Chương 8: Episode 5: Sandy Dunys

Demaurion stood on the water, his eyes locked with the Leviathan's glowing yellow gaze. The beast's massive form loomed over him, dark waters swirling around its immense body. With a deafening roar, the Leviathan unleashed a torrent of power, sending waves crashing into one another. Demaurion puffed out his cheeks, a small water bubble escaping his nose.

"Hmph, the most powerful beast there is in the land… The Leviathan," he muttered to himself.

"I think this is one of the worst of Avangard's beasts. You guys go ahead. I'll handle him." The sea responded instantly, churning with fury as the storm above raged to life. The skies darkened with ominous gray clouds, and the waves grew increasingly violent. Thunder rumbled overhead, followed by a blinding flash of lightning that struck just beside our boat. The sudden jolt sent us flying, crashing into the sea beside Demaurion as waves slammed us in every direction.

"GOOD LUCK, DEMAURION!!!" I shouted over the chaos. The Leviathan answered with a roar that shook the ocean itself. Then it moved, its gigantic body bursting from the sea, water cascading off black scales the size of houses. The monster lunged straight toward Demaurion, jaws opening wide enough to swallow an entire ship. Demaurion threw both hands forward.

"NOT TODAY!" A massive wall of water erupted upward and collided with the Leviathan's head. The impact exploded into a towering spray, but the beast ripped straight through it.

"OH COME ON!" I shot into the air before my brain could catch up with my body, purple celestial energy igniting around my wings.

"DEMAURION! LITTLE HELP!"

"I'M BUSY!"

"FAIR ENOUGH!" I blasted toward the Leviathan anyway. The monster twisted its neck and snapped at me—its jaws missing by inches.

"TOO SLOW!" I flipped through the air and summoned my Celestial Daggers, violet energy crackling across the blades as I dove toward its head.

"CELESTIAL SLASH!" My daggers carved across the Leviathan's face, opening two glowing cuts along its scales. The beast roared in pain.

"HEY!" I pointed both daggers at it.

"THAT ACTUALLY WORKED!" The Leviathan immediately slammed its tail into me. I became a purple blur flying across the ocean.

"NEVER MIND!" I skipped across the water several times before crashing into a wave. Demaurion winced.

"Don!"

"I'M GOOD!"

"I DON'T THINK YOU ARE!"

"THAT'S FAIR!" The Leviathan surged forward again, creating a whirlpool beneath its body as the ocean twisted violently, enormous currents pulling everything toward the center. Demaurion narrowed his eyes.

"Alright. If you want water… LET'S USE WATER!" His body erupted with blue energy as the sea rose around him. Massive walls of water spiraled upward from every direction, wrapping around the Leviathan like gigantic aquatic chains. For the first time, the beast slowed. I immediately understood the assignment.

"Oh, we're jumping him."

"WE ARE ABSOLUTELY JUMPING HIM!" I launched forward, Demaurion tightening his grip on the water currents while I shot across the stormy sky. The Leviathan thrashed violently, trying to break free, but it was too late. I appeared above its head, my daggers igniting with celestial energy.

"DOUBLE CELESTIAL STRIKE!" The blades plunged deep into the softer scales near its neck, making the Leviathan scream. Demaurion seized the opening, a gigantic spear of compressed water forming above his hand.

"LEVIATHAN BREAKER!" The water spear blasted straight through the wounds I'd opened. For a second, everything froze. Then the Leviathan's eyes widened, cracks of blue energy spreading through its neck before the beast let out one final roar and collapsed, its enormous body crashing into the sea and creating a tidal wave that rolled across the horizon. Silence returned as the storm seemed to pause. I floated there, breathing hard, while Demaurion stared at the sinking corpse.

"…Did we just kill the Leviathan?" I blinked.

"Pretty sure." The body slowly disappeared beneath the waves. A beat passed, and then the ocean exploded. A monstrous tsunami surged upward from beneath the sinking beast—its death had destabilized the entire sea, massive currents colliding to create waves larger than anything we'd seen before.

"Oh." Demaurion looked up.

