A sand-worm manifested right before the eyes of Harwin and his last two companions. It was entirely made up of the ashen soil. A terrible thing to look it, at least eight meters tall and wide still.

  The sand serpent stood still for a while. Its tremendous mouth was directed right at the trio. It had no visible eyes. Of course, they were not necessary when total control was in the hands of its master. S'kaal stood somewhere behind its creation. To reach him would require riddance of the absurdity that stood in front.

  For a moment, it could have been mistaken for an illusion — a trick casted by the cruel commander of Qareen. However, this was a mistake on the part of Harwin. The monstrous thing began to burrow right towards them, shaking the lands with its sudden movement.

  The young mage was petrified. After all, the lad had only been in this world for a year at most. Any ordinary human would have been terrified by the unworldly concepts of these mystical lands. Unfortunately for him, he have had almost nothing but terrible experiences since being teleported here. Well, except for a few times, of course.

  Winston shouted:

  "Harwin! Get a hold of yourself!"

  That was when Harwin finally regained his senses. Even after grasping the situation, there was nothing much they could do except to run as fast as possible. So, they did just that and with everything they had. It was not enough, though, the sand-worm only gained on them by the second.

  However, it suddenly disappeared without a trace. Any fool would have stopped in their track, but the bunch already had enough experience to understand what would follow. As expected, the shark of the shadow ruins dived right above their heads.

  Harwin signalled Winston to scatter. They were able to save themselves in the nick of time as the enemy came crashing down. A massive crater formed up where it landed. The earth as well as air itself trembled.

  The trio barely managed to keep themselves from stumbling from the great shock. Without wasting any time, the sand-crawler followed behind its target once again. From that point onwards, it switched to bashing its head at them from time to time. On each instance it barely missed, but Harwin knew that it only needed to succeed once.

  There was still some fortune left on the side of these poor soul, though. The young mage shouted at the trump card:

  "Lyam! Do something!" His voice, filled with desperation.

  The inferno-mage enjoyed this plea of help for a moment, but it was his death that would follow if he delayed any longer.

  "All of you!" He addressed the mage division which had expanded quite a bit after the grand speech of Harwin. "Cast whatever you know at that thing! I mean anything! But, make sure that it is the best you do!" Lyam instructed.

  The conglomerate of mages began to shower spells of all kinds upon the enemy. The archers tried to help as well, but they once again proved to be ineffective. Dozens of intermediate spells, some advanced ones as well, shot at the sand-crawler did not do much against the thing. Most of the castings went right through it. Anything that caused explosion was somewhat effective, but the enemy was able to regenerate almost instantly.

  There was, however, a slight delay in its regeneration. Of course, it was not a living being, it was only a craft of a mage which meant that its prowess depended on the magika capacity of the caster. As Harwin had prevented S'kaal from consuming anymore corposes, it meant that the latter was not able to maintain his abilities as freely as before.

  Soon the most of the casters grew tired. Their enemy was hardly, though. All seemed lost for a moment. Then, just before the sand crawler was able to deliver a fatal blow, a strong gust of wind blew. Sparks simmered near the enemy. Then a tornado formed out of thin air.

  Not a common one however, neither was it a natural occurrence. It was a blazing whirlwind of magika — a fiery storm.

  Harwin, Winston and Stein did not know what to do, either. But, luckily for them this was the doing of their comrade. The blazing vortex remaimed at bay until the trio were able to disperse away. Just as the the ashen serpent tried to follow, it was met head-on by the infero storm.

  It was a battle of mages now, to be precise. S'kaal was able to manipulate the ruined lands to some degree. He was facing against one of the strongest mages of Yugsolvia who specialized in fire spells — Lyam.

  The collision created such a grand explosion that everyone had to take cover. Raging winds of blaze and stygian sand travelled in almost all directions. The impact was so powerful that it felt as if the sky itself would split open.

  Nothing remained visible on the battlefield for sometime after that. The lot on Harwin's side tried to stick together. Even Lyam was surprised at the magnitude of his doing.

  Silence followed. Then came another gush of wind — roaring and strong. It began suddenly and cleared the dust and sand away Many believed that it was the work of the land itself. That it was trying to return to its former state.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  However, as the sight became clear. The tornado had disappeared, but the sand-worm remained. Albeit, its size had shrunk considerably. Lyam had collapsed from magika exhaustion. It was an expert level spell, after all. Few of the mages, who could still manage to cast, began to launch all sorts of spells once again. It was just support. A distraction, to be clear. Otherwise, what could basic or intermediate spells have done against a thing that survived something of much higher degree.

  The battle looked lost. But, there was something strange happening in the front-lines. Winston and Stein were the only ones standing in front of their overwhelming opponent. Harwin was no where to be found.

  The sand-worm had stopped in its trek for a moment, only to charge right at Winston. The latter alongside Stein began to retreat once again. However, this time, they were doing so to buy time.

  S'kaal stood confident. He had just won a great victory in a duel. This arrogance and pride had blinded him, more than he already was. The last bit was theorized by Harwin earlier as well: the cruel commander could not move while using his technique. It was an inherent flaw. Such a complex power, which pracitcally allowed its user to alter the surrondings, would require tremendous amount of focus.

