Project: Mage - The Frugal Mage 181 We were deceived

Looking at the horizon it was possible to see a shadow running across the desert, about a kilometer away, three more shadows were seen. The three shadows were chasing the shadow ahead.

The group running through the desert was Liu Yang and the three men of the blood race. They had been running for almost a week through the desert and under the hot sun.

Liu Yang ran purposefully always in the morning and afternoon, as it was the time when the sun was at its hottest. The three men of the blood race were having a hard time keeping up with Liu Yang, they had to spend some pills and elixirs along the way.

The three regretted not trying to capture Liu Yang inside the city, instead of following him to Ivy. They would have saved a lot of time and effort.

By capturing Liu Yang, they could torture him and make Ivy appear in the city. But now it was too late, they've been running for more than a week under the hot sun. Giving up now would be a huge waste of all the efforts they have made so far. Because of this, the three clenched their teeth and continued to follow Liu Yang.

But each hour that passed, they regretted the choice. Liu Yang always rested about two hours after each run. After that, he would run again for six hours before stopping again to rest more two hours. This cycle was repeated for almost a week.

Liu Yang was pushing his body and mind to the limit every day. The same was happening with the three members of the blood race. Running during the morning and afternoon was already very exhausting, and during the night, they wanted to rest, but Liu Yang always woke up again after two hours. This forced them to continue chasing Liu Yang.

After seven days running for six hours and resting two. Liu Yang finally arrived at his destination, a land covered by tall rocks.

To increase the running time, Liu Yang purposely slowed down, he wanted to tire the three men of the blood race and keep them busy for as long as possible.

The place looked like a big desert dune, but instead of sand, the place was full of brown rocky hills covered with holes, many rocks looked like pillars.

As it was already three o'clock in the morning, the place was completely dark, the Moonlight was unable to illuminate the place properly because of the pillars that blocked the light.

Liu Yang went inside and sat in a place where he could be seen. His hut has already been installed and he started to rest, but he hasn't slept yet.

"Jarlen, do you know what kind of place this is?"

"This looks like some kind of desert dune or some desert beast nest, but I don't know what kind of nest it could be. Can any of you smell something different? I can only smell that human in front of us "

"I also can't smell anything, just that human and the sands. It looks like there's nothing there but sand and rock "

"This is not right. This place is a great place for desert beast nests, here it must have a lot of shadow during the day. Many beasts must want to stay here, but why can't we smell anything?"

"Jarlen, if something is escaping our sense of smell. This thing must be something very much about hiding. Because we can distinguish the smell from just about anything, it would be very strange to have something like that here in the desert. We ran for seven full days, we smelled almost all creatures in the desert during the race. "

"I know that, but this place makes me a little anxious. Because it is a great place to have nests of creatures of the desert, it is very strange to have nothing here. Not even a single creature. "

"Is it possible that we are too far away to smell it? Our sense of smell can only reach one kilometer, if something is further than that, we will not be able to smell it. "

"Are we going to enter this dune? Or are we going to stay out here? We can still smell that human from that distance, but if he runs more than that. We will lose his scent "

"We will go in, but we need to be careful. At the moment it's night time, so it's safer, but when the day gets light, we have to be much more careful. For during the day it is the time when the creatures of the desert are most active.

"Yes."

"I will be on watch this time. You two rest as much as you can. " Jarlen spoke solemnly. He did not believe that this place had no creatures at all, as it was impossible.

"Okay" The group stayed at the entrance to the dune and took out their tents to sleep. Jarlen was out watching while Vincent and Oberon went to sleep, they were already extremely tired after running for so long.

During the night, the blood race's speed of recovery was much greater than during the day, three times faster. But that does not mean that they could recover completely from exhaustion, that was impossible. two hours of rest was very little.

The three managed to recover only about twenty percent of their energy.

(What's wrong with this place? Why do I feel uneasy?) Jarlen was thoughtful as he looked towards Liu Yang. He couldn't see Liu Yang because some rock pillars were in front, but he could smell him.

Jarlen was nervous because he didn't know what was wrong with him. The situation was very strange for him. Because of this, his rest time became very chaotic, instead of recovering, he became more tired mentally and physically.

Time passed slowly ...

With each second that passed, Jarlen became more nervous and tense, because the unknown was making him like that. He has never encountered such a situation before.

(My senses have never deceived me before, but what's going on this time?) Jarlen was absolutely sure there was something wrong with this place.

For him, it was impossible not to have any kind of creature in the place, but he couldn't prove his theory.

Jarlen's rest time passed slowly, he was unable to rest at all. His mind was chaotic and tense, he couldn't think of anything but the place.

…

One hour and fifty-five minutes later ...

The clock was striking 5:55 AM, the sun was already rising over the horizon, and the light slowly began to illuminate the desert. The sunlight was reflected and the desert looked like a great golden sea.

"Wake up !! He woke up and was already walking !! " Jarlen shouted to his two companions who were fast asleep.

"Wake up !!" As the two did not wake up, he had to use his water element magic to wet the two.

"Ahhhhh !!!" The two screamed when they felt the icy water cover their bodies.

"Jarlen, what are you doing ?? !!!! Why did you do that???" They were both very sleepy, much more than normal.

"We need to run. That human has already started walking and eating at the same time "

"Already?? Has it been two hours? "

"There are only five minutes left to spend two hours. It looks like he woke up a little earlier this time "

Liu Yang always varied a few minutes before spending two hours. The limit was fifteen minutes. He always woke up about fifteen minutes before or after three hours of rest. Every day during the race.

"Shit… why did he wake up early this time? He should have woken up later !!! "

"Let's go. We do not have much time"

…

The group put their things away and started running towards Liu Yang. But keeping a distance of at least nine hundred meters.

"We need to get closer. These rocks are hindering our vision. "

"Yes. Let's run faster !! " The group accelerated.

They had already been running for four minutes.

"I can smell that bitch !!! She is going towards that human !!!! " Vincent screamed with joy when he smelled Ivy.

"It looks like that bitch was hiding somewhere around here. Our efforts were finally rewarded. I'll beat up and rape that bitch for making us run for so long in the desert. If I don't rape her, I won't be able to calm down !!! " Oberon cried out in ecstasy and angry. He was already tired after running for so long.

"It looks like we were deceived!!! If Ivy was already here, why didn't that human come to her instead of resting ?? It doesn't make sense, he should have enough energy to walk that small distance "Jarlen finally found out that they fell into a big trap.

His worst thoughts have come true.

"Jarlen, are you trying to say that ..." Before Oberon could finish speaking, something surprising happened when the clock struck exactly 06:00 AM.

Chapter end