"Oh that's bad." A second wave swallowed the first, a third swallowed both, and the ocean devolved into pure chaos. Our boat was ripped into the air and hurled across the vast Gadian Sea, throwing us right after it. Miraculously, the boat crashed back into the water with us landing nearby, but the storm had become far worse. Up. Down. Up. Down. Lightning crackled and thunder boomed as the storm turned violent. I gripped the edge of the boat as it rocked beneath us.

"IS EVERYONE OKAY?!" This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

"YUP! I THINK SO!" Archie shouted back.

"I think I'm gonna get seasick," Prince groaned weakly, his face turning an unsettling shade of green before he threw up over the side a second later.

"PRINCE THAT'S DISGUSTING!" Before anyone could react, another wave launched us skyward. Water surged around us as the wind howled across the sea, sending the boat into a frenzy. Then lightning struck just behind us, the force blasting us out of the boat entirely. I flailed through the water, arms windmilling uselessly.

"OH SHOOT! WE'RE GONNA DROWN!" The ocean swallowed me instantly. As I sank beneath the surface, panic exploded through my chest. I held my breath and kicked desperately, trying to reach the surface, but the waves had other plans, spinning me around like laundry. The water-breathing coin slipped from my pocket. Now, there's good news and bad news. The good news is that I'm pretty good at holding my breath. The bad news? I don't know how to swim. At all.

The salty water burned my eyes, turning everything around me into a dark blue blur as currents slammed into me from every direction. A massive tsunami surged underneath me, swallowing me whole and carrying me through the ocean like a ragdoll. I couldn't control my body, couldn't find the surface, couldn't breathe, and couldn't think. I opened my mouth for air—big mistake. Water rushed in. Panic surged, and I snapped my mouth shut, but the current dragged me deeper. I couldn't find anyone.

I didn't know which way was up or down as my body twisted helplessly beneath the storm. PRINCE! OLSEN! ARCHIE! POWER?! ARE YOU GUYS THERE?! My voice vanished into the ocean. Water flooded into my mouth again as another wave slammed into me. The world spun, everything becoming colder and heavier as my movements slowed and the storm faded into distant noise. I drifted deeper into the darkness. A tiny bubble escaped from my nose. Then another. And then… everything went black. A Few Hours Later…

Voices pulled me back into the desert heat.

"Is he breathing?"

"He better not be dead."

"Give him space."

"Move. All of you." The last voice was steady—the kind that expects people to listen. I opened my eyes to blinding sun and thick dust. Pain shot up my arm when I tried to shift.

"Easy," the same voice said.

"You took a hit." I sat up slowly. The surrounding dunes were torn apart, the sand blown into sharp, unnatural ridges. A beige haze hung over the ruins of Markilao, grit scraping my throat with every breath. Around me stood a crowd of Desert Cats. They wore travel clothes and headwraps, their ears twitching at every gust of wind, tails flicking with nervous energy. Some tended to the injured; others stared at me, waiting to see if I'd collapse again. My arm was wrapped in tight, clean bandages.

"You're awake," a voice said. Ella stepped up. She wore her sand-colored mask down around her neck, her brown-and-yellow ears pinned slightly back in fatigue.

"You're safe," she said.

"As safe as anyone gets out here."

"What happened?" A few cats flinched. Ella didn't miss it, turning back to reassure them before crouching down to my eye level.

"You collapsed near the outer ridge. We brought you in before the storm hit."

"Thanks." She stood and pointed toward the horizon.

"That's what's left." The Pyramids of Markilao loomed in the distance, half-ruined. One massive stone face was sheared straight down, white cracks glowing where lunar energy had burned through the stone. Another lay choked under collapsed sand. My stomach dropped.

"Dark Don." The crowd went quiet.

"He came out of nowhere," Ella said, pacing slowly.

"Attacked the pyramids directly. Shattered the stone like it was nothing."

"Why?"

"Frustration. Anger. He kept shouting about a mistake—about missing his chance." She looked back at the group.

"Families ran. We lost records, history, shelter. If he'd targeted us directly, we wouldn't be talking."

"What about Insane Middle School?" I asked.

"Evacuated before this hit," she said.

"Alarms went off as soon as he appeared. Staff cleared the building."

"So you fell back here."

"It was supposed to be safe." She looked over at the cracked stone.

"We were wrong." She took a breath and faced the crowd.

