Chapter 13: 12. Sand Demon

It can't be. How…? How did he survive? Genevieve watches as the man reforms back in the dark desert. Methodically, the tiniest pieces of life are put back together until the drifter is fully formed. Amazing! Like before, hope goes unnoticed as it slips back into her heart.

***

Dying isn't fun. I recommend it to no one. On top of that, being cognitive during this dying process is unnerving and incredibly uncomfortable. I'd even venture to say it is awkwardly painful. Why am I torn to bits only to be placed together again? Is this normal for everyone else? Gut feelings tell me it's not, and I very well should be dead, twice over now, maybe even thrice.

This somewhat proves my earlier theory that I am a reject of death, and its exclusive club wants nothing to do with me. Jokes on them. I am setting up my own private club only for the living. We will be so exclusive that only the liveliest people get an invitation to try out for membership. Bones can be our bouncer, but he will never be allowed indoors.

To remedy Bones' exclusion, he and I can start another private club, just for the two of us and the other people we invite—almost like a club within a club. This club will extend past the strict rules of the private life club—making it more exotic and premium.

My mind gets a little off track with grandeur visions of club ownership. Eventually, I get to more productive thinking…self-assessments.

Man, Ken was such a dope. Couldn't even make it out of the desert. And the way he ran away from one scorpion. Haha. Pathetic. Kel might not have been impressive. Compared to Ken, though. Legendary. He killed like fifty of them on his own.

Who even likes the desert anyways? Probably the same type of people that confuse wood-plated armor as a comfortable hide to spread across the desert floor. Yeah, good luck sleeping on a tree, Ken.

What a piece of work that guy was.

Waking up isn't so confusing this time. Sure I've got my questions. Just this time, I had some experience to go off of. It takes a moment for my body to respond.

First, my eyes. Check.

Then my arms. Check.

Legs. Check.

And the rest follows.

This time though, I stay on the ground.

Sitting and contemplating is my task for the moment. It's nighttime anyways. I don't feel comfortable walking around with giant spiteful scorpions sinking stingers into people's backs. Nope, that's more of a Ken thing to do. If I'm going to be the poetic slayer of scorpions, I need to plan and prepare. I need armor, weapons, maybe a plan, and support.

Support and weaponry are covered.

Right now, I could use a bit of armor. Bone armor might not stop a full-blown attack from the scorpion, but it might help. Would definitely make me feel safer. I indulge in the thought and get to work pushing myself to figure out how to manipulate my mana into armor. I can already summon various items. Armor is trickier in how I get it to attach to my body and not restrict my movement.

Armor experimenting is demanding, and each failure takes a toll. Fortunately, the attempted casting isn't as demanding as summoning a minion. This allows me to fail over and over again.

I believe success is within my grasp, so I throw my will at the stubborn mana inside. In my mind, I can see the pale energy molding around my body, covering me in protection. It is only a matter of figuring out how to get the mana to work.

So far, I have been able to coat my arm entirely, even adding cover for my fingers. However, the armor is a cast restricting my hand and fingers from most of its movement. Completely encased, the armor sits on my arm without slipping. When I try to segment the armor to allow more mobility, the segmented pieces quickly fall or slide out of place.

Late into the night, I take a break from my experiments. Still sitting, I find myself in a trance as I'm entirely focused on my cycling mana. Death is raging all throughout me. However, it isn't a wild rage. The mana is smooth and orderly in its powerful, violent nature.

Summoning Bones requires will, mana, and a combination of physical and mental manifestation. Mental through thoughts and physical through hand gestures. Summoning armor based on my most successful attempts proves to be similar. I have the most success structuring the armor creation with my hands.

What am I missing? It feels like it is an issue with the mana—or maybe it is the armor—or both.

Focusing my thoughts on a newly created gauntlet, I force mana into it. As mana rushes into the protective glove, my fingers gain the ability to move once more.

Mana is the key to armor! The simple discovery does much to improve my attitude, diminishing the day full of failures in an instant.

To test this, I thoroughly coat my arm with the pale bone plating and push extra mana into it. Like the gauntlet, once mana enters the armor, I can move my arm.

For the next hour, I practice creating armor for my entire body. Some pale energy is lost in practice, and my casting stamina feels low. However, I have gained more than I lost.

