Zalan shut his eyes in fear, all but certain his life would end right now, not knowing anything about what was transpiring. Suddenly, he heard something thud in front of him. He opened his eyes and saw a young man with short black hair, dressed in a fading red tunic, his arms planted down on the swelling earth just as it erupted. Rather than exploding, the flame was directed out to the side, like a pot emitting steam from only one end. It arced sideways, blasting Zalan with the heat of the flames, enough to leave his face a hot pink and burn his eyebrows clean off. Zalan was fine with the slight damage he sustained as long as he could still breathe. With wide eyes, he watched the explosion dissipate, then looked toward his savior.
“You certainly should not be alone at a time like this,” the stranger said nervously. Without looking away from the creature, the stranger grasped Zalan and pulled him to his feet as he stood up.
“Who are you?” Zalan asked, both ecstatic and stunned.
“That is a Flamestriker. I suspect you are not nearly at a high enough Level to take it on. Make sure you do not let its explosive light touch you,” the young man explained. He looked to be about Zalan’s age, and he twitched and fidgeted as he watched the monster move.
“I asked who you were,” Zalan mumbled, looking past his new ally and keeping focused on the Flamestriker before it raised a claw again.
“Right, sorry, umm, my name is Rep,” the ally replied, with a cringe-induced grimace. “We need to rush around the Flamestriker.”
“Rush around it?” Zalan asked, concerned. The beast slowly began raising its arm, its eyes locked on the two of them.
“Its pointing explosion is rather slow. If we wait for it to get close to us, we can split and run at it. I will unsheath my sword to draw its attention toward me and strike. That should give us time to get to Oriton,” Rep gestured to the town on the other side of the creature.
“I don’t know what’s going on! Are you sure—”
“I am not! But we have to move!” Rep said as the orange light raced toward them, preparing to explode.
Zalan waited for Rep’s signal while sweat rolled down his neck.
“Now!”
Rep pulled a sword from a sheath at his hip and dashed to one side, while Zalan stared, frozen in fear. The light continued to slide gradually toward him. Zalan grunted in frustration as he forced himself to rush the other way, making a wide berth around the Flamestriker. The area where Zalan and Rep had stood moments earlier shook violently as the explosion erupted raccously. Zalan looked away from the blinding light and glanced up at the Flamestriker, which was quickly advancing toward him, seemingly ignoring Rep on the other side. Rep’s eyes went wide in trepidation, and he ran straight for the Flamestriker.
“You said it would follow you!!” Zalan screamed in fear as each of the Flamestriker’s shuffling steps closed the gap between him and the creature.
“Keep running!” Rep shouted, straining to catch up.
Zalan had no plans to do otherwise and carried himself as fast as his legs would allow. He was stunned to see how swiftly he could move, considering he had felt so awful only moments ago, but didn’t have time to dwell on it. He chanced a glance backward and saw the Flamestriker’s ghastly, wide smile growing even wider with each earth-shaking step, bringing it closer to Zalan.
“Hurry!” Zalan shouted, keeping his eyes fixed on the town ahead. He wasn’t sure how much of a difference it would make to hide in the town with a monster of this size behind him, but at this point he was willing to try anything to get away.
“Turn around! Get away from there!” Rep shouted in a panic.
Zalan had no idea what he was referring to until he saw the orange light ahead of him, cutting off his path. He shouted in fear and frustration, then twisted himself midstep to run parallel to the city as the ground he was approaching shattered, flinging flames and dirt in all directions. The Flamestriker emitted a low growl of glee while it scraped the soil with its clawed feet, taking longer strides to catch up to Zalan. At this rate, it was only a few steps away from him, despite Zalan’s frantic pace.
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“Do something!” Zalan begged.
Rep yelled as he charged and sliced at the back of the creature's foot, causing it to stumble and fall to one knee. Zalan tripped and collapsed, having exerted too much energy sprinting for so long. He glanced back at Rep, who circled around to the front of the Flamestriker. Putting his full body weight behind the swing of the sword, Rep aimed at the creature, but the Flamestriker groaned and threw a flaming arm up, smacking the sword clean out of Rep’s hands. After staring at his empty hands, Rep looked up, finding the creature’s face mere inches away. Shouting in a mix of fear and power, Rep struck the creature’s face with his bare hands, knocking its chin straight upward. The Flamestriker recoiled, growling in pain.
“Run! Run! Run! Run! Run!” Rep screamed repeatedly in panic, waving for Zalan to get up to his feet and run back toward the city. Rep began running at full speed toward Oriton.
The Flamestriker roared in anger as it brought itself back to its full, considerable height. Zalan was barely able to start running again when he heard the monumental movement of the Flamestriker. Its wolfish face howled in anticipation as it began bounding on all fours instead of walking. Zalan thought he had seconds, but he only had heartbeats. It ran toward Zalan, ignoring Rep.
Rep shouted more instructions,
“Head down! Get down!”
Zalan allowed his exhaustion to take over and collapsed on the ground, hardly able to keep his face from striking the ground. He felt both the searing heat and the wind of the claws swing above his head. Clenching his body tightly in fear, Zalan watched as the Flamestriker bounded forward its momentum carrying it farther than the two allies.
“Rep, what do I do?” Zalan picked up his head, watching the Flamesriker turn itself around and slowly grinning at him. “Rep!?” Zalan looked back to see Rep running away without him, sprinting toward the town.
Zalan picked himself back up just as the Flamestriker took passing notice of Rep and then focused on Zalan. Zalan squatted down and fumbled until he picked up a sizable rock and threw it with all his might at the monster. The Flamestriker didn’t even react to the rock cracking against its leg and began to rush forward. Zalan ducked down at the last second, hardly having the chance to do anything else, but this time the Flamestriker didn’t rush beyond him with unintended momentum. It stopped, remaining just above Zalan. It looked down upon him and grinned.
Zalan yelped. Without thinking, he jumped up with his fist in the air and collided with the beast’s face just as Rep did earlier. Except, instead of doing any damage and sending its face skyward, all Zalan heard was the crack of his own hand.
“Ahhhhh!” Zalan looked down to see his hand bleeding profusely from the knuckles. Pain shot up his arm and he trembled involuntarily.
The Flamestriker found the display wildly amusing and laughed a low, fear-inducing chuckle, each chortle causing the flames of its arms and legs to increase ever so slightly in its mirth. Zalan’s other hand began to search desperately for another rock on the ground, but instead found a handful of dirt that he threw straight into the monster’s eyes.
It roared in anger as Zalan scampered away, his chest heaving from the most exertion he’d ever experienced in his life. He could only use one hand, while the other hung bleeding and useless at his side. Forcing himself upright proved to be too challenging without the use of both hands. He twisted his ankle, hurting himself in the process, and barely managed to move away from the monster.
The Flamestriker wiped the mess of dirt from its face and fixed its red eyes on Zalan before pointing toward the slowly advancing explosive light. The deadly beam was catching up quickly to Zalan, who was barely able to keep himself upright, much less run at full speed. The town felt light-years away from him. Just as the orange light neared, a flame erupted beneath the Flamestriker, burning its face.
Zalan had been so focused on fleeing that he didn’t notice Rep’s return. Suddenly reappearing under the monster’s feet, fire streamed from Rep’s fist. In his other hand, he tightly gripped his retrieved sword.
“Get out of here! Run!” Rep demanded. He dodged away from a claw coming down on him.
Zalan nodded numbly and continued to stumble toward the short walls surrounding the town, each breath painful as his fist burned and his ankle throbbed. Keeping his eyes on Rep and the Flamestriker behind him, Zalan noticed a small trail of blood drops forming from the wound in his fist as he ran. Rep dodged another strike and swung his blade with full force at the creature, only for it to be seized, then cleaved in two by the Flamestriker’s other arm. Rep stared in horror. The creature kicked him several feet away with full force before bounding toward Zalan. Snarling, the Flamestriker pursued its weakened, bleeding prey.
“Keep going!” Rep coughed.
The Flamestriker’s mouth went from a grin to a gaping maw as it decided to forego flame-based attacks and consume directly from Zalan’s flesh.
“You are almost there!” Rep promised.
Zalan realized he was nowhere near the city wall, let alone close enough to reach any of the gates before the creature could attack him. His fastest speed felt like no more than a casual walk, with the city still about a hundred feet away. The Flamestriker would be on top of him in seconds. Nonetheless, he continued shuffling, desperate to escape the grisly fate he felt chasing him. He disregarded all the pain he could, but his heart pounded as the Flamestriker’s teeth reached out to take Zalan’s neck.