“I hate this desert!”
“Me too!” Cylia cried alongside Xander and skidded down the dune. “What is that thing doing here again? How is that possible?”
“Stop talking and hit the deck!”
ROAAAAAR!
The Asag released its rage in the form of a bellowing steam that rapidly made its way down towards them.
Heeding Kiur’s suggestion they dropped down low and felt the scorching air shooting above their heads. They were lucky to have evaded the attack or they would have left with wounds graver than mere blisters.
Even the Reiszer realised the fatality of their situation and made a run for it.
The wave of steam hit the ruins and exploded in a misty haze, sending stones and rubble all across the field.
Kiur was the first one to stand up and urged Cylia and Xander to continue running away. Fighting that thing was ludicrous but that’s not what the Scorpion People thought charging out of the mist.
“𒋾𒈿 ASAG!!!”
The scorpion people rallied and rushed around the steam cloud to go for a pincer attack, ignoring the Reiszer that emerged relatively unscathed underneath the cloud.
At first, they were startled to see the scorpion people ignore them but were immensely relieved. So much so that they headed right in the direction of Kiur and his friends.
“Enemies down below and they are coming right at us.”
“Maybe they won’t attack us?” suggested Cylia, knowing it was a false hope.
“Let’s not bet on that, just run!” Xander took charge of running and saw from the edge of his sight how the Reiszer drew closer to them, with weapons drawn.
Xander shrieked and Cylia shouted, “Stay away, ni olägenheter!”
Cylia drew her short crossbow and just as Kiur taught her she planted her knee on the ground and steadied her breathing. She didn’t want to kill anyone nor did she need to as it was just a warning shot.
One that shattered the shoulder plate of a Reiszer and sent them tumbling down the dune, baffling all the other Reiszer from any more hasty approaches.
“What did you teach her? You created a monster!” Xander gawked in shock.
“That wasn’t me– just keep running!”
Kiur grabbed Cylia by the arm and they kept running towards the darkness of the night. The Reiszer were behind them but they were further away as the battle between the Asag demon and Scorpion People took on new heights, bringing the danger with them.
The Asag wouldn’t give in against its adversaries, though.
It ploughed its way through the Scorpion People and charged towards Kiur and the others.
The Scorpion People attempted to encircle the Asag. They shot arrows at its eyes and stab it with their weapons but nothing deterred its pursuit.
“Cut us some slack, will you?” Xander screamed and fired an icy orb he had been forming during the run. It shattered against the Asag’s arm and froze it to the ground but it broke free regardless. “This thing isn’t friendly at all, Kiur!”
“Stop shouting, what am I supposed to do about it?”
What could Kiur do about it, anyway?
Sure, Kiur could use his earth magic but Xander strongly advised against it until he learned to control it. Then there were his past skills as Lotte from all the hours her parents forced her to go on various activities.
None of them would be of any help either.
What was left? “Think, Kiur, what can you do?”
There it was again, his confusion about who he was. Kiur or Lotte? “No, I can’t think about this now, we need to escape—”
“Watch out, it’s charging—” Cylia tackled Kiur out of the way and they fell down the ravine of a dried river.
“Tch, no water, just my luck.” Xander jumped down to join them. “Quick before it finds us—”
Heavy breathing and cold steam brushed against their necks. Reluctantly they turned up to see the Asag looming over them with its jaw unhinged and now exhaling hot air. “Child… of the… Dead… Reach further… The End of the River is nigh—”
The Asag didn’t get to finish its sentence as it was pelted by a storm of arrows and an one-armed Scorpion Man that leapt at its face. “ASAAAAAG!”
Shouting and slashing the scorpion man raised his dark sickle sword and slashed at the Asag’s face before piercing its throat with his giant stinger.
The Asag roared and thrashed to get its assailant off but the scorpion man held on defiantly onto the Asag’s neck, riding it like a wild bull with just one arm and holding his sword with his teeth.
“I don’t know who he is but I like him already!” Cylia punched the air during the jump and watched how the Asag was being subdued in battle.
“Eyes to the front. We are still not out of the danger,” Xander snapped his fingers before Cylia’s ear to get her attention for the fork up ahead. “Kiur, which way?”
