We spent some time in a remote village on the edge of the desert. Having earned some money drying wood, Tassad decided to approach the opportunities that had opened up wisely and began to plan his next moves. He simply couldn't let such an opportunity slip through his fingers. I continued to hang out with Baeel and Hamri, often spending time not only training but also just chatting.
"Dagoth, did you see that girl in the shop? I bet I can ask her out on a date.
"Hamri, I'm not going to wipe your tears again.
These two hung around me and constantly teased each other. They also loved to brag, for example, about their sword skills. Since I had never practised this art in my life, I simply didn't know a thing about it. They happily shared their secrets, as if they had no one else to talk to, and they couldn't go a sentence without showing off a little.
"You're sharpening the blade wrong," they said at one point, seeing the dagger I had made out of sand. They sat down around me and showed me a real iron blade. "Swords are usually sharpened at an angle of forty to forty-five degrees. This allows them to be sharp and not dull too quickly. The tip is sharpened at twenty degrees. But you're making weapons out of a material that can maintain a constant sharpness.
"You can easily sharpen it at twenty degrees and not worry about wear," they showed me the approximate angle the blade should be at. With a serious expression, I pointed the dagger at my hand and carefully sharpened it. A little more and the sandstone would have crumbled. Running it across the fabric, I was able to cut it with ease.
"Thanks...
"Ha-ha, bro, now you're dangerous. I'm scared to fight you now," Bael grinned.
"I'll come by to borrow your kitchen knives, if you don't mind? - Hamri asked as seriously as he could.
Still, we didn't stay in that hole for long. My father gathered his thoughts and called us to the boat, and we returned home. Judging by his smile, one could assume that he had come up with some useful ideas for a profitable business. The repaired catamaran jerked forward and the mood was good. But squinting against the sand blowing in our direction, I looked doubtfully at the horizon.
"Hey... isn't that a sandstorm coming our way? It looked like a huge wall of sandstone had formed in the middle of the desert and was slowly approaching us. My heart began to race.
"That's it. Let's go through it," he said, forcing my eyes open. "It's safe for Sand Mages. We can easily deflect the particles, and we'll even speed up thanks to the gusts of wind.
If his words were to be believed, the storm was something of an amplifying factor. Tassad was even pleased. Probably because of the opportunity to get home faster and carry out all his plans. As for me... all my survival experience told me not to go there, but Anubis was silent, which meant that the danger wasn't even worth considering. Gritting my teeth, I stared straight ahead.
But perhaps it was pointless.
"Yah-ah!" A loud cry rang out behind us. It was difficult to notice because we had to concentrate, but three boats were right on our tail. In an attempt to catch up with us, our mysterious pursuers used three sand mages to create whirlwinds, and soon these strangers were on all sides. Sand bandits.
SHUCH*
Apparently planning to stop us, they formed a large sand pillar in front of our boat, easily capable of crushing any momentum. Due to my sheer lack of experience, I closed my frightened eyes, barely noticing a tiny passage appear in the giant geyser, through which we flew.
"Hold on tight," Tassad said in a very serious tone, which I could barely hear over my pounding heart.
SAX*
Jumping out of the tunnel, he threw sharp spears at the boats chasing us, piercing the skis and piercing one of the pirates through and through. The brutal sight made me fear for my life. Just one attack, so easily taking a life — what was stopping the pirates from doing the same?
And they did, but something else happened. Because of the sand rising everywhere, I didn't notice how the grains had tightly surrounded my hand. It was as if I was being wrapped in a whip, and with a sharp tug, I was pulled from my place.
"A-a-a-a!" I couldn't hold back a cry of panic. The boat disappeared from under my feet, and my father was moving away. And I was pulled towards these bandits. My neck was in the hands of one of the mages, and a sharp dagger was held to my face, making me turn pale and see my life flash before my eyes.
"Shut up, you brat. Stop your boat, or we'll kill this brat!" they shouted at Tassad. I should have shit my pants, but... experience in near-death situations quickly made me shut my mouth and, adrenaline-fuelled, realise that if we stopped, they would quickly surround us and beat us to death. I don't know what the pirates wanted, but we were relatively on equal terms while we were travelling at such speeds.While my father didn't stop, risking all of our lives, I looked closely at the hand that was squeezing me, blocking my airway. Cold fingers slowly grabbed it, and imagining this pumped-up limb as a log, I sharply and without any care sucked all the moisture out of it.
"Sss-uu-aa-aa-aa! - The mage's body began to shake violently and convulse in pain. The pain caused him to lose control of his magic, and his body underwent the same process as the tree. His muscles began to bend towards his core, squeezing his bones from all sides. As a result, they became brittle and quickly crumbled.
"Damn it," I said. Looking up, I saw the mages staring at me. Problem. Taking a firm stance, I closed my eyes, all so as not to be blown away by the sandstorm that had caught up with me. In the blink of an eye, I felt a tremendous amount of power around me and strong gusts of wind, which the mages were using to speed up the boats. We accelerated as if we were on nitro, bouncing high into the air with every bump.
Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump*
At that moment, a relentless hail of sand arrows rained down on the pirates standing in front of me. It was as if Tassad had been given an unlimited supply of easily accessible projectiles. Several surprised mages were pierced through, while others quickly adapted to the situation. The sand swirling in the air surrounded their bodies, turning into a kind of armour.
"This is fucked. We have to get out of here," seeing that this had turned into some kind of battle of the gods, I gathered the sand particles floating in the air into a whip-like object to pull myself back to my boat. But when I noticed a blade rushing towards me, I sharply pointed the whip and deflected the projectile. Everything was so chaotic that projectiles were flying literally from everywhere, and it was even difficult for me to understand who was attacking. What's more, my boat was nowhere to be seen in such a storm.
"Choose."
At that moment, Anubis finally deigned to speak.
"1 - Jump off the boat (If you die, at least it will be from broken legs)
2 - Hide in the cabin (say a prayer before you die)"
And apparently he was having fun. But I didn't find it funny at all. Looking around quickly and realising that I wasn't crazy enough to jump off the boat at such a speed, I struggled to get to the cabin and wrapped myself in a sand shield. My heart was pounding, and I wondered why Anubis had suggested hiding only now. And at that very moment...
Bang*
The boat was shaken by a powerful blow, knocking a pile of planks onto my sand shield. Silence fell... only the roar of the storm could be heard. I remained in my cocoon, my eyes darting from side to side, dozens of possibilities running through my head, but I was so afraid for my life that I was afraid to come out. Even the rising heat and the gradual loss of oxygen did not force me to come out and take a look. Only when the sound of the storm began to subside did my heart gradually calm down.
I could feel several metres of sand above my head. If I had been a normal person, I would hardly have been able to get out and would have simply suffocated, but clenching my hand into a fist, I struck the roof lightly. The blow, honed many times, caused an explosion of sand, and I was able to easily clear the pile and get out.
All this to realise that there was no one around. Only the howling wind and a pair of legs sticking out of the sand. Looking around excitedly, hoping to see Tassad patrolling the area, I realised with sadness that he was nowhere to be seen. I was alone. And there was a strange mountain on the horizon. That was all.
All I had left was the hourglass. The boat was destroyed, beyond repair.
"Why didn't you warn me this would happen? I stared into the air," "You kept quiet about the dangers for so long, so what?!"
"Choose:
1 - Sit and cry (You won't achieve anything)
2 - Go towards Mount Shi Wong"
My pupils slowly contracted. Looking closely at the elevation on the horizon, I finally began to understand where I had been carried. I was not far from the magnetic centre of the desert that Tassad had mentioned...
"It's dangerous there. But if all the compasses point to it... sooner or later someone has to come, right?" I swallowed hard and got to my feet. My father would surely understand where I was; I couldn't just stay in the middle of a dead desert.
The sand beneath my feet was unpleasant and made the going difficult. It was a very long walk, and considering the dunes in my path, I would probably have gone mad. So, moving my hand slightly, I allowed the sand beneath my feet to ease my movement. I began to slide as if on skates. The journey became much easier, and I reached the rock in less than an hour.
"Solid rock," I said, touching the almost sheer cliff with my hand and feeling a thrill. It wasn't sandstone, but real rock, and even so, it felt like an extension of my hands. I could control it and use it to my advantage. But it was very difficult to work with. "Well, I never learned how to manipulate solid rock.
All I could do was dig a place for my finger to climb up. On the plateau, I saw numerous burrows. Everywhere I looked, there were deep holes, and there was a strange buzzing sound under my feet.
"Why was this place so dangerous? What happened here in the cartoon... oh, wait," I began to slowly remember. At the same time, the buzzing noise grew louder, and frightening sounds began to come from the holes. As soon as I swallowed, several huge bees suddenly flew out. They were real monsters, the size of a human, and began to fly rapidly around the area.
Five of them stared at me with giant compound eyes and opened their mouths, which resembled the beaks of some kind of scavenger. Buzzing their wings, they lunged at me, exposing their huge stingers on their abdomens.
I liked the idea of being eaten by huge, incomprehensible creatures even less than being beaten up by bandits. So I quickly gathered up the sand that had been thrown onto the mountain by the tornado and created a pair of blades, and with all my strength, spilling my emotions, I cut them all down with one blow. Their entrails and green blood spilled out a couple of centimetres in front of me.
My stomach barely held back from turning inside out. It was simply horrific.
"…Are you saying I have to wait for rescue on this mountain? And for how long?
"The trial of Anubis begins. By leaving your home and refusing to drink the fermented juice, you have stepped onto the path of a warrior. Choose:
1 - Sharpen your sand tentacles ten thousand times (This will help you develop your sand speed)
2 - Knock down 100 enemies from 60 metres while in the air (you will learn to shoot sand faster)"
"...It feels like an eternity.
***
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