70 A Futil Escape

Kardel was impatiently waiting for the paralysis that afflicted him to wear off. In truth, he lowered his guard and he knew it. Thinking that those miserable ants wouldn't be able to even hurt him, he let them repeatedly hit his scales and even torn off one of them. As for the small object stuck on this minuscule hole, what damage could it really do? The answer was an intense electric shock, that froze his muscles and made his entire body fall. The only good thing was the fact that his eyelids were closed, like his mouth, otherwise, he would have really suffered a terrible fate.

Not to the point of losing sight or even dying in that short period, since he made sure that the magus was totally out of the battle. As for why he would have just experienced pain and suffering but nothing irreversible was his own innate ability as a duvodiad. Like a lizard growing back his tail, his race was capable of recovering with only a breath of life. As for things annihilating all life and stuff like that, well, they were only surviving, not capable of enduring such ferocious attacks.

He truly regretted the fact that those morons didn't stay and tried to kill him, it would have made his life so much easier. But that allowed the lone snake to think about a lot of things, like whether or not he should go back to the base. Merely a day after their arrival, it would be pointless. As for communicating with them, it was impossible until Leilade recovered from her losses. Malakov was good at managing undead, liches, skeleton dragons and such, but for everything else, he was merely so-so.

As for how long he had to wait until that moment, he had no idea and didn't really care. He did escape as soon as possible the clutches of Malakov, because that thing was only listening to one person and it was Leilade. And the moment one of them were deemed expendable, the Herald of the Empress will not hesitate a second before hunting the unfortunate one down. Only someone that powerful at their best and so threatening could oblige four commandants of the Demonic Army to bow before her. If the highest graded had been anyone else, even Davion, the group would have been disbanded instantly.

Swoosh

Finally, his body was beginning to be manageable once again. Shaking a bit more after each additional second, Kardel forgot all his philosophical thoughts and theories to focus only on the easy trail the humans let. They were so scared that they didn't even bother to clean their footsteps behind them. The wind did cover up greatly the holes created by their hardened boots, but not entirely. Even if that had been the case, a duvodiad had multiple ways of tracking a prey and ambushing it. But that would obviously be for later.

Like a wave piercing the sand, at a speed so great that the commandant would have paled at that sight, a giant snake was rushing toward its goal. Retracing the path of the fleeing warriors, he noticed each event that happened to them. Finding a Skorpus, that was the name he heard, probably the one for those giant scorpions. Avoiding it, but failing at that. Appearing in such a large number that the monster had no choice to retreat. Not noticing the return of the arachnidan, and losing an isolated warrior in the panic.

The Skorpus was still eating the bloody corpse of the human when it saw right in front of it two eyes staring at it. Around those eyes, yellow scales were slightly protruding from the desert, hiding the rest of the monstrous beast. Like the other members of his species, that Skorpus felt truly threatened, and began to slowly retreat, still a half-eaten corpse in one of its claws. But Kardel had no intention of battling right now, and he merely bypassed the monster.

A few kilometers after that, he saw another agglomeration of stones, forming an elevated plateau. Shaking his reptilian head, the duvodiad could easily figure out the reason of why they walked on that specific terrain. They thought they could lose him on those rocks, not letting any footprints of their travel. To that, he wasn't even bothered to care, and just circled around that pile of stones. What was the point, when you had such a superior speed?

At this time, they were only slowing down their own progress, because the path was absolutely not straight. More like, 145 degrees, a not too important deviation, but one had to also count the fact that they aimed at this location, losing more time previously to do that. If they had just run away directly to where they hoped to be sheltered, they would have potentially reached it before Kardel caught up. But it was not the case.

They probably overestimated the power of that magic contained in the bomb, but it still allowed precious hours of advance to the escapists. And because he had to follow the trail rigorously, Kardel still wasn't at his full speed. But in the middle of the desert, after half a day and the two moons glowing above his head, the survivors were finally in sight.

The main issue was the fact that the area was illuminated, and not only by the silver light coming from the skies. No, something more was piercing the dark veil of the night, something that was making the tired runners shout in joy. Unlike the forty or so tents that were composing the first encampment Kardel saw, this one was obviously bigger, at least two times its size. Because it was in plain and only had small dunes around it, the number of sentries was far more important.

By a group of three, they were standing guard, warning about any abnormal event, like a group of 100 warriors panting like stray dogs and without any real equipment besides their weapons and armors. If it wasn't so late in the day, they could have loose people because of the heat and the lack of water. Because of this, there was a line of bases built deeper and deeper each time, to have the ability to fall back in case of a big problem.

For the commandant that was leading the group, it was the case. A decade ago, terrors were unleashed from the depths of the Necropolis of Ptolekh, more precisely his Tomb. Those apparitions were totally random, sometimes, a century was between two openings while a particularly dark time had three of those in the span of a month. The less threatening was scarabs plaguing the desert with their corruption, slowly making all lives going berserk. The only available move was to totally withdraw from the desert and just wait a few years., letting the djinns deal with it.

But faced against that snake that was targeting them, he had no hope of ever escaping the monster. His only way out was to truly injure it, and unfortunately, the beast won't be caught two times in a row with the same trick. Right now, he could feel something in the air, as he prompted once again the more exhausted one to do one last effort. As for the sentries that were inquiring about what happened, he just told them to help carry the injured.

The previously silent area suddenly resonated with a loud gong, waking everyone from the comfy arms of Morpheus. Still a bit tired, the sleepy eyes all were wide open when they saw the pitiful state of the incomers. Even the magus and the man in charge couldn't believe to see their counterparts in such a lamentable condition. The proud and handsome magus was still carried by the aide of the commandant, but he was unconscious, asleep. When someone tried to awaken him, the commandant stopped it.

"Commandant Adin, in charge of the 12th Base. This is Magus Khala, he was deeply injured by a sudden assault against our encampment. He used his entire mana just to allow us a chance to escape, it is useless to prevent his recovery."

The other magus, a woman of roughly the same age as magus Khala, approached and scanned the body of her peer. Nodding toward the two commandants, she acknowledged the fact that the man in front of her was a liability for the moment. At the same time, she was getting extremely worried about the fact that Khala ended up in that state after a battle. She was only a bit weaker than him, something that wasn't granting her more confidence at all.

"Fine, now can you tell me what the fuck is happening here? Why did you leave your base, with so little men, you are not even half of your numbers? Was it the djinns?" The impatient commandant assaulted Adin with questions, wanting some answers. He was also awoken by the gong, making his mood slightly sour. It was only a larger base for supplies and rotation with the men in the forward one, and because of that, he was not the superior of Adin.

In fact, with his birth name and his position of commandant of the 12th base, Adin could order the irritated officer without any problems. Without bothering anymore to explain the situation when the monster could arrive at any moment, Adin ignored the complaints and gathered everyone. Facing everyone, his announce immediately jolted back to the reality the last sleepers.

"Another wave of terror left the premise of the Necropolis. You all know what this means. This time, for the moment, we had to face a giant snake, capable of eating a Skorpus in a second. Do not be mistaken, this beast is no ordinary monster or snake. It won't stop until every single one of us is dead or eaten. It had already used extreme intelligence, beginning its assault by targeting and hunting every patrol in the outside. Because of the time of the day, half of our warriors died without even knowing what happened, and without anything we could have done to prevent it."

Adin sighed, thinking about all those brave souls that were just unlucky. The angered commandant and the magus understood that it wasn't the time to bicker anymore.

"Its scales are tougher than even the steel of our swords, its speed is comparable to one of those damn birds mocking us in the sky. In its maw, two sharp blades could suddenly appear, even tearing down the [Earth Shield] of magus Khala. After it ate that spell, it threw back one by one the stone and rock that composed the shield. Its intelligence is the biggest threat. But fear not, for this monster is not invincible."

His previously grave and dark words were already sapping the morale of the troop. One could still fight if he had a chance to win, but to fight while knowing that the end was already written would only be possible under extreme consequences. Like protecting a family, having nowhere to run and only the possibility to fight.But this was not yet the latter, because some where envisaging to just escape in the night.

"First of all, you need to warn your brothers still watching the outside, no one past the light of the torches. Second, we need to gather every magical bomb we have. One that was infused with an [Arc Lightning] managed to take down the creature for a few hours. Now go, go, GO! You all know what to do."

Turning around to face the magus and the now quiet commandant, Adin was not feeling any better. Sensing this, the woman asked with a very low voice. "The bombs … they won't work, isn't it? You say that this monster was smart, to that point?" She was clearly hoping to have a favorable answer, but only a shake of his head answered her plea. In the sea of activities that were ongoing, between people putting their armors and sharpening one last time their swords, injured being taken care of and runners quickly warning the sentries before it was too late, the only real question was when will the snake hit? And where?