Chapter 34

Enjoyment

"Ha...ha..ha…!" My breathing ragged, and my muscles started to feel numb. My vision is swaying with every time my foot hits the ground. I don't know how long I've been running.

I think it was more than a day? 2 days? 3 days? I don't know. All I know is I need to get home fast. I need to be there. I need to find everyone.

I haven't stopped running for a long time now. I've been using healing magic to push my body to the limit. I just need to reach some village ahead of me and take a night break.

The map they gave me shows that it should be around 10 days of walking to reach that.

It should take me just 5 if I keep running. Everything around me is nothing but sand. There were a few treants, Sand Lizards, and some stray Phalanx Ants but most of them stayed away from here.

It's weird. Weirdly, there is not a lot of life here. When I got off the mountain I saw a lot of monsters and animals but this…

It feels just like the north side-

Rumble…!

Ah...I...was falling down?

A large hole filled to the brim with a sharp spike was waiting for me. It was going to swallow me whole.

Focusing everything on my mind I create Ice Lance between its mouth, effectively blocking it from closing its mouth. I feel myself quickly drop down toward the Ice lance. Jumping from it to the nearby ground a sudden rumbling startled me again.

It was another hole. No this was not a hole. This is the sandworm den I learned about!

Doing the same thing with the first one I quickly position myself before creating another Ice lance for me to stand on.

"...Shit. I was trapped, huh?" Looking around the area I see the sand slowly moving through the ground. The two Ice lances I created to block the mouths of two sandworms are already broken.

The sandworms were moving. They slowly circle around me. I can see the shift in the sand.

The moment I land down there I will be attacked. The ice lance I create won't stay for long.

"Fu…." Letting out a sharp breath I take out Black Heart. Holding them in one hand, the Long sword is even taller than me.

Slowly infusing Touki into the sword I could feel poison start to come out of the tip.

Let's see...The area around me in the radius of 2 kilometers is filled with sandworms. To push through I need 4 things.

1) speed. 2) reflexes 3) Precision and 4) raw power.

My speed can be boosted by Touki. Reflexes are something I have trained since I was a child. Precision is nothing to worry about and raw power is something I was born with.

Ah, I can do this. The poison would work immediately the moment it was injected.

It was even stronger than Twin Death Scorpion. At Least 10 times worse.

First...I need to make a clear path. Getting jumped by these worms makes me lose track of my direction. And all the sand that leaves my footprint is already getting buried by other sand.

The wind around here is strong. Using the sun is not gonna help much. There is no Landmark for me to spot…

Shit! I was too panicked the moment I knew that light reached Buena. I was leaving in a rush and not studying the terrain.

This is my fault.

That's why I'm going to fix this and go back home alive. Where our memories are. I will find them, I will take them back home with me.

Slowly closing my eyes I can feel my magic slowly cover my body denser with each second and finally form into a dense Touki Mana.

"Ha...fu…." With a deep breath, I jump into the sandworm's den.

The moment my foot lands and my weight settles on the ground I can already feel the shake.

When it comes, I quickly move out of the way before the mouth can open and try to swallow me whole. Another rumbling comes as A giant worm digs out from the sand. Its body length is around 10 meters, I can see it facing toward me as the large body drops down toward me trying to crush me.

I quickly slash it open with one swing. It wasn't tough. It was just a lot and the sheer size made people wary of them…

The body dropped down and a shower spray of purple blood came after. But I just ran to where I think is south. The worm keeps coming.

One of them almost managed to kill me by using the body of his fallen comrade to mask where it was.

Without time to think I operate on instinct. Letting it take over me. I use my hearing and eyes to their absolute limit by focusing my Touki on them.

I could see the movement, I could hear the trembling of the ground. I can feel the sand taste in my mouth. I keep going. Ruthlessly cut up everything that got in my way. Poison the one I couldn't kill below the ground and using magic to block them from swallowing me.

Amidst all this mess, I was smiling. I don't know why but I can feel my smile cutting to my ear. It was like...I was enjoying slaughtering these monsters.

Everything that attacks me or tries to eat me gets cut up in pieces, gets poisoned, and dies a slow death, or has an ice chunk pierced into them and dies.

I was...enjoying it. For some odd reason, I didn't feel anything else other than enjoyment.

Each second something attacks me. I cut it up. Each second I fell down I poisoned my enemy and each second they slid toward me I put some ice in their body. The raining blood makes me feel great!

It feels Euphoric. Like I was on top of the world. No one can stop me.

Slash, Poison, Magic, Slash, Poison, Magic. Do this all over and over. It didn't even take me 10 minutes. All the sandworms were dead. It was...not enough.

I need more...I want more...we need more-

Plap!

Cold…? What happened? My face feels cold. Did I...Slap me? Why? What happened?

Looking at my hand I see that it was covered in a thin layer of ice. Like when I was training my Touki...but I never used it like this…

Why? Why did I think that was not enough? I don't want to fight these monsters anymore...I just want to find everyone and go home…

But why? Why am I enjoying killing these worms? My hand moves on its own? Or is someone controlling it?

I don't understand. I don't get it! What is happening to me? To my body? To my mind?

I need an answer-

Roar! Fwish!

Something large just flew past me and grabbed one of the dead worms. It has the body of a Lion and the face of an Eagle…

A Griffon! No, it was not alone! At least 3 of them! One of them just grabbed the Worms and flew away and the other two followed.

Shit...they fucking strong. Even though I cut them up they still should weigh around 60 to 70 kilos. And it grabs it with ease.

Judging from the fact that the one who grabbed it is bigger than the other two I suppose it was the alpha of the pack.

...There was nothing but sand here. It was starting to become dark...I was exhausted… I push my body far above my limit. It is going to break down. I didn't even eat anything in the past few days I've been running.

"Hm...huhuhu...hehehe ahahaha! Shit! I was totally crazy! Who would do something like that! Ahaha! Running across a desert I really start to become some kind of muscle brain!"

Laughing by myself in the field of worms' corpses, I finally collapse down and fall into deep sleep.

/Lemes 3rd Pov\\\

He stared at the field of worm's corpses in disbelief. Sure the worm is weak but the sheer amount of it makes up for it.

He was worried about the girl who seemed to have lost all her reasoning and quietly followed after her. And to be honest? A fucking mistake. That girl is running straight for 3 days without a break. She didn't drink water or eat any food. And she was fast too.

He was tired. But he kept on. The girl seems to hear something from the survivor and has lost all of her reason. He couldn't leave the child alone.

He has a soft spot for children. Maybe it comes with age.

When he finally catches up, what awaits him is the field of corpses and the lone girl sleeping peacefully, her face covered in blood but she smiles to herself while sleeping like an innocent child.

He softly picked her up. Cleaning her face with water and clothes. She was running to who knows where and she didn't even follow the map.

He sighs as he picks up the sleeping girl.

"R...udy...zenith…"

The girl mutters out name in her sleep.

"Don't worry. Sleep for now, I will help you find your family."