The trip was a dead silence, nobody is very happy with our situation and since there is nothing, we can do that won't cause my death, everyone accepted the fact that we are going to work with a group of criminals, at least we are killing other criminals and not innocent people.
Traveling through the savannah was good, taking a little bit of sand that can be a little inconvenient, but it shows that I might have to put on the cape I prepared to use in the desert. The magical animals we found were not uncommon for us, the biggest difference was that there were more rodents than in the southern aria of the kingdom, which has more animals like wolves and wild boars.
The problem really happened on the second day of our trip when we were in the desert area of the kingdom, I never understood why there is a desert in the kingdom and literally a circle of aria. I've heard of several mages and explorers who tried to discover the cause of this desert mine, but they all failed in the end and I hope I don't find the reason for it because I doubt it's anything good for us to find out.
My bad luck or ability to get into trouble must have a limit.
Upon entering the desert, I realized that I don't like it, I'm not the only one with that opinion. It only took a few hours for Hilda and Alice to complain about the desert, the two of them may have big capes covering their bodies and their wind aura forming a simple layer of protection against the sand, but even with these defenses the area keeps getting in where it shouldn't.
I think we underestimated the power of desert sand; the problem is that this sand is giving off a lot of mana and elemental energy not even the mana rich forest floor I've been on has as much energy built up as this desert, and we've just entering it to the center of the desert it will only make it worse.
It would be easier if we could sweat more energy, but the desert area has protection made of aura or elemental energy, using little energy our loss can be managed, but if the defense increases the energy drain will become unsustainable for us.
Perhaps a stronger warrior or a mage with a specific magic tool to stave off the desert sand can be protected, but we and our mounts are being targeted by the waves of sand that the biting wind brings us.
It's lucky that lizards are magical beasts with the earth element and a thick skin, this gives them a very strong resistance against the desert sand, but when you combine the speed of the wind that is against us and the speed of the lizard, I can see what small sores are appearing on the lizards' weaker skin.
I think we may have to slow down our trip and that will make our already tight schedule even more complicated to complete.
As we continue our way along the edge of the desert, I see that we are finally being attacked by magical beasts and some magical beasts. The animals were not there to attack us but to die for the magical beasts, the environment here is very cruel.
Getting in the way of the magical beasts' meal made us enter the menu. The seven magical beasts entered the land and began to surround us looking for an opening and when they didn't find one, they started creating one.
The magical beasts started creating a small sandstorm that swallowed us, I wasn't expecting this one because they don't have wind element energy, but it seems that in the desert having the earth element makes it possible.
With the new disadvantage some of the beasts try to knock us off our mounts by jumping from the sand in a direct attack against us, but these attacks fail but I could see that my mount was injured by the magic beast's blow, a cut made by very sharp nails is causing my mount to whimper in pain and his blood pours out of the shallow gauge that isn't healing.
"Shit, Zephyr, create a gust of wind to get rid of all these reindeer, I'll get their attention, so be prepared to attack!"
I jump off my mount and distance myself from the group by a few meters, as I was right the magical beasts started moving towards me in order to hit me. Even with my eyesight to be able to see the movements of the lizards under the ground, it is difficult to define that it has several enemies at once.
I was able to dodge the attack of three magic beasts that combined to attack me in sequence, but the last beast proved my blade, but to my surprise I only made a superficial cut on the magic beast, their defense is higher than I expected, but the moment I was attacked again.
Zephyr released a wind spell to clear the sandstorm, but it wasn't a wave of air but a tornado that sucked up the sandstorm and attacked the magical beasts that were still buried beneath the ground. The tornado sucked two of the magical beasts into the air, making them vulnerable as they were killed by being pierced by Hilda and Alice's snares.
Seeing the death of their companions, the desert beasts attacked the Zephyr, but Gloria protected him with her earth element. This is the first time I've seen Gloria using her earth element for something other than strengthening her shield, not only did she solidify the ground causing the magical beasts to have much less force when jumping from the earth, she released a wave of sand and aura like an explosion against the magical beasts that tried to attack Zephyr who controlled the tornado that swirled around us.
I took advantage that the beasts weren't attacking me to attack the magical beasts that were nearby, but with the sand cover that protected them I could barely stop them from moving freely near us.
I will see their target again as two magical beasts jumped towards me, I managed to dodge the first one, but the second jumped higher in the air to have more pack force when landing on me.
But when advancing towards it I find myself in a good position, I pierce my hunting blade in the belly of the beast, even if their bodies are strong their belly has a thinner armor and cuts it with my aura and wind element is not an impossible task.
But the problem I was facing didn't end when my blade got stuck in the magic beast almost dead from blood loss, a magic beast was approaching to attack me, but unlike her friends they didn't try to hit me when she landed from her jump and yes at the beginning of the jump.
She comes out of the ground right in front of me with her claws ready to slash me with her death grip, she was also ready to bite me with her sharp teeth. But as I still had one of my swords, I used it to block the beast's teeth magically, but to dodge the claws that were approaching I had to make a risky move.
I moved down, I got to my knees as I used my sword as a shield to push the beast up. But as the beast's strength was too great for me to block without support, I fell backwards, but I used that move to brace my foot on the body of my sword and throw the magical beast back where Hilda was already waiting to kill it.
The magic beast that jockeyed backwards landed on its back against the sand, but it wasn't able to get up because Hilda's spear pierced the magic beast's stomach.
With the death of this magical beast only three of them are still alive and the fact that they are moving away instead of charging again, I think this battle is just over.
But that doesn't mean our problems are over, these were just level two magic beasts and not three that are common to face further into the desert, the strength of these magic beasts and tactics are much more complicated to fight than beasts in other places I've been.
The ability to swim in the sand and hide in it, these magical beasts become much stronger.
"What's wrong with these magical beasts and you Ulric! What the fuck was that turning the bait to distract the magical beasts, if you weren't lucky to have been able to evade their attacks you would have just been shredded by them."
"It was all under control, Hilda. It's not that difficult to track the beasts in the sand, I just needed to be in direct contact with the ground to feel the vibration of the magical beasts so I could know where they were."
"It was still too risky!"
"Okay, you're right, but we have a bigger problem which are these damn sand beasts, we won't be able to go deeper into the desert because of them."
"What do you mean by that? They can be annoying, even if a level three beast appears we will still be able to deal with them."
"I know that Gloria, but the problem is not killing the beast and being harassed by them. If we are pursued by them, it will be very difficult to harvest the resources of the desert in time to be able to ambush the smugglers."
"We have to focus on the safest option, I think we should go straight to the meeting point and avoid going further into the desert. After killing the smugglers, we will be able to take our time to cross the desert to complete both missions."
"I think you're being too cowardly."
"Glory! Ulric is right, we cannot pass up the opportunity to easily kill the smugglers to do a quest that we can complete later, what do you think Zephyr?"
"Alice is right. It is better to follow Ulric's plan and play it safe than to risk it and lose it all."
Gloria is pretty pissed off right now, she's barely able to hold back from sending Alice and Zephyr to shit. This mission is pushing her to the limit of her patience, I have to find something to calm her down or I can only hope that killing some smugglers will improve her mood.
"We'd better leave and not be arguing here, two magical beasts ran away and because they fight in packs, they may end up coming back with their friends to attack us."
"I hate this desert."
Hilda is really uncomfortable here. I hope this desert trip doesn't get any worse.