With his acceleration, Edward was finally able to react fast enough to follow what was happening. He teleported into the air with his long-range teleportation to open some distance. On the ground was an insectoid the size of a grizzly, covered by a thin pellicle of sand. The monster was invisible to Edward’s aura, it gave him the feedback that there was nothing there even though he could see the monster with his own eyes. In the end, he could only rely on his eyesight. He was unsure of how to describe the monster below him, his first thought was about a spider, but it was obvious that it didn’t match.

This creature had ten legs and even though it was insectoid in nature, its thorax and abdomen were roughly the same thickness while spiders usually had a more bulbous abdomen. Apart from its speed and its many legs, the thing that stood out the most was its impressive mandibles. It had four of those, and they were very pronounced, being twice its head size. As for its eyes, Edward almost missed them as they were only two small dark beads above its mandibles.

Even as Edward was watching it, the beast moved laterally while creating a small cloud of sand that obscured it. He lost sight of it. With his aura unable to track the creature it meant he had no idea where the beast had gone. Edward had all his senses on alert, he was a hundred meters above the ground trying to find where this monster had disappeared.

There are no signs of it. And my aura is unable to locate it. It must have burrowed in the ground. He licked his lips. Coming back to the ground is opening myself to another ambush, but I have to hunt it. I was complaining about the area lacking powerful monsters. I can’t miss such an opportunity.

Edward let himself fall down, waiting for the next attack that was sure to come. Sure enough, he had only been immobile for two seconds when he sensed air movement. You don’t have much patience, do you? Edward teleported to avoid the attack coming from his back, but he stayed close enough so that the monster wouldn’t have the chance to disappear again.

The beast only altered his trajectory, not even reducing its speed to chase after Edward. However, he was ready for it. The monster had two of its legs reared in front of it to catch Edward while he used the rest to balance its body and rush forward. Edward parried the legs with its twin blades, the aura of both fighters producing sparks at the point of impact. However, the insect continued on its trajectory, its mandibles clacking but a few centimeters apart from Edward’s face.

It has a much better foothold than me. The sand is collapsing under my feet before I can use my full strength.

Edward teleported above the monster, swirling on itself to tear at its abdomen. The beast reacted with surprising alacrity, anchoring its thorax with six legs and twisting its abdomen to avoid Edward’s blow. It hadn’t yet fully recovered its posture that it was already charging at Edward again.

Quite aggressive.

This time Edward formed aura steps under his feet to act as a foothold. He parried the legs grabbing at him and formed two additional arms with his aura that he used to grab at the mandibles coming at him. The monster’s charge pushed him back for one meter before it was immobilized. Edward’s real arms were blocking the monster’s legs coming for him while the others stopped the mandibles from biting him. The fight entered a stalemate and Edward summoned two clones to harass the monster as it was locked in place.

The beast sensed the danger and it struggled to break free, its many legs digging in the sand to fall back. However, Edward wasn’t letting it go this easily. His two clones began to lacerate the monster with blows, but its armor held on for now. That’s when the monster blew something at his face and Edward teleported away to avoid it, freeing the beast at the same time.

Before he had the time to chase it down, it disappeared inside one of its tunnels. Tche. It sure is decisive. As soon as it loses the upper hand it retreats to gain the advantage of surprise. If the six-legged panthers had used the same tactic back in Pescara they would have been much more difficult to handle. But even though this monster is fast, it’s not as strong as those panthers.

Edward dispelled his clones and waited for the monster to come back, his acceleration still active. One second stretched ten times longer under its effect. A fast and patient monster would be a nightmare. Imagine having to wait just ten minutes between attacks. It would be the equivalent of waiting more than one hour and a half in subjective time. At least, this one seems to be too aggressive to wait that long.

Indeed, before long the monster attacked again, but this time it changed its modus operanti. Spears of sand formed under Edward forcing him to dodge. The moment he was in the air, the beast charged as fast as the wind. Edward formed an aura step under his foot and used the foothold to somersault above the assaulting beast while whipping his blades at the same time. Aura flashed for the whole length of the monster’s body as its armor sustained the hit with difficulty.

It has control over the sand as well. It must help it create those tunnels.

