The Moon Thief

"Wait! I don't feel any shaking ... Did it run?" Dane frowned slightly.

"I don't feel any shaking either." Heinald said.

Everyone waited carefully for about a minute, but the giant worm didn't come back.

"We did it! We couldn't kill it, but we're all alive!" Mady exhaled a sigh of relief.

"It's too early to talk yet. There is still a possibility to attack us, we must always be cautious in this damn place!" Dane observed his surroundings and shook his head.

"Dane is right! After all, we couldn't kill it, he can come back anytime. We'd better start moving forward quickly." Heinald nodded.

After Heinald had given everyone the healing potion, they all set out together. He was thinking about the battle with the giant worm. Despite using their strongest spells, they were unable to kill it or even seriously injure him.

Was it really that big the difference between levels?

From the energy emitted by the giant worm, it could be said that it was roughly equal the power of a Level 2 Ainsar. Moreover, five people attacked in succession and did not even allow it to attack. However, they still could not get pass its defense.

Everyone was silent as they moved quickly on the road. They were thinking about their battle with the giant worm. Previous fight exposed the power of them, moreover, the giant worm they encountered had not carried out dangerous attacks.

When they got closer to the hill, they were still quite cautious. They only spoke a few words for hours. The giant worm had never attacked them again.

"Hm? Look at the floor..." Heinald leaned over and grabbed some sand in his palm.

"Pretty strange...sand?" Dane muttered as he looked at the sand. The sand had a mixed color of gray and ocher.

They continued on their way, uneasy, and they were close to the great hill, which was like a great valley of sand.

"Where do we have to go from here?" asked Heinald.

"Anywhere..." Dane shrugged. After all, they were here to explore this area, they had no particular direction.

* Ssshiii! * The group was startled by the noise they heard.

About 20 meters from them, the sand began to move, then a giant scorpion emerged from under the sand. This scorpion was about 10 meters tall, with intense Fire Element Energy emitting from it, its energy waves indicating that it was at Level 2 Ainsar power. The scorpion's claws looked like hot irons, radiating intense heat.

"Damn ... be careful, a single attack of this scorpion is certain death." When Heinald examined the scorpion in front of him, he had only one thought in mind that was 'danger.' This scorpion would not be slow like the worm they encountered last time, and their attack would be very dangerous.

The Scorpion aggressively walked to the right and to the road, then a ball of fire formed above its tail, which gradually grew larger, warmed, and radiated more intense heat waves around it.

"Whisper of the Wind" Heinald immediately moved away from the scorpion, moving in conjunction with the surrounding wind. The others immediately took action and retreated to a safe distance.

The fireball formed by the scorpion was getting bigger and bigger.

Heinald immediately cast the Wind of Aira and sent it to the fireball, but had no effect against a fireball formed by a Magical Beast with the power of Level 2 Ainsar. After all, this spell was one of the lowest rank spells.

"Frost Wave!" Heinald realized that the situation was serious and immediately began casting his Ice Element-based magic that didn't have to be an expert to realize that the fireball would explode and spread scorching waves.

"Be careful!" Heinald warned that everyone else had predicted that the fireball would explode and they had begun casting spells.

Except for Heinald, everyone in the group cast the same spell, the spell's area of effect creating a small but violent tornado. When four tornado created at the same time by four people were intertwined, a larger tornado emerged with a larger impact area and more severe. At that moment, Heinald sent the freezing waves emanating from his body directly into the hose, resulting in a frost tornado.

Meanwhile, the fireball formed by the scorpion exploded and a scorching fire wave spread around. When the scorching wave of fire collided with the frost tornado, severe crackles began to emerge. The reason for these crackles was air breaks due to sudden temperature changes in the area.

Although no one in the group was burned after the collision, the surrounding temperature had increased considerably, and if an Apprentice Ainsar was here, he would probably start to fry like a chicken. But for Level 1 Ainsars, this temperature was not deadly.

"Lightning Spear!" Heinald immediately began casting his the violent lightning spell. He did not want to give this scorpion an opportunity, hoping that his body would not be as strong as him, even though his attacks were more violent than the giant worm. However he still wasn't sure, he didn't know anything about this scorpion.

The spear-shaped lightning formed in his hands quickly began to fly towards the scorpion.

* BOOM! * A violent explosion sound echoed.

"What!?" Heinald had a clear view of the scene before the explosion. As the Lightning Spear advanced towards him, a shield of fire was formed around the scorpion. When the Lightning Spear hit the fire shield, violent lightning strikes and bits of fire were scattered around. Tons of sand rose from the ground. Nothing was visible.

Magical Beasts were able to use the elements they were predisposed to as part of their nature. They carried out their attacks by relying on the power of these elements and they were using elemental energy. However, this scorpion was able to use its elemental power to make a shield for itself.

Was this one of his natural defensive abilities?

The reason Heinald was so surprised was that no Magical Beast he had seen before was using their elemental energy for defense, they only used their elemental energy to attack. Moreover, books about Magical Beasts only wrote information about attacks of known species, he never read information about their defenses.

"Oh no!" Ruske cried out in concern.

"What's going on?" Heinald felt the whole ground start to tremble, and at that moment the giant worm they had fought before flew out of the ground and again rose tens of meters from the ground.

"Run!" Dane cried out, but things were so sudden that no one could act as quickly as they should.

* BOM! * When the body of the colossal worm fell to the ground, there was an explosion as before. However, the effect was not as great as last time due to the sand on the ground. However, the shock wave it caused had managed to lift tons of sand in the air and hit Heinald and the others again.

After Heinald swung several meters, the last thing he saw before losing consciousness was falling sand. He had not seen it because he had lost consciousness, but the whole area around the hill was collapsing, taking in everything and everyone around.

***

When Heinald's consciousness returned, he found himself in a dark place in the sand.The only thing he could see was sand.As he stood up to climb through the sand, he felt sharp pains all over his body, he was injured.

He pushed himself out through the sand and stood up.He immediately formed a piece of fire in his hands and illuminated the environment.When he began to examine his surroundings, he thought he was in a dungeon-like place.

"Damn ... I hope the others are fine too." Heinald muttered.It really saddened him that something happened to those people he met, after all, they were not bad people.

He started walking, examining the surroundings. This place was like a gigantic place, but there was nothing around, it had a desolate ambiance. He felt this place was an ancient place. However, he could not understand whether this place was a natural formation or a building. After walking for a while, the descending stairs entered the viewpoint.

When he got downstairs, he came to a large hall whose walls were filled with antique embroidery. There were columns made of jade in various parts of the hall. He went to the great throne beyond the hall and began to examine it. At first he thought it was a dungeon, but this was not a dungeon, it was a palace.

Probably a palace from the time of Ancient Ainsar!

After he had finished examining the throne, he continued to examine the great hall, examining the various engravings on the wall, but saw nothing special.

"Hm?" Heinald saw a large door ahead, and when he went near it, he saw that it was covered with various embroidery, and he tried to open it, but there was not the slightest movement, despite using all his might.

At that moment he thought of some information that he had read in a book, this was an ancient palace, most likely each door was protected by a formation. He immediately sent the Magic Energy to the door, and as he had guessed, the embroidery of the door began to emit a blue light.

But the door did not open.

"Oh? There has been no visitor to this palace for a long time. " A deep and calm voice came into his ears.