Hitting the highway at a light jog and following it down the road had Tom moving at a decent pace. The weight of the Thumper in his hands a reassuring presence as he passed the remains of lizards and Clockwerks that the group had previously encountered before following the road further east.
More and more stripped down cars lined the two lane highway, the husks pushed off to the side into ditches to clear the road. The occasional orange stain or spike on the pavement as the only sign that a fight had happened.
The sun had dipped lower, sending streaks of violet and orange across the sky and casting long shadows across quiet homes and businesses. Normally at this time of day the streets would be noisy with traffic as commuters drove from their workplaces deeper in the city to their homes on the outskirts.
Instead it was quiet, small businesses and home alike sitting silent in the waning light. There was no telling if the owners simply weren't home, had taken precautions by covering their windows or if something sinister had happened.
Despite how quickly he volunteered to go get help for the besieged daycare, Tom was regretting not asking for someone to come with him. His paranoia acting up in the fading light, every shadow a waiting Clockwerk, ready to riddle him with spikes. Every faint movement from the corner of his eyes a skulking lizard, about to charge him in a flurry of skittering claws and curving fangs.
His paranoia proved unfounded, there was no ambush, no hungry monster leaping from the shadows. Just the soft rustle of leaves as the chilly evening wind blew them down the street. Occasionally passing the frame of a scrapped car or truck, shoved unceremoniously into a ditch.
“I wonder why they bothered moving them off the road? Just to make it easier to walk?”
At one point he came across several dead Twisted scouts, their narrow bodies bent at awkward angles, claw marks across the torsos. The bodies were scattered across the road, with one halfway into the ditch where it had been dragged.
“Hot damn, what did this?”
He slowed down to inspect one of the corpses in the road, noticing that whatever had attacked it had very nearly cleaved the robot into two pieces straight through its center. The metal plates that made up its torso warped and shredded outwards. It had leaked oil, or at least something similar to it, onto the pavement. The black substance already dried, so it seemed this happened a while ago.
Though it wasn't very reassuring to know that something capable of casually eviscerating a patrol of Clockwerks was roaming around the area. Casting another glance around and behind him, Tom shook off the shiver that ran up his spine at the thought and continued his journey.
If the map the legionnaire gave him was correct, he was nearing the side road that would lead up to the scrapyard they were using as a base. Surprisingly, the road wasn't paved, instead made of the red, sandy clay common in the south. The buildings giving way to scattered pine trees and light foliage on either side of the road, dense shadows giving the woods an ominous, almost suffocating aura.
The dirt itself was filled with tracks, dozens and dozens of footprints, all of varying sizes spread across the road before diverging. Some continuing on towards the main road behind Tom, others diverting into the treeline on either side of the street.
“Of course they'd pick a place in the middle of nowhere. Nice one, robots.”
Eyeing the woods with suspicion, Tom started down the road, holding the heavy metal weapon in his hands with a white knuckled grip. His ears straining for any sound at all. The lack of birdsong or anything coming from the forest giving him a sense of trepidation.
From the woods ahead of him came a series of rustles and a heavy crunch. The sounds of limbs snapping and bushes being trampled filled the air, drawing closer with each moment. Before he had a chance to hide or even move from the center of the road, it was right by him.
Tom froze, his legs simply refusing to work as a massive, reptilian foot came crashing out of the woods, each of the five claws on the end the size of steak knives and digging into the dirt. The rest of its body followed, another equally massive foot joining the first as it pulled its body out of the tree line.
A broad shovel shaped head the size of a car hood supported by a long, thick neck leading down to a muscular body covered in overlapping dark green scales the size of a human head. Each minute shift of its body causing the scales to ripple like a jade wave in the dim light. As it pulled the back end of its body from the bushes, its tail came into view. The appendage easily as long as Tom and thicker than a car tire, sweeping dangerously behind it and casually crunching into the thin pine trees on either side of it, showering bark and loose branches everywhere. Easily as long a semitrailer from the tip of its head to the end of its tail, the massive reptile evoked the images of dragons and drakes from fairy tales.
