Thousands of gorgons were emerging from the desert sand making it look uneven. The sand swelled as the gorgons burst out seeking to devour anything in sight.
At this point, the others.... Well... Most of them had already been eaten alive and some of them who were smart enough to imitate utsuro, also managed to climb small heaps of sand. "Now" Utsuro thought "instead of fighting them all, I just need to defend myself and with this guy over here, it will easier than it was last time."
Utsuro willed shadow soul to orbit around him but it refused."Huh? "Utsuro looked at shadow soul in utter disbelief. Even though he could force his will on shadow soul, it also had a mind of it's own so it could defy or reject the will if it didn't like it.
"What are you doing? Do you want us both to die!?! " Utsuro voiced in frustration. Shadow soul then squeaked in it's normal, funny, cute mouse like voice and the runes translated. [Shadow soul says it will rather die than answer to a weakling as it's master].
"This isn't the time for that you bastard" But shadow soul faced the other direction and pretended not to know utsuro. The gorgons were already almost at the top of the giant heap of sand "I'll give you anything you want" Shadow soul still ignored utsuro.
Utsuro bit his lip trying to figure out what to do. He couldn't run any simulation, his mental state was pathetic and his physical state was even worse as he had old, reopened wounds and new wounds. All the hundreds of thousands of gorgons focuses only on utsuro as they completely ignored the remaining seven, frantically running towards utsuro. "What the hell! Do feral beasts hold grudges!?! " Utsuro had nowhere else to run to so he had only one choice
To run to victory. Yes you heard me right, Run to victory.
Our boy ran straight into the hoard of gorgons as the attacked from all sides covering him completely.
"Sir, the maximum number of new awakened to be brought in is seven and the number of the awakened has been reduced to seven. Should we intervene now? " A man in uniform asked another older man in white uniform. He seemed to be the commander as others wore deep green uniform while he wore white. The man wore badges allover his uniform with five badges on his left shoulder, he had fierce eyes, short, brown beard and scanty white, short strands of moustache. The man had a big, strong, bulky, sturdy physique.
"No" The commander said "The last one isn't dead" Seconds after he said this, utsuro burst out of the hoard
[The Eye Of The Cross Awakens] the runes announced "Damn" One of the seven awakened said in awe, his voice below a whisper.
Three hollow orbs started orbiting around utsuro at insane speed blasting through tens of gorgons at once.
Utsuro once again ran into the army of gorgons but instead of completely overpowering him like last time, gorgon blood and flesh splattered and scattered in every direction. The other seven looked in awe at the scene unfolding in front of their eyes. Even though they were quite far from the scene, the mighty army of gorgons was hard to not see and they could see flashes and flickers of light as the eye of the cross bullied and murdered gorgons like cutting through butter and bread.
Hundreds of thousands of gorgons were attacking utsuro at once and for a moment, just one moment, it seemed like eye of the cross was being overwhelmed. Then eye of the cross increased rotation speed and started orbiting with greater velocity.
"Interesting" Utsuro said. The eye of the cross could adapt to the difficulty of the situation and increase it's strength to match the difficulty. Eye of the cross was truly the best defence mechanism. If only shadow soul wasn't so stubborn and disobedient and just did as he willed, utsuro would be able to attack while at the same defend himself. By this time, utsuro had gotten to the base of an even bigger heap of sand. It looked like a pyramid but it wasn't triangular instead, it had rounded angles and it was wider and but not as high. You could call it a sand mountain.
Utsuro started running up the sand mountain as the gorgons chased after him but dared not get too close as those who did got their heads smashed or their chest blasted through. The smart ones ran past utsuro and ran higher before jumping at utsuro from above bit the results were the same. The hollow orbs effortlessly melted through them in an instant but this act of the gorgons did slow him down a lot.
The orbs were slowly beginning to lose power as they became more transparent and their glow dimmed. "No, no, no, no, I'm not even halfway to the top yet.
At this moment utsuro tried again to will shadow soul to come to his aid......it denied. He tried again... It denied "come on bastard you are the only hope I have now. Answer me!" Utsuro then willed it the third time....... It obeyed. From the previous heap of sand which utsuro stood, shadow soul dashed through the air distorting space as it went just then a gorgon jumped towards utsuro aiming to bite him from the back. Shadow soul morphed into a black shapeless,blade made of pure ghostly aura and swung itself towards utsuro.
Utsuro jumped and caught the blade mid-air before he turned and slashed at the gorgon delivering a deep cut on it's neck.
Seconds before utsuro landed, shadow soul detached itself from his hand reverting back into it's normal orb like form and circled utsuro as he landed hard on the desert sand defending him from any opportunist gorgon.
Utsuro then got up and started running again.
Finally, utsuro was already halfway to the top of the sand mountain huffing and puffing.
He had been climbing this sand mountain for so long. He was tired.
"There" The commander pointed his finger at the screen. "Fly the ship to that spot. Don't land to avoid gorgon attacks. The awakened will come to meet us. By the time they fight through the gorgons before arriving, at least one would have died"
The ship flew towards the awakened and a bright smile appeared on all their faces, all except for utsuro's. He was used to not expecting anything good to come out of dire situations like this. He was used to not having hope. Afterall, one could not truly be disappointed if he didn't expect anything to begin with. This helped him to think fast most of the times anytime situations went Southwards. The ship, after giving them hope just flew past them and began to float above a low, even part of the desert not far from where utsuro and the seven individuals were. Utsuro and the seven individuals understood this message the rest were disappointed while utsuro was shocked..... Shocked, not disappointed.
It was impossible to get to to the ship, especially for utsuro. The sand mountain was practically a gorgon nest. There was no way to get down from the sand mountain alive or in one piece, It was a dead end.
"I'm screwed" Utsuro said with a frown
For now, the only option was to keep climbing the sand mountain as he didn't know what to do next.
"Damn. This is a troublesome task"