PARALLEL STORY NEW BEGINNING CHAPTER 19: THE HIGHEST
This expedition decided to travel during the night.
They all remembered what had happened the day before with the overflowing heat and that was why they moved at night.
Not wishing that when the sun came up, they would encounter another heat wave and such action proved to be the right one.
Edward could not deny that this was the best decision the higher ups had made.
It was true, traveling at night made them encounter several beasts coming out of the magical forest and some creatures coming from the desert, but compared to the previous day, it was passable.
Even when some A-ranked creatures arrived, it was more acceptable and the major reason was because of the worms.
Those worms liked to move during the day and hid because during the night the temperature decreased.
Facing creatures that showed themselves directly was better than trying to defeat some worms underground.
The heat was physically and mentally exhausting and as if that wasn’t enough, it made anyone sweat and since Edward wore a somewhat thick mage robe, it was even more annoying to sweat.
He would a thousand times rather sweat in combat than inside a hot moving truck.
At night, his lightning crackled through the air, enjoying and illuminating the night as he burned his enemies and for him, this was the best.
So what if he encountered an A-ranked Scorpio?
He was strong and proved it in full as he traveled as a night patrolman.
However, the surprise that there would be in another group, seeing someone as young as he was, demonstrating such strength, did not happen.
Edward knew the reason, but he didn’t like the idea.
That ‘girl’ and her friend, along with Abdellah, were patrolling the area ahead of the caravan, diminishing the enemies they faced from the army.
Every time he thought of that duo who were a year younger than him, Edward felt more irritated.
Why did they let them go on their own when she wanted to and he was restricted in a group?
It wasn’t just because they were the ‘bosses’ there was also another reason of greater importance.
Still, Edward denied it... He did not accept such a possibility and so he focused on the confrontation.
Arnold was the one who showed the greatest ferocity when the magical beasts arrived from the magical forest.
His beastly presence was enough to drive the beasts and creatures dominated by his instinct, to feel fear and turn away.
While his intimidating presence did not work with the creatures of the desert and was only useful with those coming from the magical forest, it was a great help.
The night proved to be better than the day, but more dangerous, as the enemies kept coming, making it clear that these lands had never been cleansed.
His euphoria from fighting and trying to get his emotions out from the previous day’s situation, turned to exhaustion as the number of creatures did not begin to diminish.
The caravan was continuing its journey, not as fast because the trucks had to pave a road, but it was still moving along.
That meant that patrol groups that encountered a group of enemies had to move by flying to intercept it and then fly back to resume guard duty.
The goal was to protect the caravan as it moved, but even that way it was difficult.
It wasn’t because Abdellah and those two girls did nothing, sometimes desert creatures arrived badly wounded and some of those creatures, per se, always traveled in groups.
That only one arrived showed the effectiveness of what the trio was doing.
What it came down to was that the number of creatures became more than they could handle.
They weren’t the only ones who hated the heat, and that was clear, with so many creatures coming out of hiding during the night.
Some came out to hunt and feed, but were attracted by the noise of the engines and even the battle going on.
The see in the dark concoction helped Edward to see clearly, but the fatigue of the battle was getting heavier and heavier, making the situation more difficult.
It was only when Arnold came out to do the changing of the guard that the pressure eased.
He had transformed into a six-foot-tall half-human beast.
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His head was that of a bull with large horns whose tips looked affiliated, his torso and arms were muscular and humanoid even though they were slightly hairy with a reddish hue and from his waist down they changed back to bull’s feet with hooves.
He was the ‘Red Bull’ that gave his guild its name... An extreme resemblance to the renowned ‘minotaurs’ of the legends of the land that existed on Terra nova.
Such a ferocious bull equipped himself with armor and took up a giant axe, getting the adventurers to cheer him on as he charged, splitting his enemies.
Strength, toughness, agility and bestiality.
The appearance of an S-rank lessened the pressure on all the patrollers and allowed them all to rest.
Edward was one of those favored.
He had a huge source of magical energy that made him capable of casting all kinds of spells and including some spells with S-rank strength, however; he was exhausted.
A part of him, however, celebrated the rest.
He was drowsy and his head ached from so much expenditure of magical energy and his body was extremely exhausted from the journey.
It was normal to enjoy a break, but another part of him demanded that he push himself and move forward.
The biggest reason was that Abdellah’s group, and those two had not returned, even after the changing of the guard.
It was clear that nothing had happened to them because they were communicating with the leaders, but the problem was that they were still fighting out there.
That bothered him, but mostly it pushed him to demand more.
If they were fighting, shouldn’t he be the same?
The two sisters were a year younger than him and Edward didn’t see them complain or fall down exhausted, they just kept working.
