"Isle oh no…"
Star said as emotionlessly as physically possible before unsheathing a wooden katana with no hand guard.
Val looked at Star for a second before laughing.
"That's just mean…"
He continued laughing hard. Kalpana shot a bullet of flames at Mori, Mori blocked the bullet with a root from the ground, The root burned away.
Mori looked at Val with a sad look, Then some roots in the ground smacked him into a tree.
She held her hand out and a scepter with overwhelming mana appeared in her hand.
Star rushed towards her slashing at any roots she conjured but before he could reach her, The wind intensified by many fold and knocked him away. She was clearly proficient in magic, Though she wasn't even close to being the strongest mage he's ever fought.
Just before Star was knocked too far away he slammed the blade of his katana into the ground and pulled it out once the wind returned to normal.
He didn't waste any time running towards her once again. She wrote runes in the air with the tip of her staff and all the roots conjured by Mori gained leaves, The leaves she made started to float and glide around the air.
Star was upon her when the leaves from the roots cut him, He quickly jumped back before anymore of them touched him, His arms were cut open and bleeding from just a few touching him.
He looked annoyed but his pupils shined slightly and all the leaves spun before hitting the ground. He continued running again, Once she saw him she raised her staff again then slammed it into the floor.
Star didn't stop, He glanced back at Kalpana and Val, Kalpana looked at Mori. In the Island Company Star was easily the fastest member, Although does speed win against nature?
Wisteria began to grow on Star's sword, Of course Mori had her own tricks too so why would she care?
She waved her staff and several trees shot forward at him with terrible speed. Instead of instinctively trying to dodge them which would have resulted in him being hit.
He slashed horizontally before they hit him and the trees split cleanly, By the time he slashed them Mori already started to cast another spell. Star glanced behind him again to see Kalpana there but Val was nowhere to be seen.
'Hm.'
Star kicked the remains of the trees at her, They flew through the air with equal speed as they had before but they disappeared way before they hit her, Before reappearing behind her.
She started another spell but stopped as she looked around but didn't see Star anywhere. That was when a Wisteria petal fell from one of the trees and Star appeared from it.
She was surprised but not shocked. With a wave of her hand he was blown away, But Star wasn't meant to succeed with that attack. Val threw a large black greataxe at her.
Before the axe hit her it was knocked away by seemingly nothing. Val was confused as to how his attack didn't work, The axe flew back into his hands shortly after he threw it.
'A magic shield, So she's a level 1.' Star thought.
This shouldn't be too hard then right? Maybe not for Star at least. I wonder how it was for someone else though.
"What's even in this damn book."
Isle raised the book above his head and examined it. The book had no title on the front, The only thing on it were some odd patterns.
The book slipped out of his hands. He instinctively flinched and the book hit his face, After all he never moved out of the way.
'Jeez…'
He picked up the book, It fell on the ground after it hit his face. Just as he was about to open it there was a voice behind from the shadows.
"Put that down human."
A man emerged from the darkness, He waited a few seconds with an uninterested look.
He had short black hair and 2 sets of horns.
Those were the only features Isle could observe before his view of the world was flipped.
'What the fuck!'
His view of the world was flipped, It was so sudden that he hadn't even noticed. He was on the floor. The book slipped out of his hand, It slid across the floor to the mysterious demon.
He was about to bend down to grab it when Isle shot at his hand with a red gun. The man swatted the bullet away and Isle took the book back.
"That book, Give it here and I won't kill you."
The demons tone made that very hard to believe, He still held his hand out patiently though.
Isle put a crimson grenade into the demons hand then ran into another room in the house. It blew up shortly after, Shredding the walls of the old cabin but Isle was okay so it worked out anyways.
Dust was in the air, The remains of the wall laid on the ground, Isle was nowhere in sight after all he had already ran out of the cabin through a window in the room he was in to escape the demon.
The demon clicked his tongue in annoyance and walked through the destroyed wall, He kicked down the wall in the room then walked out of the cabin.
Isle kept running through the forest hitting branches and being brushed by bushes as he did, He screamed and stopped as he saw a dark figure in front of him, It was way to dark for him tell who it was.
"Isle?" A familiar voice asked.
"Neiva?"
He answered hesitantly, He still had the book in his hands.
"Yeah it's me, Where were you? I know you got hit and all but was it really that bad?"
She shook her head and walked up to him.
"It was that bad look at my poor shirt…"
He said with a sad tone of voice, Completely forgetting about the reason he was running. She glanced at his shirt and laughed at him while smiling.
"So why were you running?"
Her smile slowly faded away and was replaced by a curious look, Isle's eyes widened as he remembered the events in the cabin.
"We need to get everyone else and leave right now."
He started to run in the direction Neiva came from, She followed him at the same pace while destroying branches and plants in the way.
"Isle what are we running from?"
She asked curiously while looking behind them cautiously.
"Some random demon was back there and he said he would kill me if I didn't give him this book. Here, Be careful not to rip it to shreds you brute."
He held out the book to her while still running, She glared at him in annoyance for a second then lightly grabbed the book making sure not to damage it.
She inspected the book looking for any familiar patterns on the odd book, Then passed it back to him.
"Isle I have no clue what that is."
She chuckled and slapped his back in amusement, The fact he had found such a weird book then thought she'd know what it was cracked her up for some reason. He yelped in pain then rubbed his back.
"You brute…"
She laughed even more then picked him up like a princess in her arms, His eyes widened.
"What are you doing! Put me down!"
He tried to break out of her arms but it was no use, Neiva was easily the strongest physically in the group and that's before she uses her quantum. She continued to hold him just as tightly as before.
"Nope. You're running way to slow for someone who's scared for his life."
She started to run atleast 3 times faster than before, She still wasn't faster than Star but she was definitely close. They made it back to the others. They were still working on capturing the bounty. Star was about to slash Mori when Isle said, "Star! We should leave now!"
He yelled to him while still in Neiva's arms, He looked quite silly. Star sheathed his sword then glanced at Mori.
"You should come with us I'm not sure you'll be safe here."
His tone was as monotone as ever, He didn't even make much of an effort to convince her.
"Why would I go with the bounty hunters that tried to catch me!?"
She was livid, She held onto her staff tightly looking like she would cast a spell at any moment.
"Look I know you're mad and for good reason, But there's a dude much worse than us and who knows what he'll do if he know's you're connected to us."
Isle responded trying to reason with her. She squinted at him, He looked pretty stupid to Mori after all he said all of this trying to convince her while still in Neiva's arms.
"I'll go with all of you, But if you try anything I won't hesitate to kill all of you."
She dismissed her staff, It disappeared into the air. She walked towards Valekis, He had a surprised look and smiled before she slapped him and stood by him.
"Yeah I deserved that…"
He said that in a low voice and rubbed his cheek.
"Well let's go then cuz I really don't want to fight that dude."
Isle attempted to wriggle out of Neiva's grip once again but she showed no signs of letting him go.
'Jeez…' Isle thought.
Star passed petals to everyone and warped them out of the forest.