“LEAVE NO SKULLIES ALIVE, SAND-BOIS!! MAKE ‘EM ALL PAY FOR WHAT THEY DID TO OUR LAND!!!” Anubrax shouted passionately, surrounded by chaos and violence in the middle of a city-turned-battlefield Megadon.

A group of Skull Clan soldiers came charging at the Sandking with their blades, only to be slashed in half from a powerful swing of Anubrax’s oversized chain-a-rang blade.

Rounds after rounds of gunshots, manic screaming, ear-deafening explosions and clashing of steel thundered the city square- a far cry from it’s former serene atmosphere. The denizens of Megadon retreated to underground bunkers and secret shelters while their soldiers battled with all their might and will against their unexpected attackers.

Although they managed to catch the skullies off guard with their sudden full-out assault, the rebels and the sand-bois still had trouble against the technologically superior Skull Clan army as well as their bigger numbers in the city.

But with the Skull Clan’s key barracks, defense towers, weapons depot, and several other important buildings that could bring them great advantage in defending their city collapsed to smithereens, the sand-rebel union was able to keep up against their enemies. That, and the fact that Anubrax alone could solo several dozens and perhaps hundreds of the skullies allowed the tide of battle to favour the assaulters.

Observing all this chaos from afar and from his palace was the emperor of the Skull Clan itself; Yakh’juj-khan. The emperor was enraged without a doubt- seeing his beloved capital raided by these fools. Thus, he too took action to save his city- but not in a direct manner.

Waving his right hand that carried his twin-tipped energy sword towards the city square in front, Yakh’juj-khan’s flaming eyes glowed brighter for a moment as if he was channeling his power upon the area observed by him.

“HAHAHA!! THAT’S RIGHT SKULLIES! KEEP RUNNIN’ INTO MY BLADE!-” Anubrax stabbed an unlucky skully that happened to stumble upon the Sandking, before punching him off and sending him flying hundreds of feet away.

Right at that moment, another skully appeared into the scene and challenged the Sandking for battle. The skully however, rode a power-suit equipped with chainsaw hands, shoulder mounted flamethrowers, and a power claw capable of tearing off armoured vehicles. The armoured skully charged at the Sandking who looked at him happily before blitzing the robotic suit with a mighty hammer fist to the head, smashing right through its solid-steel helm and into the rider's skull.

With the skully operating the power suit dead, Anubrax simply grabbed the eight-feet robot and judo-throw it to an oncoming skully technical, smashing the vehicle as it crashed right by his side.

“COME ON SKULL CLAN!! I’M IN YA HOME AND THIS THE BEST YA CAN GIVE ME!!?” Anubrax taunted.

“I know you're probably the last person I’d be advising this to, but I suggest you refrain from taunting our enemies too much,” Sir Copperhead interrupted out of nowhere, wielding a classy steampunk shotgun to shoot down the skullies throughout this war. “We may have sabotaged some of their important facilities, but I doubt they would put their biggest guns out here in the open. Best we not provoke early on.”

“HAH! YA CLEARLY KNOW NOTHING ABOUT CLAN WARS IN THIS PLANET COPPER-MAN! SO WHAT IF THEY GOT BIGGER GUNS!? THEM SKULLIES BETTER BE USING IT NOW THEN, CUZ ME AND MY BOIS ARE SPILLING MORE OF THEIR BLOOD THAN OURS!!!”

There and then, the sky became dark and cloudy as if a storm was about to strike the place. Of course, a drizzle of thunder and lightning won’t stop both sides from their violent war, but everything soon changed when Anubrax, Copperhead, and the rest of their army noticed an orange glow shining from the sky.

The orange glow above grew bigger and bigger until finally, a vast monstrous face made solely out of flames shone from the sky and came crashing down to the city square below. Anubrax and Copperhead ran away just in time before the fiery face crashed to the ground, creating a towering mushroom cloud explosion like that of a nuke. Wave of fire blew out from the crash, burning quite a number of rebels and sand-bois while the rest took cover from the flames. Once everything settled, everyone came out from their hidings and was greeted with a towering 30 meter tall elemental monster made purely out of flames.

“Welp, there’s your bigger gun,” Copperhead remarked.

“HRUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

[ FIRE ELEMANTAL ]

The Bigger Gun!

Yakh’juj-khan observed the attackers struggle against the fire elemental with content. His eyes dimmed back to its normal glow, and the emperor simply left the scene of his throne room to join up his army on the lower floor of the palace below.

****

Somewhere inside the palace, the guards were taken by surprise as a group of 50 suddenly appeared inside the building, running and gunning whatever skullies they stumbled upon. This group was led by Boratheus, ie, the same group that exploded all the important buildings from the sewers minutes ago.

