant another death ball, and calculated it. Three eaglemen were flying, and imagined the trajectory of where the death ball would go if it bounced.
Once I threw it, it hit on the first, bounced on the second, and yet again, bounced on the third eagleman, all sucking out their life force.
The mark in my wrist began to glow, but as I was distracted by the mark, I got hit on my palm.
"Aah..!!" I scream in excruciating pain.
"Zion, don't sweat, we're almost there!" Kaiser yells.
Wait.. huh?! Why's the gate shrinking?!
Muster more strength!!!! Fly faster!! Kaiser thinks as he struggled on to the very end, and surpasses his limits.
"Aargh!!!!!!" Kaiser screams.
Please! Let me reach the gate!!
With a final second remaining, me, Talia and Kai managed to get inside the gate on time, and the eaglemen were too late and the gate already disappeared.
We were then teleported to another floor, which was filled with giant ice spikes and snow.
"Huff... Huff..." Kaiser hyperventilates in exhaustion.
"That was a close call.." Kaiser says, while he laughs in relief.
After a few seconds, we all fainted in mana exhaustion and slept on the fluffy snow to regain our energy.