Chapter 18 – Life 5 – The Strike Force

My new teacher’s training methods were… unorthodox. Every day, at some random point, she would attack me with a random weapon made of Titanium. Sometimes it would be a sword, sometimes a spear, sometimes a thickly coiled wire used as a whip. The one that gave me the most trouble was a recursive bow whose arrow-tips were the only things I could sense. Sometimes she would even attack me in my sleep, much to my chagrin.

I also trained with the other members of the Elite Strike Force, as we were called. In an open field, I would train with a man whose sandstorms seemed far more powerful than the Camp Master I had known before. In a building in the cursed city Tian Jin, a woman who never spoke hounded me with fog. Along the Old City’s walls, a Light-Maker who could project copies of himself, convincing illusions. When I went for the wrong ones, I would have surely tumbled to my doom were it not for some Titanium climbing hooks I made.

The most difficult opponent, though, turned out to be the bald man who brought me here. As he had promised, there was plenty of time to spar now that we had arrived. What he hadn’t mentioned was that he was one of the first members of the Elite Strike Force, and as such had gotten the final strike on dozens of elites. His liquid metal reserves seemed almost inexhaustible and could harden around almost any weapon I could bring to bear. Thankfully, at least, in solid form the Silver seemed to be weaker to damage than my own Titanium.

I finally beat the bald man using a bit of trickery. I made a temporary copy of my prized sword, keeping the real one in its sheath. When the copy was stuck inside a blunt cube of Silver, as usual, I brought out the real one and held it around the bald man’s neck. He paused for a few seconds, then chuckled. “It seems you are ready to participate in true elite combat, then.”

Despite my teacher being the leader of the Elite Strike Force, it turned out it was the bald man, as the one who brought me here, who had final say of when I was ready. That day I met the 3rd Emperor’s head scout. I truly thought it was a joke at first, being told a blind man was the one who had found me that day, but apparently Light-Molders could see without eyes. I asked how far he could actually see, and he told me, “That, my friend… is considered a very crucial ‘state secret’, hmm?”

He then explained our mission. “A new camp had been holding their own against Flying Pythons, until a trio of them came from the desert, summoning sandstorms. The Camp Master killed two of them, but the third retreated back into the desert. He believed it should have died of its wounds, but just recently 4 more appeared, alongside one that is much larger and has scars running down its body. The Master made the decision to evacuate his Disciples and Initiates.”

I did certainly notice that there was no mention of the Master evacuating the *rest* of the camp but didn’t say anything. In this world, protection had to be earned, and clearly the Master felt those people had not earned his.

It was decided that 5 members of the Elite Strike Force would be enough to face this threat. Snakes used smell more than sight to detect prey, so the illusion master and the silent fog woman were out. Instead, it was my current teacher, the bald man, a Magma-Maker who typically stayed outside the Old City, and a lanky Sand-Molder who I had only briefly talked to before today. And to top it all off… me. Titanium was the only material that could shield from Sand elites, so we needed all that we could get.

We met with the Magma-Maker in a small camp outside the cursed city. Apparently, he was considered too dangerous to stay near civilians, so he was in charge of controlling the Tian Jin monster population. He gave the job, temporarily, to his top Disciple, who seemed used to such events.

As we marched onward, I was told to make as much Titanium armor as possible. Which wasn’t too much, as I hadn’t been fighting monsters all that much lately, but it was enough to make simple breastplates and helmets for the 5 of us.

The Sand-Molder was a quiet fellow, but I could tell he was friends with the bald man. Apparently, he was the last person the bald man brought into the group. That gave us something to talk about. He had once been an Air-Molder with good talent, able to suck enemies towards him and then blow them away to confuse them. His camp had been overrun by a never-before-seen elite with the power of Corrosion.

It was believed to be the combination of Metal and Air, a duo few people felt connected to. The gigantic wolf was surrounded, at all times, by a sickly brown cloud of dust. While it didn’t have the range of a sandstorm, the dust not only rusted metal over time, but also caused horrible pain and festering rashes on people’s skin. To top it off, like most combined elements, those who only had a single element couldn’t affect the dust very much. While it moved alongside the wolf, attempts to blow it away were met with failure.

When the bald man was sent to kill it, even he had problems. The metal he made, in its liquid form, would evaporate in the face of the Corrosion, taking away his biggest strength. When solidified, his Silver wouldn’t evaporate as quickly, but his spears would still be pitted and weak by the time they made it to the wolf. Most people had run away from the camp during their fight. The then-Air-Molder was not one of them, however.

