Chapter 2

Chapter 2

CRUNCH—!

Under the impact of that enormous mass, the bus, plastered with thick armor plating, crumpled like a sheet of paper.

“Grrgh!”

“Guh!”

People screamed and tumbled through the bus.

Since no one had even put on a seatbelt, they were flung this way and that like pebbles in a game of jacks.

Zeon was no exception.

“Grrgh!”

After rolling around helplessly, Zeon barely managed to come to his senses and get up.

His forehead had split open and blood was flowing down, but he did not even have the luxury of wiping it away.

It was because of the unbelievable sight outside the window.

SSSSHHH!

Everything in sight was red sand.

The enormous armored bus had been buried whole in the sandy desert.

“Damn it! The sandworm is dragging the bus down into the sand.”

“We’re all dead.”

“Fuck! Is there no Awakened here?”

The interior became a living hell.

RUMBLE—!

Even at that moment, the bus’s armor plating was being torn away like scraps of cloth.

If only a little more time passed like this, all the armor would be stripped off, and the people inside would become the sandworm’s prey.

Perhaps they would suffocate in the sand before that. That might even be less painful.

That was when it happened.

“You dogshit bug bastard......”

One of the miners roared and swung his hand toward the window.

WHOOSH—!

At that instant, a blade of wind rose from the miner’s hand and flew out the window.

Zeon’s eyes widened.

‘He’s an Awakened.’

Judging by the blade of wind, he was undoubtedly a magic-type Awakened.

However, its power was insignificant.

THUD!

The blade of wind failed to pierce through the sand pressing down on the bus and vanished.

It had not inflicted any damage on the sandworm’s main body at all.

Disappointment appeared on the faces of the people who had briefly held hope.

“He’s Grade F.”

“Damn it! Of course. As if a proper Awakened would go mine Mana Stones.”

Even among the Awakened, abilities differed as vastly as heaven and earth depending on their grade.

Grade F Awakened were like pebbles lying at the very bottom of the Awakened ecosystem.

They were far stronger than ordinary people, but they were no match for a giant monster like a sandworm.

Whatever reason had led him to board a bus bound for the Mana Stone mine, his ability, Blade Wind, could not deal any damage to the sandworm.

Above all, the affinity was bad.

It was impossible for Blade Wind itself to pierce through the sand wrapped around the sandworm’s body.

“Die! I said die!”

The Awakened lost his reason and kept firing Blade Wind. However, he could not pierce the sand, and only ended up draining his mana instead.

That was when it happened.

The armor plating where the Awakened was located was completely ripped away, and a gigantic tongue suddenly appeared.

It was the sandworm’s tongue.

Like a whip, the tongue snatched up the Awakened and disappeared into the sand in an instant.

“Aaaagh!”

The Awakened’s scream came through the sand.

The scream soon disappeared, but there was no need to see it with one’s own eyes to know what had happened to him.

“We’re all going to die. We’re going to die.”

“What do we do?”

“Sniff!”

Sand poured into the bus like a tidal wave. Then someone disappeared again.

“Urgh!”

Zeon bit his lip hard.

Blood flowed out, but Zeon did not even have the luxury of feeling the pain.

The sand had already risen to his waist.

Would he suffocate in the sand and die, or would he become the sandworm’s food and die?

Neither was what Zeon wanted.

His mind, which normally spun so quickly, had now hardened as if caught in petrification magic, and no thoughts came to him.

BANG!

At that instant, an enormous impact struck, and the bus split in two.

“Aaaagh!”

“Ghk!”

A large number of the passengers disappeared into the sand.

“Fuck!”

Zeon spat out a curse and looked around.

The sand had already risen to his shoulders, so he could not even make out the people nearby.

Zeon made a decision.

‘If I stay like this, I’ll die.’

RIP!

Zeon hurriedly tore his clothes and made a long strip of cloth. Then he tightly wrapped the long cloth around his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth.

It was an emergency measure to block the sand.

After finishing his preparations in an instant, Zeon threw himself into the sand.

‘Hrk!’

The sand of the desert crushed Zeon with tremendous pressure, like seawater in the depths of the ocean.

Far from breathing, it was hard to move even a hand or a foot.

Zeon did not resist the pressure and entrusted his body to the sand.

CRRUNCH!

The faint sound of metal crumpling reached him.

It was the armored bus’s final scream.

There was no need to see with his own eyes what end had come to the people inside it.

SSSSHHH!

The sand was surging like waves.

Something enormous was swimming through the sand and approaching.

He could feel that flow with strange clarity.

‘It’s coming.’

Zeon tried to flail his arms and legs and get away from where he was. However, escaping the tremendous pressure of the sand bearing down on his entire body was impossible.

Even at that moment, the sandworm was drawing closer and closer.

‘I don’t want to die. I can’t die yet.’

His heart pounded.

It felt as though his heart would burst before the sandworm could devour him.

He could feel the blood flowing madly through his body.

The blood that had been racing through his entire body rushed toward Zeon’s head like a runaway train.

BANG!

At that instant, something exploded inside Zeon’s mind.

It was an explosion that only Zeon could feel.

At the same time, seven lines appeared on Zeon’s wrist.

The lower ends of the lines engraved like tattoos were dyed orange.

Because Zeon’s eyes were covered with cloth, he could not see that sight. But he instinctively realized what had happened to him.

‘It’s an awakening.’

Awakening, said to come like a blessing to only a very small number of people, had clearly come to him as well.

He still could not tell how high his abilities were.

That was because he had not been able to check the rank insignia that had appeared on his wrist.

The seven lines that appeared on the wrist of an awakened person closely resembled a military rank insignia.

The only difference from an ordinary rank insignia was that there were only seven bars. That was why people called the mark of an Awakened a rank insignia.

The moment he awakened, breathing became easier, and the tremendous pressure that had been bearing down on his body disappeared.

The sand that had been crushing him felt as comfortable as the amniotic fluid inside a mother’s womb.

No one had taught him, but Zeon knew that his ability was related to sand.

Zeon hurriedly waved his hand. Then his body, which had not been able to budge until now, smoothly moved forward.

PFFSH!

An unbelievably enormous mouth appeared where he had been.

It was the sandworm’s maw, filled with countless teeth arranged like turning gears. He could see that the teeth were stained red.

It was the blood of the victims it had eaten moments before.

WHOOOM—!

The sandworm’s maw swallowed the place where Zeon had been only a moment earlier.

If he had been even a little late in dodging, Zeon too would have become a lump of meat like the other victims and been digested inside the sandworm’s belly.

‘Insane!’

Goosebumps rose all over his body.

Thanks to the fortunate timing of his awakening, he had dodged the sandworm’s attack, but the fundamental problem had not been solved.

It was impossible to catch the sandworm, the tyrant of the desert, with an ability that had only just awakened.

He could tell that much simply from seeing the Grade F Awakened become the sandworm’s food moments ago.

‘For now, using my ability to get out of the sand comes first.’

Zeon stretched both hands forward.

At that instant, his body wriggled like a fish and swam through the sand.

Tens of millions, hundreds of millions of grains of sand seemed to push Zeon’s body along on their own.

Zeon dug through the sand at high speed and advanced toward the surface.

Then he felt a powerful vibration behind his back.

The sandworm was tracking Zeon.

Zeon’s speed as he moved forward was fast, but the speed at which the sandworm pursued him was even faster.

At this rate, it was obvious that it would catch up before long.

‘Damn it. Is there nothing I can do besides swim through the sand?’

Zeon desperately thought about what he could do.

That was when it happened.

A chill ran up his back.

The sandworm had nearly reached him.

He sensed the creature opening its mouth wide.

Suddenly, he thought it would be nice to shove a heap of sand into the mouth of the sandworm that had swallowed so many people.

At that instant, the flow of sand around Zeon’s body changed strangely.

