Jado screamed in pain, his eardrums ringing with a sharp sound. His sight was blurry from the powerful flash of the thunder. His sense of balance was disrupted, and he fell on his knees while puking his insides out. Another streak of thunder fell on the light-emanating Leopard, and another, and another.
It was as if the sky was punishing the Leopard, striking it until it died. The light dimmed, Jado's senses began coming back, and the world finally stopped shaking in his eyes. He raised his head with difficulty, trying to see if Dune was fine. He wasn't worried about Zen, as he told him to stay away during the fight, so he should have been safe from all this chaos.
His little snake should also have hidden itself deep in the sand, safe from all these attacks, but the young man couldn't help but worry. A movement caught his eyes, and he raised them just in time to see the blackened corpse of the Alpha Leopard falling on its side, pierced in every part of its body by long metallic javelins, thick by at least a dozen inches. They were more like thin pillars than javelins, in reality.
Sparks of blue energy were sizzling around the corpse, jolting him from time to time, but it was evident that the Leopard was dead. Jado tried to identify the corpse, but it seemed like the blue sparks were interfering with his ability. Or perhaps his Eyes of the Pharaoh were just too low-ranked to be used on the corpse and the weapons that killed it.
The thought of grabbing and running away with the corpse crossed his mind, but he quickly shook his head before departing without hesitation. If whatever killed the Leopard came after him, Jado wouldn't be able to stand any chance against it. He jumped over a mound of sand, seeing Zen staring at him with frightened eyes. Dune surged in a small burst of sand while hissing with panicked noises. It hurriedly slithered up the young man's leg, hiding under his shirt.
"We need to get out of here, now!" Jado pressed Zen, who began to run without waiting, still hugging his longsword like a baby would his teddy bear. A sudden flap of wings from behind him made Jado's blood freeze inside his veins. Time seemed to slow as he struggled not to look back, running away at full throttle from the scene. A sizzling noise seemed to power up from behind him, getting stronger as each second passed. A cold bead of sweat fell down the young man's back, making him shiver in the hellish temperature of the desert.
He could almost feel the breath of Death itself blowing on his neck, but it only encouraged him to run faster. The sizzling noise suddenly stopped, before bursting in a thunderous noise. Jado turned on his feet, raising a cloud of sand as he stood his ground without his weapon. A small hand suddenly moved past his vision, carrying a longsword taller than the person holding it. The words remained stuck in the young man's throat as he tried to stop Zen with what was nothing but suicide, but his stretched-out hand couldn't reach the small kid.
A blue flash approached them at god-defying speed, letting him see just before the impact that Zen planted his sword in the ground, the tip aimed at the incoming projectile. Jado didn't think for another second and grabbed the kid by the back of the shirt before covering him with his body as he lay on the ground. An explosion shook the ground as sand was projected high in the sky, burying them slightly. Wings flapped as they approached the point of impact, getting closer to where Jado and Zen were.
Steps echoed out of nowhere, someone seemingly checking on them. A few seconds of silence passed, before the wings flapped once again, this time to leave completely. Jado and Zen didn't dare to move or even breathe, both of their hearts beating wildly. Zen had his eyes clenched tightly, while Jado was gritting his teeth with all he could. They stayed like that for a good minute, before the young man finally dared to breathe out. He carefully looked to his left and right, not seeing anything, before pushing himself from the ground, sand falling from his body. He gasped in a lack of air, Zen soon following him, as they regained their composure.
They sat side by side, staring at each other with shocked eyes. Jado looked around for a few seconds while wiping off the sweat on his forehead, taking notice of the changes in their surroundings. The thing that stood out the most was the longsword that Zen planted in the sand earlier, which was now shattered in half, a blue current running down its deformed edge. The sandy ground had transformed into one made entirely out of glass, reflecting light everywhere in a strange spectacle. Under the glass, the remaining sand was black like coal, while sparks of blue energy remained around the ground around the fragments of the sword.
Jado sighed in relief, seeing that there were no enemies in sight. Zen's eyes couldn't leave the longsword, tears welling in them. The young man tried to comfort him by grabbing him by the shoulder.
"D...Don't worry, we'll find you another one..." He said awkwardly, smiling in a barely reassuring way. Zen only looked at him silently, before wiping off the tears on his face. That's when it struck the young man that Zen purposefully planted the sword there to block the lightning strike! How...How did he know how to do that?
"Zen...How did you know that planting the sword this way would stop the lightning strike?" He asked with a curious voice. Zen opened his mouth, as if ready to explain, before smiling dejectedly and turning away. Jado shook his head, disappointed but ultimately understanding the small kid. They both remained sitting there for fifteen minutes, looking at the sword crackling with blue energy, before Jado finally decided to move. More out of curiosity than out of purpose, he identified the longsword, to see if something had changed with it. His eyes widened once he read the blue window's contents.
