Skyborne Raider

“What happened, is it the car?” I ask him.

"Hmm." He exhales a bit disappointed.

“I thought so, but it's not.” The old man answers.

Mike becomes instantly preoccupied and takes over the situation.

He stands up swiftly and moves closer to the finding, crouching down he knocks on top of the plate.

I glance at Astrid, and we share a look of both worry and excitement over what this might be.

As I get closer to the old man standing, resting his hand on his hip and Mike on all four, I notice a shiny, metal-like plate beneath the sand, weathered and covered in scratches.

This might not be his car—unless it’s some old piece of scrap.

Now both of them are kneeling, uncovering the mysterious object with their hands, swiping away the sand, revealing the surface more.

It's about the size of a large dining table, but with rough edges.

The more they uncover it's clear that it’s no longer rectangular, though—more like an oval now, like a stone slab whose edges were roughly chiseled down.

*Thud, thud*

Mike tries banging on the top with his fists again.

“Not hollow.” He adds.

"So it's not the car right?" I ask, eyebrows raised.

"Of course not." Harald confirms with a nod too.

“Should we even bother with this then? Let’s move on and start digging up the firepit,” I suggest, turning back to the cozier spot we found earlier.

Astrid follows me towards the cozy area, and we start digging like dogs, tossing large portions of sand behind us.

Meanwhile, Mike and Harald keep working on the weird slab.

They knock on it with the butt of a gun and their fists and share thoughts.

“Not getting any help from you, huh?” I call out to them.

They completely ignore me, intent on dusting off the slab.

We’re about knee-deep in the sand when a small flame flickers between the particles.

Astrid locks eyes with me, smiling, followed by a huge yawn.

"This is it!" She cheers and yawns again.

The more we uncover the flame, the sleepier and cozier I feel, too.

Astrid closes her eyes for a moment and almost falls over, but catches herself.

“Ugh,” she mutters, opening her eyes.

“I must’ve dozed off for a second.”

"Welcome to your updated save spot then." I note with a smirk.

We keep digging for a few dozen minutes, pausing occasionally for a sip of water—its temperature and freshness perfectly preserved, thanks to the inventory's ability to stop time.

The familiar bronze bowl rim—the same one we’ve seen twice before—comes into view.

“Fair enough, right?” I ask, and we exchange a glance.

“It’ll probably get buried in sand again in a few days or maybe even hours anyway. But we have it confirmed.”

“Will you mark it?” I ask as I open my inventory.

A modern ballpoint pen and a crusty paper materialize in my hand.

“Yeah. Let me make sure we are in the correct spot..” She estimates our position, asking for confirmation. Then she draws a small flame icon on the map, the same as she did before.

“We’re done here,” I call out to Mike and Harald.

They both stand up, glancing at us with smirks.

“You should come check this out,” Mike says.

Tediously getting up on my feet after almost falling asleep I need to support myself while standing up.

We relocate close to the old man and clearly already sunburnt tall guy.

“Damn,” I mutter to myself in surprise.

The slab turns out to be part of a fossil—thick as a leg, it’s a heavy stone slab resting on top of a strange creature with the same rough texture.

It’s disgusting, yet it looks ancient and long dead, so I don’t even flinch.

“I recognize this!” Astrid exclaims, pointing her brittle finger.

“It looks like a trilobite fossil, but with more armor around. No health bar or anything... it might just be a rock that was once a creature.” She adds.

I have no idea where the front or back of the thing might be. No eyes, no visible features—just a wide set of bones arranged like a comb.

"Gills, maybe?" I wonder.

But something feels off. There’s a dozen legs sticking out from the bottom, buried in the sand.

“Are we digging deeper?” Mike asks Harald.

From their expressions, I can tell they’re eager to.

I stand beside Astrid, watching as they dig and reveal more of the legs.

“You know what? Let me be useful again.” I say to them.

“Point me toward where you think the car might be, and we will find it!” I blatantly promise something I cannot.

Harald stands up with a grunt, looks around, and points a few dozen meters from the firepit we dug up with Astrid.

We start walking in that direction, taking a quick glance back.

What shocks me a little is how massive the fossil looks compared to the three people standing next to it.

They’re digging deeply, trying to uncover how far down the legs go.

