“Evasion runes, interesting. Now how did a bunch of desert rats manage to get such a high level Rune cape.” Andre sneered towards the three chiefs, with a greedy look in his eyes.

“Yoji, are you ok.” Ipnak asked as his aura shot up, his entire body started to morph. His skin gained a grainy texture like sand, his nose elongated and his whole body grew thicker. Two streaks appeared on his cheeks, and his hands turned into claws. This was his sand badger incarnation.

“I’m fine, just a little out of breath.” Yoji replied, as he got up on his feet, staring at the floating spear with dread. “The cape saved my life, but used up almost a quarter of my spiritual power.”

“All of you, stand back and go into dome formation, your goal is to defend alone. This is a battle of spiritualists, you can not interfere.” Ranbu yelled back towards the warriors.

“We can’t waste time, this guy rushed here alone, he’s probably very confident in his ability to take us down.” Ranbu muttered as he too started to undergo a transformation. However, unlike Ipnak, he didn’t grow larger, rather shorter. His height reduced by a fifth, his skin became grey and rough, and his nose turned into a horn. He looked like a humanoid version of an Earth Rhino. “Level 29 is very strong, but if we work together, we can keep him busy.”

“Together!!” Hollered Ranbu as he took out his long sword and charged towards Andre, each of his steps made the sand ripple like water.

Ipnak got on all fours and disappeared into the sand, while Yoji just stood straight, looking at Andre with all of his attention.

“Haha, you actually want to fight me.” Andre mocked, as the floating spear was pulled into his hand. “Let me show you how little your puny abilities mean in front of true power.”

Andre’s scales shimmered, and his body vanished, he appeared right in front of Yoji, with his spear pulled back.

“Yoji!!” Ranbu yelled as he changed his direction, but it was too late.

“One down.” Andre smirked as he thrust his spear into Yoji’s gut. “How weak you are, you humans don’t deserve to breath the same air as us.”

The spear tore through Yoji’s chest easily, and blood spewed out from his back, his chieftain’s cape didn’t even have the time to activate.

Andre was about to say more, but he noticed the look on Yoji’s faces wasn’t one of some who was dying, rather one of triumph.

“You little…” Andre slurred as two claws erupted under his feet and bolted him down on the ground. “Your breath stinks.” Yoji muttered as his body turned into sand and blew away.

Yoji appeared again exactly 10 meters from Andre, however he wasn’t in his normal human form, but in his incarnation form. He had feathers all over his body, his face had a short beak, but the most noticeable feature was his huge wide eyes, that could peer into ones soul.

“You dare!!” Andre thundered as he stabbed his spear towards the ground, but before he could complete the motion, Ranbu was already upon him with his long sword.

“Desolate Strike!” Yelled Ranbu as he slashed down with his long sword.

Andre diverted his spear, and held it horizontally to block, but Ranbu’s long sword came to a stop just centimetres from the Spears pole.

“What…” Andre muttered in confusion, but then he felt it. Some type of force had broken through his defences, and directly attacked his body.

“Ahhh” Andre yelled as wind power concentrated around his body, and pushed Ranbu back. He focused his wind power under his feet and the claws holding him tight finally let go.

Andre shot into the air and floated 10 meters over the ground. Ipnak jumped out of the sand like it was water, and stared at the floating Andre.

“Your attack did nothing, he is a body cultivator, and he’s wearing that Armor on top of his crazy hard body.” Ipnak remarked, as he slid across the sand towards Ranbu. “We need to use the crystals, it’s the only way.”

“No, our goal is not to defeat him, but to keep him busy. We need to give the others enough time to restock at the Oasis.” Ranbu rebuked, as he spun his sword and pointed it upwards, ready for the next attack.

Andre, was not amused. Not only had he been tricked by these three ant’s, but he also suffered an attack. He turned his eyes towards Yoji, and spoke. “A Mirage Owl, such a weak and pitiful incarnation. Deserving of a weak and pathetic race.”

Yoji smiled, his eyes growing slightly wider. “I tricked you with this very feeble incarnation, so what does that make you.” He countered, a broad grin across his owl like face.

“Why you… huh, well then let me show you three what a true incarnation looks like!” Andre yelled, as he ripped off the chest plate of his Armor.

His body started to grow larger, feathers erupted from his arms and his draconian features became more beastly. His feet turned into talons, his red draconian scales turned into green feathers, and his thick neck became thinner and slightly longer. His leg guards and the helmet simply shattered, spraying metallic pieces everywhere. His body grew to a size larger than Ipnak’s sand badger, and was still growing.

“A wind vulture, I’ve heard they have some dragon blood, it seems to be true.” Ranbu stated, his tone grave. “He still has some of his draconian features, like that scaly tail, beware of it.”

“What’s his spiritual path level Yoji.” Ipnak asked, as the mirage owl had the ability to see through ones level.

“He’s at level 23, but the real problem isn’t his defence, it’s his talons.” Yoji Replied in a solemn tone. “We are only level 21, he will rip through us without effort, we have to use the crystal if we want to survive this.”

“Ranbu!, we have no choice.” Ipnak yelled towards Ranbu who was standing just a few meters from him.

“OK, Fine. Bring them out.” Ranbu replied as he reached into his bag and pulled out a blue crystal.

Ipnak and Yoji did the same, and then the three simultaneously crushed the crystals. The crystals turned into dust and disappeared, but they also released a small hint of energy into the trios body.