Thunder Blade (Broken) Rank: Insignificant Rarity A common longsword made out of terrible materials. It had been struck by divine lightning, giving it special abilities.
Durability: 1/100
Can be repaired using materials of the same rank.
Effect(s):
Tesla Coil - Can be used to generate an electric current by using the user's stamina
"???"s Gaze - Can be used to summon a thunder strike by using 50% of the weapon's durability and huge amounts of stamina.
Broken Blade - This weapon has been broken once, and became very brittle as a result: durability is used twice as fast
"Holy shit," The words left Jado's mouth before he could even think of them, his eyes glued on the blue window. This weapon was even better than his Desert Fang! And...and all those effects, he had never seen such things before? What's an electric current? He could summon thunder using it? Too many questions rumbled in Jado's mind, and he breathed in and out to calm himself, before steadying his gaze. Firstly, he decided to check out his Eyes of the Pharaoh to see if any changes had occurred. After all, he was now able to see things he couldn't before.
And indeed, changes there had been.
Eyes of the Pharaoh Rank: Common
[To survive, being able to identify what's in front of oneself is an absolute necessity.]
[You've witnessed the divine, allowing your eyes to see deeper like things.)
Effect: You can identify items up to the Red Rarity rank, and are allowed to glance in the ranking system. You can open the basic descriptions of other items. [...]
WARNING: This skill is sealed. To unseal it, fill hidden conditions, and upgrade it to receive better benefits.
Conditions Fulfilled:
[Witness the Divine]
"D...Divine?" The word caught Zen's attention, and he witnessed the strange man who brought him into this chaos gasping crazily, almost drooling while staring at nothing. The kid began to wonder if he had made the right choice to follow the strange man. Too busy to notice Zen's strange stare, Jado almost wanted to pump his fist in the air at the upgrade of his skill, but also to roll himself in a ball after understanding what he had just come to notice. Divine! He, Jado, once a farmer, witnessed the Divine today! Well, that was what the blue window was saying it was, but thanks to his recent experience, he had no problem believing whatever used lightning as an attack was something akin to a god.
He calmed his breathing and looked at the sky with a wide smile. He felt as if he attained transcendence. Seeing something so insane seemed to loosen the wrong screws in his head, and he began laughing like a crazy person. Zen only watched him curiously, not doing anything, while Jado was almost crying from how good of a laugh he was having. A few minutes later, Jado brusquely calmed down, and without thinking, walked into the field of glass, dug out the sword, and grabbed it by its scorched handle, before throwing it in his inventory, uncaring of Zen's reaction.
He then stopped in the middle of the glass, his steps making a crackling sound, thinking for a few seconds, before picking up the blade fragments that had been projected here and there. After being done gathering them, he threw them in his inventory alongside the sword it once belonged to, before walking back to the place where he killed the Sun Leopard. While walking, he tried to look for any feathers or signs that the winged thing might have left behind, but there was nothing. There were no traces of its steps in the sand either, strangely. Jado was sure at a hundred percent he heard something walk in the sand, but his confidence was in doubt after he failed to find anything.
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Zen followed him carefully while circumventing the glass fields, not daring to step on them. They went back to where it all happened, climbing up on a mound of sand. Where the Sun Leopard was once consuming its meal, there was only a bloody, headless corpse left, charred black. The leopard's meal was in an even worse state, too damaged to be called a corpse. The Wild Alpha Leopard corpse wasn't there, unsurprisingly. The winged thing probably took it away. Jado looked around for his Desert Fang, but it seemed like it was gone alongside the Alpha leopard's Corpse, sadly. The only thing left for him was the scorched Sun Leopard's corpse, alongside a bloody, formless mass of flesh.
Jado scowled with a disgusted expression as he neared the corpses, a scent of burned meat, blood, and death seeped in his nostrils, making him retch slightly. He could almost estimate himself happy from having already witnessed horrible scenes, like with that assho- no, with transformed Kale. His arm suddenly shot to his side reflectively, grabbing Zen's collar who was running with a salivating expression toward the corpses. Jado shook his head dejectedly, before pulling him gently back.
"No, you... you can't eat that, Zen." The kid looked at him with a gaze that was first confused, before transforming into anger. It seemed like he was angry that Jado was going to waste such perfectly cooked meat. The young man shrugged, before steeling himself and grabbing the corpse of the leopard as best he could, pushing it inside his inventory. He did the same with the bloody mass of flesh, dirtying his hands but gaining a precious sacrifice.