*BANG!* *BANG!*

*BANG!* *BANG!*

“So boss, where the hell are we going exactly?” Mehmet Alai asked Boratheus.

“I’m gonna be honest with ya, I have no idea,” the boar-man replied. “Communications gone cuz screw the signal! So we might as well create as much chaos as we can while we’re at it!”

While most of the rebel union jumped into the tiger’s mouth and battled the skullies outside, Boratheus and his group found themselves balls-deep inside the tiger instead. They could try to rejoin with those outside but they decided that it would be more beneficial if they just steer havoc inside the palace- just to mess with the Skull Clan even more.

Because of that, Boratheus’s group ended up splitted into several groups, each going on their own paths navigating the enormous palace. Just as planned, they all went to create as much mess as they could against the palace skullies.

Boratheus’s subgroup arrived in a dining hall where a group of skull face-tattooed but fine suit-wearing palace waiters and chefs greeted them with mounted machine guns and literal knife-launchers. Boratheus’s group took cover behind pillars and kicked down tables as both sides exchanged fire in this half-expected encounter.

*BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!*

-Chak!- -Chak!- -Chak!- -Chak!-

“HAH! THEY RAN OUT OF AMMO BOYS! GET ‘EM-” Boratheus was about to get up and lead a charge against the kitchen staff only to be greeted by the kitchen personnels charging at them with chainsaws, lightsabers, and chainsaw-lightsabers.

Both sides fought hard once more but with grit, strength, and plot-demand, Boratheus and his men emerged victorious.

“Phew! Freaking hell- I ain’t gonna ask the bill for all of this. Let’s get the hell outta here!” Boratheus ordered as they all moved to leave the dining hall.

Out of nowhere, a muffled but loud stomp-like sound was heard coming from the ceiling above. They all stopped and pointed their guns to the ceiling above, shaking hardly everytime the ‘stomp’ was heard.

-pumf!-

-Poomf!-

-PooomF!-

-POOOOMF!!-

*CRAAASHHH!!!*

The ceiling above burst into cloud and debris as an individual crashed right through it and landed in the middle of the room. The cloud of dust quickly settled revealing the individual to be none other than Yakh’juj-khan himself.

“HOLY SHIT!- OPEN FIRAAA!!!”

Boratheus and his men immediately unloaded rounds after rounds at the cyborg skeleton emperor, who didn’t even bother to move an inch as the bullets simply deflected and bounced off its ogunite-steeled body. Yakh’juj-khan stared at them silently, counting the number of enemies inside the room both hidden and standing in plain sight. With all targets identified, the emperor drew out his energy sword, and immediately jumped into action.

In a blink of an eye and one mighty slash, the emperor’s blade sliced through four- five- SIX of Boratheus’s men who shot at him some distance away. Yakh’juj’s teleporting-like speed greatly intimidated his enemies, who backed off some distance away only to be greeted with an oversized energy blade stabbed right through their hearts immediately after.

Kill after kill, slash after slash, the emperor’s movement speed was so great that only a mere blur was left of him every time he closed in on his victims- all the while producing sonic booms that thundered the room and shattered the glass windows.

Some of Boratheus’s men started chugging bombs and shooting grenade launchers at Yakh’juj in a desperate attempt to put the emperor down. All of it proved futile however as the emperor simply brushed off the explosion, barely flinching him in the first place.

In great desperation, one of Boratheus’s men pulled out an anti-tank rocket launcher and aimed it at the emperor. He opened fire without hesitation in hopes of putting the cyborg emperor down, and to everyone’s dismay (and sort of expectation), Yakh’juj-khan not only survived it-

-he caught the rocket fired at him with his bare left hand.

“Foolish mortals! Dare to fight a god with mere toys!-” Yakh’juj’s left hand glowed, charging up the rocket he held with more and more power-

“I command you KNEEL!!!”

Yakh’juj slammed the power-charged rocket to the floor with all his might. In a split second, the whole dining hall exploded gloriously with a blinding purple glow. The walls and the entire floor collapsed, as everyone in the room fell through ceiling/floor after ceiling/floor below, until finally crashing onto the lowest ground.

“ *cough!* *cough!* Ugh… That sonuva beach…” Boratheus groaned, getting up with pain crawling all over his body. He found himself surrounded by fallen concrete, settling debris, and all of his allies dead and scattered throughout the area.

-Thump!-

A loud stomp alerted Boratheus who immediately turned around-

“GAGHK!!”

-and got choke-lifted by a seemingly unharmed Yakh’juj-khan, appearing suddenly right in front of the boar-man.

