Chapter 18 - 18 - Of Course...  

Gravis materialized some meters above the ’ground’. He immediately felt the absolutely smoldering air. Before he could even look at where he was, he started to fall. He quickly looked down into the brightly glowing lava below his feet. The very first thing he did when he realized in what situation he was currently in was panic. Then he realized that he should, theoretically, be able to survive this fall without any issue due to his elemental synchronicity.

Though, he didn’t want to try his elemental synchronicity in such a dangerous scenario. ’Well, I don’t have any choice right now,’ he thought as he plummeted into the lava. It was hot, but not that hot. It felt more like a bath that was a little too hot for his liking. Yet, it was still manageable. He floated on the top for a while and looked around. He was in a humongous pool of lava. On the edge of said pool were towering walls of stone. Obviously, he was in a volcano.

It surely was ’great luck’ that the portal dumped him on top of an active volcano. His exit point was chosen ’at random’ after all. Gravis sneered. "At least I now know that Heaven’s ’luck’ doesn’t take my elemental synchronicity into account," he said to himself.

Of course, he would materialize over an active volcano.

"Wait, is it getting warmer?" Gravis looked at the blinding lava and felt the heat rise. On top of that, the lava started bubbling at multiple places. Gravis’ face whitened when he realized what was about to happen. "Really? A volcano that is about to erupt?" He immediately concentrated, and his body rose above the lava until he stood on top of it.

Even though he had his elemental synchronicity, a blast this strong would distribute his corpse upon the surrounding couple of kilometers, to multiple places. He had to flee, fast!

"No time to waste!" And with that, Gravis was off. He ran as quickly as possible to the closest wall of stone. "Earth element is also an element. So, theoretically..." Gravis put his hand on the wall and tried to move upward. "Yes, it works!" he shouted as his hand stuck to the wall. He quickly climbed up the wall like an insect, the lava below him getting more turbulent.

Just when he jumped over the edge, the volcano exploded. The lava shot into the sky, and the top of the volcano exploded outward. Huge rocks flew through the air, and one of them carried Gravis. Multiple bones in his body broke in the explosion, and if he hadn’t had tempered organs and blood, he wouldn’t be alive right now.

He soared through the air on the rock and didn’t look forward to the landing. The rock spun in the air with Gravis holding on for dear life. He tried to judge if the rock’s side with him on it would land first, but the rock was spinning too quickly. It would depend on his luck.

When Gravis had that thought, his eyes widened, and he immediately gripped the rock and moved along its surface. It was challenging, and his arms hurt. His broken bones didn’t help. Just when he managed to reach the other side, his previous position struck the ground, and the rock bounced. Gravis pushed himself off and left the rock when it bounced. Chances were, his new position would ’accidentally’ hit the ground next.

Gravis touched the ground after falling for a couple of meters, but a fall from this height was not dangerous to him. Yet, it was not pleasant with all his broken bones. Gravis didn’t relax and looked towards the sky. Then, he immediately jumped to the side. Shortly after that, another sizable rock struck his previous spot.

Gravis caught his breath, looked at his previous spot, and sneered. "Of course," he said in disgust. He quickly looked to the sky again, but no more rocks seemed to come toward his direction. He finally had a moment of calm. He took a deep breath.

KREEE!

He heard a loud screech and looked to its source. A two-meter tall, blue falcon was flying in front of the, now still, second rock. Under the rock was a broken tree, and if one looked closely, one could notice a slight amount of blood at the edges. The bird circled the rock and looked around in fury. It quickly spotted Gravis, a fire of rage in its eyes.

"This is getting ridiculous!" Gravis shouted as he gripped his saber. At least, he would have, but his saber had vanished. During all the commotion, the saber had left Gravis. It could be anywhere. The bird charged at Gravis, and he did another jump to the side.

Lava was raining from the sky by now, but Gravis didn’t need to care about that. When lava touched his body, it would just slide off like viscous water. The bird was too angry at the presumed killer of its kids and didn’t realize the danger it was in right now. Lava could hit it at any moment and burn through its body. Yet, like a miracle, not a single drop of lava touched it.

BANG!

A huge chunk of lava, several meters wide, struck the earth beside them. The bird flew around it and chased Gravis, who was full-on running by now. In no time at all, it reached him again and tried to strike him with its talons. Gravis quickly blocked with his left arm, redirecting its force to one direction, and ran into the other. His arm received some deep cuts, but that was better than losing his life.

He quickly realized that he couldn’t flee from the bird, and without a weapon, he couldn’t fight it, at least not in his current condition. It was a ferocious beast, so in normal circumstances, Gravis would slaughter it like a chicken. Sadly, without a weapon, that would be impossible. He had to survive somehow. If his body was in top condition, he might be able to take down the bird even without his weapon, but healing his bones would take days.

Suddenly, Gravis got an idea. He changed direction and ran for the massive chunk of lava that fell down earlier. The bird followed him, but before it could reach him, he had already jumped into the lava. Lava wouldn’t cool off that quickly, and it was slowly melting a hole in the ground.

The bird angrily circled the lava, but couldn’t get close. Just the surrounding heat could set its feathers ablaze.

After a couple of seconds, Gravis poked out his head and looked at the bird. The bird flew at him and tried to claw him with its talons, but Gravis’ head pulled back into the lava. In its rage, the bird had flown too close to the lava, and a couple of feathers already started burning. It quickly flew away and picked those feathers off.

Gravis poked his head out again and sneered at the bird.

This time, he would be the tortoise.