He came up to the bald man as other warriors struggled with the wolf and explained that he could send the wolf flying at least once, likely taking its Corrosion with it. The bald man considered this and agreed. He made a large pool of metal that he then solidified into dozens of spikes, facing at an upwards angle. The young man was told to stand behind these spikes and suck the wolf towards him. When he did so, while the wolf’s corrosion was indeed sucked backwards along with it, it only had contact with the Silver spikes for a split second before the wolf was grievously impaled, dissipating its Corrosion forever.

The bald man had apparently encouraged those who saw the wolf to specialize into Corrosion themselves, as fighting an elite was known to help people gain the elite’s element. However, the twin connection between Metal and Air was truly rare, and the only one to achieve it was a Molder, who languished without the ability to find any of his element to absorb.

The young Sand-Molder, on the other hand, didn’t have that problem. In fact, despite his quiet nature, he was actually quite excited about this mission. Surely, 5 Sand Pythons would give him more material to work with than ever before.

We knew we were getting close to the abandoned camp when we saw the plains give way to sand dunes. The bald man made us poles of metal that we could use as walking sticks. My teacher also took the time to make a large shield for me, explaining that I would need it not just for the snakes, but to protect myself from the Magma-Maker as well.

As four of the five of us had a combined element with a connection to Earth, we felt the rumbling in the distance to some degree or another. A perpetual sandstorm surrounded the ruins of a camp that looked fairly similar to my own home. The clay dwellings were in the worst shape, but even the constructions of logs, like the Master’s home and the camp’s armory, were broken open and abandoned. We walked forward in a line with the Sand-Molder at the front. He seemed quite happy to fill his reserves, though we knew he wouldn’t be much help in attacking the snakes.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

As we rounded a corner, the Sand-Molder let out a shout and rolled away. The sand was now much fiercer, but I could still make out the shape of a python launching towards us. My teacher was the next in line, and with expert precision she summoned a sword in her hands. The snake was caught unprepared, attempting to bite down on the sword only to impale the roof of its mouth. The sandstorm got weaker almost immediately.

The Sand-Molder took the opportunity to make a ring around us for some limited amount of protection. Absorbing one’s element wasn’t enough for a Molder to get stronger, they had to use it as well. The three Metal-Makers, me included, used the time to make fortifications around us. They likely wouldn’t hold against concentrated sand attacks, but they wouldn’t buckle immediately, either.

I was surprised at how much waiting was involved in this fight, and I think my teacher felt the same way. She eventually told the Magma-Maker something I couldn’t quite make out over the wind, and he proceeded to climb to the top of one of our fortifications and shoot out blobs of liquid fire. I was pretty sure he was turning down the heat for our sake, but even still it was suddenly sweltering in our little ring. It was surely worse wherever the blobs hit.

Eventually, the sandstorm intensified once more, to a greater degree than I had ever felt. Our ring of sand fell apart, leaving behind only our metal constructions, and even those started to be worn away. I was very glad for my Titanium armor at this point, and I think the others were feeling the same way. One of the snakes burrowed right near the Sand-Molder, possibly sensing his manipulation of their element. The bald man quickly launched a blob of liquid metal inside the thing’s mouth, where I assume it wreaked havoc.

Another snake popped out of the ground right near me, and it was only thanks to my long training with my teacher that I reacted in time. I blocked it with the flat of my sword blade, then as it was stunned, I cut it to pieces. Something was bothering me about these elites. Weren’t they… rather easy to fight?

With no more snakes obviously incoming, my teacher concurred. She yelled over the wind, “Elites are typically known to be far smarter than this. These ones just throw themselves at us to their deaths, like normal monsters. They are hopefully just recently mutated… if not, then something rather strange is going on here.”

I pointed out something as well: “Why hasn’t the sandstorm weakened, yet? We killed those two snakes, are there more around here?” We waited for further battles while the Sand-Molder stretched his elemental senses, but we couldn’t find any snakes. He did find something, though. “I think they may be somewhere over in that direction! The sandstorm gets even stronger there!”, he yelled while pointing off into the distance.

I expected my teacher to take the time to repair our weapons and armor, but she surprised me. “We need to stop this, whatever it is, as soon as possible. We march!” It was a hard trek. The sand was whipping in all directions, changing where it was seemingly coming from at random times. Since the Sand-Molder couldn’t cover all of us at once, we had to huddle behind my shield as I pumped metal back into any holes that formed.

Eventually, we got to a point where the Sand-Molder stopped moving forward. We asked him what was wrong as loudly as we dared, knowing any louder might attract snakes. He only said, “It’s- it’s beautiful! So beautiful! BEAUTIFUL!” My teacher slapped him to get him back to his senses, but his head seemed to lock on to a particular spot in the middle of the sandstorm. The Magma-Maker yelled, “Get ahold of yourself, man!”. The Sand-Molder only kept yelling about beauty. The bald man tried a different tactic. “What is it you see, boy?” The Sand-Molder actually heard that question.