"We're still here. So we rebuild. We adapt." She turned back to me.

"And you're staying on your feet today." I managed a faint grin.

"No promises."

"If you want my advice," she added, already walking, "stick to water and leave the sticks for roasting marshmallows. Let's move back inside the main complex before you take any more damage." The rest of the group fell in behind us.

"So," Ella said, matching my pace, "one of the most powerful Elementanites?"

"Don't make it weird," I said. She cut her eyes at me.

"The way you all change forms is wild. Wings for shelter, color-shifting tails—creative, but chaotic. I'd take notes, but I'm the one supervising here."

"Yeah," I said.

"We're a mess."

"First time in the Sand Dunes?"

"Just heard stories. Mostly from the CL War." Her tone leveled out.

"I still don't like thinking about Dark Don showing up at your school. No warning, no idea where he came from or why he's tracking you down." I shrugged.

"Seems like everyone wants a shot at me." She glanced down at my bare arms.

"Speaking of which—where'd the scales go?"

"Lost them fighting King Scar." She gave me a flat, unimpressed look.

"Of course you did." By the time we reached the central pyramid, the sun was sinking. Inside, the massive sandstone hall was part repository, part staging ground: fossil-encrusted walls, wide elevated platforms, and a massive tactical sand table running down the middle. Prince stopped at the entrance, looking around the high arches.

"Why does this look exactly like the museum I struck with lightning last year?"

"Because it is the museum you struck with lightning last year," Ella said without looking back. Power grinned, stepping into the center of the room.

"Perfect. You five—Don, Olsen, Prince, Demaurion, Archie. Three days of training starts now. You aren't just surviving the next fight. You're winning it." Olsen let out a shout—"THIS IS GONNA BE AWESOME"—before he headlocked me out of joy. Ella pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Keep the sand out of the gear, stay hydrated, and don't wreck the place."

"We'll—TRY," I said, squirming in the headlock.

"Didn't sound convincing," she replied, her eyes dropping to Archie.

"Let's start before someone sets the ancient timber on fire." Archie threw his hands up.

"Why does everyone assume it's going to be me?" Day one was brutal. Power wasted zero time easing us in, throwing us straight into strength tests, heavy weights, and fifty push-ups in five minutes. Absolute misery. Olsen demolished it. He wasn't fast, just completely unstoppable, lifting double the required weight like it was a warm-up. I held my own, Prince struggled hard, Demaurion powered through on pure anger, and Archie… well, it was rough. I managed five reps while Olsen did sixty.

I wasn't jealous, except for the part where I was extremely jealous. When Power checked the stats, Olsen sat at 100% Strength and 100% Stamina, while Prince topped out Speed and Stamina at 100%. Demaurion and I sat in the middle, and Archie lagged behind with 15% Strength and 16% Stamina. Power looked over the clipboard and muttered, "Archie, you've got work to do." By the end of the day everything hurt, but the training worked.

My strength jumped up to 92%, and Olsen somehow climbed to 110%, which felt like a direct violation of physics. Day two focused on speed and reaction time. Running across sand was pure evil. Olsen failed the speed portion but refused to quit, while Prince crushed it. Archie somehow passed, which shocked everyone including Archie himself, and Demaurion adapted after a rough start. When my turn came, I cleared the course easily.

My Celestial abilities kicked in faster than they ever had, even compared to my fight with King Scar. Later, Power tested our reaction times with a fake Valorant gun. Dragon instincts don't miss—I dodged before the shot even reached me. Day three was elemental training, which was the good stuff. Power explained that elements weren't just weapons; they were tools for survival, movement, and strategy.

"Movesets are everything," Power said.

"Master one, and you control the fight." I was buzzing. The idea of building my own moveset felt like the final step toward becoming the hero I was supposed to be. That night, the sun dipped below the dunes, painting the sky in gold and purple before giving way to moonlight over the sand. Inside the pyramid, the lights shut off, courtesy of Ella. Crickets chirped outside, and something slithered past the outer walls.

I flew up, hooked my claws onto an overhead handlebar, and hung upside down to watch the rest of the crew settle into their sleeping bags. Ella had already set up camp below. For once, the world felt still, and I knew that whatever came next, things were going to be completely different.