“What did you say!” Koren asked in a thundering voice.

“My…My commanding officer, Commander…commander Uther, is…is at the border…” Andre replied stutteringly.

Koren didn’t know how to react, on one hand he was excited at the possibility of his mother being alive, and on the other, the imminent doom of the sand ship with Enri and Haruki.

“Don’t worry Koren, if we do a sustained flight with ultrasonic speed, we can reach them in minutes.” Hope said hastily. “We need this fellow alive to find your family, cripple his core, and inject him with nanites, they will keep him under control after we leave.”

“I understand sis.” Koren muttered as he raised the other arm and a needle punched out, he then stabbed Andre with it in the gut.

“Ahhh, no, what is happening, my strength. What did you do to me.” Andre screamed as tears and snot drooped down onto his cheeks.

“Ahhhh.” The Nanites slithered across Andre’s body, damaging his bone structure in specific zones and preventing him from healing.

Koren pulled his hand back, and the needle disappeared. He then put his hand on Andre’s head, and tried to find his spiritual core.

Deep in his mind he found it, a small glowing orb, with a green shard in the middle, slowly melting into the walls of the core.

“It looks like this guy was on the verge of a breakthrough.” Hope said inquisitively. “That seems to be his incarnation shard, as it slowly fuses with the core, his level increases. If it fuses with his core completely, he would jump to the next cultivation realm. The secrets of the spiritual path are very interesting, I wonder what the next level is called.”

“All that is interesting sis, but we are on the clock, now how do I break this thing.” Koren asked swiftly, maintaining a lock on someone else’s core was very difficult. More so in this case as Andre’s cultivation level was far higher than his own. If it weren’t for the nanites constantly tormenting Andre, he would never be able to visualise it.

“Easy, just let me take care of it.” Hope replied, with an evil grin plastered across her face.

Andre, who was already in tremendous pain, suddenly felt a jolt of pure agony ripple through his psyche.

Andre concentrated on his mind to visualise his spiritual core, and he saw it, he saw ‘her’. In front of his core stood a woman. It was a human woman, but she gave him a feeling even the princess failed to give him. A feeling of supremacy, a feeling of pure control. She made him feel so very helpless.

“Wha… what are you…” the pain kept coming in waves, he couldn’t even talk properly.

What he didn’t notice was the grin she carried on her face as she sent wave after wave of electrical energy surging towards his core. And before he could, it was already too late. His core cracked like an egg, and the shard simply floated towards the woman.

Outside, Andre coughed up blood and simply fainted. Hope’s image appeared in front of Koren. “It’s done, and I also managed to snag a souvenir.” Hope said waving a green shard in her hands. “Don’t worry, I will send it directly to the upgrade matrix. You don’t need to worry about it, now dump this guy and lets head to the border.”

Koren nodded and flew down towards Ipnak and the rest. He threw Andre towards their feet and said “ The matriarch is at the oasis, take him and meet up with them”

The metallic moths had already healed Ipnak completely, he too had started to lose his cultivation. The moths gathered around Koren and melted into his Armor.

“Big sis, teacher’s cultivation, what is happening.” Koren asked as he looked at Ipnak’s state.

“I don’t know, but now’s not the time, we will deal with this after we save the others.” Hope also appeared to be looking at Ipnak and Ranbu curiously. “Don’t worry, with me by your side, we will figure something out.”

Ipnak, who was still in his sand badger state, was looking at Koren confusedly. Ranbu, Yoji and the warriors all had the same look on their faces.

“Who are you, and why…” Ipnak was the first to speak, but was quickly cut short by Koren.

“No time, please go to the Oasis and stay put, the draconian’s have an ambush setup at the border, I have to go.” Koren said hurriedly, then he pointed at the unmoving body of Andre laid out around their feet and continued. “Keep him alive, he has important information. I have immobilised him, he won’t be a threat to anyone.”

Koren didn’t wait for any more questions, the helmet came back on and the repulsors fired, blasting him off the ground.

Koren looked towards his destination and spoke “Let’s go sis!”

The Plasma jets ejected, and fired out a brilliant blue flame, the space surrounding Koren rippled and he disappeared.

************

Sappa was standing next to the keel stone, he could feel the wind pick up, which was good as it would mean he would need less spiritual power.

He had met up with the other two ships from Guar and Yaris village. Only Guar had a Spiritualist on board, around the same age as Haruki. However this fellow was only level 4, so he couldn’t help him sail the ship. To use the Keel stone one needs a minimum level of 8, even Haruki had barely reached level 7. They abandoned the other two ships and decided to proceed on one ship, as it would be faster, and safer.

However, something had been bothering him for a while now, he couldn’t put a finger on it, but it was telling him to stop and go the other way. He had always been somewhat sensitive to danger, but then again it could mean Haruki would play another prank on him.

The ship had been sailing for two days now, the food and water was almost all gone. They couldn’t bring enough because they need other goods like pelts and spirit shards and spirit bones, these would be traded with the raavi to gain passage and residency.

Sappa had been to the border once with a trader when he was around the same age as Haruki, back then he was appalled by the extravagant prices of the Raavi, but he was also extremely glad. Glad that the Raavi wanted something from them, otherwise they wouldn’t have anyone to trade with, and get important medicine and tools.

Sappa looked ahead and could see a massive sand dune, it’s shadow giving the ship some much needed shade.

Sappa sighed.

This was the final hurdle, beyond this, he would be able to see the walled city of Kafir.

However, not everything goes according to plan. Just as he was about to input more spiritual power into the keel stone to pick up the speed, he felt the ship shudder, and then come to a complete stop.

“What!” Sappa was shocked, this should not have happened.

