The Butcher of Sargon (Renekton, The Butcher of The Sand in Arknight)

The boost from the hero template was tremendous for Garde.

Without it, he would have just been a slightly stronger crocodile man.

But with the template, even without using Ascension power, Garde could hold his own against someone like Gladiia, a Abyssal Hunter from Aegir.

The only downside was that the hero template leveled up painfully slowly.

After all these years, he had only reached level 4.

“When will I reach level 6 and unlock my ultimate?” Garde wondered as he glanced at his status panel.

There weren’t many changes, but some of his weaker areas were gradually improving.

#======#

Character: Garde

Code Name: None

Gender: Male

Combat Experience: ??

Birthday: February 28

Race: Adakrys

Height: 208 cm

Oripathy Status: Non-infected

Physical Strength: Perfect

Battlefield Mobility: Standard/Excellent

Physiological Endurance: —

Tactical Planning: Ordinary

Combat Skills: Excellent/Outstanding

Originium Arts Adaptation: Ordinary

Current Hero Template: The Butcher of the Sands (Renekton) lv4

#======#

Garde’s mobility and combat skills were improving, partly due to the hero template, and partly because he was integrating Renekton’s battle memories.

As the template leveled up, his control over Ascension power improved.

Reality didn’t perfectly mirror the game.

In the game, level 6 was when the ultimate ability unlocked, but who’s to say it would work the same in real life?

He figured that only at level 6 would he truly master the power of Ascension.

By then, both his control over the energy and the amount stored in his body would allow him to become a true demigod.

A flicker of crimson flashed in Garde’s eyes.

The hero template bolstered his combat abilities, but the side effects were evident as well.

Standing in the storm, it took him half an hour to calm the violent urges within him.

“Now is not the time!” Garde reminded himself.

Slowly, the red in his eyes faded, replaced by a golden light.

His skin, cracked by the heat of the wind, began to heal visibly.

If Ascension power was an extension of his body, then Garde was like a toddler learning to walk.

He carefully released only a tiny portion of the power inside him.

Boom!

The wind around Garde vanished. Within a meter of him, the air was completely still.

“No, not so forcefully,” Garde muttered to himself, withdrawing the Ascension power.

The wind and sand resumed battering his body.

Sitting cross-legged in the desert, Garde looked like a scholar deep in philosophical thought.

Cautiously, he extracted small amounts of Ascension power, each time releasing only a tiny portion — like plucking a single strand of hair from a head of a hundred thousand.

Well, that wasn’t exactly accurate, since Garde was bald and had no hair.

Through trial and error, Garde’s mastery of Ascension power grew visibly.

Initially, any release of the power disrupted the wind patterns around him.

But soon, he could blend his energy seamlessly into the storm.

Garde wasn’t trying to destroy the storm.

If destruction was his goal, even ten times his current Ascension power wouldn’t be enough to quell the natural disaster covering much of the hotlands.

Instead, he aimed to guide and redirect it.

A grain of sand landed in Garde’s hand.

He opened his palm, and though the fierce wind should have swept it away, the grain stayed put, encased in Ascension power like a rock in a raging river.

The winds began to spiral around the sand grain instead of pushing against it.

Raising the grain into the air, Garde watched it rise higher and higher.

At three meters, the wind around him stopped.

At ten meters, the storm within a radius of several dozen meters subsided.

When the grain reached a hundred meters in the sky, the calm spread across kilometers, encompassing the entire market.

In a lizardman’s underground shelter, the group was still anxiously awaiting Garde’s return.

Surtr had come back an hour ago, but there had been no word from Garde.

The air in the underground tunnel was nearly depleted.

The members of the Rhine Lab team had already begun using the oxygen tanks Surtr brought.

Without them, they would have passed out by now.

In cramped spaces like these, the oxygen consumption was alarming.

The basement could accommodate a few people comfortably, but with over a dozen packed inside, the oxygen was running out fast.

In the public underground tunnels of the market, the situation was even worse.

Some of the weaker lizardmen were already on the verge of collapse.

An hour ago, the oxygen level had dropped below 10%.

Strong as they were, lizardmen still needed to breathe.

They weren’t plants capable of photosynthesis.

Though they could go without food for days, they couldn’t hold their breath for more than half an hour.

Muccaka, watching the restless crowd, was growing anxious.

Some lizardmen had started to stir, thinking that reducing the number of people would improve the air quality.

If necessary, Muccaka was ready to do whatever it took to protect his wife and sister.

Suddenly, someone shouted, “Listen! The wind! It’s gone!”

The tunnel erupted in chaos.

“Nanani has heard our prayers! The hot wind has been driven away!”

“Should we go out? What if the wind comes back?”

“I’m going! Staying here any longer and I’ll suffocate!”

After some debate, the local lizardmen grudgingly allowed the outsiders to leave first, avoiding an internal conflict.

When the lizardmen emerged from the tunnels, they were shocked.

The wind hadn’t stopped; it had merely skirted around them, sparing the entire market.

Above, the sky was clear, and the sun blazed down.

But just a few kilometers away, the storm still raged.

Hearing the wind fade, Garde’s companions rushed out of the tunnel.

The air was now so clear it seemed to lack even a trace of dust.

All the buildings around them had collapsed, and they could see for miles in every direction.

“Look! There’s someone over there!” someone shouted.

Everyone turned to look.

A single grain of golden sand floated down from the sky into Garde’s hand.

At that moment, the calm around the market began expanding rapidly.

Ten miles, a hundred miles, a thousand miles.

The storm had been driven away!

The disaster was over!