Shrikes poured out of the collapsed Well and rushed out towards Solomon in a wave of twisting roots and branches. Countless tentacles reached out to smother and absorb him.

"Who the Hell was that guy?" Solomon groaned. "He just showed up and then used me as bait. Did he say that man was the progenitor?... Ugh, I don't care," He complained before eventually giving up and accepting his situation.

Solomon watched as a 50m tall monstrosity crawled across the ground towards him. This Shrike was leading the pack and was almost upon him.

He pulled his fist back and a vortex of swirling air started forming around it. The wind rushed and swirled in a mini cyclone that condensed in front of his fist.

Taking a step forward, he swung his fist violently towards the oncoming Shrike. The cyclone burst from his outstretched fist and ripped up stones and mortar as it tore across the ground. It tunnelled through the Shrike and continued out the other side, piercing through another few Shrikes that were following behind, before finally coming to a stop.

The Shrikes that had been hit collapsed to the ground and were immediately covered by countless roots that sucked all of the life force from them.

A massive tremor shook the ground as an enormous Lord ranked Shrike pulled itself up from the ruined Well. The ground cracked and crumbled beneath its weight as it forced its way out of the hole that was too small for it.

After it managed to free itself, the tunnel was widened by its passing and afterwards, even more Shrikes were able to pour out.

The Lord ranked Shrike spread out its branches like tendrils and picked up nearby rubble. Then, it began flinging rocks at Solomon who was already struggling to dodge the combined attacks of the countless lashing branches.

Solomon jumped and dodged hundreds of attacks while constantly lashing out with his tail, sending brilliant arcs of razor-sharp wind slicing out through the waves of Shrikes.

With a single strike of his tail, 10s of Shrike would be ripped in half by turbid blades of wind.

Trying to dodge the innumerable attacks while stopping the Shrike from advancing. Solomon felt like he was juggling chainsaws on top of a skyscraper.

He was slowly being pushed back as the Shrike spread out. Every time he tried to catch his breath, A house would fall from the sky toward him.

Solomon jumped to dodge a sweeping root that lashed at him and a massive boulder was thrown toward him while he was still mid-air.

Right as the boulder was about to hit him, Solomon flipped forwards and his tail sliced clean through the solid stone. Two halves of the boulder were sent careering off into the city, flattening a few houses on their way.

He used the momentum from his spin to lash out at a nearby Shrike, burying it in the ground with a kick.

When he landed back on the ground, countless razor-sharp branches were waiting like spears, ready to impale him.

Solomon swept out his tail and a gust of wind tore apart the branches that were waiting to pierce him. The second his feet were back on the ground, Solomon was immediately set upon by the gathered Shrike.

He was quickly being overwhelmed by the endless attacks. After all, two hands can't block 4 fists, never mind 1000 tentacles.

To keep up with the constant attacks from every angle, he was forced to spin and turn, constantly parrying the spearing branches with the tip of his tail, or diverting them with gusts of wind.

Every time he would spin, a small cyclone would pick up and swirl around him like the beginnings of a tornado. 'I should be able to make a tornado if a spin enough' He realised.

Following this logic, Solomon began spinning around faster and faster and the wind kept picking up around him in a violent cyclone.

A column of violent wind began forming around Solomon, who was in the eye of the storm. Anything that tried to pass through the wind was torn apart as if it had stepped into a blender.

By now, a huge tornado had formed with Solomon at the centre. It was tinged a light green colour and had countless pieces of rubble spinning around the outside of the tornado. The only thing that was able to pass through the pillar of wind was the constant streams of damned souls that Solomon harvested from the corpses of the Shrike.

Within the eye of the storm, Solomon, who was isolated from the rest of the world felt a sharp pain in his chest. It was coming from the crystal core that resided in his heart. The very same core that had just formed and was constantly releasing energy to fuel the tornado.

Solomon clutched at his chest and was brought to his knees by the pain. While a sharp pain dug at his chest, a faint female voice whispered in the back of his mind.

'Let me out...' It was faint, but it was there.

'What the? Am I hearing voices now? This is really not a good time.' Solomon complained internally.

'I don't care. I've been trapped in here for ages,' Whispered the soft voice of a woman.

Solomon was startled by the reply. 'Wait a second. Why can the voice in my head can answer back?'

'I don't know. Why can't the idiot talking to a voice in his head let me out?' Replied the voice snarkily.

Solomon had no idea what she was talking about and could only ask another question. 'Let you out of where?'

'Ugh fucks sake. Just picture the core in your heart and imagine a door opening with it.' Sighed the voice in his head. He thought that she sounded exasperated, although he wasn't sure why.

In the end, Solomon just did as he was told by the voice and the karmic flames that surrounded him flared up. They began to warp and take shape in front of his heart.

A strange creature came into existence in front of his chest. It had the long winding body of a snake. The head was slender and shaped like a dragon. Instead of scales, the serpentine body was covered in feathers that spread out when they reached its tail into a fan shape.

Its body was a light green colour with blood-red streaks covering its long slender torso. On top of the dragon head, a pair of bright red horns poked out.

