"...Shit!!! I forgot my equipments." Vash exclaimed but he thought Doro Nimah wouldn't dare to steal his things so he was relieved after a moment.
The marine ship sailed on the Sandora River. It travelled for half a day reaching coast. Vash made a hole in the hull, got out the ship and flew off. The Marine set their attention on the loud sound of destruction but when they checked it they just found a hole in the hull and few water barrels missing with no perpetrator in sight. Smoker was really confused as to who was the cause.
"Tashigi, take some men and repair the hole. We can't sail back like this. And do it fast, I'm waiting outside." Smoker said to the female marine.
"Aye!! Captain Smoker. Squad go fetch some lumber, nails and a hammer, we are repairing the ship." Tashigi ordered some low level Marines to get on with it.
Vash was flying with five barrels above his head giving him precious shade in the hot desert, and below him were sandy dunes, they stretched in all directions. Although at first glance the desert seemed barren but his color of observation told him different story. The desert was almost like sea, it was teeming with all kinds of creatures, adapted and surviving in the harsh weather.
A centipede like creature tore the sand and jumped out of the ground trying to make Vash a lunch, its length was larger than a three stories building. Vash kept his distance from this unknown monster, his feet moved like a pendulum; a large air blade cut through the air going downward but the giant centipede resisted it with its steel like mandible.
Vash was surprised to see such resilience and he launched small air blades at the joints of this arthropod. It wasn't able to survive the accurate attacks, getting dismembered in the process.
'This is tough, I wonder how others travel in this desert. A normal person would become food in no time to these creatures.' Vash thought to himself. Vash traveled referring to the map he held. He tried going through maximum number of Red Cross Zones in his way to Rainbase. Vash gained a lot of experience in fighting large creatures as he travelled. He knew this world has many gigantic monsters; Vash was a Martial artist so he only fought other humans and had very less expertise on fighting bigger things. So he wanted to know what are the limits on these humongous life forms and could this creatures overturn the world if became unnaturally large?
Right now Vash was fighting desert sharks, these sharks were desert version of the sharks found in the sea, but more deadly due to opaqueness of sand; a person wouldn't see them coming before they are dead. These scary monsters swam the desert in groups, anything on their way would be eaten and digested. Vash went down to the ground to get close and personal. Using his color of observation, Vash felt a shark emerging beneath his feet, he stepped back a little as a jaw lined with hundreds of sharp teeth came out. After a moment, the whole body of shark emerged flailing in the air like it was trying to bite a sand seal. Vash jumped at the same time and held the shark by its fins. He used the momentum of jump as well as that of shark's to German Suplex it on another which emerged behind Vash. Both sharks had their heads caved in and jaws scrunched up due to powerful collision.
Vash flipped in midair and landed on the sand. He lifted up a leg, and at the same time a snout came out the ground in his front. He stepped on the snout breaking it as he took another step. A lot of shark snout emerged in succession, it looked like the sharks made pedestal for Vash to step on, but in actuality it was reverse, Vash knew from where the sharks were going to emerge as he stepped on them. He killed them all in the process.
"Really.... this world never stops surprising me. Now... what will I find next." said Vash as he rounded off a Red Cross in the map.
Vash in his quest to obtain good leather fought various sand dwelling creatures; a large crab; scaly octopi; long legged mantises; giant lizards; huge poisonous snakes in camouflage and scorpions with steel like chitins. He decimated them all. Vash also found recently died bodies of shady looking men. They looked as if they had been choked on by sand.
"Are.... why were they eating sand? Were they so hungry???" muttered Vash. He decided to ignore the plight of the dead men and continued his journey.
Like that he traveled the desert as he finally arrived at his destination --- Rainbase. From the distance he could see the city, and a pyramid like structure stood out among the buildings. The top of it had some crocodile like statue in gold with a banana like object attached to the head.
"If I'm not wrong that sculpture should be of a Bananawani. Hmm... Maybe it's that Crocodile's base." muttered Vash to himself. He flew in fast speed toward the city, the barrels he had with him were all used to quench his thrust so he sped up and reached there in a flash. He landed outside the city and walked on the ground.
Vash entered the city and casually took a walk among people on the main street. He noticed most of them wearing more fashionable cloths like they weren't feeling the heat. Vash himself felt the temperature being low as compared to the other places on this continent. It truly was an oasis in harsh desert giving people relief by its existence alone. Vash also saw some Marine troops loitering around the city as if they are searching for something. He didn't mind them and directly went to market stalls to purchase his requirements.