The Cursed leaders were pleased that for the first time in a long time all of them would be travelling together. It was usual for large parties to go out on expeditions, but in the past Sam had always asked for a team to stay behind, so they could protect the Cursed ship from attacks like the one just recently.
However, Sam was predicting that something big was very likely going to occur on Blade Island in the near future and with most of the Cursed ship's former crew left behind on Caladi, it was no longer much of a target for their enemy.
On top of that, Sam wanted to reward everyone's hard work by granting them first dibs on Hilston Blade's secret stash of treasure, so that everyone could find something suitable for themselves.
Going through the teleporter, the group arrived. Unfortunately, the location of their arrival had already been set and it didn't take any time at all for everyone to freeze up.
"D-D-D… DRAGON…" Wevil sniveled as he was pointing at the beast, his teeth chattering by the second.
By Eno's will they had all arrived near the tablet, which also meant that it was next to its protector. Not all of them had the 'pleasure' of having met with a Demon tier Beast. Wevil and Linda had been there when Quinn had fought against the giant pink tree, but this one had a completely different feel to it..
Sam wanted to tell them to calm down, but as someone who was still shaking at the mere sight of it, it was a hard message for him to convey. Eventually, after staying in the Dragon's presence without any incident for a while, the members of their expedition started to carefully move again.
It helped that the beast appeared to be sleeping. At one point, probably reacting to their movement, it had briefly opened one of its giant eyes to take a quick look at the newcomers. Even those who had come here before, froze up when faced with the beast's attention.
Fortunately, after taking one big sniff with its large snout, it simply closed its eye again. In total it had only paid attention to them for a few seconds, before it had chosen to ignore them. Still, it had been enough for many of them to see their life flash before them.
"Okay!" Sam exclaimed, happy that he hadn't just ended up as a snack. However, he quickly turned around to the beast, afraid that he had just disturbed its rest, after realising that he had just shouted, but fortunately it just let out another snore.
In a lower voice he said: "Let's do a count to check that everyone is here."
There were Peter, Layla, Logan, Fex who had a large box on his back that looked similar to a coffin, Nate, Wevil, Linda and of course Sam himself. Additionally, following behind Peter were Hilston's large muscular body, which still had a hole in its chest and was missing his head, as well as Slicer's bottom half which Peter just referred to as 'Legs'.
It caused the others to naturally step away from Peter. When they had learned about what he had done, even the other leaders had regarded the Wight's action as more than a little crazy. All of them were worried about the consequences if Slicer's bottom half could at some point overcome the loyalty she was placed under. It would be a disaster if she would turn on them at some point.
The reason for Peter's confidence was that he knew that he would never do anything to harm Quinn, so he was sure that his Lesser Wights had to share the same feeling towards him. Still, the others couldn't shake the uneasy feeling they got from Legs, afraid that he might have put too much trust in his ability.
"Peter, you might want to be careful when Sil and the others see… 'that'." Linda pointed at Hilston's body, trying to caution him.
"Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if they attack your new creepy friends straight away." Fex agreed, keeping his eye on Legs' tail moving back and forth. It reminded him of an excited dog that was happy to be by its owner's side.
He was only seeing it from the corner of his eye, but it was so annoying that the vampire just had to grab it to make it stop, but to his surprise he grabbed onto nothing but air.
'What the… did that stupid tail just dodge me?!' Even more annoyed by his failure, Fex attempted to grab it again and again, but each time the tail moved faster, to the point the vampire got ready to use his string ability to slow it down.
"Stop that, gel boy!" Peter growled at Fex. "Legs belong to me now! I can't get another one, so don't ruin it!"
"Alright, everyone settle down please. We're all here now, but where is Dennis? He was meant to be meeting us." Sam wondered, looking around the place.
While they were waiting for their pickup to collect them and take them to their destination, Wevil and Linda found another interesting thing when they walked towards the centre of the open space.
"Hey isn't that.." Wevil was still feeling uneasy because of the sleeping Dragon, but now there was another thing that he felt he should be worrying about.
"Yeah, I'm sure of it. It looks almost identical to the Demon tier beast that was on the Graylash planet." Linda gulped down hard. The two of them were too afraid to get too close, but they did notice that it was far smaller than the one they had seen.
