Chương 29: Stranded

The System continued to flash as Ray remained frozen. The firm grip of Frangle grabbing his shoulder brought him back to reality.

"What do we do?" Frangle yelled. Ray stared at the large teen and tried his hardest to form a plan. Pulling up the pilot manual, he feverishly searched for what he should do. Most of the manual was in complicated language and had graphs and blueprints he simply couldn't decipher. The only thing he could gather was he was supposed to somehow connect his local System to the aircraft's. Each System had to connect to the main System in order to gain live data.

If he could connect this to the aircraft, he would be able to pilot it. Ray immediately willed for the System to make the connection. A message arrived within a breath of time. [User's System has made connection with System: trans: 887456#] [Initiate manual piloting mode?] Ray accepted and he felt his senses merge with an overlay of the entire aircraft. He managed to make it focus on the view in front of the aircraft and what he saw made his heart nearly stop.

A wall of treetops was coming at them faster than he could move with Bolt. Ray tried his best to control the aircraft and make it pull up, but it was already too late. The aircraft broke through the trees. BOOM! Ray felt his body lift up as the aircraft hit the ground. For just a second, he was airborne. Bang! His body slammed against the wall and he fell face-first hard onto the floor. The world went dark. - Ray awoke to the sound of beeping and someone yelling. He could barely understand what they were saying.

Why bug someone so early in the morning? Flashes of the ground approaching brought him back to reality.

"Ray!" He could hear it now. They were yelling his name. Ray looked up and saw he was in the front of the cabin, isolated by a large section of the aircraft that had caved in and formed a small enclosure. His lower body was pinned under a mass of bent metal and sparks rained down around him. The smell was the worst part. He could smell the fuel as it leaked out of the aircraft.

'The fuel!' He pried himself out from under the mass of metal and climbed towards the voice he heard. Ray could see the bright light of the sun as he pulled himself towards an opening. Just as he reached it, a hissing sound began and he could feel the air shift. Grabbing onto a jagged edge of the hole in the side of the aircraft, Ray pulled himself out and fell a few meters towards the ground. BOOM! The aircraft exploded. Ray was sent forward an extra half a dozen meters away from the aircraft.

He managed to collect himself enough to activate Fungal Cloak. The cloak made of pure Dark Mana wrapped around his body and slowed his fall. He landed lightly on the ground and plopped right back down. His entire body hurt.

"ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" Ray could hear Phora calling for him but didn't know from which direction. He was surrounded by trees. The only sign was the smoke coming from the direction of the aircraft. Standing back up caused him to feel light-headed and his vision to blur.

'Probably a concussion,' he thought.

'I could use the Stamina Rune to alleviate it but I may need it later.' Ray decided to head back towards the wreckage and meet up with the team. Assuming everyone was okay.

"Hey!" Ray turned towards the sound of Phora's voice and saw her waving to him near the wreck. A few moments later, the pair were breathing heavily beside each other.

"You okay?" Ray asked.

"Yeah." Phora stood and looked towards the wreckage.

"I'm not sure about the others, though." Ray looked in the same direction and nodded. The two began to walk around the perimeter, trying to get a read on the situation. The System's map showed the other three were grouped together. Maintaining a safe distance from the still smoking aircraft, they eventually made it towards the rest of the group. Jerome and Frangle were pacing back and forth while Kiara lay on the ground, seemingly unconscious.

"What happened?" Ray asked as they approached. Frangle walked up covered in cuts and dark bruises. He let out a long sigh before answering.

"We think Kiara hit her head pretty hard. She was like this when we found her." Needles poked his skin as a tense feeling went throughout Ray's body. Before he could form a thought, he ran over to Kiara and knelt down beside her. She was still breathing. Her pulse was steady and Ray could feel warmth on her forehead. Deciding his teammate was at least alive, Ray finally managed to relax.

"What the fuck!?" Jerome shouted and threw something at the smoking aircraft.

"I can't get the System to connect and contact anyone. The only people on my registry are you guys." This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Ray looked up when a section of the aircraft dropped on the ground with a loud thud, followed by a hissing sound. BOOM! Another explosion, causing more fire to spread in the surrounding trees. Each member of the team flinched at the explosion. Silence. The only sound was the sizzling of burning fuel.

The air tasted sweet with its vapor. - The team managed to set up a small camp further from the crash site. Kiara remained unconscious but the rest of the team seemed fine. Only minor scrapes and bumps. After about an hour of no more explosions, it was time to investigate the wreckage. Ray decided to go alone, considering he could outrun the rest of the team with a single Bolt. The aircraft had turned into a mountain of metal, wires and broken glass.

There were a few ways inside, but Ray found they didn't go very deep. Following his own exit hole, he managed to make his way to the front of the cabin. The flight deck was basically just a monitor at the very front of the aircraft. It took a few moments but Ray made his way in and approached the shattered monitor. There were several emergency lights on, so there was at least some power. Approaching the monitor, Ray was shocked to see it was mostly intact, other than its shattered screen.

