At noon the next day, about five meters out from the giant sandpit in the direction of the incoming quicksand, Ksaz was leading his tribesmen in digging a deep pit.
Unlike the massive pit that covered a vast area, this one was primarily deep—about three meters down with a radius of one meter. A bone pillar lay beside the pit's opening.
The bone pillar was five meters long and divided into two sections. The upper section, about two meters long, consisted of ordinary, segmented bone joints, while the lower three-meter section was surrounded by half-meter-long bone spurs protruding from the joints.
Ksaz glanced to the side. Two bone pillars had already been erected in the sand; this was the third.
“Ksaz, we're good to go. You can lower the pillar now.”
Karu climbed out of the deep pit and brushed the sand off his body. Hearing him, Ksaz nodded, easily lifted the bone pillar, and carefully lowered it into the pit.
Taking this opportunity, Karu scanned their surroundings and lowered his voice. “Do you think it'll come back today?”
Ksaz didn't look up, knowing exactly what his brother was asking. After all, since its first appearance yesterday, that creature had returned twice more, completely halting the preparation work for the giant pit. Consequently, Shane and the others had decided to prioritize resolving this thorny issue.
“Mr. Leynas says it will. The sentinels Lord Elon sent out yesterday found the earth stinger's nest in the Rocky Sand Dunes over ten kilometers away. This female earth stinger has just given birth to five larvae.”
Ksaz spoke calmly, but beside him, Karu gasped. “Five! Five is way too many. This is going to be the death of us.”
“The tribe elders used to say that earth stingers lay at most two eggs at a time, hatching two larvae at best. With five of them to feed, no wonder she's risking everything to attack us.”
“Exactly.”
Exhaling a long breath now that the bone pillar was upright in the pit, Karu immediately grabbed his shovel and called over the other tribesmen to help backfill the hole.
“That's why Mr. Leynas said we have to deal with the earth stinger. We can't keep dragging this out.”
Ksaz looked toward the oasis, which felt like his home now. “The quicksand will be here soon. If we don't solve the earth stinger problem, we won't be able to save the oasis, and all our hard work over this period will be ruined.”
Karu fell silent upon hearing this. Indeed, the things that necromancer had demonstrated were nothing short of a miracle. As one of the people benefiting from it, he certainly didn't want to see this miracle destroyed.
But how were they going to solve the earth stinger problem?
“It's here.”
Ksaz growled softly. A faint vibration was traveling up through the soles of his feet. No one was more familiar with this vibration than he was now.
Karu didn't panic when he heard the warning. He immediately alerted the surrounding tribesmen, and they all began to warily scan their surroundings.
“Get ready.”
As the vibrations grew stronger, Ksaz gave a final warning.
In the next second, the sand beside them suddenly swelled upward, and amidst swirling dust, the massive body of the earth stinger emerged.
Its tail stinger was raised high, its petrification ray already primed.
But this time, before it could fire, an owl phantom suddenly materialized and slammed into the earth stinger's tail stinger from the side. This sudden impact instantly knocked the stinger off target.
A green beam shot out, leaving a grey, petrified patch on the sand.
“Mr. Leynas!”
Ksaz roared, puffing out his chest. Instead of fleeing, he threw his arms wide and lunged forward to grapple the earth stinger's massive pincers.
The earth stinger's balance had just been disrupted by the owl phantom's strike, leaving it temporarily oblivious to Ksaz's approach.
Finding its front limbs gripped by yet another sand scaler, the earth stinger began to struggle violently.
The scales on Ksaz's body flickered with a faint light, and he stood like an immovable mountain. No matter how hard the earth stinger struggled, it couldn't break free from his grasp.
Meanwhile, on the sandy slope behind Ksaz, near the newly planted seedlings, Shane appeared astride his skeletal warhorse, with Elon close behind him on a camel.
Seeing Ksaz pinning down the earth stinger, Shane wasted no time. He immediately spurred his warhorse down the slope, raising a hand as dark green light gathered at his fingertips.
The two bone pillars closest to the earth stinger began to vibrate slightly, and a dark green glow started to ripple across the surface of their bone joints.
“Ray of Fear.”
Whispering the spell, he fired the ray from his fingertip. Though aimed directly at the earth stinger's head, the creature's violent thrashing meant the spell was highly likely to miss.
Just then, the beam suddenly deflected as it neared the bone pillars, its tip accurately plunging straight into the earth stinger's head.
In an instant, the earth stinger's body shuddered violently. Its massive frame slumped, and it began to tremble, letting out continuous, uneasy clicking noises from its mouth.
It was still struggling, but the intensity was far less than before.
Taking advantage of this opening, Elon rushed up to the earth stinger.
He dismounted from his camel and quickly took a few steps forward, chanting strange syllables as he moved. He held his right hand flat against his chest, and as the speed of his chanting increased, an emerald-green light began to glow in his palm.
By the time he reached the earth stinger, his entire palm had turned a vibrant emerald green.
Elon reached out, placed his palm against the earth stinger's head, and slowly closed his eyes.
In an instant, the earth stinger, which had been struggling so violently just moments ago, actually quieted down.
Ksaz looked at Elon in surprise. Feeling that the earth stinger was no longer fiercely resisting, his body also began to relax.
Looking at Shane, who had now walked up to him, he couldn't help but ask, “Mr. Leynas, will this plan... really work?”
“That depends on Elon.”
Shane's voice was cool, but the trust behind his words was unquestionable. “The earth stinger is agile and has a tough carapace. With our current combat strength, even if we can control it, we can't kill it.”
“Yet, it will keep attacking us to raise its larvae. If this continues, we'll be stuck in a vicious cycle, and the cost to us will only grow.”
“So, Elon suggested that while we have it under control, he try to negotiate with it. We'll see if we can buy a period of peace using food. After all, earth stingers are omnivorous creatures.”
At this point, Shane glanced at the nearby bone pillars. His original plan had been to dig the giant pit first and set up these amplifying devices later. However, seeing how frequently the earth stinger harassed them, he had been forced to move the plan forward to ensure accuracy and control.
Looking at it now, the results were quite good. He had easily controlled the earth stinger with his Ray of Fear, thereby allowing Elon to safely communicate with the earth stinger.
Just as Shane was thinking this, the earth stinger's body shuddered violently once more. Shane's eyes lit up, figuring that they were about to get a result.
But in the next instant, his expression changed dramatically. He saw the earth stinger raise its other massive pincer, bringing it crashing down toward Elon's head!
Rate on N.U.