He rubbed his hands in the sand, getting rid of most of the blood, before looking around to see if he had missed anything. Besides Zen and his judgmental gaze, nothing was left. Before leaving, he checked his inventory for the skinners' weapons, insignificant-ranked trash compared to the Desert Fang, and took out a spear, twirling it in his hands with familiarity. Even if the weapon was way worse than the twinblade, it was much easier for him to use. It'll have to do for now. Satisfied with his hard work, he decided to head back to the Small Shrine, not aware of the surprise waiting for him there.
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Beads of sweat dug into the sand, quickly disappearing in the heat of the desert. More flowed down the man's black, long thin arms, following the paths of their predecessors. Even though his arms weren't particularly big, they were still tough, as if the muscles had been compressed in a small point. The numerous scars marking them made him look even more badass, but only the gods knew how much he hated them. The leather vest rubbing against his skin wasn't helping, irritating his armpits and sticking to his skin, using the sweat as a strong glue.
He once more hesitated to get rid of it, but he knew traversing this desert without wearing a top was akin to suicide, and he couldn't allow himself to die just yet. He didn't look back, the blood on his hands already dry. Never again shall he be forced to do such things, never again he wanted to see those haunting faces. He'd rather die by his own will instead. He first entered the desert with the act of ending his life in mind, but now, he couldn't. He'll find what this thin trail of smoke rising in the air was, acting as a beacon in these deadly, endless stretches of sand.
He knew his position on the map, and he knew that this was supposed to be a dead zone, a place where you can enter but never come back from. His green eyes were stuck on the sight of the small trail of smoke, almost entranced by it. Nothing alive should be there to produce such smoke, nothing that isn't beasts or hellish monsters. He had to satisfy his curiosity at least once in his pitiful life of living at the will of others. After that, he'll be satisfied and will surrender his life. The man kept on walking, an item slipping out silently from his clothes, burying itself in the sand. The sun reflected its light on it, highlighting the name that was engraved on it: Noah.
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His old, battered cape fluttered behind him as his heavy steel boot buried itself in the ground. He rose one foot, struggling to take another step, but doing so nonetheless. One step, then a second, and another... He couldn't stop. His once shiny and beautiful armor was now rusted, only a sad memory of a more glorious past. It creaked as he moved his arms uncomfortably, the rusted steel components scraping against each other with sharp, disturbing noises. He could get rid of it, but that was the only thing he had left, with his life, which he had pretty much surrendered by coming here. How many days, no, weeks had it been, already?
He couldn't tell, but he knew he couldn't turn back. The halberd he was holding in his right hand was missing half its shaft, and its blade was dull, rusted like the armor he wore. He had lost everything and had no place left to come back to. If he had endured the harshness and loneliness of the Forgotten Desert so far, it wasn't to turn back when he began to feel a bit bad. His family was gone. His friends were gone. His home was gone. His life would soon be gone, and this armor looked like it was going to fall by itself. It was only a matter of life before he was truly left with nothing at all...
So why? Why did he want to see what was the source of this beacon of hope, this small trail of smoke in the sky rising silently above the desert? He wanted to see what it was, at least before he died so that his curiosity would be satisfied. This way, he could at least go down thinking he had done it to find out what this smoke was. He, the last knight of Oberon, wanted to fulfill this last, childish wish of his. His tired blue eyes stared straight in the sky, as he continued to step forward. One step, another, and another...
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Her ragged breathing seemed to come from a wild beast, and perhaps she wasn't far from being such. The old, weathered, and cracked coyote skull, tinted red from the blood that had been shed on it, slipped slightly from its attack. She quickly placed it back in its place, patches of black fabric tied to the bone mask hiding every spot of her face. The two holes in the skull allowed her to see, two sharp red eyes that seemed to have seen hell itself, the sanity of the woman was almost gone with the winds of the desert. There seemed to be next to no humanity in those two, red eyes, void of any emotions that weren't rage and a deep, dark desire for a cruel revenge.
Dressed in sand-colored clothes that hid every single part of her body, her hands covered with leather gloves. There wasn't even a single spot of skin that wasn't covered by the fabric. She bore a broken sword to her waist, her feet lacking any strength, weak from malnourishment and deadly thirst. But strangely, her presence seemed to weigh around her surroundings, the small insects shivering and trembling at her passage as if a terrifying predator just walked past them. Her presence, dominating, inspired dread to anything that could see or even hear her. She had no name, but some called her the Masked Shade.
Why did they call her that, she had no idea. She only wanted revenge since that day, and it was the only thing she cared about. In her madness, she entered this ruthless, deadly place, missing death by only a few inches. Perhaps it would have been for the best if she...No, she still owes too much to let go of life now. Her red eyes were raised, staring at the white smoke in the sky, wondering if it was yet another lie from the desert, another mirage produced from the deepness of her mind. She would soon know if it was because she walking toward it. Slowly, weakly, but steadily, she stepped forward.
