How To Survive A Calamity

"...Haaah, how much longer do we have to remain like this for? There's obviously nothing in sight, and the temperature is crazy." Chelsea groaned with discomfort.

I shrugged with a sigh.

"We have to stay like this until those two finally return." As soon as i said those words, i turned to the side with narrow smile.

"Speaking of the devil."

The two familiar figures of Deandra and Don soon came into view. Their figures softly landed against the rising dunes of sand, carried by wisps of wind conjured by the psychic.

The first person to speak was Don. He stepped forward and spoke in a serious tone.

"We found traces of humans not too far from here."

Immediately as Don said that, his words made both Chelsea and Trise jump up to their feets in almost baffling perfect unison.

"Are you serious?"

"You did?"

I, too, rose up, not bothering to dust away the sand off my clothes, and walked up to Don while narrowing my eyes.

"Already?" I said.

Trise shot me a dubious glare from the side.

"What do you mean 'already'? Isn't it about time they did, what's with that sceptical response?"

That's precisely why...

I glanced silently at Trise for a few short seconds.

"...No, it's nothing." I shook my head dismissively and said before addressing Don again.

"And are you sure the traces belong to a different group? Not just monsters?"

"They weren't tracks that could have been made or left behind by the monsters we've met in the desert so far, so they're most likely human tracks. No, they definitely are."

The one who responded instead was Deandra, who resolutely confirmed their findings.

Since we more or less accepted that we would have to inevitably confront other groups for water, we had our group split up with Don and Deandra being our major scouts.

Now that we were actively trying to be covert and sneaky to lay ambush to other cadets, carelessly moving around together as a group in the name of scouting could just make us a bigger and easier target to others groups who are also haunting or tracking us from behind or afar.

Dividing also yielded it's own share of danger in this place, but we had to take either risk anyway.

Plus, there was also the small detail that Don could fly — or at least, levitating high enough above the ground to avoid the King of the Desert from sensing their movements.

And if the two moved as a smaller group together, it would be much easier for them to cover their own traces against other groups who may try to track them back.

'Traces left behind by humans...'

That was one way to look at it.

I restrained my thoughts and nodded at Deandra.

"Any other thing we should know about?"

"Huh? Things like wh—" Don began, but Deandra frowned a little and cut through instead.

"Other than if we don't get moving right now, we might lose the trail?"

I glanced at the peeved Don and Deandra then shrugged dryly.

"Point recieved. Then lead the way, group leader."

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***

Terra Sanguis was a world which experienced far longer days and shorter nights, which was often hard to tell the difference between the two.

But at times, there was a subtle difference in temperature, and the kinds of creatures which emerged during the supposedly night period were different than their day and morning counterparts.

And as for any changes in seasons or weather of this place, i had almost no clues about what to expect, and neither did Don.

But for the first time in the three days i have been stuck in this damned place, i begun to notice something... unusual happen as we were led by Deandra and Don. Experience new tales on empire

"Is that...a storm?"

Indeed, it was just as Chelsea said.

A storm was brewing.

Far towards the horizon in the vast distance, i could see what looked like dark billowing maroon clouds gather along the edges of red sky of this world, and i felt the slight rise and change in the wind that picked up only subtly.

"If there's any good thing, at least it still seems far off for now." I shrugged, trying to sound unenthusiastically optimistic.

But the bad thing was...for how long though?

"Let's just hurry with this and move on." Dom urged, his steps growing more urgent.

I shifted the matter of the distant storm brewing in the horizon to the back of my mind for now and focused at the current situation at hand.

In a few more minutes more, we arrived at the exact region the last traces of human movement were seen by Don and Deandra.

"Look, there are foot prints all over the place." Chelsea pointed at the ground and said.

There were trails and traces of foot prints leading off towards somewhere from where we were.

"These definitely look human, they couldn't be made by monsters. You can even tell there were more than one of them."

"Indeed." I solemnly stood over the scattered foot prints.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

They were scattered all over the place disorderly, as if there was some sort of struggle in the area before moving...

"They still look decent enough to follow, that means the owners may actually be nearby." Don inputted with excitement. The idea that we were possibly close to our targets was enough to make the situation seem more urgent.

Meanwhile, i stared at the footprints and scratched the back of my head with a complicated expression.

"How long did it take for us to get here, again...?"

"Vic, did you say something?" Chelsea said.

"...No, don't mind me. Nevermind." I replied and looked back at the others.

Shrugging my shoulders dryly, i gave an empty smile and gestured forward at the path ahead.

The foot prints were all over the place, but they still led towards an obvious direction.

And on the other side, at the end of the trail...

"Well, shall we, everyone?"

Our targets were waiting patiently for us.