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ILIAS VAN PAYNE

Eighteen days until the rings dissolve.

Ahead was a dry river that curved around us, preventing us from moving forward, left, and right. Behind was Uncle Salty, an odd highwayman whose ability turned anyone before him to stone if they looked or moved back. Backwards wasn't an option.

It was a stalemate. None of us wanted to make a move.

The entire day had passed and everyone sat on the hot sands in wait. As the sun set west behind us, our shadows reached for the darkness ahead.

"This is a game of patience," Uncle Salty must've thought. "The sun is close to setting and the desert worms will soon come out to hunt. I'm closer to a rock formation and I'll reactivate Walk This Way if they try to approach. I have won!"

Uncle Salty was correct that this waiting game was in his favour, but there was one thing his confidence overlooked—this waiting game gave us time to think.

Earlier, I tried cutting down Uncle Salty by using Air Slashes to strike at random spots behind. Even if by some miracle a slash lined up with him, he could easily read my movements and jump out of the way.

There was also a chance I could hit one of the Desperados.

Jaime drew out Clash. "I only have eighteen days to live and there's a high chance I'll die. I've already accepted my mortality. Ilias, I'll look at where Uncle Salty is using my sword's reflection."

"No! We don't know if looking at reflections will turn you into stone or not. The risk is too big."

"Even if I did turn to stone, at least you and everyone here will get a chance to cross the desert. I'm dead in less than three weeks. I've got nothing to lose."

"But I do. If you turn into a statue, I'll lose you. We promised to get home together. What will I tell everyone when I get back to Gilead alone?"

Jaime gritted her teeth, tears sizzling on the ground she stood. She sheathed Clash and sat on the sand.

We've already lost too many from that surprise attack. I'm not letting a single soul fall victim to this highwayman.

An entire day of sitting didn't sound tiring, but doing so under the dominating sun that burned everything it touched was.

The cart with the supplies had broken off from the group amongst the chaos, its horse pulling it backwards as it ran past us. The horse stopped right behind and I could sense its hooves on the sand.

H-how is it able to move back without turning into a statue? Walk This Way is an area-of-affect ability so it shouldn't be possible for Uncle Salty to pick and choose who he exempts. Unless there's something we're missing...

Damn it, I placed my satchel on the cart to make travelling easier. Mine and Clint's guns along with our bullets are there! If I had them, all I needed to do was figure out where Uncle Salty was hiding and use Guns And Roses to shoot him from an impossible angle.

Amidst its panic, the horse had shaken off a barrel of water onto the ground. I tried levitating it, but it was out of my reach.

I could walk forward to get closer, but I was towards the back of our company. Out of everyone competent enough to take down Uncle Salty, I was the closest one to him.

There's no way I'm giving this advantage up.

"Hek hek hek," Uncle Salty cackled. "I don't know if you noticed when you walked past, but there's a rock formation behind us. When worms attack from below, the sand sinks in a spiral pattern. The worms don't get you by surprise, they get you through exhaustion. I can easily dodge them until I make it onto the rock. But will you? This day has tired you all out, hasn't it? You've got an hour before the sands take you."

"Let me ask you something, Uncle Salty," Frank shouted from the front. The shadow of the person behind him stretched onto his back. "You have a pretty strong ability for ambushing people and it has such specific limitations. I've been thinking it over and think I've figured it out. People who are facing you when you activate Walk This Way aren't affected, correct? That's why the horse is able to move around—it just so happened to be looking back when you used it earlier. I'm also going to bet that if you look away or get hurt, your ability will lose its power until you reactivate it, correct?"

Uncle Salty remained silent. "I'm under no obligation to answer."

Was Frank a State Jynxist? Even I had trouble coming to a conclusion. But our only option reinstated itself—we had to defeat him.

"Answer this then, highwayman," Jaime demanded. "If we defeat you, will the people you turned into statues turn back to normal? You owe us that much."

