Survival

Tai soon found himself on the deck once again. However, he did not have to wait long for his cue, as the speech impaired blonde girl soon appeared on the deck and sat by his side.

Like before, she began to twitch and scream:

"THREE FOOLS LAY DEAD IN ASHES ON A HILL OF GOLD, ONE IN SEARCH Of VANITY AND ANOTHER IN SEARCH OF GLORY."

Tai had long discovered the meaning of the vision.

They were the three fools who would lay dead on a hill of gold.

Nikolah wanted to pass the expedition with the highest score possible, and He himself wanted to get stronger so he could have a chance at the monthly assessment.

In other words, He was in search of vanity in the form of strength, and Nikolah was in search of glory by passing with the highest score possible.

But he could not understand the gold part though.

Sighing, he lifted the spasming girl on his shoulder and called Nikolah.

In a few minutes, they had arrived at the tall hill.

Tai narrowed his eyes as they climbed the hill in a hurry, trying to find the obsidian dragon. He did not have to look for too long, as he could see it slumbering in a hall at the bottom of the hill.

How the hell had he missed it the first... hundred or so times?

The red haired teenager had never managed to kill the dragon even once despite facing it over and over again for almost two years.

However, he had come really close a couple of times. Infact, he had even managed to summon the Obsidian Sword once again.

From harrowing experience, Tai had found out that he could only summon the jet black sword in a life or death situation.

He had only managed to summon the weapon when he was sparring with Claire and she had almost sliced his head off. It was a life saver of sorts.

This time, the red haired teenager was determined to kill the dragon once and for all, and in order to do that, he would need help from a strong person.

Luckily, the strongest student in the entire Protectors Academy was stuck along with him on the island, caught in the time loop.

Cold sweat ran down Nikolah's spine ad she tried to wake the blonde girl up.

"Claire! Come back Claire!!, Clarence Voyante!!"

Soon however, she heaved a sigh of relief as Claire had come to.

Tai frowned.

"Cue the dragon..."

Then the blue haired girl tensed up and Claire had get eyes popping open.

This may have been the dragon's cue, but it did not mean that he would not use it.

Diving at the two girls, Tai screamed:

"Run!!"

Making the two girls immediately get on their feet and dash away from the hill.

His warning came in just in time, as a flash of black flames had erupted from the dragon's maw, obliterating the top of the hill.

Tai managed to glance at the spot they had been, then he smirked darkly.

"It was a fucking pile of gold."

The massive hill had actually just been a larger than life pile of gold that the dragon had hoarded over thousands of years. All this time, the black dragon had simply been trying to protect it's gold.

But that would not stop the red haired teenager from killing it though.

***

Tai, Claire, and Nikolah found themselves tumbling down the hill.

However, it was all part of Tai's plan, he had tested it over and over for two years and was at least ninety percent sure of success.

Of course, he could just rely on the Time Storm if he failed, but Tai himself found himself losing his sanity more and more the more he woke up.

In a Time Storm, even if a person's mind and body was reset each revolution, the mental scars vividly remained, hidden deep in the person's subconscious.

Somehow, Tai had achieved awareness of the time loop, so the mental scars ran much deeper in him than in Nikolah or Claire.

Finding a cave he himself had hidden in a couple hundred times, the three of them dived in to seek refuge from the black dragon hot on their trail.

Panting, Tai smirked.

"We survived."

This was the first time he had gotten them all to survive this long.

Usually, the three of them would be burnt to ashes corpses on the hill top, he would manage to dodge the black flame and only Nikki and Claire would perish, or they would be eaten by the black scaled beast.

The strategy he had used may have looked easy, but it certainly was not.

He had to dive, call out to Nikki, run, and find the cave fast enough all at their own precise time.

One second later, and they would have been roasted by the black flames.

The blue haired girl turned to face Tai, confusion written over her face.

"How the fuck did you know about the dragon?!"