The path was narrowing into two different directions that were impossible to discern in the night and Kiur had to choose which one to take. He needed to decide quickly before the battle worsened but how?
Which one was right or wrong? How could he know which one to choose if all his previous decisions might have been wrong in the first place?
He trusted the words of the Asag to leave the settlement but now it was pursuing them. Maybe none of his decisions were trustworthy, like when he brought them here.
“R-right we need to–” Then Kiur felt a familiar sensation inside his chest, drawing him to one of the paths ahead of him where a golden light was glinting. There he knew that there was one person who could make the right decision in whatever they did.
Not his personality as Lotte but the one originally belonging to him. The original Kiur. “Left! We go left!”
Kiur suddenly started to run and his friends were left to follow him with the Reiszer and clashing monsters close behind them. The path darkened with each step they took until they were running in total darkness.
The night seemed so peaceful in its vastness but the rumbling of battle only intensified and closed in further. There was nothing but peace to be found tonight.
“Is that a massive hole in front of us or am I seeing a patch of darkness up ahead?”
Xander pointed at the chasm that revealed itself in their path with no way over it. “Keep running,” Kiur said and maintained the speed in his run. His friends exchanged nervous looks but kept their pace with him.
Up ahead was a hole indeed but also their only way out of this mess if they could manage to lure the Asag inside it.
But first, they needed a way over it. One made from earth.
“I know I can’t control my magic but I don’t need to,” Kiur huffed and cleared his mind, reaching deep into the consciousness below his feet. “I know I can’t hear you as I did back then but please, help us, OPEN A PATH FOR US!”
Kiur’s cry shook the earth as he sent out a wave into the earth and caused it to shake. In front of them, stone pillars rose inside the chasm large enough to stand and jump on.
That was Kiur’s strongest suit he had possessed by birth but lost when he gained his fire magic. The ability to communicate with the earth.
—☽—
Hop. Hop.
Kiur and Cylia finished the last jump and landed on the other side but Xander’s pillar broke down and he stumbled. “We got you!” the two of them held on to each of his arms and hauled him over to them.
They have cleared their way forward but the danger was far from over.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
The Asag was still contained in its battle with the scorpion people and the Reiszer were making their way towards Kiur and his friends, jumping over the pillars and clearing distance with ease.
“Leave this to me, I will stop them,” announced Xander proudly and rolled up his sleeves. In his gloved hands, Xander coalesced his magic and pulled in the cold air to compress it.
The air grew heavier around him the denser the orb became.
“Wait, what are you planning on doing?” Kiur stopped Xander by pulling him back. The magical orb was blowing cold wind in their direction.
“What do you think? We can’t have them cross our side. Have you forgotten what they might do to us?”
No, he had not forgotten, nor will he ever be able to. “Still, we can’t just–”
Their argument took too much time and the Reiszer jumped over the rift where Xander had broken off the pillar. They landed with a role and a female Reiszer shrouded by the night drew her silver sword.
“Don’t you dare finish this spell, Hellien,” snarled the Reiszer and inched closer with her sword so that Xander had to take a step back.
None of them could take a good look at her except for the glow of her orange irises and her sword.
But the woman stopped when Cylia drew her crossbow at her face. “Stay where you are or I will shoot.”
The two women stood at an impasse. The Reiszer drew their weapons and aimed at the trio whilst surrounding them in a semicircle.
“Great, just great,” Xander let out a sigh and let his brain work for an alternative. Nothing came to mind but all their attention was drawn back towards the Asag that was pulling off a mad dash towards the chasm with a terrifying and steaming roar. “Oh no you don’t, back off!”
Clenching his fist Xander changed his spell. A magic circle formed before his knuckles and let the orb spin to a sharp projectile.
He launched his projectile over the Reiszers’ heads and at the leaping Asag.
In a flash of white and pale blue light the spell exploded and covered the area around it in frost. The Asag crashed against the pillars and fell into the deep chasm—never to be seen again.
“Anyone else who wants to challenge my powers?” Xander flaunted with his arms and faked confidence in his mighty display of taking out the indomitable Asag. Unbeknownst to the Reiszer that he exhausted himself. “What will it be, girlie?”
—☾—
Xander’s deterrent worked and the Reiszer held their distance to their group by at least 15 meters—although their leader was less than pleased by Xander’s condescending comment.
