"I Reincarnated But Have No System? You Must Be Kidding Me!"

Jaira froze as the dwarven bandits burst from the dunes, their sudden arrival slicing through the night like a blade.

The air, thick with heat and the scent of scorched metal, filled with shouts and the rumble of shifting sand.

Dust swirled in a storm around their short, heavy forms. The glint of greed burned in their eyes beneath their metal masks, every movement sharp and deliberate, their boots crunching the sand with merciless rhythm.

Their leader stood out among them, towering for a dwarf—broad chest, thick neck, one eyed face and clawed gauntlets that glowed faintly with red runes.

His cruel grin stretched from ear to ear as he fixed his gaze on Jaira.

"Now here's a good one!"

He moved with unsettling speed, each step pounding like a drumbeat in her chest.

Jaira's breath caught halfway through her throat, shallow and panicked. She could feel the rough chains biting into her wrists, smell the iron tang of blood from nearby corpses.

The dwarf's clawed hand reached forward, its shadow stretching across her face. Inches from her throat.

Auren didn't wait.

Everything inside him locked into focus. His heartbeat steadied, his vision tunneled. His muscles tensed like a bowstring ready to snap. The MK II was already in his hand. He inhaled once, slow and steady, and squeezed the trigger.

"Not tonight."

BANG!

The gunfire split the night apart.

The bullet struck clean through the dwarf's skull. Blood burst like crimson mist, glinting under the pale moonlight.

Maldito's body lurched backward, crashing into the sand with a dull thud. His lifeless eyes stared up at the stars, mouth frozen in disbelief. Blood ran down the side of his face, dripping onto the iron cage beside Jaira. He had been too arrogant to bring a defensive charm—too sure of his own strength.

The giant lizard mount hissed, its eyes wide, and immediately dug into the sand. It vanished beneath the ground in seconds, leaving only trembling silence in its wake.

Jaira blinked, frozen in shock. Her lips parted, trembling as her gaze locked onto Auren. Recognition flickered—fear melting into confusion, then something softer, fragile. Her eyes glimmered with disbelief.

But there was no time for words.

"Maldito is down! That herbalist did it!" one of the dwarves roared.

Rage exploded across the battlefield.

Dozens of dwarves turned at once, howling, their guttural voices merging into a single roar that shook the dunes. The air filled with the snap of magic and the metallic whir of crossbows being drawn.

Auren dove behind a shattered carriage as a hail of bolts and mana blasts tore through the air. The wooden planks splintered beside him, shards cutting into his cheek.

Alyssa's voice rang out from across the chaos, sharp and panicked. "Herbon!"

"I'm fine!" he shouted back, though his chest burned and his pulse thundered and continued moving ahead the chaos.

The ground shuddered nearhim. The vibration rolled beneath his palms, deep and heavy, like something vast awakening below.

'this... coult it be?'

"Get out of the way!"

The dwarves stopped firing.

They backed away slightly, grinning through their beards. One of them standing from the distance, tattoos glowing faintly outside the null-magic space. His lips moved in a low chant. His hands shimmered with blue light, faint but steady.

Auren narrowed his eyes. "That vibration…"

Suddenly the ground erupted. The adventurer teams together with Crocos also felt it and instantly activated their defensive artifacts which is their current last hope in the magic-null space.

BOOOM!

Sand exploded upward, flinging men and metal aside. A colossal sandworm burst from the dunes, its enormous body gleaming like molten glass under the moonlight.

Rows of jagged teeth filled its gaping mouth, dripping with translucent slime. Its roar tore through the desert night, shaking the air and rattling every bone in Auren's body.

The sheer scale of it defied reason—it was five times larger than any natural sandworm he'd seen. Its scales shimmered unnaturally, reflecting mana energy that pulsed like a heartbeat.

from the distance, the summoner laughed manically from the ridge.

"That's it! Now suffer and be my pet's food!"

Auren's Tiger Focus triggered automatically, his vision sharpening until every grain of sand looked like crystal. He saw it—thin blue threads of mana connecting the summoner's hands to the creature's body. A puppet and its master.

'Not a summon,' he realized. 'A controlled beast.'

He exhaled. "Then I just need to kill the puppeteer."

He was about to run to secure Jaira when the massive beast aimed at him.

The worm lunged, its massive jaws descending before him.

Auren rolled aside, barely avoiding being devoured whole. The shockwave of sand slammed into him, throwing him across the dunes. He coughed, gripping his gun tight while the remainins part of the beast's body drilled into the sand.

He fired again and again. The bullets sparked against the creature's hide, bouncing uselessly. No wound. No blood. Only fury.

He drew his sword, running forward as the worm reared back. The blade sliced across its underbelly—not effective. The metal could only do much against itsmassive wriggly muscles.

He jumped back, breathing hard.

"Fine. Let's see how you like this."

He unslung his bazooka, loaded a charged round, and fired.

ZZZT-KABOOOM!

The explosion lit up the desert, sand raining from the blast. When the smoke cleared, the worm was still there—completely unscathed and as active as always.

From the ridge, the summoner cackled, a blue shimmer flaring around him.

"How about you."

Auren turned his aim toward the caster and fired the MK II.

ZZZT-KABOOOM!

The bullet hit an invisible barrier midair, scattering into sparks.

"Bwahahah!" the maniac summoner laughed it off.

'A mana shield. Of course.' Auren dodged another attack from the beast while also moving out of the space.

Around him, chaos reigned. Adventurers and dwarves clashed in violent frenzy. Screams echoed, blades flashed, spells exploded like fireworks. The colossal sandworm thrashed through them, crushing both sides without discrimination but it seems the dwarves are more accustomed to its movement and can escape in time.

