23 System of a Down (2)

Support my main contracted novel and winner of Writing Prompts #26 - The Legendary Mage!

Desolate Mage: A Legend Reborn!

https://www.webnovel.com/book/12013957905760805/Desolate-Mage%3A-A-Legend-Reborn!

* * * * *

There was once a brother and sister who were in love.

It was a forbidden love; one in which he would do anything for her.

As she was beautiful enough to make even gods fall into depravity for her sake; he created a world just so they could hide away from the heavens.

But one day, everything changed.

"I want to see the outside," she said with glittering, sparkling eyes.

Years later, he would weep, and lament. No matter how much he regretted his decision; he could never turn back time.

* * * * *

Sam jogged along in the forest, the trees and fields passing by in a blur. She maintained a constant speed of around 70-80km an hour; overtaking some birds in flight. At this speed, her feet would bring her to the minor city of Montpellier by nightfall.

She leaped over roots and bushes, sometimes running on the surface of tree trunks and at other times swinging on branches. A bright and cheery smile was on her face, a stark difference from the night before.

Sam breathed deep, absorbing the freshness and virility of the forest air. She could nearly taste the greenness of the grass and trees, and the smell of earth filled her nostrils. She felt... Alive. Alive and connected with the earth.

She started to run freely, startling the many common animals and also some weaker monsters who did not notice her approaching. She had long realised that she had a weak presence and was to detect.

As she ran, she could feel that her body's strength was no longer progressing. Previously she could feel a gradual growth every day; and also fast growth spurts on the night of her birthday and after she was bedridden.

But now she felt like how she would if she ate too much - bloated and uncomfortable.

As she adjusted the hide bag on her back where Snowie was snugly perched within, she determined herself to level up before Montpellier.

And so Sam made detours every now and then, sometimes to the west, then back on course and veering off to the east to seek out animal friends to play tag with - and to eat. Snowie was hungry too!

It was while on one of the diversions eastwards that she saw it for the first time.

(This... This wasn't here before?) She dashed over, unsure of what she was seeing and intent to find out why the atmosphere left her feeling perturbed. The sudden change of direction threw Snowie around in her backpack, leaving the poor kitty dizzy.

As she drew nearer, she felt curious as to why the trees were not thinning out gradually as she neared the edge of the forest area. She slowed down slightly as she crested the hilltop - and shot over the edge of the cliff, to plunge straight down into the seawaters of the Mirror Gulf.

(Shit!) Sam braced herself for the fall, her hands holding on to her backpacks straps to keep Snowie and her possessions safe.

With a splash, she threw her bag up just before she hit the waters hard and went under; spluttering. Snowie watched from within the bag as it sailed through the air and landed on the lower coastline northwards.

The bag lay still for a moment, before a slightly battered and damp kitty crawled out, swaying as she tried to regain her balance.

At the same time, Sam was struggling against the incredibly strong tides, unable to get a foothold against the surface of the crystallized sands under feet; sands which had turned into glass.

Failing to gain traction from stepping into the sand, she slammed her feet hard into the ground in an attempt to create foothold, but found that the hard glass-like floor did not crack under her stomps that were weakened by the waters.

Growling in frustration as she splashed around to keep herself from being pulled adrift any further, she transformed and compressed her leg muscles and smashed her right foot into the glassy ground. This time it managed to leave a crack and dent, allowing her to create "steps" to walk back onshore.

When she reached the shore, she was shaking; her legs burning with pain from the seemingly long 1 minute of exertion - and the scratches the jagged edges of the dense and hard glass left on her feet, shins and ankles. She ignored the wounds and blood though; knowing that the minor gashes would close up within minutes.

Sam was also pleased with her experiment at only compressing selected parts of her body, and only doing it for short instantaneous bursts. The instantaneous, short bursts placed half as much stress on her body; while only using it for specific body parts reduced it by half again.

(I feel like I can use around 15 seconds more of Full-burst...) She mentally calculated her remaining usage of the explosive power, based on her body's condition.

She didn't have a name for either the full transformation or the partial, momentary changes yet... But maybe she'd call them Full-burst and Instant-burst. Yeah, that sounded alright...

Snowie ran over, then danced backwards as the tide brought the seawater rushing up towards her. After determining where the seawater stopped, Snowie walked 5 more steps and sat down to wait for Sam; licking her paw.

Sam tried to drip herself dry for awhile; stopping when she realised her clothes were very sturdy and high quality, not losing their shape or sagging when wet - and were also very good at retaining water...

Damp as she was, she tried to pick Snowie up, eliciting a look of loathing then agitated hissing from the kitten. Smiling and ignoring Snowie's objections, Sam scooped her up before she could run away and went to retrieve her bag. She trod carefully as she navigated the smooth surface of the mirror-like ground.

"?"

Finally finding a chance to take in her surroundings, she noticed how vast of a difference there was between the gulf she stood in against the forest just before.

She trod upshore to the northern coastline where there seemed to be an invisible border; the shoreline ending and the forest immediately rising up to full height.

She could feel that there was a sense of... Lifelessness. A heavy sense of oppression and not-niceness. She shivered as she quickened her pace as much as she could to get out of this barren area.

As the western cliff walls she had come from were sheer and smooth glass surfaces, she had to make a long detour round to the north first, before she could get back up to her destination on the south-west.

"!" Then she noticed 2 suspicious people further north and east - suspicious because one was an incredibly handsome and masculine epitome of a man, his refined but utilitarian clothes unable to obscure his excellent figure and chiseled muscles.

He seemed to be discussing something with his counterpart, but his voice was too faint to hear from this far away. He gestured with his arms as he spoke, clearly agitated but subdued in his reactions.

Probably because the other party was a headless 8m tall red monster, floating in mid air with its 8 dangling arms and no legs. Where a head was supposed to be, there was instead a crown - which looked comical, except for the fact that its entire chest was an immense mouth with teeth longer than Sam was tall...

Curious, Sam crept closer while Snowie shivered in terror. Curiosity and cats did NOT go together well.