Master Of Myths

Chapter 54 - First Sentient Encounter

"Kishhh" "Kata!"

While avoiding to weirdly shaped snakes Ellis swayed her weapon left and right, swivelling it though the whipping s of their tails and plunging it into the snake's eye and straight through its brain, her other hand wasn't idle either as it held another harpoon which she used the shaft of to push against the ground avoiding the lethal sting of the annoying scorpion that ganged up with the snakes on her

While mid-air she threw the remaining harpoon in her hand toward the lunging snake, shoving it deep in its throat and sending it toward death's door, the corpse wasn't spared yet as she further mutilated it by sending it crashing toward the rocks when using it as a stepping stone so she could shoot herself at the now scurrying scorpion with her new harpoon taken right out of her storage

Pish

With the sound of flesh being punctured ended another tiresome battle, allowing her to heave the slightest of sighs

Without wasting any time on resting she started taking out the many harpoons out of the scattered dead bodies belonging to various desert beasts, some she couldn't even begin to describe and some looking like animals from earth

By the side of the battlefield YuJu was eating his simple meal while watching, he acted more like a sideline viewer than a participant in the past two-day journey, his scouting was becoming less and less as he allowed Ellis to try her hand at avoiding the many beasts in and failing miserably

"Another ten minutes before we reach the centre of the desert where the swarm passed, they were a tad bit late in doing so so it gives us some extra time, you can use it to rest"

"Another three hour sleep?"

She hoped, three hours of sleep a day for her was what kept her holding on the past two days, all the time aside from that was spent either speed walking through the dry land or fighting the gruesome easts

"No, I will be checking ahead while you rest so don't doze off"

He ordered and got up from his seated position, dusting off his clothes before vanishing from her sight

"No matter how I try I can't spot his figure even move before he disappears"

She grumbled at her slow improvements, one day she would see how he vanishes she vowed, for now though her stomach was calling out to her, demanding to be fed

...

Some distance from the area where Ellis was resting, beyond a range of heavy boulder, was a land filled with holes of many sizes, the rocky desert lost its uneven distribution as a clear road was made through the small hills and boulders, one filled with caverns underneath

Walking on this road was a group of five lizards, they weren't like normal lizards nor were they beast like lizards, instead they looked more humanoid as they walked on two feet, wore armour on their bodies or whatever its equivalent was to these lizards, and carried weapons that looked similar to what humans of ancient times used to use

"Leader, won't we be late for the party at the new world? I bet it has much more treasure than the remains of the beats killed by the passing swarms"

Spoke one of the lizards in a language unknown to the human world

"I'm sure there are many more treasures than we could imagine, but what does it have to do with us? You heard about the Gardelos guarding the borders there right? I bet you there would be nothing by the time we get there"

Bickered another lizard

"What do you know? I was asking the leader! For all we know that story could be a lie"

"He shouldn't be bothered with a greedy fool like you who doesn't know caution"

"Keep quiet you two, we are in the wilds now"

Hushed them the black scaled lizardman upfront, his figure swaying as he walked on the rigid ground, a scabbard at his waist while a huge arm dangled to his left side bulging with a dark imprisoned fluid

"Terou is right, we must take precaution and wait for the other tribes to go there first, if anyone came back injured only then will we deem the mission as a failure, if not we will continue forward"

The cautious lizardman lifted his head up in pride, but not for long

"But Toure is also correct, even if the Gardelos pass we should go in as there is no way they would stay in one place to flatten everything when there are civilizations waiting to be destroyed, it would only make sense for there to be leftovers"

The two lizardmen both felt dejected now, they didn't want to be both right! They wanted to smack the other in the face with their opinion instead

Their mood turned for the better soon as they spotted a half-eaten body of a battle rock scorpion, one as large as a small hill

While holding in their joy they hurriedly started to puncture it with spears and used hem as ledges to lift the body up, hurriedly running back with it to the camp under their leaders watch before another tribe spots the body

