Sand Mage of the Burnt Desert Chapter 2
Previously on Sand Mage of the Burnt Desert...
[Translator – Peptobismol]
Chapter 2
Thud! Thud!
The bus, armored with heavy plating, crumpled like crumpled paper from the enormous collision.
“Ugh!”
“Cough!”
Screams erupted as the vehicle flipped and hurled passengers about.
With no seatbelts or safety features, they ricocheted like ping-pong balls.
Zeon fared no differently.
“Ugh!”
Stunned and rolling, Zeon finally snapped back to awareness and stood up.
Blood trickled from his brow, yet he had no moment to clear it.
The astonishing view beyond the window seized everyone's focus.
Swoosh!
Red sand filled every view.
The giant armored bus had been engulfed entirely by desert dunes.
“Shit! The sandworm’s pulling the bus under the sand.”
“We’re done for.”
“Fuck! No Awakened One here?”
Panic gripped the bus interior.
Thud-thud-thud!
Even then, chunks of the bus armor peeled away like flimsy scraps.
Soon, the plating would strip completely, turning those inside into sandworm prey.
They might not last that long, buried alive and suffocating. Choking on sand could prove a mercy.
Then it struck.
“You filthy bug…”
A miner bellowed, flinging his hand at the window.
Shoosh!
A wind gust laced with a blade burst from the miner’s palm.
Zeon’s eyes bulged.
‘An Awakened One.’
From the wind-blade, he clearly hailed from the magic realm.
Yet the strike lacked punch.
Poof!
The wind-blade fizzled against the enveloping sand and vanished.
No mark on the sandworm’s hide.
Hope flickered then died on passengers’ faces.
“F-rank.”
“Damn! Makes sense. Real Awakened Ones skip Magic Stone Mines.”
Ranks created vast gaps among Awakened Ones.
F-ranks sat at the ecosystem’s base, mere stones.
Far beyond normals, but helpless against behemoths like sandworms.
Zeon puzzled over an F-rank boarding the mine-bound bus, but the wind-blade proved useless against the sandworm.
Worse, a bad matchup.
Wind-blade couldn’t breach the sand cloaking the beast.
“Die! Die already!”
The Awakened One raged, firing wind-blades nonstop. They failed to pierce, draining his mana alone.
Then it came.
The armor near the Awakened One ripped open, revealing a huge tongue.
The sandworm’s tongue.
It whipped out, snaring the Awakened One, vanishing into the sand instantly.
“Aaaah!”
His agonized cry rang through the dunes.
The scream cut short, but the fate was obvious.
“We’re all dead! Dead!”
“What now?”
“Sob!”
Sand flooded the bus like a torrent. Another vanished.
“Argh!”
Zeon clamped his lip tight.
Blood seeped, pain ignored.
Sand climbed to his waist.
Buried alive or worm food?
Neither appealed.
His racing mind stalled, frozen like under a petrify curse, blank.
Thud!
Suddenly, a huge jolt tore the bus apart.
“Aaah!”
“Cough!”
Dozens of riders plunged into the sand.
“Damn it!”
Zeon swore, eyes darting.
Sand lapped his shoulders; nearby figures blurred.
Zeon chose.
‘This way, death.’
Swoosh!
He ripped his shirt fast, forming a long strip. He bound it over eyes, nose, ears, mouth.
Desperate shield from sand.
Ready in seconds, Zeon dove into the flow.
‘Gasp!’
Desert grains crushed down with crushing force, halting breath or twitch.
Zeon yielded to the weight, not fighting.
Creak!
Metal groaned faintly in collapse.
The bus’s dying wail.
Zeon knew the trapped ones’ doom without looking.
Swoosh!
Sand swelled like tides.
A massive presence burrowed near.
‘It’s near.’
Zeon squirmed to flee, but pressure pinned him immobile.
The sandworm closed in relentlessly.
‘No death. Not now.’
His pulse thundered.
Heart threatened to burst before fangs struck.
