Speeding through the desert dunes, Archie felt his eyes start to droop and his grip on his Mana Bike start to loosen, but a cold poke on the side of his neck made his eyes shoot back up and his grip tighten.

  ‘Thank you,’ Archie signed with one hand, keeping the other on the Mana Bike’s handle as his eyes surveyed the desert in all of its midnight glory.

  “We should set up camp for a few hours, at least until sunrise,” Aoife suggested as she glanced at the full moon above them. “You’ve been driving for four days straight now; meditation could help you regain your focus.”

  While he didn’t need to sleep as often as he had on Earth, the curse, Hollow Slumber, made him feel as though he hadn’t rested in weeks. Even though his stamina pool was just about halfway full, his fatigue was constantly rising.

  Archie looked over his shoulder for a moment, something that he had been doing from time to time ever since Vandrick warned him of the Hounds of the Duke of Dreadmire.

  From how Vandrick described them, they were an order of sorts that hid in the shadows of the Dreadmire Dukedom.

  How they did that while apparently being well-known to basically everyone, he didn’t know.

  Seeing nothing behind them other than clouds of sand and sand tire tracks, Archie returned his focus to the Compass of Desire he fastened onto his connector between both of his handlebars with two straps of leather he had stored in his spatial storage.

  The crimson needle continued pointing forward, aimed at the border gate between the Netharim Sovereignty and the Yndros Empire.

  They were currently within the Netharim Sovereignty, specifically in the Dukedom of Dreadmire’s domain. The nearest border leading out of the Sovereignty lay in the direction of the Yndros Empire, which would be a three-day journey on a Skyship, aka a five full-day journey at full speed on his Mana Bike.

  No matter how powerful the Duke of Dreadmire was or how expansive his connections were, Archie knew that sending troops into another country was a big no-no. So, his best bet to buy time before he would have to face them would be to leave Netharim as fast as possible.

  It was the best he could hope for, considering the way Aoife and Vandrick had crushed any hope that crossing the border would free him of the worry of still being chased by them.

  "As their name suggests, the Hounds won’t stop chasing their target ‘til either their target dies or they do," Vandrick had explained. "Crossing into ‘nother kingdom will slow them down, yes, but with the Duke’s influence, it won’t be for long. That fucker has his fingers deep into the pockets of others."

  Archie gave a quick thumbs-up before pointing at a giant ribcage jutting out of the sand, a few miles ahead, its bones still surprisingly well-preserved despite the creature’s long-ago death.

  They needed a place where they could stay hidden, somewhere where there was neither high ground nor low ground for obvious reasons; high ground made you an easy target, while low ground left you open to ambush. So, being in a relatively flat area and blending themselves into the surroundings was their best option, as they did not know how accurate Scent of the Hunted was.

  Maybe the curse gave the Hounds pinpoint accuracy on his location, or maybe it was more like his old phone’s GPS—never quite accurate and every time he added a location to go to it just created a faded blue circle spanning a three-mile radius around him, as if saying, "Good luck, figure it out, bro."

  The latter probably wasn’t the case, but he could only hope that the curse Seeth’four put on him was buggy, like an out-of-date software update.

  Rolling into the ribcage of the giant beast, Archie came to a stop once they reached the tailbone. Standing up, Archie gave enough room for Aoife to get up off the bike and onto the sand.

  Putting his Mana Bike away in his spatial storage, Archie followed Aoife’s lead, pulling out his Water Tin and drinking as much as he could.

  Water Tin (Uncommon):

  A tin made to hold water, forged by Vandrick Skath, an Expert Cyberneticsmith. Can hold up to 500 Liters of liquid. Effects: Self-Repair, Spatial Expansion. Status: Perfect & 6% Empty. Requirements: Humanoid Race.

  Apparently, Vandrick’s wife, Seral, had given Aoife several crates worth of supplies that she’d kept for a rainy day, containing several crates worth of food, water, clothes, and other knick-knacks.

