Tonya had been worried sick about Augen ever since the mission the night before. However, her heart sank to the bottom of her stomach when she was woken up in the middle of the night and yanked to join the second group of raiders. This time, unlike the subtle grouping of Augen’s mission, nearly the entire camp was mobilized.

This was the big job that both of them were waiting for. Yet as she looked towards the empty bed next to her where Augen had not returned from, she can’t help but be worried.

“Get your fat ass moving.” Beardy’s hurrying voice came from beside her as she stood, dressed, and armed herself.

“Didn’t you go with Augen?” Tonya asked when Beardy looked at her with a side eye and marched forward.

“You got it all mixed up.” Beardy said, hidden in the crowds, “He’s with his small boss still out there. Men, move out!”

The group gathered, and they hopped on the army of camels that had been conscripted all through the Dune’s Hive.

“This will be the biggest job we have ever done.” Zmey said, standing upon a tower and watching over the group, “And after this, we will no longer have to worry about anything else! This time, we will grab the Dune’s Diamond by the throat, and have them treat us with the respect we deserve!”

And so the group rode. As they journeyed to three quarters of the way to the Dune’s Diamond, the crack of dawn had returned to this part of Necrovia, and that was when Augen had made it back to the Dune’s Hive alongside Ver, and his re-entrance was spotted by Zmey.

Beardy was riding at the front, with Tonya sitting among the more junior soldiers that she had been trianing with for the past little while. Her skills had improved, no doubt, yet she’s still not strong enough to compete against the more senior of fighters, and therefore doesn't belong in their circles either.

“Understood. Vanguard, continue towards the Western beach side beyond the Dune's Diamond.”

As he whispered to the snake with a glowing head, Beardy then broke formation from the rest of the vanguard before dropping himself back to the same line as Tonya, glancing occasionally at her as they continued moving.

Tonya swallowed nervously despite acting normal and steadying her pace, one hand reaching to and pinching around her sword while pinching the ropes to the camel with another.

They continued on for another while as the roads underneath started to transition from sands to dried-up soil, and Beardy had slowly transitioned his way from the exterior of the riders to towards the middle where Tonya was at.

Eventually, the two were riding side by side. Slowly, the other riders swayed their camels to the side before giving Tonya all of the space when Beardy drew his long thin blade, raised it overhead, and swung it across the body straight towards Tonya.

“No!” Tonya grunted, drawing her own blade immediately to parry Beardy’s attack before he rapidly twitched his hand, shifting the angle of his attack and slicing Tonya across the shoulders as a fresh burning wound exploded with blood as her shoulders became exposed.

“Sorry kid, but your time here's over. Boss's orders,” Beardy said, turning the blade to the backhand before he came straight for her neck as Tonya grabbed onto her wound and her eyes started to glow with crown-like symbols.

“Stop.” With the King’s Eye active, she froze Beardy in place as the light in his eyes slowly started to fade, and the command of her Wave on him took effect. She looked around, and ground her teeth together before lowering her voice, “Take me away from here.”

Beardy’s hands moved stiffly from Tonya, and she hopped right on the camel behind him as he rode away, the rest of the riders once again moving apart for them, and it seemed that this wasn’t Beardy’s first rodeo for taking direct orders from Zmey to do certain things, so the rest of the groups simply ignored whatever they are doing, carrying through the last order that he had given the whole group.

As Beardy continually rode away, Tonya can feel her hold on Beardy’s mind slowly loosening. She forced herself to focus, pouring more of her Wave into her eyes as she turned and tossed Beardy’s weapons in the sand behind them while taking him straight towards the Dune’s Diamond.

Then, as the outlines of the city came into view, she gave Beardy one last command before taking the camel, “Walk east until your legs bleed.”

To be honest, even Tonya was surprised at how brutal that command was coming out of her mouth, but compared to the visceral pain that she still felt despite the bandages wrapping tightly around the wound over her shoulders, the guilt of such a command was nothing. As Beardy strolled away like a zombie, Tonya wondered how long that command will last before she forced herself to focus and stay awake when the pain from her wound and blood loss had transitioned to fatigue.

With the familiar-looking stone walls slowly coming into view, and the strange perspective shifts when there are no people lining outside of the city walls, she quickly realized that she overestimated how far away the city actually was before collapsing forward onto the camel’s neck. WIth the last ounce of her strength, she wrapped the ropes tightly around her good arm and kept it close to her body.

That held still for a little while, but as soon as her weight started to shift, she fell straight to her side before a purple Whirlpool formed on the ground under her, catching the fall and taking her straight into the castle.

