My (Monster?) Hero Life

Chapter 252: Shifting Sands

Kace slowly descended the boarding ramp, he activated Tracking and paid close attention to his phantom Hydra head. He was determined to catch any signs of an ambush as early as possible. The heat emanating from the sand was no joke, as Kace felt himself begin to sweat beneath his armour. Grugda, Shadow and Lilly slowly descended from the airship behind him.

"Shadow, Grugda. Spread out. Lilly, stay close to me." Kace ordered without moving his gaze from the city before them.

They wasted no time with arguing about his decision as they each headed for different gap in the buildings. Lilly seemed nervous as she stuck close to Kace, letting him take the lead. She was no idiot, she knew that these three would be more capable than herself. She was glad that Kace chose to protect her himself.

As they properly entered the city, Kace became more wary. There were signs that there used to be life here up until not long ago. There were goods laid out on mats as if there had been a market. However, none of the items were heavily coated in sand. Most of them looked brand new. Kace carefully opened the door of the nearest building and peered inside.

The house was dead silent. There were some luxurious furnishings such as an expensive looking, colourful rug. Everyday high quality furniture and a table that had food sitting on a few plates. Kace slowly stepped inside, none of his abilities were picking up anything. Not even some residue traces of the inhabitants scents.

'This doesn't make sense. The food is still warm.' Kace felt confused as he neared the table. Only at this distance could he notice the slight distortion in the air from the heat coming off of the food. 'There should be some traces of them that my Tracking could pick up. Especially, since it looks like they disappeared not long ago.'

Lilly was hovering in the doorway, she seemed reluctant to enter the building with Kace. She was more concerned about being ambushed in a tight space where it would be harder to defend herself or for Kace to intervene. She would much rather stay outside in the open.

Kace glanced at her with an annoyed expression. 'I can't leave her alone, but, there's still upstairs to check.' Kace was facing a dilemma. He was still wary of any ambushes, but at the same time he did not want to miss any potential evidence because of Lilly. Seeing that she still refused to enter, Kace made up his mind.

'Sylvan, get ready.'

Sylvan grunted in affirmation before taking on the form of a short sword. The edge of the blade had a green tinge to it which Kace attributed to his new abilities. It was a good choice of form since the house was cramped. There was not enough space to swing a sword or anything longer without the risk of striking a wall.

"You're not leaving me here, are you!?" Lilly squealed when she noticed that Kace headed for the stairs.

"Nobody is stopping you from coming with me." Kace growled. He did not have time to be considerate about her feelings. Not when a fight could break out at any moment.

Kace was tense as climbed the stairs. His ears perked up as he listened for anything that would let him know if someone moved around. 'The lack of scents is really throwing me off. It's like they've deliberately concealed all signs of being here, which just makes the situation more abnormal than picking up a few traces.'

Kace was perplexed as he thought about it. If there was someone skilled in ambushes around then they would know this simple fact. You only concealed all signs when your opponent did not expect to find anything. However, they were in a city. One with still warm food on the plates and goods laid out in the market. It would make more sense to leave smells and other things behind.

Kace made no sound as tread upon the upstairs landing. If anyone was listening out for his approach, then they would be caught off guard. This was thanks to his Padded Feet ability. It was exceptional at always passively hiding any natural noise that moving around created. His phantom Hydra head suddenly perked up.

It sent information to him about a brief, new scent appearing downstairs before vanishing again. Kace had no idea what to make of the anomaly. 'There's no way to erase your scent that quickly after letting it out. Besides, this seems vaguely familiar with same kind of scents that Lilly gives off.' Kace immediately became worried.

"Lilly?" Kace shouted, foregoing all thoughts of being stealthy. "Lilly!"

No answer came, even as he shouted for the second time. Kace swore as he raced back down the stairs, gripping Sylvan tightly. He was ready to fight for his life! However, the lower level of the house was silent, and empty. There were no signs of any assailants, or Lilly for that matter.

"FUCK!" Kace swore as he kicked the nearby wall in frustration.

He had no idea what had happened, all he knew for certain was that Lilly had disappeared. Sure, she could have wandered off on her own. However, Kace doubted that was what happened.

It could not be a coincidence that the city's inhabitants all vanished, only for Lilly to do the same. 'What about the others?' Kace suddenly realised that splitting up might not have been a good idea. 

At the time, they had a lot of ground to cover. Kace had been fully confident in his group's ability to defend themselves long enough for the others to arrive. However, he had not expected a method to make them disappear into thin air to be deployed against them.

'Where did they go?' Kace could not think of any reasonable way to move so many people so quickly. There should have been signs in the sandy streets if they walked away, or even signs of a struggle.

Kace began to think about alternate ways that might be possible. 'Maybe it's something like teleportation, or something similar to the Tu'Thrag's shadow world. Kace backtracked through the city to find Grugda's tracks.

'Grugda is more important right now. It should be far more difficult to get the jump on Shadow.' He was relieved to see that the crew of the airship still stood vigilant on its deck. 'At least our escape route hadn't been compromised.'

Kace quickly headed in the direction that Gruda went, keeping a close eye on the Eljein's tracks. Grugda's trail led to an area that looked like it was for poorer residents. The elaborately painted patterns on the buildings were quite faded. The buildings looked like they had seen better days, as there were signs of their walls beginning to crumble.

Grugda's trail led into a few different buildings. Clearly, the Eljein had the same idea as Kace. When Kace rounded another corner, Grugda's tracks suddenly came to an end. 

The street he was in was wide and spacious. It was apparent that the sand had not just covered them up as it blew around in the soft, warm breeze. 'Shit! I swear to fuck, Shadow better not have disappeared as well!'

As if he had heard what was going on in Kace's mind, Shadow suddenly leapt from a nearby wall! His face had a determined look while his arms were stretched out wide. Shadow ploughed directly into Kace's chest, tackling him to the ground.

As he fell to the ground in Shadow's embrace, Kace spotted a humanoid figure leaping through the space his body had occupied. Sand trailed through the air behind the figure as it let out a shriek. 

As it hit the sand, it curled up into a ball to absorb the impact. Only to use its hands to spring up onto its feet. Kace shoved Shadow off of him as he started at the creature.

A brown leather wrapping covered its face while another one covered its waist. Its skin was a sickly yellow colour with the fingers on its hands reached down to its knees when it was upright. Each ginger ended in a long, sharp talon.

From what he could see, Kace guessed that it was a male. This was helped by its almost normal human appearance besides its noticeable features. The creature turned in their direction before letting out a chatter of screeches. 

"Is it... Trying to talk to us?" Kace asked dubiously while Shadow prepared his scythe.

"Who the fuck cares! That thing just tried to attack you!" Shadow growled.

"No. I don't think it did." Kace replied while shaking his head and sorting through the information he was receiving from his phantom Hydra head. "I think... He's trying to save us."

"Save us! From what! There's nothing here!"

"I don't know, but somehow I get the feeling its much worse than this thing in front of us!"