Chapter 10: The Hurdles That is Set To Change Kelvin’s Life
The desert never slept. It merely waited as the colors of the sky kept changing.
Kelvin walked slowly through a canyon of broken stone and sun-scorched cliffs, the trail to Riftspire were fading like a memory behind him. His breaths were shallow like as if sand were clinging to his lips, his eyes were squinting against the glare of noon.
His supplies had dwindled to scraps, two strips of dried meat, a half-skin of brackish water, and no herbs for the infection blooming in his thigh but worse than the hunger or the heat that he was experiencing was the pressure, the constant beat of the sigil beneath his skin.
Xerion stirred up within him, whispering, growling and testing every now and then, the creature would push like a caged beast slamming against its bars, urging Kelvin to unleash more of the power he barely understood.
And each time it urged, Kelvin resisted.
But resistance had its price.
The first trial came at dawn.
The sand beneath his boots shifted, subtly at first then violently, like a living thing was breathing beneath the surface. A low rolling sound split the air with a burst.
A Riftbeast, broad as a cart and armored like a tank clawed out from beneath the desert floor. Its segmented shell reflects small flashes of light with bone-colored in ridges and rows of luminous eyes blinked across its face.
The beast known as a Silicrawler snapped its saw-like mandibles, he released venom and it flowed from its fangs as it produced a high-pitched piercing sound.
Kelvin staggered back as he raised his spear instinctively.