The man in front of me is a bad man.
For the first time since coming to this world, Jared had this thought. On the surface, this man looked like a monkey that hadn't fully evolved, but his speed and reflexes were several times better than a monkey's. He was also the first person who hadn't been fooled by Jared's visions, but rather by the "wind". Moreover, he was the first one who wasn't fooled by Jared's illusion, but was able to resist Jared's attacks based on a method similar to "listening to the wind and recognizing the position". Compared to the previous Sand Pirates, this guy is not in the same class at all.
"Whew! Whew!!!"
Just as Jared drew back, ready to think of other ways to change tactics, the man in front of him suddenly roared twice, then Jared felt the sand under his feet began to vibrate strongly, and then formed a huge vortex. Without the slightest hesitation, Jared immediately jumped to his feet, but he didn't try to dodge, but to actively meet the other side, although he didn't know what this man was doing, but Jared could feel with his intuition that if he tried to run away, things would turn out to be quite bad. So in the blink of an eye he had already thought of a countermeasure, and quickly put it into action.
As expected, seeing Jared actually took the initiative to attack himself, the man who was originally playing with the dagger's smile immediately turned stiff, and rolled over before the sharp blade that was whistling down attacked him, dodging Jared's attack in a rather lousy position. But even so, in his panic, his back was still cut by Jared.
It's too careless!
The pain on his back and the humiliating way of escaping made the man feel extremely ashamed and angry, just now he had wanted to summon the sand worms he raised to attack Jared, and then lurked on the side ready to ambush the other party. But he didn't realize that the young man in front of him actually seemed to know his plan in general, took the initiative to pounce on himself. The man had to give up on his plan, could he still summon the sandworms to eat him too? That thing's appetite is notoriously good, but also notoriously into the do not want to come out again ...
The man stood up and wiped the dust from his face. He stared viciously at Jared, who stood not far away from him, still in the same relaxed posture. After a moment of silence, he suddenly moved, waving his dagger like an arrow and stabbing the air at his side.
"Ding!!!"
A clear sound of weapons clash, in the opposite side of the phantom disappeared at the same time, Jared's body in the man's attack emerged. The dagger in the man's hand was tightly pressed against the blue sky, looking at the man's fierce smile, as if he wanted to split the sword and Jared together. But let a person can not believe things really happened, in the man's crazy pressure cut, Jared's hand double-edged long sword actually bent from the center!
"Ballast!!!"
Split!!!
The man was pleasantly surprised to see the long sword in Jared's hand break in two. The dagger in his hand seemed to be a shoddy piece of work, but in reality, it was quite a sharp dagger. At the same time, it was also one of the man's rare favorites, because its appearance was too inconspicuous, almost no one would think that such a small knife could cut their own weapons, so when the knife in his hand cut off their long swords, the warrior's expression of fear and despair really made the man unusually excited. Now it was the same, he gasped, almost imagined Jared's surprised expression ...
Just then, the man suddenly felt a coldness in his neck, and he opened his mouth wide in surprise; from Jared's eyes, he could not see the fear he wanted, nor the surprise; instead, he saw in them only a faint mockery - and his own head, which had already left his body.
The headless body fell to the ground with Jared pressed against it, and Jared had to push it out of the way before he stood up and wiped the blood from his face. In his hands, the double-bladed sword that had merged into one was gone, replaced by two blackened longswords. In fact, just now, Jared intentionally lured the enemy into deeper, in the man because of the forward rush and lost control of the time to separate his double-edged sword, and then backhanded grip, cross cut the other side of the head.
"I'm sorry, but my weapons don't just come in one form."
Jared looked at the corpse in front of him and said indifferently, then he intersected the bottom of the hilts of the two long swords, and after a low metallic sound, the original double-edged sword appeared in Jared's hand once again." If there's a next time, I hope you learn your lesson."
（"Hard to deal with?)
Walking back to the wagon, Jared was greeted by Caroline's smile and a handkerchief. Jared smiled bitterly and took the handkerchief, wiping the blood from his face.
"It's not that hard to deal with, but it's rare to come across it. ... How's the situation on your side?"
(Nothing to be too concerned about, it doesn't seem as if the people of this world are unique in their approach to weaponry...)
Caroline glanced at the fat man, already half buried in the sand, and moved slightly toward Jared.
"Aiyah ayah ayah ... This time is also really thanks to you two ."
