God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

The {Argent Amphithere} slithered through the open sky, riding and gliding upon the streams of air by taking advantage of its unique body and a dusting of magic.

Cain looked down at the world beneath them. He could see the base of the mountain, but not much else.

When he tried looking into the distance, it was obscured by the veil of white clouds, making it difficult to see anything, even with his incredible perception.

In other words, the clouds were not normal as well. No regular clouds would be able to block his perception to that degree.

He immediately became cautious,

He looked back, and sure enough, the others had already drawn their weapons. They were also suspicious of it.

He immediately suspected that if the desolate plains was the first stage of the trial, then they would be entering the second stage right now.

As the flying Silver Serpent broke through the layers of white clouds, their surroundings began to darken even more.

What was the low din of obscure sounds in the distance turned into the sound of crashing lightning and rumbling thunder in mere moments.

'Shit!'

As the {Argent Amphithere} broke through the final layers of white clouds, they were immediately swept away by violent turbulence.

Cain felt himself get drenched almost immediately.

There was darkness all around them...

It was pouring buckets. Bolts of lightning struck all around them.

His face paled immediately.

He activated {Wind Weaver} to isolate some of the madness, but for some reason, the flow of wind elemental mana in this place was simply too erratic.

Although the spell was formed, it wasn't all that effective.

Still, the {Argent Amphithere} took advantage of the slight stability of the spell, making use of it to find a flight path that was somewhat stable.

Stable only in comparison to the otherwise turbulent world of harsh winds and broken heavens.

They held onto its scales for dear life as it began tumbling through the air, doing barrel rolls and spirals through the air.

'At this rate, we'll fall off.'

He had to do something...

Just then, he felt something coil around his waist. Looking down, he found that it was a pair of arms.

Then he felt the mana in the air change. To his surprise, he felt himself adhere to the scales of the Silver Serpent.

Susan leaned against his back then whispered a few words in his ear.

Despite the storm, he could hear them,

'A spell of stability, huh... Much appreciated.'

Now he could be a bit relieved.

However, that relief was short founded, as in the next moment, he felt the presence of numerous beings approaching them at breakneck speeds.

'For the love of—'

BOOM!

Whatever had been approaching them crashed into the side of the Silver Serpent, causing it tumbled like a broken kite.

A split second later, a bolt of lightning broke away from the perpetual net of sparks in the sky and struck at the Silver serpent.

Cain's mind spun like gears...

A split second, no, even less that that, was all he needed to make a choice.

Unfortunately for him, that was all the time he would be getting, as the bolt of lightning that was torn from the sky was just as fast.

***

{Lightning Thief}: The {Manticore of Sky Purgatory} was a beast born with the ability to steal and devour the chaotic power of the heavens for its own. Eventually, the ruler of Sky Purgatory had enough of its insolence. In a battle that would shake the realm, the Ruler and the thief fought for ten days and nights until eventually, the Ruler was devoured.

***

Cain had inherited the ability of the {Manticore of Sky Purgatory}. The Manticore has the ability to devour the violent, volatile power of the heavens; in other words, Lightning.

Meaning this bolt of lightning was little more than food...

The bolt of lightning was fast and unavoidable. However, instead of burning the Silver Serpent swimming through the air into a black crisp, in was absorbed instantaneously.

Cain let out a deep breath from his lungs as sparks coiled around his body.

The battle had just begun.

'They managed to escape from my detection, which means I cannot rely on the {Eye of Clairvoyance} as a preventive measure. In that case...'

He turned around and yelled at the top of his lungs,

"Jenny! Shoot as many as you can down as possible. Prevent them from coming any closer!"

"Noted." Jenny said coldly, her gun already pointed into the dark skies. Regardless of how evasive their opponents were, he had no doubt she would be able to accomplish that to the best of her ability.

But it wouldn't be enough.

And so...

"If any of them get too close, we'll handle it." Evangeline said to him with a frown.

Cain nodded then turned to Susan.

Through the battering storm, it was difficult to see much. He could see the faint outline of their forms, but not much else. This should have been impossible, but again, the nature of the storm was not based on logic either way.

"Keep us glued to this damned snake. Whatever you do, don't let go."

Susan nodded.

Cain nodded as well, then turned around to let out another breath of air to empty his lungs out.

***

{Thunder Newt}: Level 150. (Deadly,Tier 1)

Strength: 90,000.

Agility: 90,000.

Defense: 5,000.

HP: 700,000/2700,000.

MP: 1,000,000/1,000,000. Explore more at My Virtual Library Empire

Skills: Thunderclap, Lightning Bolt Summons, Charge, Elemental Dissonance, Lightning Eater, Thunder Eclipse, Chaos Immunity.

***

He grinned,

'This is going to be fun.'

Danger was danger anyway it was cut. But that was no reason not to enjoy himself.

He summoned {Maelstrom}.

While firearms were more convenient to use, his bow had far longer reach. Its penetration power was also unmatched.

Sucking in a deep breath to fill his emptied lungs, he drew back on the bowstring.

With his mind, he urged the {Argent Amphithere} on. The Silver Serpent screeched then soared into the air once again.

The figure of the first {Thunder Newt} flashed past them.

Jenny was the first to reach, clenching down on the trigger.

The loud bang was obscured by the sound of the downpour.

The bullet turned the droplets of water it passed through into steam, drawing a faint line through the air and burrowing right into the skull of the {Thunder Newt from one side and escaping from the other, carrying a string of destroyed brain matter with it.

The corpse of the {Thunder Newt} turned into a rock, falling out of the dark sky.

"That's one." Jenny muttered under her breath, lodging another bullet into her rifle, ready to claim another life.

The Silver Serpent fought against the mad currents, trying to climb higher. Meanwhile, more and more shadows began charging at them.

Cain fired off an arrow of compressed elemental cosmic water mana into the distance. It cut through the air with a shrill cry and burrowed into the side of a {Thunder Newt}, accurately piercing itself heart and taking its life.

"That's one." He whispered to himself.

However, one was a dent in the numbers of the storm creatures.

After seeing two of their kin die in quick succession, All the nearby {Thunder Newt} swooped in like mad crows, ready to start them apart.

The {Argent Amphithere} dodged, rolled and waved mid flight, evading as many as it could.

Cain and Jenny shot them down one by one, while the ones that came too close were cut down by Evangeline and Roselle.

The number of corpses dropping from the sky every second was appalling. Regardless, the more of them that fell the more their numbers seemed to grow.

And with so many of them present, Cain was finally able to get a good look at what these creatures looked right.

They were not pretty at all...

They were rather ugly creatures. They faces were a twisted, gnarly combination of a vertical mouth, and a set of four glowing horns that sparked with currents of electricity.

They didn't have eyes or noses. Instead, there was something that looked like gills located on their necks.

He frowned. If they didn't have eyes or noses, then what the hell were they using to track them down?

It didn't take a lot of critical thinking to realize how.

'Those glowing horns.'

Creatures like this often would use electrical signals and responses to track their prey down.

In other words, they tracked their prey by using those horns to 'smell' the electric currents emitted.

It made sense, really...

In this dark lands wreathed in lightning and thunder, organs like ears and noses would be practically useless.

It was impossible to hear anything, and the rain was constantly washing any smells away.

With the surrounding air always being charged, it made sense that they would be able to sense even the smallest of changes in the excitement atmosphere.

'How dangerous...'

Despite everything, he was still excited.

These creatures were ferocious and dangerous. But they did not frighten him nearly enough...

Still, he did know it would be impossible to kill through them all.

'In that case...'

As they shot through them, his thoughts spun.

'How the hell do we throw them off our electrical scent?'