“..aghk..yesunova..aghk…”

“Keep on cursing me, pig. Makes your death all the much swifter,” Yakh’juj commented as he squeezed Boratheus’s throat harder.

Boratheus’s consciousness began to slip away, his sight growing fader and fader as his life was within complete grasp of the iron emperor’s grip. Yakh’juj would and could’ve just crushed the boar-man’s neck there and then, but his sadistic desires demanded to watch his victim suffer before they die. An addiction the skull emperor had since the early days of his rule.

-Vrooooom!-

Because of his unnecessary sadism though, Yakh’juj-khan unintentionally made himself open for a surprise ambush. Right at the last second, the emperor sensed something charging towards him on his left, forcing him to loosen his choke on Boratheus and stopping the charging object with his bare left hand.

*CRASH!*

The charging object turned out to be a silver hoverbike, ramming Yakh’juj’s open palm at full speed causing the emperor to be pushed a few inches back. And riding the hoverbike was none other than the duo; Mako and Fyra.

“Grrhh!” Yakh’juj grunted, releasing both Boratheus and the Silverbolt from his grip as he dashed past the two at near-mach speed.

Boratheus was dropped to the floor, coughing and regaining his breath, while Mako and Fyra overshot their ride before quickly stopping and getting down from their bike.

“Remember me, Yakh’juj-khan? It’s been four years since you’ve taken away my mama! FOUR YEARS!!” Mako shouted angrily.

“You need to be more specific, kid. I’ve killed lots of mothers throughout my life.”

“Oh I can help with that-” Fyra stepped forward, showing off her clan’s insignia on her chestplate- “do you recall, emperor? My clan that you razed at Tuskhorn Range!”

“Tuskhorn Range… I recall doing a conquest there, yes. But I recalled no great battle-”

“-and no significant individual to be worth remembering in our encounter.”

His cold reply deeply angered Fyra, but she maintained her composure, still waiting for the right time for strike.

“But in all honesty, no. I have no idea who you two are- which goes to show how WORTHLESS you both are to me!!”

Yakh’juj dashed towards the duo without warning, but Mako was quick to react as he threw a flashbang right at the last second. The flash stunned the emperor for a split second, buying enough time for the duo to reposition some distance away.

Irritated, Yakh’juj turned to face the duo and slapped Boratheus away from the scene after his futile attempt of stopping him from engaging the kids. Yakh’juj drew out his sword and blasted wave after wave of energy-slash projectiles by simply swinging his sword gracefully in thin air. Mako and Fyra dodged all of it of course, but the slashes were merely a distraction that allowed the emperor to close in immediately in front of the two.

Yakh’juj threw a powerful upward slash, slicing through the marble floor below and sending a chunk of concrete and dirt flying to the air. The duo rolled away right on time but once again, it was merely a set up as Yakh’juj immediately followed up by stabbing the ground with his glowing charged up power.

The whole area began to quake as cracks after cracks formed on the ground below. Not long after, a purplish-flame erupted from the cracks like geysers, sending concrete and bodies flying while reducing them to mere ash. In panic, Mako quickly digistructed Silverbolt as the duo rode and dodged the geysers of purple flames. They didn’t run away though, and instead charged right at the emperor in front.

“I commend your courage, children! Please entertain me more-” Yakh’juj caught the hoverbike once more but this time with both of his hands. He casually lifted the accelerating bike with the two riders on it and threw them all hundreds of yards to his side.

“We can do this all day…” the emperor taunted sinisterly.

Mako un-digistruct his bike just in time right before their crash, causing him and Fyra to be the only ones falling to the courtyard they’ve been thrown into without destroying the Silverbolt as well. Both of them got up in pain and noticed Yakh’juj approaching them slowly, as if mocking them for their weakness.

Such mockery was taken as an opportunity though as the duo charged straight for the emperor, who welcomed them by drawing out his sword.

-Fwooosh!-

Yakh’juj swung his blade horizontally, intending to slice both kids in half with one swing. The duo dodged however with the witch sliding onwards right between and below his leg, while the devil jumped up high with the thrust of her fire-blasting shin guards.

Realizing his mistake, Yakh’juj failed to dodge as Mako shot his Boomthorn shotgun right at his groin while Fyra unleashed a stream of fire to his face. The witch’s enchanted bullets froze the emperor in his place as he received a full five seconds of flame brushing through his head. Yakh’juj’s cyborg body allowed him to tank both of this of course, but his pride was greatly damaged for allowing it to happen in the first place.

