Kai moved at once as the two massive-sand-created hands came crashing toward him.

He shot higher into the air, wind mana pushing him upward in a sharp burst, but the elemental followed without hesitation. The sand that formed its arms curled inward, shaping into a pair of enormous fists that swung toward him with a crushing force.

Elementals were powerful, but they were also slow.

They gave him ample time to slip past the attack with ease, weaving through the air before raising his wand and unleashing a volley of flame projectiles. The blazing shots streaked forward and slammed into the creature’s torso and arms.

The impact was immediate.

Sections of sand fused into glass under the intense heat, cracking and shattering away from the elemental’s body. Fragments rained down onto the desert below like falling shards of crystal.

The elemental let out a grinding roar and continued.

Kai stayed just beyond its reach, circling through the air while releasing more attacks. Flame missiles struck again and again from his wand and each impact carved pieces away from the elemental.

All he could see were more glasses forming, fracturing, falling and the elemental slowly reducing its size.

Still, it kept moving.

Kai felt a flicker of disappointment. Elementals did not feel pain, at least not until you strike their core. If they did, the battle would have ended fast. The only true way to defeat one was to destroy its core, and that was what he was trying to expose.

Finally, enough of its outer body broke apart that the massive creature collapsed back toward the desert, its form disintegrating piece by piece as it struck the ground.

Kai did not hesitate.

He immediately began forming another spell, preparing to strike the exposed core—

Then his instincts screamed.

He looked down just in time to see the sand beneath him erupt into motion. A swirling sandstorm rose upward like a living cyclone, spinning violently as it surged toward him.

There was no time to dodge.

So he reinforced his wind barrier and let the storm collide with it.

An ear-piercing sound came through when the sand slammed against the shield with relentless force, grinding and tearing at the currents of air surrounding him. The pressure intensified every second until maintaining the position became impossible.

He pushed away, trying to reposition.

Another arm suddenly formed from within the storm itself, and a massive hand lunged toward him.

The moment it touched the wind barrier, the spinning currents sliced through it.

The sand arm shattered apart, unable to reach him, scattering back into the raging storm below.

Kai reacted instantly.

Flames erupted from his wand once more, bombarding the massive hand again and again until the structure holding it together shattered. Glassed sand cracked apart into countless fragments, scattering through the storm as he forced himself upward and broke free from the raging cyclone.

The moment he cleared the sandstorm, his eyes snapped downward.

The elemental was already rebuilding.

Sand rushed toward its core from every direction, flowing like a tide as its massive body reformed on the desert floor. Kai exhaled slowly. Looks like I will get to use it for some practice.

He immediately began weaving another spell structure—one he had memorized from the grand library. A fourth-circle ice spell. It was untested and unmodified, inefficient by his standards in simple terms but he had mana to spare.

Unlike his refined combat spells, this one formed slowly, layers of complex patterns assembling before him. Frost gathered along his wand as the structure stabilized.

Below, the sand elemental completed its body and released a piercing screech. A sprawling sandstorm surged upward toward him again, wider and more violent than before.

Expectedly, the spell finished just then. He poured mana into the wand and thrust his wand forward, unleashing [Frozen Maelstrom].

A storm answered.

The air around him dropped sharply in temperature as a roaring snowstorm exploded outward, colliding head-on with the incoming sandstorm. Ice and sand crashed together midair.

The elemental possessed endless sand.

But Kai possessed control.

He poured more mana into the spell, reinforcing it again and again. The blizzard intensified, winds screaming as frost overtook grains of sand, weighing them down. Slowly—then decisively—the snowstorm began pushing forward.

The elemental shrieked.

Its massive body stiffened as frost spread across it, sand freezing into hardened masses. The creature flailed violently, trying to sink back into the desert where it held the advantage.

But before it could, Kai raised his left hand.

A second spell formed instantly, a familiar one he had used before.

A concentrated beam of freezing mana shot downward, locking onto the elemental’s torso. Ice crawled rapidly across its body, freezing layer after layer and halting its movement.

The elemental struggled, cracks forming through the ice as it tried to break free. Kai already knew it would succeed eventually.

So he changed tactics.

He cancelled the snowstorm at once.

The sudden loss of pressure shattered the frozen layers as he unleashed a barrage of flaming projectiles. The blazing shots struck the immobilized mass, melting the ice instantly. Steam and white smoke burst into the air as heat met frost.

Below, the frozen sand turned wet.

One thing about elementals was that once you understood what they were made of, killing them became far less complicated. Sand was excellent at absorbing blows and nearly impossible to cut through cleanly, but it had a weakness. Add water, and it lost its freedom of movement. Damp sand became heavy, sluggish, and difficult to control.

The moment the sand turned wet, the elemental reacted violently.

Its massive body sagged, movements slowing as chunks of soaked sand peeled away and collapsed onto the desert below. For a brief second, Kai thought it might retreat underground.

Instead, the creature compressed itself.

Its remaining mass drew inward, condensing into a tighter, denser form. The ground beneath it cracked as it abandoned its towering shape and surged forward like a tidal wave skimming across the surface, faster than before despite the added weight.

