21st November 2023, the wilderness of Raum.
“What was that?!” a woman in a white robe shouted when she caught sight of a blazing sphere of fire, akin to a miniature sun, streaking across the distant sky.
“I don’t know, but our problem here is quite huge too,” a man in tattered, battle-worn clothes huffed. Despite his ragged appearance, his body remained uninjured.
Suddenly, his pupils shrank, and he shouted, “Incoming!”
In a blur, he raised his arms just in time to block a massive, spiked mace hurtling toward him like a battering ram. The impact sent a shockwave rippling through the air, splitting the ground beneath him into a fractured web of cracks. His feet skidded back several meters before he finally came to a stop.
The ‘mace’ that had struck him wasn’t a weapon but the tail of a massive, armored beast. Its thick, plated body bore a striking resemblance to an ankylosaurus.
Then, without hesitation, the man launched himself forward. His fist clenched, muscles coiling like compressed steel before he drove his punch straight into the monster’s skull.
BAM!
A shockwave erupted from the impact, and the beast’s armored head didn’t just crack, it exploded in a gruesome burst of shattered bone and flesh. Its lifeless body swayed for a moment before crashing onto the ground with a loud thud.
“Kang! Are you okay?” the girl hurriedly ran to him, conjuring a milky-white energy around his arms.
Smiling gently at the girl, Kang stroked her head. “I’m fine, Jesse. Thank you.”
Kang turned around, and his smile vanished as he took in the blood-soaked battlefield. The ground was littered with mangled corpses, limbs, flesh, and shattered bones strewn across the dirt. The remains of the monstrous, dinosaur-like beasts lay tangled among human bodies, some crushed beyond recognition.
Gritting his teeth, Kang turned his gaze to the swirling red gate standing ominously before them. Bolts of crackling electricity arced along its edges, pulsing with eerie light. Despite their desperate struggle, despite the sheer number of beasts they had slain, the gate remained.
A heavy weight settled in Kang’s chest.
The fight wasn’t over.
As if in response to his realization, the red gate trembled. The crackling energy intensified as the air around it warped, distorting like heat waves.
A monstrous form began to emerge!
Its sheer size was at least triple, no, quadruple, that of an adult elephant. Its limbs alone could crush even the largest bears with ease.
Yet, absurdly, a pair of wings sprouted from its back, laughably small in proportion to its massive torso. They looked almost comical like a hawk was strapped onto a bull. But despite their size, each flap sent scorching winds howling through the battlefield.
Kang and Jesse’s eyes widened in shock. They gulped hard. Without hesitation, Kang spat, “Jesse! Get away from here! I’ll hold it back!”
Jesse refused, shaking her head. “I’m not leaving you, Kang!”
But Kang snarled, grabbing her shoulders, “Go! You must survive!”
Before Jesse could argue further, a deafening roar shook the battlefield. The massive beast slammed its claws into the ground, cracking the earth. Then, to their utter disbelief, it flapped its tiny wings, and despite their absurd proportions, the monstrous creature lifted into the air.
High above, the beast’s chest rumbled as it sucked in air. In its gaping maw, a swirling black flame condensed, twisting and compressing into a dense sphere of flickering darkness. A second later, the monster spat the black fireball downward.
Jesse’s eyes widened, and she shouted, “Kang! Get behind me!” She raised her staff, her voice ringing with urgency as she chanted. A radiant white barrier flickered into existence around them, shimmering like liquid.
The instant the black fireball struck the ground, an earth-shattering explosion erupted. A thunderous boom split the sky, and a massive mushroom cloud of fire and ash billowed upward, swallowing the battlefield.
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Jesse gritted her teeth as the impact slammed into her barrier. Cracks spiderwebbed across the glowing shield, and she felt a sharp pain in her chest as she poured more energy into reinforcing it. Drops of blood streamed down her mouth.
Kang clenched his fist as he watched the smoke and fire rage around them. His expression darkened.
This thing… was on an entirely different level!
However, as the smoke barely cleared, Kang heard someone shouting, “For the peace and the kingdom!”
Snapping his head toward the direction of the shout, Kang saw three figures on horseback charging at high speed. One of them clutched a strange cylindrical object, its surface gleaming under the flickering firelight of the battlefield.
