Bright searing hot the sun shined down upon the desert that surrounded him, the very sand sizzling beneath him where he lay sat crossed legged.

Kailu took in a long warm breath, eyes closed as he lay calm.

As absolute chaos surrounded him, corpses of strange creatures lying torn and beaten left and right and all around him.

The sand beneath him then shook, and wide his eyes opened.

No scythe was in sight.

No skull, no Z.

Just Kailu, as a monstrosity of a serpent ascended from the sand behind him.

He ascended up with the rising wave of sand, flowing with it, he allowed himself to flip backwards as the monster slithered out from under.

Kailu was like a leaf, one with the wind he fell, landed, then soared again. As one, two, five, ten, a dozen massive serpents rose out of the desert dunes.

And like a leaf he flowed in between their strikes and lunges, as they coiled all around him, shadows trailing behind him as he moved.

“So, this is the game you’ll play?” Kailu hissed, his voice laying like poison about the air. “I don’t play games, and for this you’ll pay.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc-XxqEyolU

Shadows hissed as they formed about his fingers, taking the shape of rippling claws.

Long black blades curved like claws they rippled along out of his fingertips as Kailu swirled about with great finesse, he followed a butcher’s dance as scale and flesh were torn asunder before him. A whirlwind of blood all around him.

Screeches and pained hisses filled the sandy dunes as the sand itself was painted red by his onslaught, only merciless eyes lay living within the carnage he produced, and they were his own.

As the last of the serpents escaped his massacre, viscera of its own companions covering the dunes it descended under, only a mound of movement quickly rushing off into the distance.

“For the Empire…For my name is not, Kailu Xilfir of Druvia Draconia, Brigadier of the Special Assault Unit.” Kailu hissed as he raised his right palm towards the fleeing monster, a wisp of shadow shooting out of it and soaring at incredible speed into the beast.

A final hiss of agony played out where it dug in, and the mound paused.

The sand then suddenly rose up in a dark explosion of shadow magic, the remains of the beast being nothing more than a red mist falling from the air.

Kailu’s eyes narrowed forth, scanning the seemingly endless desert he found himself in. “I will find you princess.”

Eyes then rose out of the sand about him, violet, green and red, the demons that had been watching now showed themselves.

Thinking him weakened, they would be oh so sorry to find out just how wrong they were.

Kailu did not smile, nor grin or grimace, not a shred of emotion filled his perfect poker face as he glanced over his opposition.

“No matter…”

An explosion of movement occurred right then as demon after demon rushed out of hiding and pounced, charged or shadow-stepped into Kailu, each one facing his cold wrath as their blood continued to colour the canvas that was his desert.

Grabbing and throwing them off into another creating an amalgamation of flesh, evading them and suddenly kicking their bones to dust or simply slicing them up into sheets, no matter the carnage still Kailu showed not a drop of caring.

Dispatching the last fleshbag into the nearby pile, one of many, he sighed whilst wiping the blood off his black leather gloves. His eyes hauntingly cold.

“I will find you, no matter the body count.”

-

Elsewhere…

-

Erika bit her lip in annoyance as she glanced about her cage, there had to be a way about this. Checking her pockets and pouch, nothing, everything she had other than clothing was taken from her.

Unarmed and seemingly resourceless, still Erika was not hopeless.

She wasn’t resourceless.

With each passing moment she had not just been sitting around, not just watching her surroundings, Erika had been studying the runes engraved all over her cage.

Not unlike the runes she had learned back home, whilst the base alphabet was the same, the usage was a bit different. Like two languages coming from the same origin but taking divergent paths, she knew what each individual rune was but understanding its purpose alone took her some time, and then there was understanding the purpose of a cluster of runes when read together.

Anyone else would’ve taken weeks, maybe months, to figure out this foreign runecrafting.

It took Erika twenty-two minutes, yet she had another issue.

Breaking off a buckle from her pants, she tried to carve into the wood to alter the runes, only to find out that no matter what technique or how much strength she put into she made not a single scratch upon it.

