The last day of our trip arrived and we neared an enormous storm. The island was supposed to be in the middle of it.

  Whoo that’s a nasty storm not sure who or what caused it, but it has frost particles in it, I can’t see the island at all.

  “Useless fox.”

  Remind me to kick your ass later.

  “Let’s just fly to it then!” Io was about to run and jump off the ship as Toxic Donkey [Shadow Bound] her.

  “No dragon action!”

  “But I want to see what’s behind that storm!”

  Uhh, you’re a fire dragon, right? Can you even fly in a storm like that?

  Io took a good look at the storm. “Nope! Impossible!”

  I looked at Toxic Donkey and he exhaled audibly. “I suppose they wanted the Silver Torrent on board to deal with this.”

  I’m just a dude not a god how do they expect me to deal with a storm?

  “Not a god, eh? Hey what do you know about multicolored fire raining down in the country of Bizax? The fire looked suspiciously similar to foxfire.”

  Nothing, why?

  “You are a terrible liar…”

  I’m only good at it when it counts.

  “So can you do something about that storm or not?”

  Probably, if I put effort in it.

  Toxic Donkey stomped. “Then put effort into it!”

  A question; have you seen Healerguy and Wild Fang? They went to the sickbay on day 1 and never returned.

  “Your memory sure is terrible… they are… hmm. I haven’t seen them either. That’s odd. Have you seen them, Io?” Io was spitting fire at passing fish and hadn't heard Toxic Donkey's question. “I suppose that’s a ‘no’. Let’s go ask around.”

  Toxic Donkey walked up to a group of arrogant looking adventurers. “ Hey have you seen the Inquiring Anesthetist and Wild Fang?” The adventurers shook their heads. We asked more adventurers but none had seen them.

  How does nobody notice that some people just disappeared!

  “But we didn’t notice either…”

  But at least for me this is normal! Hey you! You work on this boat, right? Where is the sickbay?

  The sailor frowned his brow. “Sickbay? We don’t have a sickbay.”

  You must be kidding me! Toxic Donkey! Where is the sickbay?

  “Agnis… we both went through the whole ship multiple times; we should know where it is if it existed…”

  So where are Healerguy and Wild Fang…

  The ship shook, and the ocean started to get covered in fog.

  I hate this! Kyle this is a fog created with frost magic!

  “So, your eyes are useless?”

  You do know that means we’re screwed right?

  “Uh huh, so ehh about this boat magic, did you figure it out yet?”

  Nope why?

  “Close those damn filters and look around with your normal sight!” I closed all my filters and saw something new and unexpected.

  Huh well I’m impressed I didn’t see this one coming. That was a masterful [Shapeshift].

  “How about you stop being calm and do something about this situation?”

  What am I supposed to do about a Ship Mimic?

  “Let it turn back into a ship I don’t know!”

  I’m a fox not a monster tamer!

  The mimic roared, rocked the boat, which was actually the mimic all along, and ate some of the panicking adventurers.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  I was just kidding about my boat magic… I actually could use it now…

  “Io now would be a good moment to go dragon mode!”

  “Yay! I am a dragon!”

  Yes yes, we know you don’t have to keep reminding us…

  Io turned into her dragon form. I spread out my wires and grabbed anyone I could and flung them up on her back and sent Toxic Donkey up last. “Hey what are you doing! You can’t stay behind!”

  This thing probably ate Wild Fang and Healerguy. Whatever is on that island is going to be extremely difficult without Healerguy and his Golden Angel students!

  “You can’t fly, can you?”

  No but I will be fine, just don’t let Io go in the storm!

  I jumped in the ocean and dove down. I was not sure what this thing looked like. Nobody was sure what a mimic looked like because they always [Shapeshift] into other things. This mimic was half ship half… thing. It was a blob and had tentacles. I truly don’t know what it is. It might also be shapeshifting some parts of oceanic lifeforms.

  The only thing I know is that it can use frost magic and that it’s probably ugly and hungry. I got ready and used [Quickdraw: Nilah].

  It cut into the mimic and I used [Waterfall] to get closer. Where is this thing’s stomach? I might cut Healerguy and Wild Fang if I’m careless.

  I guess I have to do it. I have to get eaten. Luckily, I know how to get eaten and how to get spat out. I have Secret Weapons #1 to 3, one of them should let it spit us out.

  What do mimics eat?

