Wow, I sure have come a long way. I hereby submit the 30th chapter to "Medieval Cohesion", and as you probably have noticed, the thumbnail to my chapters have received an upgrade. You should now see the beautiful logo to my story, drawn and designed by my dear friend . In this chapter, the characters will embark on their journey through the desert towards the border. But will it be safe to travel through the desert at night as Raksasha claimed?

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Chapter 30 - Subterranean menace

Hours passed by and midnight approached. The entire camp within the fortress was completely quiet, and everybody had gone to sleep. Despite my mind’s intense activity earlier, I eventually fell asleep and rested for hours, having slided into deep peaceful slumber. Even with the chieftain having been kicked out, the experience from earlier still left me nervous and paranoid. So while laying down on my back, I slept with my fist clenched around the hilt of my sword. If anyone else wanted to attack me in my sleep, then I wanted to be somewhat better prepared than I was the last time. Deep inside, I knew there were no more enemies within this camp to worry about. But after this horrifying experience I’ve endured, I needed something from which to draw a sense of security, so it was possible for me to fall asleep again. My fright was like the aftershock of an earthquake, and would fade away eventually. Once I went back to rest, I could feel my body passed into a state of complete relaxation. After having spend so much time and energy on traveling through the forsaken desert, I really needed this opportunity to recover lost strength. As much as I hate to admit it, my heavy armor has been quite a burden lately. But I must keep my mind focused at how many times it has saved me from becoming seriously injured. Unfortunately, the many attacks I’ve endured has left my armor somewhat damaged and dented. Nothing lasts forever.

The nights in the desert sure are quiet and calm. The straps of rope holding the tent in place are nicely secured, but every time a gentle breeze entered the fortress, the walls motioned once it was grazed by the wind. At first, the constant motion of the tent was rather disturbing, especially since it released noises that easily could interrupt a persons sleep. It didn’t take me long to get used to it though. But now, our time had almost expired. It was finally midnight. And I was still sleeping like a rock. It didn’t even wake me up when someone suddenly stepped inside my tent and wasn’t being very discrete when approaching me. But then this certain someone grabbed very gently onto my arm, obviously not wanting to frighten me when I was sleeping with my sword in hand. My eyes opened and blinked, before gazing directly up into the face of Raksasha kneeling down to reach me. It was time. I nodded once to confirm that I was ready and would be joining them shortly. She nodded back and got back up on her feet, before leaving the tent again. We didn’t want to wake up the person living here, or anyone else living in the camp. They knew that we had to leave by night, but there was no point in waking everyone up at such a late hour. We’ll be gone by dawn, whenever the barbarians wake up to face a new day in the desert.

I stepped out of the tent and stretched my aching limbs out. It felt wonderful. Those hours of sleep really replenished my lost energy effectively. We didn’t have time to discuss where we should regroup before heading out, but I figured that we’d just meet up by the gate and wait for each other. So after having left the tent, I went for a lonesome stroll through the empty camp, treading carefully to avoid waking people up. And just as I expected, I found my friends waiting for me by the large wooden gate leading into the desert. It seems like I’m late, and apparently also the last person to arrive. Everyone else were there. Paul was leaning up against the wooden wall, seeming rather impatient. Raksasha were also standing there, carrying the giant axe that we collected from Harkan’s sarcophagus. It caught my attention that she had also equipped a small wooden shield by the size of a buckler. Nothing fancy, and I somehow can’t imagine it will provide much protection. But with her formidable strength, at least it won’t burden her much either. Zephyr and the shaman had also arrived, and seemed ready to start the last journey through these sandy plains. Once they noticed me, they smiled and greeted me with a silent nod. We’d wait with opening conversations till we had left the camp. Now that we were all gathered, we swiftly regrouped and turned towards the large wooden gate.

What seemed to be the only barbarians awake at this late our, was the two guards keeping watch by the gate. But these were not the same guards that we met back when we came here. By the looks of it, they make a shift every twelve hours or so, to make sure that its not the same guards standing there all day. And yet, they do seem to want the gate guarded the entire day, perhaps even especially throughout the nights. Once they sensed that our group was gathered and we were ready to leave, they slowly opened the wooden gate for us. Side by side, the five of us stepped out into the large open desert, starting our journey back to the border. Despite that Raksasha has lived in this desert her entire life, she claimed that she did know the way to the border, marking the entrance to our region. She had just never crossed it before. The guards closed the gate right after we had stepped outside, before returning to their posts. I noticed that the stains of blood from Thorshak were still visible in the sand, but by now, it was all dry and congealed. But with Raksasha having occupied the role as our guide again, she made a slight turn, adjusting to a direction that was clearly not the way Thorshak went. We all followed her closely, having great faith in her ability to navigate through this endless ocean of sand. Good gracious, I really look forward to escaping this desert and make my way back to our own region.

