novelraw Chapter 189: The Gamble of the Core Sand
Chapter 189: The Gamble of the Core Sand
The turbid Nile water still gushed out from the broken hole underground, forming a swirling vortex in the alley.
Broken planks and shattered plaster statue remnants floated and sank on the murky surface along with cheap tourist souvenirs, composing an absurd tableau.
The battlefield’s shape had been altered by this flood.
It had changed from a passive, area-effect “sandstorm” to a focused, clearly opposed “beachhead assault.”
The four teammates were soaked through, submerged in the icy river;
clothing heavy with water weighed them down from the chest down, restricting their movements.
They resembled shipwrecked sailors struggling to maintain balance, facing a lone person and a beast on the isolated island across from them.
Their enemies, Devourer Ammit and her puppeteer Nephthys, stood high on the dry sandy sanctuary shielded by spiritual power, looking down like judges of mortals at this bedraggled group of “offerings.”
The air smelled of damp vapor and the smoke of explosions, and the rotating turbid water between them had become a natural moat, separating life from death.
“I will flay your skin piece by piece, then fill your bodies with Nile silt, turning you into exquisite puppets offered to the great Apophis!”
Nephthys’s venomous voice hissed like a snake, echoing over the flood.She raised the Scarab’s Sanctuary on her right arm, the large black gem in the vambrace center flaring to life as it began to siphon power from the dry sand of the isolated island.
Although Ammit’s body was soaked by river water and temporarily unable to unleash a wide-range sandstorm, that did not mean it had lost its offensive capabilities.
Nephthys suddenly swung her arm downward.
The dry-sand surface of the isolated island began to boil.
“Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!”
Dozens of sand tendrils composed of highly compressed grains, each thicker than an adult thigh, shot out from the island’s rim like giant serpents emerging from the abyss.
They dragged long dusty tails at extreme speed, crossing the murky water and whipping toward the four immersed hunters.
The sand tendrils attacked with tricky viciousness.
Some sliced like long whips through the air in sharp arcs, tearing the air with shrieks aimed at the group’s heads.
Some launched like javelins with straight, penetrating force, seeking to pierce chests.
Others unfurled like enormous nets in midair, turning into countless fine sand vines that tried to bind the four and drag them into the spinning vortex.
“Scatter!”
William planted his powerful legs in the chest-deep flood, pushing Julian aside by stomping into the mud at the riverbed.
Ethan, using swimming skills learned since childhood, dove nimbly into the turbid water and avoided a sweeping sand-whip.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
William’s Colt revolver roared. He continually shifted positions and used precise point shots to strike the incoming sand tendrils.
But monsters made of sand had no real weak points;
even when blasted into huge holes, the gaps could be refilled by sand from behind.
It was an unreasonable war of attrition.
Nephthys intended to use her infinite “ammunition” and absolute “terrain” advantage to toy with and slowly kill these four powerful hunters, now reduced to “drowning dogs.”
While everyone was flustered under the endless harassment of sand tendrils, an indignant curse exploded from the churning murky surface.
It came from Ethan, who had just dived awkwardly beneath the water to dodge a sand-whip.
His golden hair was plastered to his face with muddy water, and his handsome features flushed red with humiliation and fury.
“Enough! I’m sick of being passive and getting beaten like a mouse!”
“All UMA must have a core! We can’t waste time on these endless tendrils any longer. We have to find its heart and kill it in one strike!!”
Pushed to the brink, this proud noble hunter erupted with the combat instinct of a Hunter Ranking elite.
“How do we find it?!”
Julian waved his Withered Thorns staff with difficulty and cried out in despair, “Its true body is that island made of billions of sand grains. Finding a single distinct core in there is as hard as finding a specified grain in the Sahara!”
“No, maybe not that hard.”
A steady voice sounded at the right moment;
it was William.
He raised the grotesque armament that had been on his face from the murky water.
That device had temporarily shut down due to information overload, but now, with the battlefield simplified, it reactivated.
“Leave it to me.”
Absolute confidence gleamed in William’s eyes.
He pointed the crystal lens at the circular island dancing crazily with countless sand tendrils.
The chaotic scene of sand, currents, and dim light instantly faded, and a more fundamental spiritual-dimension view emerged in his vision.
In that dimension William saw innumerable dark-red spiritual threads representing “commands” and “energy delivery” extending from all sides of the island toward those writhing sand tendrils.
All of these spiritual threads, without exception, led back to the island’s center.
A dark-red point that steadily emitted spiritual energy outward.
“Center, slightly left, half a meter underground.”
William’s tone was certain.
“That’s its heart!”
With that absolutely precise coordinate, Ethan’s face broke into a fanatical grin.
The decapitation objective had been found.
What remained was creating an absolute opening for a blade to pierce that heart.
“Julian! Use your staff to slow those damn tendrils as much as you can! William, cover me! I need three seconds!”
“Lin! Wait for my signal and seize the shot!”
Ethan roared and poured his restored spiritual power into the dull Deflection Malevolence Mirror on his left arm.
“Got it!”
Julian and William grasped his plan at the same moment. Lin Jie nodded and tightened his hold on Serene Heart.
“Wilt, decay, return to disorderly dust!”
Julian raised his black-spiked staff high.
“Hum—”
A gray field tinged with decay radiated from him outward.
Upon contact with the gray field, the sand tendrils’ speed and force sharply decreased.
William transformed into an enraged giant, placing his body before Ethan, who was powering up.
His Colt revolver barked like a storm, intercepting the slowed but still dangerous stragglers.
With willpower and coordination, they forcibly created the precious three seconds for Ethan!
“Time, Lin!”
Three seconds later, Ethan’s deathly pale face flushed with an unhealthy crimson.
“For you, I offer this supreme second!”
An invisible Deflection Field of force, strong enough to warp light, spanned across space and enveloped the circular island floating on the flood.
Time seemed to be pressed on pause.
All the dancing sand tendrils froze in midair.
The spiritual links between them and their master—the core sand hidden deep within the island—were forcibly severed by that brutal Deflection Field.
Nephthys’s expression solidified into shock and panic.
She had lost absolute control over the UMA she manipulated.
And for Lin Jie, the single second bought by the team’s combined intelligence was already enough!
The instant the Deflection Field took effect, he did not hesitate to lift the Serene Heart he had been holding for so long.
He then closed his left eye.
In his right-eye vision, the world’s chaotic colors and shapes faded away, leaving only the most essential logic and geometry constructed from lines.
The single straight line representing absolute order, granted to him by the Guardian Scale, locked onto the absolute coordinates provided by William’s Zulu’s Gaze!
“Found it.”
Lin Jie chuckled softly.