It was only then that Florence got out from under the car and addressed the two men with an expression of relief and pleasure.
"Surely you two really extraordinary hands, can kill so many sand pirates ... must be you two are also a senior warrior right. I can really go out to meet the noble man, otherwise, with my body, I'm afraid that several times will not be enough to die. By the way, Jared, you just went over there, what exactly did you find ...."
"What's going on here?"
A female voice interrupted Florence's question, and the crowd looked back in surprise to see the female warrior that had dealt with Jared earlier slowly making her way here. It must be said that although she had moved to follow this place afterward, but due to the sandy wind and Jared's speed is too fast, so eventually lost the target. If she hadn't heard the faint sound of weapons clashing in the wind, she would have gotten lost in the desert. She was now staring in amazement at the dead bodies of the bandits and the three of them standing next to the camel caravan, all unharmed.
"You guys, this is ..."
"We were just attacked by sand pirates."
Jared replied blandly, while returning the handkerchief to Caroline at his side.
"There are at least 20 sand pirates here, and you're alone?"
"How is that possible?"
Jared shrugged his shoulders, then pointed to Caroline at his side.
"..."
The warrior woman's eyes rounded in surprise, she'd rather believe her own judgment than the facts in front of her. After all, from the outside, Caroline was no different from an ordinary young lady. Moreover, her dress was too cumbersome and ornate to be used in combat, and could even affect her movement if she didn't get it right. Although Caroline's eyes caused the warrior woman to freeze for a moment, she quickly came back to her senses and swiped them away as if she didn't care.
"In any case, to be able to kill so many Sand Pirates, you guys are really something."
"By the way, ma'am, may I ask if you are ..."
Florence hastened to take up the conversation, not knowing who the warrior-like woman in front of him was.
"Hello, Mr. Businessman."
The warrior woman walks over to Florence and offers him a hand.
"I'm Jelena, the leader of the Moonhawk mercenary group. We are currently in charge of escorting the Scott Chamber of Commerce's trucks, and I assume that you are on the same journey."
"You are the famous 'redhead' Jelena?!"
Florence was taken aback, and it didn't look quite as if he were pretending, and then he hastened to take the other man's hand.
"I've heard a lot about you, there's no merchant who walks in the Fieldale Desert who doesn't know about the 'Moonhawk' mercenary group, and it's an honor to meet the rumored beautiful leader of the group. Ah, allow me to introduce myself, my name is Florence, as you can see, I am a traveling merchant."
"These two ..."
"Ah, these two are the warriors I hired. I ran into them in the desert, they are also lost, the same end of the world people, naturally we should take care of each other ..."
Florence was telling half-truths, but that was fine. It's easy to see through a fabricated lie, but it's just as easy to be suspicious if you don't lie at all.
"For warriors, your equipment is quite rare."
Jelena turned and held out her hand to Jared.
"I didn't expect to meet such a young and powerful warrior ."
"Jared."
Jared took the other man's hand in his, and at the same time faintly gave his name. He didn't try to explain the uncertainty of Florence's lie, just like what he did to Florence, if the other party was really a smart person, he knew better than to ask. Jelena, on the other hand, smiled bashfully, then turned to Caroline, who was standing next to her, and extended her hand.
"It's an honor to meet you too, beautiful lady."
(...)
Although Caroline shook Jelena's hand as well, she didn't say half a word, which caused Jelena to frown a little resentfully.
"I'm sorry, Ms. Jelena, Caroline she ... doesn't have a way to talk."
Jared hurriedly intervened and explained to Jelena. After all, Caroline's "ability" can't be used to anyone, if it's only one or two people, then there's still a certainty that it can be explained clearly, but if more people know about it, then it won't inevitably cause suspicion or fear. Caroline might have considered the same reason, so she didn't mean to use "thought communication" to Jelena. After hearing Jared's words, Jelena withdrew her hand in surprise and nodded apologetically to Caroline. But the young girl didn't care, or rather, she was used to it.
"So, Mr. Florence."
After introducing herself, Jelena got down to business.
"Just now, Jared suggested to me that he would like to come with us. I think so too, after all, in the middle of the desert, it's hard to tell what's going to happen, and it's good to know that we can take care of each other. What do you think?"
"It is an honor to travel with the famous Scott Chamber of Commerce in the Northland ..."