Which left her with only one method, a method she sorely did not like using.

Putting the buckle aside, she placed her palms flat upon the floor.

She closed her eyes, focusing within, Erika moved her consciousness to a force within her.

Glimpsing into her well of mana, Erika took in a deep breath of preparation.

Feeling the energy surge in reaction to her dipping her mind within, she forced it forth.

Whilst, it is true that Erika had a strange hue of hair and eye colours, she was physically human.

But when it came to her magical potential, well…that was a different story altogether.

As suddenly the stale air about her shook, golden tendrils of mana flowing out of her body and reaching out to the world around her. Her hands shone, bright but contained light, it began to flow into the runes.

Breath, concentrate…

She told herself, eyes so wide they looked like they might pop out of their sockets, reddening with each moment that passed by.

From outside her cage then a mixture of sounds reached her.

The same young man from before had been nearby, confused at the light he saw within her cage he had come to investigate, only to see her in this state. Panic filled him and he backed away, only to stumble into another cage out of which a fearsome growl emanated. Pitch black claws pushed into the cage’s side, as two large violet eyes glowed from within the cage’s shadow.

Immediately the man backed away from that cage, pushing his back to Erika’s before returning to glance inside.

Shit

“Run!” Erika shouted, completely losing control of her power, the light that had been slowly flowing through the runes now rushed vigorously throughout the cage.

Lighting it up like a sore thumb.

The man ran off, stumbling into the street nearby before turning about just in time to watch the cage explode.

Charred tinder and embers rained down all around as a cloud of smoke surrounded the source.

“What the bloody moon…” The young man swore in awe as the smoke lifted, revealing Erika standing above a busted cage, ash covering her face, clothes and hair as it lay puffed up and smouldering.

Coughing out one last cloud of smoke, her mind raced on what to do as the entire street stared at her in surprise, even whatever monster lay in the nearby cage was caught off-guard and now lay staring in utter confusion at her, forgetting even to look ferocious.

Dozens of options went through her head then as she leapt off her cage’s platform.

She could run, dash out into the forest. She could hide, take cover and wait for the reaction to pass. She could even engage her captors, she had plenty of mana remaining…

What should she do?

Pfft, it’s obvious.

Hunt Captain Teol sat quietly at his desk in the middle of the war camp, just outside the village proper, he liked the fresh air of an outdoors office so not even a tent lay over his head. Going through messenger scroll after scroll, his orders were clear and simple, stand your ground and recruit.

He pondered on what the next update would read as, hoping this sudden appearance of demons so deep in their territory would rile up some movement for his platoon. Yet at the same time, every time he glanced over his men only one thing went through his mind.

They are all too young, too inexperienced and…with so much ahead of them!

It enraged him, the war had been ongoing for generations and even after all the promises from the Alpha clan that it would end, conflict still ravaged these lands. It still reaped the fruits of vigour and light from their numbers.

As he glanced over the young, those who are still training with wide boisterous expressions not expecting the hell ahead, and those who had gone through it and lived…Empty soulless eyes, gazing into the void hoping something would gaze back.

Scrapping the recent scroll, he threw it aside before standing up and stretching his rusting hips.

And I’m getting too old, Bah! Hear me whine now!

When suddenly a blinding flash of light engulfed the village ahead.

Teol stared on in awe as wind blasted past him, sending and setting his greying hair backwards, a wave of smoke and ash followed.

“What in luna’s fucking plains was that…” Moments he waited for his officers to report, it wasn’t a far walk to where the explosion had occurred.

As he then noticed an ashen head peaking up from the stairs, slowly climbing up them to then reveal a face with crisp blue brows and charred hair. Yet calm and concentrated golden eyes.

Erika nonchalantly walked up to his desk, covered in ash just like the entire street behind her and herself.

Almost stumbling on the last step, she came to a stop before it and stood with arms crossed under her average chest.

With a smirk over her face, she said “I believe I wasn’t done talking.”

Her words almost made Teol fall forwards.