There was once a tale coming from the Aringuearo desert . Scorching heat, sand dunes, and hills of rocks filled the lifeless desert. Despite its harsh environement, dangerous birds and scorpions inhabited the landscape.
But the real threat did not come from the sky or the surface.
IT CAME FROM BELOW.
BOOM! The gigantic creature burst out of the ground with sand fell of its purple skin. The adventurers' caravan said to be the most fearless of adventurers stared at the creature and now fully learn the meaning of the word they seek--
FEAR.
Lips cold, and heart frozen, the adventurer were unable to move under the gigantic and towering scale of the creature.
And that was exactly what Mira felt when the creature's claw came down, looming above her.
"Mira!" Aldred shouted from the distance. He was too far away from her while the claw was right in front of her face.
Suddenly, a bright silhoute rushed in front of her and clashed against the claw. The clash created an explosion of blinding lights that shot out in all directions.
Aldred closed his eyes and looked away for a second. After the light dissipated, it revealed Ivette in white snow armor, blocking the claw.
Golden light rushed from the handle to the tip of the sword, blasting the claw away, and then piercing through the creature's chest.
The creature roared and turned around. It burrowed into the ground.
"Where are you going, Bitch?!" Aldred leaped into the sky, and morphed into his adult form, clad in Golden Battle Gear.
The blue runic spear glowed in his right hand and he threw the spear at the creature's back. Like lightning, it blasted the creature's back, but it did not retaliate and ran away, going deep into the black pit.
Aldred landed. The spear returned in his right hand with a crackle of lightning. His chest went up and down as he stared down the pit.
He glanced at Ivette who was unconscious in Mira's hand. Mira cast a healing spell on her before she looked up at Aldred.
Aldred approached both of them. Mary, Bartrem, and everyone else rushed to their side.
"Is everyone okay?" Bartrem asked.
"I am fine. And Ivette did not sustain any fatal injuries except a few cracks on her bones. My power will heal them."
A loud roar came from the pit, followed by a violent wind that shot upward.
Mary frowned. "I have read about that thing. The nightmare of Aringuerao. Said to be so powerful and unstoppable that an entire province was destroyed after years of facing its attack."
Maverick nodded. "Aringuerao was once a great province that brought much wealth through its sea trade and mountains of mana crystals. If not for that thing lurking beneath the sand, we would surpass the Ceraisian Empire's wealth by a large margin."
"But now that it's here, you can reclaim the province right?" Aldred asked.
"That's how it was supposed to be. Until we found out they multiplied."
Aldred nodded. "So this creature reproduce and now there are a bunch of them."
"That's correct. There is only one city left in that province, and they are filled with brave adventurers that seek wealth and treasures of the past."
Aldred sighed. "I want to kill that thing someday."
"That creature won't let you go. It is known that they are vengeful and will return to finish the job. In our 3rd operation to hunt this beast, we also found out that it also devours treasures to strengthened its skin and exoskeleton."
"I don't know why that one is so small, but a Xer Xai is usually twenty times larger than that."
"Twenty times?" Aldred widened his eyes. That thing was akin to a small mountain already.
Maverick nodded. "It is said that the queen was far larger. Around forty to sixty times larger than that."
Aldred took a deep breath trying to make sense of that number. If the creature earlier was 300 meters in length, and the queen was sixty times larger, then that meant the queen was 18 kilometers in length.
In other words, the queen was comparable to 2 Mount Everest stacked on top of each other.
No wonder it could destroy an entire province. In fact he was surprised and wondered why the queen hadn't destroyed the entire world with that power?
"For now we should put Ivette back to the tent. Let her rest while we continue collecting the spiritual rocks."
Everyone agreed with that plan, and after gently putting Ivette back inside the tent, Aldred went out and collected the rocks.
On the surface, they all looked calm while collecting the rocks, but their heart were now in a turmoil. That creature was large and powerful, but they were more shocked about Ivette.
How could a frail young woman like her catch and repel the gigantic claws?
Aldred was picking up rocks with Mira and the other girls. Bartrem and the soldiers were also close by. Pongo was with him too. He wanted everyone to stay close just in case the creature appeared again.
Earlier, they were too scattered, but Aldred did not want to repeat the same mistake.
Aldred wanted to ask what exactly happened to Ivette, but he shook his head. Instead, he decided to ask something else. "Mira, how many do you think we should collect of these rocks?"
"The old lady said as much as we can. Maybe we should follow her instruction word by word."
"Good idea. Second guessing ourselves won't do any good."
Not known to Aldred and his comrades, a group of assassins was watching him with all kinds of invisibility spells and treasures. They had watched from beginning to end of what happen earlier, but their mission had yet to end.
They were tasked to obtain the ring, and death awaits them should they fail.
Aldred then felt an urge to pee. Just in case, he summoned his blood clone and tasked it to protect everyone.
He went to an empty spot where nobody could see his pp.
One of the assassin frowned when saw Aldred approaching. Did he see me. No, that's impossible.
Aldred pulled his pants down to the shock of the assassin.
And then he poured all of the liquid out of his system.
The assassin could only closed his mouth, eyes, and nose as he was drenched in piss.
"Man, that feels good."
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