Emil

  Dawn came with a blood-curdling scream.

  Emil shot up and bolted out of his abode. In the midst of his sleepy stupor, he failed to recognize who was in trouble. Most of the desert was still dark as the sun had barely revealed itself over the horizon. With his groggy eyes still filled with grime and sand, he triggered Seismic Sense to help him locate the source of the scream. After a minute of desperate searching, he found Anna sitting in the sand a few meters outside of the outskirts of the village.

  “What happened?!”

  Anna’s head snapped towards his direction, her eyes wide and frantic. Her shoulders trembled, visibly shaken up. Emil quickly glanced over her body and found no obvious injuries.

  “Sorry, I—” she mumbled before covering her mouth with her hand. Emil winced at the sound of her gagging. Confused, he raised his head. A trail of footprints in the sand suggested that she had ran off in a panic. He followed the makeshift path until he uncovered the reason for her distress.

  “Oh,” he muttered in surprise.

  There was a corpse poking from the surface of the sand. The flesh was partially decomposed until the dryness of the Saar had put a pause on its degradation. Bones of the skeleton protruded out of the body. The way the flesh had been torn apart implied that the victim was attacked by something huge. The face of the corpse was particularly a grotesque sight, composed of sagging flesh that appeared to have melted into the hollow crevices of the exposed skull. A faint rancid smell lingered in the air.

  Yeah. That’ll do it.

  Voices echoed behind him. The rest of the group had also caught up to Anna. Van ran up to him with questioning look.

  “What’s going on?”

  Emil chinned at the human carcass. “I think she might have discovered why this town is empty.”

  ***

  It didn’t take long for everyone to get packed and readied to move out. The plan was to always depart at daybreak and Anna’s terrible morning discovery only sped up everyone’s desire to get out of town. Any complaints about the early start immediately disappeared once everyone saw the ghastly corpse.

  “You got any idea what happened to that person?” Van asked Taksh as they strapped their supplies back onto the camels.

  “Oh, it’s bad news for sure. I’ve never seen a corpse tore like that. Whatever was responsible for their death likely drove anyone else out of town. Or killed them. Who knows if there’s more bodies hidden behind the sand?” the old man said, shaking his head, “I’d like to give that person a proper burial, but that’s not exactly wise when we don’t know what’s out there murdering people.”

  “Frankly, I have no interest in touching that corpse,” Van admitted, “And neither do my associates.”

  Taksh managed a chuckle. “You youngsters are powerful, but surprisingly squeamish, eh? Well, I get it. It’s a nasty thing for sure. Let’s go before whatever killed them decides to come back.”

  Their journey north resumed. The mood was heavy and tense after what Anna uncovered. Emil kept his eyes peeled as the blazing sun ascended the skies. The Saar was quiet, but the knowledge that there was something out there capable of tearing people apart pulled on his nerves. Every few minutes he triggered Seismic Sense to scout ahead for anything unnoticed by their eyes.

  Taksh seemed reticent to offer speculation on what that something was. The old man was noticeably less chatty than yesterday, often drifting off or giving vague answers when Emil tried to ask questions. He led with a severe look on his face, suggesting that he was also rattled by what they discovered in the morning.

  Anna, on the other hand, had recovered somewhat, minus the fact that she was jumpier than usual towards any sudden movements in the sand caused by the wind.

  Emil debated moving her away from the vanguard until she settled down. Her jitteriness was making him nervous. At this rate, she might just fire her Gift if she thought she saw something in the distance. With an Ordinary in their ranks, the last thing he wanted for her to accidentally electrocute someone.

  Around mid-day they ascended the peak of the large sand dune shadowing the abandoned settlement. The incline combined with the drifting sand made the climb excruciatingly tedious. Kai, Anna, and Liesel all dropped to the ground the moment they arrived at the top. Emil could hear their laborious breaths even through their clothed masks and the shrill winds.

  It’s really starting to pick up.

  The gust had grown significantly more violent. Visibility was becoming poor as sand picked up by wind crowded the air. In just the span of an hour, the appearance of the desert had changed. The sun’s harsh rays were getting blotted out by all the particulate. Emil turned to Taksh. The old man had a grave look—his eyes darted around as though trying to read the erratic nature of the Saar.

  “Taksh, speak to me! What’s going on?” Van asked. Even he had dropped the flippant attitude, recognizing the seriousness of the situation.

  “You folks might have some bad luck, eh? A sandstorm is brewing. Fast.” Taksh turned his head on swivel until his eyes finally landed on something beyond the sandy veil. “We need shelter. This isn’t something we can brave out in the open, even if you folks have been blessed by the Goddess. There should be a set of caverns two kilometers to the northeast. We head there. Now.”

  “Everyone heard that? Cavern two kilometers northeast. Get—”

  The sand beneath them suddenly shifted. A thunderous noise rumbled deep underground. Tremors. Taksh was nearly shaken to his feet, only propped up with Van’s assistance. The old man’s eyes instantly went wide. Emil had a bad premonition. He activated Seismic Sense as the tremors raged around them. The ripples of mana scanned the surface of the earth until it suddenly struck something.

