Alnea cursed his luck, as he saw the mole jump back into the hole it had crawled out of. Beasts who liked to burrow under the ground were always the most troublesome ones to deal with. And if they could also detect his position at any given moment, then they would be nothing short of a nightmare. Fortunately, he still had the Sense of Light, allowing him to easily detect the mole’s position.
“…I am going to force it out once again. Yuri—
“I am ready.”
“Lia, make sure to finish it one blow, or things will get a little troublesome.”
“Leave it to me.”
Nodding to the girls, Alnea shifted all his attention back to the sands under his feet. Or rather, to the flow of heat in the sands. Unlike the sands, the mole could not absorb heat directly from Enn. It could only slowly adapt to the change in heat of the sands themselves. Coupled with the blood it had lost… it was much colder than the sand it was moving around in, easily giving up its position.
If left unchecked though, the mole would soon lose the only weakness it was showing. So, without wasting any time, Alnea raised his sword, and rushed after the mole. But just as he could sense the mole’s position, the mole could also sense his position. And for the moment, it had no intention of confronting him head on, swimming in the sands under their feet, preparing to use its second Innate Ability. A result which he did not wish to see. In the end, he could only try to force the mole out through other means.
“Under the shine of the boundless Night…”
Fortunately, he had read enough to know that just like heat, sand could also transmit sound.
“When the darkness hides under her light…”
The sounds would become a little distorted in the process, but the sounds were just a medium anyway.
“I call forth the sounds of imaginations…”
As long as the Mysteries of the lineage of Night reached the mole, it was enough.
“To lead to Nightmare, and a world of fascination.”
Shrill sounds, even more eerie than the screeching sounds of the mole, escaped from Alnea, and seeped into the sands, making their way to the mole. It did not care though, and kept digging, preparing for its Innate Ability, one that would destroy everything that was above the ground. Even the treasures. Its treasures!
The precious treasures… They were all above the ground… With the despicable beast which had attacked it so sneakily, seeking to steal its treasures… Its treasures! They were all its treasures… Everything was its treasure… How could it let its treasures be destroyed? That too, with its own attacks? No, it had to save its treasures!
The beast stopped digging, and frantically clawed its way to the ground, to reach out and grab its treasures… Treasures? Where were the treasures? It must be the despicable beast… The despicable beast! It—
Ropes condensed out of dense, grey fog, manifested around the mole, and wrapped around its legs, waking it up from the illusion it had been trapped in, while also preventing it from diving back into the sea of black sand. Of course, the rope was not strong enough to completely stop the mole’s movements. It was just an Intermediate Stage Glyph after all, while the mole was an advanced phase beast. Not to mention how frantically the mole was thrashing around, using even its teeth to bite through the rope binding its legs.
Still, the rope managed to delay the beast for a couple of moments, and those couple of moments were all that Cecilia need. Covering the distance of more than ten meters in just an instant, leaving behind a trail of slithering green lights on her path, she brough her right hand—covered with red, black, and green scales— down on to the beast’s head before it could even react to her presence.
In the next moment, blood, mixed with flesh, and juices of the mole’s brain splattered on to Cecilia’s face, as the red and black lights from her hand blasted into the mole’s head. Right in the next moment, the mole also managed to break free from the rope, but it was too late. Its fate was already sealed. Letting out a miserable shriek, the mole turned around to pounce on the only enemy standing next to it—
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Forne landed on the mole’s back, and slapped its head back on to the ground with its paw, before following it up with a few more strikes to end its final struggle.
“Good job, Forne,” Cecilia said, withdrawing her Aspects back to her Spirit World, before petting the dumb cat, who raised its head in pride, and looked at him with a smirk… If the stupid cat had not sucked out the beast’s Fortune when it had jumped out of the sand earlier, making it easier for him to control it with illusion, Alnea surely would have taught the cat a good lesson.
“You did a good job too, Lia,” Alnea said, as he took out a water bag, and a towel from his pouch, handing them both over to Cecilia.
“…It was just an advanced phase beast,” Cecilia grumbled, washing off all the blood from her face. “It was not enough for even a warm up.”