Blood surged wildly, racing to his skull.
Bang!
Something detonated in Zeon’s head.
A personal blast, felt solely by him.
[Translator – Peptobismol]
Seven lines etched on Zeon’s wrist.
Their base glowed orange, tattoo-like.
Invisible to him, yet Zeon knew innately.
‘Awakening.’
The rare gift had chosen him.
His powers? Unknown.
Couldn’t view the wrist mark.
Awakened wrists bore seven-bar insignias, like ranks.
Awakening eased breath; pressure lifted.
Crushing sand turned womb-soft.
No lessons needed; sand linked his power.
Zeon swished his hand; his body surged ahead effortlessly.
Whoosh!
A vast maw gaped where he’d lingered.
Teeth whirled like cogs in the sandworm’s jaws, red with fresh gore.
Roar!
The mouth engulfed his prior spot.
A heartbeat’s delay, and Zeon joins the feast.
‘Madness!’
Ice chilled his back.
Awakening saved him narrowly, but the threat loomed.
Sand-swimming wouldn’t topple the desert lord.
The F-rank’s fate proved it.
‘Escape first, via powers.’
Zeon thrust hands out.
His form glided through sand like a dolphin, grains parting welcomingly.
He knifed upward to air.
A quake erupted behind.
Sandworm hunted.
Zeon sped, but the beast outpaced. Catch-up loomed.
‘Just sand-swim? Nothing else?’
A chill spiked.
The sandworm neared.
Its jaws loomed aft.
He wished sand jammed its gullet, stuffed with victims.
Sand currents twisted oddly around him.
Grains amassed ahead, compressing tight.
Zeon eyed the packed mass.
‘Sand Blaster.’
Untaught, the term surfaced.
Skills emerged thus, etched deep, triggered right.
Fwoosh!
Compressed sand blasted like a hose.
The jet speared the sandworm’s throat.
A tiny roof puncture outside, but inside shredded like cloth.
The sandworm wailed.
Kwaaagh!
It convulsed wildly; sands quaked like quake.
Zeon bolted ahead.
Thus, he distanced, broke surface.
“Puh-ha!”
Zeon exhaled pent-up air.
Clean oxygen revived him.
Then.
“Survivor! See, a survivor.”
“Sandworm confirmed. Prep, everyone.”
Voices hit Zeon.
He looked up: a small ride.
Thick-armored buggy with desert tires.
Sandworm be damned; occupants stayed calm.
Men radiating odd power neared in the vehicle.
‘Awakened Ones.’
Obvious at sight.
Desert stride sans fear screamed strength.
Then.
Whoosh!
The pursuing sandworm erupted.
The leader, middle-aged, yelled.
“Grab it! Stop its dive.”
“Got it, Captain.”
A sky-blue haired woman replied sweetly, hand toward beast.
Instant frost bloomed, icing sand at submersion point. Worm froze atop, twisting.
The blue-haired woman warned.
“Too huge; seconds only.”
“Plenty.”
Captain grinned icy.
He unsheathed claymore, rushed. Team followed.
“Waaah!”
Blade dropped guillotine-like.
Crush!
Tough hide shredded papery, flesh bared red.
Worm bucked hurt.
A subordinate neared, palmed it.
“Surface sandworm? Prime rarity.”
Such hunts rare gems.
Wuuung!
Palm hummed supersonic.
Aidan’s Ultra-Vibration.
Boom!
Spot burst fireworks-like.
Finale: the late giant.
Towering double-normal, he leaped, smashed head-on.
Bang!
Thunderclap; skull pulped.
“Haha!”
Giant bellowed, bathing in gore.
Zeon gaped.
‘Lunatics!’
Seconds turned devourer to chunks.
Unbelievable sans witness.
Swoosh!
Captain sheathed, eyed Zeon.
Zeon shivered.
Those sunken icy eyes terrified.
“You the sole survivor from that bus?”
[Translator – Peptobismol]