Chapter 336: Combining Forces

The clash that should have followed never happened, though.

Mid-air, both Uhtred and the intruding Champion finally saw each other in full.

"Zara?!"

"Uhtred!"

Quickly, they both redirected the powerful strikes aimed at the other, allowing their attacks to miss. Uhtred released his lightning battle-axe, letting it sail past and crash into the earth. It impacted with a loud explosion, carving a massive trench in the ground several tens of meters long.

Zara did the same. A Spatial Shear strike had been aimed directly at Uhtred, intended to separate his hand from the rest of the arm holding his lightning weapon. Now, that Spatial Shear was hastily redirected to the side, cutting nothing but empty air.

They both landed heavily, carving mini-trenches of their own into the ground as they abruptly killed their momentum.

"I thought you were an enemy!" Uhtred yelled first, caught between pleasant surprise and a slight trepidation for what could have happened.

Zara huffed, whipping her head back to tame a few stray strands of hair that had covered her face during their near-clash.

"I was wondering who it was that was so absurdly fast," she said with a light chuckle. "I should have known it’d be you."

"Well, I can say the same about you," Uhtred replied. "I couldn’t even keep track of your movement properly. What was that? A new movement technique?"

"Eh, I won’t tell." Zara shrugged, her expression playfully mysterious.

She stepped forward, looking around Uhtred’s Floating Island curiously. "I see you don’t have any defense weapons placed, either. Seems we really do think alike."

"Yeah. No way I’m spending so many Scenario points for something I can do myself," Uhtred snorted.

He then switched the subject to what had transpired back in the capital city. Though he felt confident in his guess, he still asked whether she was the one who had charged for the Stele right after he created that opening.

"Yeah, of course," Zara answered with a raised brow, looking surprised Uhtred was even asking. Even if he had doubts initially, she expected him to be totally certain after their travel through that weird spatial tunnel.

Uhtred possessed an affinity for Space magic just like her, so having the ability to retain conscious thought through spatial travel should have been natural for him.

"You should’ve sensed my presence by your side back then, so why are you still asking?" she asked.

"Nah, I just wanted to be completely sure," Uhtred clarified. "I saw those kids you used to send your message, so I already knew you were in the city. I tried following their path to see if I could find you, but—"

"Wait, what kids?" Zara interjected with a frown.

"...The kids you sent. Y’know, the ’never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down’ kids?" Uhtred asked, watching Zara’s confused face.

"Fuck... that wasn’t you, was it?" he immediately facepalmed. "It was White Raven. I should have known. That’s a meme she’d definitely use..."

"So she was in the city, too?" Zara asked after a short beat, realizing what that meant.

"Yeah. Or at least she was in the city at some point," Uhtred said with a sigh. "Either way, she’ll have a hard time declaring herself now. Those guys will be watching the Stele like hawks after our stunt..."

"Damn it," Uhtred cursed. "If only things had played out a bit differently, the three of us could’ve..."

He left the remaining words unsaid so he wouldn’t trigger any penalties by implyingTower secrets. But now more than ever, he felt the true, frustrating ramifications of Eifrith Ra’Elis’ and Elion Silverwood’s intervention in his journey.

Perhaps if he hadn’t met those Elves, he would have arrived at the capital city with plenty of time to look for clues and plan a far less dramatic approach to the Stele.

That extra time could’ve allowed him to meet up with White Raven and Zara beforehand.

Uhtred shook his head, hissing under his breath.

"Well, it’s no use wondering what could’ve been," he said. "We all have our own path, and at the end of the day, things turned out well for the two of us, at least. We can only hope White Raven will find her way, somehow..."

His words were a bit raw and direct, but it was the cold truth.

Realizing White Raven might have no choice left but to declare herself with the aid of a proxy — a choice that would likely limit her chances of reaching the sub-scenario — Zara’s gaze turned hard and resolute. She looked at Uhtred and offered a suggestion.

"Going forward, I suggest we stick together," she said. "Our islands, I mean. Let’s fly together and join forces. We can cover each other’s blind spots, scan the skies better, and invade enemy islands with the force of two."

It was a sound strategy — one that Uhtred accepted without hesitation.

Now that their focus had returned to matters of the Floating Islands, Uhtred realized they’d both been grounded for far too long. Zara’s Floating Island was currently sitting defenseless, and for all they knew, an enemy territory could be closing in right now.

"I’m heading back up to scan the skies," Uhtred said suddenly. "You go bring your island closer—"

He’d barely finished his sentence when he saw Zara’s eyes widen dramatically.

Uhtred whipped around sharply, his gaze locking onto the same sight that had caught Zara’s attention.

"Holy fucking shit..."

