Reader Mage 121-Barrier Erection

There were a few things to know about sandworms, courtesy of Krieger. The most important of the lot, however, was that they had no eyes, ears, nose, or any of the usual sensory organs the apex predators of Earth were common with. So, in hindsight, they should be easy to avoid.

That was not the case, though. If anything, that even made them more of a pain in the ass than if they had had the sensory organs. At least, those could be exploited in more proven ways than none; there were smoke bombs, to cloud vision, pungent sll to distort slls, and many more of such. But the ability to pinpoint the location of a being due to the vibrations their body emitted was on a completely different level.

rlin wouldn’t say he was much of a science geek, but he was well aware that it was impossible for a human to turn off the vibrations their body emitted like it was being operated by a light switch. Brainwaves, muscle tremors, vocal cord vibrations, heartbeat, heat, and even down to the cellular and molecular level, the human body was always in a constant state of vibration. And rlin running only fueled that. Basically, the sandworms were having a field day. Worse, they were faster than they looked.

rlin swerved out of the way, not even close to being out of breath, as the sandworm to his right slamd its maw into the ground where he had been just a split second ago. Sand and dust clouded the air, and rlin had to spread an arm over his nose as he jumped out of the encasent.

Common sense told him to use [Mana Spring] to put so distance between himself and the sandworms, but common sense had no idea what it was talking about.

[Mana Spring] could only propel rlin so far at a ti, and it was also not sothing that he could use constantly in split seconds, there had to be a mont of respite between each use as a ans to once again gather mana to his feet after every initial burst. But he didn’t have the luxury of ti any longer. The sandworms, due to their thick scales that went across their upper body, and apparently blocked all vibrations, had completely forgotten about the others. Their attention was completely on the singular person they could see—feel, rather. And with the absurd speed in which they moved at, if rlin stopped for even a second, he would be eaten.

However, that didn’t an rlin didn’t try to think of a few things he could do to bolster his speed. And that was where [Flash Step] ca into the equation.

Just like [Mana Spring], [Flash Step] was also used in short bursts, to move quickly from one location to another while evading attacks. It was like a more controlled version of [Mana Spring], less power and more control, but that ant a far lesser distance. Its pro, though, was that a second or two for rlin to gather mana to his feet wasn’t required. And he appreciated that. Adding that skill with his increased Agility, and his ability to perceive the attacks of the sandworms without having to look over his shoulder, gave rlin a bit of an advantage he doubted anyone else in their team would have had. It was one of the reasons why he had requested he took the task on; no one was more suited to attract death and escape it than he was. And that was not him being smug; he had stared death in the eyes once, and had technically risen from the dead the second ti. He was death-proof.

And, as expected, rlin succeeded.

A few minutes after his erratic but elegant dancing away from the onslaught of the sandworms, sothing appeared in the horizon. It ca as nothing more than a dot at first, but with each mile covered, it beca a lot larger, growing into the size of a thumb, then a ball, then it spread out, revealing a small village.

The sight of their destination brought about shouts of victory from rlin’s mates on the back of the sandworms. It briefly reminded him of how Kim Minji had been overjoyed as well when they had neared the exit during their physical assessnt, which ant it reminded him of what he had told her. Until they had gotten to their destination, there was no cause for celebration.

So he drowned out the cheers and the words of encouragent thrown at him from the safety of the backs of the sandworms. After all, they did nothing to fuel him. If he had been exhausted, or gravely injured, then maybe the cheers would have boosted his adrenaline and took his actions up a notch. But he was perfectly fine. The attacks of the sandworms had proven a bit easy to avoid, thanks to the fact that they had no magical ones besides trying to eat him. It turned out that running away was a lot easier than it seed. The headmaster was right. There was no sha in tucking one’s tails and turning heels.

rlin narrowed his eyes as the village beca a lot clearer now. Wooden fences of spikes were erected all around it, and he could sense the presence of sentries at each corner. However, it was not the security of the village that made his face wrinkle. Two dragonn guards like Krieger were standing at the entrance, spear in their hands, pointed forward, and at their center was a squat dragonman dressed in a shabby black robe with hands raised high.

That didn’t seem good.

