Chapter 438: Aejaz Got the Hump

Ares, Arla, and Lara were all waiting at the fellahin base entrance for Sandy to go round up the hunters of the clan. Ares didn't much care for bringing them along but he could work on things at his own pace down the line and he might as well see how fellahin tackle monsters while he's here. He'd already given up on making use of the rest of the day so whatever happened from here on out happened and he was going to complain about it. He'd brought up making a pitstop at Xasca city to Sandy and she agreed so they'd be stopping there for about five minutes while Ares checked some things. After that it would be straight over to the west as Sandy knew the location of a fair few monsters on the list she was probably receiving right about now and would likely try to use the full force gathered today to take out the more troublesome monsters. Not the stepper brood mother though as the fellahin forces would actually be a demerit and make Ares' and her life harder. Plus Ares asked not to fight that specific monster tonight as he would end up exhausted ahead of tomorrow. He hadn't mentioned the psychopathic stepper, because he didn't want to drag Sandy into it, but she agreed nonetheless not to challenge the brood mother. As for Lara, she would be dropped off back at Xasca city and Ares was going to make her stay in the palace tonight whether she wanted to or not. The stepper psychopath was probably out and about still, making mistakes it was told not to, and Ares didn't want anything to happen to his grand librarian / arch analyst before he even brought her back ot he sect, that would be disastrous. She could walk around freely after Ares had done his duty but until then she was going to have to remain cooped up. Ares would not make the same mistake he made with the kid, he was going to lock her in the room with pressure for her own good. She wouldn't know unless she tried escaping anyway so it was fine.

Sandy made her way outside via the tunnel but the rest of the fellahin hunters all rose up from the sand like zombies awakening in the dead of night. Sand fell off their bodies as they straightened their backs and at least a hundred pairs of eyes all turned to face Ares within a few seconds of one another. Scary... That was some serious co-ordination... The fellahin's ability to traverse the sands was truly incredible and they could do this pretty much anywhere. The ambushes they could set up on their home-turf were potentially terrifying, as they could rise up from their base below in a wide areas, but even elsewhere they could hide under dunes and even the smallest of bumps in the desert. It was no wonder they ruled this place pretty much uncontested. Regardless Ares wasn't phased too much by this and it showed on his face too. He wasn't underestimating them or anything it's just that this display was a whole lot less awe inspiring when he realised all that needed to happen to null and void everything the fellahin stood for was for their target to have the ability to fly...

If Ares Voidwalked over the desert then any traps set in it would mean literally nothing. Of course stronger cultivators could launch themselves out of the sands in a bid to catch him out of the sky but there was a limit to how reasonable such a method was and, really, this was the disadvantage of specialising so heavily in a specific terrain. Similar to aquatic races, these fellahin were incredibly strong in their natural habitat but that meant little to strong cultivators who could wipe entire biomes of the map with a flick of their wrist. Fighting well underwater didn't mean much if a powerful enough fire pillar cultivator could evaporate your entire bed of water and, similarly, having advantages in the desert would do nothing against someone who could fly. Not even just Ares, even some random aevysquall with the innate talent to soar through the skies would be safe from these people. Fellahin at the peak of bloodline awakening wouldn't be able to scratch a mortal aevysquall high up near the clouds... It was a bit insulting but true, unfortunately. It was always better to have assets and tools that were functional in a wide variety of situations but, to be fair, some strong people could make it work. If Sandy could summon a sand meteor on a whim then she could create and bring favourable terrain around with her on the go and that was when specialised people like this began to get spooky. It was a weaker start to their cultivation lives with big payoff in the long run, especially for those who were innately born with these kinds of talents and made no effort to devote everything they were to it. They could spare resources to develop in other areas while still having a powerful ace up their sleeve in the right situation and so the fellahin were definitely impressive even if Ares didn't care much about their current display.

Ares summoned the caravan and hopped in. Not all the hunters here were at the transition realm, and could fly, so they were going to turn into sand and dash through the desert which meant Ares had a chance to use this treasures as it could keep up with them and then some. Ares did some digging last night before he went to sleep and learnt a few things about the caravan, namely its title, its abilities, and its history, so he felt comfortable using this here as it was perfect for this situation. He even signalled that Arla, Lara, and Sandy were free to come aboard and relax on the comfy sofas if they couldn't be bothered to travel the hard way. Or, well, Lara didn't have much of a choice unless Arla was going to carry her across the desert personally. Lara must have taken a carriage here originally but, as it was nowhere to be found, this was going to be her mode of her travel to return back to the city. While the hunters set off, Ares welcomed everyone aboard his treasure, turned it on, and then, to the surprise of everyone else, moved away from the wheel and took a seat next to Sandy as there was an unoccupied space on the sofa beside her. The three ladies all took a look through the front windscreen to see if Ares had seriously just let this thing drive in a straight line without thinking things through but the vehicle was actually speeding up, slowing down, and taking turns all by itself! This thing was a self-driving treasure! It was even prioritising the avoidance of bumps and small critters to make the ride smoother!

