New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 593 Facing Their Challenges

In another soul space, Galtion opened his eyes to a chaotic scene.

He stood amongst the rubble of a destroyed stone construction building, with a cloud-filled sky, so high above, he wondered if it was natural.

Walking out of the rubble, he came to a stop just outside it, a cliff before him. Down the cliff, a cyclone of electric energy, circling under what seemed like a floating land mass, which he was standing on.

He noticed another little piece of land, a few hundred feet above, about fifty feet further away, with another ruined building. Turning his eyes upward, he noticed many more of them, positioned strangely, almost imitating a staircase.

Something suddenly flashed in front of him, with a loud swooshing sound, and a burst of wind almost sweeping him off his feet.

Galtion turned his head, trying to see what it was, and something else flashed again in front of him, this time soundlessly, producing no wind at all.

That's when he saw what it was.

Flying between the land masses, spinning and looping, going up, going down, left and right, a blue dragon. Hot on its tail, a cloud of blackish-red mist chasing it.

And by the looks of it, the mist was gaining in on it.

They were moving so fast that Galtion was having trouble just following them with his eyes.

A voice appeared in Galtion's mind, vibrating with every word, like speaking through the blades of a spinning fan.

'If you are here, it means the master has asked for your help. So don't just stay there, dazed out. Help me get rid of this thing.'

Galtion frowned.

"How am I supposed to help you? I can barely follow your movements with my eyes…" he said.

The dragon seemed to hear his words, as it responded once again in his head.

'If you were sent here, it means you are the fastest in your group. Prove it. Make your way up and strike this thing of my tail.'

It said the words with a calm tone, but they contained a sense of urgency, nonetheless. Galtion could feel the urgency, more than hear it, like the dragon was conveying his feelings directly to his mind.

His mind raced, trying to find a way to go help the dragon. Already the pair of racing silhouettes were accelerating and going higher and higher.

Looking at the land masses, and their positioning, which progressively got higher and farther from each other, an idea sprouted in his mind.

'I would need to accelerate constantly if this is to work… I can't misstep, or make a mistake.'

Clicking his boots together, activating their ability, Galtion started circling the floating island he was on. It wasn't very big, but it had just enough space around the ruin to make a circuit.

After spinning around it a dozen times, he felt he had reached fast enough for his first jump. He wrapped around, angling himself toward the next island, and jumped.

He felt his entire body lift off the ground with much more force than he had expected, making the first jump with ease. The gravity was a bit iffy in this soul space, and he felt lighter when he landed on the next island.

A smile crept up on his lips.

"Even better," he muttered.

He spun around the island he reached twice, picking up speed again, and launched to the next one. This one was a little higher up, and farther, than his first jump, but he was confident.

Arcing through the dark blue sky, lightning streaking high above, he reached the second island, landing on the edge of it, his heart almost skipping a beat at the proximity of the precipice.

He noticed that not only were the islands further from each other with every step up, but they also got smaller, and they seemed to be moving.

What he had thought would simply be running and jumping had now turned into a much harder challenge. And the dragon was still climbing higher, the mist hot on its tail.

'I guess this isn't going to be easy, after all…' he thought, his mind sharpening.

***

From SharpTusk's perspective, he landed in a burning landscape, with swathes of black dunes, further than his eye could see, with not a plant or building in sight. The sky was red; the sun blazing from so close; heat immediately assaulted his body.

Sweat formed almost instantly on his skin, his body trying to fight off the blazing atmosphere around him.

He felt shock waves washing over him, coming from over the horizon, just out of sight.

Tusk rushed in the direction the shock waves echoed from, climbing over a few dunes of black sand, which slid under his feet, almost like glass beads, until he found the source.

At the bottom of the dune he crested, which stood almost two thousand feet above the next flat surface, were two beasts fighting for dominion.

One of them; a large red dragon, clawing, biting, and spitting flames that melted the sand under them into a black obsidian-looking glass.

The other; A cloud of black-reddish mist, in the shape of a dragon, fighting back with as much ferocity. But with every one of its attacks, a small plume of black smoke rose from the red dragon's body, joining into the mist one, making him grow in size.

The red dragon wouldn't be able to resist for very long, at this rate.

So he did the only thing he knew how to do.

"ARRGGHH!!!!"

Shouting like a madman, SharpTusk rushed down the sandy dune, taking leaping bounds down, his Half-Orc body cruising like a missile. He reached the bottom of the hill in less than a minute, ready to jump into the fray, when a large red tail slammed into him, shooting him to the side, and colliding with another dune.

After slamming into the sand and tumbling for a few seconds, SharpTusk rose to his feet, absolutely furious.

"What the fuck! I'm trying to help you!" he shouted, looking at the struggling red dragon.

'Stay out of this, puny mortal!' a voice resounded in his head, almost sending him to his knees.

But he wouldn't stand aside, even if god asked him to. He was sent to help, and help he would!