Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Translated by XephiZ
Edited by Aelryinth
At the boundaries of the Mediterranean Sea and the Sahara Desert, a man sitting on the back of a flying beast fixed his eyes on the gradually approaching line of the desert with confusion.
“Mr. Devon, didn’t you hear what I say?” a Maga in her thirties asked.
“Oh, what did you say?” Devon finally collected his thoughts.
“According to the information we received, strange sandstorms have been happening quite often lately around the boundaries of the Sahara Desert. Our people have concluded that they aren’t works of nature,” the bespectacled Maga said.
“There’s no proof to back it up yet; the Sahara Desert is known for its unexplainable phenomena, so it’s unlikely that we can find the reason behind it. We’ll just head inside and rescue the missing people,” a Mage with a white cloth cap spoke up.
“To be honest, if Mr. Devon wasn’t leading us, I would never set my foot into that desert maze. After all, Mr. Devon has managed to walk out of the desert maze once!”
The man called Devon sat without saying a single word.
The truth was, he did not want to come back to this place at all!
—
“Look, there’s someone down there,” someone on the team said. Everyone immediately glanced in the direction.
They did discover an unconscious person lying on the sand. Judging from the figure, it seemed to be a woman.
Devon whispered to the flying beast he was riding. The beast withdrew its wings and slowly landed on the sand.
The Maga with spectacles walked up to the unconscious person and helped her up. She took a closer look at her.
“She’s still alive, she….she looks Asian, perhaps she’s from the Chinese team that the Magic Association sent here to look for the missing national team?” Sijia said.
Sijia took some water and fed it to the unconscious woman.
After drinking the water, Nanyu gradually woke up.
She immediately observed her surroundings. When she realized she was no longer at the same spot, her face turned pale.
She was obviously worried about Mo Fan and the others.
She was supposed to be sending out signals to the team outside the desert maze, yet she had somehow fainted here, meaning that the team was still stuck in the desert!
“I have to go!” Nanyu rose to her feet and hurriedly went forward. However, her body was still too weak. She started to stagger after taking a few steps.
“Calm down, and tell us what happened. How did you faint here?” Sijia asked.
“It was a monster roaming close to the desert maze, it attacked me… anyway, can you please bring me there? My teammates are still in there, and I’m no match for the monster,” Nanyu pleaded.
“Don’t worry, Mr. Davey here is a Super Mage. He’s more familiar with the desert maze than anyone else. With his help, your friends won’t be in danger for long,” the man with white cloth cap said.
The Super Mage called Devon remained silent. From the grim look on his face, it was easy to tell that he was not as confident as the others had described.
——
Jiang Shaoxu’s Spirit Ripple immediately came into effect following the bellowing roars of the giant rhinoceroses brought in by Jiang Yu’s Advanced Summoning Spell. It amplified the fear of the Sandfear Foxes, and since they had already lost more than two hundred of their comrades, they started having the urge to retreat.
The Poison Fire Scorpions were affected by Jiang Shaoxu’s Psychic Spell, too. They backed off to the sand dunes under their control and faced the Sandfear Foxes in a standstill.
“What now? Is it half-time?” Mo Fan mumbled when he saw the two tribes of demon creatures ceasing fire, yet showing no intention of retreating.
“Maybe their Commanders think it’s meaningless to fight any further.”
The demon creatures stopped fighting one another, but they insisted on staying. Their deep calls kept on coming, making Mo Fan and his crew feel awkward.
As the group was feeling incredibly lost, they suddenly heard the chime of a zither. They raised their heads and saw the magic signal they had long awaited pointing in a clear direction.
Zhao Manyan and Jiang Yu almost burst into tears when they saw the signal!
They were saved, Nanyu had finally showed up!
“Come, let’s hurry up, the two tribes are about to fight one another soon,” Jiang Shaoxu blurted out when she sensed the atmosphere shifting.
The five no longer needed to hold their positions now that they had a clear direction to head in. They would no longer intervene with the war between the two tribes of demon creatures.
The group of five quickly left the place filled with nothing but troubles, but they had only run a few hundred meters when they realized the sand was trembling as countless Poison Fire Scorpions crawled out from the ground nearby.
Dark gray lightning flickered continuously as the Sandfear Foxes were making their moves. They seemed to be launching a full assault!