It raised its head, extending upwards on its neck like a telescopic rod, the scales stretching with it till the gargantuan reptile's eyes were nearly even with the tops of the trees. Slits on either side of its head gleaming with an angry red color as it swung its massive bulk to the right.
“Sweet fucking christ. Just keep moving, don't look to your left big guy. There's nothing you want over here. Just keep going.”
Tom's knees shook, but he was terrified that trying to move would give him away. Watching with a dry mouth as the massive beast swept its gaze down the road to the right and stopped. The faint hope he had of it ignoring him dying in his chest as the head swung ponderously towards his spot on the road. Doing the only thing he could think of, he dropped to the ground before it fully turned, going prone with the Thumper tucked in close against his side.
Its gaze swept over him like a physical thing. An oppressive, gnawing feeling of dread spread like ice through his veins. Trembling like a leaf as the glowing red holes that passed for its eyes ran over him and down the road...and then back to him, the entire behemoths body going stock still as its head tilted down fractionally, bringing its full attention on the man laying on the road.
“Look away. Look away you absolute abortion of a dragon, so help me god!”
Tom was begging in his mind as it opened its maw, exposing row after row of tiny, needle like teeth as it reared its head back and roared. The sound ripped across the quiet evening, echoing through the woods and bringing up that deep, primal fear in every human that heard it in their homes. The kind that makes your mind go blank and legs give out. The sound of a predator announcing that it had found its next meal and leaving you thankful it wasn't you on the chopping block.
Tom let out a scream of fear, conjured from the very depths of his soul as the behemoth charged at him. Each thundering step propelling it across the ground with a speed that defied its immense size. He scrambled to his feet just in time to dive to the side as its long neck dipped backwards and slammed forwards, shoving its jaws into the space he had just been in a flurry of gnashing teeth.
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Before he pick himself off the ground, the familiar weight of the System activating settled over the area.
Engagement detected! Initiating Restricted Action System! Listing combatants.
Thomas Sallow – (Defending)
Jadewill Terror Drake – (Attacking)
A grand battle! May the truly powerful prevail.
The timely arrival of the System was the only thing that saved him. The drake had already recovered from its missed attack, head rearing back for another attempt before being stymied by the R.A.S.
In the corner of his vision, the familiar blue 5 appeared, and Tom jumped up on shaking legs as the Drake's head towered over him. From what the rules stated, it would be able to move and attack if he was within three meters of its arm span. While that seemed like an oversight in the rules for animals like the Drake, where it relied more on its extendable neck to pick off prey, Tom wouldn't complain about the good fortune.
“Alright fucker, you want a bite of me? I'm gonna make you work for it.” He bolted down the road , hugging the edge to avoid the massive monster's Zone before sprinting like a madman. Arms and legs pumping like a blur to put as much distance between him and it as possible. The timer ticking down far too fast for how little ground he was covering.
As it dropped down to one second remaining, he spun around and brought the stubby rifle up to his shoulder. Squeezing the trigger in a quick burst. Though the legionnaire had explained the best way to brace the gun and fire it, Tom wasn't expecting the kick as the butt slammed back against him, jerking his aim up and to the left as the rifle roared.
A single round of the three he fired hit the Drake along the side, the bullet sparking off the scales harmlessly as the monster turned to face him. As if to mock him, a nearly transparent 0 floated up next to the Drake as the timer flipped over.
With an bone rattling roar, the behemoth came charging for him once again. Churning dirt with each thunderous step, its head tilting backwards like a snake as it prepared to strike at him. Every instinct in Tom's body begging him to move, to run away even though he was functionally stuck in place until it got closer to him.
All he could do was brace his body to roll to the side the moment the Drake's head lunged at him. Its thundering steps shaking the ground, a constant low growl in the air as it dipped its serpentine head back to lunge forward.