"Hek hek hek. You are such a hopeful child." Uncle Salty giggled to himself. "Once Walk This Way has turned someone into a statue, they can't be reverted back. They'll forever remain as stone."

"You'll die for this!" Melissa promised. "These people are just trying to cross the desert for a better chance at life."

"You all walked into this knowing you have a higher chance of dying than making it across. You accepted those terms. I'm just seeing to it."

Melissa punched the ground. "So you're the type of person who preys on the weak?"

"What will the coyote gain by challenging the wolf when the rabbit's meat tastes sweeter?"

I agonized about having Zenyatta turn back and shoot its bubbles, but I couldn't risk it. We were bound and it turning back meant I was as well. I also unsummoned it while it was beside Jaime and Clint and I had no idea what would happen if I called it out in front of me.

"Before we move forward, Uncle Salty," I said, "may I have a heart-to-heart with my comrades?"

"By all means."

"Frank, Melissa! I want you to be honest with me. Those aren't your real names, are they?"

I couldn't see Frank's face, but I knew his eyes bulged out. "How—"

"You called Melissa 'Riko' earlier. Why you chose to hide your names is none of my concern, but I believe you've gained our trust. At the very least, we deserve to know your real names."

"There is a good chance this is our end," Melissa agreed. "My real name is not Melissa. It's Riko Barrett. And Frank's real name is Johnathan Jimin, but he prefers to be called Joji. We lied to you about our names to hide our identities, but the faces we showed you these past few days were real."

"Joji and Riko, huh? Thanks for telling us the truth. But you're wrong about one thing."

"What's that?"

"That this is our end. For a while now, I've known exactly where Uncle Salty is standing. Even when he moves, I know exactly where he is."

"Hek hek hek, you have?" he asked.

"This would've all ended quicker if I had my gun, but unfortunately it's with the geezer horse that ran off."

Uncle Salty guffawed. "Do you really know where I am? These sands absorb and disperse sound perfectly. There's no way your hearing is good enough to pinpoint my location."

I chuckled at him. "The only thing that'll ensure your survival now is fleeing. If you choose to, we'll let you run off. But if you decide to stay, we will show you no mercy. Those are our terms."

"You really think I'll let you mock Walk This Way's power? You're bluffing that you know where I am to let my guard down. And even if you did, you said so yourself that you had no gun. I've been observing all of you and I know none of you have. So go on, Kid, I'll let you be white so you can make the first move."

I stood up from the ground, leaving my staff where I had been. With each step, I made my way forwards.

"Ilias! You're walking towards the dry river?" Joji asked. "Are you crazy?"

Jaime laughed out loud, unclipping her three swords and stabbing them upright into the sand beside her. "Ilias is the person I admire the most. He never does anything without reason. Whatever his gamble is, I'll gamble my life with him."

Clint had been bound in rope this entire time. Using Zenyatta's fist, I cut him free, placing my hand on his shoulder to reassure him that I meant no harm.

"Communicating with a deaf person when you can't face each other is damn near impossible. But there are other ways of communicating with no need for speech." I summoned Talking Book and wrote my instructions to Clint: "Summon your gun and let me use it."

I had taken away his two guns and placed them in my satchel, but he had three. Two regular pistols and one that he can summon. I don't know its specific limitations, but I know it should be reloaded by now.

Clint grabbed the quill and wrote: "Only I can hold the gun."

"Then let me aim."

I wrapped my arms around him, adjusting his wrist and body as if it were my own.

"What the hell type of ability is that?" Uncle Salty questioned. "It doesn't matter. You can't even point it back without turning into stone."

We aimed forward, pointing at an empty spot free from any Desperados. I imbued my mana into the pistol and tapped Clint's hand, signalling him to fire. We unloaded all six shots into the spot, his gun fading away as the last bullet fired.

"What was that?" Uncle Salty cackled. "You're not even aiming in the right direction. You just wasted your only shots."