So the six figures, four carrying the dead beast, one watching the surroundings vigilantly, and one prancing with them joyfully headed toward the camp without anyone seeing them

A quick journey later the group arrived at their camp which was one of the holes dotting this worm made road, the hole was small enough for only their figures to jump into straight down, it wouldn't fit this huge beast they were carrying, but they weren't planning on putting it in their cave anyway

The leader hissed at the hole in a strange manner causing his fellow lizardman to come out and start dragging the beast away, cutting what pars they could into smaller parts and putting them in a nearby cave, this way if they needed to escape the wouldn't have it clogging their routs

After finishing up the work everyone ent back into the whole with the party, the sole remaining figure outside was the previous prancing figure now smiling as he looked on then he disappeared from the road

....

Half an hour later the exploration party of the five lizards once again came out, they would once again set out to look for strong beasts that were killed by the passing swarm to make use of the materials their bodies held

Before they got too far from their camp two figures suddenly popped up from the sides road, one had a blindfold on his eyes with his sharp fanged teeth showing as he smiled knowingly at them while the other wore a face mask covering her mouth, only those purple shining eyes could be seen

"Isn't that!"

"Vampires!!!"

The two blabbering lizardmen from before scurried behind their leader in fear, clearly the vampire race was infamous even in the vast Infidome

"We need to run!"

"Inform the tribesmen! Let everyone escape"

"Wait"

Before the others could start madly running for their lives the leader spoke stopping everyone dead in their tracks

He looked keenly at the two before him, from the way they dressed to the weapons they were holding, and most importantly the rancid smell that came out of that female, it was enough to tell him the info he needed to execute the right order

"These are thralls, hah they must be from the new lands, chase them down and hunt them!"

Very confidant in his judgment he ordered the fearful lizardmen who were still in doubt

"What are you waiting for? Do you not trust my words?"

"But leader even if they are merely thralls one of them seems to hold an aura, they can't be weak!"

"They are definitely weak, just look at the low-grade weapons that woman is holding, she might as well be holding a sharp rock, if not for her aura she wouldn't even slice through our skin!"

"Is that so?"

Just as he gave facts to prove his point a low whisper in their own language came from his back, he didn't need to look back to know that it was the missing man's figure so he swiftly used his tail to whip the air behind him but the air was indeed the only thing whipped

Turning around he saw the blindfolded vampire standing between them and the hole, a large grin plastered on his face as he very openly denied them escape to their clansman who had exited due to the commotion, now fearfully standing next to the hole undecided on whether to leave or not

The tension in the air grew further as the woman started to approach them while holding two harpoons covered with her aura, surely she was intent on fighting them, their choice though was torn between fighting back or running for their lives

"You fools go! Even if they are not weak our path is already blocked, let's fight for our lives!"

His words brought savageness to the other four lizardmen's eyes, indeed they could tell it was their end the second that blindfolded vampire closed off their path of retreat, it was now a matter of dying uselessly or with some dignity

Obviously, there was only one real choice as three of the four figures ran to meet the woman, and one lifted his bow and aimed at her, waiting for the right moment to shoot

Seeing them close in she kicked the ground to gain some momentum, noting the attacks of everyone around her

One jumped at her with a spear, another came at her from the front with his base claws and the last came from the side that sword in hand, as for the archer she was not worried in the least it seamed

The first thing she did was meet the spear with her harpoon, hooking its tip with her weapons back edge, pulling at it to lift her body upward and turn around in the air as the sword slice aligned with her curving back, her other hand was not free as she used her twisting momentum to puncture it into the swordsman's hand

With both harpoons anchored she pushed against their end lifting herself upward and bring the two to the ground, this allowed her to do a flip in the air over the bare clawed lizard, avoiding it entirely while making it crash with its two companions

Right at she was landing an arrow came whooshing from the back aimed straight at her head, sadly it never saw its target as a small pebble interrupted its flight's path

'We are definitely dead'

That's all the leader could think about, not because of the female's smart manoeuvres, no, but because of the menace smiling behind him, eying him like a disposable tool