"Captain, we've received news.
The fleet sailing the sea did not stray far from the shores of a large and long continent. Soldiers marching in strict formation polished their combat equipment and repaired catapults, while those standing behind spyglasses scanned the shore and peered out to sea. There was no sign of the former disappointment and loss of morale. After the defeat off the coast of Shen Guan, when three ships were forced to sail away to regroup with the rest of the fleet, Captain Masaru took full responsibility for getting the soldiers back on their feet.
He did not lash out at his own men or further crush their morale on the steel deck of the metal ships. They had already exhausted themselves during simple raids, so after reporting the failure of the mission and settling in the nearest colony, he gave his men a treat, allowing them to rest in hot springs and entertain themselves with girls. Then he applied the whip, forcing them to return to absolute subordination, including putting them through harsh magical training. And now, a new order: set sail and find the Sand Mage. Masaru clearly understood that the failure of the last mission had dealt a serious blow to the command's plans, and that the unknown enemy had pushed them back from all positions and even liberated the territories around Omasu. The source of the problem had to be eliminated.
But this time, he sent a request to headquarters that would turn the current situation upside down.
"Will they send us reinforcements?" Captain Masaru squinted as he read the letter delivered by the hawk. "A special operations group from the Fire Nation army. They've already figured out the target's location. These guys are pros... heh."
"The mage will pass along the southern shore, most likely heading for Gaolin. We will only have one chance to intercept him when he is bypassing the mountains. Further on stands the Earth People's army, which will not let any of our ships through.
"Excellent... A smile spread across the man's face, eager to settle such a large-scale problem. "I hope we're lucky and it starts raining again.
***
"Damn weather, how I hate you! - Forced to trudge along on my own two feet, I skirted the large mountain range that had cut me off from my next destination, Gaolin. My obvious plan was to use a sand scooter to cover the enormous distance that would take anyone without transport more than a week to walk. I had become so accustomed to it that I could even use it in light rain, drying the wet sand. But when the rain became so heavy that the sand couldn't dry, sticking together and refusing to accelerate, I realised how much Mother Nature disliked me.
My only means of transportation was the "stone waves" rising from the ground, which allowed me to "surf" to my destination, albeit not very quickly. It took a lot more effort and strained my legs, but at least it was some kind of substitute for transportation.
"R-r-rya! " growled Afka, dissatisfied, wrapping herself around my neck. While it was so cold outside, I had to use her to keep warm. Her warm, soft fur tickled my neck and made me feel as comfortable as possible. And as I snuggled up to her warm tail, I felt a sense of moral satisfaction.
"Don't whine. I'm protecting you from the rain," I said, as a gesture of mutual cooperation, using my crystal dome to let it levitate above his head. Although it was incredibly difficult — I had to move the object at the same speed I was running — it allowed me to diversify my methods of using earth. An entire organisation demonstrated how useful this skill was, manipulating stone gloves at a distance from themselves — I was, of course, referring to Dai Li from the canon. I often recalled their skills and acknowledged their mastery, striving to reach the same level. Moreover, it could be called remote defence.
"AF!" my fox cried out sharply as a fast-moving object appeared at the edge of my vision. Without looking, I automatically defended myself by putting my umbrella in its path. Only a moment later did I realise that it was a huge stone from a catapult. Or rather, a cascade of stones that rained down on my location.
Bang-bang-bang-bang*
Hitting the crystal shield, it literally launched it in my direction, landing around me and scattering piles of small stones, causing a tremor and knocking me off balance. The projectiles almost knocked me down and sent me to the next world. My own shield, caught by the "meteorite," could have turned my body into a pulp. Only my trained levitation saved the day.
The stones that almost pierced me and pierced my body froze in the air; my arms stretched out towards the crystal shield, and my legs pressed tightly into the hardened ground again - I took the blow of the crystal shield on my body. The giant ball pressing down on me forced me back several metres, my bones creaked, and my muscles tore, forming bruises. But putting all my strength into slowing down, I finally managed to stop. It was sudden... and painful.
Swift* Swift*
But even more unexpected was the sound of a bow being fired. The rain muffled any sound and greatly interfered with my weak seismic senses, but the habit of acting faster than my mind remained from my time in the cave. In an instant, I shifted my crystal shield and deflected a swift arrow that nearly pierced my head, breaking off against the hard material. It took me less than a second to realise that I had been attacked. Another second to look in the direction of the attacker and, through the heavy rain, make out an archer sitting on some kind of large rhinoceros.
At that moment, a whole squad appeared from behind the mound. Including the archer, there were five people in total, riding fast beasts. Four of them were holding some kind of weapon, the same bow, a glaive, a chain with a weight, and sticks of dynamite. The last one, grinning insolently, simply exhaled hot steam from his nose, causing the moisture to partially evaporate. "So you're the Sand Mage who drove an entire army out of the Omash territories? You don't look so important," the members of the squad sneered and began to surround me. Their keen eyes searched for a weak spot, and their cautious behaviour revealed their experience in fighting earth mages. "You won't be able to use your favourite element. You won't be able to run away like you love to do.
Ugh... At that moment, I was in intense pain, and it was difficult to even lift my arms. Quick movements were not for me, and my legs were burning. This was the consequence of not focusing enough on the strength aspect of earth magic, and I was unable to properly block a single stone thrown by a catapult. You'd think it could easily break stone walls.
The captain's words were only meant to distract me from the leader of the group, a fire mage. The others quickly surrounded me and immediately used a well-rehearsed combination: the guy with the dynamite simply threw a whole bundle in my direction without even lighting it. A soldier with a chain swung at my legs, while the captain struck the air with his hand, causing a stream of fire to engulf the bundle of dynamite.