"Neat, isn't it?" Ares chuckled when he saw the looks on... Nobody's face... Arla and Lara were still mostly covered so he had to go by their rough demeanour to know how they felt about it. Lara was an exception, and an open book thanks toa lack of clothing comparatively, and she seemed to think this treasure was pretty rad if her big smile was any indication. It sure was nice being able to see at least someone's face here! Actually, now that Ares thought about it, the elders back at the base weren't dressed up like this. It was probably because of their age. They had years to familiarise themselves with their bloodline and control their powers so they didn't really need the aid of their clothing to contain their sand elemental forms. It didn't leak out every now and then so clothes just weren't as useful to them. Sure clothes would be useful as armor but they spent their entire lives huddled up in a base full of strong fellahin so if they were ever in a position to need armor they were probably already deeply screwed anyway.

"This thing is pretty damn great!" Sandy seemed to like this treasure a great deal. She could fly but flying everywhere could be exhausting and something like this for longer trips, that she wasn't in a hurry to complete, was pretty great. It weas also fantastic for people who couldn't yet fly or had no movement arts / abilities as it was decently fast too with a top speed, in automatic mode, of about 60mph. For something that could drive on its own, and avoid obstacles by itself, that was insanely good for a lower domain treasure. 60mph in a lower domain was already incredible by itself, even, never mind anything else. Plus it could probably be upgraded if Ares looked around for better parts and spared the effort. He wouldn't. This was a treasure for the family and it didn't need to be some overpowered four-wheeled mass slaughter machine or anything, but it could be upgraded to include more cultivator comforts like a cultivation room, maybe. Even just enabling it to drive through other types of terrain, like through water or space, would one day be good enough. "Man I kinda want one! Lemme borrow this every now and then please, sect master!" Sandy gave Ares puppy dog eyes and he couldn't help but laugh a little.

"Sure. I can't say no if you look at me like that. Just don't go driving into a ditch or anything."

"Hehe! Sweet! What's this thing's name anyway?"

"This caravan is called the 'Roving Elliot'. No points for guessing who it was named after. It's one ability is the ability to function fully independently with absolutely zero external input once it gets going. It has a sort of inbuilt GPS and can automatically travel to anywhere you've been before so long as there's a reasonable path to the location in question. It will automatically try to dodge attacks and magic aimed at it as well as monsters looking to cause trouble. It does have minor monster repelling effects, though, so you're not likely to get stopped by any monsters unless they're pretty powerful. Even still it will make an effort to go around or flee if you let it. It can receive orders remotely too so I could send this thing off on a journey to pick someone up far away and then return after all by itself with the passenger not needing to lift a finger. As far as combat goes, this is admittedly pretty terrible but that's not its real purpose and I'm happy to have it regardless.

As for its history, this might come as a shock to you, but it has something to do with a woman named 'Elliot'. Bet ya didn't see that coming? Anyway, 'Elliot' used to lead a bunch of desert dwellers. They weren't fellahin or anything but they were a group of travelling merchants... Or traders would maybe be more accurate? Something along those lines. There's lots of valuable metals over in the east, mostly left behind by those foolish enough to pick fights with the monsters that live there, and these lot scavenged whatever metal they could find for many years to make a decent living. They had all sorts of rowdy adventures, all quite thrilling, and became a sort of family that loved and cared for one another deeply. Elliot was their leader and scout and helped them escape all kinds of deadly situations but one night she made a crucial error in judgement. She got lazy and everyone paid a steep price for it.

Her band of merry metal merchants were on the lookout for a place to stay the night and they eventually found one thanks to Elliot's keen eyesight; a cave of sorts. They all decided to rest inside it and set a nice little fireplace to huddle around but that was when disaster struck. This cave was located underneath a recently formed monster settlement filled with iron lions that Elliot failed to check for. She was somewhat familiar with this place and just assumed nothing had changed about it since her last visit, leading to this situation. Iron Lions are a somewhat common monster in Xasca that I'm sure you're mostly familiar with. They're lions that are pretty normal except for their paws which are clad entirely in iron, allowing them to swipe their metal claws at people for extra lethality as well as leaping at people and delivering ferocious kicks.