Moments later, the cylinder pulsed with an eerie blue glow, and something shot out from it with a thunderous crack.
The next thing Kang heard was the beast’s agonized roar. His eyes snapped to its massive body, where an elongated object had penetrated deep into its flesh, black blood gushing from the wound.
His pupils shrank. The shape was unmistakable.
“A bullet…?” he muttered in disbelief.
Before he could fully process it, another shot tore through the sky, ripping through the beast’s wing. The bullet shredded the membrane, leaving a gaping hole.
Enraged, the beast roared as it wobbled in the air before losing its lift entirely. It plummeted, crashing into the ground with an earth-shaking impact, sending a thick cloud of dust surging in all directions.
Then, a female voice rang out, “Lucas, let us fight for once!”
Kang’s eyes darted to the source, just in time to see a woman leap from horseback, her sword raised high. The blade hummed before she stabbed it downward, unleashing a beam of purplish-blue energy that streaked through the air. It struck the beast’s eye with a sickening squish, earning another anguished shriek from the monster.
Another voice echoed across the battlefield, “Chloe! How’s that supposed to work on something that big?”
Kang barely had time to react before another figure descended from above, flames coiling around the tip of her spear. She plunged the burning weapon deep into the beast’s thick tail, ripping through flesh in a fiery blaze.
“We should cut off its tail! That’ll throw it off balance. Then we can play all we want!”
He exhaled deeply, finally feeling at ease now that someone had come to their rescue. He turned to Jesse, only to see her barely conscious, her face pale from the extreme exhaustion of mana. She had poured everything she had into maintaining the barrier.
Gently, he stroked her head and whispered, “It’s alright now. Take a rest.”
Just then, the sound of hooves stopped in front of him. Kang looked up to see one of the horsemen, the one holding the strange cylinder. As soon as Kang laid eyes on the person’s face, his eyes widened in shock.
“Morning! Nice day for fishing, isn’t it?” Lucas chuckled, his tone casual despite the battlefield around them. His amused gaze flickered over Kang and Jesse’s disheveled state.
Gesturing toward Chloe and Samantha, who were still battling the monstrous beast, Lucas smirked, “Don’t worry about it, man. They’ll take care of it. If I don’t let them vent some of that stress, they might beat me up instead.”
Kang remained frozen, still reveling in shock, unable to form words. Lucas shook his head with a smile before reaching into the satchel attached to his mechanical horse. He pulled out several glass tubes filled with orange and blue liquid and handed them to Kang.
“Feed your wife these, and she’ll be hopping around in no time. You too,” Lucas teased.
Kang instinctively took the tubes and muttered, “Thank you, Lucas.”
Lucas shook his head and smiled, “Yeah, one hundred Bitcoins per tube. Friend discount, so five hundred Bitcoins for four.”
Before Kang could retort at the outrageous and wrong price, a thunderous roar tore through the battlefield. They both turned just in time to see the monster thrashing violently, its tail hanging by a thread of flesh after Samantha’s last strike.
Chloe shouted, “One more hit!” as she rushed forward. Samantha grinned, her spear igniting with an even fiercer blaze.
“How did you guys find us?” Kang murmured, feeding Jesse the potions.
“Hmm?” Lucas hummed, pointing in a certain direction. “We saw your mushroom cloud from there.”
Kang turned to where Lucas was pointing and frowned. “Isn’t that where the fireball exploded…?”
“Yeah, a giant one,” Lucas shrugged and added, “Might even be as large as yours.”
Kang popped open a potion tube and chugged it. “They’re strong.”
Lucas smirked, “They are.”
Glancing at Lucas, Kang gestured at the strange cylinder he had used earlier, “That gun?”
“Yeah.” Lucas patted the rifle in his hands.
“Magic?” Kang raised a brow.
Lucas shrugged, “Science.”
They fell silent as Samantha let out a fierce battle cry, leaping high and driving her spear down. Flames exploded upon impact, and the beast shrieked in agony. Countless purplish chains erupted from the ground as the creature thrashed in a rampage.
Chloe dashed forward, and with a single powerful slash, she severed the beast’s head clean off. The colossal body crashed into the ground, shaking the battlefield one final time.
Kang exhaled, “Thanks.”
“Yeah, you owe me five bucks,” Lucas shrugged.