Alnea had always believed that he did not have any talent in the field of prophesising or reading fate. Looking at the dust rising in the distance though, coming towards them five different directions, just a few steps after he warned Zain, he began to believe that he might not be completely hopeless in the lineage of Fate. Unfortunately, it was not the time to revel in the discovery of his new talent.
“Stop,” Alnea said, less than one tenth of an hour after they had begun running, raising his hand to signal those in the distance, in case they did not hear his command. “Vestia, identify the enemies. Everyone else, get ready for battle.”
“…Sand Eaters,” Vestia said after a while, when the enemies finally entered the range of her senses. “Five of them.”
“Sand Eaters,” Alnea mumbled, becoming a little confused. Sand Eaters were not supposed to be so aggressive. And they were not supposed to work in group either. Moments later, when he saw the three metre large mounds of sand moving in the desert though, leaving a cloud of sand and dust on their path, he could only subdue his suspicions back into the depths of his Heart, and focus on taking down the beasts first.
“Lia, Vestia, you two handle the Sand Eaters on the left. Yuri and I will handle the rest. Norren and Zain, back us up. Ralph, Aren, Fran, once we force the Sand Eaters out of the sand, tie them down, and do not let them dive back into the sand. Most importantly, Karl, keep an eye out. I have a bad feeling…”
By the time Alnea gave everyone’s instructions, the Oren Beasts were almost upon them, leaving them with barely any time to prepare. Peak phase Sand Eaters then, Alnea mumbled to himself, noting the speed of the Sand Eaters… These cretins were more fitting of the name Sand Swimmers than of Sand Eaters.
“Now!” Alnea said, urging his Aspects, while rushing towards the Sand Eaters, prompting Cecilia, Vestia, and Yuri to do the same. In just a fraction of a moment, golden, silver, blue, black, white, green, red, and all other sorts of colour began blooming around their bodies in different shapes and forms, as they took on their preferred Martial Styles.
“In the threads, weaving through the worlds…”
Alnea, as usual, used one of his Auxiliary Martial Styles, Sand Treader, to gain stable footing, while leaving all his attacks to his sword. It was the best tactic he could think of against enemies like Sand Eaters. Yuri, on the other hand, just covered her feet in bluish white light, and moved over the sand as if she was flowing on ice.
“Stitching the forces of the world…”
On the other end, Cecilia covered her feet in green scales to deal with the cretins, while every step that Vestia took made it look as if she was not walking in sand, but in a shallow pool of water. Without affecting her speed, of course.
“I summon the essence of the Origin…”
Exquisite as their movement was though, it still did not change the fact that there were five Sand Eaters, all at the peak phase of their Adolescent Stage, while of the four of them, only one was at the Peak Stage, standing as the vanguard of Star Seekers. Coupled with the terrain advantage of the Sand Eaters, let alone taking them down, average Wanderers would not even be able to hold back the beasts. Of course, Alnea was not an average Wanderer. And neither were any of the girls.
“To come, and Shift Gravity.”
Controlling the centre of his gravity to shift towards the Sand Eaters, Alnea accelerated far beyond his normal pace, reaching the Sand Eaters before everyone else. He was not stupid enough to face all five Sand Eaters all by himself though. Not that he could not do so. But there was no need to such risks. He was not alone.
Five Arrows of Water, one each for a Sand Eater, reached the beasts just as Alnea reached by their side, plunging into the mounds, and hopefully, into the beasts. By the time the arrows reached the beasts though, prompting them to let out a unified cry of pain, he was already upon the mounds, leaving him no time to care for the aftermath of Zain’s arrows.