Eventually, a gust of wind was felt on all of their faces from a distance, and quite a large one at that, and that's when they could see a black furred creature arriving in front of them all.
"It's good to see you again." Vorden greeted them. Currently sitting on his back was Dennis, who quickly climbed down, holding a hand to his mouth.
"How could those kids like this type of ride? I think I'm going to thro-." Before he could even finish his sentence, he hurled over.
Poor Dennis hadn't accounted for the fact that Vorden had played with the kids before his evolution. As a Legendary tier beast his wind powers and speed had improved dramatically. Unless he held back, Vorden was sure that the kids would also be unable to handle the kind of speed he used to get here.
At first, Vorden was all smiles as he looked at everyone, until his eyes landed upon the headless body.
"What is that?!" Vorden questioned, his eyes turning to slits.
"You're going to have to be more specific, you wanna know more about Legs, or the headless one?" Peter asked casually.
While Sam was explaining the situation to Vorden, Layla who was at the back of the group was more concerned about something else. Ever since she had set foot on the island, the black sword by her side had been violently shaking.
'What's wrong with it? Is it reacting to the Dragon? Or is it because of the strange tree?' Layla wondered.
Putting this to the test, she started to walk towards the two, but the second she stepped towards the Demon tier beast, the shaking of the blade lessend. She was pleased that the sword wasn't reacting to the Dragon, because truth be told she didn't want to get closer.
When walking towards the tree she expected something to happen as well, but there was nothing on that end either.
Then, heading back towards one last thing, she finally noticed.
'So it seems to react to the tablet? … Will something happen if I touch it?' Layla thought, unsure whether she should test it out or not.
——
While the Cursed faction were busy on Blade Island, Owen along with his Graylash faction were currently the busiest of the three groups in the war against the Dalki. Although they had agreed to not go on a full force attack, Owen and his people were successfully winning every single skirmish they were coming across.
This was mainly due to the planet they were on. There were dark clouds above them, which would pour constant rain on the planet. More importantly with these types of conditions it tremendously boosted the elemental powers of lightning.
On the ground, there had been news of another small camp having been set up. Owen could see it up ahead, and he didn't have the others by his side.
'Any Dalki we take down now, will be one less we will have to worry about later on.' Owen thought, as he struck thunder bolts into the clouds above where the Dalki had set up, and soon lightning started to strike down at the Dalki in their small camp.
It looked like there were twenty of them in total. With this first attack, he soon charged in like a lightning bolt himself, but he wasn't alone. He and his partner entered the sloppily built small camp and immediately got to work, firing off their powers, aiming at the Dalki's vital points, finishing them with their great strength.
The Dalki in the camp didn't even have time to react and after ten minutes, all twenty or so Dalki had been defeated.
"If I counted correctly you got twelve while I finished eight. You really have improved, little Owen." An old man dressed in white robes said.
"I'm happy that there is someone in the family that can challenge me a little." Owen happily accepted the praise. After all it came from Grim Graylash, his grandfather and the previous leader of the Graylash family.
"I'm happy that my genes seem to have merely skipped a generation. When your father grew up and didn't show much promise in regards to our ability, I was worried for the Graylash family, for what would happen when Hilston would take me away, but I see I didn't have to worry at all."
It looked like Owen now owed Quinn another favour for returning someone who was important to him. With the two of them, they were able to take out camps and scout groups just by themselves, a feat that was giving a massive morale boost to those in the Graylash family.
It was then that the two of them received a message.
"Sir, this is Hermes reporting. We have spotted the one you were looking for, not too far from the Shelter, and it looks like the Dalki are ready for a full force attack. Please come back immediately!"
With their powers, the two of them could move fast, so getting back in time wasn't a problem, but the message hadn't ended there.
"Sir, a warning. The Dalki you fought before seems to have returned… however it appears to be a five spike now."
———
At the same time, Eno, who had been doing nothing but waiting for the Cursed faction's arrival, finally stood up.
"Brock, it's time for you to call Quinn. Tell him to come back immediately. Jim is making his move."
*****
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