Ruler Of Iron And Flesh

Inian, Janae, and Burt were all riding on the battle train towards the desert in the Empire.

The train was unique in how it needed no tracks to control its movements but was instead propelled in different directions using the energy from monster cores. It also helped to keep the train straight instead of having the back portion of the train swing around.

They were sitting in one of the rear cars of the train.

"We should arrive there by sunset," Burt said.

Janae peeked out a window and saw a faint outline of hills and plants through the darkness, "who else is here to help?" She asked.

Burt responded, "there are a few brave souls who are going to man the Mato cannon, and there is the crew to run the train as well. The Empire has given us two version three exosuits. They are for you and me to use, but Inian will have to use his abilities to fight the descendant."

Inian took a deep breath and sat back in his chair, "I'm not sure if I can control my powers enough not to become reckless."

Burt nodded towards Janae, "that's why she's here. She's meant to keep you in check."

Janae put a hand on Inian's shoulder.

Burt continued talking, "we have a dozen automatons in one of the front cars, so we are prepared as we can be without wasting lives."

"What can we expect from the descendant?" asked Inian.

"As I said before, it's a worm-like creature. It burrows under the sand and is projected to have a massive size. I'm sure it has some abilities to control the sand like the other descendant could control the sea. That's why we'll have to use you, Inian to counteract it."

Inian nodded, the time was passing by slowly as they made their way towards the location where the descendant was projected to be.

Soon, the train made it to the desert in the Empire as the sun just began to rise.

Burt and Janae suited up in their version three exosuits.

Once they were suited up, the trio made their way on top of the train to a raised platform on top of the rear car.

They could see the massive cannon on the first two cars of the train; a few cars separated them.

The automatons were in the second most rear car and were ready to be activated by a press of a button from Burt.

"How are we supposed to get the descendant up and out of the sand?"

Burt pulled out a button, "we made a device that sends a signal that monsters hate. We tested it, so it should work on the descendant as well."

He pressed the button, and Janae heard nothing, but Inian clutched his ears as the painful noise sent pain shooting throughout his head.

"Inian!" Janae yelled and tried to comfort him.

Soon, a rumbling occurred from beneath them; it was one that shook the whole moving train.

A roar sounded out as a beast of massive proportions popped out of the sand.

It had no eyes, but its mouth was the entire width of its body and opened up to reveal thousands of teeth.

Its body was ten times thicker and a dozen times longer than the train itself.

"They weren't kidding about the size..." Burt yelled over the monster's roaring.

An earsplitting screech came from the descendant. It wasted no time and began to chase after the train.

A part of its body stuck up out of the sand, and it was slowly gaining up on the train.

Inian stood up and yelled to Janae and Burt, "Get those automatons out here! And get the gun aimed at the descendant!"

Burt hit his button, and a dozen automatons came flying out of the train car.

"Attack the descendant!" Yelled Burt, and the automatons went flying after the descendant.

They flew around its sides and began to pepper it with gunfire.

It wasn't strong enough to hurt the descendant, but it annoyed it enough to slow it down. The train began to gain more distance between them as the gun was getting ready to fire.

Near the descendant, sand billowed up and reached high into the sky as solid pillars.

The sand took out a few automatons and wrecked their circuitry.

They fell to the earth and were swallowed up by the sand.

The remaining automatons were unfazed and continued firing. They had no skill in dodging and were cleanly wiped out one by one until they were all destroyed.

"C' mon, c' mon, c' mon," Burt continued muttering while glancing up at the cannon, and then back down at the descendant.

The descendant was slowly gaining back up on the train and popped its head out of the sand and opened its massive mouth.

"Go further up the train!!" Inian yelled, and the trio jumped up the cars towards the front of the train.

The descendant closed its maw on the rearmost train car and completely crushed it.

It fell behind a little bit after destroying the train car but was catching back up.

"How much longer until the cannon is ready to fire?" Janae asked.

"It should be any minute now!" Burt yelled back.

The energy was gathering by the cannon's barrel; it rumbled louder and louder, the more it gathered energy.

The descendant caught back up and was about to take out the next train car when the cannon fired a powerful round.

It rocked the whole train from side to side from the recoil of the shout, but that powerful blast obliterated the top of the descendant's mouth and body.

The descendant roared and dove into the sand.

Blood splattered over the sandy earth, and the trio cheered.

"It works! The cannon will even damage a descendant!" Burt cheered.

"It's not over yet!" Inian yelled.

He could see the monster cutting through the sand towards the train at its side. He couldn't wait to use his abilities any longer and decided to extend his wings to take off.

"Not yet, Inian! The cannon is reloading; we may be able to do this without you using your abilities." Burt said.

Inian gritted his teeth and retracted his wings.

The mound of sand was coming closer and closer to the train's side.

Burt flew up into the air followed by Janae, and they fired a couple of missiles each at the mound of sand.

The descendant jumped out of the sand, and the missiles barely scr.a.p.ed its skin. It roared and willed the sand to launch towards Burt and Janae.

Unlike the automatons, Burt and Janae easily dodged the pillars of sand shooting up from the ground.

The descendant was getting frustrated and stopped pursuing the train to deal with the pests flying around it.

"I need to fight," Inian said out loud and flew up into the air.

He could see the descendant was about to obliterate Burt and Janae, so he launched several icicles and shot lightning at the descendant.

The descendant was shocked by the sudden rush of power attacking it. It bled from several openings from the icicles stabbing it and was burned by the lightning.

It looked in Inian's direction and charged towards him.

Inian flapped higher into the air, and the descendant launched out of the ground, to bite him in the air.

At that moment, another shot from the cannon rung out, and it hit the monster squarely in the center of its body.

The descendant g.r.o.a.n.e.d and fell back down to the earth.

A giant hole was in the center of its body from the cannon on the train.

It laid out on the earth, and didn't move, but still breathed slightly.

Inian flew towards its head, and the descendant began to speak in a tongue only Inian could understand, "why? I always kept to myself. Why did you want to kill me? I don't understand..."

Then it breathed its last breath.

Inian was frozen in the air. Wasn't this descendant evil? It didn't want to rule over all creatures?"

The corpse was massive and took up a considerable portion of the desert.

Janae and Burt came flying down next to Inian, cheering, "We did it! The cannon worked, and we killed another descendant! Now we know we can kill the last two!"

"Yeah..." Inian muttered as they all flew back to the train to head back in victory.