The statue's movement, for some reason, was feeling a little stiff.
"What is that?" I muttered as my eyes narrowed slightly. "Was I imagining things, or did its leg momentarily pause mid-air?"
Deciding to confirm, I asked Storm Raven to fly a little bit closer, but still far enough that it wasn't detected by the statue.
And I was right, the way the statue was moving was completely different from how it had while fighting against me.
"There it is again." This time, it was its shoulder that froze up for a second. Could it be that thing was being affected by the storm after all?
I immediately called stormraven back. Although what I had seen wasn't conclusive, something was telling me that I was correct.
"That thing… it should get weaker and weaker as the storm progresses."
The storm had just begun this morning; after all, there was a good chance it might take a couple of days for it to start impacting that statue.
"I should still come check on it in the next couple of days."
After a while the stormraven reached my location and disintegrated into black smoke. Once checking that he was fine I fixed up my mask and began walking back to the outer district. It had already been more than an hour since I had left and I still hadn't collected any materials for the repairs.
--
After scavenging the city for wooden slabs, stone bricks and whatever else I could find I returned back to the hideout.
By then, Aria and Tess had already located all the places that needed repair, so the moment I returned, we all started on the repairs.
Repairing the house… was a challenge. Afterall our group consisted of a princess, a former prince and a knight, all of whom knew next to nothing about craftsmanship. The windows and doors had been an easy fix, the trouble came while taking care of the walls.
Aria and Tess had located all the sources for leaks, which turned out to be most of the house.
It was already night by the time we were done. In the end, we weren't able to stop the sand from coming in from the side walls, for the most part.
The ceiling however was a different headache, since we couldn't put extra layer of stone for fear of it's collapse and what little wood I had found wasn't doing a very good job.
"This will have to do for now," Tess spoke while throwing the remaining materials outside. "We would just have to clean up the sand if it surpasses a certain threshold.
Outside, the sun had already set, and the storm was growing stronger and stronger. Deciding that we had done enough for the day, Tess decided to stand guard while Aria and I went to sleep.
Days passed while we continued to stay in our little house, occasionally cleaning up the sand around us. Outside, the storm was growing stronger and stronger, making it more and more difficult to check that statue's condition.
The good news was that I had been right. The statue's movements were slowing down day after day, turning more and more stiff.
I had decided to go in after just a couple more days.
Taking a dive into my soul, I checked up on duskwraith. Poor thing, I had been checking up on him all this time, and although his injuries had somewhat healed with his limbs growing back, he wasn't in a condition where I could summon him for the fight. I could still use Shroud, but I doubted it would be of much help in the fight.
"Don't worry, buddy, rest and heal. I'll be taking care of this myself." The duskwraith's tattoo moved slightly as I continuously reassured him.
Just a couple more days, I was going to attack the moment that thing had become stiff as a brick, take revenge for what it did.
Thinking so I put my bowl of canned dinner and stood up from my seat. Tonight, Tess was supposed to take the first night shift, followed by Aria, meaning I was going to get a good long sleep before I had to wake up.
Besides me, Aria had also begun taking out her sleeping bag. After wishing everyone goodnight, I, too, got inside my sleeping bag and went to sleep.
I was in the middle of my sleep when a sudden shout forced me to wake up. Opening my eyes, I saw that the room was still covered in darkness. I didn't know what time it was, but it was still midnight.
"Wasn't that the reason why you risked your life and came here in the first place? That mother would finally look at you, acknowledge you, and maybe sprinkle in a little bit of praise for her adorable daughter."
I knew that voice belonged to Aria, but why was she shouting in the middle of the night?