122 Horn Island
The group travelled across the land on top of the island, the island's shadow engulfed entire hordes of beasts every now and then. Water from the river continued to fall off at a slow pace, trickling down due to the massive wall in the way.
Once they finally reached their first destination they were rather surprised at the size of the island, it was half the size of theirs so roughly a radius of 5 - 7 kilometres. At the centre of the island was a gigantic mountain formation. The mountain was shaped like a Rhino horn.
"The island is called Horn Island, the explorers named it that due to the massive horn-like mountain at the centre," Johanson explained. "That's also something explorers do, they find new land and then name it, the one that finds it first gets to name it."
"Have any explorers actually been on the island?" Lachlan asked.
"Unsure, if any have they certainly haven't made it back," Johanson said.
Lachlan looked closer at the island to see if there was any beast on the shoreline, there was nothing; however, he did see a snake-like figure through the trees. "Alright, be prepared for anything and should we ever get split up we meet back up at the shoreline where our island is."
"Also, if there isn't a single horned beast on this island I'll be thoroughly disappointed," Lachlan said. The rest of the group agreed as they laughed at the idea of every beast on that island having a horn, just a thought to entertain themselves.
Lachlan stopped the island just before Horn Island, the group hopped off and floated down to the beach. When they landed they looked around, analysing everything they could currently see. They noticed dark silhouettes in the treetops.
The silhouettes began to scream at them, their arms flailing about, pounding against their chest. Some hopped down from the treetops and stepped foot on the beach, they began to slam the sand as they screamed.
They were apes, large blood red apes that had a small horn on their head. Their eyes red and bloodthirsty as they composed themselves in a threatening manner. Some of which grabbed a handful of dirt and sand before throwing it towards the group.
Lachlan blasted the apes with a gust of wind, returning all the dirt and sand that was thrown towards them.
When they got hit across the body the apes' behaviour intensified, they didn't back down but instead double down. Two more arms began to form from the backs of the larger apes, they were slightly smaller than the main arms but still quite big.
Everyone could feel the bloodlust intensify as the apes began to pound on the ground, themselves, and the tree harder. Their blood red fur began to grow longer, horn extended and sharpened. It was a special ability, something Lachlan hasn't thought about in a while.
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Name: Horned Blood Apes
Age: Adolescence - Elder
Attribute: Earth/Water
Grade: Normal
Innate Talent: 3rd - 5th Grade
Level: 6 - 10
STR: 25 - 42, AGI: 31 - 44, VIT: 30
INT: 17 - 23, PER: 20 - 26, WIL: 15 - 19
Weakness: Overwhelming Arrogance, Low intelligence
Strengths: Physical Strength (Level 2), Earth Control (Level 1), Skin Defence (Level 2)
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Although they weren't all that strong Lachlan could understand why no one would be able to make it back alive. There was roughly 3 dozen of these apes just in front of them, they could probably take down any beast due to their special ability as well.
Lachlan knew to expect some rather unique abilities after seeing Faith's ability, which is why he wasn't so surprised that there was an ability to boost the strength of teammates. Which he was guessing what the apes were doing right now.
"Everyone tread carefully, although they aren't too strong by themselves they'll do some nasty damage when they're group up as a pack like they are now," Lachlan warned. The group that was with him was the usual, just not Brianna and Zhang.
One of the apes suddenly shot off from its tree, the horn on its head was leading the way as it pierced through the air. The sand from the beach rose up behind it as it ran towards them.
Simon stepped forward to meet with it, he had Wildfire summoned to show off. Wildfire felt insulted that Simon would summon it to take care of such a weak beast, they argued internally before they came to an agreement.
By then the ape was already at Simon's face, its horn aiming for Simon's eye. Simon reached out and stopped it in its tracks, his hand holding onto the horn tightly he twisted quickly and hard, ripping the horn off. He flicked the horn into the air before catching it in the opposite grip, his arm moved fast as it stabbed the ape through the eye, killing it instantly.
Wildfire shot into the air before morphing into a beam of light, it flew through the apes, weaving in and out, leaving a trail of blood when it flew past one. The trees they were on had small cuts across the bark, they were also bathed in the blood.
Wildfire came back to Simon's side before landing next to him, its head held up high as though it was accomplished at killing more apes then Simon.
"So are we going to explore further in?" Chloe asked, the trees were large and the area beneath it was dark. It would be dangerous to explore an unknown area without any lighting, especially when the island appeared due to the evolution.
"Yeah, we'll be fine," Joe said as Sandy took a step forward, creating a ball of fire to give them light. Wildfire looked towards the ball of fire with a hint of disdain, its wings rose into the air as the elements of light began to gather, forming a floating ball of light. Its brightness was similar to the sun, lighting up the entire surrounding area.
