Hikari marched.
The sandstorm created a fog of war.
She followed the remains of a road buried beneath the sand.
Loose stone cracked beneath the weight of her boot as she stepped.
The sand itself couldn't support her weight enough for her to fight properly.
She brushed sand aside with her boot, revealing the old road beneath.
Behind her, a column of steam tanks rumbled, kicking up their own sandstorm as their clanking wheels plowed through the sand.
"Halt! Ok! Ladies and gentlemen, we reached the ambush point. Set up your formations as planned."
A megaphone voice came from one of the steam tanks.
The steam tanks formed up in a circle.
Their armored tracks kicked up even more sand as they moved off-road.
Hikari could hear their gears grinding.
The side doors opened, and foot soldiers rushed out.
Cannons rolled off the ramp.
Steel umbrellas mounted on the tanks unfolded, sheltering the infantry below.
Sand benders stood among them in their blanch robes, blending into the desert.
They channeled their mana, turning the sand around the tanks into stone.
"Neat." Hikari thought.
If she could do that, marching along the sand would be much easier.
The riflemen then pushed picks into the hardened ground, fastening the steam tanks down.
Then they pulled steel wires hooked onto the steam tanks across the center of the clearing, forming a mesh wire trap.
"Remember to stay under the steel umbrella at all times. Wait until they get their teeth stuck and then blast them. If the steam tanks get pushed off the ground, may Herda bless you. Your best chance of survival is still to stay put."
The infantry completed setting up their formation.
Hikari was visibly impressed by the display.
No fancy magic or rare enchanted gear.
Just steel and gunpowder.
It appears that the general had survived more than one battle with the sandworms.
"Ok! Looking good! Now to the Lady Knight taller than a steam tank standing at the front. We are entering the sandworms' lair now. If you want to cry and go home, now's your last chance."
"I'm in"
"Good! Looks like you got some gumption. Now, the sandworms are sensitive to vibrations in the sand. Bigger creatures have bigger hearts, which means louder heartbeats, which means you are the biggest meal they've seen in a while. Your Lady proposed an 80-20 split of the loot. So, I hope you don't mind being the bait. If you want to run away wobbling your tail like a Herdial bird, that's fine too. Then I'll go back to your lady and haggle for 80 percent of the share."
"I'm in"
Hikari projected her voice through the sandstorm, staring back at the steam tank where the megaphone voice was coming from.
"Now, I have given you some of our hearthstone scrolls. Pump mana into them, smack them on the ground, and they'll crystallize the sand grains into stone. If you time it right, it'll even crush some of the smaller sandworms. I gave you some acid bombs too; just drop them into the sandworm's mouth and it'll melt their insides. No need to light a fuse. We'll be back here too with cannons ready, so don't go back and complain to your lady that I sent you out to die."
Hikari nods.
She checks her gear.
The sword of the former RazenHeir.
Her complement of throwing daggers.
Her handcannon.
A pouch of hearthstone scrolls.
A bag of Acid bombs.
She's ready.
Hikari advanced.
The desert was still.
Nothing but the wind, blowing up clouds of sand and brushing across her wyvern skin.
She stuck to the road.
The sand on either side could ill support her weight.
It was quiet.
She stopped.
She was still within the range of the cannons behind her.
Far in the distance, above the sandstorm, she saw the massive stone columns of Wyvern Peaks protruding from the earth.
The fog enshrouding the mountains.
A tall tower extending far above the clouds.
A faint rumbling in the distance.
Louder and louder.
Hikari draws her sword.
It flared with RazenHeir flame.
The ground below Hikari's feet shook.
She senses a massive body right below her.
Hikari grabbed a scroll and slammed it onto the ground, hardening it.
A ring of teeth emerged around her.
She leaped into the air just before the teeth closed. The hardened ground below her collapsed into pieces as the teeth closed.
Hikari drew her handcannon and fired.
Her shot bounced off the teeth.
"A titan"
A titanic mass of brown, hardened carapace burst from the ground, chasing Hikari and hovering in midair.
The massive teeth opened again, revealing a dark, bottomless abyss filled with the glint of countless rings of smaller teeth, snarling at her.
She grabbed her entire backpack of acid bombs and hurled it into the titan's mouth.
She heard the screeching sandworms housed inside the titan rip the bombs apart to their own deaths.
But the titan's momentum did not stop.
Hikari used her telekinesis to push herself aside, out of the titan's path.
Snap!.
The titan's mouth closed.
The force of its jaws would have crushed a steel steam tank.
She wouldn't have survived it either.
As the titan's carapace rushed past her like a speeding train, a barrage of cannons smashed into the carapace, breaking off pieces and releasing smaller sandworms stored within.
"The carapace is soft."
Midair, she was just out of range of the titan's huge side spikes.
Hikari drew five of her throwing daggers.
They flared with RazenHeir flame.
She tossed them.
They pierced the carapace and embedded themselves in the titan's flesh.
She pushed on them telekinetically, dragging them down with her as she descended and setting a strip of the titan ablaze.
She landed on the ground.
She fell to one side as her boot slipped on the soft sand.
A scroll was used to harden the ground.
The titan's body was still going.
An endless train of carapace surged out of the ground.
The steam tank formation fired another barrage.
Hikari drew her hand cannon and loaded a cannonball.
Focus. Ignite.
Her searing shots pierced the titan's carapace.
