Unlike the massive sandstorms in the desert that blotted out the sky, this small sand whirlwind wasn't huge. It sucked up heaps of yellow sand and spun at high speed, its whole body a murky yellow, like a pillar that was thin in the middle and thick at both ends.
But this murky yellow pillar was barreling straight toward the flying carpet, the sharp whistling from the sand grains scraping against the air rattling everyone's eardrums.
"We're screwed, run for it!" Adam trembled as he muttered some weird incantation, and the flying carpet barely climbed a little higher, just above the Sandstorm Stalker. But that sand vortex shot up right away too, leveling out with the carpet.
"Flying carpet, fly, fly faster!" Adam howled in terror, but the carpet's speed didn't pick up much. Instead, the Sandstorm Stalker's pace suddenly surged, closing in fast on the lone carpet drifting in midair.
The shrill, ear-piercing wind howl was right in their ears as the Sandstorm Stalker charged wildly, like the Grim Reaper clutching a scythe and hot on the carpet's tail.
"The flying carpet's too heavy!" Adam Hoss seemed to figure it out all of a sudden, and he bellowed at Franco: "Don't you know flight magic? Get airborne quick and stay the hell away from my carpet!"
Franco shrugged, waved his wand, and floated himself off the carpet.
"Nope, still too heavy." Adam turned and yelled at EeDechi and Barrett: "You two, one of you jump down right now! Sacrifice one person to save the rest of us, or we're all gonna die on this carpet! YOU TWO GODDAMN ADVENTURERS, JUMP! JUMP, DAMMIT!"
Adam Hoss roared at the top of his lungs, his voice cracking. Faced with a deadly threat, the ugly side of human nature was on full display.
On the wobbly, drifting carpet, Adam saw that EeDechi and Barrett weren't budging—so he lunged forward himself, trying to shove EeDechi off the edge. Barrett reached out to block him, his strong, powerful arm grabbing Adam by the collar and hoisting him right up.
"Don't throw me down!" Adam's face bulged with veins, his little mustache trembling nonstop. He struggled fiercely: "Only I can control the flying carpet—if I die, you two won't make it either! Either one of you jumps down, or we all die together!"
While the three were locked in argument, the Sandstorm Stalker closed in even more, and from the wildly spinning sandstorm, an arm made of yellow sand suddenly stretched out, trying to snag the flying carpet.
The wind and sand raged furiously, whipping EeDechi's black hair into a frenzy. She shot Adam Hoss a scornful glance, pulled her giant sword from her spatial ring, and leaped off the flying carpet straight toward the snarling Sandstorm Stalker.
The wind howled, the sand churned. EeDechi gripped her giant sword and cleaved down with all her might, splitting the intangible sand whirlwind clean in two. The sharp whistle instantly shifted to a low, pained wail, like it'd taken a heavy blow.
The halved Sandstorm Stalker fused back into one, but it was clearly a lot weaker now, no longer spinning at breakneck speed—it turned into a murky cloud of sand dust. The sand mist let out an angry howl, the sound harsh and grating, like gravel blasted into a bass horn.
The Sandstorm Stalker had only a basic killer instinct; it had no clue what running away meant. It stubbornly lunged at EeDechi again, as if to swallow her up in its sandstorm.
Facing the towering wave of murky yellow sand dust, EeDechi shifted her feet to brace herself, her giant sword slashing once, twice times. The Sandstorm Stalker got ripped into countless tiny shreds, until finally the yellow sand dropped to the ground, the dust scattering completely into the sky.
For EeDechi, this Sandstorm Stalker was just your average monster—usually couldn't even handle one sword strike. But with its fluid form, it had a massive edge in defending against physical attacks. Even so, all that did was make her swing her blade a few extra times.
On the gently swaying flying carpet, Adam Hoss stared blankly at EeDechi's figure, his withered lips mumbling: "We... we're saved."
EeDechi powered off with her legs, leaping up from the ground and landing on the flying carpet.
Guilt gnawed at Adam Hoss; he didn't dare meet EeDechi's eyes, or even look at any of the three adventurers. He said dryly: "With you here, our caravan is sure to make it through this unscathed."
The flying carpet trembled slightly, heading toward the spot where the Golden Aquarius caravan was trapped, under the vast pale yellow sky.
...
On the parched earth, Bill Hades paced anxiously. Beside him were camels crouching on the ground, horses neighing, and cargo crates tightly wrapped in wooden boards and burlap, stacked in a triangular pattern like little mountains.
Between these "little mountains" were the caravan members squatting on the ground, huddled together with heads in hands. The men shielded the women, and the women hugged the few children. Several people were softly sobbing, low whimpers escaping them, an atmosphere of despair hanging over goods worth thousands to tens of thousands of gold coins.
"Stop crying! It's annoying as hell. What's crying gonna do? You think it'll scare off the monsters outside?" Bill Hades shouted impatiently. But he couldn't really blame them, because he couldn't drive away the monsters besieging the light shield either.
A soap bubble-like hemispherical light shield arched overhead, and outside the shield, headless mud golems with only two sturdy long legs and two massive arms were violently slamming into it.
One mud golem was enough to keep a mage on his toes, and now, there were a good seven or eight mud golems outside the shield, plus three or four swirling Sandstorm Stalkers hovering around. The Sandstorm Stalkers only attacked living things, showing no interest in the mud golems at all.
Mud golems are rare magical constructs, made entirely of filthy mud, with very strong resistance to magic. Swords slashing at their bodies only leave a streak of sludge, and ordinary blades can't do a thing to them.
When a mud golem's body smacked against the light shield, the thin barrier would tremble a bit, and the people hiding behind the cargo crates would shake in fear, their sobs growing louder.
"Captain, what do we do now?" Bill Hades gripped the curved sword at his waist and yelled at a middle-aged man squatting on the ground, studying a map.
"Mate, I don't know what to do either," the so-called captain said with a bitter smile, shaking the parchment in his hand. "This map was charted by the 'Lost Wanderer' explorer ten years ago. I never expected things to change this much."
Their titles were pretty odd—the middle-aged man was called "Captain," and Bill Hades was the "First Mate." The "First Mate" was the position just below the captain on a ship, in charge of the deck crew (navigation), and the captain's main assistant.
A brown flying carpet phased through the top of the light shield and slowly drifted down to the ground. Four people stood on it: besides Adam Hoss with his little mustache, there were three folks dressed like adventurers.
Adam sidled up with a fawning grin, and Bill frowned at him. Bill knew Adam was a cowardly wimp, but damn good at handling flying carpets.
If they'd sent Adam to fetch help, he'd have bolted right away and left everyone in the lurch, so Bill had specially "detained" Adam's wife and seized all his valuables for the time being, to keep him from running off alone.
"These are the helpers you found? Are they adventurers? What level?" Bill slapped his curved sword at his waist and gave EeDechi and the other two a dismissive glance.
"One orichalcum, one mithril, one copper-level," Adam said with a cheerful chuckle.
Bill shot out a hand, grabbing Adam by the collar and yanking him close, spittle flying onto Adam's face: "You brought back three pieces of trash?"
"They took down a Sandstorm Stalker single-handed!" Adam blurted out hastily.
"Oh..." Bill released his grip on Adam, straightened his own collar, and immediately plastered on a super-friendly, sweet smile. Facing EeDechi and the others, he extended his hand: "Pleased to meet you, pleased to meet you."