——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————In a room somewhere, two figures were having conversation in the dark.
"Milady, our harvest runs lower with each pa.s.sing week, by the next month we"d have to put down some of our beasts just to fill the people.", the voice wavered even as the words exited the mouth.
"That"s only if the destroyer can find enough prey so that it doesn"t directly set it"s eyes on us first." Replied the other voice, it was distinctly more melodious than the first though carrying the same doubt in the tone.
"Haaaa, if we didn"t come here, our people would still be thriving and we wouldn"t ever be put in such a state by such a mindless thing."
"It"s useless to talk about something that wasn"t within our grasp since the beginning, now we need to focus on what we need to do for the future." The female voice said in a reprimanding tone.
The room had but one light coming from the moon"s shine into a small window. Outside was an ever changing scenery that came and went with the wind.
"Ask the treasurers and elders to commission a sixth of the provision and ten of the warriors, tomorrow we will try to look further into wilderness, maybe there will be places out of it"s reach." She said solemnly.
"Milady, you can"t!!", there was panic this time, "if that much food is taken away the rest of the village will not last more than 3 weeks and they will be left with no one to guide them."
"Has it come to a point where you are able to tell me what I can or cannot do?" There was indifference in this sentence but an obvious chill was sent down the spine of the other party.
"Milady..I.I"
"Enough!!, do as I say else you can look towards the other cowards as patrons, though I doubt that will last very long".
The other party slid away with a nod.
As the female voice brooded in the darkness, she thought. "If there is a G.o.d out there, though you have brought this upon my people, perchance you can also bring us out".
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Today Zhao Wei stood tall on the front of his vehicle. His arms set on his hips in a power pose. It would be an awe inspiring scene if his mouth didn"t twitch continuosly and reveal his displeasure.
He had been traveling for 3 weeks straight before he arrived at the end of the forest. He thought maybe some other environement would present itself with a moderate level of difficulty but right outside the forest was a desert.
How in a step, a person could move from the most lucious place on earth to the most barren lands completely slipped Zhao Wei"s mind. Sand dunes cropped up everywhere, changing every few minutes. Small eddies of sand would spring up here and there, from time to time these wisp turned into devastating tornadoes.
Worst of all, it was ridiculously hot. Even with his resistance, he could feel his flesh cooking under the extreme heat. Each breathe he took was like he was gulping down boiling hot water. Atleast it would be nice if it was hot water. His tongue felt like sand paper, reaching up and tapping the roof of his mouth from time to time to lap up any fluid or saliva that evaporated.
Leave him out here long enough and he might just turn well done. He needed to be wrapped in clothes until only the slits of his eyes could be seen to avoid that from happening. But inside the clothes his body still heated up like a sauna, his sweat acc.u.mulating under the layers creating steam that burned his skin. Outside he turned into steak, inside he would turn into foil roasted sweet potato. That wasn"t the worst part, worst part was that this area was absolutely the worst possible place for Zhao Wei and Myra to fight in.
First of all the sand always shifted, this way Zhao Wei"s traps would keep being wiped away with the wind or activated prematurely by some flying sand. He couldn"t plan traps more than 30 minutes ahead of time. Additionally, there was almost no where to hide except under the sand which was similarly where the beasts stayed. Here he was fully reliant on his physical capabilities most of the time.
For Myra, in the forest, shadows were cast everywhere by the trees allowing her to enter them and attack out when she needed. Here, it was open plains of sand everywhere. Due to her size, her sonic emissions weren"t as strong because this trait depended on the size of a wolve"s diaphragm. She was also reduced to her claws and teeth for most of the combat.
For both individuals, this environment basically sealed their most powerful abilities and moves. The beasts here were used to moving and fighting through sand, while their physical abilities were trained in an area where the ground was tough, allowing them to jump and move quite easily. The crumbling sand under the force of their feet reduced their effectiveness to almost 20% of their usual capabilities.
Even just moving the vehicle took a toll oh him and Myra. The thing weighed a few tones and with their feet were always sinking into the sand, with every hour they would only move forward a kilo or two. Sometimes, Myra would escape into his shadow, he was pretty p.i.s.sed, but he had absolutely no way to call her out if she didn"t want to. Besides, who could ever get angry at their doggo for long, Zhao Wei thought as he imagined rubbing her puffy head.
She"d always look wronged when Zhao Wei did that to her these days, but she"d stay there without moving. And sometimes, when he was rubbing Panda"s fur on his lap, she"d come and lay down nearby, pretending she wasn"t jealous. This tsundere.
Zhao Wei didn"t know it, but while he was thinking about it, he was smiling creepily and his legs were moving at a monstrous speed through the sand. The power of the fluff was strong here.