by Andrew Gates
Damien froze. A few seconds ago, he had said the exact same thing. But after seeing Zozak struggle on the sand, he began to reconsider.
"But what about Kho Zozak? We cannot leave him here!" he protested. Zozak may have been new to the group, and he may not have been human, but he was still a member of their new family. Damien could not bring himself to leave Zozak behind.
"Zozak will fight them off. His courage buys us time!" Likus replied as she ran to him.
"His courage will kill him!" Damien retorted. "We have to go back!"
Damien quickly glanced to the beach. Both Kholvari had him pinned against the ground now. Zozak tried to wiggle away, but he was not strong enough to escape their grasp.
If Likus would do nothing, someone else would have to. Without wasting another second, Damien bolted toward the beach. His fellow humans ran past him in the opposite direction, but stopped and turned as they saw him run by. He picked up a few sharp rocks as he ran and carried them by his side. Before long, his feet were covered in sand as he emerged from the tree line.
Now in range of the scuffle, Damien pelted the attackers with rocks. The first few throws missed, but after a direct hit to one of their heads, the Kholvari with the cannon turned around and glared at Damien with a look of pure hatred.
"The evolved-one!" he shouted. The angry Kholvari moved away from Zozak like he was nothing but a nuisance, leaving his friend alone in the fight.
The monstrous attacker raised his cannon to Damien and aimed.
"This is for my city!" he shouted.
In that moment, Damien froze. He saw his life flash before his eyes once more, only now the saga ran through his mind in the mere time it took to let out a gasp. I'm going to die, he knew. What the hell was I thinking?
The cannon's barrel lit up in bright light as a deafening boom echoed across the beach. Damien could feel the ball of heat moving toward him. He held his hands up and turned to face the ocean. He dared not see this next part.
Boom!
A ball of white plasma erupted as it made contact with its target. Damien fell over, knocked down by the energy of the explosion. All the air seemed to escape his lungs at once. The fall hurt, but he was alive. He could not believe he was alive.
Damien sat up and turned to face the action. The burned remains of a female body sizzled only a few meters from where he now sat. Damien stood up and took a few steps toward the corpse. It was mangled, but he could make out the eyes clearly enough. They were unmistakable.
"Xandrie!" he cried. "No!" He leaned down to the lifeless body. It stung just to touch.
Damien had not seen her coming, but she must have run in front of the blast right before it hit him. She sacrificed her life for him. He could not believe it. He was dumbstruck.
"This evolved-one or that, it does not matter. They will all die the same!" the attacker said as he approached. He recharged his weapon for another shot.
"You killed her!" Damien shouted in shock.
"It speaks! So these traitors have given you a translator, have they?" The Kholvari raised its weapon again. "Speaking cannot save you. There is nothing that can save you now."
Suddenly a rock collided against the attacker's head, prompting him to stop and face the trees. Damien instinctively turned his gaze there too. To his surprise, a mob of humans charged onto the shore. There must have been 20 of them. Sara led the charge with a sharp spear-like stick in hand.
Holy shit.
The Kholvari got a shot off with his cannon, but his aim was hasty and the blast missed the humans entirely. Realizing he was about to be overwhelmed, he suddenly turned and sprinted into the water. The other Kholvari still scuffled on the sand with Zozak, but jumped up and followed his friend out to sea as the mob of humans neared.
As fast as the Kholvari were, the humans were fueled by an insatiable aggression. Amped on adrenaline, they caught up to the fleeing Kholvari in no time and climbed atop their shells. Humans stabbed away at the massive creatures with spears, rocks, even their own hands. Water splashed up everywhere as the two Kholvari stumbled and squirmed in the waves.
Damien watched in awe as Sara climbed atop one of the Kholvari's long neck and brought the spear down into his flesh with great force. The creature jolted in pain and gasped, though Damien guessed he could hardly breathe. Blood gushed out of the newly formed hole in his skin, dropping into the ocean water below and turning it red. A few seconds later, he fell down in a massive splash.
Good job, Captain.
Only one attacker remained now.
"Leave him to me!" Zozak shouted. His voice echoed. The other humans could only hear his words as shrieks and roars, but the message seemed to get across nonetheless. The humans cleared away as Zozak approached. He was limping, but, like them, fueled by aggression. He held the enemy's spear in his grasp.
