CHAPTER 19-DESERT OF PAIN

By the time he saw the shore of Ricaf, X had pretty much agreed with Aqua. Ships were bad. Not that swimming would have been much better, but still. Giant sea serpents that could almost swallow the ship whole, storms that raged on for weeks, bolts of forked lightning that blasted the turbulent waters, and waves that were thrice as tall as their ships. The crew was made up of cowards worse than Goofy, the passengers were snobby rich people who expected to be saved every time a wind blew, and the sails were torn after the first storm.

And most importantly, there were no other knights on the ship. There was a reason why most transportation facilities for knights were free of cost. This was because if anything went wrong, they were expected to fix it. The same was true for X and his friends.

They drove off the sea serpent. Or rather, Brik did, tearing apart two of its scales, and causing it to retreat. Aqua protected them from the worst of the storms, and X did absolutely nothing, except for the occasional chores. His flames sputtered and turned off every time it rained, and the waves caused him to be seasick. He felt odd like there was something different about himself. He told Brik, but he was too busy chasing away the random sea monster that was chasing them. Finally, he spoke to Aqua, who was steering the ship by controlling the waters. After hearing him complain about how he felt, how his body used to shiver when he got wet, how his teeth chattered, about how he felt Aqua laughed, before telling him that he was just feeling cold. But he hadn't felt cold in the middle of the snowy Apline mountain ranges, so why would he feel cold in the middle of the Middle Sea, which was known for its temperate conditions?

The ship slowly rocked past the calm waters. For the past two weeks at sea, it was rare for them to see the sea while it was not storming and trying to sink the ship. However, X had lost all respect he felt for the sea before setting sail. He had seen some visions in these turbulent times, all of them of other seas. One was blood red and was probably just blood. There was a sea of statues, in which statues of creatures including Dragons and Griffins were standing with frozen expressions. There was a sea of flames, a sea of darkness, and a giant crater on the ground, the empty sea. However, none of them scared him like this sea, and he was glad that they were now on dry land. At least he would not be useless there.

The ship slowed down, partially due to the torn sails, and partially due to Aqua. X walked up to her and saw that she was covered in sweat like usual. During their time at sea, she had probably doubled the amount of water in the sea. She stared at him for a while, her blue hair fluttering in the air.

'I told you that we should have just swam across the sea, instead of taking this stupid ship. It would have been better, you know.'

'If we listened to you and swam, both I and X would have sunk to the bottom of the sea halfway through. I'm sure that's what you would want, though.'

Brik appeared behind them. For a person so large and muscular, he was deceptively stealthy, like he had removed the bones on his legs. Brik and Aqua started bickering as usual, starting with ships and swimming across the sea, and soon the topic changed to who was more important for X.

The ship rammed into land since Aqua was not paying attention to sailing it. The owner of the ship rushed in to scold her for not stopping it, but by then the three of them could not stand to be in that ship, so they jumped out. They walked towards the sandy desert from the sandy beach, while the ship owner screamed at them to fix his ship.

The desert was a nice place, different from the stupid sea. Then again, they had thought the sea was good, but it turned out to be terrible, so would this be any different? X pondered on this question as he walked towards the sand. The beach floor was made of sand, but as they walked forward the sand got drier.

X felt an odd sensation, the opposite of what he felt in the ship. He started sweating and had a sudden urge to find shade. As he walked, this sensation got stronger, making him lose all sense of direction. His steps slowly started zigzagging, his vision getting dimmer. He felt drowsy and almost fell. Brik caught him and slapped him a couple of times. X fainted.

So much for being the captain of their crew, all X had done on this mission was chores on the ship and fainting in the desert. Hot sunlight was shining down on Brik as he dragged X deeper in, followed by Aqua. They did not speak for a while, simply ignoring the existence of each other. Then, Brik finally spoke up

'Why do you keep staring at X all the time?'

Aqua's cheek lost its slight blue tint, which was replaced by a rosy pink blush. She stared down, trying to formulate the answer. After a long moment of silent walking, she replied

'He seemed special. He was the only one who listened to me when I spoke, the only one who cared about me. And besides, why do you care? '

'Because I am his only friend.'

'Well, I think you can add me to that list now. I am his friend too. Not so sure about you, with all your gloomy sad kid vibe, which changes every time you get angry.'

Just because she sympathized with him did not mean she could like him. If that was the case, Aqua would have many friends, and unfortunately, she didn't. Her words pissed Brik off, who dropped X and rushed towards her, balling up his hand into a fist. Aqua stepped back, not wanting to fight. However, Brik did not think so logically. Since she liked pissing him off, now he would get pissed off. Anger coursed through his hot-blooded body, and with a loud snarl he asked

'Do you want to fight? Because if you do, I am all for it.'

As if to support his statement, claws made out of white bone protruded out of his knuckles, and his muscular body got even more muscular. He blew his hair away from his face and took long steps towards her. Ever since the exam, he has been friendly to X, and although they did not mention anything about Uncle Ken, he could feel their friendship mending and blooming. When he was with him, he felt like he could ignore the pain caused by Uncle Ken's death while remembering his sacrifice. It was all fine until this nerd entered into this two weeks ago, complaining to X about how she was feeling lonely, acting like a five-year-old child. Then this spoiled brat kept staring at him like he was food and now considered herself a friend of equal status like she was similar in importance to X as Brik himself was.

Aqua did not want a fight, but his tone was angering her. But she knew her limits. Although they had never sparred before, Aqua knew that if they fought she would lose, and that was in a normal arena, not in a desert where she was at a major disadvantage. All Atlanteans were born with some amount of water stored within them, water taken from the great ocean, and Aqua had already depleted some amount of it just to not die in this dry desert, and needed more for future fights. The deadly Rahasan desert was not a place for an Atlantean to fight against an enemy they could not defeat in the first place. So, she raised her hands to accept defeat, but Brik did not care. He rushed forward, his claws tearing even the hot desert wind apart. 

Aqua quickly sprang out of the way, floating up in the air as fast as she could. She had to stop them from fighting since they did not know of the creatures hiding within the desert, or when the demons would appear to fight them. She spoke to Brik, trying to stop him to no avail. Brik's claw turned flexible, becoming a whip that could rip through buildings like paper. The claws scraped with the desert floor, covering themselves in hot sand. Brik muttered something, and all Aqua heard was "Taste sand now." Then he swung his arms, and the claws went with it, rushing towards Aqua, as he screamed the name he had kept for the bone whips

'Death Vine.'

Aqua flew away, barely escaping the whips. She then opened her palms, and water droplets squeezed out of them, forming a trident in her hands. The ability that only Atlanteans possessed, "Riptide". A terrible waste of water, even though it was only a little bit of water. She grasped the trident and waited for Brik to attack her rashly. She had to stop him until X woke up. For a moment, she glanced at X. At that moment, her face morphed with fear and despair. And at that moment, Brik's claws met with her chest, and she crashed into the desert floor, her water trident in her hands. extreme heat blistered her skin, and sand entered her mouth. She really had eaten sand.

Brik rushed towards her, screaming. Aqua screamed frantically

'Look around.'

Brik turned, sensing the urgency in her voice, and they stared as a giant scorpion, the size of a house raised its stinger to pierce X's abdomen.