Leyan frowned then turned his face the other way. It was as if the sight of Samuel saying that he had to speak directly with the Senior Council really bothered him.
Kiara and Samuel were aware of that.
"Why do you always react like that when you hear someone mention the Senior Council?" Kiara asked with a curious tone. Leyan was always like that and she never knew the real reason behind his reaction.
"I just... feel uncomfortable about them," Leyan said. He just said the same answer he always told them.
"Yeah, but why? Have you ever met them or they ever did something to you?" Kiara asked again.
"No." Leyan shook his head. "But don't you think they are suspicious? They are the rulers of Sivagadh Fortress but we never really know what they all look like," said Leyan. "We've only ever seen a few of them and we have no idea what they're really up to."
"But they have helped many poor existence like us who could have died, or lived a miserable life as slaves of the Celestials," Kiara said. "Don't you think that's enough to make you think they are on a good side?"
Leyan paused to process Kiara's words. What she said was true, but for Leyan... he still couldn't accept it.
"I don't know," said Leyan. "Whatever. Just like Samuel said, we better focus on what we have to do for now."
They then decided to end the talk about the Senior Council. That's how the conversation always ends. With uncertainty about Leyan's response.
They rarely talked about it because they couldn't say anything about the Senior Council back in the Fortress. Or something bad will happen and they don't want anything to do with it.
Samuel, Leyan, and Kiara's party also met the dry zombies as soon as they entered the building.
"Careful!" Kiara said. After seeing how strong the monsters they met before, Kiara felt they had to be more careful.
"Yeah, I know." Not only surprised, but Leyan also felt that the scale of the danger they had to face had increased after facing the worms earlier.
Leyan created arrows and started aiming. He released the arrow to fly toward one of the dry zombies.
*KRAAKKK!*
But it turns out, they worry too much for nothing. Leyan's arrow penetrated the zombie's body effortlessly and the zombie instantly crumbled to dust in an instant.
"What? They are weak," said Leyan.
"Don't let your guard down," Samuel reminded him as he lunged forward with his spear ready in hand.
Samuel thrust his spear at the zombie and the same thing happened. The dry zombie couldn't even fight or dodge, it could only take Samuel's spear attack and crumble to dust.
"See? This enemy is weak," said Leyan.
"Well, I guess you're right," Samuel replied.
They proceeded to kill all the dry zombies in the building until Clyde did.
Both Clyde's party and Samuel's party killed the dry zombies that were in the building they entered. Then when they arrived on the top floor, they immediately set up the prepared traps.
When finished with one building, they move on to the next building. And so on until finally the sun began to set and the sky turned yellow.
They all exited the building and walked up the sandy path back to where they had met.
"Everything is set for today," said Samuel.
"Do we really have to put traps in all the buildings?" Clyde asked disapprovingly. "That seems like a lot of work."
"Unfortunately, yes. We don't know where the party that Uriel sent would appear. And where they will go. So setting traps in many places within a wide range is the best option to reduce the risks," Samuel answered.
Clyde tried to think of other ideas but unfortunately, he couldn't come up with any. Lack of information makes their options for what they could do very limited.
And based on what they said, the strength of the party sent by the Celestials named Uriel had a high chance of dangering them if they fought those party head-on.
So, this might indeed be the best way. After all, they still had enough time. Unless something happened suddenly so they had to hurry.
Clyde nodded without saying anything more.
"Then, let's go back first and continue tomorrow." Samuel who saw Clyde nod immediately knew that he could accept the method he was using because he saw no other way.
They came out of the ruins of the city. As soon as they left and returned to the desert, they immediately put themselves on alert again to fight.
The desert was getting colder than it had been a few hours ago. A gentle wind blew the sand into the air, filling their breathing cavities.
"Remind me to bring something to cover my nose and mouth tomorrow. Ughh..." Leyan complained while covering his mouth and nose with his hand.
The other party members including Clyde agreed with his suggestion.
The sand blown by the wind in this place is endless. Especially when a sandstorm occurred, it would make everything they were trying to do more difficult.
"Are there any more worms?" Kei asked with eyes that spread around her.
The answer to her question didn't come as fast as she expected because they were also looking around to confirm the presence of the worms.
After a few minutes, no worms emerged from the sand. There wasn't even any movement from under the sand to indicate something was slithering down there.
"I thought the worms weren't showing up anymore," Leyan said.
"For now, yes," Clyde said. "We should run in the direction where we can open the portal. There's a chance that the worms didn't appear because they avoiding something."
After hearing what Clyde said they felt a chill down their spine.
"Let's go!" Kei said frantically.
Even though what Clyde said didn't necessarily mean it was true, but such a possibility did exist. So leaving this place as soon as possible is the best thing to do.
~~~