123 Hawaii Resor (1/2)
Ed, Flair, and Tao travelled north along the coast of the island, having no desire to enter inside. This was merely a pit stop on their journey, and there was no need to waste time.
Nearly an hour later, they reached an unusual ship. Like the previous ship, it was massive in size and carried no weapons. However, it was completely made of wood. 'Does Tai have a death sentence?!' Ed wondered. He reached out with his mana and felt nothing unusual with the ship. It seemed it really was just ordinary wood!
”Anyone there?!” He shouted towards the ship, but only silence remained.
'Weird...' He glanced towards the others. ”Tao, guard Flair while I check things out.”
”Humph.” Tao snorted while nodding his head. He held his head high and proudly began marching in circles around Flair, showing her that she was being protected.
Flair knelt down and poked the crocodile's side. ”Somehow he was cuter when he was smaller.” She sighed, her hair waving back-and-forth as she shook her head. She knew Tao could shrink, but it seemed that the croc would only do so when he felt like it. She had no control at all over the creature.
Ed flew over and landed atop the ship, the wooden deck creaking as he landed. There wasn't a single esper or person in sight. He climbed the stairs below deck and walked through the halls. Soon, he reached the mess hall. Hundreds of tables were set up with plates with food atop them. He reached his hand towards a plate of meat, feeling that it was cold to the touch. 'Well, they've been gone longer than an hour...'
After searching the entire ship, he returned to the island, a frown on his face.
”So?” Flair questioned while petting Tao's head.
”I don't know.' Ed furrowed his brows. ”It looks like they left in a hurry... or they just vanished instantly. It's strange.”
”Maybe there are still espers on the island.” She commented offhandedly. ”After all, even if the island was abandoned by the government, that doesn't mean all the people left. It wouldn't be strange for a small group of espers and people to have survived until now.”
”Maybe...” Ed rubbed his chin as he agreed. ”But how strong would they have to be to make Tai's forces vanish instantly? Tai and Rubi should be enough to handle most espers.”
”Well, are we going to wait for them or search the island?” She questioned. ”I'm not fond of combat, so I'd prefer to wait if possible.”
Ed thought a moment before replying. ”Tao and I will head into the island and check things out. You can wait here where it's safer.” He looked towards the croc. ”Ready?”
Tao released a low growl while turning his head away and lying down.
”Tsk.” Ed clicked his tongue. ”The 2nd betrayal already. Are you entering your rebellious phase now that you're older?”
”Nonsense.” Flair grinned as she crouched down. ”He just wants to protect me. Isn't that right?” She petted Tao, who released odd purring sounds in response.
”Fine, fine.” Ed waved as he left them behind. ”Don't blame me when you two vanish without my protection. I'll just search the huge island all by myself.”
Ed didn't bother holding back as he entered the lush forest. His silver flames easily burned through the foliage that got in his way. An obvious trail of ashes was left in his wake as he leisurely walked through the trees.
'Weird.' He thought as he continued. The forest was completely devoid of life. Forget about mutants and animals, he hadn't even seen a small bug since entering. Much like the ghost ship, it appeared to be a ghost forest.
His journey continued for several hours when he suddenly felt a chill travel down his spine. Hurriedly dodging to the side, he saw two black and white spears penetrate the ground where he had just been standing. Shocked, he hurriedly looked towards the source. 'Oh, fucking hell!' He cursed to himself. Before him was a giant black and white spider, easily five times as big as him.
Suddenly, red eyes lit up in the surrounding forest. Identical spiders of all sizes crawled out, spinning webs as they did so. Some were smaller than his fingernail, and others were bigger than the first spider he faced. It was only a matter of seconds before a cage of white and black threads enclosed the area, blocking off Ed's escape.
'It had to be spiders...' He sighed while thinking back to the memories of his awakening. One of his last experiences as an ordinary human had been being attacked by a bucket of ordinary spiders the size of a fist. 'Well, I guess those spiders were tame compared to these ones.' He threw his hands forward and sent streams of silver flame towards the webbing. For a moment, it seemed the fire was going to succeed in burning through, and it even electrocuted some of the closest spiders. However, the surrounding spiders hurriedly shot streams of threads towards the flames and extinguished them.
'Are these the things that captured Tai and the others?' He wondered. 'That still seems a bit farfetched...' Reverting to his old-fashioned reliance on the mana-batteries, he combined dark, wind, and fire to create huge corrosive flames. Surprisingly, the threads were completely unaffected by the attack.
'I see.' He nodded. The light and dark threads balance each other out, nullifying the majority of attack types. 'I'll just throw something stronger at it then!' He switched gears and utilized the earth and fire mana-batteries, successfully firing streams of lava-like substance from his arms. 'It's working!' He grinned as the lava melted the webbing.