In the end, Alex did end up firing one of his death rays. He did not fire it at one of the towers however. Instead, he chose to grab the Sand Drake’s attention with a little superheated love. It would still end up giving up his location, but he was positive that the Great One would live up to its name. Alex hadn’t identified it the last time he had seen it, but he was surprised by the growth it had exhibited in a short amount of time.

Sand Drake

Level 86

It had risen eight levels since the last time he had identified it. Apparently, it had been a lot more active recently. It was no doubt due to the appearance of the crown all those months ago. Alex wasn’t sure if this sudden spike in activity was to prepare for their inevitable duel, or if it was just the massive creature venting its pent up frustration. Either way, Alex’s goal of defeating the sand Drake was going to be that much more difficult now.

He couldn’t worry about that right now though. Now, he just had to get through the night and his best chance of doing that was alongside the Sand Drake, whether it knew what he was doing or not. He was hoping it would just react to the sight of him, not taking the time to really take in the full scope of an altercation.

So, with a little trepidation, Alex channeled the energy into his palms. They started to heat up and glow, the bones in his fingers showing through the skin of his hands in dark silhouettes. In the moments before he finally released the building energy, a bead of sweat formed on Alex’s forehead trickling down. As it slowly traced down his face, Alex had visions of a terrifying predator descending on him. The drop fell off his chin and in that moment, the death ray released.

The pitch black night was instantly alight with the spotlight forming from Alex’s palms. The Sand Drake was illuminated on the night sky and against the dark canvass, an image very similar to a bat was painted almost calling something. There was no hero coming to rescue the day however. When the light collided with the beast, a horrible screech that would have destroyed Alex’s eardrums before his awakening tore through the silent night. Death had answered the call and Alex knew he had to move quickly. He jumped down from his rooftop and slammed hard into the ground leaving cracks in the ground in his wake.

“Ow! That went a lot better in my head,” Alex said massaging his knees. “I thought I would be past this kind of thing. I guess I should have rolled or something. I always thought they did that in the movies to look cool.”

Alex took off running and was surprised how many times his knees popped. He wondered how close he had been to breaking his legs. That would have been extremely bad with a giant angry creature diving straight at him.

The moment he had launched the attack, not only had the Great One taken great offense, but the Zotari decided they should make their move as well. The towers began to light up and Alex realized he had miscalculated. They weren’t waiting for him to enter one of the towers, they were just waiting for him to get out in the open. His attack had given his position away and the subsequent fall had slowed him down just enough for them to really hone in on his location. In other words, he was screwed. He had multiple extremely powerful attackers coming from too many directions and not enough time to get into a better position.

Just as Alex had guessed, the pointy parts of the towers were in fact the origin points of the projectiles. He would have been happy with himself for being right if he didn’t suddenly have ten bright purple beams of light heading his way with at least that many more still charging up. Each beam was as thick as a tree trunk and shot at him like a lightning bolt. He didn’t know if the power was electric in nature, but he didn’t like his odds of absorbing that kind of power from even one of those beams.

The next few moments made him feel like he was in The Matrix or something like that. The beams appeared to be coming at him in slow motion. He didn’t know if it was because of his intelligence or because of his agility, or maybe it was a mix of the two. Either way, he was able to narrowly dodge most of the beams. He could feel the energy crackle through each shaft of light, little bits of power arcing and extending out like tiny arms trying to grab ahold of him as they passed by. The last two beams came in close succession. He was fast enough to dodge the first, but the second surged through him before he had the chance to react.

Alex gritted his teeth so hard, he would’ve had to call a dentist a couple of months ago. Even his eyes were suddenly glowing purple instead of the normal blue. His symbiotic armor had been singed away in a circle on his chest, exposing his bare chest. The energy coursed through his body, charring him from the inside out until finally exiting through the soles of his feet. He was blasted more than a hundred feet backwards from the point of impact. It was a blessing in disguise as the Sand Drake hand landed mere moments after, shredding the sand where he had been standing. A jagged crater now stood in its place.

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What did I do? Why did I think this was a good idea? I’m in way over my head.

He expected something from Nagaar, but he didn’t say a word. Alex was more surprised by the fact that he almost wanted the snake to say something than by the silence.

