The Rise of the Black Plain - Chapter 2697: Fourth Day in Uzira
For four days, Minos’ group investigated the places near where they had arrived in search of Leger’s group. They went through caves, looking for possible traces of the allied group, possible abandoned belongings, or even hidden messages.
If it had been them in place of Leger’s group waiting for an ally, they would have left something wherever they went to leave a trail for their allies.
And, as expected, they found several things during their four days of investigation!
In a cave they passed, they collected abandoned resources and artifacts, among them a message from Leger’s group, indicating that 10 of those who left Oqia had arrived in Uzira.
But there was nothing to show where they had gone, confirming the hypothesis that Leger’s group had been attacked and forced to flee, if any of them had survived, of course.
Given the way they had simply abandoned belongings that made no sense to leave behind, such as weapons and defensive items, the group was certain that the enemies were at least low-level Supremes.
After finding these items left behind, they came across a corpse half eaten, half left to rot.
They found this corpse at the end of the day and soon afterwards made camp in a cave on their way, where they were now gathered around a campfire, with only a few of them keeping an eye on the entrance to the place.
Those around the campfire had complicated looks on their faces, somewhat worried about the implications of what they had discovered and what they should do now.
“Perhaps we should abandon Leger and the others?” one of the De Armhands Generals over there asked.
Tiolos looked at the alien and said, “That’s not possible. We assured him we would be his ally on the continent. Unless he died, and I don’t think that happened, we can’t go against our words.”
He and Minos had signed an agreement with Leger, so they were confident that the man was alive. But whether he was physically well or free, that was something they couldn’t say.
Minos understood his group’s position and said, “It’s tempting to abandon someone injured in a place where we’ll only get into more trouble if we side with them. But don’t forget where we are. Everyone here is our enemy. The only group that can be our allies, good or not, is Leger’s.”
Fighting for the few allies he might have at the start of his journey made sense to Minos.
Abby agreed with her husband. “We can’t abandon Leger just yet. If he dies and our agreement ends, we can ignore the rest of his group. Hardly many of them survived and even if they did, they’re of little use. But until he dies, we should at least look for him or the others to understand what happened.”
Minos saw his men sigh in agreement, not liking the plan to follow, but having no other option. He added, “For now, we’ll try to stay close to the coast. From what Leger told us earlier, the best of this continent is deep in these lands.” He pointed to the west. “But it will be dangerous to achieve that. We’ll travel along the coast and strengthen ourselves little by little. When we have more Supremes, it will be time to go deeper.”
In a place full of potential enemies, as was the case where they were now, Minos could make full use of his powers to help his companions achieve permanent and temporary improvements. This would certainly help speed up the cultivation speed of some of them!
The group accepted his commands, soon finishing their conversation and spreading out around the cave.
Minos looked at Tiolos and said, “Today, we’ll stop to rest and meditate. Tomorrow morning, we’ll return with our search. If Leger hasn’t been captured by enemies, he’s probably hiding near the coast.”
“That’s if he really has any confidence that we would make it through the Violent Sea.” The Oqia native pointed out.
“Yes, but he certainly is. We had more strength in our group than his team did when they left. Since he made it, he must have imagined that we would too.” Minos felt confident in his hypothesis.
“Hmm, it makes sense.”
“I’m going to look into our future tonight. Maybe I can get a better idea of how to proceed tomorrow.”
Seeing Minos walk away, Tiolos got into position, taking charge of the group. Walking out of the cave, he looked up at the pinkish sky, which at the moment was not so bright, with a sunset glow.
‘I just don’t know if it will be good to find that guy or not.’ He took a deep breath.
…
While Minos’ group was spending their fourth night in Uzira, close to where they were, there was a crater the size of a soccer field, where several bones of different kinds of creatures were visible under the rough terrain.
A strong smell of carrion filled the area, driving away living creatures not fond of decaying things. But in the middle of this place of earth and red rocks, hot and under dense clouds, a white creature, 12 meters long, 3 meters in radius, was curled up on itself, lying at the lowest point of the crater.
Its black head, with no visible eyes or mouth, was positioned slightly upwards, while its many insect-like side legs were sticking out along its body.
With a cultivation of level 120, this creature was in a deep sleep, finishing absorbing the memories of the last of its food.
Months ago, it had devoured the heads and hearts of six of its ten hunting targets. Despite having the objective of hunting down the four that had escaped, it had stopped for months to digest its food, arriving at the current situation, when it gradually began to leave its state of hibernation.
Upon awakening, the creature’s aura grew significantly, while its murderous desires showed in its awful shadow.
‘Time to hunt down those four invaders!’ it thought to itself, before moving off, finally leaving its location to go in search of the aliens it had discovered over a year ago!