The raging lightning struck Eleanor’s body without pause, tempering her mind with every passing second. At first the pain was unbearable, but as the bolts continued to crash into her and her mind grew stronger, the agony gradually dulled. Realising that the lightning could no longer knock her unconscious, Eleanor let out a breath of relief.
She continued forward at a slow pace. She knew the thod well from the lava lake: advance gradually, stop when the pain beca intolerable, wait until she adapted, then move again. Simple in principle.
In reality, the tornt she endured was anything but simple. She knew there were no fatalities in the trials... no matter how severe it beca, she would not truly die. The worst outco would be failure.
And that was sothing Eleanor refused to accept. She already understood that this was a trial with no records in Professor Jiro’s archives, which ant either she was the first to encounter it, or all previous challengers had failed... or chosen to conceal its existence. If this trial granted a mind-based cultivation technique, it would be ideal. Her Mind Reaver bloodline would undergo a trendous leap with such a technique.
She crossed the lightning field like a machine, moving step by step without pause. She had no idea how much ti had passed; the urge to keep track of it had long vanished. It would have taken only a word to ask Nora, yet she had no desire to know. All that mattered now was clearing the trial at her own pace.
When the lightning finally faded behind her, Eleanor found herself surrounded by endless sand. A desert stretched out in all directions, lifeless and silent. Pale yellow and brown sands rolled across the land, forming dunes of every size... so small, others towering. They resembled frozen waves upon a vast sea of sand, sculpted by the wind into smooth curves, their crests cutting sharp lines against the sky.
The sky stretched above her like a vast blue do, empty of clouds. The sun hung high... bright, white, and burning, its glare making the sand glitter painfully. Looking at it for too long hurt her eyes. Heat already radiated from the ground, seeping into her skin. The air was dry and scorching, like breathing inside an oven. There was no moisture at all; her lips were already beginning to crack.
She listened for any sound, but there was only silence... deep and oppressive. No birds sang, no insects buzzed, and in that mont, not even the wind stirred. The quiet was so complete she could hear her own heartbeat. The emptiness was unsettling, making her feel utterly alone in the world. She searched for any sign of life, plant or beast, but found nothing. Only sand upon sand, a land of nothingness... dead and still.
Then, at the very edge of her vision, she noticed a faint outline of trees. They were far away, little more than dark smudges on the horizon. Yet they were a promise of life. Where there were trees, there might be water. The distance between her and them was imnse, miles of empty desert stretching in between. Heat made them shimr, and they could easily have been a mirage. Even so, she chose to believe they marked the true path through the trial.
Thirst already clawed at her. Her mouth was parched, and the heat wrapped around her like a heavy blanket. She knew she had to cross the desert now; there was no ti to rest. The sun burned rcilessly overhead, and she carried no water. Unbidden, a knot of fear tightened in her stomach but the sight of the trees gave her purpose. She set off towards them.
The desert was endless, stretching on without rcy. Ti crawled. Each step sank into the loose sand, making progress slow and tiring. Her footprints trailed behind her, only to be gradually swallowed by the shifting grains. The dunes all looked alike, and it would have been easy to lose her way. She kept her eyes fixed on the distant trees. They were her only guide.
As she walked, she began to notice small details: tiny rocks scattered across the sand, the brittle skeleton of a dried plant, a lizard darting beneath a stone. So there was life after all... scarce and hidden. Only the resilient could survive here. Beneath the vast sky, she felt very small.
Even so, she remained vigilant. There could be unknown creatures lurking, ready to attack her as the lava crocodiles had. Her powers were still sealed; she was nothing more than a lone wolf in this boundless desert.
Suddenly, sothing shifted at the edge of her vision. The distant trees vanished.
At first, it was only a thin, dirty line along the horizon, resembling a far-off mountain range, hazy and yellow-brown. It sared the sharp boundary where the blue sky t the pale sand.
As she watched, the line thickened and began to rise. It was no longer a line, but a wall... a massive, rolling wall of dust and sand reaching high into the sky. Its crest boiled and churned like dark water. The sun, still blazing overhead, shone through it as if through a strange golden filter, its light turning sickly and copper-orange.
At first, the wall advanced in eerie silence, which made it all the more terrifying. It moved with slow, inexorable power. She could now discern its texture... swirling currents within the brown mass, like a colossal, nacing curtain being drawn across the world. The clear air before it seed to tremble. Distant dunes blurred, then vanished, swallowed by the advancing gloom.
A sandstorm!
All her earlier thoughts of battling desert creatures were rendered aningless. She now faced the desert’s most terrifying threat. The towering wall of dust surged towards her in a straight, devouring line. It stretched endlessly to her left and right. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.
Her mind raced. All her knowledge of surviving a sandstorm ca from a human perspective. She recalled everything she knew and quickly summarised it.
"Don’t run. Identify the wind’s direction and the storm’s approach. Cover your mouth and nose... filter the air and avoid inhaling fine sand and silt, the greatest imdiate danger. Squint, close your eyes, cover them if possible. Never rub them if sand gets in.
Look for natural protection: the downwind side of solid rock formations. If there are no rocks, find a ditch or a depression. Even being a few feet lower than the surrounding ground is far better than staying exposed. If there is nothing at all, position yourself downwind of any slight rise or dune. Do this imdiately... visibility will soon drop to zero.
Get as low as possible. Lie on your side, curled up, with your back to the wind. Keep the wind behind you so the sand passes over rather than straight into your face and lungs. Breathe slowly. Stay calm. Panic will only make things worse."
She was in her wolf form now. There was no cloth to be found, nor anything she could use as a covering. Even if there had been, her paws would never manage to secure a mask in such a short ti. All she had was her thick fur, which would have to serve as a desperate asure.
Her wolf instincts clawed at the back of her mind, urging her to charge straight through the storm. She had the strength and agility to force her way against the wind, and she could hold her breath for a ti.
She ignored the instinct. Scanning the area, she found no rocks. Instead, she spotted a large dune nearby and hurried behind it, positioning herself on its downwind side. The slope ford a wind shadow, a pocket where the air should be relatively calr.
She tucked her nose and face into her body, using her thick fur as a barrier, her back turned to the oncoming storm. She narrowed her nostrils as much as she could and squeezed her eyes shut. Curling her tail around, she pressed its bushy length over her nose as a partial filter.
She curled herself as tightly as possible and waited.
A few seconds later, the world beca a roaring, physical nightmare. Sound erupted into a deep, shuddering howl that vibrated through her bones. The wind struck like a solid force, shoving at her, trying to tear her from the ground. Then ca the sand.
A million needle-sharp grains lashed her face and paws, finding every tiny gap in her fur. She crouched lower, tucking her nose in tighter. The world shrank to raw sensations: grit scraping against her eyelids, the burning ache in her throat with every strained breath she filtered through clenched teeth. Her powerful limbs trembled as she fought to remain still against the relentless, howling pressure. Her own scent was ripped away, replaced by the dry, choking taste of stone and dust.
The ground beneath her seed to shift and slide. Blind and utterly insignificant, she was swallowed whole by the storm’s chaotic body.
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