The Author's POV

[Pillar of Wrath]

How long had it been since she had gotten stranded over here?

Staring at the massive dunes ahead of her, she smacked her dry lips.

She had lost count.

The desert was scorched by the red sun hanging in the sky, and her feet sank into the sand beneath her.

"Uek!"

Swoosh—!

On occasion, scorpions twice her size would ambush her from beneath the ground, launching themselves at her at high speeds.

Xiu! Xiu!

If not for her fast reactions, she would've found herself in a difficult situation more times than she could count.

Thump! Thump!

As she twisted her body and pulled on her bowstring, the enormous scorpions lifelessly fell in front of her.

'I've lost count of the number of scorpions I've killed so far.'

Amanda pondered while staring at the scorpion's corpse at her feet. It was entirely clad in red armor, which glistened beneath the red sun that hung in the sky.

By her estimates, their power was comparable to that of a Marquis ranked demon, and its large pincer dripped a black liquid that liquefied the sand when it touched it.

Tzzzz. Tzzzz.

Amanda drew a small bottle from her bag and placed it beneath the pincer to collect the liquid that was leaking from it.

'This might be useful for later.'

She had already collected several samples along the way, and she would repeat the procedure each time she killed a scorpion. To her delight, the poison was quite effective against the demons. She had already tested it on multiple demons and was ecstatic with the results.

It was just that… she didn't feel comfortable carrying that much poison with her. Especially since the bottle she would put it in would sizzle at the touch.

Clank—!

Amanda tucked away her flask, which was now half-filled with a black, viscous substance, with a satisfied expression.

While she wasn't comfortable with the idea of carrying that much poison with her, as long as it was in her dimensional space, she felt that it wasn't a big deal.

She just didn't want it to explode on her the moment she took it out.

"Now then…"

She turned her gaze to stare into the distance.

Her delicate brows furrowed, and she pondered over her next location.

She was honestly clueless at the moment.

She was merely just going along on her own whims and was just going around the desert in hopes of finding someone she was familiar with, but that proved to be a harder task than she had anticipated as those that she did meet were either dead or demons.

It was truly a bothersome sight.

She may be used to seeing dead bodies by now, but it was still an uncomfortable sight.

"Hm?"

Immediately thereafter, Amanda's ears perked up, and she stopped abruptly. She wasn't sure at first, but she believed she had felt a muffled explosion sound emanating from her right side.

Booom—!

It was quiet, but she could still sense the muffled sound of the explosion, and her eyes jumped up with a little

'Finally.'

fighting in the distance, which meant that there was a chance that she'd find

single second, she drew her bow, planted her foot in the sand, and dashed

Swoosh—!

what seemed like a minute of running, she arrived in front of a rather large

Boom—! Boom—!

she was

the full-fledged sound of explosions ripping through the air above

"What in the…"

of the dune, she was astounded by the view that greeted

BOOOOM—!

"Arghhh!"

"huak!"

was a

flying everywhere and red and black intertwined on the surface of the

BOOOOM—!

and Amanda's gaze fell on the plot

as she gazed over the horizon, where tens of thousands upon tens of thousands of

an instant,

"Aaakghh!"

"H..help!"

as thousands of scorpions covered the land and thousands of demons roamed the

to describe the current situation, it'd

were steadily losing ground by the second, and they were

was nothing

"Aren't they…"

the distance. She was able to identify

need to help

was anything but

be able to hold on

ado, she took a deep breath and clenched

distance was sufficient for her. She grabbed onto her bow, curved her back in the opposite direction,

her mana, a

"There's someone over here!"

"Get her!"

were located a safe distance away, but she did not

she

"Huuu…"

she let go of

Thunk!

bones cracking, the string became taut, and a translucent

Swoosh—!

speed of the arrow was

average, with the majority of the demons below being able

demons below that tried to interfere with the path of the arrow, and some of them even tried to intercept it; however, those who

tell at a glance that

few seconds for the arrow to reach its highest point, and just as it was about to fall back down onto the ground, Amanda's eyes widened, and her mouth parted open as a faint word escaped from

"Split."

in midair almost as soon as the word left her

Xiu! Xiu!

arrows streaked down from above at terrifying

but it was already

became aware of what was happening, the arrows came hurtling down in a series of whistles, impaling

"Akah!"

"Huak!"

"Kehe!"

reverberated through the air as demons fell to

Clink! Clink! Clink!