Extra's Guide to Surviving a Dark Fantasy World-Chapter 44: Into the Sandstorm
"And don’t you dare insult me by trying to lie your way out of this, Zane, or if that even is your real name. You have been hiding and lying about things from the moment we started our journey. Now you show up covered in fresh wounds, coincidentally at the same time some terrible monstrosity began rampaging through the city."
"I think you are misunder-" 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺
"I said don’t insult me," Aria spoke in a cold tone. "Claiming you are some ordinary hunter when your mannerism dictates otherwise, that weird bloodline of yours, or that you not only managed to live through but also defeat it in the process."
"Everyone has their secrets, Zane. I have mine, too, which is why I didn’t question yours until now. But this... whatever you did out there, you’ve managed to risk not just your life but Tess’s and mine as well."
"Oh, so now risking others’ lives is a problem." I decided to fight back. "Get off your high horse; we are in this position because of you in the first place. You and that squadron of knights of yours were the ones who opened the door to the red room in the first place."
"You were the one who-"
"ROOOOOAAAR." Aria was suddenly interrupted as another roar shook our house, followed by the doors bursting open.
Both of us immediately got into fighting positions, only relaxing after seeing Tess’s familiar figure.
"Something is happening outside."
"Where were you?"
Tess wanted to speak, but I interrupted her. If everything was unraveling, I might as well let it all come out and be done with it.
"Now is not the time for this; we need to get-"
"Where were you?" I asked again,
"I.. was outside looking for you," Tess responded hesitatingly.
"Where exactly outside?"
"Just around the outer district, why are you asking?"
I didn’t respond. Instead, I turned around and grabbed one of the bags. Tess was lying. I was sure I had heard some human footsteps before they had disappeared into thin air. The only one of us who fit the bill for that was Tess, the only person with the ability to fly.
I took the bag and threw it towards Aria before throwing another towards Tess.
"Let’s get out of here," I spoke while grabbing the last one and rushing out of the door. The two of them didn’t hesitate either, hurriedly following me outside.
RAAAARGH!!!
Another set of roars came, this time even more closer.
We rushed out into the desert, towards the heart of the sand storm, in hopes of evading the thing rampaging in the city.
The sandstorm was still going crazy outside. Normally, I would have cursed it, but right now, I couldn’t help but thank it. It was probably the only thing hiding us from those beast’s senses.
It must have worked as well; after a day, we stopped hearing the constant roars that had been chasing us all this time.
But we didn’t stop there, or rather we couldn’t. Every moment we spent inside the storm was a moment waiting for disaster.
Still, getting out of it wasn’t a joke either. The visibility was absolutely low to the point where we had to attach a rope to each of our bodies to make sure we didn’t get lost. The ground under our feet would shift at random intervals, causing Tess to try and fly us to safety. The occasional razor-sharp sand particles were enough to tear through most of our armor, and this was without mentioning the constant lightning strikes that we were able to dodge only thanks to Deadly Intuition.
Enduring through all of this, we marched on without any food or sleep, constantly ignoring the pleas of our tired, wounded bodies.
It was around the fourth day when the storm began to slowly lose its intensity. Still, we couldn’t afford to lose focus, so we kept marching, forward and forward, until finally, on the sixth day, when we were able to step out into the desert.
Walking out of the storm, an unfamiliar emotion took over my heart as my gaze landed upon the clear sky.
Behind me I could tell Aria and Tess were feeling something similar as well as I heard both of them collapsing down into the sand one by one, completely exhausted.
I followed their example as well, pulling the only remaining bag towards me and taking out some water. Unfortunately, we lost two of our bags in the storm; this bag carried out by Tess was the only one that remained.
After drinking my fill, I threw the bottle behind me, where it landed near Aria and Tess, who, too, pounced upon the bottle like hungry beasts.
All of us lay down in silence, watching the sun shining in the clear sky before slowly passing out of exhaustion.
--
The sun had already set by the time I opened my eyes and found myself laying in the sand. Despite who knows how many hours of sleep my body was still feeling like it had been crushed by a grindstone, not to mention how my stomach was begging me to eat something.
I was about to get up when a sudden faint sound of a conversation made me pause.
"... you saw it with your own eyes, didn’t you?" Tess was the one who was speaking.
"I know, my memories are still hazy but I am sure of it." Tess replied back... to herself?
"I am telling you, that one, I don’t understand how he did it."
The conversation suddenly halted as if they had sensed someone was coming. I didn’t move as well, pretending to be asleep. It was only after close to half an hour when I got up and began checking my surroundings.
It was nighttime, and the Wastes had turned into the usual endless mirror. No matter how far you looked, there was no living thing in sight except for Tess, who was sitting in front of a tent, slowly cooking something on the bonfire.