He took a closer look at his surroundings and seeing the guards busily protecting their client, Auren took this as his best chance.

He crouched behind a wagon, sweat dripping down his neck. He reached into his storage ring and grabbed a couple of small black vial.

Throwing it around him, thick purple smoke hissed out, spreading fast.

'Let's do this.'

Under its cover, he sprinted toward Jaira's cage while activating his stealth skill.

She was still kneeling, tears streaking her dusty face. Her breath came in shaky bursts, eyes wide in terror.

He shot the last remaining lock. The metal shattered. Auren pulled the door open and knelt beside her.

"Come with me," he said quickly, voice low but steady.

"Who—"

"It's me. Auren. Don't say my name out loud."

Her breath hitched. She stared into his eyes, recognizing the sharp calm in them, the quiet authority she remembered. Her lips trembled, but she nodded.

He helped her stand, supporting her as they slipped through the smoke. The sandworm's roar thundered behind them, shaking their bones.

"can you use stealth?" Auren asked, while giving her a rejuvination potion to recover mana and health.

"I can try." jaira replied, not hesitating to drink the offered potion. She trusted Auren like how she trusted her mother.,

Quickly, they activated their cloaking artifacts.

Their outlines shimmered once before vanishing into the haze. Auren led her across the dunes, weaving between corpses and falling debris. Explosions lit up the night, flashes of orange reflecting in their eyes.

Just as they reached the edge of the nullified zone, the ground gave way beneath them.

They fell.

The sand collapsed in a rush, dragging them down a hidden chute. Jaira screamed, clutching his arm as they tumbled into darkness.

They landed hard on compact sand. Auren groaned, brushing dust from his face. Around them, wooden supports lined a narrow tunnel, lit by dim torches flickering with blue flame. The air smelled of oil and earth.

Jaira coughed. "Where… where are we?"

He glanced around, adjusting his glove. "A smuggler tunnel. Probably, this is the dwarves' passageways beneath the desert."

"That makes sense how they can just appear out of nowhere inside the desert." she nodded.

Her hands trembled slightly as she pushed her hair away from her face. The fear in her eyes slowly gave way to relief.

He crouched near the tunnel wall, listening to the rumble above. "Stay here. Don't move until I come back."

She reached out, gripping his sleeve. "Auren, it's too dangerous!"

He met her gaze, calm and unflinching. "I know, but trust me. I also have some unfinished busines so stay here."

He turned, climbing the supports until his head broke through the sand.

The battlefield was a sea of chaos. The sandworm was still thrashing, half-buried, its tail smashing through tents and soldiers alike trying to fight against the coordinated attacks of Jonas and Samuel's team. Alyssa and the rest are also protecting Croco on the sideline.

Screams echoed from every direction. Alyssa and the remaining adventurers had regrouped on the ridge, forming a shaky defensive line for their client.

Then Auren saw him—Croco. The client. The man who'd hired them.

He was fleeing, and seeing that another arrow is coming, he grabbed Essel and used her as a shield. Every few seconds he'd bark orders, pushing men toward danger while retreating himself.

Then when everything got more chaotic, he decided to abandon the Bluebounds protection. He pulled out a teleportation stone from his storage ring, wanting to escape this hellhole.

But the problm is that he is still inside the magic-nulled zone. Without paying mind to his protectors, Croco rushed towards the safezone, ready to escape, not knowing the danger waiting for him.

Auren's jaw tightened. His hand gripped his weapon until his knuckles turned white.

"This bastard dare to abandon us and even used Essel as a shield? ..."

He slid on a dark mask—the mage persona.

"You want to leave so bad huh..."

The air shimmered faintly around him as mana began to gather. He raised a hand, muttering the incantation under his breath. The energy coalesced into a ball of fire, bright and seething, the heat radiating across his face.

He was amplifying mana of his next skill.

[MEGA FLAME]

The orb grew, pulsing violently until the very air seemed to tremble. He fed it more mana, ignoring the burn along his fingers .

He aimed.

The fireball screamed through the air like a falling star.

"What the!?" Croco was not expecting the sudden fireball towards him. He was just in the middle of activating the teleportation spell when...

KABOOOM!

It struck Croco's location with a thunderous blast, consuming him and the sand around him in an inferno. Shocking both the leaders of the adventurer groups. Just like that, they lost their client and basically failed this quest.

When the flames subsided, Croco was gone—nothing but charred fragments of armor scattered across the scorched sand. He had died mid-step, still believing he'd made it to safety.

Auren exhaled slowly. His arm trembled from the mana recoil as he dissapeared from their eyes. His eyes, though steady, were cold and distant as he moved using stealth. His eyes tracking his next target - the summoner.

The summoner screamed somewhere beyond the dunes. The mana threads flickered violently, breaking one by one. The sandworm twisted in agony, its body crashing against the ground, confused and uncontrolled after spending too much mana.

It seems he had not expected the adventurer group to last that long.

After finding the best position, Auren locked to the summoner.

He aimed.

BANG!

The first shot hit the barrier—crack.

BANG!

The second shattered it completely.

The summoner froze, disbelief etched across his face.

BANG!

The third bullet went through his forehead.

The massive worm let out one final roar before collapsing entirely, its massive form crashing into the dunes with an earth-shaking impact and now that it is free from controll, it went back to it's primal instinct and the first thing it did is escape the place due to the countless wounds on its body.

Soon, silence followed.

As the massive worm escaped and the dwarvin bandits body layed lifeless, this team has indeed won the battle.

But seeing their charred remains of their clients, it is obvious that they have lost the war.