Vol 11: Chapter 6-2.
“Listen. We are up against three statues this time. I don’t know if they can move but to be safe, we should make preparations.”
Zheng and the others stood a few hundred meters outside the Abu Simbel Temple. He pierced deep holes into the ground with the spear then threw in several grenades. The grenades blasted open several holes that were at least thirteen meters deep and twenty meters wide. There was no way the statues can climb back up once they fall inside.
“That’s what I am worried about. This mission shouldn’t be so simple. They might be able to climb. An eight meter statue in a thirteen meter deep hole. It just had to raise its hand to make a climb. Just like how you wouldn’t get stuck in a two meter hole.” Zheng said.
Jonathan was drinking a bottle of wine. “I don’t think these statues can jump. Their weight will just make them sink if they try to jump.”
Zheng laughed. “That’s not so sure. Since it’s not certain, I have to use the quicksand spell. Once they fall into the holes, buy me three seconds. Don’t let them do something in this time. I will do my best to cast the spell and you will throw explosives at them. Remember to start throwing explosives once they are down there.”
Zheng brought ten cubic meters of TNT since the dimensional bag had the space. He had sold about seven cubic meters of gold to open up the space. He placed a dozen beside each person, so if one accidentally triggered, they would all go to heaven.
Evelyn’s face looked pale. “Zheng, can you put some of them back? Don’t you think you took out too much?”
Zheng looked around. It was indeed a bit too much. Even Ardeth and O’Connell weren’t looking so well. They moved slowly like they were in a minefield.
Zheng had to put back most of them and left three bombs next to each person. His spell should only take three seconds, so one bomb each second was just enough. He was actually feeling anxious from going up against three statues.
The group stood on one side of the holes. Zheng took a deep breath and walked toward the temple. This temple looked ruined. Its door was almost gone. The three statues sat near the edge of the cliff to the back of the temple. They gave a sense of weathered and aged. He measured them and they were almost ten meters. Evelyn underestimated them.
Zheng felt bitter. He noticed the previous statue could only move its legs at a set pace. So the seven meter statue was slightly slower than him. However, if it was a ten meter statue, its speed would go up by about 30% due to longer legs.
Despite this, Zheng had no choice but to walk toward the temple. Fifty meters away and the statues didn’t move. As he approached the ten meter mark, they trembled and stood up. The statues crossed several meters with one step and the one in front struck its fist at Zheng.
This fist was larger than his body. Zheng activated the movement technique and ran toward the holes. The sound of impact and the powerful blast wave from his back had him know the statue punched a hole into the ground.
Zheng ran at full speed but the statues were much faster than the one before as expected. They ran toward the big holes in equal speed.
Several hundred meters were just blinks of an eye for them. As Zheng approached the hole, he suddenly rolled to the side. The statues reached where he was and momentum brought them forward into a hole. Their fall sounded like meteors hitting the ground. At the same time, O’Connell, Jonathan, and Evelyn ignited the TNT and threw them into the hole.
Dust instantly filled the hole with the explosion, followed the the sound of objects hitting the ground. These statues attempted to jump back up just as Zheng had expected. However, the explosion knocked them back down.
He immediately brought out the Book of the Dead and began chanting the quicksand spell. His blood energy quickly depleted. The sand in front of him turned soft then the effect spread outward until it covered the hole. A statue that just fell from jumping was immediately consumed by the quicksand. Its heavy weight made it sunk very fast like the previous fight. Soon, all three statues disappeared.
O’Connell, Jonathan, and Evelyn collapsed to the ground. Those three seconds felt like a year. The statues were horrifying every time they jumped and their huge faces came near the three. In fact, throwing those TNT became an instinct for survival. If the statues were to get out, they would be crushed by just the weight.
Zheng walked over to them with a laugh. Jonathan said. “Are you really sure there’s a huge diamond in the pyramid? The size of…”
Zheng interrupted him. “Trust me. There’s diamond the size of a soccer ball.”
O’Connell and Evelyn giggled. They finally sat up but it would take some time before they could move. The bracelet on Zheng’s wrist moved and projected an image. It wasn’t the next destination. The image was of this Abu Simbel Temple. Then it moved through a canyon with a river. At the end of the canyon was a forest. Moving into the center of the forest was a golden pyramid.
“The Scorpion King’s treasure.” Everyone muttered. They met eyes with each other then laughed. Their efforts didn’t go to waste. The path to the Scorpion King’s pyramid had been shown. All that was left was flying through the canyon with the dirigible, straight toward the pyramid.
Zheng looked up at the sky. The sun was setting. The horizon was painted red. They couldn’t go when they are exhausted during the night. So he laughed and said. “Let’s take a rest here tonight. Tomorrow we will charge into the pyramid. Haha. Let’s go up against the Scorpion King and seize his army!”
Everyone laughed. Several life and death struggles had created a bond beyond friendship. So they were happy when Zheng said these words with excitement. Jonathan took a drink from his bottle of wine, grabbed Zheng’s shoulder and walked toward the dirigible.
However, before they reached the dirigible, a sandstorm appeared from afar and quickly moved toward them. The deadliest natural phoneme in a desert!
