In the wild expanse of a desert a lone figure was trekking. He made slow steps chekking his surroundings every now and then as though he was afraid of the things lurking deep within the sand, which indeed he was.
He mentally criticized himself for choosing this job. "Shit, I should have thought twice before accepting the job. Now how am I going to hunt one adult sand wriggler. But that amount of money is too much to give up"
Normally he would actively think while he was on the move, but due to how tense he was, he stopped just so he could think. While he busied himself trying to figure out how best to kill his desired prey, there was movement behind him.
An ice pillar erupted from below where he stood and pushed him far above ground. He sneaked a peek from within his brown hood and all he saw was a small desert rat. That might have fooled most but luckily for him, he wasn't most.
He was not a veteran hunter, but god knows his sense of danger was at the top of the cream. His light blue eyes shone with intensity as he waited for the underground hunter to make its move and become prey.
It was a stupid move on his part cause there was no way the wriggler would expose its position after the stunt he had just pulled. The man sighed with regret as he knew this was his opportunity to finish the job but he would have to wait even longer.
Without notice, the ice pillar he stood on disappeared abruptly leaving no trace of any moisture ever being present on the spot it rose from. Whether it was due to the high dessert temperature or something else entirely was left to be debated on.
The man dressed in all light brown outfit like a dessert ninja, lowered his mouth mask and this time showing effort focused on his palm and with it an irregularly shaped cube of ice manifested atop it. He tossed it inside his mouth, wore his mask and dashed the opposite direction to the oncoming sand storm.
He jumped on the rocky structures all around the desert in search of a cave to make his abode in the mean time. For all he knew, he would be in the dread desert for much longer than anticipated. Especially considering how sand wrigglers tended to go further underground when sandstorms blew themselves around the desert.
The reason for this was unknown both to him and other hunters but he was not eager to know the reason either. His search led him to higher ground and finally he found a cave ready to be turned into a home.
He stopped a few metres at the entrance in order to asses his soon to be base for the foreseeable future. He looked at how dark it was despite it being midday in the hot bright region known as dread desert and he concluded that he could do better.
To make sure of his deduction, he picked up a stone and gathering a bit of mana in his arm he threw it inside. There was no sound of it ever landing or striking against something; a wall maybe, which further proved the hypothesis that the cave was dangerous.
The last of his worry was that he couldn't detect any danger but that he attributed to not entering the cave so he walked sideways step by step and after achieving a considerable distance, he sprinted as fast as he could; away from the cave that is.
After a few hours of wandering and failing to find anything that could house him for at least the night, he found himself standing outside the cave.
It was still dark and creepy as he remembered but he had no choice on the matter. He looked at the now orange sky which indicated the fast approaching dusk. The increasing cold was also a sign of the ready to come night.
He traced the way he'd been walking at the start of his journey and clicked. The sand storm that he thought had ruined his hunt was still raging on but as much as his eyes acted as a witness for him, he could tell that it was not approaching, or moving at all for that matter.
He looked at the dark cave then the storm then the cave once more and despite appearances he was of the belief that the cave was safer. Though how safe it was he could not tell.
Remembering one of the most famous quotes at headquarters' If you don't know how strong it is, attack it first and leave the rest to fate'
He knew that it was a stupid quote as far as quotes went but it was either an unmoving sandstorm, a darc cave or camping outside in a place known as dread desert at night.
Making his desicion, he gathered a bit of pure colourless mana from the surrounding mana, and moving his arms in a circular motion added as much of his own mana forming a dark blue ball of ice.
He got ready to throw the ball inside the cave and just as he was about to do so, an arrow flew out of the cave. He was ready to side step and avoid it entirely but he noticed another one rapidly approaching the direction he was moving towards.
The ball of ice changed to a sword and twisting his body, he jumped backwards and while spinning swung the sword. As soon as the sword came into contact with the arrows, they were cut into two and dropped to the ground.
He landed on the ground and changed to a more attack ready posture. He did not even think of expanding mana to shoot arrows into the cave, conserving it being his top priority.
From what he could tell, the arrows were man-made and lacked mana infusion. This meant that his opponents either lacked mana, did not know how to infuse or had set a trap hoping he would walk inside.
He leaned more to the thought of it being a trap as no manaless being could survive in this region.
With his ice sword splintering back into pure mana, he took his twin knives and prepared for a fight.
He stood there for about five minutes with nothing seemingly happening which in all truth was getting on his nerves especially with how much darker it was getting.
He was ready to expand a significant amount of mana and hope that the beings inside would die and leave it safe for him to reside in.
Luckily his intrusive thoughts were not turned into reality as someone walked outside dressed in all brown too but with a darker shade and definitely not in the ninja way.
He could tell she was a woman, how? Well she hadn't covered her face and it obviously belonged to a female. She stopped at the entrance and said,"Our leader requests for your presence."
The man wasn't having it but the woman continued,"I'll say this once, if we really wanted you dead, we could have finished you off the moment you came here first or maybe even now, so stop being a bitch and come inside while you still can." The woman finished as she gazed at where the man was standing.
It was foolish to look away from an enemy but the man had to know what it was that he had failed to detect below him. The woman in the meantime let him fulfil his curiosity.
The man did not sense any physical traps so he traced mana and getting a response he realised that there were explosion mana circles drawn beneath the sand, though very clumsily drawn.
He dropped his guard, put one blade away and followed the lady who just snarled at him inside. What a man and woman would do inside a dark cave remained candy for his thoughts.