When Tonya awoke next, she found herself lying on an overly soft bed with her body warmed under a blanket and a servant changing up the bandages on her arms. She turned and tried to move, but the sharp pain forced her to stay still.

“Don’t move.” Lera’s voice came from the other side, and she noticed her setting up a healing Cast and powering it with one of the glowing fuel rocks, “That was quite a cut…”

“Yeah…” Tonya sighed, “Wait…where’s Augen? Has he come back? How long was I out for?”

“We haven’t heard anything from Augen…” Lera, “But thanks to you, the main forces was a mess without their leader, and we have captured every one of the attackers within our trap. Ver had took you back before she grabbed a few of the fuel rocks and headed straight back to the Dune’s Hive.”

“I thought these things don’t work anymore…” Tonya tried to turn to look at the fuel rock, but that slightest tension had already given her the wincing pain that hurt far more than she expected.

“We figured something out. We really did.” Lera smiled.

“Good…” Tonya said, “Because whatever we have here, the people at the Dune’s Hive will need. They are just about at equilibrium with the traders and the nightly raids, but…”

“Zhad had been a bit of a stickler, especially now that he learned that you have been hurt by them…” Lera said, activating the healing Cast as a warmth bathed Tonya’s shoulders, “But I am sure he will listen to you…Leave saving Augen to us, and you just do your best to get better.”

Once he knew that the rebellion will no longer be a threat to them, then perhaps he will. She looked to the other side where a piece of the Kraken’s shell sat by the bedside table, and her mind started to wander.

“Come on come on come on!” Ver cursed, her body racing through the desert with consecutive and rapid teleports from one end of her line of sight to the other. She had stuck the fuel rock directly into her Kraken’s armor and used the supply of Wave irresponsibly. It took her a good while to catch up to the main group and spot where Tonya and Beardy had splitter off, but with the fuel rocks, she can move even faster and for a longer duration at one time.

She had tried to contact Augen through the Kraken’s shell, but it was to no avail. And at the moment, their distance was far too vast for her to directly teleport to him without draining double the amount of Wave reserve she has now.

Instead, she had to relegate to traveling in shorter and more frequent bursts, sacrificing speed for the preservation of her Wave reserve, “Please…just hold on…”

It was an hour of non-stop teleportation with hundreds of meters each time when she finally closed in on the Dune’s Hive. However, there was smoke rising from all of the corners of the settlements and people shouting and screaming everywhere.

There were bodies of snakes and people everywhere, and Ver finally sensed the Kraken’s Shell on Augen's body before she took herself straight to Augen, emerging from a Purple Whirlpool right over his back as the people around him cowered and moved in fear.

“It’s okay! It’s okay!” Augen said, turning around to face Ver when she noticed the blood all over his body and the dirt blackening his face. His body looked paler than ever before, and his cheeks had completely shriveled up as he held out his hands to support countless healing Casts with more people grouped together, “She’s a friend.”

“What do you need?” Ver asked immediately before she yanked out one of the fuel rocks and placed it in Augen’s hand, who immediately connected its Wave resource with the Casts that he had been draining himself to maintain.

“Zmey turned on the people with his snakes.” Augen said, “Move everybody you can find here to somewhere safe. We need to heal them and purge the poison.”

“Or I can create an antidote.” The Kraken’s voice took over Ver briefly before a tendril reached down and tapped against one of the victims, taking a sip of the infected blood before a swirling of red whirlpool formed over Ver’s hands, “The venoms of this caliber does not affect me, and the people may use my assistance.”

“Hurry and distribute this to everyone!” Augen ordered as the group of men that had already been healed gathered around with their containers before Ver shot out the concentrated antidotes into the container.

At the same time, dozens of Whirlpool Purple also formed around the opening where Augen and the injured people had been lying down at. By staying in the open, they can spot and kill any of the snakes easily.

“Any more?” Augen asked, his body slowly shifting back and forth as he started to lose his sensations for his feet when Ver leaped into the air, spotting more people and teleporting them to the groups there. Fortunately, it was too early in the morning for the traders to have come in, so it was only the townspeople that had stayed around that they needed to take care of.

But despite all of this, Augen didn’t manage to save everyone, as those along the outskirts of the city that didn’t manage to make it out didn’t get to him in time.

With the motionless body not responding to either the antidote or the healing Casts, they were quickly moved to another pile as those still under the influence of Augen’s recovery mechanisms struggled to stay above water.

As Ver maintained her station, she heard a thump of a body behind her as Augen collapsed onto the ground, “Hey! Don’t just go dying on me!”

“We’ve got him.” The villagers said, quickly clearing out a wooden bench before they gingerly placed Augen’s body on it when Ver pressed into her Kraken’s shell, activating it.