"Veer, let's go." Callias called out, and my eyes snapped opened. Everyone was starting to walk to the giant door against the wall.
I felt the adrenaline in me grow, as we got closer, this was going to be fun. This beast could actually be a threat to me, which made this even better. I could feel movement below us, but I dismissed the feeling, as I focused on the mutant before us.
What was this thing going to be like?
"Brane, Joro, gather your teams and open the door together, everyone else get into fighting positions." Commander Jagger ordered, the smile on my face brightened even more. "We don't know what to expect in there, so be on guard for the worse, we'll judge it when we see it." Everyone except me nodded, I was too focused.
Brane and Joro's teams made it to the door, and I stood, ready to attack next to Callias and Adam. "I wonder what this beast is." Callias turned to me and said. "I bet it's some weird looking Esene."
"I doubt it." Adam responded to him; I just held my gaze on the door as it slowly drifted open. The sight before me was amazing, because I knew what was going on.
"It's empty?" Callias said questioningly, inside the door was another cavern, but there was nothing but sand inside, no beast, nothing at all. "I thought you said there was a beast in there?" He asked me.
"Aim your spells at the sand, and you'll see." I told them, it made sense now, the S Class mutant was some sort of sand monster, with little to no blood in it. It can probably flatten itself to look like sand or even travel through it, it could also just be all the sand in this room. It was amazing! This beast is literally my weakness!
"W-what?" Commander Jagger said, and everyone got a little closer. "Aim it at the sand? You think the mutant is in the sand?" I nodded my head when he gave me a confused look. "That would mean the mutant is a Sand Demon?" A Sand Demon? What a fitting name for a beast like this. "Conjurers, prepare to fire." Commander Jagger ordered, and they all lifted their wands or casting staffs, pointing them inside the cavern. "Fire!"
Spells were launched over my head, and landed right in the middle of the cavern, hitting the sand. I had all my spells still activated, but now with the flames around me, I conjured "Water Helix" as an extra layer of defense.
"Araaaa." A weird noise was made from inside of the cavern, and then suddenly the sand started to shake. "Araaa."
"A Sand Demon?!" Adam said from my side, then the sand on the ground started to gather together, and form into a creature, almost a humanoid creature, but purely made out of sand. It only stood around ten feet, however, the power exerting from it was tremendous.
"Be careful, they can manipulate the sand on the ground, if you step in the wrong place, it will grab you and pull you under." Commander Jagger mentioned. Pull me under?
"Hehe." I laughed a little louder this time, drawing attention to myself, Adam and Callias stared at me.
"Attack!" Commander Jagger shouted, and everyone started to run at it. I stood there and watched. What were they thinking? The beast can control sand, let me freeze it first. Adam and Callias knew better, but a little more than half the squad ran in.
"Ahh." As a soldier got close, sand wrapped around his entire leg, then twisted, shattering his leg, and causing blood to pour out. "Ahhh!" He fell over, and the sand then swallowed him. This was happening all over the battlefield.
"Help!" Someone shouted, as I surrounded my feet with ice mage, so that every time I stepped the sand under me froze. I ran into the cavern, toward the plead for help. It was a woman, both of her legs were inside the sand, and she was being dragged down into it. "Help please, it hurts!" She looked at me with a frightened pale face.
"Veer!" Callias shouted as he followed the icy path I formed, to my left, sand was growing up like an arm to grab my leg. I shot ice out of my left hand and froze it with ease. I couldn't use blood magic in this fight, ice was the way to go.
I turned the flames on me, into an icy mist, and then my sword went from burning, to freezing. I reached down, and tried to pull the woman out, but she wouldn't bunch. "Help..." She said weakly, as the sand got halfway up her chest.
"I'm sorry." I told her and let go. If I froze the sand on her, I would freeze her entire lower body as well, and she would still die.
"Oh god." Callias placed a hand on my shoulder, as the female was taken under the sand, and as she was, I had her insides explode so that she didn't suffer as much. "We have to get close to that thing, it's killing people left and right, we are down to twenty people already."
Across the battlefield, the men and women that ran towards the Sand Demon first were all gone, the only thing left behind was blood from their injures on the top of the sand. As the twelve conjurers we had left shot spells at the beast from a distance, the eight augments fought the thing up close in the cavern.
Adam was following Jasmine, as they used wind magic to glide toward the beast. The Sand Demon was dodging attacks smoothly, dissolving, then reshaping after an attack went by. It was quite fascinating.
I plunged my sword into the sand, only freeze the sand, not anyone on top of it. I started to emit ice out of the sword and into the sand around me, and all across the battlefield. Eventually, the floor was covered with ice, and the Sand Demon was on top of it. It didn't even have a face, but I felt it staring at me for some reason.
The ice on the ground started to quake, like the sand underneath it was pushing up against it, trying to break free. I started to form wind behind me, to launch myself at the Sand Demon. "Callias watch out." I told him and he backed away sensing what I was about to do.
