Alex and the rest continued walking through the barren land, making their way far to the west. The dip the old man had talked about had come about an hour later, at which point they turned slightly right and continued.
The four seemed to have no plan of stopping at all. In fact, they walked as fast as they could, attempting to get back to their city as early as possible.
The two men walked on either side of Mabi and her father, spears in their hands. They seemed alert and on guard.
“Soon, the dry and hard land will turn soft, and we will enter the desert. You must be alert at all moments since the beasts love to hide in the sand and sneak at you.”
Alex nodded, but he didn’t give it much mind.
With his body cultivation, nothing was strong before him at all. He used the pebble and continued slowly training his Intent as he walked along with the four.
As they arrived closer to the sandy land, Alex looked at the father and daughter. “Are you two not going to bring out your weapons?” he asked. “It might be better to keep them at hand all the time.”
“Why should they?” one of the two men asked. It was Orla. “They have no reason to fight when we are here.”
Alex looked toward them, wondering just how proud they were of their skills. If they thought they could protect the man, then either the beasts in the desert were not nearly as strong as he had thought they would be, or these men were way stronger than what little impression he had of them.
It would be fun to watch them fight.
“Still,” Alex continued. “You two should bring out some weapons just in case. It is better to be safe than sorry.”
The two men were about to say something again when the old man stopped them. “Please do not say anything to even accidentally insinuate that these two men cannot do their job. They are our warriors, and it is their job to protect their people. They have fought the beasts in the desert since childhood and are perfectly capable of protecting us.”
“Trying to arm ourselves is no different than claiming that we cannot trust these two for our protection, and that is not something a warrior deserves. You can be forgiven for not knowing how things are in the desert, but I should warn you right now to never try to taint a warrior’s reputation. It is a matter of their honor.”
Alex was taken aback by the seriousness in the old man’s voice. He quickly turned to the two men and realized that they were looking at him intensely.
“My apologies,” Alex quickly said. “I did not mean to claim anything with my previous statements. I am used to defending myself, so I always prepare beforehand. But since the two of you are here, I shall leave that task to the two of you.”
The two men silently nodded before turning around and continuing to walk.
The woman slowed her steps to match Alex’s and leaned in close to speak. “The desert is nothing like the tribes you might have been to. It has its own cultures and rules. One of those is warriors and what it means to be one. You should learn that as soon as you can.”
Alex nodded again. “I understand. It won’t happen again.”
The woman smiled and walked on ahead.
Suddenly, the two men stopped and stopped both the old man and the woman. Alex stopped too, noticing something that had gone past him. There was a soft vibration beneath his feet.
The vibrations got stronger suddenly, and the sand began shaking furiously, splashing all around their legs.
“There’s a beast coming,” the old man Tala said. “Get ready to dodge if it comes from below. Do not fight back. Let the warriors do it.”
Alex nodded.
The beast came out of the sand a distance away, so Alex quickly moved away along with the old man and the woman. The two men stood tall before the beast, their spears ready in their hands.
The beast that came out was a large mole, big enough to be a Saint realm beast. Its features were hard to notice in the darkness of the night, but one could see a long snout on its face, and no doubt it had sharp claws to let it dig into the ground.
The two men gave the mole no time to be ready for an attack. They struck out immediately, running next to the mole and stabbing at its side. The mole let out a scream of agony and swung around its paws with its giant fingers.
The two men stepped backward to dodge.
One of the men dashed forward almost immediately, while the other one tossed his spear toward the mole. The spear flew faster than the first man, lodging itself into the mole’s stomach.
The mole screamed again, not at all able to stop the attack that had landed on it.
As it screamed, the first man finally closed in, and he jumped. He flew in an arch, arriving atop the mole’s head. When he was there, he struck down.
The mole died after that single attack, its large body flopping down onto the sand.
Alex couldn’t help but agree on how reliable the two men were. The two warriors.
With the mole dead, the old man walked up to the two warriors.
“I think we should just store it away, right?” he asked the two men. “I don’t think there’s a need to butcher it right now.”
The two men thought for a short moment and looked at each other before nodding. “I do believe that might be what we have to do.”
The old man smiled and pulled out another storage bag from his sash and stored away the corpse of the mole into it. Then, he turned around toward Alex.
“Come, we need to continue moving.”