Viz swiftly wrapped up the briefing, dodging Kaiz's many questions in the process. Kaiz eventually accepted he wouldn’t get anywhere and settled on planning how to get Viz back for this.

They spent the rest of the ride to the first stopping point making occasional small talk. It ended up being an eleven hour trip to that village, much longer than Kaiz was mentally or physically prepared for. He was supposed to be chin deep in the science of runes, but he was in the middle of nowhere and nothingness instead.

Waldaun was the most northern major city in Goldfrucht. On account of the Screaming Sands in between, it was a two week ride and a three day drive to the nearest major city to the south.

Only a few hours on the waterway, but everywhere was only a few hours on the waterway.

Regardless, in every direction that wasn’t south, kilometers of barren desert awaited. Sand stretched out all around them as they rode.

They had passed a few small villages, but the route they took didn’t allow for much more than a glimpse from a distance. To avoid running into the military convoy, and beat them to the target, they were taking a straight path from Waldaun to Silberg.

Kaiz was exhausted

When finally given the chance, he fell into his bed like a corpse being tossed in a hole, haphazardly and lifelessly.

I should’ve just brought the damn book.

He was the last to lay down. Viz was terrible with animals and Red couldn’t be asked to do anything more than carry her own backpack. So while they were already sound asleep, he had been up playing the unfortunate role of chameleon whisperer.

Sand chameleons were fairly docile creatures, but they hated long rides. They started getting rowdy and agitated after about the five-hour mark.

It wasn’t much of a problem while actively riding them, a constant feed of jerky usually placated them. Now that they would be left to their own devices, however, a certain amount of coddling was necessary to keep them calm.

Four meters long, almost two meters tall, and packed with lean muscle, unhappy chameleons breaking free from their stable and disappearing into the desert was a common tale.

Their distaste for long distance running was an odd quirk considering their aptitude for them. Few animals could cover so much sand so quickly. They were reptiles, but they had none of the stamina issues their cousins did. A virile adult could cover over a hundred kilometers ten days in a row.

Their endurance wasn’t even their main selling point. It was their extreme sensitivity to mana. They could sense when threats were nearby, human or otherwise. Even tanlars didn’t escape their senses.

They could also feel if the sand below their feet was stable enough to continue walking on. How that worked, Kaiz didn't have the time to study, but those two things without question caused the most deaths in the desert. That made having happy chameleons a must.

Two more days of this.

The second day went by much like the previous, monotonously. This time without the infrequent sights of a few villages here and there. Just sand.

They did stumble upon a sand pit. An inexplicable, circular hole in the sand. There wasn’t much excitement to be found looking down at a pit of darkness though. Kaiz noted that there were traces of mana in that darkness, but there was nothing he could do with that information.

The third day was far more interesting.

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[Stairs to Salvation]

Kaiz pushed off a cloud and carried the momentum into a roundhouse kick. His boot struck the side of the onrushing spearman’s head, wobbling him. A new cloud caught his descent as he spun, following the right kick up with his left.

The spearman’s helmet rang, deforming where Kaiz’s heel dug into his temple. Kaiz could hear the crunch behind the metallic ring. The sound of a cracked skull.

Two down.

The three remaining marauders retreated and grouped up. It gave Kaiz a moment to glance at how the other two were fairing

As he expected, Viz was holding his own just fine. Red was… not. She was more nimble than he’d given her credit for, but that just meant she was avoiding attacks. She certainly wasn’t dishing out any.

Still, her ability to evade damage meant that he didn’t need to rush. He could conserve his mana with the last three.

“You’re all going to die, you dog!”

Kaiz didn’t even roll his eyes. Instead, he dashed around the trio’s formation. There was only one spearman left. The other two were saber wielding shieldbearers.

While the flanking saber-shields could simply rotate to face him, the spear had to raise his weapon to turn around. In the brief moment it took him to do so, they lost their range advantage. Kaiz pounced.

Both boots landed on the top of the closest saber’s shield. The man had cast a spell right before impact, but it didn’t matter. Even though his arm held firm, blocking the blow, it was his legs Kaiz was after. As Kaiz flipped off the shield, he released two throwing knives.

“Ah!”

Annoying, he’d only caught one of his knees.

The tip of the spear drove toward him while he was midair. Not annoyingly, it caught nothing.

Kaiz landed and backed up. That little trick was likely a one-time use, but it did its work. One of the shields was now hobbled, limiting his defensive ability. He glanced at the other two again to confirm nothing had changed with them before going again.

He raced to the right, approaching the three from their weakened side. They were prepared for that. The other two swiftly stepped forward to place their injured member in the middle. A smart move. Kaiz couldn’t target their weak point without receiving two attacks. He could target their spearman, though.

With their new arrangement, the spear’s left was unguarded. Kaiz diverted path and—

[Wings of Liberty]

Sand blew in every direction as Kaiz sailed away from the group. His eyes darted left and right, scanning his surroundings. He quickly found his target.

Two archers.

He removed the fire arrow lodged in the back of his mask.

Thankfully, the brighter glow he had noticed about his mask was because Viz had replaced it with a new one. This one was enchanted against both physical attacks and spells as well. If it hadn’t been…

Well, he wouldn’t have died necessarily. The arrow was still a basic arrow, but the manafire the archer had attached to it would have set his mask ablaze.

Change of plans.

He knew neither Viz nor Red’s headgear could snuff out the spell like his could. Viz would still survive a hit, his chest piece had a host of powerful protections, but Red might not. He didn’t know what exact enchantments her bodysuit held, but he wouldn’t bet on them negating manafire.

Even if it did, they still had a blood run to complete. Letting their gear sustain heavy damage would be foolish. The archers had to be taken out.

Didn’t want to have to waste this now, but.

[March of Revolution]

The winds roared, and Kaiz moved with them. Within two steps he returned to the trio’s formation. With a third, he leapt over them.

The spearman attempted to impale him as he somersaulted and he received a foot in the face for the act. His helmet immediately caved, the weight of the kick proving monstrous.

Before the spear’s corpse could fall to the ground, Kaiz had landed and moved on to the next. He raised his leg and kicked the healthy shieldbearer’s back. He couldn’t hear the spine break, the wind from the spell blocked out most sound, but the unnatural way the body keeled over told him what he needed to know.

Two were down.

The last shield hadn’t barely recovered from the shock of Kaiz’s speed blitz when a boot found his knee. The first kick dropped him to the sand, the second kick dropped him for good.

All three were down.

It came at a cost. His boots’ capstone spell had drained half their mana. That only left him with a fourth for future fights. There was no time to fret over that though, fire was flying in his direction.