The Titan's Throne

Don't Get Distracted

In a secluded room very far away, a middle-aged man wearing white robes was sitting cross-legged meditating. At some point, he opened his eyes and dashed out of the room.

In an instant, he appeared on top of a small hill and looked toward the horizon. His expression became ugly.

"What in the world is that? Where is it? Hhmm Shandelar? Interesting."

His expression quickly turned into one of intrigue and he disappeared as quickly as he left.

....

Similar reactions were occurring in a lot of places. Many extremely powerful cultivators, who were often in secluded meditation, would sense something and look toward the horizon.

The farther away from Shandelar they were, the stronger they became.

V had made a miscalculation as to the area of effect created by the apparition. It was not merely people in the Great Desert of Shandelar who sensed the awakening. It was the entire 10 sub-regions surrounding it as well!

Meanwhile, Bastian was enjoying the fruits of his new body. The feeling of strength and invincibility coursed throughout his veins. He felt like nothing could stop him like he could smash an entire house to bits with one strike. As he ran he jumped and bolted around, getting used to his new body.

He laughed like a madman as he did this, much to V's displeasure. Then, as suddenly as he started, he stopped. V was caught off guard and clung to his back.

"What on earth are you doing? Why did you stop?" said V, in an unhappy tone.

Bastian raised his head and sniffed the air. "We have a visitor." He said in an unusually sombre tone.

V found this rather hard to believe.

He discovered something before I did? Impossible!

Bastian could tell without even looking back that she did not believe him. "See for yourself," said Bastian, as he threw her off his back.

V was about to complain about the sudden abuse, but then the moment her toes touched the ground, she stopped speaking. She landed with practised finesse. She crouched and placed one hand on the ground, clearly focusing on something.

After a few seconds of contemplation, she stood upright and sighed in relief. "It is large, but it feels weak. Judging from its shape and aura I would say it's a-"

"Kalari Scorpion!"

V's explanation was interrupted by a surprisingly correct answer. It was quite clear why she could sense the beast, whilst it was a bit further away.

Warriors with the earth attribute had a unique connection with the ground. They were very sensitive to vibrations in the earth. Warriors with an earth attribute at the Teacher level could even detect an ant that was crawling on the ground a kilometre away.

V was also not an ordinary warrior, she was an Inkume! Her skills and talent were almost unmatched. She was also a potential world-class assassin. Detection was one of her most important skills.

She even had to concentrate to properly tell where the scorpion was. It was still about a hundred meters away.

Yet, Bastian, an untrained young master surpassed her detection ability. All he did was stop and sniff the air a little.

Could it be his bloodline?

Dragons were well known for their sharp senses, especially their sense of smell. If he was able to smell the scorpion from a distance, it did not seem especially strange. The odd thing was not the fact that he could smell it.

How did he know what kind of beast it was?

That was the real question. He was just a normal person some time ago. Although she did not know Bastian through and through, she did know most of his history. During the few months they had spent together, Bastian had told her about his past. She knew the full extent of his physical abilities. A powerful sense of smell was not one of them.

"Unless he knew the scent of a Kalari Scorpion?" Impossible! They virtually have no scent!

Indeed. Kalari Scorpions were hunters that relied on the vast sands of the desert to surprise their prey. Over the years, they had evolved many features to improve their stealth. Stifling their scent was one of them. V started realizing that she did not know Bastian as well as she thought she did, and she was right. There was one thing she did not know. E-vision.

Bastian had activated his e-vision from the moment he started running. He did not know whether it was due to his bloodline, or the fact that he was then a cultivator, but his e-vision had improved greatly.

When the scorpion showed up, he could see the world energy moving around in its body. Creatures that could take in World Energy, like the scorpion, were called daemons. Since they could absorb World Energy to enhance their bodies, they were far stronger than normal animals and were on top of the food chain.

Bastian's e-vision previously could not see World Energy inside beings. Now he could see a lot of it. It gave him the image of a brown shaped Kalari Scorpion. As a noble, he had received lots of education on daemons. His e-vision was like heat vision. Normal objects like sand could not obstruct his view.

Especially, since the scorpion had so much World Energy. So its shape and his improved eyesight allowed him to identify it.

Bastian's now body also had a very powerful sense of smell. It allowed him to detect the scorpion even though it was far out. Bastian knew that the scorpions were able to stifle their scents, so the fact that he was able to smell one from so far away was quite the surprise to him.

Both V and Bastian were staring intently at the direction the scorpion was coming from. When it was twenty meters from them, it came out of hiding. It could tell that it had been spotted, so there was no point in hiding. The scorpion was large, far larger than a normal one. It was roughly the size of a donkey. Fully grown ones were the size of a bull, so this one was clearly not mature.

"You are lucky, to even get an immature one. They normally travelled in packs, with their parents until adulthood. This one is perfect for you," said V, her voice trailing off toward the end.

Bastian was nodding his head the whole time until he stopped and realized something.

Pause. Perfect for me?

Bastian looked around for V's presence, only to see that she was already a hundred meters away already.

So fast! Wait, that's not the point.

Bastian shook his head, in an attempt to clear his mind. Then the presence of the daemon forced him to look ahead. It made him unable to look back for too long. He was forced to keep looking forward.

"Good luck!" shouted V with a mischievous grin on her face.

Flip! Flip! Flip! Flip!

Bastian was very a little distressed. This sort of situation was one he did not want to be in. Although Bastian did not fear death, he did fear pain...a lot. This was also one of the reasons why he wanted to be a mage. The training regimen for warriors was often very painful and excruciating. Not to mention that he had no weapon to fight with.

The creature started moving toward Bastian, furiously intending to kill him. Bastian started backtracking, as fast as he could.

In front of him, was a massive daemon, with a nearly impenetrable exoskeleton and he was supposed to defeat it with his bare hands, a few hours after he just started cultivating.

Impossible! No way.

The only weakness these things had was their eyes. Although their bodies were not fast, their stingers were very fast. It would sting him before he even got within a meter of its eyes...and those massive pincers were not slow either.

Flip! I am going to kill V...as soon as my cultivation is high enough.

V was no fool. She knew the power these daemons had, yet she insisted on Bastian fighting. She clearly had expectations of him.

She probably wants to see the power of my bloodline.

Bastian sighed, and then he realized after some time that his foe was not catching up.

Hhmm? It cannot catch up? Even when I am backtracking? Doesn't that mean that if I went forward at full speed, it would be unable to react?

Bastian braced himself and suddenly sprinted forward at full speed. This caught the scorpion off guard. With its large and stiff body, sudden movements were difficult to react to. The distance between the two shrank to almost nothing in an instant.

Bastian struck forth with a right straight, aiming for the beast's left eye, only to be met by a pincer blocking the attack.

*Bang*

A loud sound, like two reinforced concrete walls smashing together, rang out across the desert. Bastian looked at his own fist like it wasn't even his. Like it was something he had never seen before. He had struck that incredibly hard pincer at full speed, yet it barely hurt at all.

Haha! This is incredible! How is it possible for human flesh to resist such a dense material? What on earth-

Unfortunately, due to lack of experience, Bastian had forgotten what the most important rule in battle was. Never get distracted. As a result, a massive stinger with the thickness of an arm was coming straight at him.