  What?!

  Something massive was barreling towards them.

  Emil readied Bulwark just as the sand beside him suddenly exploded. The source of the tremors surged out of the ground with a deafening bellow. The cry sounded like the garbled reverberations of a man’s groans—haunting, alien, yet somehow familiar. A deep revulsion descended in his guts as he stared dumbfounded at this incomprehensible creature.

  It must have stretched to at least fifty feet long and twelve feet wide. The enormous beast was looked like a twisted amalgamation of a worm with a serpent’s head. Dense, hair-like strands were littered across the length of its long, coiling body. Chunks of sand flaked off as it moved, like a butterfly emerging out of its cocoon. Its eyeless head jerked around. Most of its face was composed of its wide, circular mouth dotted with serrated fangs. The suckers appeared to pucker in and out like the opening of a grotesque flower.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  It was searching for them.

  “It’s a sandworm!” Taksh cried over the chaos, “Stay still! It senses vibration through the hairs on its body. It can’t find us if we don’t move!”

  “What about the sandstorm?!” Van yelled. As if responding to his question, the winds immediately picked up. The howling gales raged in the background, screeching like haunted banshees. A cloud of sand was flung into their group’s position. Emil grimaced. The particles pelted the exposed parts of his face, impinging his skin like needles. Breathing was becoming a struggle. His eyes burned from the sand’s incursion. Meanwhile, the sandworm continued to loom close.

  “We can’t stay here!” he screamed. Kai, Anna, and Liesel couldn’t have been more than a few feet away from him, but he was already starting to lose sight of their positions.

  Make a damn decision, Van! Despite his warning, his senior remained silent.

  “Get to the caverns! I’ll draw the sandworm away!” he finally proposed. The suggestion seemed to have snapped Van out of his indecision.

  “Kai, Liesel, take Taksh and start moving! I’ll be behind you guys! Anna, help me with the camels!” Van commanded.

  His name wasn’t called, but Emil immediately snapped into action. If the sandworm responded based on vibrations, then he needed to grab its attention before it caught onto everyone else’s movement. He encased his foot in stone as he stomped the ground with power. The top of sand dune shook. The sandworm’s eyeless face snapped onto his position. It screeched with the glee of a starved beast. Its suckers flickered rapidly as though anticipating a delectable feast—the nauseating sight twisted every knot in Emil’s stomach.

  “Impede!”

  Stone protrusions shot out of the earth and slammed into the sandworm’s body before it could lunge. The beast staggered backwards, bellowing in shock. Emil squeezed his fists. Chunks of stone broken from the initial collision were reforged into projectiles. Powered by Bulwark, the stone missiles rained down on the creature’s body.

  “Emil! We’re on the move!” Van’s voice echoed over the chaos.

  He spun around. The group was already several meters away. Taksh, Liesel, and Kai were the backs of camels at the front while Van and Anna followed closely behind. Both of their Gifts provided physical enhancements that allowed them to keep up with the speed of the camels.

  I should be in the clear.

  He invoked Blaze and enveloped the inside of his body with its flaming aura. Heat warmed his body, simulating blood flow and imbuing his muscles with renewed strength. Before he ran, he sent another barrage at the sandworm to keep it at bay. Judging by the beast’s cries, he was hurting it, but he couldn’t perceive any damages dealt to its body.

  This is abnormal. I don’t know any species of animals that’s this durable.

  He shelved the thought aside. The group was getting further and further away. He was going to lose track of them if he dawdled as visibility continued to drop. Small ignitions popped near his legs as he took off, using the force of the micro-explosions to propel him forward.

  The sandstorm only intensified. The faster he ran, the stronger the sand blasted onto his eyes and face. The shrieking winds rose in a deafening crescendo. He nearly caught up to the group when Seismic Sense picked up multiple presences nearby.

  “Incoming!”

  He couldn’t tell if his voice could be heard over the violent gales. But the group seemed unprepared when two more sandworms erupted out of the ground on their flanks. A mountain of sand rained down onto the group. The camels were stricken with fear at the sudden appearance of the monstrous creatures. Kai and Liesel struggled to keep their mounts calm as they tried to flee in panic.

  It was Van and Anna who responded first. Shadows surged towards the sandworm on the right flank. The ebon tendrils slithered around their neck, threatening to constrict and choke the air out of the massive creature. The sandworm thrashed in desperation. Van poured more mana. The shadows constricting the sandworm’s neck suddenly expanded. The ebon mass formed spikes that dug into the creature’s skin, pinning the shadows in place despite the creature’s attempts to break free. Although it didn’t possess eyes, the dense hairs on its skin were probably used as sensors for detecting vibrations. To the sandworm, Van’s shadows must have felt like it was going blind.

