Versatile Mage

 A dark brown cloud filled the sky. The ground was trembling from the sound it made. Countless Sandstorm Demon Locusts loomed over the place, like a storm hanging low in the sky, only a thousand times scarier!

 The town was not very big. It had a few main streets with houses, factories, and buildings densely packed together. They were built with the sturdy stone found in the west. They had yet to end up as the Sandstorm Demon Locusts’ food.

 However, the windows of these houses were gone. The strong vibrations had shattered every French window and the glass of the windows, mirrors, and cabinets to pieces. The streets were in a total mess…

 The underground bunkers were located under the buildings on every street. The buildings were currently filled with the Sandstorm Demon Locusts without even the slightest gap between them. The Sandstorm Demon Locusts seemed to have picked up the scent of humans hiding underground. They were trying to break through the entrances of the emergency bunkers.

 “Why aren’t they leaving yet? Are they seriously not giving up until they reduce us all to bones?” a tired middle-aged man behind the entrance said.

 Battlemages were on standby close to the entrance. They took turns guarding while the others slept on the ground, preserving as much strength as possible. However, there were only slightly more than a hundred Battlemages behind the door. How would they stand a chance against thousands, or even tens of thousands of demon locusts?

 The dim hall behind the Battlemages was crowded with trembling workers and residents. Their eyes had lost all their light after being constantly tortured by fatigue and fear!

 “Can we make it out?”

 “I don’t know,” the Battlemage replied.

 Some burst into tears upon hearing the response. There were cries of kids, women, and even men.

 “Li Qing, can’t you say something nice? What the hell is ‘I don’t know’?” a soldier beside him snapped furiously.

 “I don’t feel like lying to them. It’s extremely difficult for the army to fight the Sandstorm Demon Locusts that are going to just keep coming. It has been three days, they couldn’t even get in contact with us. We all know how terrifying the Sandstorm Demon Locusts are. The army won’t give up on us, but I don’t believe they can save us, either. As long as the Sandstorm Demon Locusts are still around, we are all going to die,” Li Qing tried to sound as calm as he could, even though he was panicking.

 “Is he being serious?” an old man asked.

 The rest of the soldiers fell silent.

 “I’m an old man, so it doesn’t matter if I die, but my granddaughter is only eight. You must make sure that she lives, I’m begging you!” the old man pleaded.

 “Old man, we can’t even protect ourselves.”

 “The food and water will only last for two days. Let’s just pray that the Sandstorm Demon Locusts will leave on their own.”

 —

 —

 Fifteen kilometers away from Anjiao Town, soldiers were swiftly building a temporary camp behind a natural wall of rocks.

 The camp was nothing fancy. It was just to prevent the Sandstorm Demon Locusts nearby from finding them.

 Four troops of soldiers were dispatched here, each troop consisting a thousand soldiers and led by a Commander. Advisor Shao was in command of them.

 Li Man was assigned to a special force established not long ago. She had less than fifty people under her lead. It mainly consisted of Intermediate Mages and above. Li Man was put in charge of the squad.

 Mo Fan and his crew followed Li Man to the camp on the front line. Mo Fan saw an army in dark red uniforms heading toward Anjiao Town.

 The terrain they were at was slightly higher. They could clearly see Anjiao Town located down in the basin. However, the black Sandstorm Demon Locusts were like a dark tornado that had originated from a different world. It was looming over Anjiao Town and the whole area within ten kilometers. The town was as tiny as a lonely island on a pitch-black ocean. It would be devoured by the huge waves at any second!

 “It’s…it’s bigger than the Sandstorm Demon Locusts we encountered in the desert!” Mu Nujiao blurted out in astonishment.

 “A troop of a thousand Mages is only like a little raft in the black ocean. Are they going to be fine entering the territories of the Sandstorm Demon Locusts so recklessly?” Zhang Xiaohou said.

 “There’s no other choice. The food and water in the bunkers in Anjiao Town are only going to last for another two or three days. Advisor Shao has to do something. However, the situation isn’t as grim. The troop only consists of Fire Mages. The armor they are wearing has nodes for Star Orbits. If they cast their spells together, they can form a fiery barrier similar to the barrier of a town. The barrier will burn any Sandstorm Demon Locusts that come close into ashes. It’s the only reliable method we have come up with. They will bring food and water into the town and find out why the barrier has failed to protect the town,” Li Man said.

 “They will soon reach the Sandstorm Demon Locusts.”

 “Mm, is that barrier really going to work?” Mo Fan’s heart sank when he saw the troop of soldiers stepping into the devil’s nest.

 He looked at Li Man and asked, “What’s with the barrier of the towns? Tell me the details.”

 “A barrier is essential for the construction of a city. Without it, there’s no way a city could survive in a land crawling with demon creatures. This basin had a red danger level as soon as the Sandstorm Demon Locusts first showed up. The Council asked every person, city, and soldier to evacuate, but General Mu Da invented a fire barrier that could block the Sandstorm Demon Locusts from the fortress. With it, the Tarim Basin Fortress was able to expand further and build a few towns around it to extract the resources that are available…” Li Man explained.