The monster grew flustered after so many setbacks and it unleashed its furry at Edward, chaining several attacks one after the other while summoning more sand spears. Edward grinned savagely, avoided the first two spears, and teleported to the monster’s side targeting its legs. He focused both of his blades on a single leg, and the beast’s aura protecting it gave out, his swing cutting the appendage.

If you can’t deal a critical hit, unless you are fighting a millipede always go for the legs. It takes more time but it’s pretty effective.

The monster shrieked in pain, its cry a high chirping sound.

One done. Nine more to go.

Edward danced around the beast, swirling here and there, disappearing and reappearing at will unable to be pinned down by any attack. The beast tried to switch tactics, affecting the sand under Edward’s feet to immobilize him, but this proved ineffective as he was able to manifest aura steps to maintain his foothold. It then tried to summon a cloud of sand to obscure Edward’s visibility, however, it backfired as even if Edward couldn’t perceive it directly, his aura was able to deduce its position by the absence of sand within the cloud.

The monster was losing one leg after the other and it was quickly panicking as nothing it did was working. It made up its mind and abandoned the fight to flee. It used its sand manipulation with its remaining legs to quickly dig into the sand.

“Oh no you don’t,” Edward said aloud and he flexed his domain to teleport back the monster above sand level. Using it to move a monster was more taxing than using it on him, but for opponents that weren’t too large, it was pretty effective. The beast stirred its legs in the air with incomprehension, not understanding what had happened.

Edward charged his aura and made a combo while the beast was still in the air. He fired one blade after the other, straining the beast’s armor. Then he teleported above it, his legs pushing against an aura step to add more force, and he fell on the monster blade first like divine judgment. The weakened armor collapsed, and Edward’s blades pierced deep inside its body. The monster trashed in a spasm before dying for good.

This was a good fight.

Edward absorbed its blood essence hungrily, feeling the energy strengthen him and broaden his aura. This strange monster had been physically weaker than a six-legged panther, but it was faster and had the additional ability to control sand. Its blood essence was less abundant but more potent, it provided Edward with the equivalent power of twenty predators.

Edward flexed his fingers. With the addition of the sandworms, the lizards, and this monster, my teleportation limit is now at 884 meters. Not bad at all. And yet I still haven’t triggered any evolution to a next rank. I’m sure there is one though, I can faintly sense it now. The need for my body to get more blood essence, the hunger for more energy to satisfy its needs and transform itself. I just hope I will be able to find enough blood essence. I don’t think I’ll find more powerful monsters in this area. There are only the occasional sandworms and strange monsters and they are quite rare and hard to find. It is time for me to go to Zakrens.

Edward gave a last update to Doratham through his clone that had stayed behind. It turned out the monster Edward had killed was called an Oont-Makadee. It was believed to be only a legend, a horror story to scare children. No one had ever met one, or at least no one had ever survived an encounter to share their story. Doratham wasn’t sure if he should feel happy that such a monster was killed, or scared that such monsters truly existed out there. The good news was their population must have been very low if Edward had only encountered one of them after scouring the desert left and right.

With his tasks done, Edward left for Zakrens, he had already spent more time in the desert than he had intended to. A full day had passed since he had left Ignis and Adotinus at the capital. If we survive this Ignis will owe me a lot. I benefited from it as well but Alaucocha would have been destroyed without my intervention, and I’m not sure if he would have been able to deal with that sandstorm.

With Edward’s speed now approaching 1600km per hour thanks to his upgraded teleporation it wasn’t long before he left the desert. Sand disappeared to be substituted by rocks, and the terrain raised in elevation as well and became more rugged. Large blocks of rocks became common in the landscape and mountains rose in the horizon while the sky darkened.

It wasn’t the tallest mountains Edward had laid eyes on but they were impressive in their own right. The topography was very steep, with slopes so abrupt that no vegetation was growing on it. The slopes even turned to outright cliffs in some places. The mountains themselves were a brown-orange color with only the occasional heap of snow visible on their picks. The mountain chains spread far and wide, forming a natural frontier.

The sky had become so dark that it was hard to see even a few meters forward. Rolling thunder welcomed Edward with lightning flashing regularly between the clouds suddenly illuminating the sky for a split second.

What a welcome. Edward drily laughed in his mind. At least it’s not raining yet.