Sandy was annoyed, feeling as though Wildfire was attempting to attack its pride in fire. Lifting his head he let off a mighty roar, another dozen balls of fire formed around him, creating more light than the ball of light ever could. Seeing that Wildfire turned its head and pouted.
"Well that solves that problem," Simon said.
"Should we split up into two teams? We'll cover a bit more ground while staying fairly safe," Joe suggested.
"Not right now, it'll be dangerous doing that," Lachlan said. "We'll stay together and make sure we have eyes on all angles."
Joe and the rest nodded. They began to move towards the treeline, keeping an eye on everything, looking for any sudden movements. Walking into the darkness they made their way through the trees, Lachlan kept his eyes above them making sure nothing can sneak attack them from above.
He noticed something above them, its shadow was noticeable due to it blocking at the sunlight that could make it through the leaves. They heard the sound of a snake, it suddenly lunged at them, mouth wide open to bite down.
Lachlan changed the shape of the ice to form a blade, he swung upwards, slicing the snake's head in half, the corpse slumped to the ground. On its head was also a single horn, it was much larger than the apes, roughly half a metre long. It was sliced in half due to Lachlan's attack.
'Aaron come on out and help Sandy and Wildfire light up the place' Lachlan commanded as his tattoo lit up. Aaron stomped on the ground as his wings opened wide, a few dozen fireballs formed and spread throughout the area, leaving no place unlit.
More and more beasts began to appear, there were apes, snakes, lizards and a bunch of different bugs. They roared and hissed at the fireballs, some even attacking them to get rid of the light. Aaron didn't let that happen.
Aaron used those fireballs to crash into the beasts' bodies, charring them badly before returning back into the air. The beasts began to retreat back, continuing to make sounds in an attempt to intimidate the fireballs.
The group continued forward, this time with more prudence. A few more beasts were summoned to keep more eyes around them. Once they passed the trees they stood at the foot of the horn-like mountain, the sheer size of it was probably 400 - 500 metres.
They heard loud thumping, looking up they saw two mountain goats go at each other. The horns on their head were large and mighty, giving off a metallic sheen; the goats continued to ram each other's heads until one of their horns finally gave in and snapped.
'Analyse'
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Name: Iron Horned Mount Goat
Age: Adult
Attribute: Iron/Earth
Grade: Normal
Innate Talent: 3rd Grade
Level: 10
STR: 37, AGI: 35, VIT: 30
INT: 23, PER: 24, WIL: 19
Weakness: Overwhelming Arrogance, Prideful
Strengths: Physical Strength (Level 2), Earth Control (Level 1), Iron Control (Level 2), Skin Defence (Level 2)
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Lachlan didn't think of it as too strong, he could handle it by himself without using any of his beasts. Just with his strength along he could probably squash one of their heads in, not to mention snap its horn in half.
"The horns could probably be used to create weapons," Lachlan suggested.
The group agreed, they just weren't sure how to go around getting the horns. Although there was one, very obvious way to do it. Simon disappeared from his spot, he suddenly reappeared on top of the losing goat.
Reaching down he grabbed hold of the horns and yanked as hard as he got, ripping the goat's head off, creating a fountain of blood as the goat's body slumped to the ground. He placed the head on the ground before stepping on it, then using both hands he tugged and snapped the horn off.
He held it slightly in the air, just above his face. "Easy, isn't it."
Chloe shook her head in disappointment. "You know, if you just killed it quickly the researchers would have been able to take off the horn in a much peaceful way; not to mention cleaner."
"Oh." Simon was slightly embarrassed.
"No use for that now, let's continue exploring and now we'll split into two teams," Lachlan said. "I'll go with Phoebe, Joe, and Georgia. Simon, Chloe, and Zoe, you three can go explore the mountain, try to find any caves or unique trees."
"Alright," The three said before beginning their walk up the mountain. The other four walked back into the trees, they didn't stray too far from the mountain though due to the bright natural lighting they got from it.
The beasts in the darkness continued to retreat away from them, while some would stay and scream. Lachlan would get Aaron to take care of them.
Georgia had also summoned Kyle, as the shadows were his strong spot. Inside the darkness within the forest he was basically the king, controlling the shadows to consume any beast that didn't retreat.
With that going on Lachlan continued to analyse the trees and anything on the treetops, hoping to find another fruit that could increase their stats. They found something alright, but Lachlan wasn't sure what to feel about it.
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Name: Horn Fruit
Description: Gives the consumer either one or two horns based on the elements they control.
Location: Grown anywhere there's fertile ground.
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At least that explained why every beast here had a horn on their heads.