“Ahhh” All three Chieftains yelled out in pain and agony. The Power from the crystals was stimulating their spiritual cores, and their power levels began to rise.

22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27.

“Ahh… we’re at level 27, this feeling is so incredible.” Yoji said with some difficulty, still getting used to the new power level. “Remember, these crystals are flawed, we will start to lose our cultivation after 5 minutes. We have to end this before that.”

“huh, what did you do.” Andre who had just finished his transformation noticed the change in the trios atmosphere. Although he didn’t know by how much, but he could tell that the three had grown stronger in the span of a few seconds.

“No matter, after I have ripped you limb from limb, all of your secrets will become mine anyways.” Andre roared as he positioned his body towards Ranbu and dove. “Now DIE!!”

Withing a second, he was already on top of Ranbu, his talons wide open, ready to turn Ranbu’s long sword into shards of metal.

Ranbu smiled, and thrust his sword ahead with hesitation. “Broken Earth” Ranbu yelled as his sword came into contact with Andre’s talons.

Andre felt an intense pain, he looked down to see that he had a light cut on his chest. Somehow Ranbu’s attack had avoided his talons and directly hit him. Even though he was a body cultivator, the other party’s attack was able to pierce through his skin, but was blocked by his muscles. His final defence was his bones, which had been tempered to level 29 peak.

Andre could tell that the other party was weaker than him, but his skills with the sword had already reached the level of a master.

Andre flapped his wings and feathers like sharp blades blasted out towards Ranbu, but they caused almost no damage, as Ranbu’s grey skin had also strengthened.

Ranbu wasted no time and pulled his sword back. Once again he shouted as his sword slashed right over Andre’s neck. “Broken Earth!”

This time Andre saw it, a wave of attack. Tiny grains of sand had latched themselves on the swords blade and were being released upon attack, forming into tiny daggers.

Andre retreated his long neck, which was one of his less attractive abilities as a wind vulture. However, just as he dodge this attack, another came from the side. The whole exchange between Ranbu and Andre had taken mere seconds, which was enough for Ipnak to ready his attack.

He rushed towards Andre, and slashed with his claws. His claws were sharp enough to bore through even solid layers of rock, so they would be bound to cause some damage to the transformed Draconian.

Just as he was about to reach Andre, the spear appeared in front of him and stabbed towards his gut. It was too late to dodge, so Ipnak decided to block with his claws. However as soon as his claws made contact with the spearhead, he realised his mistake, but it was too late.

“NO!” Yoji howled as his body turned into sand and appeared next to Ipnak, he pushed Ipnak away but the damage had already been done. The spear tore through Ipnak’s claws, and just touched his gut before Yoji saved him, but his claws were gone, and only two bloody stumps were left.

“You bastard!” Ranbu shouted as he thrust his sword once more with full force. “Earthly Dawn!” He shouted as his sword started to glow a yellowish colour. His sword clashed with Andre’s talon’s again, but this time it simply passed through them, as if they were immaterial. The sword stopped glowing after going through the talons, and slashed at Andre’s chest.

Blood spurted and Andre was thrown back, with a look of disbelief on his face.

Andre fell some 50 meters away and Ranbu collapsed on one knee, breathing heavily. Activating the runes on his sword came at a cost. He looked towards the spear lodged into the sand and shouted. “Ipnak, trap that thing. I’m afraid it’s a high level crafted weapon. My sword is only a normal spiritual weapon, carved from the horn of an Earth Rhino. If he attacks me with the spear head on, my sword will shatter.”

Ipnak who had just covered his wounds with a cloth, nodded and concentrated his earth spiritual power towards the spear.

The spear easily sunk into the sand, and disappeared.

Just as Ranbu got up, ready to attack Andre again, he heard his voice.

“Enough, ENOUGH!!, All of you, DIE NOW…Attack, I don’t care anymore… I just want them dead.” Andre had already stood up and was now looking at Ranbu with bloodshot eyes. His green feathers belly down were red with blood, and his aura savage like a genuine spiritual beast.

…Dhum…dhum…dhum…

Sounds of heavy footsteps came, grating against the sand as shadows of troops could be seen over the dunes.

Ipnak’s expression changed, he knew there were troops nearby, but seeing them still caused his heart to sink.

“Ipnak, you go and help our warriors, Draconian soldiers are strong but they are not all body cultivators and spiritualists.” Ranbu Yelled as he got in his attack stance and pointed his sword towards Andre. “Only the leaders will be followers of a path, but they will be at the skin tempering stage or in the spirit realm of the spiritual path. You can take care of them.”

“I understand Brother Ranbu.” Ipnak Replied as he rushed towards his warriors. “You need to stay safe, it’s only been around 3 minutes since we broke the crystals, we only have 2 more minutes.”

“I Know.” Ranbu remarked, a light smile on his face. “I will kill this Draconian in the time we have, even if it means I have to kill myself in the process.”

“Lets do it brother Ranbu” Shouted Yoji as he appeared next to him, his eyes wide open, emanating a dense wavy aura.

“Yoji, I may have to detonate my core, I need you to create mirages of my body.” Ranbu whispered. “My final attack cannot fail.”

“You ant’s deserve to die, I will make you pay for your impudence.” Andre roared as he flapped his wings and took to the sky.

“And you will pay” Came a voice from the clouds, as a figure started its descent. “For your arrogance.”