Chapter 335: Contact With An Enemy Island!

"It’s a shame," Uhtred sighed reluctantly. "But it doesn’t make sense to spend my points and buy any of these yet."

Unless he was willing to drop to the bottom of the leaderboard rankings, spending so many points on one weapon just didn’t make sense.

So instead, he chose to look at what he could purchase without losing ranks too terribly.

"I’m only willing to spend five thousand points, max," Uhtred muttered to himself.

That immediately removed weapons from the equation. Any weapon still within his budget was useless to him. There were cannons and area of effect weapons he could get, but from their descriptions, they could barely stun a Nascent Realm Champion, not to talk of slowing them down.

The only logical purchases within that price range were neutral, utility structures — like an Observation Tower, for example.

Uhtred selected the buy button, paying a reasonable price of 4000 Scenario points for one. It brought his total down to 17,019, and his Leaderboard ranking down from 36 to 38.

A prompt appeared in his view, asking him where he wanted the Observation Tower to be placed.

Uhtred selected an area not too far from his Race shard. He wanted the Observation Tower to be as close to the center of his Floating Island as possible, giving him a nearly equal viewing distance to every corner of the island.

"Sheesh, isn’t this basically a skyscraper? It’s even taller than I expected," Uhtred whistled, craning his neck as the Observation Tower materialized.

It grew from the bottom, arranging like building blocks into a tall, spire-like structure that was at least fifty-stories high.

Without wasting time, Uhtred stepped inside the moment the construction finalized — only to freeze and scowl at the interior.

"No wonder the damnthing was so cheap!" Uhtred cursed. "There’s no fucking way to get up!"

There weren’t even any stairs. The entire interior was just dark and hollow, with the only light source coming from the top where the observation platform sat.

Of course, ascending was no problem for Uhtred, but finding out there was no easy way to reach the top made the price he’d paid for the Observation Tower feel like a rip-off.

He conjured a platform of air, using the same method he’d used back on Floor 1. In a short few seconds, he reached the top, passing through the hole in the observation deck’s floor.

A wide, expansive view opened up to him immediately.

The top of the Observation Tower wasn’t enclosed, there was only a waist-high barricade surrounding the deck. Beyond that, the entire sky was open, allowing for an unobstructed view in every direction.

The high winds whipped Uhtred’s hair about as he scanned the edges of his Floating Island. From this high up, the entire island looked much smaller. Beyond the Floating Island, he could also see much further into the distant clouds.

So long as he remained at this observation deck, he estimated he could spot any incoming Floating Island, giving him at least three to five minutes to prepare!

Uhtred let out a light scoff. Now, the purchase didn’t seem so bad after all.

He was just beginning to think of his next step, when, on the edge of the horizon, he spotted something like a black needle approaching.

Uhtred straightened immediately. He rushed to the edge of the observation deck, staring intently at the black needle.

"An enemy island!" he snarled.

QQuickly, he scanned the rest of the horizon, moving methodically from North to South before sweeping back across. At the same time, he kept a close eye on the approaching island.

By now, the needle-like structure had resolved more clearly, allowing him to discern that it was an Observation Tower just like his.

"But do they have other defenses, too?" Uhtred muttered impatiently. He felt a mix of caution and eager anticipation for his first Floating Island battle. This was an opportunity to steal another Champion’s Race Shard.

Yet, this was also his first defense against an invading rival. That was why he kept scanning the skies. The moment he stepped away from the observation deck, he would surrender his high vantage point.

If this was a coordinated attack, then he wouldn’t be able to spot any other approaching Floating Island until they were close enough to be seen at ground level.

To account for this, Uhtred waited at his observation deck for as long as he possibly could, scanning the entire horizon for traces of any other approaching island.

He was confident that Slipstream Stride would let him cover the five-mile distance from the center of the island in a matter of seconds — meaning he didn’t need to leave the deck until the enemy island was practically on top of his border.

In fact, he reckoned he was going to allow them to board his island. Even if it came to the worst, there was no way anyone was fast enough to reach his shard before he could react.

And even if for some unaccounted-for reason, they stole his shard faster than he could head down with Slipstream Stride, it wasn’t the end of the world. At least then he wouldn’t have to play this defense game.

So long as he could retrieve his shard back, he would gain the ability to move around with it as he pleased — though, Uhtred also wanted to avoid that if he wanted. He knew how the Tower operated. Such a benefit wouldn’t come without losing something vital.

To gain the ability to move around freely with his Race Shard, he was certain he’d have to lose something else in return — something that wasn’t apparent yet, but may prove vital later on.

"Let’s see how it goes first," Uhtred concluded, his body shifting into battle mode just as the incoming enemy island slowed to a stop mere meters from his.

Uhtred remained alert, his eyes scanning the enemy island vigilantly. He scoured their Floating Island’s terrain from his vantage point, searching for any defensive weapons they might have. At the same time, he tried pinpointing the location of the enemy Champion in question.

Suddenly, he spotted a movement — a nearly imperceptible flash that sped out of the Observation Tower on the enemy Floating Island.

"They’re on the move!" Uhtred immediately launched himself from his Observation Tower, diving down directly despite the height.

He slowed his fall with a deft use of air magic and even space magic, keeping his eye on the rapidly moving enemy figure.

He still couldn’t make them out clearly, but they were extremely fast. They sped into his island barely a few seconds after he leapt off the Observation Tower.

"Fuck it! This is too slow!"

Uhtred released a powerful burst of air that sent him rocketing toward the body of the Observation Tower.

Smoothly, he diverted what would have been a forceful slam into the body of the tower and instead twisted into a running motion.

For a brief moment, he was face to the ground and with his feet on the wall. Gravity began tilting him off balance, but before it could, he activated Slipstream Stride, running directly across the face of the wall.

He hit the ground in the blink of an eye, intercepting the intruder’s path well before they could reach his shard.

With a fierce roar, he launched himself at their fleeting, fast approaching figure, a violent crackle of lightning materializing in his palm as a wicked-looking battle-axe morphed into being!