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Through trial and error, I learn to push mana from my channels into my armor. While this is an active strain on my mana similar to Bones, I can be completely covered in armor. Not only that, I still have complete mobility without having to focus on each individual piece of armor. Mana-fueled armor also is the key to keeping segmented armor pieces in place. This allows me to apply armor only where I want it, reducing the overall weight.

I am wearing arm guards, pauldrons, bone boots, leggings, and a chest plate. There is no mirror to confirm this, but I'm pretty sure I look good. Like so good-looking, if anyone saw me in my pale gray armor, they would instantly want to be a part of any club I am in. At the very least, I am more intimidating in armor than without it, and intimidation is handsome in its own way.

Right? Probably not right.

Not only does it look good, it feels good. Mana, somehow, makes the bone protection feel more comfortable than it should. Even the shoes I am now wearing feel like a nice fit, though they still have a long way to go to be a good shoe. For now, they are functional.

After all the trial and error, I let my emotions of success prevail. Success! I learned a new casting, I'm more protected than before, and I have shoes. I'm smiling and laughing as happiness engulfs me. I didn't realize how much I needed this success. Dying twice must have taken a toll on me. Tears are threatening to wash my face when I reign them in.

That's more of a Ken thing anyway.

After my brief silent celebration is over, I get back to work. Bones is summoned next. The pale gray skeleton appears seconds later. Between Bones, my active armor, and the mana used up in practice, I have roughly thirty percent of the mana left in my core available to use. More than enough to summon some weapons and shields. Not only that, the lost mana used up in practice is slowly being restored.

Gear-wise, I have armor, a shield, and a spiked poleaxe. The poleaxe doesn't feel as natural as the sword. Still, I think the ax will be more effective against the tough armor of the scorpion we are going to hunt, and it will improve my range. Bones has a similar setup minus the armor. We are looking gruff and ready for a fight.

Even though it is still dark, I'm not tired and don't intend to sleep. Say one thing about dying; it sure is restful.

Success breeds success, and we continue to work. Now we are focussing on a plan and preparation. Gear alone won't win us this fight, I'm afraid. We need some type of advantage. Something that will cause the scorpion to be put off guard.

Some type of trap is what I am thinking. Rope traps would possibly work. That would be a lot of cord to make, though, and I'm not convinced the material here will be strong enough to restrict the scorpion beast. There aren't any resources for a fall trap of any kind. Spike traps aren't reliable.

Traps aren't looking too promising in this case. So maybe not so much of a trap, but an ambush is what we will create.

Mindset on an ambush, we spend the rest of the night preparing for the attack.

A location giving us a tactical advantage is picked, wood is harvested, fire is created and hidden, and a few torch spears are made. The last piece of the ambush involves us burying a plate of bone beneath the sand. The plating gives us better footing and hopefully stops the scorpion from burrowing once we launch our attack.

After all the preparation work, I am just about empty of mana. We take a break going over the plan mentally one more time, allowing for mana and channels to be restored.

Ready for a fight, Bones runs out to find the scorpion while I wait and hide.

Not like Ken hiding, though. He was a coward. Not that I have anything against cowards. You gotta do what you got to do to live. It was more that he was a failure with his cowardice. What good is running if it gets you the same results? Might as well sit and wait or die swinging.

My hiding is more to increase my chances of winning a tough fight. More like a Wayne kind of move. Yeah, Wayne—That feels right.

Around the time the sun begins to rise is when I sense the mana from Bones return to my core. Wasting no time, I strain my soul to summon Bones once me. When he appears, he gives me a nod, and we get into position.

Our backs towards the sun. Standing a few feet from the buried platform, we are in a large depression. It was the largest level area we could find.

Sandy clouds appear above the dune in front of us. Reflexively, I tighten my grip on my weapon hidden behind me. Bursting out of the dune in front of us is a fiend of a beast. Somehow the scorpion has transformed.

"Well...Shoot." involuntarily slips from my mouth.

Bones spares a glance from the side and gives me as much of a grin as he can. His message is clear...

"Chin up, Bones." I find myself filling the brief void of silence with words more meant for me. "There is a good chance this fellow is all show and no tell."

What once was an average-looking, abnormally large scorpion is now a more enormous, uglier scorpion. The Demon has thicker armor, three stingers, and nightmare-inducing pincers leading into a terrifying mouth. Each leg of the beast is covered in thick protective chitin; to make it even more threatening, they all look sharp as a sword. The monster had evolved.

This is going to get ugly.

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