  Things that he’d forgotten to purchase as they left the city of Louther in a rush, and only remembered to do, once the city disappeared behind them.

  ‘I’ll be meditating to replenish what I can,’ Archie signed as he saw Aoife lean against a large bone shard twice as tall as the two of them. ‘What about you?’

  “I’ll be in Warrior’s Stance

  ‘I’ve never heard of that skill. What does it do?’ Archie asked, curious about it. ‘I can share with you a skill I have to make this an equal exchange of information.’

  Aoife nodded before explaining Warrior’s Stance

  ‘Oh, that sounds really handy to have,’ Archie replied, interested in the skill. ‘I wonder if pugilists have a similar skill.’

  ‘I have a skill called Primal Roar

  “What is an AOE?” Aoife asked, confused by the term Archie used.

  ‘It means area of effect,’ Archie signed back. ‘Most of the people on my planet who play games refer to an area of effect as an AOE.’

  Primal Roar

  ‘One last question before I go and meditate,’ Archie signed in a hurry as though he’d suddenly remembered something. ‘Would it still work while I have this curse on me?’

  If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

  Aoife opened her mouth to reply, but slowly closed it as she proceeded to think about it.

  A few minutes went by before Aoife shook her head, unsure whether the curse would affect the skill. While he could still grunt, gasp, and make other noises, so long as they weren’t words, however, shout-based skills were challenges issued to others, which might be considered as a form of communication.

  , Archie thought to himself before he took out one of his three remaining Effigies of Endurance and snapped it in two. While it only slightly increased the rate at which his stamina regenerated at as it was an F-Grade effigy, he sighed in relief as a cool breeze washed over his body, reminiscent of the cool air he felt in the Shaman dungeon forest.

  Closing his eyes, Archie focused on the lingering effects of the Effigy of Endurance and activated Nature's Meditation

  “Archie,” Aoife whispered, grabbing his attention from his meditation as his eyes slowly opened before stopping halfway with her next words.

  “We have company,” she mouthed to him, tilting her head back slightly, signaling him that there were people behind her, refusing to move any more than she already had, not wanting to alert their stalkers.

  Archie didn’t respond, instead, he activated Vital Sight

  He saw four people crouching beside each other, slowly inching themselves toward them. Their vital energies looked far denser than the typical high-level E-Grade’s, slightly lower than Aoife’s, meaning that they were somewhere on the lower end of D-Grade.

  Maintaining his cool and keeping his eyes half-open, Archie slowly wrote out the number four and the letter D on the sand using a small sliver of mana that was almost indistinguishable from the mana he took in from his surroundings as he meditated.

  ‘Wait,’ he wrote into the sand before he opened his spatial storage and took out an Emberlash Eudromaeosaur Beastcore that was hidden between his crossed arms which hugged his torso as he meditated.

  Archie activated Spirit Bond

  Aoife looked at Archie in surprise as his head sagged suddenly. Aoife thought before she sucked in a breath in alarm.

  Aoife bit her tongue and kissed her teeth as she felt the presences behind her pick up their pace and split up into pairs, one pair remaining behind her while the other made their way closer to Archie.

  Her enhanced senses picked up one in each pair, starting to deploy pairs of daggers that produced a windy crunch and covered their bodies in a cloak of dark mana, blending in with the darkness that covered the desert.

  , Aoife noted by the sound the daggers made and the feel the metal gave off.

  The other one in each pair deployed a recurve crossbow in one hand, judging by the barely audible twang it made when its string stretched.

  , Aoife noted, nervously licking her chapped lips

  Archie’s eyes shot open, his body exploding into motion as red-tinged steam exploded from his body and flame-wreathed thorns covered his body. His body became a blur as he passed by her and smashed his fist into the one closest to her, seemingly able to see through the cloaked Hounds.

  Overcoming her momentary shock, Aoife charged toward the shocked duo in front of her, her scutum shield glowing grey as she charged toward where she felt the metal hum.