Kai’s expression hardened.

He pulled back immediately, launching himself higher while firing another volley of projectiles downward to slow it. Flames struck repeatedly, turning sections of sand into brittle glass, but the elemental barely faltered.

It was far smarter than he had expected.

While fighting, he kept part of his attention on the other battlefield. In the distance, Kael and Neris circled the second elemental. Neris maintained distance, sweeping his spear through the air and sending arcs of flame toward the creature, while Kael absorbed the brunt of its attacks behind his massive shield. Each heavy strike triggered the shield’s enchantments, releasing bursts of magic that battered the elemental back.

They were running more than fighting.

Kai doubted they could destroy it themselves, but they were surviving. And for now, that was enough.

The second elemental faltered in the distance, its movements uneven compared to the one beneath Kai. He spared it only a glance before returning his full attention to his own opponent.

The sand below him rippled—

And suddenly spears of sand shot upward.

They slammed into his wind barrier in rapid succession, dull thuds echoing through the air as grains scraped and screeched against spinning currents. Kai lifted his wand without hesitation.

A beam of frost burst forward, swallowing the rising pillars in ice mid-motion.

Frozen sand shattered apart, raining brittle fragments back onto the desert.

The elemental shrieked, its body convulsing as it shook violently, shedding sheets of ice that cracked away from its surface.

Kai moved again.

He climbed higher into the sky, flames gathering at the tip of his wand before streaking downward again and again. Each impact scorched the surface, heat meeting moisture until the sand darkened, clumped, and slowed. The creature’s movements grew heavier, its form dragging across the ground instead of flowing through it.

Above it, mana condensed. Frost spread outward, forming a widening sheet of ice suspended in the air like a pale mirror. The elemental sensed the danger and lurched sideways, trying to escape, but its dampened mass lagged behind.

Kai didn’t give it time.

Fire flashed and the ice shattered instantly, melting into a sudden rainfall. Water crashed downward in a heavy curtain, splashing across the elemental’s body. Before it could disperse, Kai swept his wand sideways, shaping a powerful gust. The wind caught the falling water and forced it inward, pressing it deep into the creature’s form.

Wet sand collapsed inward.

More than half its body darkened and sagged, its roar turning ragged as its mass struggled to hold shape. It tried to sink—Kai felt the shift, the instinctive attempt to drive its core deeper underground—but the soaked sand clung together, heavy and unyielding, trapping it in place.

Now’s the chance.

He formed dozens of flaming arrows around him and shot them at once.

The projectiles struck the dampened sections and detonated in violent bursts of steam.

Explosions tore through the compressed body, blasting apart chunks of wet sand that scattered across the desert in smoking clumps.

And in the chaos—

Kai saw it.

The core revealed itself at last.

A burning red sphere, nearly three times the size of a carriage wheel, pulsed within the collapsing mass of sand, raw mana churning beneath its surface like molten stone. For a brief instant it lay exposed.

Then the elemental reacted.

Sand surged inward, folding over the core in frantic layers as the creature released a grinding cry and tried to drag itself away, movements slow and uneven through the soaked ground.

Kai shot forward, wind gathering beneath his feet as he dove toward it, intent on carving a path straight through the body and shattering the core before turning to the second elemental.

He was almost there—

When the sand beneath him collapsed and the ground simply vanished.

A massive maw opened below, swallowing air and sand alike as the desert fell inward. Two enormous hands erupted upward from the pit, closing around him.

The impact rattled his bones.

For a split second he was trapped inside grinding pressure, sand compressing from all sides, but the spinning currents of his wind barrier screamed to life, slicing through the grasping limbs. The hands shredded apart into cascading grains, giving him just enough space to wrench himself free and surge upward.

Kai rose sharply, scanning the battlefield.

Kael and Neris were running towards him because the second elemental had probably sensed its partner’s danger, and was now almost upon him.

Below, the newly emerged elemental opened its cavernous mouth, launching a barrage of sand spears skyward.

Kai twisted through them, wind trailing behind him as projectiles tore past.

If this dragged on, the first elemental would escape. He could already feel it trying to burrow in the desert.

Time was running out.

Reaching the core directly was the problem. Destroying the body piece by piece would take too long, far too long with two elementals pressing him at once.

Another spear shot past his shoulder.

Kai dodged, mind racing.

Wait… Maybe I can do something else.

He slowed for half a heartbeat in midair, turning the thought over, weighing the risks against the dwindling seconds.

It was a reckless idea.

But faster than anything else.

Kai exhaled once, decision settling into place as he veered aside from another incoming strike.

Risky… yes. But wasting time here was worse.

So, he didn’t hesitate.

“Kael! Neris!” he shouted, voice cutting across the battlefield as the two Enforcers rushed closer. “Handle the other one! Don’t let it sink back into the desert. I’ll finish this!”

They didn’t argue. Both veered instantly toward the first elemental, flames and enchanted mana already flaring from their weapons.

