God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

"So what's the plan?" Cain said as he leapt backwards.

Most of the group had retreated to a safe enough distance, leaving just Cain, Boulder, Khan, and Lucia around the {Sand Wraith}.

Boulder frowned, "I don't know. Not yet. We'll have to buy time for now."

Cain let out a heavy breath,

"Understood..."

Cain charged forward, sword flashing in the dim lighting of the moon. The Sand Wraith loomed before him, its large sand-coated body towering over him like a mountain of despair. Staring into the thing's eyes, Cain could feel the horror made manifest.

However, he quickly shook it off.

Whatever fear he might have felt was transformed into a sickening drive to tear this thing open and discover its secrets.

He struck, his blade biting into the creature's shoulder. Sand poured out of the broken shoulder, but the Sand Wraith didn't flinch, its red eyes fixed on Cain with an unblinking stare.

Cain dodged to the side, avoiding a beam of crimson light that was shot out ot its other hand. The ground trembled as an arm of sand was created by the Sand Wraith. It slammed its fist into the earth, sending shockwaves through the sand.

A huge dust cloud billowed up, but Cain was more than prepared. He didn't need eyes to see.

Khan dashed forward as well, weaving complex symbols in the air with one hand, and brandishing his sword with the other.

Beams of light were shot from the edge of his blade, smashing against the body of the {Sand Wraith}.

With his other hand completing weaving the symbols, he grabbed the other sword strapped to his back and engaged the creature in close combat with Cain.

Both moved seamlessly between the gaps of the creature's attacks.

The {Sand Wraith's} main methods of attack were creating arms and claws from the surrounding sand, as well as that terrifying red beam of light.

The sand arms and claws were incredible dangerous, not because of the power behind them, but because of the sheer number and the freedom with which the creature could control them.

They were surrounded by a literal sea of sand, so there was infinite power for the creature to draw from.

Meanwhile, they on the other hand would only get worse as time went on.

Boulder's arrows flew toward the Sand Wraith, exploding violently the moment they penetrated the creature's body. However, since its body was made of sand, there was not much use for it. The creature's sand-body reformed, impervious to conventional attacks.

Cain clashed with the Sand Wraith, the claws and his sword meeting in a flurry of steel and sand. He was forced to take a step back, the force behind the creature's continuous attacks overwhelming.

"It's not just physical strength," Cain thought, gritting his teeth.

There's something more behind the blows of the {Sand Wraith}. It felt heavy, yet he couldn't interact with it.

Whatever it was, he couldn't be bothered to thing much about it.

If this was a normal creature, it would be dead ten times over already. The only reason it was still alive was its unusual nature.

Cain and Khan fell back as Boulder and Lucia peppered the {Sand Wraith} with bullets and arrows, slowing its advance.

Cain took this time to switch his weapons.

He summoned the {Hands of Midas}. They were already loaded with a magazine full of special exploding bullet.

Without hesitation, he began firing at the creature.

His eyes narrowed as he observed the changed,

'There are no changes. That thing is completely unaffected by physical attacks, even explosive ones.'

Seeing that the guns were doing him no good, he switched to {Wilted Tears}.

Twirling the staff between his fingertips, he summoned a plethora of {Flame Orbs}.

The tiny orbs of rotating flames were like stars in the night sky as they shot towards the {Sand Wraith}.

Still, he wasn't done. The {Flame Orbs} were powerful, but to take this thing out, he would need something more.

Amidst the volley of {Flame Orbs} another magic circle manifested into reality behind him.

The orbs of fire created from this magic circle flickered like true starts in the sky.

The moment they came in contact with the body of the {Sand Wraith}, they were able to do some damage.

"Yes! We finally have him!" Lucia exclaimed as she upped the ante, the barrel of her gun already red hot.

Boulder turned to Cain, his eyes wide with surprise. Even Cain himself was shocked.

'Is it the intensity of the spell that makes things different? Maybe even higher-tier spells will be more effective.'

Seeing as there was only one way to know this, Cain began preparing to cast another spell.

"Buy me some time." Cain said to Boulder.

If {Imploding Star} has worked so well, then he had a spell that might just do the trick.

With a nod, Boulder dashed forward, expertly firing arrows whilst dodging the ranged attacks of the {Sand Wraith}, effectively kiting it.

Khan was already under a lot of pressure now that Cain had left the front lines to him, so Boulder's presence was a huge lift of a burden.