Once we had moved fairly far away from the fortress, and were surrounded by endless plains of sand again, I had to admit that I was positively surprised. It was actually a very pleasant experience to travel through the desert during night, as long as you’ve had time to rest before you embark on the journey. There wasn’t a single cloud blocking the sky, so you could see the bright and sparkling stars clearly. The desert was dimly illuminated by beautiful moonlight. It felt rather enchanting. Most importantly, the temperature had dropped drastically, due to the absence of sunlight. The sand we walked through still emitted a gentle warmth which it must’ve absorbed from the sunlight during daytime. The moderate temperature made our bodies feel much lighter, and our muscles could endure longer distances without aching and growing tired. Best of all, the lack of heat kept our thirst at bay, so we didn’t have to worry so much about our low amount of leftover liquid. But still, if we were fortunate enough to come across a bunch of wild cacti out here, I’d grab the chance to refill our empty waterskins. Just to be secure. I certainly hope to reach the border before the sun returns by dawn.

After a few hours of traveling through the desert, I could finally feel that my leg muscles were starting to ache. We occasionally had to cross steep dunes of sand, and I quickly realized that my legs were under a whole lot more pressure when our hike was going upwards. I would greatly having preferred walking around those dunes instead of crossing them, but Raksasha insisted that we should make use of every shortcut available, to reach the border before dawn. She did have a good point. Unfortunately for us, there awaited us an unexpected surprise once we moved out into a large open area. There were no dunes around, just flat plains of sand. But that’s when we noticed that dark shady figures appeared by the horizon right in front of us. It seemed to be a group of people, but that was all we could tell by now. Once they noticed us, they changed direction and headed straight towards us. And my intuition told me that they approached us with hostile intentions. When they came close enough for us to examine them, we found out that they were all men wearing black desert robes, possibly designed to improve their stealth in darkness. They had their heads wrapped up in black clothes, leaving only their eyes exposed, effectively hiding their identities. Since only few of them had stepped out of the darkness, it was hard to count how many they were. But they were definitely looking for trouble. Once they came close, they suddenly unsheathed sharp and curved sabers. Some of them had two sabers equipped, one in each hand. Raksasha placed herself in a defensive stance and left her giant axe ready for the inevitable fight.

Raksasha: Desert bandits… be careful. They attack any group of travelers that they think can be defeated, in hopes of looting their corpses for valuable possessions. They cannot be reasoned with.
Paul: If they won’t step aside, then we have no choice but to force our way through. Prepare yourself for battle, everyone!
Raksasha: Don’t underestimate them. They may be dishonorable thieves, but they are very swift and deadly swordfighters.
Sinqularis: Here they come!

The group of desert bandits quickly approached us but they didn’t attack us head on. Instead, they circled around us in an attempt to surround us, and there was nothing we could do to avoid it. Once they had surrounded us, they finally approached us from all directions, with their sharp sabers prepared. They certainly knew how to work as a team, when hunting for potential victims. We were greatly outnumbered, but their lack of defense made me believe that they’d be easy to cut down, if only we can successfully land a hit. Those desert robes won’t offer them much protection. For swift foes like these, I chose to keep my shield on my back and hold my sword with both hands. Then it should be possible for me to attack faster, with the downside being that it’s a lot more difficult to block incoming attacks with a blade. I heard the sound of a chain straightening out as Paul had equipped his flail, the expression on his face revealing that he was in the mood to fight. The bandits approached us very slowly, standing closely side by side, not wanting to leave any open holes for us to escape. I was honestly starting to feel nervous now. Because if these guys are as fast as Raksasha claims, then I’m not sure if we can deflect a whole flurry of attacks coming from all directions. Behind the bandits closing in on us, were even more bandits standing by, waiting for the opportune moment to join in. They all wore the same black robes, and if the area wasn’t illuminated by moonlight, then I swear the bandits would’ve been almost perfectly camouflaged in the darkness.

