Gelman made an "OK" sign.
Biscuit, Shizuku, and Menchi seemed to understand, too. They all made the same sign after Gelman, though Shizuku's looked more like a pose from a peacock dance.
So Ging led the way. The five of them braved the gray-white sandstorm for a while before reaching a towering rock, which was tall and wide enough to block most of the sand.
Ging waved to everyone, signaling that they should take shelter there.
They hid beneath the rock, pacing back and forth for about half an hour before the sandstorm finally stopped.
They took off their hoods. Now they could face one another and be heard even at a normal volume.
"The storm's finally over..."
"I'm suffocating. I'm covered in sand, too."
"Bear with it. There's nowhere to bathe here, and no time for it anyway."
Shizuku used "Evil Tenderfoot" to suck the gray-white sand off everyone and spit it onto the ground, where it piled up. That saved them the trouble of cleaning themselves off.
"This target is different from the 'Painful Bloodthirsty Apostle' in the 'Labyrinth,'" Gelman said. "It's constantly moving and isn't confined to any particular area."
"So we may have to search half the 'Wilderness,' or even all of it, before we run into it. That's perfectly normal. Ging can handle scouting and searching."
"Okay," Ging replied.
So far, Ging had the widest range with his En, and his overall combat strength was also the greatest among them. He was the natural choice for the job.
Ging took out the simple map again—the one drawn by Don Freecss. It showed several blue lines that stood out sharply against the red areas.
"These blue lines are routes that go around the huge red zones. In other words, they're safe paths that avoid areas where