Heir Of Chaos

As he opened the door, a pile of sand entered the door, touching his shoes. ’Huh.’ All things considered, a dirty shoe was better than being ingested by a worm.

Dale walked out and shut the door behind him. He needed to keep the cool air in.

He gripped the rag and navigated his way around the tower until he was at the base of the ladder that led up the side of it.

"I wonder why they didn’t construct this thing on the inside." In fact, he wondered how they had managed to construct it.

Were they that confident?... or were the worms that static that they hadn’t moved from their location since?

He got close to the lens and started to wipe. Unfortunately, the lens was extremely wide.

Dale gripped the ladder with his right arm and hooked his right leg around it with his left reaching out.

As he swiped the rag across the glass, beads of sweat pooled up and the rising sun did little to help.

When the heat was getting unbearable, a deep shadow was suddenly cast on him, sparing him from the direct glare of the sun.

He was about to lean into it and enjoy it when a sudden realization dawned on him. Since when did shadows suddenly appear from nowhere?

His eyes quickly darted to the cloudless azure sky.

"Shit!" Without bothering to look at what cast the shadow, he kicked off the ladder, throwing himself to the ground.

It didn’t matter if he ended up badly injured, it was better than being worm feed.

But before he could land, a pair of claws gripped his torso, digging their talons into him.

’Claws and talons?!’ No matter the case, worms didn’t have those.

Dale finally turned to look at what had cast the shadow and gripped him. The moment he glanced at it, he almost regretted that it wasn’t a worm.

For a lack of better words, it was an extremely ugly bird with rotten flesh above its sharply curved beak.

If Dale were a little bit more educated, he would’ve recognized the beast as a giant vulture.

The vulture streaked through the desert, the sandy air ruffling its feathers.

’What the hell?!’ Erin’s report hadn’t included anything about vultures. If it had, either he wouldn’t have bothered wiping the lens or he would have taken his sabers along.

Dale gritted his teeth and moved slightly to face the legs of the dastardly bird that held him.

He winced as the movement caused its claws to dig a little deeper into his flesh yet he shrugged it off and slammed his palms into the legs.

Dale unleashed wave after wave of Energy Pulse into the leg of the bird.

He wasn’t too sure what rank the beast was but if he had to make an educated guess, he would estimate it to be at least at the peak of the Awakened rank.

And in a situation where any difference in power meant death, every advantage was well-welcome.

The vulture screamed and let Dale go from its claws, scratching itself as its limbs twitched.

Dale fell from not less than 20 meters and slammed hard into a small hill of sand.

He managed to turn over while keeping pressure on the wounds opened up by the bird.

From his place lying down, he watched as the bird fell gracelessly from the sky.

It crashed a few meters away, throwing up some sand.

"At least the darn bird isn’t quick." He could still see the tower so if he ran, he could at least hope to get there before the beast recovered and resumed its chase.

Dale nodded and forced himself to his feet. Just as he did, a few drops of blood dripped off him and fell on the sand beneath him.

The hill of sand rose, throwing him off.

As he fell again, he groaned and yet still rolled until he was on his feet, running away without even looking at what was behind him.

He wasn’t stupid and still vividly remembered the reason why he was in the desert and what they were capable of.

It was undoubtedly a worm behind him.

’Shit! Shit! Shit!...’ He repeated to himself as he ran for his life.

Dale couldn’t even remember the last time he had run so fast for his life. He didn’t even stop to consider the rank of the worm.

He could feel the sand behind him being burrowed into and following him closely even as he tried to make sudden changes to his direction.

Just as he thought his luck couldn’t get any worse, a figure shot up from a pile of sand a few meters away.

The vulture shot forward at him.

’Damnation!’ He spun around on his heel and jumped into the air.

The worm shot out of the sand and slammed into him with enough force to knock the air out of his lungs.

During the brief moment of contact, he gripped its soft skin and released Energy Pulse into its muscles.

Dale was flung forward as the worm started to thrash around. He spun on the sand and continued to sprint.

The adrenaline numbed the pain of the wounds that had been inflicted upon him yet the blood loss wasn’t something that could be ignored.

Even as he ran and approached Watchtower One, his vision started to shift and blur, growing more unstable with each step.

Behind him, he heard the heavy thud of something slamming into the ground yet he didn’t dare look back.

Dale barely got back to the tower and opened the door, shutting it behind him.

"I. Barely. Survived." He gasped as he opened the first aid kit and started attending to his wounds.

While he wouldn’t call himself a doctor, there were a few things he could do. He had learned them from his time in the slums and the first year of boot camp.

Once he was stable enough, he pushed himself to go to the top floor and looked through the telescope. He wanted to ensure the beasts weren’t closing in on the tower.

"Damn." Was all he could think of as he stared at the visual of the vulture digging into the worm.

Maybe due to his ability skill, or something else entirely, the vulture had been able to kill the worm.

Because of him, the early bird had gotten the worm.

"This isn’t part of what they told me." He groaned and rubbed his hands roughly against his face.

He needed to contact them.