But it was quickly revealed that I was not the only person here who suspected, that letting the bandits surround us and attack from all directions, could lead to certain doom. Before the bandits had the chance to carry out their intentions, Zephyr held his giant spear horizontally and charged forward. This was not an attack meant to harm or kill. The bandits did not expect this at all, so with the shaft of the spear and his strength, he shoved several bandits back and cleared a path through the crowd. Raksasha was the next to charge forward and break their wall of defenses, using her heavy body to topple whoever was in her way. Thanks to Zephyr and Raksasha, the bandits now scattered around, no longer able to concentrate their attacks as a group. It leveled the playground effectively and raised our chances of dealing with each opponent individually. The three of us still standing back didn’t hesitate for long before charging forward to help our friends already in combat. Paul and I attempted to stay close to cover each others back, and at the same time, we wanted to protect the shaman who was still unarmed after having lost his staff back in the arena. We thought he’d be defenseless and vulnerable in this situation, but we were quickly proven wrong.

After the group of desert bandits was scattered around the area, one of them eyed out our unarmed shaman and considered him an easy target. He immediately cancelled whatever he was doing and sprinted towards our seemingly vulnerable shaman at a high speed. But surprisingly, the shaman didn’t seem intimidated at all, despite that a bandit wielding two sharp sabers was approaching him with haste. Once our shaman was within range, the bandit released a flurry of swift attacks, using both sabers simultaneously. Their skill in sword fighting was definitely remarkable. Supported by his natural excellence in agility and reflexes, the shaman swayed and sidestepped to dodge the sharp blades, and then he suddenly broke the seemingly endless combo by smashing his knee into the bandits stomach. The bandit bended forward, obviously in great pain, temporarily stunned. Then I watched as the shaman sat down onto the bandit’s back and swung his legs onto the other side, before grabbing onto the bandit’s clothes from behind, tossing him over his shoulder. The bandit was tossed through the air and ended up crashing into another bandit further away, knocking them both out for a brief moment. I wonder if that was intentional, or just a stroke of luck. Either way, it was certainly well fought, especially for a guy who enters combat unarmed.

Having determined that the shaman can handle himself just fine, Paul and I remained side by side, and moved forward to engage the enemies ourselves. Despite that we were fighting living people, it seemed like we all agreed that there should be shown no mercy. Paul was quick to duck as a bandit was send flying through the air from the direction where Zephyr and Raksasha were releasing their combined fury. Being caught in a deadly fight with notorious brigands, I chose to abandon my sense of honor, and just strike at any person who wasn’t an ally. Even if my enemy didn’t see me coming, or was busy fighting another opponent. A bandit was about to run right past me, possibly intending to join the rather large group of bandits desperately attempting to overpower Raksasha and Zephyr. But my reflexes made me swiftly raise my sword and deliver a slashing attack, causing my blade to penetrate the guy’s stomach. The lethal blow made him sag for a short moment before collapsing onto the ground, dead after only a few seconds. I sensed danger lurking behind me, and I barely managed to turn around before another bandit was trying to overwhelm me with a combo of consecutive attacks. As my only option, I held onto the hilt of my sword with both hands, and deflected the attacks to the best of my ability. But I eventually missed one attack, which caused the saber to strike towards my face, grazing me slightly and leaving a bleeding gash behind on my cheek.

Wesley: Arghh! You son of a bitch…

Raksasha certainly wasn’t kidding. These guys are horribly fast. Perhaps even too swift for my skill to match. Fueled by anger and a thirst for revenge, the adrenalin pumping in my veins pushed me to counter with a short combo of attacks myself, forcing the bandit to block the blows with his sabers. During my attacks, I noticed my opponent focused a lot on blocking attacks aimed at his chest. So I finished the combo by delivering a thrusting stab towards his belly which he clearly wasn’t prepared for, causing him to become impaled on my blade. The guy shrieked and his eyes opened widely. The tip of my sword poked out of his back, covered with blood. But then I just pushed him away with my foot, pulling my sword back out, making him fall lifelessly to the ground. Yet another bandit sought to strike me down while I was recovering from a rough victory, but as he charged forward to attack me with his saber raised, the chain of a flail suddenly coiled around the blade and pulled it swiftly out of the brigands hand. Carrying only one saber, this left him unarmed and confused. But just as he turned around to see who snatched his saber, a spiked iron ball crashed directly into his face, making me appreciate that his head was covered by black cloth. His face must’ve been mutilated after that blow, and his skull severely damaged. The guy dropped onto his knees and eventually collapsed onto his chest.

Paul: Close one! These guys sure are quick and feisty.
Wesley: Watch out behind you!