“That is because of our teamwork,” Alnea said, deliberately raising his voice, so that the other following behind them could also head him. And they did hear him, better than he expected them to. Especially Karl…
“…I thought that you were going after only peak phase Oren Beasts,” Karl said, glancing at the mole to express the rest of his unsaid words.
“…If only things could always go as we plan,” Yuri said, answering for Alnea, as she walked up to the first hole that the mole had crawled out of. “Do you know the basic rules of exploring Forbidden Areas, Karl?”
“…There are many rules. Which one are you talking about?”
“…We should never leave our back to our enemies under any circumstances,” Yuri said, peering into the large gaping hole in an otherwise uniform desert. The desert had its own way of dealing with the aftermaths of the battles though, or it would have long ceased existing under the constant erosion of time, and Wanderers. Even as Yuri was peering into the hole, the desert was trying its best to fill it up, restoring its surface back to its flawless state.
“…Three metres,” Yuri said, turning back from the hole towards Karl, and the rest of the Star Seekers. “That is not too deep, but can any of you say for certain that you will be able to find an Oren Beast hiding three metres under your feet? Can you escape a sneak attack launched from under your feet?”
“…If we are careful—
“Do you recognise the Oren Beast we just killed?”
“…It is a Greedy Sand Mole.”
“A Greedy Sand Mole… That should be enough to explain my point. The Greedy Sand Mole was hiding right on our path, and consequently, your path too. Now, maybe, the mole was not planning on ambushing us. Maybe, it was just resting. And maybe, just maybe, it would not have done anything when Alnea, Cecilia, and I passed over its hiding place. But with the seven of you following right behind us, can you be sure that it would have kept hiding? And even if you can be sure, do you really expect us to leave our backs to an Oren Beast, which can lay traps under our feet, and blow us all to the sky?”
“…I was just asking…”
“…It is alright, Karl,” Alnea said, trying to ease the man’s embarrassment. “Asking questions in itself is not a bad trait. Just, next time, try to think a little more before asking questions.”
Alnea paused for a moment to glance over everyone else. Except for Vestia and Zain, everyone had slightly slushed cheeks, showing just how many of them had questioned his judgment.
“…You may have become Wanderers before the three of us, and have higher Spirit Power than us, but when it comes exploring Forbidden Areas, I can say for certain that we are a lot more experienced than you are. Rather than questioning us about everything we do, you should try learning from our experience.
“Of course, we are also willing to learn from your experience. After all, you are much more familiar with the Black Desert than us. And it is not just about exploring the Black Desert. Even in other things, like dealing with other people, gathering information, analysing those information, and even something as simple as teamwork, you should try to let go of your prejudices, and learn from each other. That is what is a team is meant for. To help each other.”
“…Well said,” Vestia said, with a smile spilling pride from its corner. As if it was not him, but she who had said those words. “A team is meant to help each other… Then should we also not help you three out?”
“…Did we not discuss it earlier, Vestia?”
“…We did, but you have already shown us your teamwork,” Vestia said. “From delegating tasks to conserve Spirit Power to scouting, drawing out the beast, trapping it, and then killing it… Your seamless operation has already shown us what proper teamwork can achieve. With so many advantages, and basically no disadvantages, no one should be averse to the idea of working together anymore.”
“…You were never against teamwork, so your word does not count.”
“If my words do not count, then what about theirs?” Vestia said, before turning towards the rest of the Star Seekers, before asking, “What do you guys think?”
“…I was never against teamwork either,” Karl mumbled, while Zain, having just recovered from what he had seen earlier, let out snort.
“If I had been there, then I would have trapped the beast the first time it made its way out of its burrow.”
“…This looks exciting.”
“…I do not mind trying it out.”
“…With the Captain, there should be no problem in coordinating us as a team…”
“See?” Vestia said, shrugging her shoulders. “Everyone agrees with me.”
“…You are not familiar with each other’s abilities yet. If you mess up…”
“If you do not even give us a chance, how are we going to familiar with each other’s abilities, and improve our teamwork?”