Nightmare

A couple of weeks passed after their encounter with the Noxious Sloth and it seemed that neither of them had arrived on the coast yet

Shallot was standing with his arms crossed near the coast of the scorching desert looking in the direction of the countless dunes that seemed to dance in the heat of this one

His expression was calm despite the heat and the wind that raised small quantities of sand, he didn't move at all the only thing he did was blink once in a while, if someone could see him from a distance he could be mistaken for a statue

Suddenly after a few minutes, he started to grin a little, from the distance a silhouette began to rise from one of the dunes, and Shallot thought keeping his cold smile ' That's one '

The silhouette takes form as it approaches Shallot and when it is visible the one that was revealed was none other than Nameless. He was in very bad shape, his hair was almost none nonexistent having just a few strands of hair still on his head his ' clothes ' were torn and he was using some of the Rotten Sloth skin to cover some places, besides, he was full of scars ones bigger than others like the biggest one on his face, that scar covers half of his face and looks like a burn mark it seems that that made him completely blind on the left side

Nameless looks very tired as he walks, he is sweating profusely and is breathing roughly when he is a couple of meters near Shallot he falls on his knees and says with difficulty " I.. did it... "

Shallots grinned more and said to him " You sure did, but you took your time didn't you? " then Shallot turned to see the dunes ones again and his face turned a little bit more serious

From the distance, another silhouette appeared but this one seemed to be running, it was running very slowly and it tripped a few times on the way when the silhouette took the form it revealed Chen Kai, he was even in worse condition than Nameless

Chen Kai was running with a tired but desperate face, he was now shirtless and the worst thing was that he didn't have his right arm anymore, he seemed to have lost it recently because it was still bleeding but not too many thanks to the tourniquet he made with some clothes around it, besides that he has burn marks too but they were a little bit different from Nameless, they are like circles all around his chest and right hand besides some parts of his body have ice on it something that should be impossible for the heat of the desert

" Agh.. ahh... ahh... " Chen Kai was panting and sweating as he ran towards Shallot while his right hand grabbed his left shoulder

Shallot then slowly raised his right hand pointing at the air just stretching his index, middle, and thump fingers *SWOOSH* a red aura appeared around him making his hair wave as his skin turned red and the sand around him started to spread around him

" Ugh... gah! "Chen Kai kept moving forward and when he was a few meters near Shallot just like Nameless he jumped falling face to the sand

Suddenly behind Chen Kai " SHAA!! " a giant golden scorpion came out from the sand. The scorpion was big around 10 meters tall and was even wider, it had big and fat pedipalps and two tails with pointed stingers

Time was moving slower to Shallot he just saw the giant scorpion with a very calm face and it seemed that his fingers were pointing at it then he whispered " Atomic Blast " and *ZOOM* An oval yellow energy came from his fingers and with an incredible speed and *SPLASH* it blows the giant scorpion to pieces leaving only its pedipalps behind that then fell on the sand, the energy keeps traveling until it disappears in the sky

Shallot puts down his hand and turns to see Chen Kai lying in the sand and smirks saying " Not bad, not bad at all, both of you managed to arrive at the coast, I can't say that you did perfectly well, after all, look at the state you arrived " Nameless and Chen Kai seemed to be unconscious right now as both lay on the sand with their eyes closed and breathe tiredly

Shallot shakes his head with a smile grabs Nameless and pulls him near Chen Kai then he kneels slightly and with a hand aimed at each one of them begins to heal them

As he was doing that Shallot inspected both of them seeing every injury they had even those that seemed to have healed long ago ' Harconian Beetle, Hellhound, Sleet Spider, and Sandcrawler Lizard bite marks on both of them, that's good, ' Shallot keeps scanning them more examining their nostrils, mouths, ears, and burn marks ' Mountain Bumblebee, Winged Scorpion and Toxic Vulture marks on the skinny one, King Scorpion, Sand Wasp, and Frost Cobra marks on the fat one, besides both of them breathe the toxic gas from the Rotten Sloth, that and they seemed to have an encounter with the Noxious Blaze Lion too, not too bad, 12 of 17 beasts had poisoned them '

Shallot heals them and stands after that then he puts both of them on his shoulders and starts to float in the air ' Their lives aren't in danger after I healed them but this fat idiot lost an arm and the other one an eye but they will be okay once they passed the next phase '

