Chapter 458: The Shepherd of the Storm
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The ocean waters of Ferde
Felina soared through the sky in disorderly spirals with Link on her back. In truth, Felina had no idea where Link wanted her to go. For now, she simply flew in whatever direction Link pointed.
Link held in his hand the Dragon King"s Fury, a sharp red light on the tip of the magical sword. His eyes were closed, but in his mind, he was perfectly aware of everything around him.
Everything was depicted clearly in his head in a fantastic blend of colors and shapes, including temperature, wind speed, wind direction, and humidity.
"Fly to your left, yes, just keep going. Do you see that bunch of clouds up front?" asked Link.
Felina did indeed see a huge cl.u.s.ter of clouds coming up ahead of them, its diameter approximately 2,000 feet. Aware that Link had his eyes closed this whole time, she figured that he must be using some sort of vision spell. "I saw it, but the wind"s getting stronger here. It"s a mini-typhoon. Should we still go on?"
"No, head for the surface of the ocean, where the center of the vortex is. The wind"s all right, but it"s too small. I"ll need to give it a bit more juice."
Felina plunged headfirst towards the sea. When she reached ten feet above sea level, Link suddenly stood up, leapt off of her back and floated in the air a foot above the surface of the sea.
He shouted back at her, "Felina, stay back a bit. That"s not far enough, stay at least ten miles away. That"s it, just keep flying!"
Once Felina was nothing more than a black speck against the sky in the distance, Link said to the Dragon King"s Fury in his hand, "You ready, partner?"
"Don"t get mushy on me, we"ve known each other no longer than a year," growled the sword, but then he casually continued, "Well, blowing up a strong wind should be a piece of cake, so let"s go!"
Link began holding his breath for ten seconds, before opening his eyes suddenly.
"Vision of Truth!"
Everything in his eyes turned translucent, especially the big storm cloud before him. Fine strands of light emanated from it; this was the flow of energy around the cloud.
These energy currents were the critical points of the typhoon. Through them, Link could either easily disperse the entire column of cloud, or increase the strength of the typhoon.
Ten seconds later, Link found one of the typhoon"s energy points, and pointing the magical sword in his hand at the surface of the sea, spoke in a low voice, "Void Destructor!"
Void Destructor
Level-10 Master Level Flame Spell
Dragon Power Cost: 8900
Description: Concentrate the elemental energies around the user into an incredibly destructive ball of fire.
(Note: This was a gift from the Red Dragon Queen.)
Whoos.h.!.+ Dazzling beams of light began gathering in the air around the magical sword, and with a continuous hum, a point of red light began growing on its tip. In the span of a second, the point of light expanded into a dark purple fireball with a diameter of more than eight feet.
Once the ball of fire materialized in the air, Link immediately activated the unlimited Dragon Power effect of his Dragon King"s belt, which began quickly replenis.h.i.+ng his Dragon Power. At the same time, he held in his other hand the Burning Wrath of Heavens, which he pointed at the ocean beneath his feet.
"Distortion Field!"
Through the spell"s effect, the waters began rus.h.i.+ng upward on both sides.
The scale of Link"s Distortion Field was ma.s.sive, covering an area of approximately 1,000 square feet. From a distance, it looked as if a huge, ancient sword had split the water in two.
At the same time, Link was levitating in the air with the help of the Distortion Field itself, looking like some mystical, sword-wielding deity.
The wall of sea water on both sides reached as high as 500 feet. He then hurled the ball of fire towards the dry patch of ground in the middle. When it reached the ground, Link sharply pulled up his other hand, which was holding the Burning Wrath of Heavens.
At this moment, the sea water, which had parted and risen high on both sides, came cras.h.i.+ng down deafeningly.
Fwoos.h.!.+ The two towering waves collided against one another. Simultaneously, the Void Destructor fireball exploded in the sudden torrent of sea water.
In an instant, the once inky blue sea water turned a dazzling crimson.
The sea water beneath Link"s feet began to bulge up like a mountain at the sudden explosion of energy beneath the water"s surface. Link"s body floated along the undulations of the sea, weightless, like a b.u.t.terfly fluttering in the middle of a storm.
Moments pa.s.sed, and the energy of the Void Destructor was finally absorbed by the sea. Link could feel the water beginning to boil and steam rising from its surface.
Felina, who was watching all of this from a distance, saw a trail of white vapor rising towards the sky from the sea.
What was even more peculiar was the fact that the vapor trail seemed to have set something off in the typhoon, as the rotation of the pillar of clouds began picking up speed. The clouds thickened as well, expanding until they filled the sky almost completely.
The wind raged even more violently, and before long, Felina, who was hovering ten miles away, found it difficult to maintain her balance in the air. Felina had no choice then but to put even more distance between herself and Link.
Far away, she could see Link bobbing along the waves, his body in the midst of the storm radiating a blinding light that illuminated both heaven and sea like a sun.
From time to time, the magic wand and sword that occupied both his hands would let out rays of dark red light; some dissolved into the clouds and some into the sea, while others simply dispersed in the air.
The energy that Link was letting off had the effect of a giant invisible hand stirring up the air, to the point that the clouds were now spreading out at a terrifying rate, with the winds howling wildly like the cries of a thousand ghosts.
At this point, Link was like a G.o.d walking among mortal men, holding sway over the elemental forces of the world.
