It has now been a few days since Augen and Tonya had been in this little entourage of Zmey’s, and at last, Augen was called off from participating in the afternoon sparring sessions, switching instead to the mornings and sparring with the more proficient of fighters.

“Argh!” Augen grunted as he was once again knocked down by the grizzly squad leader who then picked him up without Augen asking. His wooden stick was inching closer to hitting the leader’s side every time they sparred, yet the counterattacks of the more experienced fighter always came back swiftly and concisely, deflecting Augen's own and striking back at him all in the same move. One time he was struck in the torso, and the next swept off his feet.

Worse yet, the arsenal of movements at the disposal of the squad leader, who he only came to know as ‘small boss’, were all ingrained so deeply into his body that using none of it had any influence on what weak Wave he had remaining in his body.

Therefore, Augen couldn’t use the intention and pooling of Wave within one's body to predict his next move as he would any ordinary Wave user but rather had to react to the movements of his limbs that then contained even lesser trace amounts of Wave, coupling with the sounds of the light yet snappy footsteps and the whooshing of the stick through the air.

Hand-to-hand combat without any involvement of the Wave truly was a beast of its own, and it was only until the ability to freely use the Wave is forcibly taken away from Augen that he truly started to appreciate it.

“From tonight, you will be joining the raid crew.” The small boss said, letting Augen go before giving him a light shove back towards his corner in the training yard, “Go clean yourself up and get your patrol duties done early.”

The group of interested onlookers scattered when the small boss looked at them.

In the afternoon, Beardy lead the patrols as Augen got to have a different look at the lives of those in the Dune’s Hive with the street vendors packing up and leaving the town and the people starting to come out more after the worst of the mid-day heat.

Augen followed the squads as they walked the streets, tidying up the leftovers and disposing of the rubbish, though his mind had been fixated on Tonya. Ever since his schedule was changed, their time together was reduced to healing sessions which always ended up with Tonya falling asleep due to fatigue in the midst of thanking him.

And now, he was about to embark on what they actually were here to investigate. Finally, he was on the small job before the real big one.

“Everything’s the same as before.” Beardy’s voice cracked through the silence as the two dozen night raid crew members gathered by a shed just outside of the camp, “New kid, you just watch what we do at the back. There are rumors of new developments around Diamond, but it doesn’t matter. Get in, fill up the containers, and get out.”

"Ha. Watch what we do..." A few joked though Beardy quickly killed off the chatter.

Then, the group checked their equipment in silence with the occasional clattering of blades. When Beardy hopped onto the camel’s back and rode off, so did everyone else. Augen was sharing his camel with someone else he did not recognize, and it didn’t take long for the smell of the rider's sweat to make the ride pure torture.

From the occasional murmur at the back of the entourage of it, they were heading to one of the smaller towns just off the main road between the Dune’s Hive and the Dune’s Diamond, and it will be just a few hours before dawn before they will get there.

He wondered if Tonya was going to miss him before he shook that ridiculous idea off.

By the time they finally arrived, Augen couldn’t wait any longer to hop off the camel before each of them was tied to a piece of rock and the group of two dozen men moved in unicent, sneaking through the dark with the sounds of their footsteps muffled by the soft sand.

There were guards standing around the outskirts of the village when Beardy let out a bird-like whistle and tossed over a bag of units before the guard scanned around and picked it up. Then, he grabbed the torch and started strolling away from Beardy as he swirled his fingers with the men moving past him and into the main opening of the village itself.

Augen poked his head over the dune with the men moving past them, and Beardy squatted down next to him and placed a hand over his shoulder, “Keep watch here~ If that’s something you can do.”

“So the joke's funny now?" Augen asked when Beardy chuckled and vaulted over the dune to join the rest of his men.

"Always had been." He said, disappearing into the darkness between torches within the small town, "If you saw something suspicious, call for us!"

Augen felt for the Wave in his environment, and the outcomes of his scan didn’t exactly surprise him in any way. It’s all just the same plain Necrovian ambiance, at least he has gotten good at preserving what Wave he had.

If anything, those men were good at what they do. They were silent, operating quickly and effectively with everything planned out and practiced. This small town had its own well as well as support from the Dune’s Diamond, and it was the perfect target for the group.

Obviously, water use from the Dune’s Hive isn’t something that can be supported by a raid of merely twenty-four people, and they were simply out to get enough to support their camp. With whatever extras they may have gotten during the night, they can then sell it for a good price on the markets.

Augen rested his chin over the sand as his head slowly started to sink down. The town was practically silent despite what was going on, and there should be absolutely nothing he needed to worry about. So he flipped around and simply relaxed.

There was silence for the longest time. Then, he started to catch onto the muffling of sands and the gentle clinking of metals. He flipped awake and sat up as blood rushed to his head, and he caught onto the Wave signature of at least forty men emerging from beyond the desert. However, they were moving rather slowly and did not seem to realize what was really happening around here, or they were patient enough with their advances.

There’s no means of confirming who they are, but Augen knew that they should have been left alone, and there's no way Zmey would allow a mission to go wrong like this. With the fanning out of those soldiers, it became quickly clear that a trap is slowly being sprung around them, and the men within the village are none the wiser.

Beardy said to call for them when something’s suspicious’ happening, but wouldn’t that also alert the second group of men even more?

Perhaps both he and Beardy should have thought it through. Augen cursed under his breath, annoyed by how sloppy he was prior. Rolling over the dune and sliding down to the bottom, he strode towards the village itself with the lightest of ground contacts.

Everything’s dead quiet, and he couldn’t sense Wave signatures of anyone else anywhere. He stopped suddenly as all of his senses screamed at him when everything lit up around him.

“THE THIEF! WE FOUND THE THIEF!” The village guard shouted as the Wave signatures of the sleeping villagers became rocked awake, and Augen became quickly surrounded by the waking crowd just as the second group of soldiers had finally made their presence known and entered the village.

“Shit!” Augen cursed, picking up semi-familiar Wave signatures in the crowd that matched that more than one of the twenty-four men, and everything became clear to him, “Tonya! If they trapped me here…then…”

He must focus. He cannot afford to reveal all that he can do right now, with countless eyes locked onto him, especially half of those being the villagers. What about just making a run for it? He needed the camels to traverse through the dessert, and those bastards must have snuck around the back and left with it already, and only a handful of them were left behind to see what Augen would do!

“Halt! Drop everything and put your hand in the air!” The first men stepped up, “You filthy bandit!”

Cooperate and buy time. Augen decided, steadying his breath and raising both hands overhead. He can get out later, once those from the raid crew left his line of sight, he will figure something out.

“I am unarmed.” Augen said, “And I am blind and lost!”

“Nobody gets lost in Necrovia.” The guard stepped forward with his sword still held out before his subordinate handed him a thick rope as he tied Augen’s hands tightly behind his back, “You will be taken back to the Dune’s Diamond for questioning. Heh. We are about to be rich!”

So they aren't soldiers... Augen felt the load off his shoulders slightly. Just plain mercenaries looking for some easy targets.“Well, at least I won’t be lost anymore,” Augen joked with another mercenary who slammed his square across the jaw and shut him up with a towel wrapped around his mouth. Then, they dragged him along as the guard of the small town thanked the mercenary leader with a small share of the units before the group of men concluded their haphazard search in the small town and headed off.

Augen's hands were tied to the back of one of the horses as he traveled on foot. The sights and sounds of the small town soon faded away behind them. Making sure that those familiar presences were no more, Augen, completely surroudnded, slowly wiggled his fingers loose and reached for one of the playing cards hidden in his back pocket.

“No harsh feelings…” He murmured, “But I needed to get out of here…”

With his fingers pinched together and Wave surging irresponsibly within his body, he activated the card, “Forbidden Autumn: Decaying Inevitability!”

A wave of grey spread from his fingertips, cracking his skin as the thick ropes decayed away into dust before the destruction continued spreading. Augen still kept his fingers in the same position as the man right next to him and started to notice a dull pain coming from his hand when his pinky finger had completely decayed away.

He screamed, drawing the attention of the rest of the men when Augen grabbed onto the leg of one of the camel-riding mercenaries as his flesh also started decaying away.

He screamed, letting go of the ropes as Augen leaped up and knocked him off the camel before kicking it in the back as the ride screeched and threw him back down to the ground.

“He’s…he’s doing something!” The men started to panic, “I…don’t know what’s going on!”

“My hands! My hands!” Another shouted when the decay continued to spread around Augen.

“You shouldn’t have come here…” Augen murmured, standing in the center of the cloud of dust as he dashed from one to another with a slap of the hand against their bodies, “I am sorry…but I am just a selfish man trying to survive here and protect the ones I care about…”

As the inner group immediately surrounding him was taken down in the blink of an eye, and the remainder scattered around in all directions with Augen not electing to chase after them, instead hopping back on a camel and riding in the direction of the Dune’s Hive.

In the meanwhile, dark Whirlpools formed around each of the escaping men and swallowed them up the whole. Then, sitting atop the dune, Ver watched as Augen rode into the darkness.

“So…should we follow after him?” Ver asked the Kraken before shrugging, “Let’s see what he’s been up to all this time.”