Huff. Huff.
He gazed down at his destroyed clothes. 'Ah, shit. Mom gave me this on my birthday this year.' he felt fire in his chest as if he lost something precious. What was once a reminder of his mother's love and his heritage was now torn and smeared with blood.
Lucian's chest heaved in and out angrily, each breath a struggle.
"This is fucking nuts!" he growled. "Just when things were changing, getting better, when our family was healing….They would b-"
Snap!
Another clawed paw swooped down dangerously close, tearing his coat sleeve. He stumbled but did not give up. He could not. Not when they were so close to catch and devour him!
The edge of the forest came into view a clearing. His heart soared. But his joy was short lived.
Growl!
The pack caught up with him, their gleaming eyes fixed on their prey, Lucian. Saliva dripping from their jaws. They looked undamaged despite his earlier attacks.
'Uh oh. Just my fucking luck.'
"Hey now," he bellowed, making a dry, forced joke. "I know I'm handsome, but don't you think stalking a minor would get you all in trouble? And I don't swing that way anyway. Maybe leave me alone, huh?"
'Ughhhh, the heck am I doing with these stupid ahh jokes!'
The beasts growled at him and began to close in on him. Their steps were measured and deliberate, tails lashing. Lucian gripped his sword, shoving aside the throbbing pain from all his bruises. He too studied each movement of those bull like hounds.
"Fine. If you want me that bad, come. I won't go down without putting up a proper fight either!" he bellowed, raising his blade.
But before the hounds could pounce on him, a blood chilling scream tore through the clearing.
SCREEEECH!!!
The scream was deafening, ringing throughout the entire abyss, like a war cry, announcing that the lord had arrived.
Lucian was frozen. His blood ran cold.
The pack of hounds was frozen too, their growls whining into whimpers. They began moving away, their eyes wide with terror.
Dread.
Everyone felt it, whether it was Lucian or the hounds. They felt real dread.
A horrific abomination that Lucian couldn't even imagine had arrived.
Its scream, raw and guttural had instilled fear into every creature around. The pressure built up by that sound alone pushed the hounds fleeing towards the hills with tails between their legs, into the darkness without so much as a glimpse.
Lucian's breath caught. His heart hammered agonizingly in his chest.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Heavy strides echoed in the distance, each one making the ground tremble. The pressure built and crashed down on Lucian with each step the abomination took. His knees buckled, and he fell onto one knee, gasping for breath.
"What….what the heck is it this time?!" he breathed to himself, his voice trembling.
For an instant, the clearing was quiet, except for the sound of his gasping breath.
Thud. thud
The footsteps approached. The shadows at the edge of the clearing solidified, and they formed into a monstrous shape. It took a step forward, and Lucian felt all his strength siphoned out of his body.
The monster stood at almost twice the size of a regular human. It was covered in pale, glistening scales, and a pair of massive, dark wings erupted on the back, making it resemble a humanoid abyssal creature. Its face was alien looking two purple glowing eyes glowed in the dark, and hard, feather-like spines bristled at the back of its skull. The most horrific part was its grin, a twisted face that made Lucian's skin crawl.
It held a purple glowing spear-like object in its left hand as it was coming for Lucian. It's movement slow and measured.
Lucian's body refused to move, paralyzed by the sheer enormity of the monster's presence.
"a-A Vespralith?!?" Lucian's incredulity resonates in his voice. "What is this monstrosity doing here?!?? Vespraliths are Titan-ranked monsters….and it is said that when a Vespralith emerges, it is a sign that the Nyxara would appear soon!"
'A Vespralith wields the power of two empires combined! It's the most powerful titan and if the saying is true and if the Nyxara is to awaken then-
But before he could think further, the Vespralith attacked him, moving quicker than he could perceive.
The monster appeared in front of Lucian in an instant, its clawed hand snapping out to catch him. With a brutish motion, it threw him skywards, then launched after him. Suspended in the air, Lucian had no time to move as the Vesparlith plunged its spear like object into his belly with a sickening thrust.
Swish!!!
BOOM!!!
The strength of the impact sent Lucian stumbling back into the earth, gouging out a crater of ground where he fell. Blood bubbled up beneath him, seeping out of his shattered form. The entire ordeal took place in the blink of an eye, and Lucian lay stunned and unable to move.
As he attempted to stir, a fire roared through his body, as if every nerve was aflame.
"AUGHHHHHHH!" his scream boomed through the silence, raw and piteous, and yet no answer came. Tears streamed down his face, his eyes burning bright red with anguish and fury. All of his bones hurt, and his limbs numbed.
He lay broken and defeated there, his eyes blurring as the darkness crept in around the edges.
'Is… this how it ends?'
The Vesparlith loomed over him, still. It did not even make an attempt to reclaim its weapon or strike the killing blow. Instead, it stood frozen, watching in silence, as if savoring Lucian's agony and desperation. Its unnatural immobility was the only thing that amplified the horror of the moment.
But even as Lucian's vision dimmed and went out, a spark of defiance remained in his heart. He curled up his fists, blood-soddened, forcing out a faint, shuddering laugh.
"I won't go down like this…not yet" he breathed. "Not like this…I promised him, I can't die here…"
Step! Step! Step!
As his consciousness hung poised on the edge of nothing, he heard it.
Soft, deliberate footfalls. Another form was approaching.
But his eyes had deceived him, and he could not identify who or what it was.
The faint motions faded into silence.
The abyss claimed him at last, and Lucian sank into waiting darkness.