In different areas, sand shot out, breaking the ice, but like I was shot out of a cannon, I appeared before the Sand Demon. It turned its humanoid head at me, and I swung my icy blade at it. The Sand Demon's head dissolved into sand, and I shot ice into its body, removing half of its body.
I landed on ice behind it, and the sand that broke the ice, started to surround the Sand Demon. The sand then climbed up it and reformed the Sand Demon's body. It was completely undamaged. It couldn't be this strong, it had to have a weakness. I couldn't freeze everything sand particle.
Sand shot itself at me, and as it entered my vicinity it froze and fell to the ground. Jasmine came from above and swung at its head, but her blades went right through, and she landed next to me. Seeing that, Adam backed up, and stood on ice across from us. I could see Callias close to him, and the other four augmenters were further back, afraid of approaching.
What if I soak the sand in water, then freeze it even more, forming bonds between as many particles as possible. That could defiantly by us time, to figure out how to kill it. From behind me, a sand hand grabbed my leg, but froze and shattered to pieces as it hit the ground.
"We can't kill this thing." Jasmine told me, as she dodged a sand spear shot at her from the Sand Demon. "Can you locate the core?" She asked me, and I concentrated on looking for the core. I sensed blood in it before, I bet that's where the core was. The blood was circulating around it most likely.
"I got it." I told her, as I looked down at the ground. "But I don't see a way to get to it, the core is underneath all of this sand." A sand wave came at Jasmine and me as more of the ice broke, and I conjured an ice wall to protect us. "Hehe." I giggled. "I'll by us time, get everyone else out of here, the conjurers can't do anything from out there anyways."
"I agree." Jasmine started to run towards the exit and told the other augmenters to leave except for Adam and Callias who were defending themselves against sand attacks.
I shot myself over the wall, and at the Demon, it swung a sand hand at me, little particles of sand came off of it as it did. I dodged the swing, and then plunged my sword into its chest, emitting ice all across its body. I broke the ice and the beast fell to the ground into a million little pieces. "Callias, Adam, the core is in the sand below, I don't know how to deal with that at the moment, so if you got anything, let me know."
"It's in the sand? Oh, great." Callias swung his flaming sword and cut a sand hand in half. I made my way over to them, and the three of us stood there, as the sand stopped attacking. "Where is it going to regrow at?"
"Who knows?" Adam spun around. "But this Sand Demon has done some serious damage to our force." Callias nodded, I was still smiling under my mask.
The sand started to move again, and the thing regrew five yards from us. It pointed its sand hand at us, and launched sand like bullets, I brought up another ice wall, but the bullets of sand slowly ate away at it. "Move, the wall isn't going to hold, just make sure to stay on the ice patches that are left." They both nodded and dispersed from me.
"Veer, I thought you were a demon, that means you are related to this thing." Callias said jokingly as he cut through sand attacks.
"True." Adam scuffed, planting his spear into the ice and maneuvering his body out of the way of sand. I shot myself into the air using wind magic, and just froze the sand as it got close to me. The Sand Demon was spinning its head, looking at each of us, as it attacked us simultaneously.
The cavern floor was now ice or sand, if you stepped on the sand, you were most likely going to die. "Sheeeeeee." I heard a loud screeching sound, but it looked like no one else did. What the hell? I blinked and the navy blue serpent appeared in the dark again for a split second.
My aura exploded and Callias and Adam shot me scared looks, the Sand Demon backed away. "What?" I asked it. "Are you frightened?" I shot myself at the beast, shooting a mist out of my body in all directions, freezing anything, it touches. "Hehe."
"Shhheeeeee." A louder screech this time was ringing in my head, I ignored as I swung my sword at the beast, freezing its upper body. I landed on the ground, and placed my sword into my mana ring, then placed both my hands over the sand.
"What are y--?" Callias didn't finish, he knew what I was doing. I shot ice into the sand everywhere again, freezing every damn inch of this place.
"Haaa." As the last spot of sand was being covered with ice, a sand bullet was sent straight at me face.
"Veer!" Adam screamed and the bullet of sand hit my mask, and shattered it in half, then I froze that spot of sand. The whole floor of the cavern was now covered in ice, the smile on my face now out for everyone to see. "A-are you okay?"
I turned to Adam, as I kept on reinforcing the ice, the Sand Demon was still trying to shatter it still. "I'm perfect." I smiled at him. "This is perfect!" I exclaimed. "Shheeeeeee." I closed my eyes, and the Sea Serpent was smiling at me with its sharp teeth. "Shheeeeee." The screeching noise coming from it continued. I opened my eyes and looked around, Callias and Adam were still in here, Jasmine got everyone else out, but they were watching us.