Some of the sand gathered in front of Zeon and compressed.

Looking at the tightly compressed sand, Zeon muttered inwardly.

‘Sand Blaster.’

No one had told him.

The name simply came to him.

Most skills were like that.

As though they had been engraved in his mind from the beginning, they surfaced when the conditions to view them were met.

PSSSHK!

At that instant, the compressed sand sprayed out like a stream of water.

The stream of sand, fired with powerful pressure, plunged straight into the sandworm’s mouth.

Sand Blaster made a small hole in the roof of the sandworm’s mouth.

At first glance, it seemed like an insignificant wound, but Sand Blaster had shredded the inside of the sandworm’s palate like a rag.

At the tremendous pain it had never felt before in its life, the sandworm let out a monstrous roar.

KROOOAR!

As the enormous sandworm thrashed, the sand in the area heaved as though an earthquake had struck.

Zeon used that opening to increase his speed.

Thanks to that, he put a good distance between himself and the sandworm and was able to emerge above the sand.

“Pwah!”

Zeon let out the breath he had been holding until now.

When fresh air entered his lungs, he felt as though he might live.

That was when it happened.

“It’s a survivor. There’s a survivor over there.”

“It really was a sandworm. Everyone, get ready.”

People’s voices suddenly reached him.

When Zeon raised his head, he saw a small car.

The little compact car, plastered all over with armor plating, had large wheels suited for moving through the desert.

Even so, if a sandworm attacked, it would be sucked into the sand in an instant. Yet the people inside the compact car showed no sign of fear.

Men with an unusual air about them approached Zeon from the car.

‘They’re Awakened.’

At a glance, Zeon recognized that they were Awakened.

The fact that they could walk so confidently across the desert even while knowing a sandworm was there meant they had that much confidence in their strength.

That was when it happened.

RUMBLE—!

The gigantic sandworm that had chased Zeon through the sand revealed itself.

A middle-aged man who looked like the captain shouted.

“Hold it down so it can’t escape into the sand.”

“Okay! Captain.”

A woman with blue hair reminiscent of a clear sky answered brightly and reached her hand toward the sandworm.

At that instant, cold spread rapidly and cooled the sand where the sandworm had surged up. Because of that, the sandworm could not enter the sand and struggled for a moment.

The blue-haired woman said,

“It’s too big, so I can’t hold it for more than a few seconds.”

“That is more than enough.”

The captain gave a cold smile.

He drew a claymore, a large longsword, and ran toward the sandworm. His subordinates followed behind him.

“Haaah!”

The claymore fell toward the sandworm’s body like a guillotine.

SLAAASH!

The sandworm’s tough hide tore apart like a sheet of paper, revealing red flesh underneath.

The sandworm writhed in pain.

Then one of the captain’s subordinates approached the sandworm and placed his palm on its body.

“A sandworm above the sand. What a rare case.”

It was extremely rare for a sandworm to come up above the sand. That was why they were difficult to hunt.

VMMMM!

The man’s palm vibrated at a speed invisible to the eye.

His name was Aiden, and his awakened ability was Super-Vibration.

BOOM!

The section of the sandworm’s body touched by his palm burst apart like a firework.

The one who finished it was the giant who arrived last.

The giant, who was taller than an ordinary person by at least two heads, leapt into the air and plunged straight down toward the sandworm’s head.

BAAANG!

With an explosive roar, the sandworm’s head burst apart.

“Heh-heh!”

The giant burst out laughing, covered in the sandworm’s blood and flesh.

Zeon’s mouth fell open as he watched the scene.

‘Crazy bastards!’

The sandworm that had devoured so many people had become a lump of meat in only a few seconds.

It was a scene he would not have believed if he had not seen it with his own eyes.

SHING!

The captain slid his claymore back into its scabbard and looked at Zeon.

At that instant, Zeon felt a chill run down his spine.

It was because the captain’s cold, sunken gaze frightened him.

“So you are the only one who survived among the people on the bus?”