  Anna was faring worse. She fired several bursts of electricity in quick succession only for all of the attacks to be repelled. The sandworm’s skin must have been tough and nonconductive. She resorted to Ionize instead as the creature got close. The highly charged coin blasted into the worm’s side. Emil saw dark viscous blood leak from a hole in its body. The sandworm bellowed in pain, but the injury seemed to only intensify its desire to charge at the group.

  “Bulldoze!” Emil yelled.

  An enormous fist-shaped stone slammed into the worm. The creature’s head jerked to the side, its body lying limp on the ground, seemingly concussed by the unexpected blow.

  But it was too early to celebrate.

  “Get to Kai and Liesel!” he screamed as he rushed past Anna. Seismic Sense was picking more and more presences lurking on the edges of his range. They were all converging on their position, seemingly drawn by the group’s movements.

  Where the fuck are they all coming from?!

  He was suddenly reminded of the corpse that Anna discovered early in the morning. The ghost town. The missing residents. The disturbing injuries on the human carcass that looked like it came from something gigantic.

  Goddammit.

  His body suddenly jerked to the side. A heavy gale barreled into him, nearly knocking him to the ground. Bulwark stabilized his position at the last minute. The haunting howls of the winds squealed all around him. The sandstorm had reached its apex. Visibility dipped precariously low. In the front of him, he could only see the vestige of Kai and Liesel atop of their camels. Then suddenly, a sandworm exploded from the ground.

  Emil’s sight was cut off.

  The strong gusts brought another deluge of sand. He caught a blood-curdling scream rang over the chaos. Who was it? He couldn’t recognize the voice amidst everything. Liesel? Kai? Were they in trouble? Could they deal with the sandworm? Anna was supposed to be beside him, but he could no longer find her through all the sand. He yelled her name, but he couldn’t even hear himself scream over the deafening winds.

  Sand. Sand was everywhere. His eyes burned. His lungs were struggling from the endless particulate.

  What a pathetic way to die.

  He sunk his teeth into his lips. The pain and the ferric taste overpowered the panic clouding his mind. He had to take action. He had to do something. Standing by idle while his friends were in trouble was something that he could never forgive himself for doing.

  A tap on the ground activated Seismic Sense. The pings of mana revealed several presences in the midst of the sandstorm. Four large ones. Sandworms. Four smaller ones. One was behind him. Likely Van. Another was close to his right. That was Anna. The last two stood some distance away. Emil hoped it was Kai and Liesel. None of them were moving—frozen still by the raging sands.

  “Bastion!” he muttered as he stomped the ground.

  The vicinity shone bright in a bath of azure. Walls of stone then rose in rapid succession. Emil waved his arms with power as though weaving and sculpting the stones by hand. The walls formed a colossal barricade around everyone’s positions. Visibility improved immediately as the winds were blocked off by his makeshift shelter.

  “Emil!”

  It was Anna. She had always been close to him, keeping up with his speed using Volt’s physical enhancements. Despite that, the sand in the air had been so dense that was impossible to find her.

  “There’s two people in front of us! Bring them over here!” he ordered. Anna obeyed without question. He wanted to shrink the perimeter of the barricades. Running to the caverns was a death sentence at this point. There were still sandworms in the area, so he judged that the best course of action was hunker down behind his fortifications and fight the monstrosities off.

  The sandworms began to move.

  Boom!

  The left part of his fortifications suddenly collapsed. One of the sandworms stormed out of the rubble while the winds breached the interior of his barricades. Emil was slow. Sand from the winds masked the sandworm’s approach. He could hear the thunderous bellow rumbling from the creature’s body. He instinctively encased his body in stone armor. Seismic Sense rippled outwards as his eyes were rendered useless. He immediately received the ping back.

  The sandworm was right in front of him.

  Mana enveloped his limbs as he tossed out with a desperate punch. He struck something sharp. A viscous coating drenched his hand. Blood. He had hit the teeth of the creature. Light suddenly dimmed. He realized that the sandworm was trying to swallow him whole.

  “Get down!”

  He obeyed on instinct. Shadows engulfed his surroundings. The sandworm suddenly cried. Up close, the creature’s screams drowned out every sound in the area. Emil grimaced. His skull trembled like it was being split apart by the deafening roar.

  A large thud accompanied by a splash of sand echoed in front of him.

  “Close the gap in the walls!”

  Judging by what had just happened, it was probably Van who came to his aid. Emil immediately picked himself up and reform the stone fortifications. The winds were blocked off once more, allowing room for the sand in the air to fall.

  Van stood over the corpse of the sandworm. The giant creature laid dead with multiple lacerations and holes littered across its body. Its dark, unnatural blood soaked into the sands. Likely only half of its body had surfaced while the rest remained buried beneath the ground.

  “Are there more?” he hissed, his voice dry and hoarse.

  “Three,” Emil replied. A quick use of Seismic Sense confirmed it. They were all converging on the three smaller presences in front of them. “Anna is gathering those at the front over here. The sandworms are tracking their movements.”

  “Then get ready to fight,” Van ordered right as the ground beneath their feet began to stir once more, “Aim for the underside of their jaws. Their flesh is softest there.”