And so, the emperor retaliated and freed himself from both ice and fire with a simple flex. The duo’s onslaught was not done yet though. Mako threw a pipe bomb to Yakh’juj’s face, and just as he hoped for, sliced the bombs in defence. The pipe bombs did not explode but instead released loads of green-coloured gas that immediately covered the emperor’s proximity. Fyra took a step back and blasted a fireball to the emperor, igniting the cloud of gas as well as the skully emperor inside-

*BOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!*

Immediately, a powerful explosion occured from the gas’s ignition. An explosion so powerful it created a flaming mushroom cloud reaching hundreds of meters high.

“Hah, this feeling… I remember who you are now, witch!” Yakh’juj spoke from inside the flame.

-Fwooosh!-

In a flash, the cloud of fire disappeared as Yakh’juj swiped it off with his sword, creating a gust of wind that nearly blew Mako and Fyra off from their feet.

“I don’t know if you two are children, or successors for those two, but that doesn’t matter-” Yakh’juj drew his sword back into its holster- “I’ll still play around with you both. Just more seriously…” Yakh’juj clapped his hand once, much to the duo’s confusion.

All of a sudden, the area surrounding them began to quake violently. The ground begins to crack, walls and structures chipped off slab by slab- the usual outcome from a powerful earthquake.

This one was different however as much to the duo’s surprise, the collapsed concrete and debris began to float upwards to the sky above. Cracks formed in the sky, space around them began to distort in a twist, wormholes after wormholes formed randomly here and there, sucking in everything. It was as if the very fabric of reality surrounding them started to collapse under the emperor’s command.

Yakh’juj simply laughed at the duo’s dismay. He himself cracked like a mirror and shattered to millions of pieces, disappearing from the scene.

In panic, Mako and Fyra reached out to each other but were intercepted instantly by a powerful gust of sand, blowing them both away as they were sent flying into the void behind.

****

“HRUAAAAAAAGH!!!!”

*BOOOOM!!*

“GAAAAH!!” a group of rebels shrieked, fleeing from the scene as the giant fire elemental crushed their armoured vehicle effortlessly with a stomp, causing a massive explosion and gust of fire that burned quite a huge area. The elemental laughed at their dismay before grabbing another rebel vehicle and chugging it to his enemies below.

An hour passed since the sand-gang/rebel assault team encountered the 30-meter tall fire elemental that crashed down from the sky seemingly out of nowhere. They unloaded everything they had against the monster; bullets, rockets, chain-axes, furniture, and even each other yet none of it seemed to significantly damage the monster. How could they? It’s literally made solely out of flames.

They’ve tried dousing the elemental with water by bombing the creature with rockets that explode out water (don’t ask why they brought it in the first place) but it still remained futile. The body counts were increasing dramatically for the sand-bois/rebel’s side, and it didn’t help that backup skullies had now arrived into the scene.

“I’m gonna be honest with you gentlemen, I’ve accounted for many situations we might face in our assault, as well as plans to counter against it-” Copperhead confessed, taking cover inside a barricaded crater alongside Anubrax and Chief Oda- “THIS IS NOT ONE OF THOSE SITUATIONS!!”

“I GET YA MUSTACHE-MAN! WHERE THE F*** DID THIS THING EVEN CAME!!” Anubrax vented.

“Lord help us! I really should’ve seen this one coming!” Oda spoke out. “We really should’ve prepped more if we’re gonna deal with someone capable of controlling reality!”

Anubrax and Copperhead turned their heads to Oda.

“Excuse me? Capable of controlling what now?” Copper asked.

“You heard me right. The emperor, Yakh’juj-khan, with all the Delirnium powers he had gathered, is said to be able to ‘control reality’ by his will!” Oda explained enthusiastically. “Space, nature, elements, ALL OF IT! That’s how he screwed us up decades ago, and now he’s doing it again!”

“THEN WHY IN SCORPEX’S FART DIDN’T YA TELL US EARLIER!!” Anubrax grabbed Oda’s collar angrily.

“Now now gentlemen! This is no place for us to fight each other! Yes, Chief Oda screwed up by withholding CRUCIAL information, but we need to remain focused in our battle!” Copperhead snapped. “Now, one problem at a time. How are we gonna defeat that big-fire-thing?”

The trio peaked over the barricade and observed the fire elemental wreaking havoc against their men, hoping to spot some weaknesses from the scorching creature.

“Let’s see, gentlemen. It is definitely scary-”

“AND BIG-”

“And flamey-”

The trio gazed at the chaos unfolding in front of them for a good five minutes.

“Yeah, I’m not seeing shit,” Oda confessed. “What now?”

“BAH F*** IT! WE JUST KEEP SHOOTING UNTIL THAT THING’S DEAD!!”