“All my work has been nothing but a child making castles in the sand. But this… this is a TRUE WORK OF ART! THIS IS PERFECTION! I MUST SEE IT! I MUST HAVE IT!” He then broke ranks and ran straight towards the middle of the sandstorm, screaming all the way. We tried to stop him, but there was a rumbling in the ground. A snake far larger than any we had seen before came out of the ground mouth-first and swallowed the Sand-Molder whole.

We cried out in shock. Not only had a man just died, but he was our best protection in this land, and he had just died to some sort of madness. The Magma-Maker was the first out of his shock, and immediately sent blazing balls of fire after the snake. The *SSSS* was deafening, but I could see he cut a decent scar into the snake’s belly. I almost wondered if there was time to save the Sand-Molder, but the snake dived back underground.

I didn’t know what to do. Should we turn back, and bring more of the Elite Strike Force with us? The Magma-Maker was clearly having the same thoughts, I could see them on his face. But the other two remaining members of our party had none of it. “Whatever these snakes are doing, it’s not going to get any easier to stop. We have a duty to the Empire. We have to end this, now!”, said my teacher. We all nodded, and ran, shield first, towards where the Sand-Molder had been going.

There was a rumbling from underneath us once more, but unlike the Sand-Molder, we were prepared. My teacher and I collaborated on making four particularly long spears, which the four of us held out down and to the sides. When the giant snake emerged to consume us, the spears immediately punctured the insides of its mouth. I then proceeded to hack at it further with my sword, as the rest of the team threw their respective attacks down the snake’s gullet. The snake’s mouth began to close, so my teacher and the bald man used their spears to hold the mouth open. I cut off the thing’s tongue, which was as thick as my arm, for good measure.

As we emerged, we saw something disconcerting. Rather than the sandstorm weakening, it was stronger than ever. The shield needed ever more repairs, and any part of our armor that was left exposed to the elements was quickly warn away. But somehow, after what felt like hours but were more likely minutes, we managed to make it to the eye of the storm. All around us, the sand was so thick we couldn’t see our way out. But instead of battering us like before… it was all being sucked above our heads into the direct center.

At the center of the storm was curled a snake that was even larger than the one before. But instead of staying underground, its full, scarred body was on display. This must have been the one to battle a Camp Master and escape with its life intact. But what was it doing? While my Metal sense was detecting only our weapons, my Earth sense was showing something very unusual in the center of the storm. Not the snake, but what it was curled around. It felt like… it felt like within the snake’s coils was a vast desert, dunes of sand that went on for miles. But the snake wasn’t miles long, that was plain to see… what was going on?

This strange distortion of senses must be what drove the Sand-Molder mad. If my sense was picking this up despite being a different combined element entirely, I can only imagine what his Sand sense had picked up.

The bald man was the first one to strike, perhaps because he only had Metal and Water senses. A veritable *waterfall* of liquid Silver shot out from his hands, attempting to wrap around the snake. It hardened into thousands of spikes, blades, and other such weapons just seconds before it hit. The *HSSSSS* the thing let out felt like it came close to deafening me. Sand began to surge faster and faster into the center of its coils. Whatever it was trying to do with all that sand, I was sure it wouldn’t be good for us.

The rest of us sprung into action as well. The Magma-Maker ran around the side, trying to hit it with maximum-heat liquid fire without the rest of us getting hurt. My teacher made a large pole, which she ran and used to vault on top of the snake. I began to hack at the thing’s old scars, hoping the shattered scales were a weakness to exploit.

In the end, it almost wasn’t enough. The area inside the snake’s coils impossibly started to feel like an entire ocean of sand, like there was more sand inside than the entire desert around us. Was it… was it doing the same thing I had been doing with my sword? Was it condensing its elemental energy into a single place? What would happen if it reached maximum saturation?

I didn’t want to find out, but that gave me an idea. I filled my Titanium shield, now battered nearly beyond repair, and filled in its gaps with as much power as I could manage. Just as I started to run out entirely, I focused not on repairing the gaps, but on strengthening the metal itself. I needed as much of my energy to get into this object as possible. I would have asked my teacher to help as well, but she was too far away for me to ask. So instead, I whirled around and *threw* the shield, not at the snake itself, but at one of the winds carrying sand towards the center of the storm.

Terrifyingly, the snake turned its massive head to look straight at me, the first time it had truly reacted to our actions at all. But then, the shield was blown into the center of the storm. My Earth-sense went haywire for a second, the snake let out a cry like I had never heard before, and then…

*BOOOOM*

My whole world was turned to sand, sand, sand.