“What is he doing just standing around? Is he waiting for the Sun Wraith to come out?”
Rona and his group of warriors hid behind a large dune, barely peeking out of it. They could see Alex far away, standing a distance away from a glowing orb he had thrown on the ground.
“We should get up closer and catch him in the act,” Rona said. “That is the best way to make sure he doesn’t mess things up.”
“No,” Inga said. “We should stay here and watch. We can go in if things start looking more dangerous.”
Rona frowned, but said nothing. Those words made sense.
“We will find undeniable proof soon,” he said. “Then, we can charge him with the crime of trying to destroy our city.”
Suddenly, they felt a pulse go through the ground and the air, along with the area suddenly growing hotter for a second before growing colder. In the next moment, a brilliant glow of light shone in the distance.
A massive ram—spiral horns twisted twice—appeared before Alex, its body illusory and glowing with a faint yellow light. All the warriors felt a sense of panic upon seeing the beast, as a Sun Wraith was always a problem to deal with, and this one just seemed that much worse.
Alex stood some distance before the yellow ram, feeling the heat that came off it. He had done all he could to have no defense around his skin, and through that he could feel the slight burning sensation that came from the ram.
“Exactly like the sun,” Alex said with a satisfied voice. “This is what I was looking for.”
The ram dug into the sand with its hind legs and charged at Alex.
Alex balled his hand into a fist. “Unfortunately for you, I only need the energy.”
He punched. His fist struck the ram’s forehead, feeling the slight tinge of pain from his skin burning, while at the same time nearly destroying the ram’s forehead.
Alex raised an eyebrow. He hadn’t held back anything when punching just then, so the fact that the ram hadn’t burst apart had surprised him. “You’re far more resilient than I thought. How are you that strong?”
He remembered Tala and Gorang saying something about the Sun Wraiths being resistant to physical attacks because of how their bodies were incorporeal. Even then, the last one had died after his punch.
Had that one really been weaker?
‘The Sun Stone I used had been the weakest one, and it hurt me so badly. These ones are the strong ones, so I shouldn’t be so surprised that they can withstand my attacks.’
The ram landed some distance away and shook its head furiously before running right back toward Alex.
Alex attacked it again, this time finally managing to kill it. The moment the ram was dead, all of its energy immediately dissipated.
“Shit!” Alex exclaimed at the sudden dissipation of the energy. That was not what he had wanted.
He tried to keep the yang right there, but it spread in all directions, despite Alex’s attempt at holding them all. There was nothing he could do at that point.
When everything was gone, Alex sighed and fell back on the sand.
“That’s not what I…” he sighed. “I guess that’s a lesson. The energy of a Sun Wraith dissipates when its soul is destroyed. I should find a way to not destroy the soul.”
Alex would have to think of other ways to deal with the Sun Wraith than with just pure physical strength. He needed more test subjects.
Fortunately, it appeared that another Beast Core was ready to form at the same time.
In the distance, Rona, Inga, and the rest of the warriors were in stunned silence at what they had just seen.
“Did he… did he just kill a Sun Wraith with his fist?” Inga asked, unable to believe what he was seeing.
“Can’t be,” Rona said. “He must have used a technique of some sort that we couldn’t notice. Yes, that must be it.”
“Did he?” Inga wasn’t sure. He wasn’t sure what he had just seen, but he chose to believe that Alex had used a technique that they couldn’t see.
As they watched, Alex threw out another Beast Core onto the sand, one that was beginning to glow quite brightly at that point. However, that wasn’t it at all.
Another Beast Core was glowing brightly as well, which Alex tossed before him after a hint of surprise on his face.
“Two… he’s making two Sun Wraiths,” Rona said. “What should we do?”
Inga didn’t know. “He… he doesn’t look like he needs our help,” he said. “Maybe we should just watch him take care of this one and then leave.”
“Who cares about helping him? We need to make sure he isn’t doing anything to harm the city, and creating Sun Wraiths should be one of the things he shouldn’t do.”
Inga turned to him. “Do you want to go stop him right now?”
Rona paused for a moment before shaking his head. He couldn’t do this alone, not after what he had seen, and especially if his concerns about the man being someone related to Death turned out to be true.
Suddenly, they sensed the ground shake once again and then once more as both the two Beast Cores began to turn into Sun Wraiths.
As Inga and the rest watched, the ground shook again.
“A third one?” Rona asked, looking around. “Where’s the third Sun Wraith?”
The ground shook again, and again, and again. And it was soon clear that this was the result of no Sun Wraith. Since the sun had gone down in the sky, it was time for the beasts of the desert to start showing up to the surface.
“Prepare yourself for battle,” Rona ordered the warriors at once. “We will fight this as quietly as we can.”
All the warriors nodded and readied themselves as a massive millipede beast appeared from the desert. As they prepared to fight, something else appeared behind them.
Just from their shadow on the ground, everyone knew that a Sun Wraith stood right behind them.