Sorcerer… Cyborg???

Chapter 168: The Wasteland

It had been a half day since Kothar had left the nation of Nevisse far behind, he was currently traversing the barren wastelands that separated the Empire from its vassal states.

The ground underfoot was dry and gravelly, almost desert like, but still cool enough that Kothar was able to continue wearing his cloak, the pockets filled with odds and ends. 

The loose gravel of the ground crunched as Kothar continued at the light jog he had been travelling at, slowly but surely changing his course from south-east to eastward, toward the forest that the Nighthawks had planned to meet at.

[I wish I had a horse right now, trying to draw in enough mana for my body to recover while also making sure I travel fast enough to meet up with the rest of the NIghthawks is killing me.] Kothar grumbled to Silane, the seemingly endless landscape stretching out before him.

[What I would give to stop hearing your ceaseless complaining.] Silane replied, with a slight chuckle. Kothar sighed and didn't reply, turning his attention back to their surroundings.

Kothar constantly kept scanning his surroundings while utilizing his Mana-Sensing Lens, most people would have crossed through the border region in this amount of time, but there were two reasons for Kothar to stay in the wasteland that bordered the Empire.

Firstly, his destination was within the same wasteland, and while it would be safer for Kothar to cross completely then loop back to the forest, it would take far more time than he had.

Secondly, Kothar was far less likely to run into any other travelers or any members of the Imperial Army so long as he stayed in the wasteland.

Knowing this, Kothar continued on his way, and his mind was lulled into a daze by the monotony of the surroundings.

He was running along, his mind mostly switched off, when he felt that something was different.

Kothar looked around, and spotted nothing, it was the same featureless landscape, with only a few stunted trees and thorny bushes. With only the occasional large rock that added some variety to the landscape.

[Kothar. Kothar! Kothar!] Silane finally got Kothar's attention, the constant fighting and running had taken its toll on him, and his mind was half asleep.

[What is Silane? It better not be one of your jokes, I'm sure that there's something wrong.] Kothar said dismissively, still scanning his surroundings with his Mana-Sensing Lens, but not finding anything out of the ordinary.

[That's what I've been trying to tell you about! It's your electromagnetic sensors, they've been going off for the past few minutes!] Silane's frustration boiled over, and she yelled out at Kothar, who slowly moved his hand to the belt he wore at his waist, which was buzzing very gently.

[Oh. I almost forgot that I had it, that's odd. I wonder if there's some magnetic deposit or some precious material around here.] Kothar said, as he stopped and looked around, focusing toward his right side, where the vibrations were strongest, but he didn't spot anything out of the ordinary. 

[Wait, Kothar, it's getting stronger!] Silane yelled, and if she were yelling outside of Kothar's head, it would have echoed all around.

Kothar looked all around, but he couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. Then, he stopped sending mana to his Mana-Sensing Lens, and then, as the vibrations from his electromagnetic sensor belt were reaching a crescendo, he spotted the blur of movement to his right.

The gravel and sand of the ground exploded out, and an enormous scorpion, twice the size of a human, sand colored with gray speckles, burst out of the ground, lunged toward Kothar.

The scorpion's tail, with an enormous stinger at the end, the size of Kothar's hand, swung toward Kothar's head, venom dripping from the end of it. 

Kothar swore as he leaned back as far as he got, with no time to do anything else, the stinger slammed into his mask, with a loud scraping noise, carving a gouge out of it, that fizzled and smoked afterward.

As the stinger swung past, Silane yelled for Kothar to duck, and he slammed himself into the ground, moments before the stinger swung back toward the scorpion, almost hitting him in the unguarded portion of his head.

[Now that was unexpected.] Silane said dryly, projecting possible trajectories for the scorpion's next attacks over Kothar's vision.

[I'm lucky I made the electromagnetic sensors, otherwise I'd be done for. It seems that the scorpion relies on the fact that it can attune its mana signature to the ambient mamna in the environment to ambush its targets.] Kothar flicked the Mana-Sensing Lens on and off, and saw that the scorpion seamlessly blended into nothingness as he looked at it through the mana sensing lens.

The scorpion itself looked as if it had been pounded flat by an enormous mallet, which was what allowed it to hide underneath the loose, gravelly ground of the wasteland, awaiting its next target.

[Be careful Kothar, this creature will probably be quite physically tough, it would have to be to compensate for the fact that it has no ability to reinforce itself with the paltry amount of mana it contains.] Silane warned Kothar, as the Scorpion inched forward, clicking its claws menacingly as it scuttled toward Kothar.

[I'm sure this'll do the job.] Kothar drew his long curved sword, and channeled a ridiculous amount of mana to the sword, so much so that the Magemetal was barely visible due to the massive shower of blue sparks that sprayed from the blade.

The blade itself hummed loudly, the edge vibrating from the raw energy held within it, and Kothar pointed the blade directly at the scorpion, in one of the combat stances that Tam had taught him

The scorpion, shocked that it had encountered prey that had evaded its initial attack, was slightly on edge, But it had never failed before, so it raised its stinger high, and clicked its claws as it rushed toward the puny humanoid with the shining sword that was standing before it.