Yes, if I had withstood the previous blow, I would have caused an earthquake and scattered everyone with stone columns. Now I am very slow. I could only rely on control, so I would have to survive without making a single muscle movement. Controlling the still intact levitating shield, I shielded myself from the instant explosion of the bundle of dynamite - the stream of fire simply bypassed me, while the crystal shield finally cracked. A pumpkin filled with sand stood in the way of the chain that almost wrapped around my legs, and I simply threw it away like unnecessary ballast. All the stone fragments that had almost hit me and were still hanging in the air suddenly accelerated and were drawn towards me.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh*
A quick shot of buckshot rained down on the soldiers' backs, knocking two men — an archer and a grenadier — off their rhinos and leaving huge bruises on their bodies. The animals themselves were completely driven away, frightened by the powerful blow, and scattered. As soon as the remaining members of the group looked at the crystal shield in shock, it split into many smaller crystals. The fact that I had developed control since childhood and literally commanded thousands of particles allowed me to use levitation without hand movements - I just pushed and pulled.
"Your fire is also weak in this weather, mage," I said, scattering the crystals and throwing them straight at the remaining guys, who didn't even have time to show their abilities. The captain tried to fight back with flashes of light, but he couldn't destroy anything - he was knocked down and then began to be encased in jammonyte, just like all the other members of his team.
"Wh-what?!" the shocked mage cried out as I slowly approached and stopped the crystal from spreading.
"Rejoice. If I had let it grow further, it would have reached your mouth and nose first, started to grow deeper, covering the walls of your insides and crystallising your muscles. The slightest damage would have caused a wound, into which the crystal could also have grown, taking over all your internal organs. And then, one strong blow, and you would have shattered into a thousand bloody pieces.
I whispered in the ear of the chained man, who couldn't even move. I made him tremble with fear and shit his pants until his last desire to fight me was extinguished by the threat of survival. It was even sad how many people had been subjected to this feeling, but I could play with it so as not to kill anyone. However, not all problems had been solved yet. Turning towards the sea, I saw three ships, some of which were familiar. Not that they were very different from each other, but only one person was using catapults to throw stones at me.
"... Momentum is a surprisingly dangerous force. Earth mages use something similar," I finally deigned to raise my hands, grimacing slightly in pain. During this pass, sand poured out of my pumpkin, immediately solidifying into very large, approximately one and a half metres in diameter, and very thick - one centimetre - abrasive circular saws. Such a hard material was not very susceptible to rain, and when accelerating, it could not even notice it.
And the highly spun object had the amazing property of flying further. Pointing two super-spun circular saws towards the horizon, I turned to Afka.
"Aim. Don't let the dog miss," I directed my hands according to the spirit's instructions, made a quick swing with my palms, and sent them straight into my opponent's ship.
BANG* BANG*
After travelling a hundred metres, my projectiles dug into the stern of the ship, cutting through the metal hull. The material, which was designed to cut through metal, could have split the ship in pieces — but only if I had been close enough. From a distance, I could only form new discs and send them flying under Afka's precise guidance.As soon as I had damaged all three ships, putting their ability to stay afloat in doubt, they began to sail away briskly. Yes, I didn't sink them, which is a pity, but I attacked more to intimidate them. Still, if my abrasive discs had penetrated more than halfway at a distance of a couple of hundred metres, I would not only have instantly become the strongest mage capable of destroying anything, but there would also have been a high risk of killing someone. However...
"I bet I cut half the crew to pieces? - I turned to my chained enemies, scaring them even more," - Oh... Afka, did they lose consciousness?
"Pfft.
"I think I overdid it... Ouch, don't poke me, my whole body hurts. Good thing I made ALL kinds of first aid medicine for situations like this in advance. And you looked at me like I was crazy, so who's right now, huh? I can predict everything that will happen to me, I'm an elemental of prediction!
***
The fleet entering the port caught the attention of all the Fire soldiers. The damage they saw for the first time in their lives evoked some terrible thoughts; the puffing and worn-out engines, working at full power, made it clear that they were using all their power to get away from something as quickly as possible.
People crowded around the people disembarking on the pier, staring open-mouthed at the large, thin discs protruding from the stern of the steel cruisers. Everyone noticed the similarity of these discs to the shells often used by earth mages. They resembled thick coins, and when spun up to speed, they could inflict critical damage on even a tank and break a person's entire body. But these were different in their... compactness. Moreover, as could be seen, they were no less powerful — perhaps even more so.
"Captain Masaru?" The man who had stepped forward, followed by several girls with strict bearing, glanced at the returning captain with a frown. "What happened? You had orders to capture the Sand Mage. Did you attack the garrison near Gaolin?"
His voice was disappointed, with a hint of anger. But Masaru's devastated, fear-filled gaze pinned the base commander to the ground.
"Garrison? No... it wasn't him," soldiers descended from the deck of the ship, their eyes devoid of any fighting spirit. The despair emanating from them permeated all the observers. "One Sand Mage took out a flotilla four hundred metres from the shore in a matter of seconds.
"What... Nonsense! Even catapults can only shoot a maximum of three hundred metres if they don't have a strategic height advantage, and earth mages need much more power to throw a projectile. None of them have even been able to get close enough to the catapults to take advantage of their position.
"No... they were spinning so fast that they caught the air itself," Masaru said in a devastated tone, looking into the very soul of his interlocutor. "The Sand Mage... can shoot farther than any earth mage we know."
***
Advanced chapters:
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