Whatever region of the desert Alex had arrived in, it was far too large for him to get anywhere. He flew around for over 2 hours and still failed to find any signs of human life.
He knew the desert folks liked to stay far apart, but this was too much. He should have flown the distance between Life’s Edge and Sunspear already, and he had yet to see another life still.
Just how far away would he have to fly?
Alex finally saw the first human just half an hour after that, but there was no settlement nearby. It was just one lone person, standing on top of the dune.
Alex slowed down his speed and landed on the dune before the other one. He didn’t want to be seen coming down from directly in front of the person as that would raise too many questions.
He walked the short distance to the top of the dune and stared at the figure.
It was a woman, wearing a red hooded robe while her black hair billowed in the wind. She seemed lost in thought, holding something next to her that she concealed with her body.
Alex wondered what she was doing there, but since this was the first person he was meeting, he intended to ask her for directions. Before he could say anything, however, the woman suddenly let out a massive scream. She hit her chest at the same time, bringing a tribal feeling to her scream, as if it were a war cry.
Her screams seemed to have caught the attention of something since the ground entirely shook and the vast sand on the dunes began cascading down with the shaking.
Alex slid down as well but quickly climbed back to the top. When he did, he saw the woman walk down toward the valley between the dune where she stood and where he stood.
When Alex turned his gaze to the bottom of the valley, he saw a massive beast that had risen out of the sand.
It was a humongous crab with a dark-brown shell and giant claws. Its arms seemed unusually long, and they reached out to snap at the woman.
The woman jumped, flipping over the snapping claws, and came down on its head with strong momentum. Her weapon showed itself, a long white spear, that she drove down into the crab’s skull.
An explosive sound rocked the valley between the dunes, but the crab took no damage at all. Its shell was far too tough for the woman to damage it.
The crab retaliated, fighting back with another snap from its left claw. The woman jumped back and then changed her direction mid-jump, moving sideways. Once she dodged the crab’s attack, she dashed to its underbelly, letting out a strong attack there as well.
The ground shook with an explosive force, the sands all around the valley loosening from the shockwave. The crab lifted nearly 5 meters into the air, but it still took no damage.
It twisted in the air, its claw swinging down at the same time.
The woman moved, the side of her spear striking the arm to parry it sideways, before going back for another attack.
The woman seemed determined to kill the crab, while the crab fought back with everything it had. And yet, neither of the two could do anything to the other.
The crab’s defenses were far too strong for the woman to penetrate its shell with her spear, while the woman was like a slippery eel in water, impossible for the crab to lay its claws on.
The two of them were at a clear standstill.
Alex watched the two fight for some minutes, before deciding that he couldn’t waste any more time just watching. He needed to get some answers from this woman, so he decided to go down and help her.
He walked down the dune in his white garb, slowly speeding up. He didn’t want the crab to realize he was coming until he was right behind it.
Alex was halfway down the dune when he saw a spray of sand to his side. He turned his head to the side and saw something black appearing from the slopes of the dune.
He pulled out his sword, ready to fight, when he noticed that the thing that came out was tinier than any beasts he had met. More spots of sand exploded as more black figures came out of the sand, and only then did Alex realize that he was looking at people.
There had been so many humans hidden within the slopes of this dune all this time.
Spears flew at Alex instantly, which he dodged the best he could. The force at which those spears flew scared him. The strength they carried was the strength of an Immortal.
Alex dodged the spears he could and parried those that he couldn’t, feeling the force of each one with each hit. Once that stopped, the people themselves jumped toward him.
“Saboteur!” someone shouted.
“Kill him!”
Alex struck the first person that tried to stab him with the spear, finding that his strength was surprisingly not enough to easily move the person aside. He had expected that to be the case, but to find a human this strong had still shocked him.
“Stop!” he called out, but the attacks kept coming.
Alex fought back, doing nothing to harm anyone else, and everything to defend himself. But with so many people with Immortal body cultivation attacking him, he wasn’t successful at all.
A person tried to stab at the back of his head, and even as Alex tried to dodge it, the spear stabbed past his cheek. The cut was shallow and could be easily healed, but a spear also tore the fabric around his face.
The white cloth around his face slid down, revealing his fair skin.
‘Shit!’ Alex thought, the moment he realized what had happened. All his work to hide his skin had been in vain.
Their sudden pause of the never-ending attacks told him all he needed to know.