Sand Mage of the Burnt Desert

Chapter 455
The noise distorted his senses.
His vision was already limited by the gray expanse, but when his hearing and smell were thrown into chaos, he couldn’t move.
A person can stand upright thanks to the semicircular canals in the inner ear. But once the noise paralyzed them, balance became impossible.
Zeon lost his footing and dropped to one knee.
His head filled with the noise, making thought impossible.
Ziiiiing! Ziiing!
A sharp ringing filled his ears and skull, blocking out every other sound. Still, Zeon didn’t panic, he drew in a deep breath.
“Hoo…”
The moment he inhaled deeply, his mind cleared a little.
At once, he stirred his mana and shielded his ears.
When his eardrums came under mana protection, the piercing sound invading his head dropped drastically.
As the noise lessened, his head cleared further.
Only then could he think straight again.
“Terrible.”
Even for an instant, it had been a taste of hell.
It felt as if a ladle had been plunged into his skull and stirred hard.
He’d never felt anything so horrific, his brain and marrow twisted together in agony.
Only someone like Zeon could have regained reason through instinct; anyone else would still be writhing in pain.
A simple yet terrifyingly effective form of torture.
Zeon thought of it as a useful experience.
If he were caught off guard like that in a real battle for his life, he’d have been finished.
So, as far as he was concerned, it was like getting a vaccination.
He straightened his back and rose to his feet.
Tsshhk! Tsshhk!
The gray expanse was still filled with sound.
The moment he moved, the noise would amplify again.
He had to move without provoking the gray field.
Fortunately, Zeon had the perfect means for that, sand.
Just because the dungeon was all gray didn’t mean there was no sand. It simply wasn’t visible, but it was there.
When Zeon exerted his dominance, the sand lying on the ground slid toward him in silence.
Once enough had gathered, Zeon invoked Sand Step.
The sand lifted him, gliding forward smoothly.
Without so much as a heavy breath, he sailed through the gray space.
It took nearly two hours before he finally emerged from it.
“Hoo…”
Zeon released his control and exhaled.
In those two hours, he’d burned through stamina that would normally last him days.
It had been pure tension from start to finish.
“Ridiculous.”
He shook his head slightly.
Whoever designed this dungeon had built something both simple and devastatingly efficient. He couldn’t help but feel impressed.
He let his guard down for a moment and scanned the surroundings.
Beyond the gray zone, colossal trees surrounded him.
An enormous forest stretched in every direction, thick with trees that pierced the sky.
Zeon climbed the nearest tree.
From above, he looked out and frowned slightly, there was no end in sight.
The gray expanse he’d just crossed had completely vanished.
Crossing that threshold had shifted the entire space.
“Impressive.”
A sincere note of awe escaped him.
He’d moved through space itself without even realizing it.
He’d never encountered such a refined dungeon before.
Zeon shook the thought away.
Now wasn’t the time to admire, it was time to conquer.
Before entering, he hadn’t cared much for rewards. No matter how great they were, few things could satisfy him now. But that changed.
If the dungeon was this advanced, the reward would surely match.
“First, I need to get through this forest…”
Then it happened.
KWOAANG!
A violent roar ripped through the air as something black lunged at him.
Zeon didn’t flinch. He fired a Fire Missile straight at the attacker.
BOOM!
With an explosion, the creature was blown backward.
Only then could Zeon see it clearly.
“A twin-headed panther?”
The beast tumbling to the ground was a black panther with two heads.
Stunned from the hit, it crashed hard, but in seconds, it kicked off a tree and came at him again.
KWAANG!
Even with a gaping wound from the Fire Missile, its ferocity was undiminished.
Its eyes blazed with murderous intent, it would eat him or die trying. But Zeon had no intention of being eaten.
SHU-SHU-SHUNG!
Three fiery spears materialized in midair, piercing both heads and its heart in one strike.
The twin-headed panther fell lifeless. But it wasn’t over yet.
KWAANG! KERANG!
Roars echoed through the forest.
Zeon leapt to another tree and muttered,
“The whole forest must be their territory.”
One twin-headed panther wasn’t frightening.
At best, it was C-class.
The problem was the numbers.
PAPAPAT!
Hundreds of them surged through the trees.
That was only what Zeon could sense, there were likely thousands hidden deeper within.
This vast forest was perfect for them, dense, dark, and endless.
For beasts like these, stealth and speed were their greatest weapons, and this place was the ideal hunting ground.
The first one had roared foolishly and given itself away. The rest wouldn’t repeat that mistake.