However the ship would not move, no matter how much spiritual power he pumped in the keel stone.

Dhum…

He felt the ship shake, and could tell that the rudder had been damaged.

“oh no” He yelled.

Sappa rushed towards the bell hanging near the lower deck and rang it furiously.

As he saw some children rush out of the lower decks, he shouted. “Everyone on the top deck. Out of the cabins now”

The doors stayed open, and all the children and women came out to the top deck, it seemed as if they had been trained of such a scenario.

“What happened bro, is it a spiritual beast” Haruki asked, with a muddled look on his face.

Next to him, Enri also had a confused expression. She was expecting Koren to have returned by now, but they hadn’t even reached the border city yet, and they were already in danger.

“I hope so. A normal spiritual beast is something I can deal with.” Sappa replied as he turned to look at the ships portside. “Because the alternative is much worse.”

…HisssssssS…

A loud hissing sound could be heard from the port side, as a massive claw erupted out and banged at the ship, it completely destroyed the section where the lower deck cabins would have been.

…HisssssssS…

The creature hissed again and a small tornado formed in the ships vicinity, taking up the sand with it, and trapping the ship within.

“What the hell is that thing.” Someone shouted, fear apparent in their voice.

“A wind type spiritual creature, and it seems to be fairly high level. There aren’t any wind type spiritual creatures in the goliath desert naturally so it can only mean… That this creature has a master.” Sappa stared back at the creature, sweat dripping from his brow. The ship was now floating on a bed of windy dust clouds, with its rudder and the central keel damaged. They wouldn’t be able to sail even if they wanted to.

“We’re trapped, and there’s nothing we can do about it.” Sappa said as he looked to Haruki.

“Haruki, remember the pommel I gave you.” Sappa whispered, his eyes not leaving the beast for a second.

“U huh” Haruki mumbled, he pulled Enri behind him, and looked around to spot Sumi standing next to her pregnant mother.

“Swallow the Pommel Haruki, don’t worry, I’m getting you to the city.” Sappa stated, his voice filled with desperation. “Somehow, someway, I am getting you there.”

The Cloud Komodo stared down at the humans in front of its eyes. If it wanted, it could swallow all of them in one bite, but it was under orders, and had to wait for its master to catch up.

It continued to hiss intermittently, causing the tornado to keep the ship trapped in its centre, and preventing anyone from the outside from looking in.

************

Ralf had his eyes closed, sweat was dripping from his temple, his feline ears standing erect and his furry tail wrapped around his waist.

Ralf was not a hegemonic Raavi, his bloodline was very mixed when compared with the other noble families.

The Raavi had many ethnic groups, the largest was the mixed group, who mostly had varying qualities, like feline qualities, and avian qualities. The smallest and the most powerful, was the Hegemonic ethnic group. They were known to be carriers of the bloodline of Rayvus himself.

Thousands of years ago, long before the time of Rayvus, the Raavi were savage beasts. They used to fight a lot, and didn’t acknowledge the other ethnic groups. They used to be known as the beast race. Back then the lizardmen, who later became the draconian’s, were also a part of the beast race. However, then Rayvus came.

Rayvus was from the ethnic group known as the colossal silver bears, and with him becoming a path walker, the entire bear blood line became the Hegemonic ethnic group.

Rayvus united the numerous ethnic groups of the beast race and established the Raavi. However, some ethnic groups decided to simply migrate elsewhere, like the lizardmen, and the merfolk.

Ralf had always been very proud of himself. He pushed his clan into the top 10, by his own hard work. It was proof that even the mixed ethnic group had Rayvus’s blessing.

Ralf was smiling as he floated exactly 1 meter off the ground, the soul stone on his forehead releasing a blue glow intermediately.

Surrounding him were 3 blue beads. The beads had some type of repulsion force, forcing them to move away from each other. Meanwhile Ralf was trying his best to bring them closer. Every now and then, they would release tiny bursts of blue lightning bolts, turning the small courtyard, into the host of a mini storm. Suddenly, Ralf opened his eyes, and the beads simply dropped on the ground. They lost their blue color and turned pure white, with the repulsive force gone, as if it was never there. The storm dissipated and only Ralf could be seen, still floating 1 meter off the ground, but with an ugly look on his face.

“I thought I told you not to disturb me while I train.” Ralf said angrily. “What is so important that it’s worth losing your head over.”

“General Arvo, the human ship was intercepted while it was climbing the pyros dunes.” The cleric gulped. “It was attacked by a spiritual beast”

“What did you say!!” Ralf turned around, his feet still not touching the ground.

“The human ship was attacked by a spiritual beast, it seems to be trapping them.” The cleric replied, as he dropped on his knees, not daring to look at Ralf directly.

Ralf’s brows creased as he floated down and his feet touched down on the wooden boards of his courtyard. He stared down at the cleric and asked. “What type of spiritual beast is it”

“Wind type, the ship is surrounded with a tornado.” The cleric replied, quickly. “It should be the draconian’s sir, they really did come.”

Ralf didn’t reply to that remark, the cleric gulped and finally looked up. He could see fire in the generals eyes, he just wanted to get out, so the general wouldn’t take it out on him.

“Immediately tell governor Lisandra to meet me at the wall, the security of the city will temporarily be in the hands of her nephew commander Kavain.” Ralf stated flatly. “We will escort the ship to the city.”

“Yes general” The cleric bowed twice before rushing out of the courtyard like someone set his bottom on fire.

Ralf gestured with his hand, and the three beads floated up and rushed into his open palm.

With the three beads in his hand, Ralf looked towards the sky.

“No one takes my prey from me” Ralf said with a determined look in his eyes. “NO ONE!!”