As we walk for a few minutes under the heat of the sun toward the point Harald indicated, I stomp firmly, hoping to feel some change beneath my feet.

"Shouldn't we just ask Pocco?" Astrid frowns.

Before she can even finish her question, a *Clang* resonates from beneath my feet.

We stop immediately.

"I don't think so," I say, glancing at the pale, sweaty girl.

"A bit suspicious right?" I ask.

She shrugs her shoulders.

I wasn’t expecting to find anything quickly, but it happened.

After calculating how vast, large, and ever-changing this desert is, I’m genuinely surprised.

This definitely feels and sounds different from my previous stomps.

I drop to my knees and start sweeping away large portions of sand.

Eager sunburnt ginger girls help right away.

Revealing something sturdy and shiny beneath, we cheer up.

“Bingo!”

"Look at this! Shiny paint, definitely metal." We look at each other, she knocks on it gently with her fingernails.

The first small spot reveals bright yellow paint.

"Not something you'd expect to find out here." I note.

I use my right knee to wipe away the dust with the fabric of my pants and she helps with her dress.

The shiny car paint beneath confirms my suspicion.

"Yellow, huh? What kind of car is yellow—a taxi?" I ask.

"I recall Harald mentioning something about being a security guard." Notes the girl.

A twinge of unease creeps in as I imagine different scenarios.

What if there’s a taxi driver still inside? I’ve become desensitized to gore, but no one enjoys finding a rotting corpse unexpectedly.

And in this heat… I shudder at the thought.

Deciding to take a break, we celebrate the luck of finding the car so quickly with a drink.

I open my inventory and pull out a water bottle, drinking the last few drops. We cheer with our bottles.

Then I grab a plastic container full of cooked fox meat and take a quick snack.

Refreshed but still a bit unsettled, I can’t shake the worst parasite of all: a thought.

One small thought can completely take over your mind at the worst possible moment.

Right now, it’s the thought of a decaying corpse beneath me while I eat this saucy meat.

Jogging back over to Mike and Harald’s digging spot I stop with my mouth open.

“Jesus fucking hell.. What on earth is this?”

Those twelve tentacle-like legs are disgusting and creep me out to unimaginable levels.

I hate spiders, but now, for some reason, I’m starting to dislike turtles too and everything that has more than eight legs.

Both guys are now trying to push the trilobite-like creature onto its side.

It tilts a little, but that’s all.

“Wasn’t this a complete waste of energy?” I say, raising an eyebrow and shading my eyes from the sun with my hand.

“Oh, and by the way, I found your yellow car.” I emphasize yellow.

“Really? That’s excellent news,” Harald responds, clearly cheered up.

“Markus,” Mike says, looking me dead in the eye, as if trying to connect with me.

“A statue? Out here in the middle of nowhere?” He raises his eyebrows.

“There could be treasure inside!” He semi whispers.

“You’re the hammer guy—smash it!”

Harald, ignoring us, walks over to the car and I pull out my newly upgraded sledgehammer. Astrid stays with us, sitting nearby.

“Side or top?” I ask Mike.

“Top. The tilt gives us a good angle.”

No further answers, just a surge of energy coursing through my upper body. My bicep and tricep, thick as my calf, swing the hammer overhead.

*Satisfying bonk*

The sledgehammer warps slightly upon impact, but it doesn't do much damage. The outer layer shatters at least, visible cracks radiating from the impact.

“Not bad,” I say aloud, comforting myself as my mouth turns downward.

“This is probably the thickest part of it, right?”

I prepare for another swing.

“Ah shit, ah shit.”

I instinctively channel more power.

In shock, we all stare at the newly formed floating health bar above the trilobite fossil. It’s slightly depleted, and a name appears: Acid Flathead, Level 49

It just stays there tilted with a crack on top, lifeless.

“Why isn’t it moving?” Astrid asks, her voice laced with worry.

“I don’t know,” Mike replies. “Maybe it’s trapped in this rock-solid state?”

"Move aside!"

*Bonk, with a slight crackling echo*

As I strike again.

The sound is really satisfying, but it’s followed by a foreboding menace.

“Did I just untrap it?”

The creature starts to move and uses its tentacles to roll out of the pit Mike and Harald dug around it.

The crack that I had thought was just superficial begins to open.

*Disgusting blurp*

Astrid lets out a horrendous scream and collapses on the ground.