 “These Sandstorm Demon Locusts are afraid of fire, right?” Mu Nujiao asked.

 Li Man nodded and said, “Fire is what they are scared of the most, so the fire barrier has guaranteed the safety of the towns for people to reside in, even though they were once listed as dangerous, but…”

 Li Man glanced at Anjiao Town, surrounded by the Sandstorm Demon Locusts.

 “Are there Sandstorm Demon Locusts that aren’t afraid of fire?” Lingling suddenly asked.

 “That’s impossible; all Sandstorm Demon Locusts are afraid of fire!” Li Man said confidently.

 Mo Fan shuddered as soon as he heard Lingling’s question. He immediately took out the Rock Crystal from the storage of his Space Element.

 He had received the Rock Crystal from the mutated Sandstorm Demon Locust before he left the Burning Mountains. He had a feeling that something was not right, but when he realized something, a chill instantly ran down his spine!

 “Huh, Mo Fan, that’s a crystal you got there; why is there something inside it?” Jiang Shaoxu said.

 Mo Fan did not respond. He pinched the crystal into pieces.

 The crystal cracked open, exposing the thing that Jiang Shaoxu had noticed inside it. It was an insect with an odd shape. The insect had been dead for quite some time, but they could still tell that it had died while it was still in the egg!

 “Why…why would the crystal have an insect that hasn’t been born yet!?”

 “Is that a Sandstorm Demon Locust? A Sandstorm Demon Locust that hasn’t been born. It’s already dead…” Li Man exclaimed in surprise.

 “Brother Fan, why do you have the Sandstorm Demon Locusts’ egg?” Zhang Xiaohou asked.

 Mo Fan did not answer the question. He dragged Li Man toward the main camp.

 Li Man was utterly confused, but she could tell that it was something bad just by looking at Mo Fan’s expression.

 The others knew Mo Fan rarely showed such fear, and quickly caught up to him.

 —

 —

 Ten kilometers away from Anjiao Town, the deafening sound was messing up with the soldiers’ minds.

 Luckily, they were using the nodes on their armor to maintain the fire barrier protecting them. Otherwise, they would not have had any chance to cast a single spell while being constantly harassed by the sonic wave.

 Commander Fan Liang was leading the team. He seemed a little irascible, yet he had motivated countless soldiers to fearlessly charge into the front line with the same face. He had made worthy contributions repeatedly over his career.

 “Don’t be scared, I have fought against these bugs for almost ten years. As long as we have the barrier, they are just going to wet their pants and run away. Charge, the people of the town are waiting for us. Our troop is going to be praised by every person in the west!” Fan Liang yelled at his men.

 They were currently approaching the edge of the tornado of Sandstorm Demon Locusts. As soon as they set their foot in, thousands of Sandstorm Demon Locusts would be lunging at them.

 “Repeat after me, We are fearless!”

 “We are fearless!”

 “We are unstoppable!”

 “We are unstoppable!”

 The troop of a thousand soldiers continued to move forward. They were carrying life-saving food and water as they approached the devil’s den.

 The retreating path was no longer visible. Their vision was fully covered in darkness. The lonely town was swaying in the ‘tornado’ of the demon locusts.

 “Fan Liang, Fan Liang, please respond. Retreat at once, retreat at once!” A soft distorted voice came from Commander Fan Liang’s communication device.

 Fan Liang was struggling to hear it clearly. The noise produced by the wings of the Sandstorm Demon Locusts was just too deafening.

 “What did you say? I can’t hear you. Don’t worry, we are going to accomplish our mission. My troop never fails our mission!”

 “I say retreat! Retreat!” the seriously distorted voice was screaming.

 “We will not fail, we will not hand over our Tarim Basin Fortress that we’ve put so much effort in to these filthy, greedy, disgusting bugs!” Fan Liang declared seriously.

 “Re…retreat!”

 —

 —

 The signal was cut off. All they heard were piercing screeches.

 Up on the observation tower fifteen kilometers away, Mo Fan, Li Man, Advisor Shao, Zhang Xiaohou, and the other three Commanders were staring at the troop with wide eyes. They were watching the Sandstorm Demon Locusts slowly devouring the soldiers…

 “Where…where is the fire?” a Commander sobbed.

 Advisor Shao stood there, her face extremely pale. Her eyes were bloodshot.

 “Why didn’t the fire barrier work? Why!? Why!?” a devastating cry echoed in the camp.

 Mo Fan looked into the distance. He saw the Sandstorm Demon Locusts diving at the soldiers of the vanguard troop, he watched the insects turning the soldiers into piles of white bones.

 Perhaps he could have prevented the tragedy from happening if he had realized the rocks on the Burning Mountains were actually the eggs of the mutated Sandstorm Demon Locusts!