“Holy crap, Jiang Shaoxu, are you sure you were trying to calm them down just then? Why do I feel like both sides have reached an agreement to take us out first?” Zhao Manyan shrieked.
The Sandfear Foxes and Poison Fire Scorpions had all come chasing after them. It was definitely something they did not want to see!
“I…I have no idea why they are so united all of a sudden, let’s just run!” Jiang Shaoxu shouted.
Mo Fan watched the group’s rear. He used Lightning to paralyze the Sandfear Foxes that were catching up, before using the Dark Noble Mantle to weave through the demon creatures to quickly catch up with the rest.
Luckily, his Shadow Spell had leveled up recently. Otherwise, he would not be able to move freely between the demon creatures!
“We’re almost there!”
“Back off!” Mo Fan’s eyes glittered, and immediately summoned a force from the surrounding space, striking four Sandfear Foxes nearby and sending them flying!
“I think I saw Nanyu!”
“Thank the heavens! Mo Fan, stop trying to fight the creatures, it’s time to retreat!” Zhao Manyan called.
The Sandfear Foxes and the Poison Fire Scorpions were trying to surround the group completely. If they did not reach the boundaries of the desert maze soon, they would be trapped between the demon creatures. The members of the group had been injured in the battle, so they needed to retreat at once!
—
The sand’s color was pure, golden-yellow, implying that they had successfully left the desert maze.
The group saw Nanyu and a few other Mages standing beside her. The Mages were watching Mo Fan and the others as they approached. However, their faces immediately turned pale when they saw the two tribes of demon creatures following behind the group of young Mages!
Nanyu was startled, too. -Did you really have to bring such a huge pack of demon creatures with you, not to mention that each of them was a Warrior-level creature?-
“What the heck is going on? Didn’t they say the demon creatures would never leave their territories? Why are they still chasing after us when we have already left the desert maze?”
“Run, quick!”
No one was willing to fight the meaningless battle. They immediately turned around and left.
The Super Mage Devon cast a Wind Spell when he realized the situation. A dark blue wind blew in from the surroundings and took the shape of a raft, carrying everyone aboard it. Without using any spells, the people aboard the raft were able to flee rapidly.
—
The Poison Fire Scorpions and the Sandfear Foxes finally stopped chasing as they were eventually left a great distance behind with the help of the wind raft.
“What happened? Did you stir up trouble in the maze again? Getting into the way of a tribe of demon creatures was bad enough, yet you had to infuriate two tribes of demon creatures?” Nanyu snapped.
“It’s not like we wanted to, we were caught in the middle of a war between the two tribes of demon creatures just so we could hold our position. If you had sent the signal any later, we might actually have died there,” Jiang Yu said with a wronged look.
“You never left?” Nanyu was shocked.
“Yeah, we did not move even though we were caught in a sandstorm or the tribe war. Luckily, you didn’t let us down.”
Devon, who had remained silent along the journey, finally spoke as he heard the conversation, “You made the right choice by not moving. The only way to stay at the right spot is by standing still in the desert maze. Otherwise, you won’t be able to see the signal from the outside of the desert maze.”
The group immediately glanced at Jiang Shaoxu. Luckily, Jiang Shaoxu insisted that the group listen to her. They were relieved that they were willing to trust one another after hearing the Super Mage’s explanation. Otherwise, they might actually have died!
“Have you seen the others?” The Maga Sijia asked.
“I only saw some broken pieces of their tents. It’s around six kilometers from here. I don’t recall seeing anything else.”
“There must be somewhere close. We’ll handle it from here onward. You should rest up, but stay close to us, we might need your help,” Sijia said.
It was fine as long as they had some kind of a clue. Without one, searching for anyone in the desert maze was like trying to scoop up a needle from the ocean deep.
“I only hope they held their positions like you did,” Super Mage Devon said.
“Speaking of which, did you mention you’ve gone through a sandstorm too?” Sijia adjusted her glasses and asked as a sudden thought crossed her mind.
“Yeah, a sandstorm that appeared out of nowhere…”
“The sandstorm isn’t anything too special. After all, the weather here is always quite extreme. But I’m curious what the monster that Nanyu mentioned was? Why did she say she saw a pair of eyes in the sandstorm?” the Mage with white cloth cap inquired.
