The desert locusts were unlike any ordinary creature—ravenous monsters the size of cars, drawn irresistibly to the wood element. Their hunger was insatiable, consuming vast expanses of forest with terrifying speed. Each locust, a living engine of destruction, sought out the wood element in any form—trees, plants, even structures with wooden supports—and devoured it in minutes, leaving behind barren wastelands. What made them even more dangerous was their ability to multiply rapidly. A single egg could spawn countless offspring, and in mere days, their population could swell into a massive, writhing swarm.
Faelan, commander of the boundary region's military forces, had witnessed firsthand the devastation these creatures could wreak.
Over the years, he had defended the forested regions of Kitui, a vibrant area teetering on the edge of collapse due to the locusts' relentless onslaught. He had fought these creatures time and time again, using every ounce of his wind elemental power to push them back. But each time, they returned stronger and more numerous.
His outpost in Kitui was where he met the love of his life, Naria. Kitui bordered a dimensional fissure that brought in inter-dimensional wildlife. This was his defacto home, for if he ever returned to the central plains he would be court martialed. The forever war against the desert locusts was the reason he was still alive but for how long?
Faelen was a talented martial artist and a powerful wind elemental master. He had a rich career in the military but had fallen out of favor for refusing to hunt down believers of the winged deity. The state of emergency had granted him a chance to live each day as his last in a battle against the desert locusts.
The locusts weren't just ravenous—they were intelligent, and they wielded the wind element as their primary weapon. They could harness this elemental power to cast devastating spells, sharp gusts of wind capable of slicing through entire forests with a single cut. The locusts used these wind attacks to clear away trees before devouring the remains. Their bodies, covered in lightweight yet durable armor, deflected most traditional weapons. Blades and spears were useless against their chitinous exoskeletons, leaving only elemental attacks as viable means of defense.
He couldn't shake the gnawing suspicion that the military had sent him here to die. It was becoming clear that this was no ordinary assignment. His requests for reinforcements had gone unanswered, and the soldiers he'd been given were clearly not equipped for the task of defending Kitui. Many had only undergone basic military training, learning how to fight with swords and spears—useless against creatures as formidable as the desert locusts.
Faelan's thoughts churned with frustration as he surveyed his forces. His battalion of five hundred stood in rows outside the town walls. They lacked the elemental strength and technique needed to combat the locusts, who were practically invulnerable to their attacks.
Without proper training in the Body Foundation or Spirit stage, the soldiers couldn't muster the power required to fend off even a fraction of the swarm. They were poorly trained, weak elemental bearers with no real cultivation. Most hadn't even broken through the Body Foundation stage, let alone developed any Spirit stage abilities. These men and women were little more than cannon fodder, and Faelan knew it.
As Faelan stood at the edge of Kitui's forest, he could hear the faint buzzing in the distance—a low, ominous hum that signaled the approaching swarm. His soldiers were positioned along the boundary, but as he looked at them, he felt a sinking dread settle in his chest.
"Commander," one of his lieutenants called out, hurrying to Faelan's side. "The swarm is approaching faster than expected. What are your orders?"
Faelan gritted his teeth. He knew that retreat wasn't an option—there was no place for them to fall back to. If they allowed the locusts to breach their defenses, the entire Kitui region would be consumed, and thousands of lives would be lost. He had to stand and fight, even if it meant a slaughter.
"Take the hay from the horse stables, cover it with soil and set it ablaze," Faelan said firmly. "Focus your men on mortar fire. Aim for the joints in their armor. It's our only chance."
The lieutenant nodded, though his face was pale with fear. As he ran back to his post, Faelan couldn't help but feel a sense of helplessness creep in. He knew what was coming. The swarm was too large, too powerful, and his forces were too weak. Yet despite the overwhelming odds, he refused to give up.
Drawing his wind-forged blade, Faelan stepped forward to the front of the line. The wind swirled around him, responding to his elemental call. He could feel its power coursing through him, as natural as breathing. The wind had always been his ally, a force that he could bend to his will. But against the locusts, even the wind seemed insufficient.
The horizon darkened as the swarm appeared, their bodies blotting out the sun like a rolling storm cloud. The buzzing grew louder, deafening, as the locusts descended upon them. Faelan raised his blade, the air around him sharpening into a deadly force.
"Steady!" he called to his soldiers in a firm voice. "We protect the civilians! Do not let the beasts through!"
His lieutenant followed behind, Faelan began summoning his spirit mount. A winged eight-meter long swordfish began to materialized in a blue shimmer, his spirit mount revealing his noble heritage. Noble households were capable of signing blood-bonds to spirit beast enabling their descendants to be able to summon a family of similar beasts.