Now, they moved in silence.
PAT!
One leapt close, jaws gaping to bite.
Both mouths lunged for his head and throat.
CRACK!
Zeon’s fist smashed through both skulls.
Two heads burst like melons.
And that was just the beginning.
All around him, more panthers pounced.
Zeon unleashed a barrage of skills, Fire Spears, bursts of flame, cutting them down.
BOOM! BOOM!
Heads exploded one after another.
He fought nonstop, slaying them in waves, yet their numbers only grew.
From every corner of the forest, new ones came, drawn by the death of their kin.
“This will never end.”
He had to escape the forest first.
He needed a battlefield that favored him, not them.
Zeon launched himself from tree to tree.
The panthers followed, bounding after him.
CRASH-CRASH-CRACK!
They swarmed like a tidal wave.
Zeon released Fire Rain.
From above, a storm of fire poured down.
It had never once failed him before.
Against countless foes, no spell served him better.
But this time, the forest itself was the problem.
The dense canopy blocked the rain of fire.
Trees hit by the flames burst into blazes, but the panthers had already darted away.
To unleash Fire Rain’s full potential, he’d have to burn every tree shielding them. But destroying a forest this vast, even for him, was impossible.
Worse, this forest had almost no sand. The ground was mostly coarse soil, not fine grains. And soil couldn’t be controlled like sand.
His strongest weapon was sealed.
“Tch. Fine.”
It was time to use the weapon he’d kept in reserve.
Zeon opened his subspace.
SHUWAHHK!
A torrent of sand poured out like a waterfall.
The sudden flood startled the panthers, making them hesitate.
That instant was all he needed.
Zeon summoned a Sandstorm.
KWA-GA-GAK!
The sand from his subspace swirled violently around him.
Wrapped in a raging vortex of sand, Zeon charged forward.
Everything in his path shattered, massive trees, hidden beasts, all ground to pieces in the storm.
KWAANG! KERANG!
The twin-headed panthers’ screams echoed through the forest.
No matter how cunning they were, there was no escaping the agony of being torn apart.
CRACK! KERUNG!
The forest rang with the sound of destruction.
Zeon had become the storm itself.
Nothing could stand against his path of ruin.
But there was one problem,
The mana drain was brutal.
He could feel it bleeding away fast. Still, Zeon decided it was better to burn through it now and finish quickly than drag things out.
A new path opened in the vast forest.
Where Zeon passed, a road was carved.
He didn’t know how long he’d run.
When his mana was nearly gone and danger prickled at the edge of his senses, he finally saw the forest’s edge.
The endless sea of trees was about to end.
Zeon clenched his teeth and pushed faster,
KWOAAAAANG!
A roar unlike any before struck his eardrums.
At the end of the forest, a massive beast appeared.
Ten meters tall, over twenty meters long, a gigantic twin-headed panther.
Not just big, it had enormous wings sprouting from its back.
A crimson field of energy shimmered around it.
“The boss.”
From the vivid aura and sheer presence, it was clearly at least A-class.
WHOOSH!
The boss panther opened both jaws and unleashed twin streams of flame.
It was an inferno hot enough to melt solid rock in an instant, but it was the wrong match-up.
Zeon’s Incandescent Gauntlets rendered ordinary fire useless.
He thrust out his gauntleted hand.
The boss’s flames were sucked straight into his grasp.
Then Zeon added his own gauntlet’s power to the absorbed fire, and fired it back.
FWOOSH!
“Grrraaaah!”
The boss howled.
Being fire-type itself, it wasn’t heavily damaged, but the counterattack caught it off guard.
That brief moment of confusion opened a gap, and Zeon didn’t waste it.
He shifted Sandstorm into Sand Mixer.
KWA-GA-GAK!
The compressed destructive force ground into the boss’s barrier.
It tried to reinforce the shield, but it was useless.
The Sand Mixer shredded the aura, then dug into its hide.
Roaring in rage, the boss spewed more fire.
Again, Zeon absorbed it and hurled it back, twice as strong.
BOOM!
The beast reeled, jaws wide open,
And in that instant, the sand surged into its mouth.
It tried to snap its jaws shut, but it was too late.
KWA-GA-GAK!
The sand spun wildly inside and out, tearing flesh to shreds.
In the end, the boss panther disintegrated completely.
CLINK!
A key dropped where it vanished.
“Hm?”
Zeon frowned slightly and picked it up.
The moment his fingers closed around it,
His figure vanished without a trace.