The dune moved again.
Adlet stood still, every muscle locked, afraid that even breathing too loudly might break the fragile thread holding his focus together.
The desert had already taught him how easily the mind could betray itself.
Heat distorted distance. Fatigue twisted perception. Days without landmarks erased certainty.
This could be nothing.
A mirage born from exhaustion.
A trick of light sliding across unstable sand.
He waited.
The wind howled softly, dragging grains across the surface in slow, whispering waves.
Then the dune rose.
Not abruptly.
Not violently.
It lifted itself, tons of sand cascading down its sides as something massive unfolded beneath it.
Adlet's breath left him in a silent exhale.
It wasn't a hallucination.
It was an Apex.
The sand peeled away as a colossal shape emerged—layer after layer of pale armor, thick and uneven, like ancient stone plates fused together. Ivory spines jutted from every surface, curving outward in brutal, defensive arcs. Massive tusks framed a trunk reinforced with jagged growths, turning it into a weapon as dangerous as any blade.
The Fortress Elephant .
Rank 4.
At least twenty meters tall.
A moving bastion of bone and sand.
For several heartbeats, neither moved.
The Apex's bulk settled fully free of the dune, its weight sending tremors through the ground that reached Adlet's feet seconds later. Sand rippled outward in low waves.
Adlet swallowed.
His body screamed for rest. His muscles felt heavier than they should. His waterskins were nearly empty. His skin burned beneath the cloth.
Not now, he thought.
But the desert did not ask for permission.
The Fortress Elephant shifted its head.
Its tusks scraped together with a sound like grinding stone.
And then it charged.
The ground exploded.
Adlet reacted on instinct, green Aura flooding his limbs as he launched himself sideways, sand bursting beneath his feet. The shockwave passed where he had stood a moment earlier, the Elephant's mass plowing forward like a living landslide.
The air itself seemed to shake.
Adlet landed hard, rolled, forced his body upright as another tremor followed.
Too fast.
It shouldn't be this fast.
The Elephant turned with terrifying momentum, its trunk swinging wide, tusks slicing through the air. Adlet ducked beneath the arc, green Aura sharpening his perception just enough to see the path before it happened.
He sprinted.
Not away.
Around.
Circling something this large was instinctive—but every step sank into shifting sand, stealing speed, draining strength. His breath came ragged now, each inhale scraping his throat.
The Elephant stamped a foot down.
The impact sent Adlet flying.
He barely had time to react—red Aura flared around him, forming a thick, layered shell just as the shockwave hit. The force still hurled him backward, slamming him into the sand like a discarded doll.
Pain flared through his ribs.
He rolled, coughed, forced himself up.
Too slow, he realized grimly.
The desert had already taken its toll.
The Elephant did not wait.
Its trunk slammed downward, spines first.
Adlet crossed his arms, red Aura reinforcing into overlapping plates. The impact drove him knee-deep into the sand, armor groaning under the pressure.
He felt it then.
The difference.
Against the Carnage Rhinoceros, strength had been enough.
Here—
This wasn't just power.
It was inevitability.
Adlet twisted free, green Aura surging as he slid away from another stomp. He darted in close, black Aura igniting around his arm.
The Scarab horn formed—dense, lethal.
He struck.
The blow landed against the Elephant's side—
—and skidded.
The horn screeched against layered ivory plating, sparks of black Aura dispersing uselessly as the Apex barely reacted.
Adlet's eyes widened.
No damage.
Not even a crack.
The Elephant responded instantly.
Its tusks swept sideways.
Adlet barely escaped, the air tearing past him as he flung himself backward, sand spraying. His heart hammered violently.
This thing isn't just armored, he realized.
It's built to ignore me.
The Elephant raised its trunk high.
Adlet felt it before he saw it—the pressure shifting, the air tightening.
He moved.
A fraction too late.
The trunk slammed down where he'd been, carving a trench into the sand and rock beneath. The shockwave caught him mid-step, throwing him end over end.
He hit hard.
Red Aura flared again—late, uneven.
Pain bloomed across his shoulder.
Adlet lay still for a second too long.
Get up.
The sand vibrated.
The Elephant was repositioning.
Adlet forced himself upright, vision swimming. His green Aura pulsed weakly as he moved, reinforcing muscles that were starting to fail.
Think, he ordered himself.
Attacking blindly wouldn't work.
Defending forever wasn't possible.
He needed an opening.
But where?
The Elephant turned again, massive head lowering, tusks angling forward.
A charge.
Straight at him.
Adlet ran—not away, but diagonally, circling wide, sand stealing every ounce of momentum. He could feel it now—his reactions were still sharp, but his body lagged behind them.
The desert was winning.
The Elephant closed the distance with horrifying speed.
Adlet skidded to a stop and pivoted.
Black Aura flared along his legs.
He leapt.
High.
The Elephant's tusks passed beneath him, missing by meters as he soared upward. For a moment, weightlessness.
Then gravity reclaimed him.
He landed on the Apex's back.
The surface was uneven, ridged with thick ivory protrusions that threatened to impale him. He barely managed to keep his footing, black Aura flashing around his legs as the Elephant bucked violently.
Adlet drove the Scarab horn downward.
Again.
The horn struck between two armor plates—
—and stuck.
Adlet's breath hitched.
I found it.
The Elephant roared.
A deep, thunderous sound that shook sand from nearby dunes.
Its body twisted violently, trying to dislodge him. Adlet clenched his teeth, reinforcing his grip as he forced the horn deeper, black Aura screaming as it resisted the immense pressure.
The armor cracked.
Not shattered.
But cracked.
The Elephant reared.
Adlet was thrown free.
He flew through the air, hit the sand hard, rolled until the world stopped spinning.
He lay there, gasping.
The crack was small.
But it existed.
His vision blurred at the edges.
His limbs felt heavy.
The Sand Graveyard pressed in from all sides, silent, merciless.
The Elephant turned to face him again.
Slow.
Unhurried.
Confident.
Adlet dragged himself upright, forcing his breathing to steady.
I can't outlast it.
I can't overpower it.
Then there was only one option left.
Break it.
He centered himself.
Adlet steadied his breathing.
The green Aura flowed through his body—light, constant, sharpening everything.
Not speed for speed's sake.
Clarity.
The Elephant charged again.
Each step shook the sand. Each breath it expelled carried heat and dust.
Adlet ran toward it.
Every instinct screamed at him to flee.
He ignored them.
The world narrowed.
With the green Aura reinforcing his perception, the charge unfolded in fragments—
the angle of the tusks, the slight delay in the trunk's movement, the way the sand gave way beneath its weight.
He waited.
Closer.
Closer.
At the last possible instant—
He moved.
Adlet slipped beneath the tusks, twisting past the armored trunk by a margin so thin it tore fabric from his shoulder. Sand exploded where he had been standing a heartbeat earlier.
He crossed into the shadow beneath the beast's massive body.
Only then did he switch.
The green Aura vanished.
Black Aura condensed around his arm—dense, crushing, unforgiving.
The Scarab horn manifested in a single breath.
Adlet struck upward.
The horn slammed into the fractured section of armor.
The impact roared across the dunes like a thunderclap.
The crack spread.
Ivory splintered.
The Elephant screamed—a deep, furious sound that rippled through the Sand Graveyard.
Adlet felt the price immediately.
His Aura was ripped from him in that single strike. His vision dimmed. His legs buckled as the power left his body.
But the armor had given.
Not broken.
Not destroyed.
Weakened.
Enough.
The Elephant staggered, its colossal mass shifting—
—and the desert trembled beneath it.
Adlet dropped to one knee, gasping, lungs burning, limbs screaming.
Barely conscious.
The Apex loomed above him, wounded—but far from finished.
Its shadow swallowed him whole.
The Sand Graveyard howled.
And the battle was not over.
Not even close.