Khan launched himself at the Sand Wraith, sword slicing through its body as swift as the wind. The creature retaliated, its sand-coated fists pummeling towards him.

He blocked each blow, his arms shaking under the force. The Sand Wraith's attacks were relentless, pushing Khan to his limits.

"I'm not sure how much longer I can do this." Khan said, sweat dripped from his brow, his breath becomes a bit haggard.

There was a shift in the air as Cain's desire to bring this to an end climbed up. A giant magic circle manifested into existence in the sky right above the {Sand Wraith}.

There had been little to no clouds , but the mana circle seemed to defy all logic as it pulled them in from somewhere.

The {Sand Wraith} seemed to sense something as it suddenly looked towards the sky.

Its evil eyes were filled with terror as it let out a scream comprising of a thousand voices. It immediately lunged forward at frightening speed, kicking Khan far away in the process.

"Crap!" Boulder fired two arrows into the thing's back, but they did far too little damage to be of any use.

The {Sand Wraith} was headed straight for Cain.

With its speed, it would reach him in less than a second.

However, there was no way it would be faster than lightning.

'Heavenly Blue Lightning!'

The lightning struck down to the earth like a God's command.

The sandy specter was immediately incinerated down to nothingness, leaving only shards of blackened glass.

***

{Congratulations to Host. You have slain a Tier 1, Deadly-grade Sand Wraith}.

***

Cain let out a breath of tense air before dismissing {Wilted Tear} and falling to the ground.

Although the battle hadn't lasted long, it felt as though it had.

'So its weaknesses were fire and lightning. Fire has some damage, but not as much as lightning.'

He frowned, 'Is that the weakness of the {Sand Wraith}, or souls in general?'

Most creatures suffered relatively when exposed to the flame and lightning elements. Some more, some less...

What was most strange about the {Sand Wraith}, was the difference between its reaction to flames, and lightning.

Although the flames did do some damage, it was just a little big better than the damage caused by physical attacks, which was not a lot. The reason {Imploding Star} could deal far greater damage than the explosion from the {Dark Eggs}, or the {Flame Orbs}, was because of a single, simple reason.

The nature of the spell itself...

{Imploding Star} was a fire attribute spell. However, its effects were not limited to just producing flames. Different kinds of elemental spells exist, and those that could affect space directly without being of the Spatial attribute were quite rare.

{Imploding Star} was one such spell. It gathered a set amount of flames into one area, just like the {Flame Orbs} spell, and kept condensing it until the space was unable to hold the mana, leading to an implosion rather than an explosion.

The implosion affecting space was capable of damaging the {Sand Wraith} even if it was just a little bit.

{Heavenly Blue Lightning} on the other hand, was far more effective. It had simply eradicated the {Sand Wraith} from existence.

Without a solid physical body to protect it from the terrible power of the lightning, the {Sand Wraith} didn't stand a chance in the slightest.

"It's over... Just like that?" Lucia said, still breathing heavily.

She gritted her teeth as she stared around her.

'Useless...'

Khan let out a groan as he picked himself off the ground,

"That hurt more than I expected..."

Boulder sighed as he walked over to Khan,

"Well done. You did good."

Khan chuckled, "Insure those words aren't meant for me. Cain-"

His eyes suddenly widened as he stared at Cain.

Boulder seemed to sense something wrong as well.

Cain was still seated where he had collapsed to the ground. However, something seemed off about him.

It was as though...

Khan quickly rushed over. It was as he had feared.

He gritted his teeth,

"He... He's losing vitality fast!"

When Cain activated {Blood Restitution} he had used himself as the source to draw the power from, as the environment they were in wasn't very rich with blood elemental mana.

In doing so, he had severely overestimated himself.

Cain stared blankly at the white sand as he tried hard to stay conscious. The moment he fell unconscious, he would die.

'I'd rather that not happen again." He thought to himself.

He could feel the cold become worse by the second. Truly, dying never became any easier.

Just when he thought it was all over, a subtle warmth washed over him.

The cold rapidly faded away, and his strength slowly began to return.

His eyes fluttered open as he stared at the white sand once more.

Khan heaved a sigh of relief,

"Damn it. I thought we lost you."

Cain chuckled, "I don't die so easily."

Looking up, he saw Boulder and Lucia still on good condition. The others were already walking over. They looked a bit shaken up, but they were all relatively okay for the most part.

'Still...'

Once again, they had suffered casualties. This time, there were no corpses to bury. They could only say their prayers silently and move on.