“Wait, Sandking- no!” Copperhead tried to stop Anubrax, but nothing’s stopping the Sandking at this point who got out from the crater and charged straight to the elemental with his chain-a-rang blade out. The Sandking chopped and slashed away any skullies that got in his way, and immediately took off jumping straight towards the elemental’s chest.

“ORAAAAAAAAAAA!!!” Anubrax pointed his blade forward mid-air as he tried to stab the elemental right in its heart.

Unfortunately, the elemental opened up its flaming chest causing the Sandking to leap right through it, stabbing pretty much nothing. In anger, Anubrax turned around and threw his blade to the monster before crashing to the ground below. The Sandking’s chain-a-rang flew into and across through the elemental’s flaming body, before returning to Anubrax’s hand once more.

“HRUUAAAAAGHHHH!!” the elemental roared angrily.

Right at this moment however, Anubrax, as well as Copperhead and Chief Oda noticed some spherical objects falling out of the elemental’s body, with some of it conveniently landing right in front of the three.

“Wait, that looks like…”

“...drones?” Copperhead finished Oda’s sentence, and true to their assumptions, the spherical objects did turn out to be drones.

Copperhead poked the crashed drone out of curiosity when it suddenly shot out bullets, firestream, zaps of electricity, micro-missile barrage, and most importantly, displayed holograms of random objects and events from its turret and camera. Immediately, revelation struck the three leaders at the same time.

“There’s no such thing as the emperor controlling reality-” Copperhead spoke.

“ALL AIN’T NOTHING BUT BOTS!!!” Anubrax exclaimed from the other side, conveniently completing the gentleman’s sentence.

“I knew it! I know for sure Delirnium contains great power, but all this reality, and time-space warping are nothing more but bullshit superstition!” Copper concluded before kicking away the drone for some reason. "HANG ON ANUBRAX! WE'LL HELP YOU GET OUT OF THERE!!"

"HAH! NO NEED!! I CAN HANDLE THIS MYSELF!!" Anubrax backflipped right as a Bertha drove past behind him, entering said Bertha (with style!) that turned out to be driven by none other than his second-in-command, Von Petrol.

"WHERE'S OL' RELIABLE, VON!?"

"Right behind ya boss, underneath the passenger seat."

Anubrax leapt to the passenger seat behind and grabbed his Ol' reliable on the floor, which turned out to be his signature shoulder-mounted gauss cannon.

"HAHAH! NOW GET ME CLOSE TO THAT THING!! WE GONNA BLOW UP EVERY ONE OF ITS DAMN BOTS INSIDE ITS BOD!!"

"YES BOSS!" Von drifted the armoured truck hard, turning around to close in to the elemental to give Anubrax a clear shot. Von drove the Bertha skillfully as he dodged everything the elemental threw at them; from fireballs, to other vehicles and even an entire building.

The Bertha circled around the fire elemental quite awhile, failing to find the right spot for the Sandking to fire his cannon. His gauss cannon could only shoot once every 10 minutes, hence Anubrax could not risk shooting from an angle that didn't have a 100% chance of hitting. They had to keep on moving until they could get a guaranteed shot at the monstrous elemental.

"GODDAMN THIS THING! CAN IT JUST STOP MOVING AROUND JUST FOR A SEC!!"

"Hey boss, I've got an idea. I saw a ramp we just passed by a few yards back. What if we ride across the ramp and dive straight into that thing's mouth?" Von suggested.

"AND RISK BLOWING OURSELVES UP AS WELL?"

"..yes..?"

"..."

"..."

"LETS GOOOOOO!!!"

"LETS GOOOOO!!!"

Von turned the vehicle around and headed straight for the ramp he mentioned before. Without a single care in the world, he drove the Bertha across the upward inclined ramp at full speed, sending their truck flying towards the fire elemental's face.

The elemental greeted them as it opened its hellish jaws to consume them whole. Right there and then, Anubrax stood up from his seat with the upper half of his body out through the roof window-

-and fired his gauss cannon right into the elemental's mouth!

"NYAWM!! HM?"

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!*

The fire elemental bursted into a mountainous explosion and thundered the place with a boom rivalling Krakatoa. Hundreds of spherical drones rained from the sky, crashing to the ground below as the giant monster was no more.

The sand-gang/rebels cheered and hollered for their leader's victory, pushing their raid onwards now that the tide of war favoured them once more.

"STRAIGHT TO THE PALACE VON!! WE END THIS ONCE AND FOR ALL!!!"

"AYE BOSS!"

Anubrax and Von's Bertha crashed to the ground on its wheel right after pulling off the stunt. Without a second to waste, they headed straight to the emperor's palace to confront the emperor of the Skull Clan himself.