When the stars illuminated the night, they saw the Reiszer’s face and could tell why they had such a hard time looking at her.
She had dark skin and with her dark leather armour and feathered cloak, she blended in well with the darkness.
The only things that stood out from her amidst the night were her amber-coloured eyes, her golden necklace, silver earrings and silvern hair accessories in her dreaded dark hair that was pulled back into a ponytail.
Clearly, she was more than a regular soldier but didn’t look older than any of them. She growled at the group whenever they looked at her—making her look more dangerous than she already was.
“Huh, a black Reiszer. You learn something new every day.” Xander let out a chuckle and earned the displeased looks of Kiur and Cylia. “What? Oh please, spare me your remarks.”
“Leaving aside Xander’s obviously racist comment,” Cylia turned to Kiur. “What should we do? They are breathing against our necks and Xander’s threat won’t hold any merit the moment they find out he was bluffing.”
The little display of power Xander presented them would never have been enough to intimidate the Reiszer but taking down a giant monster that was chasing them and making it drop into a chasm?
Sure, that worked just fine but it was a matter of time until they realised Xander was in a weakened state. A water-ice wizard in the desert was easy prey.
And the Reiszer woman seemed to smell blood—especially Xander’s.
“I agree, she is giving me death glares similar to Cylia whenever she looks at me.”
“Oh yeah, that is bad,” Cylia laughed drily and looked to Kiur for guidance, hoping he had an idea.
When he turned around she felt an awkward sense of severe serenity in him. As if he was switched out the way his eyes looked.
“Keep going, there should be something to give us an edge against them.”
Kiur focused back on the path and his friends shared a worried glance, unsure what to make out of his behaviour but it was better than nothing.
With the Reiszer behind them, they were still in great danger but the desert was too wide and open to escape.
“How great would it be to have a wagon or horse, wouldn’t it?” Cylia laughed at the thought and wouldn’t know about the new find they did on their path.
The dried-up river widened to a larger area which seemed to have been a small lake back in the day. Now, however, it was an annihilated camp from recent times.
Broken wagons littered the grounds and tents were torn to pieces with signs of a battle between glazed sand to jutting out spikes of rock.
They knew it belonged to a group of escapees who were ambushed by the Reiszer, an enemy that was coming much closer to them than they liked.
“What’s the holdup, found something of interest?” asked the Reiszer woman with her hand hovering over the pommel of her sheathed sword.
Cylia glared at the woman and hovered with one hand over the crossbow hanging on the side of her hip while Xander gave worried glances over to Kiur and the side.
He watched how Kiur was picking up a green shawl from the ground which was slashed to pieces. Most of the escapees were people from Idaris, Kiur’s home country. Xander was glad not to see anyone from his home, he wouldn’t know what to do if that were the case.
He couldn’t imagine what was going through Kiur’s head and was glad they didn’t see any bodies.
“Hopefully it’s not the same caravan we got separated from,” thought Xander and nervously put a hand on Kiur’s shoulder. They have gawked for too long and needed to keep going. “Kiur, I know this isn’t optimal but–”
“Prepare to run–” Kiur announced calmly for Xander and Cylia to hear it. “Don’t stop until I do too.”
“What are you all mumbling about?” the Reiszer woman drew her sword and approached. Cylia took several steps back. “You have run around enough. Come with us or–”
“Now, run!” Kiur shouted and Cylia instinctively pulled the trigger. The bolt flew right at the Reiszer’s chest and she was thrown backwards.
The Reiszer cursed under her breath, “Forbann det, catch them!”
Swarming over the abandoned camp the Reiszer rushed towards them.
Kiur and his friends tried to outrun them by jumping over boxes and wreckage, throwing loose objects or toppling whatever they could get their hands on.
But it wasn’t enough as the Reiszer were much faster and more relentless in their pursuit to catch the escapees.
Xander willed as much magic as he could from his core and from the surroundings to freeze the ground over and slow them down. He tired out quickly and the ice melted.
He needed more time to save something for the worst case.
Cylia on the other hand did much better in disrupting their approach by pulling ropes, kicking chairs in between or shooting at loose rocks above the walls to topple them over the Reiszer.
