Of course, they won't come without extravagant entrance

MAGNUS

With my blades, white and gleaming I slice the air, going after her neck. Her shifting eye color glittered. She smiled. The kind of smile that makes me doubt if there are actually snakes crawling at my feet. She easily evades my attacks. One sword I kept at eye level to go after her neck, the other I kept at waist level to target her torso. So far I keep missing her face. Even her horns protrude like two towers just above her ears.

It should have been easy to cut it in half. But she's sneaky. Her legs know how to leap in two feet and navigate her body from left to right. The more I move forward and lunge at her, the more she backs away and slips from the field of my arm's reach.

"You're not bad yourself," she said, waggling the thick straight as a line black part above her eyes. That's her eyebrows I guess. Hard to distinguish from a face with lots of green. She can easily blend in the forest if she wants to. I think I may have peed on her if she disguised herself as a plant.

I stooped down and made a curved with my foot, taking her off balance. I caught her. Or I thought I did. She spun around in midair and sent a fireball straight to my face.

"Gah!" I placed my sword and slice the ball in half. Sending splinters to both sides. The fireball slowly diminish before it hits the sand.

"What's with your sword? How can it deflect and slice 'mana'? Is that another Aegis material?" she paused and studied my cross sword. As if it's a little bird she'd never seen before, contemplating whether to eat it or not. While she's distracted, I took the chance and thrust my sword towards her throat.

This time, my blade made a gooey sound as it made contact with flesh. She gagged. Musky green liquid comes out from my sword.

"Imp...possible." she choked. I retrieved my blade back and raise it in the sky. Determined to make a diagonal slice on her body. Taking down her head.

"How can a lowly..." she growled and her body started to convulse. "Ranker like you lay his filthy hands on me!!" she screamed and the sound blasted across the quiet desert.

I was informed of a Faery that can manipulate sound waves and made it seem like an air bomb when let out. I wasn't informed it was this one. The effect was disastrous. I got blown thirty feet off. Stumbling and rolling like a juggling ball. Except my body aches as it made contact with the hard dunes.

When at last, my head made a loud thunk on the ground I stop rolling. Desperate to recover I'm immediately on my feet and position my arms in a cross. The world is dancing and rocking in front of me.

The Faery woman didn't stop convulsing, more like her shaking started to get serious. She wheezed and giggled and snarled like an old woman who lost her mind. Elongated wings started to sprout from her back. The green is darker which made her look like an overgrown bat with horns.

"My orders were to capture as many Rankers as possible and held them captive. Those that have been tested by the stone and proven to not be the Seeker." She wheezed on her teeth and sniff the air.

"Oooh, I can tell. You don't have the distasteful scent of the stone yet. Which means you haven't touch it. The other members as well." She crouched on all fours and tucked her nose down the sand. Her tail, I didn't notice she has one, slashed eagerly behind her.

"This will be interesting. Sssshhhsss - I can't wait. ssshhh I wanna save that Seeker's smell on my nose. Drill his screams on my ears. Watch in absolute pleasure as I tear his body from limb to limb. Feasts on his insides." then she licked the upper part of her lip. I can't tell which animal she shared breeds with. Could be a bat, a snake, or maybe... her Faery mom had sexual affinity with animals. Doesn't matter what kind, as long as she can create new breeds.

Somehow that thought revolts the inside of my stomach.

"Looks like the Rank Elder scums are here. At last."

At the exact moment, I heard the scaffold of the wind behind me, space forcedly torn by blessings I know only the Rank Elders are capable of. The rustle of clothes, the occasional thunk of staffs hitting the ground, the scuttling footsteps as one by one entered the empty desert float into my ears.

"Step down Ranker." Someone behind me ordered. I skidded to my right. She used it as an opportunity to struck her tongue out at me. Long and scaly, aiming to bind me in its nasty truss. I pirouetted. I caught her tongue in mid air and pulled. Stumbling the Faery woman, without hesitation I slice my sword right at her tongue.

She shriek. The most painful one she did this night. No air bombs or any bodies rolling thirty feet off effect. I wonder if that was only possible if her tongue was still intact. Since I cut it in half, she can't use it anymore.

"She's all yours, Rank Elders," I said. I made a quick bow and leap towards my comrades battling the Beasts. The closest one is Roland. Throwing his boomerang at the Beast's knees. But each time his boomerang struck, it came off immediately. Not doing its purpose to maimed the White Beast.

"Need some help?" I asked as I got nearer to his position.

"By all means, take the eyeballs of this goddam Beast!" Roland shouted over hoarse throat. And he's wounded. He keeps clasping his stomach. Audible moans escaped his lips. I did not waste any second. With my two blades, I amputate the part just below the knee. It wasn't enough. I almost cut his leg in half. Almost. And I just make it angrier.

"Roland get out of the way!" I dash and thrust my sword in the Beast's back hand. Instead of coming to me, who almost sever its leg, it came after the wounded Roland. Swinging its bulky green palm to knock Roland off his feet. I could not let that happen.

It let out an ear splitting shriek that cracks the air in two. Shaking the ground on our feet. Eyes swelled twice their size, the Beast flap its great leathery wings. Sending dust all around the turf. At the corner of my eye, I see the Rank Elders sending white and red orb shape lights at the Faery woman. She dodged it all with her newly found wings, whipping them in the air to divert its projectile.

My other comrades are not doing so well. I see Dante got lifted off his feet. The Beast's hand found its way to his neck. Liam on his side, picking up his fallen sword and cutting the Beast's arm in half.

The Beast in front of me let out another terrible screech. As if saying 'Don't look away. We're in the middle of battle here.' I grinned.

"You're right. Sorry. Enlighten me, which eyeball you want me to take as remembrance?" I cocked my head at its hideous face. It seems to understand what I said as it let off steam straight to my face. If it weren't for Roland who put a stopping hand on my back, I would have collapsed because of its years' worth of rotten garbage breath.