Chapter 161: King of The Desert [4]

Words : 1380 Updated : Oct 10th, 2025

A powerful sound like thunder boomed as Ceres sword mercilessly struck down against the hard scales of the Sand Worm like an asteroid. A powerful shockwave exploded into the vicinity from impact and the ground sunk and shattered. The Sand Dragon wailed once more again — a large swath of its scales had been immensely damaged and shattered - cracked, although this time, Ceres hadn't managed to draw blood. The outer scales shattered only this time like a plate, a web of nasty cracks snaking across a wide surface area. The Sand Dragon had suffered it's second wound by the same hands yet again. Almost as if evident of its anger or wrath, It's massive tail whipped through the air from the other side, swathing off the pesky figure against its back like an annoying fly. Ceres took the brunt of the attack with her sword and barreled through the air like a broken figure. The young Ascended twisted her body expertly despite her spiralling balance. Then she struck her feet against the air like it was solid and propelled her direction mid-flight. The striking silver boots she wore shimmered slightly wuth an ethereal light. Ceres hadn't been the only one to move at the beginning. Each of the cadets had split up and scattered, circling around the monster — as far as circling around something that humumgous and large could go, that is. The King of the Desert was still slithered around the chamber like a python grasping its prey after all. It was for the same reason they couldn't just split up and have one of the teams casually escape after Nicodemus. They were surrounded. Regardless — Before the robust tail of the Sand Dragon could move to decimate its targets once more, a sizeable pitch black sphere appeared right over the area where Ceres' second blow had shattered the Dragons scales. The immediate space around the full circumference of the lightless black sphere was distorted and pulled unnaturally and rippled. Almost like a miniature black hole, perhaps. Xavier's eyes deepened from a distance and he clenched his fist next to him. His ability usually wasn't used like this, but... -WHOOM~ As soon as the black sphere arrived, an intangible pressure was exerted against the area, causing the cracks of the scales to widened and deepen further. They snaked out even more, stretching across a much wider surface area. Alas, the body of the Sand Dragon was simply too vast and immense — such an effect was only as small as a barely noticeable scar in the grand scheme of things. But it was enough. "Happ!" Alex moved and circled around from the other side, the slender silver blade of his long sword was shrouded in Aura as it flashed forward. Alex deftly maneuvered across the upturned surroundings littered with shattered fragments of walls, ceilings and the ground, leaped into the air and positioned his sword in his arms. The long blade fluidly descended like flashing silver.; Alexander thrust the blade of his sword deeply into one of the cracks at the center of the hard scale. A deep grunt escaped his lips as he thrust with everything he could muster in his arms. But the moment Alexander's blade struck the fissure in the scale, he froze. His expression tensed and tightened suddenly and his hands holding the swor tightly trembled. The sword.... 'It's tough...!' It wouldn't bulge. To his shock and suprise, and mild confusion, his blade wouldn't move and inch more any longer. Attacking the colossal monster head one with weapons, or even Spells, was almost fruitless due to its immense defence provided by its rough outer scales that acted like armor, so Alex had hoped instead to strike at the small dent and aimed to do so. Then Alex's eyes widened in dark realisation. 'This is...!' Underneath the broken and shattered scale of the Sand Dragon...was another underlayer of scales! The Sand Worm wasn't just covered in a nigh impenetrable single layer of armour, but two — with one more laying underneath the surface. 'How the hell was Ceres able to wound this thing in the first place?!' The shock that overwhelmed him at that instant couldn't stop him from having such thoughts. She had torn through both layers of armour - possibly more actually - with a single blow and drew the first drops of the Monster's blood. And it wasn't at such a small scale either. The long, gruesome slash was still evident half way across the Sand Worm's upper body — whatever counted as its upper body at least. Indeed, as much as Alex didn't openly really like Ceres, he had to admit the top ranked cadet in his school year was a monster after all. "Alex!" Alexander heard Xavier's voice and was immediately snapped back to reality. He pulled out of his reverie, gritting his teeth and yanking out his blade which was futilely stuck in-between the cracks. There was no time, nor point, thinking about how Ceres was capable of achieving some of her feats at that moment. He leaped off the Monster's back in a back flip, gripping his sword. If that particular nick in the creature's armour couldn't be breached— "Then—" All Alexander had to do was aim for the other obvious weakness. He deftly landed against the scattered ground next to the massive body in a roll, and rose to his feet as he continued to dash forward. The wound dealt by Ceres cut a large arc almost halfway across the Dragons underbelly — it would be difficult attempting to get to it since the Sand Worm was currently resting the area against the ground. The moment he had that thought— "Move." Alexander heard a voice from above. "What?" He snapped his head up And there she was— Ceres.... Actually running across the air! 'How the hell—!' In a bizzare manner, Ceres traversed through the air by walking across it like solid ground. She held the grip of her broad sword in both hands and redirected her gaze subtly. She looked towards a direction below — at Xavier, who nodded back in tacit understanding. Then Xavier retracted his arm and ran backwards as he shouted. His loud voice boomed for all to hear. "Chelsea, Trise and Alex. Fall back! You three will be the ones going after Nicodemus!" "What?" The one who snapped back was Alex with his eyes wide open. He could immediately sense that something was about to happen, judging from Ceres positioning high up above, and the way Xavier was suddenly retreating backwards away from the monster. Even his words held a kind of ominous foreboding. But Alex couldn't understand. If he and the girls were the ones supposed to go after Nicodemus, then what about Xavier and Ceres? His eyes widened and his expression strained rigidly. 'No way. They can't possibly ne thinking of holding the Sand Worm alone, right?' In retrospect, hadn't Xavier, all alone, done that before? Regardless— -WHOOM~ Alexander raised his head and looked up at Ceres who was preparing a devastating attack. A startling amount of energy and power was being accumulated right above all of their heads. Ceres' figure was enshrouded in an undulating greyish red hue that caused the air around her to ripple and twist. An intangible amount of pressure filled the air and descended, twisting around the blade of her broad sword. "!!" Alexander held his breath and his instincts rang danger warnings and alarms. "A-ah..." He had no other choice but to do as Xavier said, and abandon his plan against the Sand Dragon and fall back. Immediately! Meanwhile, Ceres' blade continued to ripple the air unnaturally around itans and an immense power continued to built as she aimed downward at the target. Ceres watched the figures of the fiur cadets scatter and retreat immediately after Xavier's warning from above. She exhaled silently, cold, misty breath that blended with the lightless grey of her aura escaped from her pale lips. Ceres tensef her body finally. Then her lips parted— "Great Mountain Descent." —and the world rumbled...

Chapter 161: King of The Desert [4]

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