Reader Mage-Stubbing August 10! Chapter 121: 121-Barrier Erection

Read chapter 121 of Reader Mage-Stubbing August 10! by A_Random_Turtle on NovelPedia.

There were a few things to know about sandworms, courtesy of Krieger. The most important of the lot, however, was that they had no eyes, ears, nose, or any of the usual sensory organs the apex predators of Earth were common with. So, in hindsight, they should be easy to avoid. That was not the case, though. If anything, that even made them more of a pain in the ass than if they had had the sensory organs. At least, those could be exploited in more proven ways than none; there were smoke bombs, to cloud vision, pungent smell to distort smells, and many more of such. But the ability to pinpoint the location of a being due to the vibrations their body emitted was on a completely different level. Merlin wouldn’t say he was much of a science geek, but he was well aware that it was impossible for a human to turn off the vibrations their body emitted like it was being operated by a light switch. Brainwaves, muscle tremors, vocal cord vibrations, heartbeat, heat, and even down to the cellular and molecular level, the human body was always in a constant state of vibration. And Merlin running only fueled that. Basically, the sandworms were having a field day. Worse, they were faster than they looked. Merlin swerved out of the way, not even close to being out of breath, as the sandworm to his right slammed its maw into the ground where he had been just a split second ago. Sand and dust clouded the air, and Merlin had to spread an arm over his nose as he jumped out of the encasement. Common sense told him to use [Mana Spring] to put some distance between himself and the sandworms, but common sense had no idea what it was talking about. [Mana Spring] could only propel Merlin so far at a time, and it was also not something that he could use constantly in split seconds, there had to be a moment of respite between each use as a means to once again gather mana to his feet after every initial burst. But he didn’t have the luxury of time any longer. The sandworms, due to their thick scales that went across their upper body, and apparently blocked all vibrations, had completely forgotten about the others. Their attention was completely on the singular person they could see—feel, rather. And with the absurd speed in which they moved at, if Merlin stopped for even a second, he would be eaten. However, that didn’t mean Merlin didn’t try to think of a few things he could do to bolster his speed. And that was where [Flash Step] came into the equation. Just like [Mana Spring], [Flash Step] was also used in short bursts, to move quickly from one location to another while evading attacks. It was like a more controlled version of [Mana Spring], less power and more control, but that meant a far lesser distance. Its pro, though, was that a second or two for Merlin to gather mana to his feet wasn’t required. And he appreciated that. Adding that skill with his increased Agility, and his ability to perceive the attacks of the sandworms without having to look over his shoulder, gave Merlin a bit of an advantage he doubted anyone else in their team would have had. It was one of the reasons why he had requested he took the task on; no one was more suited to attract death and escape it than he was. And that was not him being smug; he had stared death in the eyes once, and had technically risen from the dead the second time. He was death-proof. And, as expected, Merlin succeeded. A few minutes after his erratic but elegant dancing away from the onslaught of the sandworms, something appeared in the horizon. It came as nothing more than a dot at first, but with each mile covered, it became a lot larger, growing into the size of a thumb, then a ball, then it spread out, revealing a small village. The sight of their destination brought about shouts of victory from Merlin’s mates on the back of the sandworms. It briefly reminded him of how Kim Minji had been overjoyed as well when they had neared the exit during their physical assessment, which meant it reminded him of