Project ZEAL

Scene 33 - The First of Many Final Encounters (Claado Shou)

Year: 2313 A.D.
Place: The Zenan Mainland

Serian could sense the unnatural movement even as he was walking. The thunder around him was deafening, the lightning blinding, and the rain painful, but he knew the sound of a Lavos Spawn when he heard it.

Ironically, Serian had just found a stockpile of metal only a few moments earlier. In a dome-like structure a half-mile or so from the base of the tallest mountain in sight, there was nearly 10 tons of the precious substance, of the purest grade he had ever encountered. He had attached 5000 pounds of it (the minimum necessary) to a thick harness that he then tied to his back, and began pulling the incredibly troublesome load across the storm-stricken sands towards his boat, and then onward towards home.

But he was only a few minutes into his journey when he felt the trembling in his feet, then travelling to his arms, and his head, as his neck instinctively twisted towards the cause of the vibrations. In the distance, several hundred feet away, sat a Lavos Spawn...one of incredible size, a well-nourished specimen, sitting atop a bed of jagged spikes, its flame-covered tentacles (grown in the third stage of development) preventing its fall.

And only a short distance from Serian, a ball of fire and light, massive and bright, pounded through the torrential wind in a path straight at him, burning the raindrops that crossed it.

Serian quickly unharnessed himself from the load and dived out of the way as the blast hit the ground, throwing metal shards everywhere. Serian backflipped away from the explosion (and the dangerous debris falling nearby) and took a defensive position, finding his bearings quickly, spotting the creature once again.

A second and a third blast had already been launched from afar, and Serian ran as fast as his densely-muscled legs could carry him, which was just fast enough to outrun the energy bullets. A human might have clocked the warrior at speeds of 55 or 60 miles per hour, but to Serian, it was all part of the hunt.

Leaping high over the fourth attack, Serian reached into his leg-strap full of knives, grabbing one of the larger blades and tossing it at breakneck speed towards the creature. The Spawn barely had time to recognize the danger and deflect the weapon with his fiery extremities before it would have hit him dead in the face.

Landing hard on the ground, Serian could tell by the black aura lifting from his foe, now only thirty feet away (but twenty feet above him), that the attack had enraged the creature. He could almost feel the anger lifting from the Spawn, the energy building exponentially.

"This is gonna get ugly," Serian muttered, kneeling in preparation of running, and holding a thick metal knife in the hand behind his back.

From atop the spiky peak, the Lavos Spaw erupted in flame, his tentacles extending to the sides, lunging, each a rushing spine of fire, that pierced the ground around Serian.

As the tentacles plowed into the sand, Serian ran quickly along the base of the mountain, his feet barely outperforming the rapidly-oncoming arms, each of which came up again and continued to dive at him, hoping for a kill.

As Serian nimbly dodged each powerful thrust, he leaped from platform to platform, nearing the position of the Spawn. As he came within range, he did a twist in the air to avoid seven different tentacles, and threw his knife at the unprotected beast.

The blade struck and stuck into the Spawn, forcing it to screech loudly, and its tentacles to writhe. Fiery blood began to spurt from its face, and drenched the stone, eating at it like an acid.

Serian landed on his feet just in front of the Spawn, who looked at him for a fraction of a moment in what appeared to be pain. This temporary image made Serian falter, and the Spawn, sensing opportunity, blasted him with an energy bolt that ripped at his armor and threw him into the air.

The many tentacles immediately began to dive at Serian again, and he tried his hardest to deflect them, but as one struck and injured his arm, another wrapped around his waist, and a third hit him in the chest, weakening him.

It was in that moment, bleeding and wheezing, staring at his soon-to-be killer, that Serian realized that he would never see his parents, or his brother, ever again. And as he looked to the Spawn, he saw a bolt of electricity and shadow gather in its mouth, tentacles aching for meat to tear apart, and closed his eyes for the final blow.

It was also in that moment that a miracle happened.

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