Chapter 330 Faceoff in the wastes
Chapter 330 FaceOff in the Wastes
Nira’s POV:
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Zachary’s face drained of color. “The Dark Desert! Listen up, everyone–stay sharp. We’re crossing the threshold now. All electronic gear is about to go dead.”
True to his word, Kade’s positioning unit let out a shrill, piercing alarm before the screen on the device began to warp and distort. the image dissolving into digital static.
He didn’t hesitate; he killed the power immediately. “We’re going old–school.”
He rummaged through his pack and produced a rugged, analogue compass. “Back to magnetic positioning.”
We had barely stepped foot inside the perimeter when the temperature plummeted. The drop was jarring, losing more than ten degrees in a heartbeat, as if we’d walked straight into a refrigerator.
Even Lyra, my wolf spirit, went silent. Just like the others, I felt the severance of our mental link–cut off by the strange, oppressive magnetic field that permeated this place. The black sand crunched under our boots with a sickening sound, like grinding bones or gnashing teeth.
“Keep the formation tight!” Kade barked, raising his voice to be heard over the rising wind. “Maintain a six–foot gap between you and the next man. Don’t bunch up, but don’t drift!”
Suddenly, a shout erupted from the periphery of the group.
The team whipped around to see one of the operatives flailing. He had already sunk waist–deep into the ground, and he was still dropping fast.
“Freeze! Don’t struggle!” I yelled, simultaneously tossing a coil of rope and flinging a handful of golden powder from my satchel.
The concoction hit the shifting ground and instantly reacted. The quicksand seized up, solidifying into something resembling rock for just a few seconds–buying us the precious window needed to haul him out.
Relief washed over the group as the man was dragged to safety, but the looks they exchanged were fraught with terror.
Clark and Desmond pulled him onto solid ground. He collapsed, panting, his face ashen. “There was… something under the sand. It was pulling me down…”
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Kade crouched to inspect the man’s ankle. Dark, purplish–black bruises were already blooming where the unseen grip had been. A collective shiver ran down the spines of everyone watching.
“We keep moving,” Kade said, his voice low and grim. “We need to find a defensible position to camp before full dark.”
By dusk, we managed to find a temporary refuge in a cluster of weathered rock formations. The towering stone walls created a natural barrier, shielding us from the stinging, windblown sand.
“We make camp here,” Kade decided, scanning the perimeter. “The rocks will absorb the sun’s heat during the day and radiate it back at night. It’ll keep us from freezing to death.”
The team worked efficiently to pitch the tents. I retrieved my specialized supply of herbs and dusted a thick line around the camp’s perimeter. “This should ward off the nocturnal nasties.”
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Chapter 330 Faceoff in The Wastes
As the sun dipped below the horizon, the temperature nosedived. The transition was brutal.
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Clark hugged himself, rubbing his arms vigorously His breath puffed in the air like they clouds. “Damn, it’s gotta be below freezing, right?”
Desmond dug into his pack for solid fuel blocks: “We need a fire, stat. If we don’t get some heat going, hypothermia in going to take us before the desert does.”
We had a blaze going in minutes. The orange glow of the fire offered a small circle of comfort against the encroaching, freezing night. We huddled together, sharing the meager supplies of dry rations we had left.
Then, I heard it.
My head snapped up, and I held up a hand for silence. “Shh… listen. Stop talking”
A soft, rhythmic rustling sound surrounded us. It was faint at first, but getting closer by the second–sounding like dry skin slithering over stone.
Clark pointed his flashlight beam into the darkness, then let out a sharp intake of breath.
I followed his gaze, and my blood ran cold.
Countless scorpions, as black as pitch, were pouring out of the crevices in the rocks. Their carapaces gleamed with an eerie, bioluminescent bluish–purple sheen in the firelight.
“The repellent isn’t working!” I shouted, panic flaring in my chest. “Whatever they are, the powder doesn’t affect them!”
One of the operatives panicked and fired his sidearm. The bullets pinged off the rocks and hit the scorpions, sending up sparks, but the creatures didn’t even flinch. There were simply too many of them; conventional weapons were useless.
“Spread out! Fall back!” Zachary roared.
A scream pierced the air as one of the men stumbled. A scorpion had scurried up his calf and buried its stinger deep into his flesh.
Almost instantaneously, his leg turned a necrotic, dark purple–black, the venom spreading with terrifying speed.
I watched in horror as the dark toxin raced toward his thigh.
There was no time to think.
“Forgive me…” Zachary didn’t hesitate. With a fluid, brutal motion, he drew his combat blade and amputated the blackened leg just above the knee.
“Ahhh!” The operative’s agonized how! echoed through the empty night.
I rushed forward, digging into my medical kit to cauterize the wound and clamp the arteries. It was messy, but it saved his life.
But the scorpions kept coming, a chitinous tide surging from every direction. Under normal circumstances, even a low–ranking werewolf could summon their spirit to fend off pests like this. But here, in the heart of the Dark Desert, we were severed. We were human.
We were defenseless.
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Clark swung a torch wildly, hoping to drive them back, but these creatures weren’t afraid of the flames. Instead, they swarmed with
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Chapter 330 Faceoff in the Wastes
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even more frenzy, drawn to the heat like moths.
“They feed on thermal energy…Kade realized, his eyes narrowing. “Kill the lights! Put out the fire!”
They scrambled to extinguish the flames, kicking sand over the pit, but it was too little, too late. The swarm had already locked
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