Faelan leaped into the air and the fully formed swordfish became his mount as he rode into the coming storm of locusts. He gathered the pillars of smoke that formed from the burning hay and formed a dark cloud of hot air. He pushed the smog ahead of him and into the army of locusts.
The locusts crashed into the black cloud like a tidal wave. Faelan moved with the wind, his blade slicing through the air as he unleashed a torrent of razor-sharp gusts. The wind blades cut through several locusts, sending their carcasses plummeting to the ground. But for every locust he felled, two more took its place.
His blade created a three meter long sheath of razor sharp air. Each movement of the sword bringing down dozens of locusts. His strategy was simple but effective, as long as the locusts could not coordinate their attacks in the hot cloud of smoke, they would collide and fall from the sky.
A sharp gust of wind from the locusts sliced through the trees behind him, sending splinters flying. Faelan grimaced. The locusts' attacks were too powerful. If they kept pushing, it was only a matter of time before the line broke.
'Has the military sent me here to die? Why else would they have assigned such weak, ill-prepared soldiers for a task this monumental? Was this their way of getting rid of me?' Faelan thought.
A large locust with shimmering green and brown wings shoot at him from nowhere. It was centimeters away from biting his head off when the pointed snout of the swordfish penetrated the chest of the queen locust. Faelan generated a whirlwind at the tip of his blade and landed it at the bus sized creature's head, shredding it into chunks of meat.
'The queen remains at the back of the swarm. That kill was too easy. What has changed now? ' Faelan asked himself.
Before he could finish his train of thought, a group of locust was spinning around him creating a tornado of wind and shrapnel setting up a kill box. The spiraling wind created a wind barrier trapping him in while clearing the sky from the clouds of smoke he had used.
His soldiers fought valiantly, channeling what little elemental power they had. Earth, fire, water, and wind clashed against the locusts, but it wasn't enough. The locusts' wind spells sliced through trees and soldiers alike, their armored bodies shrugging off most attacks.
Faelan's mind raced. He was a skilled wind elemental warrior, one of the best, but even he couldn't hold off this many locusts alone. The wind whirled around him as he cut through the creatures, but their numbers were overwhelming. And his soldiers… they weren't ready for this. They hadn't been given the training they needed, the strength they needed. This wasn't a battle—it was a death sentence.
He was trapped in a wind cage that was getting smaller by the second. Sharp gusts of wind tore though his flesh. He had created a wind barrier around him to counter the debris and wind blades that hit him inside the tornado. His will was getting weaker but suddenly he closed his eyes and took deep steady breaths. He concentrated on his wind barrier and made it spin counter-clockwise against the direction of the locusts tornado.
Then he felt it again, he saw a spark of electricity forming where the two opposing forces met.
"I formed a charge of electricity by colliding the opposing wind shields together. When lightning forms, it is two opposite charged clouds colliding.' Faelan thought to himself. As he opened his eyes, sparks of the lightning element lit his pupils.
'I will concentrate on the dust in the air. I can feel how they move against each other through the wind attribute but what I never understood is how they interacted even when air did not cause their movement. They all have a charge. If I can create an equally powerful charge, I will generate electricity. '
He expertly shaped the air currents in the dome around him. Faelan knew if he failed he was a dead man but the thought gave him comfort not fear. He released a timed blast of wind at the top of the tornado and the result made the entire sky glow with bright streaks of light.
Lightning flowed from the top of the tornado carried through the flesh of the locusts across the entire swarm. The lightning was not powered by Faelan's will but carried the force of nature, frying the entire locust swarm caught in the cloud.
Charcoal black figures the size of cars started dropping from the sky. The surviving locusts were severely maimed, those not caught in the storm flew back not to be hit by the tonnes of dropping caucuses.
Faelan gritted his teeth in pain, the lightning had not spared him. His spirit beast had taken most of the hit, saving his life. Faelan dropped from the sky in a trail of smoke immediately as his spirit beast disappeared. Yet he refused to give in to despair. He couldn't think like that. Not now. He had a duty to protect Kitui, to protect the lives that depended on him and to go back to his wife and newborn son. He couldn't afford to fail.
Faelan raised his blade once more, his determination hardening like steel. He would fight with everything he had. He would push the locusts back,or die trying. The swarm of thousands was now reduced to groups of a few dozen. He dropped on to the back of a fleeing survivor, digging his blade into the creature's back and holding firm.
'I have to keep fighting for my family. I can not die here. I have not yet seen my baby boy.' Faelan thought to himself as he stabilized himself on the back of the locust. His strength and consciousness was slowly escaping him but his grip on the sword was iron tight.