Chapter 82. Lure
A crimson carpet slid across the horizon.
Several warriors were currently on the carpet, their gazes flashing across the place.
Pamela and Asmodeus waved their hands.
The expedition team felt the air shift. It was as if the gravity was unstable. One moment, the atmosphere was light. In another, they would feel a heavy weight spread through the atmosphere.
They were altering the gravitational field across the place.
The rest of the group prepared their weapons, ready to strike in case of any threats.
Suddenly, a very large legendary rank 2 sandworm shot out of the ground. It shot towards the carpet frenzily.
Pamela waved her hand.
Suddenly, its movements diminished as it neared them.
A very heavy weight bore down on it. It screeched and crushed into the ground.
Cosmo snapped his hand. Flames spiraled out of his figure and turned into a large fire arrow after it left the area of the gravitational field.
The fire arrow shot towards the sandworm pinned on the ground. The fire arrow came into contact with the flesh of the creature.
The fire arrow pierced through its flesh and penetrated its body.
Sizzling sounds were made. The creature screeched.
It felt its innards heat up and boil.
Then heat and flames spread throughout its body. It squirmed on the ground. The expedition team saw the creature in flames as it wailed. Then, it ceased moving. It was dead.
Aiden absorbed its blood essence from the mat. He was not more than 20 meters way from it.
"Incoming," Aiden suddenly alerted them.
"Everyone, multiple rank 1 and rank 2 sandworms are approaching. These ones seem evolved. They have wings. They can fly. They keep shooting magma from their mouths," Aiden said.
A glint flashed through his mind.
"Shit... we are running out of worldly energy. Our elixirs are also finished. We can’t manipulate the gravitational field for long," Pamela said.
"We can just give you our remaining worldly energy recovery elixirs," Desmonda said.
"Even if you give them to us, it’s only a matter of time before we run out of them again. Our healers also need to conserve their energy for emergency situations where someone is seriously injured. They can’t use their affinity to solely hasten our recovery of energy. That’s not a wise approach," Asmodeus replied.
"I guess I need to handle this on my own," Aiden thought.
"It looks like we need to change our plans," Aiden said. "Stop controlling the gravitational field."
"What do you mean?" An instructor from Harland Metropolitan University said. "If they stop and a whirlwind appears, we are gonna die."
"If we don’t change our plan, we are all gonna die anyway. The situation has changed so we need to adapt. Of course, if any of you have better ideas that can keep us alive than the one I am about to propose, you can feel free to share them," Aiden said bluntly. He was not in the mood to entertain nonsense. He was not gonna die here because of someone’s lapse in judgement.
The instructor and everyone else who almost objected to Aiden’s words fell silent. Several contingencies and plans brewed in their minds but considering their current situation, they were not confident their ideas could keep the group alive. Also Aiden had proven himself to be a natural born commander, a tactical genius and someone whose abilities had saved them countless times on this expedition. They were not as stupid as Tori to doubt him and die.
Aiden took their silence as cooperation.
Aiden’s crimson eyes grew more crimson.
Several large blobs of his blood formed before him and under his will, they morphed into what looked like very large crimson eagles.
There were hundreds of them spread across the skies.
Everyone knew they were not real eagles. They were just constructs he had formed by manipulating his affinity.
But...
What sort of terrifying control over affinity was this? How could he manipulate his affinity to such a level? They thought. Also, to be able to use his affinity on such a scale...this...
"The sandworms number over thousands. We cannot handle them," Aiden said.
He pointed towards a particular direction.
Everyone snapped out of their thoughts and looked there. A horde of ginormous sandworms were approaching. Leading them were a large number of legendary rank 2 chaotic beasts.
Even the instructors who were legendary rank 2 warriors knew they could not handle these creatures.
"Indeed we are gonna die if we try fighting them," an instructor said.
"What are those for?" Cosmo pointed towards the hundreds of crimson eagles.
"Diversion," Desmonda said.
Aiden nodded. "Yes. I want to lure them towards some whirlwinds I just spotted ahead. If we can’t kill them, the environment will do the job for us."
Everyone now understood Aiden’s plan.
"That’s why you manipulated your blood into the shape of eagles. Giant sandworms and eagles do not see eye to eye. The sandworms are hunted by desert eagles a lot after all," the pocket world specialist said.
"Instead of heading our direction, the focus of the sandworms will shift. They will think those constructs of yours are eagles and follow them to kill them. That will lead them directly into the whirlwinds you’ve spotted ahead," Seraphina said.
Everyone else has also come to that same realization. They now understood Aiden’s plan. All of them were sharp. The students were elites and the instructors were experienced warriors who had closed gate after gate.
This was a flawless plan. Aiden Vhorn was indeed something else. One of his strengths was his ability to remain extremely clear headed in dangerous situations and find tactical solutions to those dangerous situations. An ability like that was rare, even for experienced warriors. This was why tacticians were rare individuals.
As for this Aiden Vhorn, was he just a tactician?
Absolutely not. He was also known for monstrous combat prowess, mastery over different weapons and he also had no weaknesses in battle. Having someone like him as an enemy was a really bad thing.
The mat kept gliding across the skies.
However, the crimson eagles shot towards different directions.
"I see the whirlwind there," someone said.
"There is another one approaching us from the front," another person added.
The group eventually spotted the whirlwinds Aiden had mentioned, razing across the desert, headed towards them.
The crimson eagles shot towards the whirlwinds.
The sandworms screeched and divided themselves into separate groups. They shot towards the crimson eagles.
Those bastards had been hunting them. Today, they would tear these eagles into shreds.
They followed the eagles towards the dark whirlwinds.
The eagles stopped in front of the whirlwinds approaching the expedition team on the floating crimson mat, from different directions.
The sandworms shot towards the crimson eagles. The eagles turned into tiny blobs of blood and disappeared into Aiden right when they were a few moments away from entering the whirlwinds.
But to sandworms, the eagles had entered the whirlwinds, so they went after them. The sandworms entered the whirlwinds.
"It worked," the group thought.
They watched as the screeches of the numerous sandworms stretched across the place.
Very soon, the screeches stopped.
But for the first time, something shocking happened.
The whirlwinds seemed to halt moving towards Aiden and the expedition team who were moving away on the mat. After that, the whirlwinds disappeared.
"It’s as if something is using the whirlwinds to feed. It’s like it’s had its fill and finally decided to stop feeding," Aiden thought.
He looked at where the whirlwinds previously were. Not even the corpses of the sandworms remained.
Nothing was left behind.
"Pity I couldn’t absorb their blood essence," Aiden sighed inwardly. "But at least we have a lead now."
A glint flashed through his eyes.
"Are you all thinking what I’m thinking?" The pocket world specialist said.
"What?"
Several asked.
"The whirlwinds are not caused by the environment. It’s most likely a very powerful legendary rank 2 creature. The whirlwinds we saw are simply the manifestation of its affinity," Aiden said.
Everyone realized it after Aiden pointed it out. It made perfect sense. But it was very shocking. Just how powerful could this legendary rank 2 creature be?
"Exactly," the pocket world specialist said. "I think the particular creature is the reason behind the gate formation. It’s energy undulations are too high so the spatial boundary of the pocket world destabilized and the gate formed."
Everyone nodded.
"We need to kill it to close the gate," everyone said at the same time.
"How do we kill it? And how can we find it in the first place?" A student of Cosmere City University asked.