Florence made a somewhat exaggerated salute, and the truth was that he knew in his heart that if it wasn't for the fact that Jared and Caroline had shown enough strength to surprise the other party, then it was almost impossible for this kind of disproportionate peers to agree. The reason why Jelena took the initiative to propose the invitation, I'm afraid that the drunkenness is not wine, want to play Jared and Caroline's idea is true. After all, for a mercenary group, the more powerful people there are, the better. And people like Jared and Caroline, who are strong and seemingly unaffiliated with other forces, would naturally become Jelena's targets. After all, unlike the regular army, the mercenary group does not care about the origin, unless it is the most wanted criminal, otherwise there will rarely be a mercenary group that refuses to join the strong and powerful people.
Sure enough, with Jelena's assistance, Florence and the three of them were soon accepted by Scott's caravan, and agreed to let them follow the rear of the group. For the rest of the journey, Jelena chatted with Florence at great length. It seemed that she was trying to get a set of information from Florence about the two of them, after all, it was too strange that such a powerful warrior was so unknown. But because Florence himself knows very little, not to mention he is a businessman, very understand why Jared did not have the meaning of their own lie, so also just flip back and forth about the other day, Jelena can not hear anything.
The caravan traveled steadily until evening, when they set up camp. Unlike before, Jared and Caroline were finally given a tent instead of spending the night wrapped in blankets on the wagon.
（Jared, do you think we're doing the right thing?)
After losing her Tectonic Harmony, Caroline huddled in the blanket with a pale face, while Jared picked up a few pieces of charcoal from the outside and buried them next to Caroline in an attempt to keep her warm. After all, the desert nights were cold, in contrast to the heat of the day. Jared couldn't think of a better way to deal with Caroline's situation. In fact, once the "Tectonic Harmony" ability was activated, Caroline would be cured in the shortest possible time, no matter what kind of illness she had before. However, once the "Tectonic Harmony" was gone, Caroline's body would return to its natural weakness. If she got a strong shock, she'd get sick again. During the past few days in the desert, Caroline had been suffering in a cycle of "sick-heal-sick-heal again". He reached out and touched Caroline's forehead, and there was a slight fever.
"Whether it's right or not, we have to keep going like this for now. In any case, we need to get out of this desert first, or else you won't be able to mentally endure it, even if you have Tectonic Harmony."
(... good night ...)
"Good night."
Jared let out a long sigh, then lay down beside Caroline, not having to worry about Nightwind today, he could finally get a good night's sleep as well.
Jelena moved lightly from tent to tent, keeping a keen eye on her surroundings. Her eyes lingered on Jared and Caroline's tents for a moment, then she walked over to the watch fire and took a strong drink thrown to her by a burly man next to her.
"Hey, Jelena, I can't believe you're being so nice to those two kids. They're just newbies, and you're giving them a tent? Did you see how handsome he is and get excited?"
"Shut up, Carter."
Jelena took a swig of wine and threw the bottle back at the man.
"These two are not easy, you'd better be careful. They've killed more than twenty Sand Pirates."
"Twenty? Captain, you're drunk! Even for us, it's impossible to kill more than twenty sand pirates without any injuries."
"So I want you to shut up."
Jelena said coldly, as a matter of fact, after that, when Jared and the others were not paying attention, she had quietly examined the corpses of those sand pirates. The result indeed showed that Jared had not lied, those corpses clearly left traces of two different fighting techniques. One was specialized in stabbing, and only attacked the heart and throat of the opponent. The other was a slash that didn't care about the target, but had so much power that few people were able to leave a body in front of it. Obviously, these are two different fighting styles. And ...
"Look at this."
Jelena casually tossed a small sack over to Carter, who picked it up, peered inside, and nearly yelped.
"Jesus! This is the head of the 'Hungry Wolf' and the 'Fat Bear'?! How did you get them, regimental commander?! These two guys are the biggest sand pirates in this area! I remember their bounty is ..."
"Five hundred gold coins ."
Jelena said, taking the bag back from Carter and scooping up the sand and pouring it into the bag.
"These are also the dead souls under both of them, and I think that you should understand why I did what I did."
"But ..."
Carter's still looking half-convinced.
"But ... how is this possible? Even you, the leader, would not be able to meet these two murderous kings ..."
"That's right."
Jelena nodded, her expression growing more serious in the light of the fire.
"So, I'm going to find out what they're up to."