Einar and the girls had now been walking for a while. They had fought many monsters on the way and had met a few survivors too. The girls always felt bad when Einar said they were leaving them, so they kept requesting Einar to take them with him to protect them.
As Einar was not a bad guy, he agreed to their requests. He did not mind the survivors going with him, but he had to warn them, that he might not be able to protect them all, just so that they were aware.
Many of these survivors had been either warriors or hunters in their previous villages anyway, so most of them had some battle power. There were three women and two children in the group as well. All in all, their group had made it to 20 people, 16 survivors, and Einar's group.
The power of their group was quite decent, as Einar was a powerful fighter. Except for him, Ada was a good archer while Emily and Adania were both proficient mages. The fighters in the survivor group were all decent fighters, with a little above-average battle power.
One of the fighters stood out a little to Einar though. It was a man with a big build, around 2 meters tall with a bald head. His weapon of choice was a massive great sword. Every time he swung the sword, Einar could feel the wind blowing.
Einar was not stupid enough to just trust these people blindly, as he kept an eye open for any trouble they might cause. The girls were different though, as they did not feel on edge at all, Einar felt they were a little too trusting of strangers.
Einar had also thought of a small detail that might not mean anything to anyone, but it had been in the back of his head for a while now. None of the warriors had said anything about their names, they had just joined one by one. This made Einar think that they might be up to something.
The women and children had already introduced themselves to Einar, as they wanted to be polite to their savior and protector.
Of the women and children, he had only placed some attention on one of the children, as he seemed much calmer than any of the others. His name was Marius, he was ten years old, and around 130 centimeters tall. He had blond hair with blue eyes. With just one glance, one could see he would grow up to be a lady killer.
The calmness in him was what brought him to Einar's attention. His eyes were as calm as still water, which was surprising for someone at the age of ten in this situation. When Einar and the group of survivors found him, he was also alone, which was quite weird as well.
Einar decided that he did not want to dwell on it too much for now though, as they were close to where the father-daughter pair was last seen. He had to find these two, as he did not want them to be heard in any way. Besides, he had already formed some kind of connection with the girl, which he himself had not noticed before recently.
Walking in the desert was actually quite straining for the human body, as it was really warm. Everyone in the group was reaching their limit, as they were all overheating at the moment.
The only one who was relatively okay, was Einar, as he used the mana in his body to keep him cool and refreshed. To his surprise, the girls did not know how to do it, as he saw that they were also overheating.
He taught them the trick to using the mana in that way, so they could cool down quickly. He wanted to teach the other people in the group, but it would not really help them, since he could feel that they had no mana.
"We need to find a water source, so we can all cool down!" Einar said as he had become the leader of this little group. He said this, but to be honest, he had no idea of how to find a water source. He suddenly thought of something, as he looked at Emily and Adania, and asked "Do any of you know a water spell?"
This would definitely be an easy way of finding water since you could convert your mana into water if you had a spell for it.
""No, sorry"" Both of the girls looked at Einar with an apologetic look. They really wanted to help here, but they had no way of doing so.
This made Einar start to think again since they really could not go much further without it. He knew that there was a water source at his master's place, but it would take too long to go there.
"U-Uhm, I have a water spell ..." A small voice came from behind Einar. When he heard the voice, he turned around immediately, only to discover it was one of the women they had saved.
"Oh? How is that, I don't feel any mana from you?" Einar looked at her with a skeptical look.
It is true that Einar may not feel any mana from her, but that is because the mana she has compared to him, is like a drop in a pool. It was something you would not see if you didn't pay attention to it.
"Oh, sorry ... If you can make a small pool of water, so we can drink something, that would be a huge help!" Einar said as he jumped over the matter quickly. After taking a closer look at her, he noticed a faint trace of mana.
*Splash*
As she made the pool of water, everyone hurried over to get something to drink. Even Einar had become thirsty, as he was also at the pool, drinking.
Einar also paid attention to how the spell worked, and it actually seemed like an offensive spell. In the hands of the girl though, it was just a steady stream of water. She had either a good mastery of the skill, or it was because of the lack of mana.
After getting the water, they all agreed that it was time to settle down for the night. Einar had not traveled at night yet, but the other survivors told him, that the monsters were much stronger doing that time.
It was not dark yet, so everybody started to gather resources, like wood and food, to make fires and shelter. The only food they could find here in the desert though was either cactus or snake, which the women were not big fans of eating.
Einar did not really do much, as he had the duty of protecting everyone, since he was the strongest in the group. He was still thinking of the father-daughter pair, and could not help but get a bad feeling.
When it became dark, everyone had settled down. The uneasy feeling in Einar's heart had become stronger, as he knew that those two could not protect themselves against these strong beasts. He stood up and looked at everyone in their small camp.
"Everyone, I have to go for a while, so I hope you can protect yourselves through the night!" Einar knew that the three girls, Ada, Adania, and Emily, were definitely strong enough to protect the group, so he was not really worried about that. What he was worried about, were the warriors that had joined their group.
"I will go with you!"
"me too!"
"me three!"
The girls also stood up, as they wanted to help Einar. They had also been told that it is dangerous, and none of them want to see him get hurt.
"No, you three have to stay and protect the group!" Einar answered back with a serious look. He then went in and hugged Ada, whispering something in her ear. "I don't trust the survivors, please keep an eye on them."
Ada was first flustered, as she had never been hugged by Einar before. But after hearing the whisper, she understood why they could join him, as that might leave the group in chaos.
"Okay, then! But you have to be careful!" Ada said as she looked Einar straight in the eyes with a serious look. The girls behind Ada had a hard time accepting it, but before they could say anything, Ada had already stopped them.
"Don't worry, I will!" Einar answered back, with a reassuring smile. All he wanted to do, was get the father-daughter pair into this survivor's group.
Right after saying the last words, he went straight in the direction of the father-daughter pair. He once again had no idea how he knew where they were, but some weird feeling in his body, had told him they were in danger, and that they were in this direction.
The girls were just staring at his body until they could not see him anymore. They too had a bad feeling, but they had no idea where it came from.
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Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoy!