A grunt and a pointed sharp poke in the ribs was how Merin woke up the next day. She could feel her heart race as her temper flared into being.

The woman opened an eye and peeked out from her lashes to see who disturbed her. It was Aram, and he looked as if he hadn't slept.

Even though she knew it was pointless, she attempted to tell the brute that she needed several more hours of sleep. The sun wasn't even up, so why should she be awake?

When she was done eloquently making her point, Merin rolled over on the cold, hardened sand and attempted to fall back asleep.

The rag-covered man smacked her with his shovel, and enraged now, Merin reached for her magic to punish him.

She wouldn't have attempted if she had been fully awake, but in her addled state, she instinctively reached and welded it. Aram was smacked by an invisible force and sent into the wall of the sand cave.

His annoying shovel fell from his grasp. Although the man was held up by magic, he didn't blink or cry out. He was watching Merin with a steady focus that resembled a man on a mission.

Before Merin could say anything, her chest constricted, and she gasped. She fell to her knees, and Aram was dropped from the wall with her concentration lost.

He landed smoothly, and Merin watched with mistrust as he moved towards her. Obtuse and blunt seemed to be this man's middle name because he grabbed her left arm and dragged her sleeve away to stare at her flesh.

His rough, callused fingers traced her veins, and Merin glanced, curious at what he was looking for.

The woman realized there was nothing out of the ordinary. Her purple veins were strong and pulsing blood to this accursed body.

Aram tapped on her arm, and Merin realized with horror that black sludge seemed to congeal up her arm as he tapped. His methodical movement was causing the blackness to gather. He was guiding it up her arm and towards her throat.

Bile rose in her gut, and before she could stop herself, she was vomiting black tar. It shot out of her as spit might, but it was sticky and left her feeling used and groggy.

Aram said something, but Merin didn't have time to blink. He grabbed his shovel and swung it down toward her head in one smooth motion.

Merin hesitated half a second before reaching for her power and stopping the shovel in midair.

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She felt less constricted in her chest but sleepier than the nap-loving woman had ever felt before.

Her knees gave out, and this time, Aram caught her and slowly lowered her to the ground.

The last thing she could see was his glittering red eye staring down at her.

The woman shouldn't be able to recover this quickly from the poison that was Ela. There was only one explanation for why she wasn't adequately affected by the damned land.

For the first time in Red's life, he felt a grain of hope hit his chest. His God had done more than deliver him the tool he needed to escape. He'd been given an explosive that he could use to finish everything once and for all.

Red watched the woman slumber briefly before leaving her in the cave. He needed to set the trap for Shulga to keep the rat off any tasty tidbits.

Red needed all the time he could muster. He had set aside just the right tool for that, too. Red was going to use the blueleeches he cleared. The blueleeches were easy to get rid of and to place down.

It didn't take long before a blood-curdling roar echoed across the sandy plains.

Red looked up calmly from sharpening his shovel and set it down blade first into the sand with a grim smile. It looked like the game was about to begin. He hiked his shovel on his back and ventured out of the cave to see the damage.

He knew it was a slim chance that Shulga himself would venture near the site. It was more likely that the coward would send someone else to do his dirty spy work.

And Red's assumption was sadly true.

A young boy, barely a man, had rolled into Red's blueleech trap.

The boy had shit and pissed himself from the smell of it, and Red met his eyes.

"I finally have a way out." The boy said with a grimace of half joy and agony.

"You can be saved," Red said. It was costly to free the blueleeches from one's flesh, but not impossible. Life would be even worse than working under the blistering sun if one could survive that. That was if one made it through the process of extraction. Red knew that life was worth living, no matter the cost. He was one of those people who believed that. If it had been offered, Red would have taken the chance; he couldn't afford to die. At least not until his mission was complete.

"No." The boy who became a man said. "I know what they'll do to me, but it's not worse than what I've suffered."

"It is worse," Red said simply. "They will suck your blood dry and feast on your body as they complete their stages of growth. What hatches from your corpse will go on to kill others and send blueleeches to other lands."

"Can you...hasten it?" The other man said with watery eyes.

"I'll make it quick for you," Red said. He used the end of his sharpened shovel to cut a thin notch across his left palm. Instead of pooling and dripping down into the sand, his blood disobeyed gravity and floated in the air.

The other man's eyes widened at the sight. "You're one of them!" He didn't get to finish his words.

Red sent his blood out as a blade directly into the other man's eyes, mouth, nose, and ears. The filled orifices were flooded, and life was instantly snuffed out of the young man.

Drops of Red's blood sprayed ever so slightly onto the blueleeches. The faint sound of hisses and popping echoed around Red. Any blue leeches hit with even a droplet of Red's blood disappeared into smoke.

Red never feared the blueleeches and what they could do. They never bothered Red for one very crucial reason.

He was the last of the Elan Nation's blood.