  Archie’s fist smashed into the face of the cloaked and crouched humanoid shape, sending the body skidding into the ground before twisting and blocking a shot at the side of his head and sending a cross at his attacker’s face, which was subsequently blocked by a dull grey holo buckler that flickered into existence before vanishing.

  Archie’s opponent retracted their recurve crossbow and snaked their hand toward Archie’s right forearm, between the thin gap between the end of his steel sleeves and his bracers, and stabbed their fingers in between the gap.

  Archie immediately yanked his arm back, dragging the figure close enough for his head to smash into the glowing red figure’s nose, creating a sickening crunch as blood and cartilage spluttered out of their nose.

  But the figure retaliated by redeploying their holo buckler mid-swing and smashing its edge across the left side of Archie’s face before its edges sharpened, slicing through the submalar region of his mouth and coming out the other side, leaving his lower jaw hanging by thin sinews of muscle.

  Archie ignored the pain that flared across his face, instead charging forward and tackling his attacker to the ground. Now atop his attacker, Archie started to wail on their face, unleashing a flurry of 50% Adrenaline Rush

  As quickly as it occurred, fresh muscle bubbled on both the upper and lower jaw before they shot forward, connecting with each other and knitting them back together.

  Dodging a strike from the opponent beneath him, Archie retaliated by snaking his arm under his own and driving it into where their liver should be, his flame-wreathed thorned fist ripping through their cybernetic weave. His grin widened as his fist sank deeper into their side and even more so as he saw their body flinch, if only for a moment—just enough to crack their guard further. Wasting no time, he drew back his fist, ready to smash it across their face.

  But before he could land the blow, Sixth Sense

  Then Archie saw the second glowing red figure, who almost cut his head off, pull back their leg before it crashed into his side, sending him tumbling across the sand before he righted himself and landed in a sliding crouch.

  It was then for the first time he heard one of their voices, the one he was wailing on, shout, “You glitching dumbass! Are your circuits fried? Why did you kick him? You have twin daggers, use them!”

  [Human Lv ???]

  [Human Lv ???]

  Archie quickly took out a handful of sandwiches from his spatial storage and stuffed them down his throat, bolstering Vital Metabolism

  Archie grinned, eyes glistening with excitement.

  Surging nature mana into the ground below, Archie activated Earthen Grasp

  Archie activated Savage Charge

  He had less than a few seconds to try and see if this would work before they both broke from their binds.

  Archie felt his throat rumble in protest; the buildup of mana and stamina rushed from his lungs and pushed against an invisible seal. They pushed against his throat, ripping through the muscle, cartilage, and new flesh that quickly started to knit the damage.

  Archie smiled as the adrenaline coursed through his body. Unable to get upset as his skill refused to activate, the sheer amount of dopamine that was flooding through him made him incapable of it.

  It wasn’t that this fight was particularly fun or had any heavy stakes, really. The two that he was facing weren’t even that strong; they were more oriented towards assassination and ranged combat.

  It was because he finally had the chance to finally fight against something after more than a week of nothing. Even when he guarded Aoife, the most he could find around the camp were weak critters that ran away from him.

  It was why he was so shocked when Aoife mentioned how many creatures were on the outskirts of the camp. Whenever it was his turn to patrol around the camp, he couldn’t find a single creature above level 40 in sight.

  And now he finally had something to stretch his legs, and better yet, he was at a disadvantage.

  , Archie thought to himself with amusement.

  And he still dominated them.

  Archie’s neck snapped forward to face the constipated face of his glowing red opponent, and a joyful, guttural roar ripped from his throat, resounding across the desert. Primal Roar

  Archie felt his throat turn to paste before the restrictive seal returned in full.

  But Archie paid it no heed as he activated Relentless FlurryPrimal Roar

  As the system ding rang through his mind, Archie snapped toward the remaining glowing figure whose left arm shook in fright.

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