"Y-your eyes." Callias pointed at me, and I turned to him, my aura still pouring out of me. I wanted to kill this thing, not because it killed our soldiers, but because it was fun. "Veer, your eyes are red?" I brought up and ice wall, and stared at my reflection, they were red, a dark red, like human blood.
"Ha, they are red." I smiled then shattered the wall and kept pouring ice onto the floor. "So what?"
The two of them stared at me. "T-that's not normal." Callias was wide eyed, Adam was actually backing away from me slowly. "We should get out of here and get help." I shook my head. "It doesn't have blood for you to kill, and your ice magic is useless, it only protects you."
"He's right." Adam told me. "We are the only three left in here, no one else is coming, it's us three against that thing." He pointed under the ice. "It just regenerates and regenerates, we need to leave."
"Then we just cut it down, and down again." I snarled at him. "Don't tell me you're afraid, Adam?" No wonder this man dies! He's a pussy! "Leave then."
Callias went to put a hand on me, but I snapped my head at him, still holding the Sand Demon under the ice. "No one is afraid, Veer, we just can't kill this thing now."
I nodded my head. "You're right." I started to pull my ice magic back, making sure my mana levels were good still.
The ice started to break. "Then let's get the hell out of here." Callias and Adam turned away and I stood still.
"You're right, that my ice protects me." They looked back at me, and sand shot up and started attacking us immediately.
"Araaa!" The Sand Demon formed again in between us as we stood on ice. "Araaaa!" Sand launched in every direction, and I concentrated on finding the core under the ground. I started walking around, tracking the core, ignoring any attack sent at me as it froze before it reached me. "Araaa!" A giant sand hand formed in front of me, it looked like a mallet, then it swung down on me.
I sidestepped the attack and saw Adam and Callias fighting off the beast. "Any ideas then?" Callias shouted. "It looks like you gave up."
A big grin appeared on my face as I found the core under me. "Yes, of course I have an idea." I closed my eyes and stared at the Sea Serpent.
Phase Two "Blood Monarch" scales started to form all over my body, my hair turned red, and my blood runes formed under my eyes. The Serpent got lower, and its mouth was right in front of me.
I opened my eyes, and shot water in every direction, as it landed, ice formed, the Sand Demon shot me a sinister look, even though it didn't have a face, and I just smiled at it. I was the strong one here, not this thing, me.
"Then what's your plan?" Callias cut through a hand of sand.
"This." I covered myself with ice, and then jumped onto the sand. The sand started to swallow me, but it couldn't hurt me as my whole body was covered with ice, even my head. I was now holding my breath as I sank down.
The last thing I saw before being completely submerged was Adam and Callias running over to me, but not being able to get to me fast enough. Everything was just this pale brown sand color now, as I sank deeper and deeper, I felt the core getting closer.
Was this the brightest idea? Who knows? I'm having a damn blast!
Huh? What is this? I wanted to laugh but couldn't, this sensation couldn't be what I thought.
It's time, I emitted ice out of my barrier around me, freezing the sand then shattered it, giving me room to move slightly. I broke my barrier, and reformed a new one, this time, the barrier was big enough for me to walk on the ice under my feet, as I continued sinking. Sand still surrounded me, but I was now able to move a step in each direction.
The core was right under me, I aimed an ice spike at it, and shot it through the sand. The spear went right through it, making the beast unable to use any sort of magic, which was how it held its body together. They could kill it with ease now, or it was already dead, I couldn't tell.
I stopped moving, and was now stuck down here, I had no clue how deep down I was. It had to be at least twenty feet, if I didn't have my ice, it would have taken a lot longer to move through it and find the core.
I killed the thing though. "Hahaha." I laughed in my ice barrier, then thought about how I was going to get out. I closed my eyes again, and the Serpent was right in front of me. I placed my hand on it and felt my power increase tremendously. I opened my eyes, and my smile stayed on my face.
"I see." I said out loud, and then clapped my hands together and held them there. "This should be fun." I was going to cause some serious damage down her to free myself.
I started to conjure ice everywhere, freezing everything, I could, making it so no sand could be seen, nothing but ice. It couldn't be done before, but with this power, anything was possible.
"Hehe." I kept on pushing, and pushing, and pushing, ice continued to spread throughout, even in places I couldn't see anymore. I bet the sand up on the cavern floor was even covered.
"Booom!" The floor under me cracked, and I started free falling, I broke my ice barrier and stared down through the debris that fell with me.
"I knew it...." I conjured wind under me, helping me slow my descent. "What do we have here?" As I landed on the ground, the force of the fall made me fall to my butt. A rock fell behind me, and I slid myself over to it, then I propped my back up against it. I looked up, and noticed basically no sand fell down with me, most likely because I froze it all, and the Sand Demon wasn't trying to break the ice, because it couldn't.
I turned back to the sight before me. "Who are you?" A man in black armor asked.
"Hehe." I giggled.