Chapter 255: A race against time

Amazing... I always wondered what falling toward the sky feels like... and it was amazing.

I mean you see the ground moving away from your feet, and the blood pressure rushing to your head while your guts churn a little like they’re floating in your stomach, and you feel like you’re about to throw up what you ate.

Yeah, it was more strange than amazing.

But let me say, reversing gravity enough for a hundred people to fall toward the sky... that’s not a simple thing by any means.

And while the ground became a few dozen meters away from us, I glanced at Elliot... well, he looked very focused with beads of sweat sticking to his forehead, running toward the sky instead of the ground... I mean toward his hair, because we’re practically falling on our heads.

"Ah!... ah... am I flying or falling!... Valia don’t be scared, you can hold my hand." Ivan’s panicked voice rose, like he’d been thrown out of a plane without a parachute... well, an island.

He wasn’t the only one in that state, many other people were also struggling to keep themselves from panicking and started moving randomly while we fell... but most of them had tried the mental balance test at least once, so everyone was still staying kind of calm.

Unfortunately, the girls weren’t wearing skirts... I mean luckily.... who would wear a skirt here anyway.

Our falling speed was slow, so it’d take a few minutes until we reached the bottom of the island above us... and that means the other groups will definitely see us... but I don’t think they’d have enough time to notice and attack us while we’re in the sky.

But the other groups weren’t the only threat here of course.

As we covered half the distance to the base of the island above us, a loud screeching echoed from above us... like dozens of big birds threatening us, while we hang in the middle of the air.

Which is what it was, because up there where we were falling, you could see dozens of burrows at the edges of the island’s base, and out of them came dozens of big birds, each one of them was twice our size with a long beak and wings of clear skin that we could literally see through.

They opened their mouths as they flew toward us... straight toward our heads.

The small crowd got tense, but I didn’t do anything... well, it wasn’t my job to do anything.

Because the next moment the arrows flew one after another from Kyle and the other archers, followed by Ellen’s blades... all of them pierced the bodies of the flying monsters and tore them apart, and made their bodies drop downward in desperate screaming, some of them even fell on us and got caught in the gravity field Elliot was making, until someone had to push them away.

Izel and Emeris and anyone else didn’t attack, because their abilities make a lot of noise and become visible from far away... especially now with the night starting.

So, in short, those poor birds weren’t any threat to us, and soon the base of the island was only a few dozen meters away... that’s when Elliot shouted, "Everyone get ready to hold on!"

That’s when I tilted my head as I felt the blood weighing me down. "Why don’t you steer us toward the edge of the island and just let us pass it."

He looked at me with his face dripping with sweat, he opened and closed his mouth twice like he wanted to curse at me... yeah, he was going to curse at me, but at least he changed his mind in the end. "That’s way too much... do you understand what it means for me to reverse gravity to carry all of us!... it’s more complicated than multiplying it ten times..."

I waved my hand in his face. "Okay okay, just don’t drop us from here."

I said that as I glanced downward, the nearest ground had become more than a kilometer away, and that’s a massive distance to fall from.

Even though Elliot stared at me like he was saying, "Should I do it?... I’ll do it!" he didn’t do it... he’s a good person after all.

Finally, after minutes of slow, strange falling, we reached the lower edge of the island where those burrows were... the rocky surface was slanted like a bowl from the outside, but it wasn’t a problem for us.

I raised my hand and drove it into the rocks before I hit them, and so did everyone.

When Elliot saw we were already holding on, he cancelled his power which made the strange feeling fade, and the blood circulation went back to normal, and our hands became the only thing holding us.

Beside me Elliot let out a long breath of relief as he complained, "That was exhausting."

A hundred people climbed along the edge of the island to get to the top, and in this process, many flying monsters tried to attack us, but in the end, they ended up victims of Ellen’s blades and some of the other students... they weren’t strong anyway.

All it took was a few minutes of climbing to reach the top and stand on the grassy ground again.

Many people panted to catch their breath... not from exhaustion but from dizziness, the reverse gravity flying experience wasn’t good for them apparently.

Kyle was already staring downward toward the Auerlion delegation because they’re the only ones visible from this side, so I asked, "What are they doing?"

It took him a few seconds of staring to answer. "They’re gathering outside and they look like they’re about to set off."

I nodded and looked away to the side, there at the edge of the island the thick vines stretched toward the small islands, connecting them one after another, forming a hanging bridge toward the next island.

That wasn’t the only bridge of course, there are many of them in every direction connecting us to the other islands at the same level of height or higher.

We can’t keep falling toward the sky unfortunately, the islands weren’t aligned with each other, they were spread out randomly, so the closest island above us was toward the north... of course with the abilities of a hundred people combined we could fly or something like that, but that would become dangerous from now on, because the flying monsters will get stronger and can’t be hit with a bunch of blades.

I stared at everyone as I spoke in a loud voice. "Alright, this is the time to split up."

Traveling with a hundred people across the hanging bridges wasn’t a good thing... a large number draws a lot of attention after all, plus there are many paths going up.

So, in the end we split up... there were three paths from this island, so the seven teams split, three went together and those were led by Leona and Ellen and Kyle.

And two went that were led by Elliot and Izel... and Emeris and I were left, so our two groups went together.

Izel and Elliot took the closest bridge, while the other teams kept going in the same direction to reach the other side of the island, as for us we took the opposite direction from them.

All the groups would separate when they reached the top.

But of course, even the other delegations would weave their own plans and strategies.

So, we were in a race against time.