She could sense the RazenHeir flame burning on the inside.
A sandworm suddenly appeared and lunged at her.
Hikari drew her sword on reflex, tilted her body to dodge its teeth.
She swung her sword diagonally down its body as it charged past her.
Three sandworms appeared on both sides.
Hikari blasted one with her handcannon, dodged under the other two's high arc, and sliced them in half with an upward swing of her sword.
More sandworms converged on her.
She sensed movement in the sand.
They surged out of the sand.
Hikari jumped, thrusting her legs into the hardened ground.
The sandworms sank their teeth into the hardened ground and got stuck.
Crunch.
They were crushed under Hikari's boot as she landed.
Another sandworm appeared.
The biggest one she had seen so far.
It more than matched Hikari's mass.
It opened its teeth.
Its mouth would swallow her arm whole.
Hikari saw rows of smaller teeth inside, ready to grind her into minced meat if she let it grab her.
It dove down, approaching Hikari from below.
Hikari jumped to avoid it.
It curved up and around, aiming for its prey in midair.
Hikari turns and sees the teeth bared as its head surges towards her.
She raises her handcannon.
The bullet pierces through its head and out the other side.
Her sword flared with RazenHeir flames.
She stabs her sword into the sandworm's body as she lands, pinning it into the ground.
The sandworm's momentum carried it through the searing sword.
Shards of its carapace peppered Hikari's armor as the sword ground it to bits.
Hikari got up. A gentle telekinetic push brushed off the sandworm's innards from her wyvern skin.
The Razenheir flames consumed its carcass.
She was far from the road.
A scroll hardens the ground around her.
She took stock of her surroundings on stable ground.
In the distance, the steam tank formation was fighting off a horde of sandworms.
They held their ground.
A sandworm emerged from the soft sand and bit into the steel umbrella.
The high arc it makes leaves its body open to the infantry, which stabs them with their acid-tipped spears.
The sandworms screeched in pain as the acid melted their insides.
The bigger sandworms were caught in the steel wire mesh.
Infantrymen smashed it apart with their hammers.
The sandworms retreated.
The infantry cheered as the critters buried back into the sand.
Hikari took the moment to catch her breath.
But their euphoria was short-lived.
The ground rumbled.
The rumbling got stronger.
The sand around them collapsed into a giant sinkhole.
In an instant, the titan's teeth appeared, swallowing a whole steam tank and dragging the surrounding ones, connected to it by steel wires, off the ground.
The wire mesh that cut the smaller sandworms into pieces could not scratch the titan.
Men were hurled into the sky, disappearing into the sand as they landed.
Hikari drew her handcannon and fired.
The sound of steel being crunched inside the titan's body.
Two. Three. Four.
Hikari continued firing round after round into the titan's head.
The titan disappeared back into the ground.
The titan's thrust had blown a hole in the formation.
The smaller sandworms reappeared.
The surviving infantry picked up their weapons and fought, but the gap in their formation now made them prey.
"They need my help."
Hikari bent her knees and leaped back towards the steam tank formation.
The sandworms bite the men's arms and drag them back into the sand.
Hikari dashed around the perimeter of the steam tank formation, cutting through the smaller sandworms.
She feels the intense burn of its runium core.
The searing flames let her cut through the sandworms like butter.
"Hikari!"
The side door of a steam tank opened.
More acid bombs and bullets for Hikari's handcannon.
She takes a moment to restock.
A steam tank starts its engine and makes a run for it.
"No, come back!"
Before it could get far, a swarm of sandworms rips into it.
Tearing out the hatch doors and dragging the men inside into the ground.
Hikari shoots the sandworms.
But nothing could save the men.
The sandworms circled the formation.
Hikari could sense them below the ground.
The megaphone barked frantically, ordering the men to return to formation.
"Cut the wires!"
The megaphone bellowed.
The wire mesh would only bring the whole formation down if the weight of the steam tanks couldn't stay on the titan.
The men reloaded their cannons and muskets.
But it looked like it was falling apart.
"This won't do."
Hikari focused in.
Her sword flared with RazenHeir flame.
The black steel and runic core ringed in response.
It flared even brighter.
The ground rumbled below her.
She could sense the titan approaching.
"There!"
She grabbed the bag of acid bombs and tossed it over a steam tank.
The sandworm Titan emerged, swallowing the steam tank and the bag of acid bombs.
The smaller sandworms inside the titan screeched as the acid melted them.
Hkari lunged at the titan.
It was as tall as a clock tower.
With the strength of both arms and the thrust of her legs, she plunged the searing sword into the titan's body.
Her elbow brushed the rough carapace as the titan continued its climb.
The titan's momentum carried her up into the air.
But she gripped her sword tightly.
It slices through its flesh using the titan's own momentum.
Incinerate.
Hikari pushes a burst of mana into the titan.
Incinerate.
The titan stops at the peak of its climb.
Hikari grabs onto her sword.
Her own weight dragged the sword through the sandworm titan's body.
Thud. She lands.
Incinerate.
Her sword's core ringed as she pushed more and more mana into it.
The titan recedes.
Incinerate.
Hikari switches her grip as the wall of flesh drops.
Incinerate.
She kept burning the titan as it fell.
Her sword hits a giant tooth as the titan disappears into the ground.
Hikari senses the burning titan below the ground.
The rumbling got weaker.
Weaker and weaker.
The titan burrows away.