  The being was old. It had mastered its abilities over many centuries. Even managing to to stay vigilant enough to not let anyone near himself. However, the last part was only true when he was in top-notch condition. The S'kaal at the current moment was just a broken version of the S'kaal at the beginning of the fight. Such details could never have went past the young mage.

  Just as the strongest underling of Qareen was sure of his success, a blade was thrusted right in his back. That was not the end, he then felt a burning sensation, as if his insides had began to melt.

  The being was still extremely resilient. He turned to find Harwin standing there with his stygian blade set ablaze.

  Unfortunately for the young mage, S'kaal managed to grab him by the arm, lift him effortlessly while his sword was still impaled in the monster's body. The former did not care much, though. He only tightened his grip further to the point that it felt like Harwin's arm would implode.

  Although in severe pain, the young mage did the unexpected. His prosthetic arm had always been a tool for magika channelization as well as a secret blade. In a split second, he slashed it across the face of the enemy, targeting its menacing eyes. No one could have resisted such a blow, and on top of being already injured.

  As expected S'kaal let go of Harwin, and writhed away in confusion, trying to understand what had just occurred. The latter did not stop, though. He tried to lunge at his enemy once again.

  Now, even though, S'kaal was bewildered and flailing around in agony, he still managed to detect the impending danger. He was blind, yes, but he had already been used to the feeling thanks to it being the condition for his unique ability. With the last bit of strength remaining, he formed the same sand barrier around himself that was even able to withstand against several advanced spells and the mighty strike from Kaith.

  All seemed lost once again. Surprisingly, Harwin wore a sly smile. Just as the barrier was being closed off completely, he managed to sneak in a small item. He himself leaped back as swiftly as possible.

  In a matter of moments, an explosion occurred once again. It was contained which meant the damage and impact was limited to the enclosed space and whatever was inside of it.

  All eyes were fixated towards the barrier of S'kaal. Soon enough, the ash began to fall to its place. The mighty sand shield-wall had vanquished in mere seconds.

  Nothing, except for a few bits, remained of S'kaal. The pale monster, the strongest undead of the necromancer, the cruel commander had been annihilated from the face of the earth.

  The battlefield remained silent for a while, though. No one could grasp of what had just happend. All they saw was a single man standing near it all. He was a human just like them, yet he had slain something far greater than his being. Harwin raised his hand in victory, a signal to all his fellows.

  The item that Harwin had dropped inside the impenetrable barrier was a eco-shard. It was not possible for some basic level shard to take down such a foe, even an intermediate would have not been enough. The seal to the fate of S'kaal was an advanced level spell. A singular magical stone had been imbued with "Inferno Prison" — an advanced fire spell which basically melted the intended. It had taken the efforts of several mages to craft. The item took nearly a month to be filled with the appropriate level of magika.

  After confirming that they had finally won, everyone rejoiced. Some were left in shame, though. Those who had abandoned the frontlines did not know how to react, only looking down with guilt.

  Harwin, on the other hand, was busy grabbing his sword from the pool of blood that had been left behind. Naturally, the stygian blade was perfectly fine. It was the sword of a lifetime, and without it, success would have been impossible.

  The young also found a strange orb among the few bits that had been left of the enemy. It was similar in size to that of the imourte, but it was pure white, could almost be mistaken for a pearl. Harwin pocketed it, just in case he required it in the future.

  After that, Harwin looked around the vicinity. He saw dozens of dead bodies and remains of the undeads. It was a terrible scene. Less than half of their total force remained now.

  The young mage then looked towards his comrades, only to find out Winston and Stein laying on the ground. Eiza and few others were rushing towards them at the moment. Harwin himself ran towards the fallen.

  It was a horrific scene. Stein's legs had been mutilated while Winston had a large hole in his abdomen, one could clearly see his internal organs. Many would have thought that this was the end for them, but Eiza was determined otherwise.

  She began to chant a spell. A large magika circle formed up right above Winston. Harwin had never seen such a thing except for when the ruler of Yugsolvia performed a peculiar trick of sort.

  The incantation was a lengthy one. It took a few minutes to chant all the words.

  At the end of it all, the magika seal began to brighten up the entire area. It shimmered with a golden hue, a sight that would have astonished anyone, but blinded them still. Harwin and the rest closed their eyes. After a few moments, the lot peeked to find that Winston's wound had completely closed up. He was breathing, but still unconscious.

  However, Eiza herself had lost her senses and was knocked out. As Harwin was a mage himself, he understood that this was due to magika exhaustion. He was still worried about Stein who he could not heal at his skill level. Thankfully, a priest from the group of Lyam volunteered in his stead. As the limbs of the hound laid nearby as well, it only took an advanced healing spell to reattach them.

  Daren and Ava took care of their unconscious party members. As the young mage relaxed a bit, some of the remaining men approached him. They were the ones who had retreated when it mattered the most. All of them wore stern expressions now. Their motives were unclear, but Harwin felt strangely uncomfortable at this confrontation.....