"What... What are you?" Solomon asked as he curiously looked at the creature.

"Me? I am a Sky Wyrm" Spoke the creature as it floated in front of Solomon's chest.

"Oh, Ok Well my name is S..." Solomon tried to reply but was cut off by the Wyrm.

"Yeah, Solomon, I know. I'm called Catena but you can call me Cate."

"Umm..." Solomon didn't know what to say. He had so many questions and this Wyrm seemed to already know him.

"Look, I'll explain everything to you later. Right now, we need to focus on staying alive."

Solomon looked around at the column of wind that surrounded him. Nothing was able to get through it and right now he was completely isolated from the rest of the world. "What do you mean staying alive? I'm safe inside this tornado."

"Yes, right now you are, but how long can you keep this tornado running. Can't you feel that tightness in your chest?"

"I thought that was you though."

"No, that pain means that you are running low on elemental energy. And, when you run out completely, then the tornado will collapse."

Solomon started to get worried. With each second that passed, his chest was becoming tighter and tighter, clearly, his elemental energy was close to running out.

"Don't worry about running out of elemental energy, you can replenish it by collecting more damned souls."

"Damned souls?"

"Those black orbs that float out of the Shrikes after you kill them."

Solomon nodded and released his hold on the tornado. It began spinning out of control and then collapsed in on itself. All of the pieces of rubble that had been suspended mid-air came crashing to the ground around him.

When the tornado fizzled out, Solomon was left standing in the middle of the ruined city centre. Within a hundred metres around him, every building had been completely levelled.

As the dust began to settle, He was finally able to see further outwards. Surrounding him, 10s of Shrike were waiting eagerly for their prey.

The Sky wyrm floated up to Solomon's shoulder and spoke into his ear. "I'll handle controlling the wind, all you have to do is dodge and strike back."

"I'm not sure how you'll do that, but I'll trust you for now."

"Good, That's all I needed to hear."

The wind began to pick up around Solomon in swirling gusts as he got ready to strike back. 'Where is that Lord ranked Shrike?' He asked himself as searched through the Shrikes that surrounded him. 'Once I kill that thing, I won't have to dodge falling boulders and buildings anymore.'

"Found you," Solomon whispered, his gaze had landed on the largest Shrike that was still waiting near the destroyed Well.

A burst of wind pushed Solomon from behind as he launched into a sprint. He tore across the ruined city centre, bearing down on the Lord ranked Shrike.

The second he moved, the rest of the Shrike burst into motion. Tremors shook the ground as all of the Shrike converged towards Solomon.

He jumped over a sweeping tree branch and flew through the air towards the Lord ranked Shrike. Attacks speared toward him as he was stranded midair.

Right as Solomon was about to be struck, a gust of wind pushed him up and over the converging attacks, sweeping him towards the waiting Shrike.

In a flurry of wind, Solomon slammed into the body of the Lord ranked Shrike and began tearing into it with his tail.

The lord ranked Shrike Flailed its terrifying branches in pain, lashing out and knocking over most of the nearby Shrikes.

However, whenever a branch was about to strike Solomon, The Sky wyrm on his shoulder would flap its fan-like tail and a gust of wind would spring up, pushing the attack out of the way.

Solomon continued shredding the Shrike's frighteningly tough bark until he was finally able to see underneath.

He lept into the hole he had carved in the bark and speared the tip of his tail into the Shrike's body. Venom poured out from his tail and began eating away at the Shrike's body, sizzling as it dissolved everything it touched.

While the Sky Wyrm shielded him from the endless attacks by diverting the spearing branches, Solomon ripped into the Lord ranked Shrike's body. Tearing it apart from the inside.

After destroying about half of the Lord ranked Shrike's body, Solomon jumped out of the cavernous hole he had created. The Shrike toppled to the ground, falling sideways and covering the entrance of the Well that it had come out of.

The Shrikes that were still trying to climb out of the Well were blocked by the enormous corpse that fell into the hole.

Solomon landed back on the ground, taking off into a sprint towards the nearest Shrike. he knew that he needed to take advantage of the fact that the Shrikes couldn't get out of the Well temporarily, to kill as many of the ones still above ground as possible.

He jumped from Shrike to Shrike, Assisted by gusts of wind that allowed him to manoeuvre nimbly between the hundreds of attacking branches and roots. Each Shrike he landed on would be pierced by the tip of his tail and venom would quickly dissolve them from the inside out.

Shrikes fell constantly in his wake as he deftly dodged between the endless attacks and their numbers quickly thinned.

Each time he killed one, a damned soul would fly out from the corpse, going into his chest. Every time one of the damned souls entered his chest, Solomon would feel empowered as the elemental core in his chest filled with energy.

Catena, the Sky Wyrm used the overflowing energy in Solomon's elemental core to divert attacks and assist his movements. When he was close to being struck by a branch, a gust of wind would spring up and push the attack to the side.

The Demon and Wyrm worked together seamlessly to slaughter the remaining Skrikes. With the effortlessly way they coordinated, you would think they had known each other for a long time.