The Wolves Ch. 018

"Perfect timing, then. You leveled late last night, so when is your next level up? It has to be soon, right?"

"Yes, in an hour or so. After that, my next level will take thirty one hours or so to accumulate enough mana."

"I see. Well, I came up to pass along some new information. I'm going to head back down and practice some more with my dragon form."

"Very well, Jonathan. Let me make another door so you don't have to walk all the way back to the other door I made."

"Thanks, Abi, you're awesome," I said, walking over to the opening I could already see forming. When I got to the edge, I jumped down and continued towards the exit. [See you later, Abi.]

I left the hanger and waited for the door to close before teleporting back to the portal. The light was red, so I had to press the button and wait for it to turn green again. When it did, I walked through and saw that Zogyr and Zaszi were still on duty.

"Hello again. Back to the base, please."

"Sure thing, boss," Zaszi answered, turning and pressing a button.

"Boss, huh? I think I'll let that one slide," I said with a smile. "Have a good day."

Once I was back at the base, I teleported back to my room and put my armor back on. I likely wouldn't need it, but it wouldn't hurt to be safe. When I was geared up, I teleported back to the lobby. I was about to head to the elevator to take me to the surface when I had an idea.

[Hey, ladies. What are you three up to right now? Want to join me while I practice flying and swimming some more?]

[Sure! Let us put our armor on and we'll meet you in the lobby.] Alexis replied.

[I'm here now. I'll be waiting.]

I took a seat and decided to practice Precognition a little while I waited. Since Precognition reduces my mana regeneration while active, I was able to keep it up for twenty-nine seconds before having to wait for my mana to regen. That didn't take long at all, since my mana regen is as high as it is. I went through this cycle a few times before my sisters showed up. With the ability active, I was able to see them two seconds before they teleported into the lobby. I stopped channeling the ability, and stood up.

"So what did you mean by swimming?" Aleena asked as we walked over to the elevator.

"The base Selalea led me to this morning was actually underwater, so we had to dive beneath the waves to access it. Later on, when we were flying back to Lehua to meet with my mom, we had to get enough speed to breach the surface and flying from there. I wasn't able to do it on my only try, so I want to practice doing that."

Lucille pressed the button and the elevator doors opened. We all walked in and she pressed the button for the surface. "So where are we going to practice?" she asked.

"I was thinking we'll go to the Pacific ocean. It won't take us long to get there at all if we teleport."

"Cool, this will be fun," she replied.

When the door opened at the top, we all got out and took turns shifting into our dragon forms. The girls went first and leapt off the mountain one by one. I had already activated my camouflage, so I was able to watch them while I was shapeshifting into my own dragon form. When I was done, rather than diving like I had before, I jumped up and began beating my wings as hard as I could to gain altitude. Soon I was hundreds of feet above the peak of the mountain and started flying towards the ocean. The girls fell in behind me and we were off.

[I'm going to teleport ahead. I want you to teleport behind me, alright?]

[You got it. Go ahead,] Aleena said.

I teleported a few kilometers away, and the girls teleported in right behind me. We were able to continuously teleport, allowing us to get from the string of mountains to the ocean in less than fifteen minutes.

[We're going to descend to around fifty feet and then dive into the water,] I said [Once you're in the water, you're going to want to keep your wings tucked in and use your tail to propel you through the water. Make sure you take a deep breath before going under.]

I slowly started descending and when I was about fifty feet over the waves, I tucked my wings in and dove beneath the waves. My sisters followed me below and we swam around for a while, trying to increase the speed at which we could swim in these forms. After swimming for around thirty minutes, with the occasional break to get a breath of air, we decided to try to see if we could stay in the air after leaping out of the water.

I swam around, getting some speed, and then angled towards the surface. My sisters were right behind me and we all broke the surface one after the other. None of us were able to stay in the air, so we tucked our wings in and dove back beneath the waves. We tried a few more times without having any luck.