He willed the System, not expecting a response, but the monitor lit up. A System message followed. [User's System has made connection with System: trans: 887456#] [Download log?] Ray accepted and information flooded his head. Scenes of open air above dense forest flashed in his mind, ending with the sight of a city of light. It felt almost cryptic. The images faded and Ray was met with a huge data log. The System displayed all of the information in one long chain, so he tried to focus on certain parts of it.

'Connect.' He willed the System to connect to HQ. The aircraft had a log pertaining to the GLMB as HQ but Ray couldn't seem to enable it. He tried several more times before landing on something useful.

'Map.' The aircraft had a direct route from the GLMB to Zephyron. None of the surroundings were shown, similar to Ray's own map when he viewed areas he hadn't been to. Ray uploaded the data to his own map and was surprised to find he now had a compass pointing him in the direction of Zephyron. This at least gave them a way forward. Ray spent several more minutes combing through the log and aircraft itself. He managed to find the team's belongings, bringing them as he made his way back to the temporary camp.

Ray was happy to see Kiara awake when he arrived. She was the team's designated healer, so she had to take on the role even for herself. By the time Ray had returned, she was good as new and working on Frangle's injuries. Ray put everyone's stuff in a pile and sat next to Phora. The thunder family royalty looked at him, fear in her eyes.

"What did you find?" Ray sighed.

"Not much." He willed the System to make a connection with Phora and sent her the data log.

"It's mostly mechanical nonsense. The aircraft's System has a way to directly contact HQ at the GLMB but it doesn't have access to the main System. The connection is probably based on the main power running, so I guess it makes sense. I did find coordinates for Zephyron, though. When the System first uploaded the information, a weird scene played out in my head. Some kind of city of lights across a massive forest." Phora tensed when she heard him and visibly shivered.

"Sounds like Zephyron," she said. That made sense. Even Ray figured it was a scene of the city, but the way it felt was… off.

"Anyways," he continued.

"I'm not technologically savvy enough to figure out why it crashed, but the data log shows no interruptions. It was working fine and then suddenly it wasn't."

"So what do we do?"

"I'm not sure, maybe we just start walking." - The team spent the next hour or so recouping. They each needed healing from Kiara and she only had so much Mana. Once they were ready, Ray sent each of them the data log and they set off. For the first few hours, nothing happened. The forest was dense but easy enough to move through. Ray kept the compass in the corner of his vision and adjusted whenever the terrain forced them off course. They eventually ran into a group of four Stage 1 Beasts.

Ray barely had time to give an order. Phora moved first, lightning flashing around her as she closed the distance. Jerome followed with a burst of Fire Mana while Frangle stepped forward to take the attention of the largest Beast. Kiara stayed behind them. Ray waited. A few weeks ago, he would have been moving between all of them, trying to fix every mistake. There were none. The fight ended in less than a minute. They collected the Beast Cores and set off. Jerome laughed as the last Beast hit the ground.

"That was easy."

"Don't say that," Kiara said. Jerome turned towards her.

"What?"

"That's exactly what people say before something terrible happens." Phora smiled.

"She's right." Ray shook his head and continued walking. Still, Jerome had a point. They were doing fine. The crash had been bad, but everyone was alive. Kiara had healed most of their injuries and they knew which direction Zephyron was in. If they kept moving, someone would eventually find them. Frangle seemed to have the same thought.

"You think Gunther and the others know we crashed?" Ray looked over.

"They were flying the same direction."

"Exactly. They have to notice we never show up." Phora nodded.

"Even if they don't know where we crashed, they should be able to trace the route."

"See?" Jerome said.

"We're fine." Kiara groaned.

"You did it again." Ray laughed. Another hour passed. Things seemed to be going smoothly. Then Kiara stopped. Ray made it several steps before noticing. He turned around. Kiara stood completely still.

"What is it?" Ray asked. Kiara's eyes moved through the trees.

"I feel something."

"A Beast?" Jerome asked. Kiara didn't answer immediately. The relaxed look disappeared from her face.

"Mana," she finally said.

"A lot of it." Ray immediately opened the System map. Nothing.

"How far?"

"I don't know." That was enough. Ray motioned for everyone to stay close and started moving in the direction Kiara was looking. The smell reached them first. Blood. Not the faint metallic smell from the Beasts they had killed earlier. This was thick. Heavy. They pushed through another section of trees and found a Beast Ray didn't recognize torn open across the forest floor, one of its legs missing. Several trees nearby had been snapped in half and deep grooves ran through the dirt.

Whatever happened here had been violent. Kiara grabbed Ray's arm.

"It's close." A low crunching sound came from ahead. Ray slowly moved around a tree. Something massive crouched over another Beast. It resembled an ape, only much more bulbous and its head was closer to that of a lion. It was several meters tall, hunched over and grunting. Dark fur covered most of it, though blood coated its chest and hands. The corpse beneath it had been nearly ripped apart. The ape tore another piece free and shoved it into its mouth. Mana rolled off its body in waves. Ray could feel it now.

The pressure. The Beast suddenly stopped chewing. Its head turned. Two dark eyes locked onto him. The System flashed. [Late Stage 3 Beast, Name: Mountain Ape]