Am I starting to like the snake? I sure hope not. I can’t afford to let my guard down around that guy. And I’m always around that guy. No wonder I’m always so tired.

The Great One roared in anger and quickly whipped around to find his quarry. Its tail created a cloud of smoke in its wake, proving just how deadly even that part of the beast could be. This creature was a pure killing machine. There was a reason why it was at the apex. Every part was designed with lethality in mind. And every part of its attention was focused on Alex. A powerful beat of its wings and suddenly it was soaring right towards him once again. Luckily for Alex, the Zotari seemed to realize that a larger threat had just joined their battle and had decided to aim their powerful artillery in the Sand Drake’s direction.

Three powerful beams collided with the beast before it could reach Alex, sending it flying just far enough off course that it missed Alex. Missed him with its body at least. Its powerful tail lashed out at the last moment impacting into Alex’s midsection sending him flying away once more. He wasn’t sure which one hurt more, the beams or the tail strike. That was honestly a terrifying thought. A charged focused beam of energy hit just about as hard as a last minute almost lazy strike from the Sand Drake.

Alex slammed into a bronze statue of a Saxan warrior in traditional looking garb. He had probably done some heroic feat in battle and had been commemorated for it. Alex had removed the entire statue from its pedestal and was currently prying himself from the Alex shaped indentation he had left in the metal. He would have to apologize for that later. He needed to build up some more goodwill with the Saxans and he didn’t think this would be a great start to that.

When Alex was finally up, he looked back and saw that the Great One had one of the towers in his claws and was flying into the air. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what the creature had planned. Seconds later, the tower came hurtling down with the speed of a meteor. Flames curled up around the edges of the tower making it look even more like a meteor. Alex didn’t even want to imagine what the soldiers inside would look like after an experience like that. At that speed, they could easily be turned into paste. When the tower hit the ground, Alex knew that they had all turned into paste. The tower had been flattened into the ground. Nobody would survive that.

This outcome was both good and bad. Alex could leave the Sand Drake to destroy all of the war machines willing would be great as that would get the job done without him having to do much. The bad was that he would be left alone with the Sand Drake if it did so. He would need to balance the next few moments out carefully. Destroy the towers while leaving enough to help dissuade further aggression from the beast, and then destroy the stragglers when the Great One had retreated.

This is going to be a piece of cake, Alex thought sarcastically.

The ground beneath him started to shake as the Sand Drake continued its rampage, shaking Alex out of his contemplations. Another tower had already fallen. That was two in as many minutes. If he didn’t step in now, he was going to lose his chance. Alex’s hands began to glow once more and he launched another death ray at the beast. He didn’t believe that his death ray was nearly on the same level as the charged rays from the war machines, but they weren’t something to dismiss either.

Huh. Apparently they can be dismissed.

The Sand Drake didn’t even look back at him. It just continued its rampage against the remaining towers. He could he screams of terror coming from the distance and he tried to shove that down inside as far as he could. It just made his enemies seem too real, too human even though that wasn’t the right word for it. The last thing he needed right now was to feel sympathy for the very people he had been sent to slaughter. It was the essence of his mission on this planet. He wasn’t going to just leave them to die either. Fortunately for them, their survival was central to his current plan. At least some of their survival was, and only until the Great One decided to leave. After that, well, he didn’t need them anymore.

He charged forward. He didn’t propel himself for are like he normally would because he didn’t have too much energy to spare. He had hoped that if he did take a hit from one of those towers that he would not only survive, but also be able to absorb the energy from them as well. Unfortunately, only one of those wishes came true. Fortunately, it was the former. It wouldn’t do him much good to be able to absorb the power, but die from it. Yet, it didn’t do much good the way things stood either. It was pretty inconvenient that he could only absorb kinetic and thermal energy at the moment. It would open up a lot more possibilities if he could utilize more energy sources than just those two. He didn’t know if it would ever happen, but he could wish.

So, without the alternative, Alex ran the old fashioned way—with his super enhanced legs that moved him faster than a cheetah. In the time it took for him to make it over, the Great One had destroyed five towers in total leaving only thirteen remaining. Whatever he was going to do, he needed to do so quickly. They were losing the advantage.