...As birds in the sky

Staring at the cacophony of insects which were gathered around the city walls in the form of much larger versions of themselves.

Instead of immediately attacking the walls like I expected them to, they instead stood in waiting as if waiting for the chance to do something.

And seeing as I couldn't hear the cannon fire and screams anymore, it seemed that the hordes of insects which had made way for the Desert Scourges had also stopped.

Strangely enough, now that I thought about it, where did the flying insects go?

Turning my head, I caught sight of Gordon's tense face and Alice's trembling fingers, and from them I could conclude.

"This isn't a good event in the slightest is it?"

Glancing at my face with one that was incredibly tense, he stiffly nodded.

And I soon found out why.

Looking up at the sky which had suddenly been filled with several layers of thick dark clouds, the sky quickly darkened.

Anywhere else, this sort of phenomenon although isn't a well looked upon one is something that everyone could accept as natural.

But in the middle of the desert where there was no water for as far as the eye could see?

Well good luck, you might as well prepare your grave right now.

The sky thundered with blue light for a moment right before leading a loud thunderous noise that rang out in my ear drums.

And I sure hope that I was imagining things, but that hope was immediately dashed when the screen popped up in my mind.

[Storm Terror]

Framed by the thunder a gigantic insect with wings the size of the sky was slowly approaching.

'Well shit'

Now I know where all the flying antlions went, they escaped to dodge the storm terror.

Staring at the thundering skies which briefly lit up an outline of a terrifying foe, I honestly felt incredibly afraid.

Afraid that I'll die that is.

So far I've been doing really well in the fact that I hadn't died yet and things were looking up.

But if I fought against the Storm Terror, I'm afraid that unless I could bring it down, I was going to have to put my life on the line to deal with it.

Staring at the sky, the thunder rang out once more.

And with it was the thunder bolt.

'Holy-!'

Back dashing, the lightning bolt headed my way struck the ground.

And following it, the sky was lit up a brilliant blue as more lightning suddenly manifested in the sky.

Quickly reacting, a spear appeared in my hands as I struck at the thunder bolt heading my way.

"URRFFF!!!"

Feeling the electric currents course through my body, I felt as if it was turning my organs through a blender.

Biting my lips, blood was drawn as more thunder bolts appeared in the sky.

Stabbing the spear into the ground, the electric current coursing through my body immediately dissipated into the ground.

But that wasn't done yet.

If anything, this was the appetizer as the sky opened up its heavenly gates of punishment.

"I'm guessing that this is what you were worried about?"

"Precisely so."

Glancing at Gordon, I was surprised to find that he was standing completely fine albeit somewhat singed.

The same could be said for Alice.

"But soon you won't have to worry about the lightning striking us mercenaries."

"?"

Before I could even ask, the king that was standing besides Lucia was suddenly engulfed with red flame that covered his body.

[Phoenix Incarnation]

And manifested right in front of me was a fucking phoenix.

Now pardon my language but I was not expecting it in the slightest.

Staring at the flaming bird wreathed in orange red flames, the red knight that I was so used to seeing for the few moments that I had saw him was gone.

With a crown of golden feathers that gleamed like light in the shadow, the dark dreary skies which had been summoned by the storm terror painted a very picturesque photo.

Wings of fire flapping, the flaming phoenix flapped its wings once and instantly soared into the air leaving behind a trail of hot air.

Screeching once, the lightning bolts which were still unbiasedly attacking the city quickly stopped their rampage as they focused onto the phoenix of fire.

Manifesting into the form of a giant ball of blue light, even all the way from the ground I could feel the electrifying power hidden in the ball.

Hell, I even saw some people's hair get fritzed due to the absurd amounts of electricity in the ball.

Staring at the rather dazed surroundings, I was shook straight out of it by the rapidly and fearful dings and dongs of the bells.

DING DONG DING DONG

Snapping my head to the side, at the edges of my hearing I caught Gordon whispering to himself.

"Oh this isn't good..."

"What do you mean by that!?"

He stared at me with startling red eyes of blood all the while the bells continued to ring out.

"Do you remember me saying that if 'she' doesn't arrive everything should be fine?"

"So 'she' came?"

"She came."

"Well shit"

"Shit indeed"

Glancing at the walls, the desert scourges, as if waiting for me to do smacked their heads against it in unison.

CRACKLE

And seeing as bits of stone and dust started to fall from the walls, I would say that their smacking was doing a good number on them.

Hand sinking into my inventory, a pair of familiar scythes appeared in them.

And ignoring the surprised looks I got from around me, the symphony of explosions that were the cannons wound up again.

Bang!

Foot slamming in beat to the explosions I blasted through the air with a mixture of physical strength, double jumps and shield charges.

And did you know?

By using the shield charge I could reset my double jumps and jump from the air again thus performing a butchered form of flught.

So with that, holding a large hammer over my head since I don't think I would deal that much damage with the two scythes, I swung it down right as the desert scourge reared its head.

SCREE- BONK

Slamming it down, the head of the desert scourge instantly dispersed as the resulting shockwaves travelled through the colony of antlions making up its body.

Turning around, I switched the nearly broken hammer for the much more durable Flint.

It still was a hammer albeit slightly smaller in size.

Swinging it in a way reminiscent of the Concierge, I equipped the broken inferno and sparked crimson flames from the edges of the hammer.

Red sparks setting alight from the ends of the flint, upon striking the skull of another desert scourge nearest to the one I had just struck, crimson flames instantly jumped onto the exploded body.

"Boom."

CRACKLE!

Flames coming alive, they leapt onto the destroyed carcasses trying to build back up the desert scourge.

SCREE!!!

Ignoring the antlions now writhing in the desert scourge due to the immense heat coming from the flames, tinges of orange lit up the red flames as I turned back to the first desert scourge.

still floating in the air, thunder crackled from above me allowing me to see in my darkened surroundings.

Eyes staring at the desert scourges exploded fore head, I was given the front row seat of its regeneration.

But I guess regeneration is the wrong word here.

Taking advantage of the still antlions dotting the ground, the desert scourge reformed its antlion body out of even more antlion bodies.

Scuttling all over each other the jaws quickly surrounded me before shutting to form an antlion face.

And now was the time that I would use my scythes.

Spinning around, visible blade lights manifested all around me as my breaths became short.

Another desert scourge was dying to heal the one I was currently in.

Or in this case, the antlions making up the desert scourge were just replacing the antlions I was killing.

Eye twitching, my orange eyes glared at my surroundings before relentlessly pouring my malaise into my blade.

Blasting with relentless rage, the crimson flames dyeing the antlions who had joined us were now swept away by the amber winds.

Spinning faster and faster, I made sure to kick off of anything I could to make sure that I would spin in all 6 directions.

And with blade marks of amber heading right left, front back and up and down, I'm pretty sure that I was doing things correctly.

+++

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