She was more ingenious than Xander had given her credit for but they reached an end over at a clearing with a barricaded wall of broken-down carriages that blocked any way out.
“Listen here,” the Reiszer woman huffed as she and the others were out of breath. She bumped her fist over the dented armour where Cylia’s bolt hat damaged the leather. “We have been ambushed over five times today. Our supplies are non-existent and I have more sunburns than I count! Frankly, I have enough of this place so you better stay down and come with us, you hear?”
Cylia shot another bolt at the woman who deflected the projectile and sent out a silvern shockwave her way. Cylia’s knees threatened to buckle, she was shaking in a cold sweat. “Don’t try that again. I am not in the mood.”
“Shouldn’t we talk it out?” Xander approached her with open arms and a drop of sweat rolling down his face. “Where is your superior? Surely he and I can negotiate something, can’t we?”
“Shut up, will you?” Cylia and the Reiszer woman groaned at Xander as they were fed up with him. “I am in charge of this expedition group, you answer to me, Jorunn Ragnarsdottir, daughter of Third Elite Ragnar Marcet, understood?”
“Sure… ma’am,” grumbled Xander and tried to lower his hands but got the sharp end of Jorunn’s sword pointed at him.
“Keep them where I can see them and no tricks, Hellien,” Jorunn glanced over to Kiur who was keeping himself to the sidelines and focusing his attention on a loose rock jutting out of the earth. “What’s with him?”
“Oh you know,” Xander craned his head and tried to think. “Idariens… they like nature and their rocks… he doesn’t speak our language.”
“Hmmm,” Jorunn mused and watched how Kiur was ignoring the Reiszer and calmly expected the stone formation sprouting out from the ground. “Hey, Idarien, come over here,” Jorunn called but got the cold shoulder. “I said come over here!”
Kiur didn’t pay her any hint and walked around the camp calmly, his eyes going over each smooth or rough rock formation he could find.
Cylia grew anxious about seeing him behave like that and feared what would happen. She stepped before Jorunn to try and get her attention.
“What are Reiszer still doing so far out in the desert? Shouldn’t you have returned home by now?”
Jorunn gave Cylia a quick look and sneered. “I have no obligation to answer any questions from a thrall. You must have used the chaos to escape so stay quiet, you hear me?”
She heard alright. Cylia’s eyes widened and she started to shake at the mere thought of returning as a slave.
Years had she spent as one with her mother until she was all alone.
Finally escaping from her fate was like a long-lost dream but she feared what might become of it now. Xander saw her terror but he didn’t know what to say and bit his lip.
“You think we will simply give in and become slaves?” Kiur asked calmly, drawing the attention of the Reiszer.
“So you can speak after all. Why don’t you make it easier for us and give up alongside your friends? We had enough trouble as it is.”
Kiur remained eerily silent, his hands wandering over the stone wall. “Is that what you said to the others here as well?”
“Others?” Jorunn raised an eyebrow and looked around the deserted camp. “Ah, I see, you are wondering what happened to them, don’t you?”
“There were old people among them. Children,” Kiur furrowed his brow and wondered what happened to Ninda and her brother when he failed to protect them.
Anger flared up inside him like last time when he failed to protect the little girl. “This isn’t fair, none of it.”
“Nothing is fair,” Jorunn yelled, her tongue sharp and eyes ready to cut Kiur to pieces. “You have no idea what this word even means. In the end, we all suffer the same fate. Watch us, all stuck in the same hellscape.”
“Maybe for you,” Kiur turned and his friends instinctively took a step back when his eyes started to glow. “But we will not remain here and we will not be hurt by you, never again.”
The ground started to shake and everyone feared it was yet another emergence of an Asag.
Little did they expect it was caused by Kiur himself as his teary red eyes radiated with pressure and his heart ignited to a scorching hearth.
Cracks fissured underneath their feet and sand exploded into their faces. Neighing reached their ears as three forms emerged from underneath the stones.
No, it was the stone itself that started to rise and take on the form of equine beasts. They were golems created by the people of Idaris and infused back with life by Kiur.
One particular golem stood higher than the rest and stomped with its feet as between its cracks of stone flames erupted and let out a mighty warrior’s cry with embers leaving its nostrils.
“We will make it out of the desert, you cannot stop us. Never again will you catch us.”