The spot ahead where we had fired the bullets bloomed into six roses. They twisted behind us and fired their rose bullets right into Uncle Salty.

"Ahhhhh!!!!" Uncle Salty cried, his body collapsing onto the ground.

Joji resisted the urge to look back. "Did you hit him?"

"I'll look back." Jaime laughed confidently. "I have enough trust in Ilias to know it's safe." She turned around slowly... and didn't turn to stone. "We got him."

After several hours of standing off, we finally caught a glimpse of our opponent. Uncle Salty was a beast person—a horse-man to be precise. Everything below his horse head were human features. His once-brown robe had been sunbathed white.

Uncle Salty clutched his thigh wounds. "H-how did you know where I was? The sand absorbs and disperses my footsteps, there's no way you could've known."

"You should've fled when I gave you the chance," I said. "Or you should've just shot us."

"Answer my question: how did you know where I was?"

"I'm under no obligation to tell, but I'll do it anyway." I pointed at his shadow that had stretched so far that it touched the shores of the dry river.

"N-no way!" Uncle Salty screamed. "You figured out where I was by using my shadow? All this time, I thought waiting would benefit me. But no. You were waiting until the sun got low enough for my shadow to stretch into your view!"

"You thought this game of patience favoured you, but you were wrong. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. It was a good thing Trebor decided to take us east so that the sun set behind us. We didn't have to look back. We just had to look forward and your shadow told us what our eyes couldn't."

"Damn you!" Uncle Salty screamed, pulling out a pistol from my satchel.

He grabbed it off of the cart!

I summoned Zenyatta and disarmed him by throwing one of its bubbles. But Uncle Salty fired a few shots aimed at me. It should've been me who had gotten shot. But for some reason, Clint stepped in the way and took three bullets to the chest.

I grabbed him as he fell to the ground. "Clint! Why'd you do that? You're our prisoner."

His chest began to seep red as Jaime and I put pressure on it.

Joji approached us, laying Trebor beside Clint.

"You don't have to worry," Riko said as she went onto her knees. She summoned her Stand. "Comfortably Numb's abilities are healing based."

Jaime's face welled up. "Really?"

"Comfortably Numb can turn people's wounds into balloons," she said as she manifested Trebor's gouged eyes and gunshot wounds into two. Trebor's eyes returned to normal as Clint's gunshots sealed up. "All balloons are red and the darker it is, the more severe the wound."

Comfortably Numb used its plump hands to keep the balloons afloat.

"But there's one thing with these manifested wounds. It must be absorbed by someone within ten minutes or the wounds will apply to me tenfold. There are two things we can do. One, I can divide both balloons up and have everyone absorb them. The more people the wounds get divided up between, the fewer injuries we feel. If we go with this option, we'll have eye and chest pains for tonight, but they'll be gone tomorrow. Or two, we can have Uncle Salty absorb both wounds."

Uncle Salty didn't have to wait to know what our vote would be. He got up and began to flee. Joji then knocked him down by using Trebor's whip to grab his leg.

"Wait! Please! I'll revert them. I'll transform the statues back to humans."

"You've lied about a lot of things," Riko told him. "But there's one truth you've told—there's no way to bring those statues back to life."

Comfortably Numb waved its plump hands, making the balloons float towards Uncle Salty. Both were absorbed into his body as he shrieked. His eyes and chest both gushed with blood.

"I think we should take him with us," Trebor suggested.

"Why would we do that?" Joji questioned. "He'll turn on us."

"No, he won't. His eyes have been gouged out which means he can't use Walk This Way effectively anymore."

"He still killed a lot of our friends," Riko argued.

"I know. But like I said earlier, I lied about knowing how to cross the Great Sand Sea." Trebor pointed at him. "He's a highwayman who makes a living by following and stealing from people desperate enough to cross. Going forward, I think he'll be a valuable asset."