“What’s going on?” rlin voiced, his question directed at Krieger.

[Barrier erection!], the dragonman replied. [It is to prevent the sandworms from noticing the village, like I told you before!].

“Then what do we do?” rlin asked as he nimbly avoided another attempt of the sandworms trying to eat him. “Will we be able to pass through the barrier?”

[No], replied Krieger. [We have to make them notice us—notice , so that they leave a bit of space for us to get in through. And we have to get there before the sandworms. So your friends and I all have to jump down in a few seconds, and run together with you].

Running and talking was quite the ordeal. rlin was trying to be cautious so that he didn’t bite his tongue, but he had lots of questions to ask, and words to relay to his mates, so he didn’t let his fear of biting his tongue stop him.

He went ahead to announce to the rest of his teammates what his brief discussion with Krieger entailed, and while they murmured between themselves as to how they would proceed with that, he returned his attention to the dragonman.

“How do I make them notice you?” he asked.

Krieger took his ti to respond.

[My spear!], he said shortly after. [If they see my spear, they will know that I have returned!].

rlin digested those words as quickly as he could. From their distance to the village, there was only one way for them to get the spear to the rest of the dragonn before they themselves arrived at the village.

“Can you throw it?” rlin asked.

[Unstable!], said Krieger. [I have thought about it, but it will be impossible for to throw with the sandworms moving the way they are!].

rlin raised a hand. “Give it to .”

There was silence from Krieger, but a second later, rlin sensed the dragonman’s spear rushing his way. He relied solely on his Perception to predict the spear’s flight, and caught it without having to turn around or break his run.

However, ti was once again not on their side.

The barrier had begun to rise, glowing translucent light forming a sphere around the village from the ground up.

rlin clenched his jaw. Using [Flash Step] he sent himself forward, putting a greater distance between him and the sandworms. Then he made use of that split second to activate [Mana Spring]. It was a close call, as the sandworms covered the distance quickly and almost took him right into their mouth, but he managed to evade them at the last second. [Mana Spring] gave him a better ti range to go ahead with his plan. Two seconds. But that was more than enough.

rlin shifted his body diagonally, dug his legs into the sand and tightened his grip on the shaft of Krieger’s spear. His muscles tensed, his arms bulged, and he launched the spear.

The spear bood through the air, the thrust rlin had propelled it with greater than any resistance in the air trying to stop it. Less than a second later, it planted itself right in front of the dragonpriest, and the enclosing barrier halted.

“Success!” rlin voiced as he continued his run, and a few seconds later, he was no longer alone.

Park Yuri lifted herself from the back of the sandworm she was riding, and swiftly blasted balls of fire at it and its companion. The attacks did nothing to the sandworms, but they stunned them for a mont. And that was all was needed.

At Senior Sun-Hee’s signal, everyone jumped down from the backs of the sandworms, turning their landing into a force, propelling themselves forward into a dash.

rlin was way ahead of the lot, and that ant he arrived at the village first.

The dragonn standing guard raised their spears higher at the sight of him, obviously taken aback by the appearance of a strange figure. It was a normal reaction, so rlin didn’t try to force his way through. Instead, he slowed down his pace, allowing Krieger and the rest to catch up. And the rest did itself.

The dragonn at the entrance had a change in expression when they noticed their fellow Drachen. No further words needed to be said. Delay would only set the sandworms onto them, and that would be the worst outco they would want.

Instantly, the dragonn shifted slightly out of the way, giving room for rlin and the rest to rush into the village. It took less than a second after that for the barrier to engulf the village completely, and following that was the weird stop of the sandworms as they all of a sudden seed totally lost.

Everyone, human and Drachen alike, held their breaths in fear as the sandworms reared their large bodies above the village and its barrier, hoping deep down that they didn’t decide to slam themselves down onto the village. rlin didn’t recall Krieger ntioning anything about the barrier protecting them from the attacks of the sandworms after all.

To everyone’s relief, however, the invertebrates turned around and burrowed back into the sand. It took no more than a couple of seconds for them to be completely out of sight.

And then, without a mont to waste, spears were pointed the way of rlin and his crew, preventing them from taking a single step from where they were.

It seed it was ti for interrogation.