No one said anything to him, it was impossible that in such a situation where everyone was very tired anyone could judge him.
Still, it was enough for him to think about it.
That was why when it was time to go back out, he did.
His most stubborn part, the one that denied the reality of seeing two young girls’ fight by themselves in this dangerous place, pushed him to push himself harder and harder.
He could stay behind to rest, but his pride would not allow it and it was for that reason that he went out to fight without hesitation.
As dawn began to break the temperature rose excessively and while the nocturnal creatures stopped appearing, some worms arrived.
Even then, the two of them and Abdellah did not return.
It was only when they finally left the desert that group of three arrived and Abdellah, who was slightly pale in his typical cold countenance, made it evident how heavy the work was.
The relief at leaving the deserted area and returning to a greener, but less hot plain made everyone celebrate.
It had certainly been an extremely horrible trip, and everyone agreed on that.
The caravan set off again, and the drivers tried to go the best possible way, creating a new road, which made them a little late.
That happiness did not diminish until some civilization began to appear, or at least what was left of it.
Abandoned cities and destroyed ruins, roads long since destroyed.
There were some precarious houses in the middle of those ruins, but even those places were abandoned... No, when Edward went to explore those ruins, he found too many bones.
The exploration group was led by Aurora and, unlike the other people or him, who put on looks of disgust at that cruel reality, she let a cold expression show.
That didn’t just happen once, when they found the old road and used it. Such scenarios started to appear more frequently.
The closer they got to their destination, the more destruction they could see until, at one point, it was no longer a thing of the distant past.
They came upon a village that had recently been attacked by monsters.
The corpses and bodies still battered and rotting in that place made Edward want to vomit, but he did not.
It didn’t matter if he saw women and children among the corpses. His expression changed in different ways, but he tried to keep a cool appearance, just like Aurora did.
Aurora simply observed the whole place and then ordered everything to be burned following Cardinal Brousseau’s advice, sparing the corpses of the deceased from further harm.
Such things were happening right now... That was what Edward understood when he saw that destruction.
The morale of the caravan and the joy turned to tragedy, but unlike him and the adventurers who seemed to come from somewhere else, the militiamen and then seemed used to it.
Edward disliked that word, but being ‘used to’ pain and death was the best way to call it and they were... No, he remembered that night he heard the crying and was silent again.
As they got closer to their destination, they noticed some life, but no joy.
Towns fallen into ruin, worn out and just surviving... That was the only way it could be called.
Here one did not live, one survived.
Edward observed such scenarios in a frenzy of emotions.
He wasn’t going to be so stupid as to think these things didn’t happen. Poverty, cruelty and suffering happened everywhere and the only difference was the location.
To a greater or lesser extent, it was always the same.
What changed, however, was whether or not he had seen it... Whether he knew about it and ignored it, or was simply unaware of it.
Which of those people was worse?
Was it the first one who knew and ignored it, or was it the second one who believed that such things did not happen?
Adding to such cruel circumstances were militiamen and the warlords who controlled the area.
Those militiamen showed up. First there were some scout jeeps and then some armed jeeps started to arrive.
Edward watched the militiamen start giving vicious smiles in the distance with their submachine guns, pointing them as if they wanted to cause fear.
Those submachine guns were old weapons and were not modernized and although their caliber was larger, in reality, they could only cause some superficial wounds to weak individuals.
An A-rank like him could withstand the gunfire and could even take it in large quantities if he used a protection spell.
He might not have the strong body, but they were ability users, unlike those militiamen who were only human.
However, for normal people who lived in this place and tried to survive, such individuals were the most dangerous thing they could encounter.
When more than three fully armed jeeps arrived, traveling alongside them to follow them, Abdellah distorted space high in the sky and from that distortion he appeared.
Releasing his presence without holding back, he caused the surroundings to distort, but it was those who felt such a presence who suffered.
Edward felt that he lost his balance and his vision distorted a little, all that caused by the presence that managed to shake his sense of ‘space’.
That alone was an effect of such a powerful individual, but the worst thing was that it gave the feeling that they could be crushed by ‘space’ itself.
The militiamen, who were preparing to do something, stopped their jeeps and some even crashed because their senses were affected.
If Edward felt those things, it was impossible to imagine what an ordinary human could feel.
They had no natural barriers, strength, physical or mental endurance, they were just normal in every way.
Unlike him, who could resist due to his overall strength and mental fortitude common to every mage, those militiamen fell faint immediately.
The journey continued. Even so, such an event made it clear that what was to await was far from pleasant.
From this moment on they could be considered to be in dangerous lands, a greater danger than before.
After all, among the creatures, monsters and magical beasts, the danger of the human being was the highest.