Unsheathing his sword in one smooth arc, tracing half a circle with its tip, Alnea brought the blade, glowing in the ‘Golden Light of Death’, down upon the mound in the centre with all his strength, and weight. He even shifted his centre of gravity back towards to the ground, just to increase the power behind his attack. Thus, the resultant splash of blood, along with the waves of sand rising in the air, with his sword at their centre, was not a surprise to him. The reaction of the beast though…
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Instead of retreating away from him, the Sand Eater, another rodent like creature, a little larger than the Greedy Sand Mole they had dealt with earlier, jumped straight at him, baring both its fangs, and its claws. It did not even flinch at the wound on its back. It cried in pain, and even had tears in its eyes, but it did not stop its attack. As if…
The sand in front of him rose up, and solidified into a solid wall, blocking the beast’s charge, giving Alnea enough time to shift the centre of his gravity once again, and pull away from the beast to rush towards the Sand Eater to his right. But that meant leaving just a wall to stop one of the Sand Eaters. In normal circumstances, Alnea would have been confident enough to deal with the other Sand Eater, and then come back to deal with the first one before it could reach Zain and Norren, but something about the beasts did not seem right…
Just to be sure, Alnea pulled out his dagger, ‘Golden Yearning’, from his waist, and threw it towards the wall in front of him, while activating all four of its Glyph Arrays, using the Oren he had stored in the Oren Storage Array to fuel the rest of the three Arrays. In the next moment, with just a tug from his mind, the dagger flew around the wall, and plunged into the wound he had made on the rodent’s back, while flashing with a golden light.
What followed next was a cascade of fire, water, and sand, from Fran, Aren, and Ralph, trapping the beast in place. But Alnea still did not let his guard down. The beasts… With a frown on his face, he quickly shifted his attention to the mound was sand that was about penetrate the first line of defence, and move towards the rest of the Star Seekers in the back.
Gathering his Aspects at the sole of his feet, Alnea blasted himself towards the beast with the Bursting Steps, while also using gravity to pull himself towards the beast. A double reassurance, which almost made him catch up with the speed of Sky Streaming Style. If not for the fact the fact that Sky Streaming Style took too much time to prepare, and was not suitable for close distance movement, he might even have used it directly.
Fortunately, he reached the mound just before it could move past the first line of defence, stabbing it with his sword as if he was ‘Piercing the Stars’. In the next moment, the rodent repeated the actions of the first beast, just like how the beasts that the girls were facing were reacting. By rabidly chasing after them, sparing no thoughts about their own lives…
There truly was something wrong with the beasts. Or else, how could the Sand Eaters, known for always prioritising their lives, charge so recklessly? With his mind turning at an ever greater speed, Alnea quickly spread the senses of his Spirit to his surroundings, while stepping on the beast’s face with Bursting Steps to jump in the air. For as far as he could see, he did not find any other suspicious signs. Yet, he was far from relieved.
Covering the edges of his sword in golden and black lights, Alnea began spinning in mid-air, while repeatedly shifting the centre of his gravity, increasing his spinning speed beyond human means—at least, beyond the means of False Wanderers— creating a Golden Wheel of Death. A true Golden Wheel of Death, that split apart the Sand Eater into two halves, with only a few trails of blood, and flesh hanging between the two halves keeping them from falling onto the ground. But not for long.
Alnea, as the wielder of the Wheel of Death, landed right in between the two halve of the beast’s body, with blood, and grime covering his face and hands, making him feel a little nauseous. With the threat of some unknown enemies looming upon them though, he quickly forgot about the nausea, and jumped out from the mass of flesh and blood, kicking the two halves of the beast’s body down in the process.
Landing back on the flimsy, loose black sands, employing the Sand Treader Style to balance himself, Alnea readied himself to charge against the first beast he had left behind, only to see it being held down by ropes of sand and earth, while arrows of fire and ice and rained down upon the beast, ending its life. Even the other beasts, held back by the girls, met a somewhat similar fate, dying at the hands of his overenthusiastic teammates.
Maybe his teammates were not so unreliable after all, even if they were a little excessive. Given the strange state of the beasts though, he could understand why they were so aggressive…
“Did you see that?” Zain said, raising his chin towards the sky. “I used another Arcana today. That makes it the twenty seventh Arcana I have used in the last month. Truly worthy of the name White Arcanist…”
“…You may have more Arcanas, but my Martial Styles are obviously much stronger…”
“Dust Eater’s shit,” Zain said. “My Arcanas are obviously the best…”
“…Stop being delusional…”
“Stop it,” Alnea said to Zain and Norren, who were grinning at the thought of taking down a peak phase Oren Beast so easily. “We cannot let our guard down yet. Karl, get…”
Even before he could say anything, Karl had already closed in towards them on his own, standing in between Fran and Aren. The man’s instinct was keen, as always.
“…Get ready everyone,” Alnea said to the Star Seekers. “We are going to have some unexpected guests.”