"Isle, oh no…" Star somehow said it with even less effort than usual.
He unsheathed a wooden katana with no hand guard from his hip.
Val looked at Star for a second before laughing.
"That's just mean…" He continued laughing hard.
Kalpana held out her hand like a gun and shot a bullet of flames at Mori. She blocked the bullet with a root from the ground, The root burned away in an instant.
Mori looked at Val with a slight frown, Then some roots in the ground smacked him into a tree.
She held her hand out, a scepter with overwhelming mana appeared in her hand.
Star had never seen this much mana condensed in one spot before, it was almost more than the times he'd witnessed Val without his quantum being used.
Star rushed towards her, slashing at any roots she conjured, but before he could reach her. The wind intensified by manyfold and knocked him away.
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.
She was clearly proficient in magic. Though she wasn't even close to being the strongest mage he'd ever fought, at least for now she wasn't.
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 she conjured 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.
The floor began to shake, As if all the roots were threatening to shoot out.
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?
Star's eyes lightly glowed like before and wisteria began to grow on his sword, though Mori had her own tricks too, so why would she care?
She waved the scepter and several trees shot towards him at terrible speeds.
There was no way that he'd get hit by them, but he was sure that Mori was betting on them hitting him anyways.
He was almost certain that she was using the time he'd spend dealing with them, To cast another spell.
He slashed horizontally before they hit him and the trees split cleanly. By the time he cut them. As he'd expected, 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, then reappeared behind her.
She casted the spell she'd prepared but stopped as she looked around, and didn't see Star anywhere.
A wisteria petal softly drifted from one of the trees. Star appeared from it, slashing with his blade at her.
She was a bit surprised but not shocked at all.
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 great axe at her from behind a few trees. It cleaved through the trees, losing no momentum, and continuing to fly towards her.
Before the axe hit her, it was knocked away by seemingly nothing.
Val was confused as to how his attack didn't work, while Star was very aware of why it hadn't. The axe flew back into his hands shortly after it bounced.
'A magic shield. So she's a level 1.' Star thought.
This wouldn't be very hard for him. He shot towards her.
————————————
"What's in this damn book…?"
Isle raised the book over his head and examined it. The book had no title on the front, the only thing on it were some odd patterns that gave off a disturbing feeling.
He shivered and 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 from the floor. Just as he was about to try and open it, a voice behind him said 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 dark horns. He was a demon.
Those were the only features Isle could observe before his view of the world was flipped.
'Huh?!'
His view of the world had flipped to the side, it was so sudden that he hadn't even noticed until he hit the floor. Some how the demon had tripped Isle from across the room.
He hit the floor abruptly, landing roughly on his hip. The book slipped out of his hand again, It slid across the floor to the mysterious man.
He was about to crouch down and grab it before Isle shot at his hand with a crimson pistol. The man easily swatted the bullet away and Isle grabbed the book back with a red rake.
Everything Isle made with his quantum was naturally red, It'd led to a few misunderstandings in the past.
"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 grenade into the demons hand then ran into another room in the house. It blew up shortly after, shredding the fragile walls of the old cabin.
Dust was in the air, the remains of the wall laid on the ground. Isle was nowhere in sight, he 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 ran through the forest, hitting branches, and brushing by bushes as he did, he screamed and stopped as he saw a dark figure in front of him, it was way too 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.
"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 dude was back there. 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 with her claws.
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, 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 without her quantum. She continued to hold him just as tightly as before.
"Nope. You're running way too 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, it was quite the silly sight. 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 her, 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 then stood by him.
"Yeah I deserve that…" He said in a low voice as he 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.