66 A New Threat in the Sand (1/2)

Far away from any vegetation or lush forests, far away from any farms or garden, in the middle of a desert, a fairly small bird was flying at full speed. His pure and shiny white feathers were reflecting the light of the sun, creating a disturbance in the eyes of many monsters. But even after noticing that strange little bird, not even one was capable of even approaching it, because its speed was far too huge. A gigantic fowl, at least 2 meters tall without his wings opened eyed this new prey with increasing interest.

But even that king of the sky wasn't even able to begin to fly toward it before that white spark disappeared in the horizon. Staying far above the ground, the monster reluctantly had to let it go, searching for an easier target. Like the dark shadows of death, its body was blocking the light of the sun for whoever was stupid enough to look at it directly. The same routine was applied for every monstrosity the small white swallow met. A sudden interest followed by a bit of a disappointment caused by the extreme speed.

Finally, that beacon stopped on one of the few stones present inside the desert. If one could gather all of them, that person would still notice a huge quantity of rocks. But the problem was that the desert was not that small, so that huge amount meant nothing. After landing on that small mound, the bird jumped on its feet and looked everywhere else, like he was trying to see if he had any neighbors.

A minute or so later, that volatile appeared pleased and began to produce loud and weird noises. Like his bones were being fractured, his skin was inflating and its entire body was suffering terrifying torture. From the original very small form of a bird, something else was appearing, something longer, slim.

The small legs were progressively disappearing, letting place to scales. The feathers were dropping one by one, not needed anymore. The beck was long gone, and a maw filled with sharp teeth replaced it. The tongue was not a normal one either, turning more purple, and even being separated on its tip. From a small thing barely less than 50 centimeters tall, a huge snake at least 20 times its size was being formed.

”Exccccccellent!” An ominous voice managed to speak with that deformed maw, and while saying this, wiggled a bit his body. From his tail to his head, everything was responding without any issues, confirming that nothing wrong happened. Opening his mouth in an angle that could be considered impossible, two mandibles violently rammed in each other, leaving the buccal cavity. Contrarily to most snakes, the mouth of that creature didn't have two fangs for the poison, but those deadly mandibles. The rest was filled with teeth, capable of even piercing metallic armors.

Effortlessly piercing the sand without any effort, the strange snake's head plunged head-on in the underground. Provoking the less perturbations possible in it, he soon found his first prey, a huge scorpion preparing a trap. If someone dared to walk in front of it without knowing about the threat, what would await that person was a huge sting in his stomach, followed by two claws tearing about the main body.

That monster had the size of a human, or maybe a bit more. Its heavy and sturdy skeleton made it avoid death many times since its aggressor had to have the ability to pierce it. And except those pesky things flying above it, not a lot of thing was capable of threatening it. The monster was calmly resting a bit since he knew he had some times before having to actively hunt. If something came, that was good, but otherwise, it was not bothering it too much.

Whether it was his innate instincts or the ones he developed after many years of harsh battle, but the scorpion suddenly felt unsettled. Not moving at all, fearing that it will be detected, he tried to look around it. He was at the limit between the sand and the air, and with his multiples eyes all around its head, he saw nothing in front of him. His only dead angle was its back, and as the pressure increased, the arachnidan was getting more inclined to suddenly jumped at the threat and breaking its camouflage.

At the breaking point, the monster jumped in the open and turned itself to face that danger.But to its surprise, there was nothing around him, neither in front or behind him. Trying his best to make its body look above it, there was no sign of those dangerous vultures. His meager knowledge of its natural enemies denied the possibility of a worm or a snake attacking it since they were not capable of harming it. Since it was still feeling the dangerous predator near it, the scorpion had no choice but to run away.

The monster ran for a few minutes, before barging into the territory of another scorpion, an older one. Normally, they wouldn't even approach each other, except when it was time to mate, but the scorpion had his mind nearly broken. It had never felt so in danger than at this very moment, and it didn't react until the other member of its species probed it with a light attack.

Finally stopping for a moment, the two monsters were in a deadlock, one so agitated that its movements were erratic while the other was puzzled by the behavior of the other one. It could have continued for a while, but when a hole suddenly appeared under the first arachnidan, it was over in an instant.

Two sharp blades pierced the scorpion in the middle, wreaking havoc in its organs. The monster was then pulled into the sand, not letting it fight back for even a second. After that, the calm was back again, and only a slight hole in the location where the prey previously stood showed that something happened.