  An enormous mouth appeared in front of me with 3 rows of sharp teeth. My instinct told me to run away, as it was quite intimidating and reminded me a bit of the mouth of the fairy queen. I gripped my sword and went in. The rows of teeth closed behind me. I popped out some more tails which used Dawnlights and lit up the inside. I heard strange, disgusting pulsating sounds and tried to ignore them as I needed to focus on the lost adventurers.

  It didn’t take long before I reached the stomach. I spotted Healerguy, Wild Fang and some of the Golden Angels I had seen before. They were unconscious and had acid burn marks on their skin. They were also naked as all their clothes had been digested. I gave them all [Frost Cloaks] and wrapped wires around them because I can’t get out of the water with all my tails out. Not with all those people watching.

  I could however use [Elgard Overload] to multiply my secret weapons inside this stomach. My Elgards eyes were relatively useless against a frost user, so this wasn’t a big deal.

  The mustard, spoiled milk and spicy extracts multiplied like horny rabbits in spring season and the mimic spat us out. I forcefully ended the [Elgard Overload] and used [Water Dragon Dance] which sent us up in the sky. The water dragons flew on the leylines, and we caught up with Io and Toxic Donkey.

  Io made a strange movement to get a better look at us. “Ooh I forgot that you could also make dragons! Where are their wings, though? I always forgot to ask!”

  “Io, these are no-winged dragons, they don’t use wings to fly. What do they even use to fly?”

  I did not know the answer to Toxic Donkey’s question. They might fly using Dragonvein, but they might use something else entirely.

  Dunno, that’s a good question actually, these use leyline energy to fly, since this energy is everywhere, they can go anywhere.

  I dropped the unconscious people on Io’s back and I hopped on her back too. I got asked where this adventurer was and that adventurer. Do they think I’m a charity? I only saved the people I thought were important. There was no point in saving the other adventurers for them to become a liability or a pain in the ass later on.

  Right guys, shut up! I need to deal with that storm over there, and before you ask more questions, take a good look at Io’s back, do you think there’s room for 20-30 more adventurers? I don’t think so, also Golden Angels are quite valuable in any situation, so stop bitching and let me focus! Toxic Donkey, you deal with these unreasonable requests!

  “Save him! My husband!”

  “I am sorry miss but this isn’t a holiday, we went on a dangerous mission where we can get killed any moment.” Toxic Donkey said and seemed to be handling it quite well.

  The widow pointed at me. “You! Why didn’t you save him!”

  Whoa calm down, it’s just as Toxic Donkey said. I’m not a god I’m just a regular beast kin dude.

  “Therianthrope. Beast kin is a racist and derogatory term, we have shifted to using ‘Therianthrope’.” Some smart ass jumped in with an unhelpful remark.

  Huh what? But I’m talking about myself… you know what? Fine Therianthrope! I’m just a regular therianthrope now if you guys don’t want to turn into fish food or mimic food let me focus else this storm will finish you all off.

  “What do you mean? It will finish you off too!”

  I can survive in crazy storms like these, not sure about you guys.

  I tuned out the voices of complaining adventurers and focused on the storm in front of me. I would need to pull off a huge [Hurricane Path] to get through this. I was a bit nervous because I don’t use wind Dragonvein often. It’s too easy to turn it into water if I messed up. Using a huge [Waterfall] would also work. Scrap the [Hurricane Path], [Waterfall] it will be.

  Io, I need you to go full speed into the storm. Try to fly as straight as possible.

  “I am a dragon!”

  Is it really necessary to keep saying that?

  Io sped up and I got complaints of how I’m trying to kill everyone. I started the movements of [Waterfall] but made it bigger, stronger, faster and better. A large mass of water covered us as we rammed into the storm. I sneaked in some movements of [Hurricane Path] to have the storm go easier on us. It was a turbulent and exhausting 30 seconds, but we made it.

  “Noo! That’s it! Were dead!” Toxic Donkey said as his motivation dropped to 0.

  Really all this bullshit for this? I want to go home…

  My motivation also dropped to 0.

  It was as if the storm didn’t exist anymore. It was behind us. The island didn’t have this particular storm. It did have another one though.

  Is this hell? Toxic Donkey, did we die and go to hell?

  “I… I didn’t maintain my donkey suit… it won’t be as sand repelling as it used to be. My life… is over…”

  Both of us collapsed as we looked at our worst nightmare. An island that had perpetual sandstorms everywhere.

  So much sand… I would take fighting that mimic over this any day of the week.

  “Stop exaggerating, it’s just some sand.” A random dude thought that a sandstorm island would be easy. Is he stupid? Sandstorm islands rank next to hell as being a pure nightmare.