God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

A creature unlike any Sue had ever seen burst out from beneath their feet, stirring up a large amount of sand and pebbles.

The poor unsuspecting man instantly had his entire arm, from the shoulder down to his fingertips ripped from its socket.

"Ahhhhh!" Like a dying pig, the man let out a squeak of pain and horror. Never in a million years would he have imagined that he would lose his entire hand in such a manner.

Sue instantly had her eyes locked onto the creature that had attacked the man...

***

{Mutant Sandworm} level 5 (normal).

Strength: 10.

Agility: 40.

Defense: 0.

HP: 200/200.

MP: 10/10.

Skills: Burrow, Toxic saliva.

***

It was a huge worm-like creature the size of a kitten with a white scaly body and a row of jagged teeth that spun like the blades of a chainsaw as it attempt to dive back into the sand. However, before it could do that, it was immediately intercepted by Sue.

"Fireball." A ball of scalding flames appeared from the tip of her staff, slamming into the mutant creature and burning it to a crisp. The creature let out an ugly screech as it fell onto the sand, releasing a putrid burnt odor.

Meanwhile, the man who had his hand on the {Mutant Sandworm} kept yelling on the ground as blood gushed out of his opened wound.

His eyes suddenly met those of Sue who kept looking at him with pity and sadness in her eyes...

"H-Help m-me..." The man croaked out a plea for help even as his life slowly faded away from his body...

"Please help him!" Maya, who was standing beside Sue nearly fell to the ground when she saw the miserable fate of the man...

"I can't do anything for him...If it was just an ordinary wound, I might have been able to stop the bleeding, but this creature has some sort of poison. I can't do anything against poisons..." Sue said as she shook her head, clearly frustrated at her powerlessness.

"P-pleas-e..." The man struggled even more to get the words out of his mouth, as his face began to turn white. Before anyone could say a word, the area around the wound he had received from the {Mutant Sandworm} began to turn into a sandy-like substance. His flesh slowly crumbled before his dying eyes.

The degradation spread very fast, reaching all the way to his throat and head in less than a second, claiming his life in the blink of an eye...

The rest of the people surrounding Sue stared at this with all sorts of expressions ranging from shock and disbelief to fear and panic, to depression and hopelessness...

"It is over... We are all going to die here..." The less than optimistic old man said again as his old knees nearly gave out beneath him, and the stench of urination becoming strong around him. It was clear what had happened to the old man due to the extreme fear he felt...

The others didn't respond, but the expressions on their faces were enough to tell Sue what was going on in their minds.

'They don't have hope anymore...' Sue looked all around her, and the only thing she saw were people who had given up on life...

When their ability to live without the fear of death was taken away from them so abruptly and cruelly without any ability to fight back, it was only natural that they would lose hope and faith over time...

Sue gritted her teeth as she fought back her emotions and steeled her face.

"All of you, calm down! I need you all to work with me." As soon as she yelled, she became the focus of the destitute people. Seeing that she had gotten their attention, she continued,

"I highly doubt this is the end of it... I'm going to fight, so I need you all to get out of the way and stay somewhere safe, preferably behind me. Is that clear?!" Sue yelled at the top of her voice as she saw more movement within the sand, causing her to get more agitated...

"Okay!" Maya said, but Sue was able to hear the lack of hope in her previously hopeful voice...

Sue instantly thought of something, "If you are worried about that baboon, then I'd advise you not to. He's as solid as a rock. There's no way he will go down so easily..." Sue said as she began preparing her next spell before the {Mutant Sandworms} could attack...

"I-I w-wasn't..." A deep blush appeared on the pale face of Maya as she tried to deny it, but was unsuccessful.

'I hope that brute doesn't die because I can't take care of all these people if he does...' If Stan could hear Sue's thoughts, he probably would have spat out blood in anger.

The disturbance within the sand grew increasingly violent until numerous {Mutant Sandworms} began jumping out of the sand with their jaws spread wide, trails of sand following behind them...

As soon as they jumped out of the sand, Sue had her spell ready for them,

"Sea of Flames..." A wave of flames spread forward in a fan shape with Sue as the starting point. All of the {Mutant Sandworms} were burnt to a crisp, but even more of them followed after, causing Sue to keep attacking continuously.

'Hurry up, Stan!'

***

Meanwhile...

Surrounded by inky blackness from all sides, Stan was forced to engage in an epic underwater battle...

Stan had his rune-inscribed blade in his hand as he battled against an extremely huge shellfish.

***

{King Lobster} level 35 (Deadly).

Strength: 300.

Agility: 400.

Defense: 100.

HP: 7,000/7,000.

MP: 1,500/1,500.

Skills: Ice Creation, Diamond Shell, Crushing Pinchers, Underwater Propulsion.

***

Despite how hard Stan swung his blade, because he was underwater, the speed and power of his attacks had been reduced by several degrees.

Even though it was extremely dark under the ocean's surface, he was still able to see his attacker in clear detail. The sea creature had a blue and gold-colored shell that was covered with all sorts of mysterious runes.

The light of intelligence was also present in its beady eyes, and Stan knew without a doubt what the intentions of the creature were...

'I also have limited oxygen here... I have to find a way to take this fight back to land.' Stan couldn't help but feel troubled by his dilemma...

Stan felt even more helpless when he felt the creature's grip on his arm tighten and it zoomed deeper into the ocean.

'You damned shellfish!' Stan thought angrily as a lustrous golden light appeared on the length of his blade. His blade quickly doubled in size and speed, and with the might of a thousand kilograms, it came crashing down onto the shell of the mutant.

PING!

A crisp note similar to what one would hear when striking metal against metal was produced as the shell of the {King Lobster} and Stan's blade made contact.

'So tough!' Stan was shocked to see that his attack had little to no effects on the hard shell of the mutant beast.

All he had managed to do was infuriate the monster, as it spun Stan around and threw him deeper into the water. Once the huge pincer released his hand, Stan was barely able to get a sigh of relief in before he was assaulted by the creature's next attack.

Stan could feel the temperature of the water around him drop by a few degrees. Icicles began to form around him from the ocean water, causing his eyes to expand, and the bad feeling in his heart to intensify...

'Oh, brother...' The icicles traveled through the water as fast as bullets toward the helpless Stan.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The icicles smashed into his hardened flesh, causing him a bit of pain. His muscles also began to contract, causing him to slow down and sink. Stan knew he had gotten into a sticky situation once this started to happen.

And to make matters worse, the {King Lobster} had no plans to let him off the hook yet. Its bright blue and gold tail swished violently in the water, causing it to be stirred up violently. The water element in the ocean churned even more and gathered at the creature's tail.

BANG!

Like a rocket, the creature launched itself at Stan with its pinchers out, ready to go in for the kill...

This was typical predator behavior...

First, the mutant creature brought Stan underwater, taking the fight to a favorable environment. Next, by activating its {Ice Manipulation} skill and creating icicles, it made Stan, the prey, lose the ability to move freely due to the characteristic nature of ice to decrease movement speed.

And finally, when it decided it had Stan's neck on the guillotine, it went straight for the execution...

The creature charged straight at Cain with its claws stretched to form a jagged blade perpendicular to Stan's body. Should the attack connect, Stan would be severed into two, less-than-clean halves...

'Seems like I need to get a bit more serious...'

Although Stan seemed helpless considering the situation, in reality, he was far from being helpless. If anything, he was a bit inconvenienced, but nothing more...

Even though his life was in real danger, he still had the confidence to come out of the situation with his life still in his hands. And this confidence came from the trust he had in his power...

'Absolute Saber Art: Might of a Mountain...'

An overbearing glow that radiated the subtlety of death and destruction seemed to ooze out of Stan's pores as he raised his saber overhead...

Molten hot metal elemental mana poured out from his body, illuminating the darkness around him with its brilliant radiance.

The saber in his hands increased in size once again, but this time, the runic inscriptions now tinted a deep crimson color while the body of the blade excluded golden light.

The charging {King Lobster} could feel the danger overwhelm its body, but because of the nature of the {Underwater Propulsion} skill, it couldn't stop nor could it change directions mid-run...

It had only one option available, and that was to charge straight on. Its body took on a dazzling glow and was immediately covered in a strange, yet beautiful layer of diamonds.

However, Stan ignored all of this, and with all his might, he let his now extremely gigantic blade fall...

Even though he was underwater, because of the streamlined shape of his blade, he was able to cleave through the waters with ease.

'This is an attack created for only one purpose...' Stan thought to himself.

The blade and the mutant creature collided soon after...

'Death...'

This time, there was no crisp sound that traveled underwater. There was no sound at all...

The gigantic mutant {King Lobster} was cut into two clean halves.

There were no obstructions to the blade, causing Stan to feel as though he had cleaved through the water and nothing more...

The ocean floor was also dug into by the massive blade, causing a ton of dirt to be stirred up.

'Got to make it back to the surface...' Ignoring the barrage of notifications he received from the system, Stan rushed back towards the surface for dear life...

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