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(Chen Kai's POV)

' How I'm still alive? we breathe that gas, that should have killed us as it makes us suffer till the end, but now that guy is breathing the gas like it was pure air, no pain, no consequences, no nothing ' I stand and walk towards the skinny guy who seemed to be enjoying killing the sloth, the sloth is extremely toxic, yes, but it's extremely weak and slow so without that gas around it must be pretty easy to kill it. When the sloth fell I asked him " How are you feeling after breathing that gas " I just wanted to know everything I could, I was kind of guessing why we were still alive

Nameless turns to see me with his face covered in his blood and the sloth's blood, he retrieves the wide stick out of the sloth's skull and says " Why do you ask? "

I frown and say " Just tell me, I have something I mind "

Nameless frowns too then he grabs a sharp rock and starts to use it on the sloth skinning him slowly as he says coldly "Don't try to order me, you aren't so special, we are different, I don't want to waste my time on useless things I have a goal now, despite that we are as equally weak now, soon that will change " Then he takes the skin that cut from the Sloth and walks away

" What the hell? " I whispered then I heard behind me a sweet melodious voice say coldly, " I said that you are weak " I turned around to see who was behind me, and as I did that I saw the whole place change around me, night arrived in a flash and I wasn't in a forest anymore I was in a meadow were only trees can be seen meters away from me. And when I saw who it was my heart sank. It was a very beautiful silver-haired young woman with a peerless face wearing fancy robes, it was a face that made my heart race with happiness each time I saw her " Yu...Yue " I whispered with a smiling yet nervous face

Her beautiful blue eyes don't show me any other sentiment than coldness and detachment ' ... ' I couldn't say anything as hard as I tried, She walked towards me until I could perceive her sweet fragrance invading my nostrils then " Uck..!! " A huge pain overruns my body so I take a few steps back to then fall backward and grab my stomach in pain " Ugh... " I vomit a great quantity of blood over my own body. The pain persisted after a few seconds, and I felt like I was going to pass out at any moment from the pain, but before that happened, I turned to see the one who had this to me

It was Ying Yue, her right hand was shining in white light. The light begins to fade away as she puts down her arm and when it disappears she says with a very cold face " Chen Kai no matter how hard you tried you weren't made for this kind of life, you are wasting your time especially... " She pauses for a bit then she turns around and walks away leaving me lying in the grass not before saying " My time " I stretched my right hand towards her and with my last strength I said to her " Return... it... It's... from... my mother... " The last thing I saw before passing out was that she stopped for a moment before walking away once again

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(Author's POV)

In a cave, Chen Kai woke up abruptly, he moved his head left and right inspecting his surroundings, he was surprised that he was in the same cave where all this started ' This place again ' Then he noticed the campfire near him and the smell of roasted meat, then he turns to see his missing arm and his expression turned into a one filled with sadness and grief, after he calmed down he noticed that Shallot was seeing him with a calm face as he devours a big chunk of rostered meat near the fire

Chen Kai saw him with a frowning expression but didn't say anything so Shallot just grinned and grabbed a chunk of meat near him and tossed it next to Chen Kai " Eat " Said Shallot and bit the chunk of meat in his right hand once again

Chen Kai grabs the meat and sees it then takes a bite from it, the taste isn't bitter or sweet it is just dull, but that doesn't stop him from devouring the meat

Shallot smiles between bites and says to him " Do you have nightmares so often? "

Chen Kai stops eating and bows his head for a couple of seconds then he turns to see Shallot with a sad expression " Not so often, but is that a problem? "

Shallot swallows a chunk of meat and shakes his head to make a mocking grin " Nah, but you are running from your fears, why don't you face them it will be better, you can learn one or two things from the skinny brat over there " Shallot moves his head like pointing at someone

Chen Kai turned to see where Shallot pointed and saw Nameless doing push-ups in an almost dark place in the cave, he was almost bald and his left eye was completely closed, then he turned to see Shallot again who said to him with cold smile " Are you worried about your arm? don't worry it won't stay like that for too long but you have to finish the next phase "

Chen Kai and Nameless are surprised lot by Shallot's words, then Shallot chuckles a little and says " The next phase will be fun " Then he bites his meat again grinning coldly as he thinks ' Especially for me, haha '