Solar Knight: Shifting Sands (book 6)

chapter 17: a giant ant lion? really??

Seeing nezu get her ass handed to her on  a silver platter by karma itself, was hilarious in it's own right, but now we have a giant bug to kill.

Unlike the ant lions at home, this one is huge and isn't a larvae like it's earthly counterpart. It was full grown with seemingly armored hide.

"Well it's time for the bodyguards to shine, right dear?" Luna said, sliding away and waving bye bye.

"Yes yes, indeed it is my dear!" Artemis said, doing the same.

"Yup yup! Have fun!" Diana said, following suit.

"Why you little..." i grumbled.

"Gooooo quartet! Yaaaay!" Usagi, shouted from far away.

"YOU CAN FIGHT TOO!!" they yelled at her.

"Great, how are we gonna fight this thing on quicksand?" Moro said, drawing his spear.

"We throw xylu at it as bait......then run." I said.

"SAY WHAT?!" Xylu exclaimed.

"He's too small of a morsel." Akira remarked.

"HOW DARE YOU!!" xylu hissed.

"We could cook him first...." tamono said.

"You're all psychos...." xylu cried.

The antlion would bring it's pincers down to smash us. I channeled my aura into my legs and arms to catch it, akira would jump to my side and braced himself, Tamono would join us as well. When the pincers came down, we would stop it immediately, but the weight was immense.

"Don't just stand there! Retaliate!" I yelled.

The others would hit its underbelly with everything they had, with the quartet hitting it was their magical powers, sven with smokey missiles, and Moro unleashing electrical bolts from his tech spear. Despite the barrage, it didn't do much to it, except chip away some of the armor, but that's with everyone hitting it.

It lifted it's pincers and quickly swiped at us, sending us flying a good ways. Luckily it wasn't a direct hit on either of us, otherwise it would have either killed us or fatally wound us.

I got back up and charged at it, channeling everything i had into my right arm for a powerful punch. Moro would be running beside me and the rest of our group.

The ant lion would raise its pincers again.

"Smokey fist!" Sven cried, before creating a giant fist out of smoke and striking it in the head, preventing it from attacking.

Akira would then fly up to the bug, and grab it's pincers while it was staggered and pulled it backwards so it couldn't lunge forward again.

I would then follow up with leaping at it, putting everything i had into a single punch and slamming my fist into it's armored abdomen. It had quite a bit of resistance to it, but it began to crack as i channled more into my punch. Suddenly, my mother would slam into it, blade first, next to me and moro, following suit, slamming into it spear first. With all three of us, the armor shattered, revealing it's fleshy skin.

"Kick away!" I shouted.

They would nod and did so at the same time i did.

"They gave us one shot! Let's do it!" Usagi shouted.

Her and the quartet would charge up their attacks into one giant ball of energy, mixed with various elements.

"Sailor Crystal Heartbreak Arrow!!" They shouted in unison as they unleashed a devastating attack in the shape of a large piercing arrow.

When it collided with the giant insect, it went completely through it and blasted out the back, then turning the monster into nothing, but dust as the arrow continued, before exploding in the distance with a bright flash of light.

"Phew.....glad i wasn't on the receiving end of that...." i said, panting.

"Isn't that the truth..." moro said, worriedly.

"Think we could do something like that?" Sven asked.

"Nah, our attacks don't work like that." I said.

"If we all had energy or magic based attacks, then yes." Tamono commented.

"Ugh.....i don't feel so-" i said, before getting a salty taste in my mouth.

I would suddenly vomit and become weak.

"What the...." i weakly said.

Moro and the others did the same, aside mother who kept her composure, but was visibly weakened.

"We overdid it.....in this heat...." moro said, wiping his mouth, before fainting.

"Moro...." i said weakly.

Akira would fall from the sky and crash into the sand. Tamono would faint as well.

The quartet would fall to their knees one by one, as well as the princess.

We were dropping like flies in this heat and we lost a lot of water.....

We came woefully unprepared and was dehydrated.

My vision blurred before i couldn't stay up anymore and collapsed.

"Over here!" A woman shouted.

"Oh no! They succumbed to heat exhaustion!" Cried luna.

"We should have been quicker!" Artemis said.

"There's some over here too!" Shouted a man.

"Put them on board and hook them up to some IVs! Hurry!" Shouted another man.

"Sir!!" The others shouted.

A woman in, what looked to be in a pink and white dress would walk up to me and kneel to my level.

"You're him.....the one my husband talked about....don't worry, everything will be just fi-" she said, before i lost consciousness.
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.
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I had a bizzare dream....
Possibly a vision.....
I seen a great serpent, the size of Tokyo tower, arched upward menacingly.....
A man was in front of me, a man of no sure shape or form....
Everything was dark and shrouded in shadow.....
These two though....stood out....
Suddenly, a bright light shown above....
Then a man spoke in an omnipresent voice....

-You will awaken to your true self.-