Anyway, that night, the iron lions happened to stampede due to foul weather. Lightning strikes spooked them and they began dashing around near the edge of the hill, causing a cave in down below. Elliot and her family were all crushed, buried alongside all the metal they'd pilfered form countless monster settlements. Over time the metal was bound together by mana and became the Roving Elliot that bust through the blocked cave exit and parked itself outside under the blazing sun. Who knows, maybe their scout, Elliot's, soul is still around and piloting the treasure? Caravans are great for family getaways, and she considered the merchants to be a family of sort, so maybe this is emblematic of her drive to bring her loved ones to safety even if only in spirit. I can't say for sure but it's a neat little story anyway... So long as you ignore all the death and misery in Elliot's final moments, that is..." Ares ended with a wry smile because the story was actually kinda crap. There wasn't really much of a beginning or a middle, it just sort of started and ended. Still, this was the information he got out of the treasure so it was obviously going to be limited. Ares couldn't view a person's entire life just through the recollection of what a treasure remembered about its birth, that would be nonsensical when it got to immortal cultivators who'd been alive for however many hundreds of millions of years. No doubt Elliot's story was a much more interesting one than what he'd recounted but as there was no way to know it, he could only share the parts that he'd seen upon interacting with the treasure. Elliot's story was buried beneath the sand now, that's jsut how these sorts of things went. Not everyone made a legacy or had legends written about them postmortem.

The caravan quartet sat around inside the Roving Elliot and chatted about this and that to pass the time. Ares was taught a lot about various western monsters by Sandy, who was enjoying teaching him one to one, while Lara and Arla... Well what else would they do if not bicker with one another constantly? They were like cats and dogs, those two. Just as bad as Charity and Leo were back home in the sect. There wasn't any real resentment but Lara being treated like dirt while second-in-command of the fellahin Arla being praised to heaven and back might have soured things a teensy bit. Not enough to be a major issue in their relationship or anything though, just something they both poked fun at each other over and used to prod during their verbal spars. That aside, eventually they all arrived back at Xasca city and Ares and Lara disembarked form the caravan to go do their own things back at the sect. Lara had already agreed to stay in the palace tonight, even if Ares didn't explicitly tell her why, she was jsut happy to live in luxury for the night, and Ares wanted to go check up on Aejaz and Rox. He made his way back to the palace, led Lara to his room, that he wouldn't be using tonight as the monster hunt was an overnight endeavour, and then found Aejaz lounging outside at the pool while Rox was happily swimming around inside it.

"For two people who just had to contend with a scavenger raid, you sure do look awfully relaxed. Maybe I should give you harder work next time? Or maybe just more work in general?"

"Ah! Don't even joke about that! It was bad enough as is thank you very much!" Aejaz practically jumped out of his seat because Ares truly didn't know how difficult things had been back here! If he wanted to make Aejaz' next task harder than this one was he might actually keel over from physical exhaustion and die face down in the sand! "It was really not easy over here! Things weren't so simple..."

"Go on then, let me hear about your struggles and adversity. You overcame them, though, whatever they were, so congratulations in advance and well done."

"That's more like it! More praise never hurt anyone! But really though, today sucked! Just as you ordered, Rox kept waving at Diggers periodically to feed him false information. I used my invisibility to hang around next to Diggers and saw him sending orders to tool, remotely via a talisman kinda thing, and telling him he was all clear to launch his raid without you showing up. He nearly bust a blood vessel when he received a report saying you were there but it was too late for him by that point. I already left the sect and the city to go deal with the scavengers that were hanging around outside near the wall. They were planning on using ropes with hooks at the end to scale the sect wall, behind the palace, and sneak in. Of course I dealt with them and went back for Diggers but that was kinda when things went south. I cornered him, and had him captured too..."

"Waitwaitwait. Are you saying you lost Diggers? I was going to ask where you imprisoned him God damnit! I take it all back! No more praise for you! Better yet, that praise I gave earlier? Spit it out!"

"Hell no! I still deserve it considering what happened next! Also, turns out Diggers' name is more appropriate than any of us ever knew. While I was distracted with what he'd done, he dug under the earth like a fellahin, using some kind of drill hand magic, and escaped the sect by going under the walls. He fled somewhere in the desert but I had my hands full and couldn't give chase..."

"Oh come on, how bad could it have been? Did he bring along some of his musclebound weasels or something?"