[I think our angle is too extreme,] Lucille said, after our latest attempt. [We're flying almost straight up. Maybe if we change our angle by twenty to thirty degrees, we'll be able to do it.]

[Alright, let's give it another shot.]

We got some speed and then swam up as hard as we could, keeping our angle a bit more shallow. When we broke the surface, we were able to stay in the air for a short time, but we couldn't maintain our altitude.

[That was better. Let's try that again and if it doesn't work, we'll change our angle again and see if that works.] she said.

We actually gave it a few more attempts, having more and more success with each try. We were able to stay in the air a little longer each time, but were still having trouble maintaining altitude. We were gathering speed to try again when Aleena spoke up.

[It appears we've got some company,] she said with a laugh.

Turning my head to look behind her, I saw a large pod of dolphins swimming alongside us. We watched as they all gathered speed and shot towards the surface, doing so again and again.

[Do you think they're trying to help us?] Alexis asked.

[Maybe? I mean dolphins are said to be very intelligent. Let's give it a shot at the angle they're using and see if it works.]

We dove down a bit and then started gathering speed. When we thought we were going fast enough, we started swimming towards the surface. As we ascended, the dolphins ascended with us. We tried to swim at a similar angle and soon leapt out of the water. I quickly extended my wings and started beating them as hard as I possibly could. There was a moment where I thought I was going to go falling back down, but amazingly, I stayed in the air. I gained some altitude and looked behind me, where my sisters were right on my tail.

[We did it!] my sisters exclaimed.

I looked down and saw the dolphins were still leaping out of the water while keeping up with us.

[Well, we did it once, let's see if we can do it again. Just give me a moment though, I want to scan one of these dolphins before we try it, they're different than the other ones I scanned.]

I quickly reached out with my mind, and focused on one of the dolphins swimming below. I found it was a female, and she was pregnant. I entered her mind and finished my scan, exiting as fast as I entered.

[Alright, let's dive below and try again. Make sure not to hit any dolphins as you dive.]

I looked below and saw a gap between dolphins. Aiming for that gap, I tucked in my wings and dove below. The dolphins actually scattered a little giving me some more room. I continued diving down a fair bit, making sure my sisters were following me, and then turned back towards the surface. We gained speed and were soon leaping out of the water. I did the same thing I did on my first successful attempt, and was able to stay in the air without any difficulties. My sisters were all successful as well.

[Alright, looks like we can do it. Do you three want to head back to the base or shift forms and play with the dolphins?] I asked.

[As cool as that would be, we should head back,] Lucille replied. [This was a nice distraction, but we have some work that needs to be done within the next day or two.]

[Oh? What work?]

[Alexandra has us working out the logistics for transporting the eggs.]

[I thought that's what they were doing right now.]

[Nope, she is working with Gabriel, Tich and Selalea to start planning for the huge influx of dragons who will soon be at the base, and on the moon,] Alexis replied.

[Ah, I guess we should start heading back, then,] I said, turning towards land.

[That was pretty fun. Thanks for inviting us,] Aleena said.

[No problem. I figured it would be useful for you three to be able to do it, and I didn't think my mom would like it if I went off on my own.]

[You're probably right about that, but I wouldn't be surprised if a couple of Spectres were shadowing us the entire time. They can be very sneaky.]

[I can see that,] I replied with a laugh.

It did make me wonder. As we flew back to the base, I kept an eye out to see if any Spectres were following us. I tried to use Precognition to see if I could see someone teleporting in two seconds before it actually happened, but no luck there. I didn't see anyone, so they were either very good at remaining hidden, or there was no one shadowing us at all. When we got close to the mountain, we landed on the ledge one at a time, and shifted back into our human forms. Once we were all pint-sized again, at least compared to a dragon, we entered the elevator. I went through the security process and hit the button to take us down to the lobby.

I would have to come up with something to do, but first, I was going to see if Mason had blown himself up yet.