This scene would probably be etched in Felina"s memory for as long as she lived.
Whoo!
The pillar of clouds began to move straight for the Broken Isles not far away. At first, it slowly moved across the ocean at a speed of no more than ten feet per second, but as time pa.s.sed, the cyclone began to accelerate, reaching an astonis.h.i.+ng speed of 100 feet per second.
Link followed closely behind the ma.s.sive cyclone. Like a shepherd, he would pull the world"s largest sheep in front of him back on the right track whenever it went off course.
"Felina!" The wind carried Link"s voice all the way to her.
Felina immediately flew to his side. Link, who had been levitating in the air all this time with the Distortion Field, returned to his spot on the dragon"s back and began focusing on herding the cyclone.
Like a top, the cyclone was now spinning faster and faster as it tore across more than 100 miles of ocean.
The negative pressure caused by the high-speed rotation of the cyclone had also begun pulling up sea water at the eye of the vortex until it finally formed a towering column of water.
Estimating that there were about ten miles of ocean left between the cyclone and the Magnetic Magic Island, Link gave his "sheep" one last whip before casting an invisibility spell over himself and Felina. At the same time, he infused some of his energy into a rune stone in his hand, making contact with Ferde"s navy forces, who had been waiting at the harbor.
As they were high up in the air, Felina could see from afar that the High Elves on the island did not even realize the danger that they were in and were all looking for shelter from what they believed to merely be rain.
"Will they die?" Felina sounded somewhat worried.
Link, who could see the state of the island even more clearly than her, shook his head. "No. There are no more than a few hundred miners on the island. Also, there"s a Level-7 High Elf Magic Sentry. His magic should be enough to protect the High Elf miners. Of course, the wind will blow them all away."
...
On the island
"This blasted weather. It was fine moments ago, what"s with the sudden storm?" A High Elf miner hurriedly made for one of the treehouses, and once inside, began squeezing his clothes dry.
Suddenly, there was a shriek from outside. "Come out quick, it"s a cyclone!
The miner poked his head out of the window, and gaped at the approaching pillar of wind and clouds that towered over the island like a heavenly spear piercing through the heavens.
"Quick, let"s get out of here!" He could hear the High Elf Magician"s voice in the wind.
Quickly regaining his senses, the miner began running after the Magician and saw that the other miners, too, had fled from their shelters and a.s.sembled around the Magician.
The Magician took out a seed and began pouring Nature Power into it. As he threw the seed into the sea, there was a sudden rumble, and from the water sprang forth a large amount of vines that twisted themselves into the shape of a long, narrow s.h.i.+p shaped like a spear.
"Quick, get on the boat, quick!" shouted the Magician, who got on the vessel first.
A few minutes later, all the miners had gotten on board.The Magician immediately focused his Nature Power into the s.h.i.+p, and the vine-made oars that lined the two sides of the s.h.i.+p began rowing themselves at top speed.
The s.h.i.+p then sent out a jet of Gyromagnetic Iron, propelling itself at a speed of more than fifty feet per second.
But it wasn"t fast enough.
Five minutes later, the cyclone had now come upon the whole island.
"Oh my G.o.d, everything is destroyed!"
"My tree effigy"s ruined!"
"This must be divine retribution!"
"Quick, Magician, it"s catching up to us!"
"Be silent, I"m already doing the best I can," The Magician infused more of his energy into the s.h.i.+p desperately, accelerating it even more.
But it was no use. Six minutes pa.s.sed, and the cyclone still did not let up its pursuit, reeling them in relentlessly with incredible suction, like the hand of a malevolent deity trying to scoop them all into the afterlife.
"Hold on tight!" The Magician madly infused the rest of his Nature Power into the s.h.i.+p, and vines began stretching out like tentacles from the s.h.i.+p, latching onto every member of the s.h.i.+p to hold them in place. At the same time, other vines arched above the s.h.i.+p, forming a sort of canopy over all of them.
There was a moment of weightlessness as the s.h.i.+p spun rapidly out of control and bobbed up and down, as if it was being carried off into the air.
This went on for half an hour before the s.h.i.+p finally fell to the sea. In the ball of vines, everyone"s heads were still spinning, and the air inside was filled with the putrid smell of vomit.
"Ew, who threw up on my face? Disgusting!" said someone weakly.
"Somebody peed on me!"
"Eilos, you literally soiled yourself!"
It was utter pandemonium in the ball of vines.
Drawing the vine canopy open from above, the High Elf Magician leaned on one side of the s.h.i.+p and took out his compa.s.s. "Thank the G.o.ds we weren"t blown too far away. Let"s head back to the island and rest ourselves."
But just then, one of the High Elf miners shouted, "Look, there"s a fleet of s.h.i.+ps."
"It"s a three-leaf flag. That"s the fleet of Ferde. Oh, what do they want now?" said another miner, narrowing his eyes at the s.h.i.+ps.
"Oh no, they"re heading for the island!" exclaimed the High Elf Magician. "We cannot let them reach the island!"
The Magician stood up and pointed his magic wand in the air, producing a ball of green mist. At the same time, he cast a Sound Amplification spell and shouted towards the s.h.i.+ps, "Help! Help!"
After shouting, he said in a low voice to the miners, "When they reach us, we"ll let them escort us back to the Isle of Dawn, and not a word about our mines on the island, or there will be consequences!"
"Understood!" said the miners in unison, their faces grave.