Seeing its prey giving up, the monster felt bored. It seemed it couldn't elicit more fear in its opponent, its smirk disappeared as it looked at the closed-eyed man.
Bang!
Ground under its feet exploded as it appeared in front of the man in seconds. The man whose eyes were closed instinctively open as regret filled his entire being. In slow motion, the man watched an approaching claw heading towards his head. It's as if to make him show more despair the monster took its time.
'This is the e-what's that,'
Whoosh!
"Can you stop that?" the beast felt the voice coming from on top of its head, halting its action.
Bang!
The beast slapped its head but felt nothing being crushed.
"That was cruel," a sarcastic voice traveled to the beast's ears as it felt weight on its left hand. Golden-bright eyes stared into the beast's jewels as a lazy smirk hung over. "Don't try the impossible, you are too slow," the man said while jumping next to the stupefied man.
The beast didn't understand what the man said and with another bang jumped into the air, reaching a height its ginormous body shouldn't be able to, and with consecutive air slashes, waves of wind-like claws headed towards the two men.
"Are you challenging me?" Fine, I will show you the error of your ways, then. An early rank 4 beast wants to fight me," the man let out a sarcastic laugh, not moving from his position.
He looked at the frozen man next to him and sighed, gently he pushed the man, throwing him away. The gentle push transported the man a kilometer away.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The claw attacks landed on the man, his body tanking them as debris and sand covered him. The beast smiled thinking it had killed the arrogant human, yet before it could be happy…
From the debris of sand, a hand stretched out, holding the monster's face in a tight grip. The grip didn't let go. Instead, the monster felt its body retreating as the hand shoved it back. Impossible! The monster wanted to growl but couldn't. It felt its legs hover as the man landed.
Holding the monster in one hand above his head, he slammed it. Left. Right. The man's grip monstrously thrashed the monster around him as if holding something weightless. While doing so, the man had a cold smile across his face, his blonde eyes glowed without emotion.
"You can't even handle this much and you wanted to challenge me?" the man said. "Such a weak being, tsk tsk tsk. Fine, I will magnanimously put you out of your misery."
Bang! Crack!
Without letting go of its face, the man looked into the monster's eyes one last time before snapping its head to the side. The monster's head deformed as it twisted 360 degrees, dying.
"You can come out now," the man said while looking backwards.
Behind him, the man he pushed away neared. His eyes seemed to scream various questions at the man but his head hung low without saying anything.
"T-thank you for s-saving me," the man stuttered. "I-my name is Dane. Dane Frost."
Looking at the man who balled his fists as if surmising all the courage he had, he inwardly frowned. 'This is key? I didn't expect this at all.'
"I do have to ask though," the man said, his voice calm like the frozen tundras but curious nonetheless. "Why did a rank 3 cultivator like you try to fight a monster like that? You had zero chance of winning and you should have known that."
The golden eyed man appeared the complete opposite of Dane. He stood tall with shoulders back, confidence and coldness exuded out of him as if he was the center of the world. Unparalleled strength that could easily squash monsters.
On the contrary, Dane stuttered and froze in the face of danger. His weapon broke as soon as he made contact with the beast. The only redeeming feature of the man was his unwavering eyes. It seemed as if he would stand his ground even if it meant his death.
"I…," Dane looked uncomfortable and looked to the side. Everything he did made the man's frown deepen and the temperature didn't help one bit.
The man's eyes suddenly narrowed and didn't care for Dane's answer anymore. Is the temperature increasing? This thought cemented itself as his sweat rolled even more.
The ground suddenly burst open before whirling. Sand spiraled around the monster's corpse making the man's black hair flaw back while he jumped to the side with Dane in hand.
Swoosh!
Looking to the side, he covered his eyes as air picked up sand creating a sand veil.
He sighed, "We should talk elsewhere." Picking up Dane and strapping him on his shoulder, he ran with incredible speed across the desert.
Instants later, he arrived at an area where the sandstorm wouldn't reach. He placed Dane down and stepped to the side.
Blagh!
Dane vomited once. Twice and tried to stand up, but… he failed and vomited a third time.
Wiping his mouth with his sleeve, he finally stood up. "Thank you," he didn't seem to mind what happened and thanked the man for a second time today. It seems he forgot the question he was asked before.
Rolling his eyes when Dane looked away, the man fixed his black cloak and maintained a smile on his face.
Seeing Dane looking at him, he asked, "Care to share what you were doing in this dangerous desert?"
"M-me? Nothing. I was just trying to cross it. My goal is reaching the Elisyiam Kingdom. Isn't that where you are also heading?"
'He doesn't seem to be lying,' he concluded. 'But why is he so chatty now?'
He didn't voice his thoughts and answered, "Yes, you are right."
Suddenly a thought struck his mind that wiped all the annoyance he previously felt. He deviously smiled and stretched his hand to Dane. "Would you like to travel together?" he asked.
"Is that really okay?" Dane's eyes widened and asked.
"Of course, since we are going the same way, why not travel together."
"Thank you again," Dane sighed in relief.
His weapon had been destroyed and he had no more means to defend himself in this desert. The man's request was like a thread at the end of a bleak well to Dane.
While Dane thought of how great it would be to travel with him, the man looked at Dane like looking at a gold mine. 'He doesn't even know where we will go, it seems. For a key, he doesn't seem to realize what he can open,' the man rubbed his chin. 'That's all the better for me though.'
"I didn't introduce myself, did I?" the man remembered and stretched his hand to the man. "I'm Shen Longwei. It's very nice to meet you Dane. I hope we can get along," Shen said with a weird smile.
Dane shook his hand, not knowing what will soon happen to him.