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"No...No, no, no, no, I...I shouldn't be here!" A mature man, with a shocked expression, was having a hard time figuring out his surroundings. Fright installed itself in his eyes as he quickly understood that he was in that place. The place no one ever came back from, the place they had planned to send this bastard to. Why...Why was he there? And his comrades, did they survive? No, he shouldn't be here... His brown eyes lit up when he saw the smoke in the distance, as he sighed in relief.
"Alright, everything is fine, I'm just dumb." He shook the sand off his body and stepped decisively toward the smoke. There was no way smoke could ever exist if he was in that place so that probably meant he wasn't far from camp. He still had so much to do, he was still so young, no way he was going to die at only fifty! He still had many years in front of him, ain't no way he was giving them up. He still watched his surroundings with a worried look, before shaking his head.
No, no way he was in the dead zone. It was all a misunderstanding, he just had to get to the camp from where the smoke trail came from, and he'd be fine. He didn't even make his report today, his family and kids counted on him for that!
"Hmm, maybe it'll take me around an hour to get back to HQ... Should I try grabbing some of that smoked meat?" He asked aloud, making plans in preparation. After all, the operation started a week ago, and he had been unable to see them since its start. It'll feel good to finally see them. He rubbed his leather jacket, more particularly on his left shoulder, where a name was embroidered tenderly: Jackal. He shrugged and began walking toward the smoke. Everything will be okay as long as he arrives there.
"Damned be the sun..." He muttered, wiping off his forehead.
What a terrible day.
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Four individuals, with their own stories, origins, and motivations, were headed for the source of the smoke trail. By the time the night fell, it was gone, but since they all knew how to orient themselves with the stars, they had no issues following the same direction. Knowing basic astrology was the minimum to even move in this sand hell. No matter how your surroundings looked, the stars were always hanging in the same spot.
They braved monsters, sandstorms, heat and thirst, and the harshness of the sand, motivated by this small ember of hope that the smoke trail had lit in their hearts. As the day rose, they moved with slowed movements from the cold, sicknesses from the horrible night, and tiredness from their restless sleep. Not even a few minutes after Jado left with Zen to go find prey, these four individuals achieved their journey, finding out the source of the smoke trail. A small tower with a conical top was casting a shadow on a small octagonal building, sealed completely with no apparent entrances. A blackened zone on the ground indicated that there had indeed been a fire there, before, but had been extinguished recently.
They arrived at the same time as if fate itself had settled this meeting time, making it so that they all met in this place, the heart of the Forgotten Desert. The first to react was the man with tanned skin, wearing a leather jacket. He had a name embroidered on his left shoulder, Jackal.
"This...This is not the camp...No, no, no!" He exclaimed, tears welling up in his eyes, before falling to his knees and punching down the ground. Deep down, he knew that he was in the dead zone, he simply didn't want to admit it.
The woman wearing desert clothes and hiding her face with a coyote skull crouched slowly, her fingers tracing down deep steps in the sand, alongside some smaller ones. She then took shelter under the shadow of the tower, sitting on the ground without a word. None of the three other individuals bothered her, as they knew that they simply shouldn't. They were convinced that if they did annoy her, they would end up in a terrible position, probably a few feet under the sand.
The knight dropped his halberd, before unclipping his armor with weak hands, the steel protections falling on the ground one after the other. He sighed in relief as the weight disappeared, both physically and mentally. He dropped beside his trusty halberd, sitting under the harsh sun, rolling himself in his worn cape. A small smile appeared on his face, and he slowly waited for whatever had to come, not uttering a word.
The black man with a leather vest was rubbing his eyes with a confused look, throwing glances at the sky with puzzlement.
"No...There shouldn't be...How can it be?" He said under his breath, incredulity installing itself in his mind. He stepped around the place, his eyes fixed on the sky while running his hand on the ancient stone making up the Small shrine. He felt an irregularity in the stone, and when he turned his head, he saw an unmistakable mark, one that he could recognize with his eyes closed, only by touching it. One of the walls had dry blood on it, probably old of a few days. There had been a battle here, or worse. But from what he knew, there was no group using such constructions in this hell.
"How weird...how weird..." He kept on uttering, ignoring completely the other individuals, acting as if they weren't there.
The masked woman was resting in the shadows, the knight enjoying the burning hot sun without restraint, the black man with a slender body but a ruthless look muttering confusing words, and finally, the white but tanned man with a leather jacket bawling his eyes out on the ground.
That's the scene Jado and Zen chanced upon as they came back to the Small Shrine.