All he could see was a green blur tinged with red as it snapped forward. His natural instincts fighting against the System enforced stasis as the Drake's mouth opened, hundreds of jagged, saliva coated teeth on display as its neck extended towards him.
He shoved against the feeling holding him in place, like pushing against an invisible wall. Feet digging into the dirt, shoulder braced against the air. The exact moment the snout of the Drake crossed the invisible line marking his Zone, the feeling vanished and he tumbled to the side in a clumsy roll as the monster's open mouth carved a furrow in the spot in the had just been. Its head tilting upwards to reset for the next attack, dirt and gravel pouring from its mouth as it spat the earth out with an enraged cry.
Dragging himself to his feet as the timer moved to his turn, Tom repeated his earlier move. Sprinting as fast as he could down the road to put distance between himself and the Drake before turning with a few seconds left and firing a burst.
The first round bounced ricocheted off its scales as the beast oriented itself to face him. The second impacted against its broad chest with a dull boom and flash of light that reminded Tom of the illegal firecrackers his dad used to bring home for the Fourth of July.
Screaming in outrage, the Drake moved back in surprise, a faint 10 floating above it and a visible crack in the scales the round had hit on its chest. Its predatory gaze settled on Tom, watching him with an unsettling level of intelligence, as if evaluating him in a new light now that he had harmed it.
Adrenaline was surging through his body as he saw the damage number, no matter how small it meant it could be hurt! He had a chance!
“Yea you fucking lizard! How do you like that?!” He screamed at it and spit on the ground, emotions running high.
It answered with a scream that shook the trees, its eyes flaring an angry dark red.
Hopelessness filled him, crushing the momentary elation he had felt. His knees shook and he stumbled backwards drunkenly. The world distorting and spinning, everything blurring except for the massive Drake in front of him. It grew larger, impossibly huge as the world faded away around him, replaced by the crimson radiating from the slits that were its eyes.
“W-wassa. Whassit.” He slurred, numb fingers dropping his gun as his knees gave out and he toppled to the ground. Tears beading in the corner of his eyes as the titan of a lizard approached him, its body blocking out the very sky, mouth opened like a cosmic blackhole to suck him in as he scrabbled weakly on the ground.
Death personified, an unstoppable, insatiable avatar of the end stalked towards him and he could do nothing. “Mary. I'm so sorry.” He choked out the words between sobs for breath as the Drake closed in above him, mouth open in a lunge that filled the horizon with an endless sea of teeth. An eldritch god come to claim its prize.
Squeezing his eyes closed, he waited for the end, body going stiff.
Thunder boomed, the world quaked and Tom's body was sent flying like a ragdoll. Tumbling through the air before crashing to the ground with a snap and rolling several feet, coming to a stop in a heap along the edge of the forest. His eyes opened and he was greeted not by a horizon spanning reptilian god, but by the screeching Drake, its green scales shattered and leaking blue blood as it ran for the forest, being pursued by a dozen black bodied legionnaires.
Tilting his head to the side, he vomited and tried to stand only for the pain in his arm to force him back down. The world was spinning, thoughts refused to coalesce properly, brain like a scrambled egg. He groaned and spit out the taste of sick as the sound of heavy boots coming closer reached his ears.
“He is alive, Decanus. Assessing condition.” Thick metal boots stopped next to him, a cold hand touching his shoulder and eliciting a groan of pain. “Broken arm, possible shattered shoulder. Psychological trauma from the Drake. Will sedate for transport.” The last words cutting through the cobwebs in Tom's brain and making him stir to the side.
“W-wait. Had a map. Check...check my pockets. Daycare needs help.” He struggled to remember what the legionnaire defending the daycare had called the orange ones. “T-twisted..trying to take..children.” His brain refused to work, lips straining to form the words and sending a wave of irritation through him. He needed to tell them! "Hurry. Please."
The legionnaire above him went still for a moment, then a sharp sting hit Tom in the neck. The world slowly faded away as the robotic soldier's voice echoed in his ears. “Decanus, we may have a situation.”