Kai turned downward.

The gaping mouth below him yawned wide, a vortex of grinding sand and darkness.

He took a sharp breath and dove straight into it.

Projectiles erupted upward to intercept him—jagged spears of compacted sand—but they shattered against his armor and wind barrier in bursts of grit and sparks. The elemental’s true strength wasn’t precision. It was scale. The ability to swallow an enemy whole and bury them alive beneath endless pressure.

Kai gave it exactly what it wanted. The jaws snapped shut behind him.

Darkness swallowed everything.

Sand crushed inward from all directions, immense weight slamming into his wind armor like a collapsing mountain. The barrier shrieked under the strain, thin fractures forming along its spinning currents.

Kai pushed mana outward instantly, reinforcing the weak points before they could fail.

The pressure increased every second. The elemental was trying to grind him apart.

Fine grains forced themselves against the barrier, scraping, compressing, and seeking gaps. The sound was deafening—a constant grinding roar that vibrated through his bones.

Kai didn’t focus on it and raised his hand.

Wind gathered instantly and a blade formed along his arm, spinning faster and faster until its edge blurred. He fed more mana into it, expanding the structure, and widening its rotation.

The spell grew larger and faster until the blade resembled a roaring turbine of compressed wind.

And then he moved.

The spinning vortex tore forward, shredding sand apart as Kai forced his way deeper into the elemental’s body.

Grains blasted away from him in violet streams, clearing a tunnel through the dense mass.

The creature reacted instantly.

The entire interior shifted.

Sand compressed harder, attempting to collapse the passage and crush him within it. Waves of pressure rolled inward, trying to halt his advance, but inside its own body the elemental lost its greatest advantage. Size meant little when the enemy was already within.

Kai pressed forward relentlessly.

His wind armor absorbed the worst impacts while the turbine carved a path ahead, scattering sand in violent spirals. Each step felt heavier than the last as the elemental dragged itself across the desert above, trying desperately to bury him deeper.

He ignored it.

Instead, he reached outward with his senses.

Elemental cores could be hidden anywhere within the body, but they could never hide their mana.

And there it was.

A blazing concentration of energy far below him, pulsing like a second heartbeat beneath layers upon layers of sand.

It was far deeper than he expected.

So deep that Kai realized, with a flicker of grim understanding, that it was already being carried beneath the desert itself.

He tightened his grip on the spinning wind turbine and pushed forward anyway.

The pressure increased with every step until suddenly the spinning wind blade grinding ahead of him slowed, then stopped entirely. The turbine screeched as it met something that refused to give way.

Kai smiled inside the darkness.

Found you.

He released the wind spell at once. The roaring blades vanished, leaving crushing silence and immense weight pressing from all sides. Without hesitation, he thrust his wand forward and formed a narrow fire beam.

Flame erupted.

The concentrated stream burned straight into the packed sand ahead, heat surging outward. Kai reinforced the mana around his face and eyes just in time as the sand vitrified instantly, turning into glowing glass that cracked under the sudden expansion.

Fractures spider-webbed outward.

Before the fragments could collapse inward, Kai’s left hand moved again. A new wind blade formed and slammed forward, smashing through the brittle surface. The glass broke apart in explosive shards, opening a narrow passage.

The elemental reacted immediately.

Its entire body convulsed.

The tunnel twisted violently as the creature flailed above, sand shifting like a collapsing mountain. Kai was thrown sideways, nearly losing balance as pressure surged inward, trying to seal the opening.

He pushed through.

The fire beam widened, sweeping side to side as he carved more space, melting sand into glass faster than the elemental could compress it. The shaking intensified, violent enough to rattle his bones, but Kai forced himself onward.

The core was close.

He could feel it now—A dense pulse of mana just ahead.

He poured more mana into the beam, burning a wider path despite the instability. The tunnel opened just enough, and then he saw it.

A massive red core floated within the compressed sand, glowing like a furnace heart, mana rolling off it in heavy waves.

He redirected the beam instantly. Flames struck the core.

A shockwave rippled outward as the surface cracked with a sharp, ringing sound. Lines of light split across it like lightning trapped in crystal.

He pushed more mana into the spell and saw the cracks deepened.

Elemental cores were difficult to reach, but once struck directly, they were fragile under focused power.

The elemental screamed.

Not a sound, but a violent vibration that shook the entire mass around him. The creature thrashed wildly, pain finally reaching it. Sand slammed against Kai from every direction, trying to crush him flat.

He expanded his wind armor outward, reinforcing it in every direction just to remain standing.

More fractures spread across the core.

Chunks broke away.

Fragments fell into the sand below as the glow flickered unevenly.

Then the core ruptured.

A sudden shockwave of raw mana exploded outward.

Kai was thrown backward like a ragdoll, the fire beam collapsing instantly as control slipped from his grasp. He slammed into dense sand, tumbling helplessly through darkness.

His concentration broke.

The wind armor shattered with a sharp crack.

And in the next heartbeat, the sand surged inward from all sides, rushing to swallow him whole.

***

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