"No... He brought along an entire western damn monster! You didn't get a chance to see it but this mecha camel with rocket pods came busting through the northern wall of the sect, guns-a-blazing!"

"A western monster? Diggers tamed one?"

"No? Maybe? I dunno. He waved around some kind of weird rod while cackling like a mad man and, BANG, next thing I know all hell's breaking loose. I had to subdue that rampaging monster you know?! That thing was a terrorist on wheels... Literally! It had wheels! Have you ever seen a rocket propelled camel do a drift through sand?! I HAVE!"

"... Pft. Sorry, I know I shouldn't laugh, but I can't help imagining a camel sliding up to you and nibbling you in the butt."

"It tried! Don't even get me started on the nitro-glycerine it had stored in its humps or the rapid fire acidic spit from its mouth! I worked hard! It's not my fault Diggers disappeared, I was way too busy! Better yet, blame Rox! I have no idea what he was up to while I was busting my chops killing that stupid camel!"

"Hey! Don't be mean to Rox! He's a good boy!"

"What's with this blatant favouritism?!"

Ares waved at Rox and he came swimming over immediately to share his side of things with Ares by transferring memories over. Rox had spent some time learning to do as such so he could communicate with Ares prior to learning how to speak properly. He was still trying, and still making progress, but there was no point speaking now because none of the words he knew could convey what he wanted to say properly. The same was true of every other time he'd made an appearance and didn't bother speaking as of late but, despite that, he was definitely making decent headway! Still, a treasure or something would really help speed this process along. Anywho, given his boundless talent for technicals, it was pretty unsurprising Rox learnt how to share memories decently fast. It wasn't the same art Enyo knew, and it wasn't as comprehensive, but Rox could communicate in this manner as well as filling in some missing blanks with mental messages. He was currently entering bloodline awakening so he'd long since gained the ability to do that, he just hadn't made use of it. Anyway, he shared with Ares his own accomplishments and Ares gave him a pat on the head and promised him a reward later before letting him go back to splashing around in the water.

"See! He did great!"

"Eh? Really? What did he even do?"

"While Diggers was fleeing, thanks to a certain someone's carelessness..."

"Lay off!"

"... Ahem. Anyway, while he was leaving, he went into Brainiacs prison / room in the palace and tried to take him away."

"Rox stopped him?"

"Not quite. Rox let him take Brainiac."

"What?! What was the point of that then?!"

"Ah, well, you see. Rox was Brainiac. He saw Diggers coming so he removed the real Brainiac from the room and then transformed into him, pretending to be captured. Once Diggers rescued him, and took him far enough away, Rox transformed back and injured Diggers before the guy could retreat. Diggers was already too far away from the palace to try and rescue Brainiac again safely, and he was injured, so Rox did a very good job and deserves an apology!"

"He can kiss my ass! I'd much rather have been in his position than mine! That camel had jetpacks in its feet and could fucking hover, Ares! Acid spit from above, Ares! It was mecha camel nightmare, beaming down death, like some kind of ancient animal God, from the skies! If that thing wasn't just a stupid camel it would have seriously been God damn horrifying! It even blew itself up when it realised it was defeated... Never again! If I ever see an animal with metal on its body I am never.... Sigh... Never mind...." Aejaz was going to say something about running away, or avoiding such creatures like the plague, but he realised he was slipping back into lazy mode and caught himself in the act. Contrary to his expectation, Ares didn't chide him for that and instead...

"Well done." Gave him praise straight from the heart. "See? Even if it's a hassle you can do it. You fought a strong monster, of your own volition, and lived up to what was needed of you in the moment. Even now you understood where your mind was trending and interrupted it before it drowned you in laziness and slovenliness again. Good job. That's arguably the most impressive thing I've personally ever seen you do and I'm not exaggerating. It's not necessarily that I want you to be strong, I just don't want you to be a quitter. As long as you aren't giving up, I am proud... That's enough sentimental garbage for now, though, I was only stopping by to check on how things went back here. I'll be leaving Lara... Don't worry about who she is. I'll be leaving her in my room for tonight so don't go in there tomorrow morning expecting breakfast otherwise you might get attacked by an angry lady for violating her privacy. She's relatively tame but has a real feisty side to her when she gets annoyed... Anyway, like I said, that's all for now so take care... And stay away from any camels, I guess?" Ares laughed as he Voidwalked out of the sect with Aejaz giving his back a middle finger to remember him by while Rox transformed into a dolphin and kept diving in and out of the water. They were doing fine so Ares was ok with leaving them to their own devices for now.