Virtuality: Magic Island

Chapter 9: Wind of Fury

The elevator doors opened with a swift ding, and so Lontari and his friends walked into the lobby. There was a surprisingly small amount of guests, which is understandable due to the hotel's generic look. The lines at the check in desk were surprisingly the shortest lines you can imagine, no longer than 3 people each. If visitors didn't need a place to stay, this hotel would go bankrupt in the blink of an eye.

"Can either of you use your player abilities to locate Occidifu?" Axel asked.

"Sure," Imani asked, pressing the map button on her inventory.

A wide rectangular map of Anemos popped open in her vision. She tapped her finger against a specific area, taking a guess at where Occidifu and his men could be. It was just a street with cars occasionally driving by.

"See Occidifu?" Lontari asked.

Imani shook her head. "Nope. No sign yet."

"Well, let's keep moving," Axel insisted. "He is getting further and further to the Viridis gem as we speak. Continue to search for his whereabouts, Imani."

The three walked out of the hotel and into the concrete lot it stood on. Axel lifted his finger to summon his trusty dragon, when he heard the sound of roaring wind, and glass bursting into bits. He and the others looked up, and saw a screaming man and his luggage falling from the top floor. Lontari, his heart racing like mad, quickly thrusted his palms forward.

The man continued to scream until a gleaming purple bubble formed around him and his luggage, right before his back hit the ground. It immediately vanished in a puff of flashing purple light. He looked down and found himself safely standing on land again, sighing of relief.

"Are you okay, sir?" Lontari asked as he and his friends walked up to him.

"Yeah..." said the man. "I-I'm fine..."

"What happened?" asked Imani. "Why were you falling from a window, especially one that high?"

The man was about to speak, but had only opened his mouth when a kid somewhere up above yelled, "There they are!!!"

That voice was the sound of a kid. With puzzled looks on their faces, Lontari and his friends glared up at the top. There was a giant hole in the 8th story, where a row of windows used to be. But what really shocked them were a bunch of kids in all-gray clothing standing there, looking down directly at them.

"Children...!" Axel uttered in surprise.

All of the kids leaped out of the hole like frogs and descended towards the ground as slowly as parachutes. They landed safely on the ground, staring at the trio of mages with smirks on their faces.

Ornyo landed last. The second his feet touched ground, a deafening boom and a blast of dust were emitted. When it eventually cleared, Lontari shivered at the sight of him standing with his fists on his hips, on top of the massive crack he just engraved onto the ground.

"No point in running, Lontari!" Ornyo declared.

Lontari raised a brow. "Okay. How-"

"Do I know your name?" Ornyo continued. "You're the kid Occidifu told us about!"

"Occidifu?!"

"So he hired young children to come after us?" Imani questioned.

"Well, we're not exactly getting paid, so..."

Lontari pulled out his sword from his back. "Listen, kids. You're still young, so I want to give you some time to reconsider doing this. You don't want to listen to Occidifu."

The kids all laughed in unison, because there was no way that were going to back down. Plus, they felt more powerful due to Lontari asking for mercy. They opened their palms up and raised them in the air, sending out a tsunami of wind. Lontari and his friends screamed until they landed on the sidewalk with hard thuds, sending a small amount of dust into the air.