RISE OF EROS

While the young barbarians thanked their leader for realizing the danger they were in, Andrew and his companions continued on their way. The Yellow Desert, like all deserts, was hot and dry during the day, but humid and freezing at night.

Andrew and the others had not made much progress and had already finished several canteens of water, as the heat was unbearable. Not to mention that the yellow sand landscape as far as the eye can see is not very pleasant.

Although they were riding wind horses who are specialists in running on sand, the hot environment still made them very tired and that is why Andrew, Oliver, and Castor had to stop every 3 hours to give them water and food.

They also had to let them rest from time to time, because these horses, although strong, are still living beings, they could not run indefinitely. In this way, the first day it was passed without problems.

As it began to get dark, Oliver chose a campsite and quickly set up the tents. Oliver and Castor took turns keeping watch and although Andrew offered to help, he was immediately rebuffed.

They quickly set up camp. Only 2 tents were set up, as Oliver and Castor could use the same one, while Andrew had his own.

Now he regretted not having brought one of his wives, because unexpectedly, the night in the desert was very cold, to the point of seeming like it was snowing, so having a girl to snuggle with now seemed like a good idea.

Andrew was at first surprised when he saw Oliver buying blankets because he couldn't understand what they could use them for if they went to a desert, but now he was grateful to him because, without that blanket, he would freeze to death.

The night also went smoothly. Despite the intense cold, everyone managed to rest well, and early in the day they collected all the tents and cleaned everything before leaving.

The Yellow Desert is larger than it seems. According to Oliver, it is almost as big as the kingdom of Dunnas itself, which is impressive. By far it is larger than any desert on Earth.

According to Oliver's calculations, they would reach Star City in a week and currently, 3 days away, they had not suffered any mishap. As they had done the previous days, when the sunset came, they chose a place to rest.

They set up the tents and the bonfire to light the fire. Oliver was preparing the food, while Castor walked the perimeter. Andrew was the only one unemployed.

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While being the young master has its advantages, on these trips sitting around doing nothing was quite boring, but he couldn't complain, so he just sat to the side on a dead log that was near the campfire and watched Oliver prepare food.

However, in that moment of calm, a scream was suddenly heard from Castor, "Scorpions!" Oliver was the first to become alert, as he knew that the only scorpions in this place were the sand scorpions.

Oliver immediately instructed Andrew to take the sword and stay alert. Andrew did not dare to be careless and quickly took the sword. Oliver, for his part, began to take pieces of firewood from the bonfire and threw them in different places.

Everywhere one of these pieces of firewood fell, a fire spread. Andrew had no idea how Oliver did this, as he knew Oliver wasn't a wizard, but he knew it wasn't the best time to ask.

Oliver has traveled through this desert before, so he knows the dangers and ways to avoid them. For this reason, whenever they established a camp, he always established some straw in different nearby areas, which could catch fire quickly.

Aside from the barbarians, this desert has three additional dangers. Earthworms, birds of prey, and sand scorpions. The first two are diurnal creatures, so at night they are not dangerous, but sand scorpions are different.

These beasts are as big as a dog, yellow like desert sand, and their exoskeleton is quite strong. This is not to mention that they have 2 types of poison, one paralyzing and the other deadly.

While these poisons can be countered by experts for a time, the problem is that these scorpions move in large groups, so if you are hit by their venom, it will be difficult to escape.

These creatures are too vicious and dangerous, but fortunately, they are weak to fire. In fact, it is the heat that bothers them, which is why during the day they hide underground, where the scorching desert sun cannot reach them.

It is for this same reason that Oliver established several beds of straw that he could set on fire at any time. Andrew didn't know this, but Castor did, because Oliver had told him about it. In fact, Castor had established several of these straw beds.

When the different bonfires appeared throughout the camp, a rather disturbing screech was heard and the pointed legs of the scorpions in the sand could be heard as they retreated.

Shortly after, Castor returned to where Oliver and Andrew were. He seemed to be unharmed, which was obvious, since Castor is an intermediate expert, no amount of scorpions can overwhelm him.

Oliver, Castor, and Andrew watched as the scorpions retreated. There were close to a hundred, at least that Andrew could count. Although it didn't seem like many, if you take into account that they have the size of a dog and the lethality of a killer, 100 are still scary.

After the scare with the scorpions, nothing else happened that night. Although Oliver and Castor were much more alert than normal because if the scorpions had attacked, he meant that they could attack them again, fortunately, none of that happened.

The next morning they continued on their way to Star City. Still, it seemed that last night's encounter with the scorpions was only the beginning of their problems since they had not advanced much when Oliver could see in the distance a bird with brown feathers that looked like a vulture, but a different color.

He immediately told Andrew and Castor to stop. Since Andrew hadn't noticed anything he was the first to ask, "What's wrong?", to which Oliver responded by pointing at the bird and said, "It's a bird of prey."

Andrew and Castor looked where Oliver was pointing, and could see the brown bird of prey with a bald head. The bird was only a meter tall, so compared to other beasts in this world, it was not very big, but they did not dare to neglect it.

These birds are not really very strong, but they do travel in groups and have a great ability to communicate with each other. In fact, watching them fight is like watching an orderly army, which is dangerous for anyone.

The bird didn't seem to have seen them yet and Andrew asked again, "It doesn't seem to have seen us. Besides, there is only one, is it necessary to be so cautious?", to which Oliver replied, "Like scorpions, these birds are never alone."

This made Castor and Andrew alert and suddenly the screech of a bird was heard overhead. Oliver immediately looked up and saw a bird flying overhead he couldn't help but curse, "Shit," and then shouted, "Prepare for battle!"

Andrew and Castor did not hesitate and took out their weapons. Seconds behind where the bird of prey they had spotted was, about 50 more birds appeared. Andrew and the others had not been able to see them, because the sand dunes covered them.

Seeing a large number of birds, Andrew and Castor put on a dark expression, but for some reason Oliver was happy. Andrew and Castor looked at him strangely and Oliver, noticing the look of the other two, said with a laugh, "There are only about 50 birds, they usually go in flocks of 300."

Hearing that, Andrew and Castor did not ask to avoid swallowing hard, because 300 birds of prey is not something to be taken as a joke. Unfortunately, they didn't have time to speak, as the birds in front of them began to attack.

These birds were like torpedoes. They rose into the sky and swooped down on their opponents. They were fast and coordinated, no matter how many of them attacked at the same time, they never got in each other's way.

Andrew, who was the least experienced of the group, could not eliminate many and even had to be saved by Oliver on a couple of occasions or he would have suffered injuries, perhaps not serious, but ultimately injured.

Castor performed well. His sword moved ferociously and every time he swung it a bird of prey fell to the ground. Oliver didn't even need to be mentioned, because he was like an expert killer of birds of prey, a bird that approached, a bird that lost its head.

The battle lasted about an hour and the desert sand was stained with blood and lifeless birds of prey. Andrew, Oliver, and Castor were also dirty with sand and blood, but Oliver insisted that they should leave and since he was the one who knew this place best, they listened to him.

Just minutes later after Andrew and the others had left, the 50 dead birds were swallowed by what looked like a black hole spreading in the ground.