Without even turning his head to look, Paul thrusted his elbow backwards, striking an attacking bandit right in the face with almost perfect precision. The bandit’s eyes rolled before he passed out and fell to the ground. Paul smiled to me and nodded, thanking me silently. Fairly far from our location, Raksasha and Zephyr were still fighting side by side, combining their strength for amplified carnage. Once those two stand together in combat, they sure make one hell of an intimidating team. Since they were so greatly outnumbered, Zephyr struck his opponents with the shaft of his spear to weaken them, and didn’t use the lethal part of his spear before he noticed someone dropping their defense. I incidentally turned my head and watched during the same moment that Zephyr managed to impale a bandit by his chest, raising him from the ground to have him slide further onto the spear. It was a very bloody and gory experience to watch, but an attack that brutal wouldn’t leave anyone suffering for long. Once the bandit impaled on his spear had perished, he swung the spear in a circular motion so that the dead bandit would fly off and topple enemies caught in its path. Very effective when it works.

Raksasha seemed to have a hard time hitting these swift opponents with the giant axe, since she can’t swing it fast enough. She still needs time to practice using that weapon effectively in combat. But fortunate for her, her body is almost just as lethal as the weapon itself. She seemed to have her own opinion about how a shield is supposed to block attacks. Some of the times where the bandits attempted to catch her in a flurry of swift attacks, she instantly broke through the combo by smashing the wooden shield against them, sending them flying several feet away. How her shield can endure that treatment without shattering is beyond me. Even though she can’t seem to hit the opponents with her axe, she does seem to clear a lot of space when she swings it horizontally. Everyone leaps back to avoid the axe, giving her plenty of room to unfold her amazing combat abilities. An unfortunate bandit who attempted to run past her was grabbed by the throat, held by the same hand that had the small wooden shield attached to it. She raised him into the air, and before he had the chance to panic, she brutally snapped his neck with a sinister cracking noise that was loud enough for everyone to hear. His legs still twitched weakly even after his death, and once she let go, his corpse fell to the ground like a rock. Sometimes, my allies seem to frighten me more than my opponents does. That guy is certainly not coming back.

By now, we had almost defeated about half of the bandits, but those remaining still seemed eager to continue the fight. While we were distracted by combat, our fight was suddenly effectively interrupted by an intense rumble coming from underground. The strong tremors made everyone stop fighting and struggle to keep their balance. What on earth was going on? Everyone gasped as a tremendously large mound formed in the sand, growing larger with every second. Not knowing what to expect, we all staggered backwards away from the mound, preparing ourselves for whatever was approaching. It seemed like the bandits and my friends had silently agreed to accept a temporary truce and work together against the approaching menace. The loud rumble suddenly stopped, and the mound didn’t grow anymore. Everything became completely silent. But just as we thought that the worst part was over, a gigantic disgusting sandworm suddenly sprouted from the mound, releasing a horrible screeching sound when making an appearance. This sandworm was many times bigger than the small sandworms we encountered earlier, so my guess would be that this is the queen, the great mother of all sandworms. Possibly the most thick and nasty beast I’ve ever laid my eyes on. It seemed incredibly slimy and repulsive.

Raksasha: This can’t be! All the ruckus up here must’ve awoken the queen and drawn her to our location. She is very angry…
Paul: Any suggestions?
Raksasha: We can’t run from this. Our only choice is to stand and fight!

Unfortunately, one of the bandits were so overwhelmed by fear that he didn’t heed Raksasha’s advice. He dropped his sabers and attempted to flee, running as if he was chased by the devil himself. Once the gigantic sandworm sensed the motion, she quickly turned and attacked the coward, trapping his upper body inside her large mouth. The curved teeth kept him stuck, and then she raised her head again to gobble him up, leaving us all watching as the bandit was swallowed alive and disappeared into her gullet. Though the rest of the bandits were shaking with fear, this motivated them to not make any more foolish attempts to escape. Having no other option available, we all gathered and charged forward to attack the sandworm. I ran along the left side of the worm, plunging my sword into it’s body and had the blade rend it’s soft flesh as I sprinted forward. A long scar was left in its body, and my sword was covered with green goo, supposedly being it’s blood. But despite leaving the sandworm bleeding, the damage really didn’t seem to slow the beast down or weaken it. Zephyr and two bandits had leaped onto its back, slashing and stabbing it from above, seemingly to no effect at all. In the end, the worm motioned its body in waves, making it impossible for Zephyr and the bandits to keep their balance. They were shaken off with ease and fell down, rolling through the soft sand in various directions.

Raksasha: It’s no use! None of our weapons are long enough to reach any of its vital organs. It’s only weak spot is the stomach.
Zephyr: The stomach!? There’s no way we can get under that thing…

After having shaken off the attackers, the sandworms stomach suddenly started gurgling loudly, and its entire body curled slightly. What was going on? My intuition told me that we’d do best in remaining on guard. Then the giant sandworm suddenly hurled up a huge blob of goo, launching it towards a very unfortunate opponent. A bandit did not see this coming, so the mass of goo splashed on his torso, sticking to his body. The bandit suddenly released a deafening scream as the goo dissolved his clothes and quickly etched into his bare chest, to the point where his ribcage was showing. The goo was full of intense stomach acid, making it dangerously corrosive. The poor guy fell over and squirmed onto the ground, until the acid made contact with his heart. Then his screams slowly faded away, and he suffered a fatal death, dying with his eyes left open. Before I had a chance to recover from the shock, the sandworms stomach gurgled again, and then it hurled up another blob of goo. This time, it apparently targeted me. With my eyes fixed on the blob approaching me, I staggered quickly backwards but were forced to leap in the last second, doing a swift back roll through the sand. The blob splashed on the ground right in front of me, steaming visibly. My eyes were wide open and I panted, realizing how close I was to having died.

Once the beast realized that we wouldn’t fall for its acidic attack anymore, it chose to use its entire body as a weapon, sweeping its large tail across the ground towards our group. The shaman and Zephyr was quick to leap high into the air and dodge the attack, but unfortunately, everyone else was struck and toppled. Not even Raksasha was left standing after having been struck by a tail of that size. It didn’t cause much damage, but the sandworm managed to stun us all, including the surviving bandits. It intended to charge forward and crush as many of us as possibly before we could recover from the attack, but then Zephyr and the shaman dropped back down in front of it, blocking it’s path. While laying down defenselessly, I watched as the shaman grabbed the two sabers that the coward left behind earlier, and then leaped high into the air again. The shaman bounced once onto the sandworms head, and jumped down onto its back before it had the chance to attack him. Then he sat down onto the sandworms back and quickly stabbed both the sabers all the way into its body, holding onto the hilts to avoid being shaken off. The sandworm released a sinister screeching noise in pain, and then it raised the upper half of its body in an attempt to shake the shaman off, exposing its vulnerable belly in the process. And as Zephyr was still standing in front of the sandworm, he was prepared to strike.

Zephyr held his spear horizontally and tossed it slightly into the air, adjusting it so that he held onto the middle of the shaft with one hand. Then he used his giant spear like a javelin, tossing it towards the sandworm, making it plunge directly into its exposed stomach. Having been given only this one chance, Zephyr risked everything and charged forward, jumping up to grab the shaft of his spear with both hands. His weight pulled the spear down, making it rip the sandworms belly open, before he was able to pull it back out. He was quick to jump out of the way as large organs poured out of the hole in its stomach. I was dangerously close to throwing up as I saw the semi-digested corpse of the bandit who was eaten earlier, slide right out of the open hole in the sandworms belly. He was definitely dead. The sandworm squirmed intensely and did a strong twitch that made the shaman lose his grip and fall off. But even though he was tossed off, he managed to land on his feet and strike a defensive pose in a kneeling position. The sandworm was definitely dying, but the shaman wanted to be prepared, in case it pulled its strength together to perform one final attack. Everyone backed off and the sandworm slowly lowered the upper half of its body down, showing that it was growing weaker. Sensing its end approaching, the sandworm used its last strength to very slowly crawl back into the tunnel from which it came, to die silently underground. As if it was handling its own burial. No one considered it necessary to rob it of that opportunity.

After the gigantic sandworm had retreated back into the underground tunnels, we all slowly recovered and got back up on our feet. The few bandits left alive were apparently not interested in finishing what they started, because they all chose to flee into the desert now that the sandworm was defeated. We saw no reason to pursue them. The two sabers that the shaman stabbed into the worm’s back were left by the entrance of its tunnel, since the tunnel was only just wide enough for the sandworm to squeeze into. Both sabers were dripping with the green sticky blood. Once we regrouped, I could see that the bleeding gash I had across my cheek was nothing compared to what Zephyr and Raksasha had endured. Throughout the whole fight, most of the bandits were focusing their attacks on them, because they for obvious reasons are the toughest warriors from our group to defeat. They both had cuts on their arms, legs, stomachs and torsos. But thankfully, it seemed like they had only occasionally been grazed by the blades, during the whirlwind of swift attacks. None of the wounds were lethal. Paul and the shaman had bruises on their bodies, but had apparently been fortunate enough to dodge the blades with their agility and skill in evasion. Once we’ve had the opportunity to breath, we’ll resume our journey towards the border. But after this experience, I’m starting to become incredibly desperate to get out of this bloody desert, before something else unexpected happens.