Chapter 2: Chapter 2
Crashing against the ridges, hacked meat of his bones with every collision. Haco kept struggling to stay conscious.
His head hit a ridge and he swore he heard a crack in the midst of the buzzing. The buzzing sound in his head kept ringing before the world turned red—blood flowed into his eyes. There was a long way down the valley.
In the midst of redness, a magnificent beast came flying. It stopped before him and extended its long flaming blue wings before enveloping him. It brought the young man a sense of calmness ahead of his death.
With a loud clash, the deserted bottom of the valley united with the man and shared its bereft life.
From the top of the mountain, his killer looked at the gory result, before turning around. His expression didn't change and found nothing out of ordinary. More so, he now had to deal with the hysteria of a grief-stricken girl.
In the death of the night. With the sun gone, the warm desert turned frigid.
Under the dune, a pair of abashed eyes opened abruptly. Following, an arm was pushed out at the side. The eyelids felt heavy. It didn't help sand was getting in them, so the arms dug into the sand and tried to push the rest of the body out. But the burden on the back was excessive.
On second thought, digging with the free arm was better even though it took longer.
After having moved sand little by little, the arms' owner had freed half of his body. It was none other than the presumed dead, and incredibly confused Haco.
'I'm alive?'
More so, he realized he was in the desert, at night. Just when he was about to burry himself again, he felt vibrations in the sand and turned his head to look at the source.
His breath and movements stopped abruptly—but he didn't have time to do nothing. So, he swiftly caused a sand slide that would cover most of him in sand again.
Back to his predicament, which might turn for worse at any moment, Haco watched a pair of about two-meter-long scorpions rise from the same dune.
When the one with a more curved stinger—like a hook—turned in his direction, Haco quickly closed his eyes. His upbringing taught him better than to disregard Danger Beasts' senses.
The vibration turned more intense, and he was sure by how the sand pressure intensified around his other arm, that it was walking just beside him, on its eight hardened legs.
By pure misfortune, one leg graced Haco's hand. He could only pray that it only took some skin, and didn't make him bleed. Or he was sure, death would really come around this time. While he was alive, he felt lethargic. So fighting a Danger Beast that was out for blood, at night, was out of the question.
Haco's mind was a mess. Without having time to overcome his death, he's likely going to experience it again. For real.
'.... They're gone. I better wait.'
The pressure lessened, and the vibrations too—meaning they were walking away, properly going out to hunt. Haco decided it was better to wait for the sun to rise. But the drowsiness led him to fall asleep.
When the sun rose, Haco dug himself out again, fully this time.
The first thing he did, was to check his body in an incredulous manner. His hands roamed around like a lunatic that was looking for coin.
'I survived that? Piss off!!'
Haco was in disbelief. If it wasn't for spots of blood being left from his descent, he might have thought of the possibility of being influenced by something.
It evoked the bad recollection of the sound of his cracking against a ridge. He doesn't remember which, but...
**Crack!**
Just thinking of it, sent a shiver up his spine. So he focused on something else, getting out of here—the valley.
Should have been easy, especially for Haco and his ability. But to his horror, worse than the scorpions, he could not call forth his power.
Many times, he tried, going so far that he was left running and jumping around while flagging his arms. Haco had perfectly imitated a bird.
Having realized it wasn't working, he was left with the only option of getting out of the valley, the long one. Wandering through the desert.
He walked for days and naturally slept at night. The scorching sun was about the only danger he had to fight against.
'I wish I was a camel'
Time had him wish he was a camel. Haco was hungry, more than else, thirsty. While he was wishing, he spotted a mosquito and immediately began following it from a distance.
Not before long, he reached the end of the valley. In the shade, was a little water hole that might have appeared after it had rained. It was not big, but there were signs of it having been much bigger.
Before going, Haco watched out for any Danger Beasts that might have settled down here, or come for a drink. It seemed fine. No signs of Danger Beasts being here.
So he walked to the water hole and scooped water in his mouth. Also splashing some in the face, replenishing some vigor.
After drinking all he could, he dipped his feet in. While thanking his luck, Haco watched his toes and found them getting indistinct.
Feeling something wrong, Haco got up to run away. His arms worked fine a moment ago. Now they were paralyzed. So all that was left to do was snake himself away from the water hole.
"Well, well, what do we got here? I have never seen a monkey in the desert before. Brothers, have you heard of it?"
A voice came from above Haco with the sound of something lower. Haco forced his head to the side and saw men come down on a platform. Attached with rope and some mechanisms to hoist them up and down the valley.
"It's not a monkey!! It's better. We have struck gold this time around. It's an antique. Look at his dark skin and black hair. If we wash him up, give him a haircut, and a little food to remove that famished expression. We could earn 10 times the money, or more, of a Class 4 Danger Beast"
All Haco could do was lie helplessly on the ground, watching the rapaciousness on the men's faces. Though his body was paralyzed, the anger in Haco's eyes radiated murder.
"I… Kill you..!"
Haco forced those words out, which made the men look at each other, before starting a laughing fit.
"Hahaha…"
The man that called Haco a monkey, stopped laughing and crouched by Haco's head.
"You are going to kill my pouch later… By bursting it with gold. Hahaha…"
The man snorted before laughing again. Unexpectedly, the man snatched a wooden hammer in his belt and banged Haco on the scalp, knocking him out.
"Let's go. Our wallets' funeral is coming up."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone