As Derek walked, the faces of the fallen flashed before him. Each one was a sacrifice that was needed for the survival of the city. Mauro had thrown away the lives of fifty people just so that he could live. The calm that had once settled in Derek was now fading away as the rage of betrayal sank in. The closer he got to the warehouse, the more he felt the rage. It fueled his determination to see vengeance.
The guards on duty were laughing about something, oblivious to the impending threat. He selected a medium distance spell and prepared it as he approached. Their laughter about something, but they stopped when they saw him approaching. When they turned to shout at him, he released his spell. Since his magic capacity increased, it was so much easier to use magic. Two spears of ice were instantly ripped into existence and shot forward, impaling both guards on a pole-sized spear. They were likely dead before they flew off their perch and hit the ground with a meaty thud.
Derek didn’t rush forward, he simply walked. As the alarm was raised, he didn’t care they couldn’t stop him. He was so far out of their league that they were like toddlers to him. Gunfire opened up and streams of bullets shredded his clothes, but skirted harmlessly off his skin. The impacts nothing more than a tickle against his skin. If the monsters couldn’t hurt him and bullets couldn’t hurt monsters, then bullets wouldn’t even hurt. Every single bullet was pointless even the ones that hit his face.
His enemies were mere insects, crushed under the weight of his power. Fire and stone erupted from the ground, reducing the fighters to ash and rubble. With a flick of his wrist, the earth itself seemed to obey his command, shattering and tearing the chain-link fence apart. The ground rippled and cracked, swallowing up the twisted metal as if devouring it.
A dozen fighters, supported by gunners, attacked him. They ran at him carrying swords, spears, and maces. A wave of fire and super-heated stone erupted from the ground, splashing across their armor. They collapsed to the ground as the heat turned the temperature up on his armor. The think protective layer of the lower ranked armor wasn’t enough to protect from extreme temperatures. He stepped over their fallen bodies and released a thunderwave, sending each of them into the next life.
Without sparing the fallen guards another glance, Derek continued his steady advance. With each step, Derek felt the rage building, a storm gathering strength. The destruction he wrought was a reflection of the chaos within him. Every spell cast a release of the fury that threatened to consume him.
The gunners were next as they backed up, keeping their rifles trained on him. Derek stomped the ground, and a wall of earth shot up, blocking the path behind the retreating gunners. As they scrambled to climb over it, he unleashed a barrage of lightning, targeting each one of them and ending their pitiful existence. Because of the difference of over twenty levels, the fight with people under level 15 was like crushing ants. To them, he was impossibly strong.
He wanted to rush, to let his rage explode in a torrent of violence, but he forced himself to move deliberately. Control was crucial. Without it, he was just as monstrous as those he fought. With a single, powerful kick, Derek sent the warehouse door hurtling inward. It skidded and crashed, upending cots and scattering startled occupants in its wake. The warehouse, moments ago filled with the hum of activity, plunged into a stunned hush. Eyes wide, people froze in place, taking in the intruder and the path of destruction he’d already begun.
Without waiting for the dust to settle, Derek’s voice cut through the silence, cold and commanding. “Get out if you want to live.” His words hung heavily in the air, but no one moved. He barked louder, “Now!”
His command set off a frenzy, as people scrambled in all directions, some tripping over their belongings in their haste. Spells formed around him, but Derek’s focus remained unyielding, his steps deliberate as he made his way toward the back office.
Before Derek could reach the office, two dozen figures emerged, positioning themselves between him and his goal. At their center, Mauro stepped forward, his hands open in a mock gesture of welcome.
The two men locked eyes, the weight of their shared history and animosity palpable. The warehouse’s occupants, sensing the impending showdown, cautiously moved to the periphery, giving the two titans ample space.
Mauro smiled and opened his hands. “So you lived, I suspected you would. I knew there was power in you, actual power.”
Derek frowned. “Though I can’t say the same for the twelve people who died because of your cowardice, four of which were your own men.”
Mauro shook his head, as if what Derek said was pitiful. Mauro looked around at all his men and smiled. The large Filipino man definitely had the charisma needed for a leader. Too bad he failed as a human. Derek was surprised to discover that he was sad this was how things ended up. He appreciated Mauro’s strength and willingness to lead, but his iron fist was not one that would allow the community to grow.
“Tsk tsk, Derek. Sometimes, a strategic retreat is necessary. That raid was doomed. I saved who I could. They’re heroes for their sacrifice.” Mauro’s voice dripped with condescension, adding to the heat of rage burning in Derek.
“Heroes?” Derek growled. “You abandoned everyone to save yourselves. If you’d held just a moment longer, we all could have retreated. Instead, you forced our hand into full combat by opening our back line.”
Derek tired of the conversation and started focusing his magic as he formed a spell array in his mind.
“You’re alive to tell the tale, are you not?” Mauro gave a grim smile, then his face brightened. “Look, the past is the past. Join us. With your power, we could control this city. Think bigger, Derek. We could all live like kings!”
“No, thanks to you,” Derek growled. “After everything? After the betrayal? I’m here for one reason, Mauro.”
“Please don’t tell me you’re here for some nonsense, like justice, or something stupid like that.” Mauro rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically.
“I’m going to fucking kill you.”
Without warning, Derek unleashed his magic. Complex spell formations sprang to life, sending a barrage of spells across the room. Lightning bolts arced, targeting each of Mauro’s men. They must have been the strongest of Mauro’s crew, because it didn’t immediately kill them.
“Violence then?” Mauro, always the showman, didn’t flinch. Instead, he sneered, his own aura of power beginning to rise in response.
Derek’s voice was ice cold, his intent clear. “Violence was always the outcome, betrayer!”
SCENE 3
Marie had estimated Mauro to be around level 20, but he seemed closer to Derek’s level at that time. However, after the recent assault, Derek had surged ahead, now towering at least ten levels above Mauro.
Mauro’s water magic surged like a tidal wave, relentless and consuming. Derek countered with a storm of fire and lightning, each bolt crackling with fierce intensity. It was as if the elements themselves were at war, water hissing and steaming as it met fire, lightning sparking and dancing through the air. The warehouse became their battlefield, each clash of magic a battle of wills, with Derek’s ferocity pitted against Mauro’s unyielding force.
“Let’s do this! Dragon vs. dragon!” Mauro shouted as his next spell began.
A tornado of wind and water spun away from Mauro, spinning toward Derek. It picked up the cots and belongings of his people, adding to the destruction. Screams said that those inside the warehouse were quickly flooding out the door as the battle heated up. People fled like their lives depended on it, not even bothering to collect any of their belongings. They rushed out of the door as fast as humanly possible.
The tornado slammed into Derek, a wooden box shattering against his shoulder. Derek reached into the tornado and ripped the spell formation apart. Apparently, his training with James had been productive. The tornado collapsed, sending water and belongings across the warehouse.
Derek sent lightning at Mauro, who collected the water from the floor as Derek channeled his magic and pulled it in the path of the lightning, grounding it out harmlessly. Derek sent a bolt of molten fire at him, but Mauro ducked and rolled out of the way.
Maruo came up to his feet, sending a current of water at Derek. Derek sent his own magic toward Mauro’s attack. The water magic twisted and flowed as Mauro manipulated it, avoiding Derek’s counter. The torrent of water slammed into Derek’s chest blasting through his clothes, but the water didn’t even harm him. Fire and lightning lashed out, defiant and untamed. Each element fighting for dominance, reflecting the fierce determination of their wielders.
Mauro summoned a water barrier as Derek’s fire reached him. Derek’s summoned a storm of lightning that poured from his hands, shattering Mauro’s water barriers. The elemental storm of lightning exploded on Mauro’s side of the room. Mauro’s remaining men perished as the electrical storm ended their pitiful existence. Wild magics exploded out from the fight, destroying everything in the area, blasting through the warehouse walls.
Without warning, Mauro’s aura rippled, his eyes morphing into those of a reptile. As scales sprouted from his skin and fins tore through his clothes, Derek realized Mauro’s transformation skill was far more advanced than his own.
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A primal, dominating force surged within Derek, a force he hadn’t recognized before. It consumed him, triggering his Draconic Shift without his intent. It was a force that he didn’t understand, It wasn’t something he had seen within himself. That primal nature filled him, pushing him to violence. Derek’s armor strained as scales grew and covered his body from head to toe. He could feel the scales between his fingers and toes covering his head and neck.
Their standoff was palpable, the air thick with tension. Mauro, with his advanced dragon form, smirked at Derek’s scales. But Derek’s every move was deliberate, his intent clear, a cold shiver ran down Mauro’s spine as the threat of the monster before him was far beyond Mauro’s ability.
“What kind of dragon are you?” Mauro roared after the change had been settled.
Derek didn’t answer. He released a spell that had been built on its own.
“Are you a thunder dragon?” Mauro asked, shooting forward.
His clawed fingers reached out toward Derek, but Derek slapped them a way as if Mauro was a toddler. Derek punched him in the chest, sending Mauro tumbling across the floor until he slammed into a steel beam, causing the entire warehouse to shake with the force. Derek walked toward him with the deliberate pace of a horror movie villain, realizing that he had become the very monster the world needed to keep other monsters at bay.
Mauro might be somewhat competent with magic, but Derek had way more magical and physical strength than Mauro would ever have. With a physical ability at one hundred, Derek completely dominated Mauro in a physical confrontation.
Mauro struggled as he pushed himself up to his feet. His body in obvious pain as he locked eyes with Derek. The previous bravado gone; a fear and anger conflicting in his eyes. A change roiled through Mauro’s being, his entire body shuddering with power. The dull brown glow of his eyes changed as they turned aqua, energy spilling out of them.
Every drop of water in the room vibrated with energy, the plumbing in the walls exploded as water flooded into the room. The water flowed toward Mauro, collecting into a whirlpool with him at the center. It spun faster and faster as more and more drops gathered. Even the moisture in the air seemed to coalesce and join the gathering storm.
Mauro gained power as water flooded around him, his body visibly changing. The draconic features growing, his scales growing denser, claws going longer. His body shredded his clothes as his body grew from a human with draconic features, to a dragon in human form. His face warped and changed as a snout grew, teeth long and jagged like the jagged limestone cliffs of his homeland. His boots ripped apart as his feet warped and grew and his toes turned to claws. A bellow ripped through the air as Mauro adjusted to his change.
When the change was completed, Mauro locked eyes with Derek. “I am the avatar of Bakunawa, Dragon of the Philippines.”
An instinct Derek didn’t know boiled up through the surface. Domination. Defiance. A requirement to stand at the pinnacle. Every instinct in his body drove him forward, launching himself forward with a primal roar.
Mauro reacted, the whirlpool of water leapt out and struck Derek. The column of water slammed into him sending him into the wall with enough force that his momentum shot him through the wall. Mesh wire netting, insulation, and siding exploded out leaving a gaping hole in the side of the building as Derek tumbled until he stopped.
It was uncomfortable, but not painful. The impact from the water column had been more painful than his landing. Derei’s toughness, abilities, and scales were beyond simple mundane forms of damage. Derek was up and shot through the hole. Mauro hadn’t moved from his spot but hadn’t been idle either. The whirlpool had time to grow in power as tendrils of water rose out of the pool.
Derek paused for a moment to assess the situation. Mauro took his hesitation as fear and grinned. He spoke, his voice guttural and barely understandable. “Fear the tide.”
Flames appeared around Derek and they circled him creating his own whirlwind of fiery destruction. The heat caused the water to evaporate, but the water condensed on every surface only to rejoin the collective. Mauro smirked at the futility of Derek’s flames.
Mauro seeing the hesitation in Derek launched himself forward, his whirlpool following his motions. A cloud of steam exploded as the water and fire warred. Mauro appeared through the cloud of steam, his claws outstretched. Derek’s body reacted, near constant combat and minor martial arts training had tuned his instinctual responses. He slapped his arm down onto of the clawed hand, grabbing Mauro’s wrists, the slick scales nearly causing him to fail to grab his wrist. His own clawed hands locked onto the wrist as his body slid to the side, avoiding Maruo’s forward momentum. With a rapid strike, Derek’s fist slammed into Mauro’s elbow shattering the joint.
Mauro didn’t seem too phased by the breaking of his arm as the other arm came around, claws raking across Derek’s face, razor sharp claws tearing through the thin scales on Derek’s face. Not having seen that response, Derek reeled back as he stepped away from Maruo to avoid a follow up.
Magic roiled around them, fire fighting water. Fire constantly fighting to spread and burn. Water cooling and dominating. Steam constantly billowed up around them, only for it to condense and rejoin the collective. Derek’s magic was powerful, but he couldn’t fight water with fire, it was a standstill.
Derek defended against a kick by blocking with his leg. Mauro dodged his counter.
Derek, shut off his flames changing elements. His aura of heat vanished and an instant later, an aura of winter rose up around him. The sweltering room dropped nearly a hundred degrees in a few seconds. Frost formed on Derek’s clothes and hair as the temperature dropped below freezing. It took Mauro several seconds to realize the abrupt change as his entire focus was on avoiding Derek’s counters.
Whatever ability Mauro activated had brought himself to Derek’s level. Mauro disengaged as his water was slowly being frozen. Chunks of ice were forming as not even the movement of water could stop it from freezing. Derek’s ice magic dispersed the heat from the room, by pushing the energy out of its sphere of influence.
Derek didn’t really like ice magic, it felt unnatural to him, it wasn’t instinctual like the blazing energies of fire and lightning. Mauro’s comment about ‘fearing the tide’ was apt when it came to water magic, as it was all about ebbs and flows, powerful, but it relied on rhythm for its strength. Earth was constant, reliable, and predictable, it needed lots of upfront power, but was long lasting. Conceptually, ice magic was like a mix of earth and water, it relied on constant power, but the energy within needed to move and flow to exit the energy system. He felt more akin to the speed and fury of fire and lightning, it fit his nature.
Mauro’s magic sputtered as frost grew on his own scales, the momentary fear interrupted his flow causing Derek’s aura of winter to gain significant ground in freezing all the water in the room. Mauro pushed the water as it fought against the ice. Water shot toward Derek, but he grabbed onto the ice and interrupted the flow of Mauro’s water. The water splashed across Derek’s scales without the force to even move him.
Derek didn’t let the battle continue as a magical duel; he was a berserker after all. He shot across the short distance, his fists and claws tearing at Mauro’s draconic body. Mauro was on the back foot as he avoided and countered, but he didn’t get any purchase on Derek. Magically, Derek wasn’t doing anything other than pushing the energy in the air out of the building, turning the room into a freezer. It didn’t require much focus, where as Mauro’s magic required constant attention to maintain the flow.
With a crack, a palm strike send Mauro flying back, tumbling across the floor. In that instant, every drop of water froze. Mauro slammed into the frozen whirlpool.
If the world needed a monster to slay the monsters, Derek would become that. He would become anything he had to be so that his family was safe. He would play the villain, he would be the driving force that sent both humans and monsters fleeing, if that’s what it took. Feeling the seductive pull of power, he spoke.
Mauro pushed himself up, but the magic of his ability faded as he exhausted its strength. Maruo fell back to the floor as his body deflated, leaving him in his naked human form.
“You know, Mauro, if you had stayed to slaughter the horde with me, you could have gained some of this strength, but no. You’re a coward and a betrayer.”
Mauro, still reeling from the impact and his weakness, re-evaluated his opponent, realizing his situation.
“You killed them all?” Mauro coughed, a broken sternum aggravating his breathing.
Derek watched as a Mauro attempted to build a water spell, but he wasn’t a mage and he couldn’t use frozen water. Without melting it, and he didn’t have the strength for it.
“You… what level are you?” Mauro asked, as fear entered his eyes. “What are you?”
Derek smiled. It wasn’t a kind smile. It was a cruel smile that said ‘if you saw it; you were already dead’. It held violence.
Mauro struggled to his feet, but he was slow. Derek caught Mauro by the throat before he could move. Then he lifted Mauro off the ground.
“You could have been a hero, but no, you had to be a power-hungry asshole.”
“Don’t kill me!” Mauro wheezed, as Derek held his throat.
Derek’s clawed fingers shot forward, and his hand pierced through Mauro’s abdomen, right below the sternum. Mauro gasped as Derek’s hand plunged into his chest. His hand found Mauro’s heart. Derek looked in the man’s eyes feeling Mauro’s heart thump rapidly, with a savage pull, he tore it free, veins and arteries stretched until they snapped with sickening pops. Derek dropped the dying Mauro to the ground.
Mauro’s released his final anguished cry of pain. Mauro’s entire world crashed around him, as his last sight was of Derek, with his heart in his hand.
Ignoring Mauro like the trash he was, Derek focused on the heart still twitched in his hand. It still tried to beat. Derek automatically took a bite out of it. Mauro’s lifeblood filled his mouth as his teeth easily sank into the tough, meaty muscle. He ripped part of it free and swallowed it. Then, he drank the remaining life blood down and tossed the muscle to the ground.
Derek stood amidst the carnage, the metallic taste of Mauro’s heart still lingering in his mouth. A wave of revulsion and confusion washed over him. Why had he acted on such a primal, savage instinct? The heart hadn’t even tasted good; it tasted like blood and salt water.
He looked around the warehouse that had been the home of so many people. It was empty of people, a couple dozen dead men laid on the floor shoved against the wall, their clothes burnt from their electrocution. He spat the blood taste from his mouth and wiped it on his arm.
The crowd outside fell absolutely silent as Derek stepped out of the warehouse. The previous chattered completely ended with the presence of one person. They were a forlorn a mixture of fighters and survivors. Expressions of fear and apprehension were etched in their eyes. Each step he took was deliberate, his presence commanding and undeniable. The weight of his actions settled heavily on his shoulders, but he did not waver.
The metallic taste of Mauro’s blood still lingered in his mouth. Derek paused for a moment, looking back at the warehouse, now a tomb for his enemies. Moving on, he looted the storage devices from the bodies of the fallen. The crowd flowed around him as he moved, their fear palpable. Derek’s eyes met those of a young boy clutching his mother’s hand. The child’s gaze was filled with both dread and a glimmer of hope.
He pocketed the last of the devices and straightened up, his gaze sweeping over the assembled crowd. “Go to the military base.”
The crowd remained silent, their eyes locked on him as he turned away. Each step he took was a step into an uncertain future, the path ahead fraught with danger and moral ambiguity. If the world needed a monster, he would be the monster. If the world needed a villain, he would be the villain. He accepted his pain. He accepted his suffering and his shit luck. He accepted that if the world needed a Ravager to destroy monsters, he would be the Ravager, the destroyer, the ender of life, the devourer of worlds.
The oppressive silence of his walk was further emphasized by the distant silence of the ruined city. He would do whatever it took to protect his family and his people, even if it meant becoming the villain… the monster.