A gargantuan Floating Island... a literal behemoth compared to either Uhtred’s or Zara’s territory, was slowly creeping forward in the distance. Even from afar, its sheer scale was oppressively apparent.

"Get back to your island, Zara!" Uhtred barked. But he didn’t even need to tell her; Zara was already moving, speeding for her Floating Island and cutting across space as if she were skipping frames.

Uhtred, on the other hand, charged straight up his Observation Tower. At the same time, he pulled up the control panel for his island in his vision, ready to maneuver at a moment’s notice.

Aren’t all islands supposed to be the same size?! he lamented internally just as he reached the top of his Observation Tower. Looking at the approaching behemoth again, he tried to process what he was actually looking at.

His elevated vantage point gave him a far clearer view of the gargantuan Floating Island. On its surface, Uhtred could spot weapons mounted at strategic points along the edges.

Those are definitely Plasma-Ice cannons. The moment we make contact, whoever owns that island can just use them to shower our islands with spells, Uhtred thought. We can’t let them get anywhere near us.

He glanced toward Zara’s Floating Island. She had reached her own observation deck, too. She flashed a quick hand sign, signaling for him to steer East while she pulled away toward the West. They had just agreed to stick together, but staying linked right now was clearly suicide.

Against a behemoth like that, they needed to split the owner’s focus just to stand a chance.

Uhtred concurred. Acting decisively, he steered his island eastward while Zara pulled away in the opposite direction.

Uhtred kept his eyes glued to the gargantuan island the entire time. It seemed to pause for a brief moment, as if its owner were deliberating who to pursue. Then, in a shocking turn of events, Uhtred watched wide-eyed as two separate chunks of the giant island broke away from its outer edges.

"Oh fuck off! It can split itself into smaller pieces too?!" Uhtred yelled.

The smaller-sized chunks of the gargantuan island sped toward him and Zara separately, while the main body remained hovering in place.

Uhtred wanted to keep steering his island away, but as he watched the smaller chunk head directly toward him, he eased off his speed slightly.

It was the exact same size as his own island. He looked back up at the gargantuan landmass where it had detached from, observing it far more carefully this time. Now that two chunks had broken away, several faint lines were visible across its surface, looking almost like fault lines.

Wait a minute... is this behemoth just a bunch of normal islands joined together? Is that possible?!

Uhtred brought his island to a complete halt, observing the gargantuan island closely.

Yeah, I’m not wrong. Those are just normal islands bunched together...

He could count eight distinct island outlines from the fault lines visible on the main one. Combined with the two that had just broken off, that made a total of ten islands.

A single champion team, then? Uhtred surmised. They have to trust each other completely to combine their territories like that, which means they all have to be from the same race...

That was precisely why Uhtred had stopped. He wanted to figure out which species these champions belonged to.

Not to mention, based on their approach, they appeared curious — or at least open to contact. If they’d wanted to attack, they would’ve made use of the entire gargantuan island. All they needed to do was chase after either he or Zara solely and they would catch up eventually.

Of course, this could still be a trap — a classic trick of feigning friendliness only to ambush at the last second. If it came to a fight, Uhtred was confident he could handle a single island of equal size. But his instincts told him that wasn’t what was happening here.

In the far distance, Zara had also brought her island to a stop, preparing to receive the second detached island.

Uhtred refocused his attention on the first island as it closed the distance to his own. He stayed vigilant, watching for any sudden aggression. He used the exact same approach he had used with Zara, waiting at the top of his observation deck where he had a better view of the approaching island.

The island came to a gentle stop a short distance away from his — close enough for an ascender to jump across, but far enough to avoid looking intrusive. Standing on the edge of that island was a small figure, her eyes locked onto Uhtred.

Oh? This must be the Faery race, Uhtred thought, inspecting the figure in question.

It was a girl — or at least, a female representative of the Faery species. Her features looked like a blend between human and elven aesthetics. She was tiny, standing barely three feet tall by Uhtred’s estimate.

Sprouting from her back were large, iridescent insect-like wings that beat rapidly, allowing her to hover effortlessly a few inches off the ground.

Now what does she want?

Looking at her face, Uhtred was immediately reminded of his prior encounter with that female elf, Eifrith Ra’Elis. He found himself praying this conversation wouldn’t devolve into another ridiculous headache.

Cautiously, he made his way down, leaping from the observation deck and dashing all the way to the edge of his island in a few dozen seconds.

His confidence to leap from such a daunting height, combined with his absurd movement speed, left the Faery girl’s face painted with clear shock the moment he appeared at the edge.

"Fucking massive island you guys got there, don’t you think," Uhtred started first, snapping the Faery girl out of her stupor.

She cleared her throat, and with stiff, carefully measured movements, launched into a formal speech to explain why she had been sent: