The world felt like it turned upside down several times, and Max struggled to get his bearings. When light returned, his senses reignited at the same time as he heard screaming, yelling, and other, different noises that he didn't immediately recognize. However, his spirits weren’t suffering from the same confusion or vertigo that he was fighting through.

  "Max! Just hover in the air, don't do anything else," yelped Lavinia. At the same time, he heard a buzz in the back of his head and saw one of Daliko’s text windows pop up. Interestingly enough, the current situation showed that even while Matt's vision swam, he could still clearly read Daliko’s messages. The part of his brain clinically noting this sort of thing dissolved as he read what she'd actually sent him. It had three words:

  Monsters coming. Lots.

  A few seconds later, Matt's vision returned, allowing him to see the absolute chaos in his surroundings. It took a while to understand what he was seeing at first. A heavy rain of sand fell from the sky; it was already deep enough that it was burying some of the people who were sprawled out on the ground, most of them nowhere close to regaining their faculties yet. The other people he could see that seemed to have their wits about them as well, ironically, were mostly reporters. They’d been on the outside of the circle around the Victory guild, and seemed to have been spared some of the magical shock. In fact, the circle of reporters and law enforcement on the ground helped Max understand what had happened.

  Although everything from Vegas, even the asphalt, had been plopped down somewhere else, clues around the area showed they were still on Earth, though. The road sign over the highway was green and in English, offering directions to Salt Lake City. We're still in America, he thought to himself.

  A moment later, Lavinia screamed a warning, but Max had already felt the danger. He spun in place, twisting his insectile wings and delivering a blast of mana to push himself out of the way, like a strong gust of wind. A torrent of stone spikes slashed down through the space he'd just been standing in. They were the same color as most of the falling sand. He looked up and saw two men floating in the air above him. One of them hadn't quite regained all his faculties yet, but the other, Toby Lynch, grinned sardonically.

  "That's too bad," he said. "I was really hoping that would take you out."

  "Yeah, well, nice shot, asshole," Matt turned to the side and spit. When his spittle landed on one of the recovering Victory Guild members marked with demonic energy, his satisfaction was petty but genuine.

  Some of the reporters on the ground were up now, and more importantly, their cameras were working. Speaking more to the cameras than to the Lynch brothers, Max said, "So I take it you teleported the entire city block or two over here to Utah, where you're buddy-buddies with the monster king or the monsters who rule this place. We are all probably too far outside the front line to get any human help. And I'm figuring that this was your escape plan before, but you had to use it too early.” Max grinned. “Sorry for that.” Max frowned. “The only thing I don't understand is all the falling sand. The only thing that makes sense to me is that it is the demolished buildings…like all the buildings around us aren’t there anymore, just the rebar and foundations and junk. But if you prepared this teleportation, why would you destroy your own guild building?"

  Annoyance flickered across Toby face before he laughed and casually said, "You know, I have to hand it to you. I hate your guts, and you're going to die in a terrible way. In fact, I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that your soul is tortured for the next hundred years, if not forever. But I have to give credit where credit is due. Not only do you have some big brass balls, you have some style.” The man ruefully shook his head. “Coming into my guild, killing people with barely any warning. Telling the world my secrets. Having lots of eyewitnesses so there was nothing I could do about it. Oh, I really wanted to make all this go away, but I couldn't foresee any way that the Victory Guild was going to recover from this, even if we killed you immediately after you tried showing everyone that body. This teleportation, this offering, is premature. But I have to admit, it's going to feel good to finally work directly against humanity."

  Matt shook his head. "You are one sick, lazy fuck."

  Toby cocked his head to the side. "The ‘sick’ part I was expecting from people like you, but where'd the ‘lazy’ come from?"

  Max sighed and willed himself to rise higher. The mana that surrounded him eagerly complied with his request. Still conscious of the video cameras surrounding them whirring through the air, some of which were no doubt broadcasting live, Max said, "Because you were S-ranked before you even joined the Trifecta Guild and became dual Path. The only people that usually end up getting tainted by demonic energy, at least in leadership positions like you, are either weak-willed idiots, which I don't think you are, or lazy, power-hungry fucks who aren't willing to put the work into it to get stronger. But of course, regular people corrupted by demonic energies can be people who are pushed or forced into it, like most of your guild members seem to be."

  Power roiled in Max’s body, throbbing through his veins. One on hand, he’d been hoping to avoid a direct confrontation like this, at least for a while, but he had contingency plans in place.

  Max was getting a better understanding of the situation. He glanced around the area, and now he could see all the remaining Victory guild members. Quite a few of them looked like they were still muddled from the effects of the teleport. Max felt bad for them. They'd effectively been mind-raped, forced into servitude to demonic powers. He was willing to bet if anyone checked the Victory guild log history, they’d find a higher rate of mortality on missions every time the guild got new members. Not everyone who had demonic energy forced on them could live, and he was sure that some had resisted.

  He sadly shook his head.

  Toby chuckled. “Yes, I introduced the guild to opportunity. Am I supposed to feel guilty? I wouldn’t have felt bad about it, even before monsters attacked. The world has always been an unfair place. It’s just more obvious now. And I’ve chosen the winning team. It’s that simple. As for why all the buildings are sand now, you’ll find out soon.”

  Max didn’t look, but he sensed Lavinia give acknowledgment down below that she had met up with Lance and delivered Matt's request. She sent spirits to some others in the teleported area, too. Things were about to get very spicy indeed.

  It was a rookie mistake to let enemies monologue and get their act together. Even if one isn’t completely ready, it’s still better to hit the enemies before they’re ready.

  Suddenly, about two dozen Victory guild Challengers below blew up in spectacular showers of gore. Lavinia’s spirits had scurried around the battlefield in their smallest spider forms, almost invisible atop the sand, and they’d all positioned themselves under Victory guild members who were still not up yet.

  At the same time, Lance stopped hiding and suppressing his energy, leaping into fray with his powerful sword, targeting standing Victory guild members. The other Patriot guild members were slower, but then they joined their guild leader.

  Max accelerated rapidly at Toby. With hundreds of years of practice, he directed his energy in a cone behind him, achieving impressive velocity in less than a second. Toby was not caught entirely by surprise, he was an S-rank after all, but Max dodged the cloud of sharp, stone spikes the man sent, and chopped down just as Toby began covering himself in some sort of sand armor.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  He was impressed by how fast the armor came into full effect. Toby was completely protected before Max’s strike landed.

  However, Blackmist Incident was barely slowed down by the armor, the blade empowered by Max’s great power and fine control. Max could understand how a warrior like Toby Lynch could be an S-rank warrior on this world, but the man trusted his armor too much. He had no excuse for the oversight either, after learning Western Wind Style.

  As the two pieces of Toby Lynch fell down to the battlefield below, Max covered in gore, he glanced up at Sam Lynch. The man was looking down at him, his eyes wide, in complete shock. The little scorpion tattoo by his eye looked comical, stretched out with the man’s eyes open that far. The glasses he was wearing now looked about ready to fall off his nose..

  “What?” asked Max. “Was I supposed to wait for you bastards to finish doing whatever you were doing? Fuck that.” Max raised a hand, sending projectiles of blood screaming out, courtesy of Bracelet of Bloody Arrows. At the same time, he slashed with his sword, sending a wave of mana-formed destructive force at the man.

  Sam spun, dropping to avoid the attacks, moving closer to the ground, and several Patriot guild members unleashed magical attacks at him. Waves of sand erupted upwards, artfully blocking the magic and projectiles. Then the wave of sand turned into giant hands, crushing two of the Patriot Guild members like bugs. The third, a lithe woman, barely escaped by the skin of her teeth.

  Max threw a handful of exploding beads at Sam Lynch, but all the attacks were blocked by a wing of sand the man had created from the sand-impregnated dust in the air. Sam snarled, and his aura of power grew stronger, letting his sand wall drop after blocking the explosions. His eyes were wild, and Max wasn’t sure whether the man was more upset that he’d killed his brother or upset his plans.

  When Sam sent a flying, freaky hand of sand at Max, he rose higher into the sky to dodge the sneaky grab. Then he delivered a mana slash, destroying the construct.

  From his new vantage point in the sky, Max saw an approaching dust cloud with large shapes moving within. He understood the warning that Dalkiko had given him better now. There was an army of something large coming, thundering across the flat ground.

  With a snort, Max turned his attention back to his enemy. Sam was busy doing his best to kill Lance with grasping hands made of sand, but Lance was able to hold his own with his sword. However, all the other Patriot guild members throwing attacks at the floating Sam Lynch might not have even bothered; every single projectile was blocked by walls or wings of of sand.

  Now it was truly obvious why all the buildings had been turned to sand. Both Lynch brothers had been sand-based Challengers of some kind.

  Instead of directly joining the fray again, Max decided to get some intel. As an experiment, he used Dalico's technique to throw a bead at incredible speed just to the side of Sam Lynch. The attack would not hit the man, just barely miss. When the disgraced Guildmaster's sand constructs didn't react, Max threw another bead at Sam’s torse. This time, the sand blocked it, even without Sam looking.

  Now Max understood that some aspects of Sam's power were automatic or worked on their own.

  He could also deduce that all the sand and debris on the ground were for Sam to create constructs while Toby would have protected him. The mystery of why all the surrounding buildings had disintegrated into fine sand had likely been solved, as was the reason for it: for the Lynch Brothers to kill any enemies, and possibly even to protect themselves from their own allies.

  The monsters were still coming.

  Max flared his power, running his mana through his body in a circular pattern, supercharging his physical and defensive abilities. Then, he shot directly at the slowly retreating Sam Lynch. As he did, Sam immediately abandoned his fight with Lance, rising and meeting Max head on.

  They sped toward each other, out of the range of most fighters on the ground. When Max was close enough, he expertly dodged four flying hands, and delivered two heavy ectoplasm webs courtesy of Anansi and Lavinia.

  The webs had the intended effect, binding some of the Sand and merely slowing down the other man’s automated defenses. It likely wouldn’t be enough for another Challenger to capitalize on, but Max was not normal. The new change in the sand, its added awkwardness barely allowed Max to slip to the side and deliver a powerful chop with his sword.

  Sam yelled in surprise at Max’s speed. He desperately raised his arm, and some of the surrounding sand flowed onto it, creating an armor of sorts–similar to what Toby had done. However, it wasn't nearly enough to stop Blackmist Incident, swung by a four star Blade Sorcerer.

  Max's strike continued through the makeshift armor on Sam's arm and chopped deep into the man's side. Sam screamed, falling back. He sent a retaliatory hand of sand at Max, but he was done playing. With his free hand, he gave the construct an empowered punch, reducing it to another cloud of dust.

  Then, with that same hand, Max threw an exploding bead that blew up on Sam, detonating with enough force to shove the man backward through the air. Other than the push, it didn't do much damage to the wounded man, certainly not enough to seriously wound him. But with the quick push, now Sam was further away from his own floating sand wing and arms.

  Max darted forward, using his mana like an explosion of force behind him. Then with one last juke to avoid a slashing wing, he slammed his sword through the disgraced guild leader’s chest.

  Sam's surprise was almost comical. He gasped, "How? What?"

  Max twisted his sword. "I'm sorry, buddy. You were never in my weight class to begin with after I achieved a four star mana body.

  I probably should have killed you quicker, and I’m not really happy that any Patriot guild members died, but I still think drawing you out was necessary to wake up the world. But yeah, I can see the surprise in your eyes, and the truth is, I didn't need to concoct this entire situation to kill you and your brother.”

  Max looked at his stricken enemy in midair and continued, “But I have to give you props for this teleportation trap. I really wasn't expecting that."

  Before Sam could gasp anything else, Max shoved an exploding bead directly into the man's mouth, kicked him in the face, knocking him away, and he detonated the bead remotely with a thought. Already stricken, mortally wounded, and near unconscious, Sam's jaw blew off as he plummeted to the ground.

  Max was impressed by the man's resilience. Although an S-rank Challenger on Earth was weak by his standards, Sam legitimately was much stronger than most other adventurers on the planet. If he had to guess, Max would assume that Sam had been eating sand in order to incorporate it into his own body, which was likely how he was flying as well. But, mortally wounded or not, Max wasn't willing to take a chance at a powerful enemy like this stabbing him in the back.

  Left for dead was not the same thing as dead. So, even as Sam fell, Max delivered one more powerful Mana Slash with his sword. The wave of destructive magic arced through the air like a deadly glowing frisbee before cutting Sam in half.

  A rain of blood blew out in a semi circle fan of gore.

  As the two body parts that used to be Sam Lynch hit the ground below, similar to what had happened with Toby, Max surveyed the area, verifying that no Victory Guild members were still alive. The scene was grim, but everything looked to be in control for the moment.

  Then he became aware of people staring at him.

  Absolute silence rang as the Challengers, reporters, police officers and other emergency responders stood mostly in shock, awe, and maybe a little bit of fear. Lance was one of the notable exceptions with a shit-eating grin.

  Max broke the silence himself, using mana to increase the volume of his voice. "Everyone, look alive if you want to survive. We're behind enemy lines, and there is an army of monsters coming. Most of you are not fast enough to run away, but it’s not hopeless, so everyone needs to stay and fight.

  “All non-combatants, get behind the Challengers. Lance Fraser, you are in charge of the defense. Reporters, try to stay alive. Probably not much of a consolation, but you are about to be in a great position to be at ground zero for a wild story. Just know us adventures are going to do our damnedest to make sure that you stay alive. But make sure you follow instructions from this point forward.” He paused. “Does everyone get it?”

  Only Lance dared speak, shouting up at Max, “What about the cops? They are armed.”

  “Have them stay with the reporters and be the absolute last line of defense."

  Lance nodded. "And where are you going?" he yelled.

  Max rose higher in the air. With a magically-empowered voice he said, "I'm going to go meet the enemy monsters. I’ll soften them up as much as I can, but my job will be to kill their leader. You can feel from here that it's not something you guys can handle. But as soon as I'm done, I'll come back."

  Then, doing exactly as he said he would, Max began flying directly at the approaching monster horde. He was unsurprised and a little amused by the fact that several video drones from the reporters followed him to catch the action.

  It seemed he would still have an audience.