Hikari walked along a broken road. Most of the shattered stone pieces are buried in the sand.
Behind her a column of steam tanks rumbled, kicking up a sandstorm as their clankering wheels plowed through the sand.
"Halt! Ok! ladies and gentleman, We reached the ambush point. Set up your formations as planned."
A megaphone voice came from one of the steam tanks.
The steam tanks formed up in a circle. The doors at the sides opened, infantry men in their shields, spears and muskets rushed out. Cannons rolled off the ramp. Steel pieces atop each steam tank unfolded, forming a steel umbrella over the infantry line below.
The geomancers hardened the ground around the steam tanks. The riflemen then dug picks into the hardened ground, fastening the steam tanks down. Then, they pulled steel wires hooked onto the steam tanks across the clearing in the center, forming a mesh wire trap.
"Remember to stay under the steel umbrella at all times. Wait until they get their teeth stuck and then blast them. If the steam tanks get pushed off the ground, may Herda bless you, but your best chance of survival is just to stay still."
The infantry completed setting up their formation.
Hikari stood on the outside, visibly impressed by the display.
"Ok! Looking good! Now to the Lady Knight taller than a steam tank standing at the front. Your Lady proposed an 80-20 split of the loot. So, I hope you don't mind being the bait. If you want to run away wobbling your tail like a Herdial bird, that's fine too. Then I'll just go back to your lady and haggle for 80 percent of the share."
"I'm in"
"Good! Looks like you got some gumption. Now, the sandworms are sensitive to vibrations in the sand. Bigger creatures have bigger hearts which means louder heartbeats which means you are the biggest meal they have ever seen in a while."
"Understood"
"Now, I have given you some of our hearth stone scrolls. Pump some mana into them and smack them onto the ground and it'll crystalize the grains of sand into stone. It will even crush some of the smaller sandworms if you time it right. Also the bombs, just drop them into the sandworm's mouth and it'll melt their insides. No need to light a fuse. We'll be back here too with cannons ready, so don't go back and complain to your lady that I sent you out to die."
"Got it."
Hikari turned around and advanced.
The dessert was still. Nothing but the sound of wind, blowing up clouds of sand, brushing across her wyvern skin.
She stuck to the road. The sand on either side could ill support her weight.
It was quiet.
She stopped.
Nothing but swirling sand storms ahead of her.
Far In the distance, the massive stone columns of wyvern peaks protruding out of the earth.
Her ears twitched, a faint rumbling in the distance.
Louder and louder.
The ground below Hikari's feet shook.
Hikari grabbed a scroll and slammed it onto the ground, hardening it.
A ring of teeth emerged around her.
She leapt into the air just before the teeth closed. The hardened ground below her collapsed into pieces as the teeth closed up.
Hikari drew her handcannon and fired.
Her shot bounced off the teeth.
"Sandworm teeth really are harder than steel"
A titanic mass of brown hardened carapace gushed out of the ground, chasing after Hikari hovering in midair.
The massive teeth opened up again, revealing a dark bottomless abyss, filled with the glint of countless rings of smaller teeth, snarling away at her.
She grabbed her entire backpack of bombs and hurled it into the teeth. She saw the round steel balls being ripped apart violently, spilling the acid contained within.
The countless sandworms housed inside the sandworm titan screeched in unison. But the titan's momentum did not stop.
Hikari used her telekinesis to push herself to one side. The titan released a shock wave as its mouth closed.
As the titan's carapace rushed past her like a speeding train. A barrage of cannons smashed into the carapace, breaking off pieces and releasing smaller sandworms stored within.
"Oh? The side carapace isn't that thick?"
Hikari drew five of her throwing daggers, ignited them and stuck them into the titan's carapace, telekinetically dragging them down with her as she descended, setting a strip of the titan ablaze.
She landed on the ground, used a scroll to harden the ground.
The titan's body was still going. The steam tank formation fired another barrage. Hikari drew her hand cannon and fired, her searing shots piercing through the titan, igniting a small segment.
Then a sandworm appeared and lunged at her. Hikari drew her sword, tilted her body to the side and sliced it in half with a lift of her sword.
Three sandworms appeared on both sides. Hikari blasted the one with her handcannon, dodged under the high arc of the other two and sliced them into pieces.
Several more converged onto her at the same time. She leapt into the air as their mouths past the high point of their arc, stomping their heads stuck in the ground with her boots as she landed.
A larger sandworm appeared. It dove down and approached Hikari's from a low angle. Hikari dove towards it as it lifted its head to bite her and crushed its body between her thighs.
She looked around. The titan had disappeared into the sands again. In the distance, the steam tank formation was fighting off a horde of sandworms.
They held their ground.
A sandworm will emerge out of the soft sand which was not hardened, the high arc it makes leaves its body open to infantry attack. Once it gets stuck on a shield or the steel umbrella, the infantry will hack it apart with pickaxes.
Suddenly, the titan appeared, it gobbled up a whole steam tank, dragging the surrounding ones connected to it by steel wires off the ground. Men were hurled into the sky, disappearing into the sand as they landed.
Hikari drew her handcannon and started firing.
"This thing seemed to an amalgamation of sandworms. It has no fatal weaknesses then. In that case, I just have to kill every single one of them."
Despite several tanks being thrown off the ground. The combined weight of the formation was able to check its momentum. The titan reached its high point, and began slowly descending, taking more cannon shots and releasing more sandworms on the way down.
Hikari dove towards the steam tank formation that was now unable to maintain a continuous ring of defenses while being swarmed by sandworms.
Several more men were dragged into the ground as she approached. She drew her sword, imbibing it with her flames, dashed around the steam tank formation, hacking and slashing as she went, cutting through the smaller sandworms like butter, the crunching sound of carapace beneath her boot.
"Cut the wires!" The megaphone sounded. The infantry scrambled to hack away at the wires.
"Hikari!"
The side door of a steam tank opened. A bag of acid bombs rolled out along with more steel balls for Hikari's handcannon.
A steam tank starts its engine and makes a run for it.
"No come back!"
Before it could get far, a swarm of sandworms rips into it. Tearing out the hatch doors and dragging the men inside into the ground.
Hikari manages to blast the attacking worms to bits, but nothing could be done to save them.
There was a pause.
"This wont do."
Hikari focused in, drowning out the noise of the men screaming as their limbs were pulled out from their torso, the acrylic smell of gun powder, the bellowing of the megaphone barking orders to rearrange the defense.
"There!"
She grabbed the bag of acid bombs and tossed it over a steam tank.
The sandworm Titan emerged from below, swallowing the steam tank and the bag of acid bombs.
As the mass of carapace rushed out of the ground, Hikari drew her searing sword and plunged it into its flesh.
The Titan's own momentum dragged its body through the searing blade, its insides incinerated as Hikari pumped her flames through the sword.
A swarm of burning sandworms burst out of the Titan's belly. Hikari pulls out her sword and unleashes all of her steel balls and flying daggers, creating a wall of whirling steel above her, churning the falling sandworms into mincemeat.
The burning Titan wobbled as it reached the top of its climb.
Then it retreated back into the ground.
The dessert fell silent. The men tensely held up their muskets, cannons remaining loaded. But the sandworms did not return.