The enemy Kholvari held his claws high and shrieked in fear. Blood now dripped across his body. It seemed the humans had done a number on him already.
"You had your chance to stand down. You chose otherwise. You chose to kill," Zozak declared. He stepped into the water and made his way over to the other Kholvari.
The other shrieked back in words Damien could not understand. Whatever he was saying, the words did not seem to deter Zozak. He pressed forward with determination.
The battle was short. The bloody aggressor lasted all of a few seconds before Zozak was able to place the spear through his jaw. A crowd of cheers erupted as the Kholvari splashed down into the reddened water.
"At last," Zozak said through deep breaths. He doubled down in pain and stood still. "It is done."
Damien let out a deep exhale and looked down to the charred corpse at his feet. They had won, but at a cost. They could never get Xandrie back again. She was gone.
"Xandrie," he said again in a hushed tone. He clenched his fists and felt his eyes begin to water. Before he knew it, he was boiling with emotion. "No!" he shouted. "No!" He dropped to the ground and struck the sand until his knuckles bled. "No!" he repeated. "No! No! No! No!"
Sara ran over to him and embraced him. Her clothes were damp and salty from the sea water, but that did not matter. Damien leaned into her arms as tears flowed from his eyes like a faucet.
"There, there," she said, trying to sound comforting. "That was a brave thing you did coming back for Zozak. You inspired her. "
"But... she's dead!" Damien shouted. "The bastards killed her!"
"I know it's hard. Take your time," Sara replied, comfortingly.
Neither of them spoke for a while after that. Damien held this embrace for what felt like minutes. He did not know what else to do.
Then a thunderous shriek echoed in the distance. It did not sound like the shrieks of the Kholvari, nor of his fellow humans. Birds squawked and flew away. Animals scurried into the trees. Damien let go of the embrace and looked around, confused.
Likus ran over to them. A worried expression covered her face.
"What is it?" he asked.
"All this noise has attracted attention," she replied. "Lots of attention."
"More Kholvari?"
Likus gulped and shook her head.
"Worse."
THE PALE MONSTER WAVED HER arms in desperation and shouted to Damien in words Sara could not understand. Inhuman shrieks echoed in the distance, filling Sara’s heart with worry.
“What is it?” Sara asked, quickly turning to face Damien. “What is she saying?”
Damien was slow to respond. He stared down at the corpse.
The woman was just a stranger to Sara, but she could tell, whoever she was, she had meant a lot to Damien. Her body was now charred and mangled, hardly identifiable. Sara wondered if he loved her.
“Damien!” Sara shouted, knowing she had to get his attention somehow.
Damien suddenly turned to face her.
“Sara,” he replied in a hushed tone. It was as if he were processing everything at half-speed.
“What is going on? Why is she panicking?
” Sara asked, motioning to the frightened creature.
“We need to get out of here. We need to leave.” His words were blunt.
“Why? What is it?”
Damien took a deep breath.
“Ruors.”
Sara gulped and felt her limbs twitch as she recalled what Damien had said about the ruors. They look like us, like humans, but they are anything but human. They're monsters.
“Where the hell are we supposed to run?” another human asked. The man was old and bald, though he seemed in good health for a man of his age. His muscles were well pronounced.
Before Damien even had a chance to answer, Sara saw them. They approached from the north like another wave against the beach. Her heart fluttered. She froze.
Human was hardly the word that came to mind. They looked like abominations, like gruesome experiments gone wrong.
The creatures were shorter than humans, though their arms hung longer down. Their backs were arched. It looked like some even ran on all fours. Their mouths were wide, their torsos narrow, their teeth sharp, their eyes… alien.
“There they are!” someone else shouted.
Damien turned around now and froze as he saw the sight.
“Shit,” he said. “Forget about running. There’s no time! Everyone, grab a spear, a rock, whatever you can!” He stepped past the body at his feet like she was nothing, though deep down, Sara knew it must have been hard to leave her there.
The tall monsters shouted something and pointed to the hunter ship still resting on the sand.
“Good idea!” Damien said, suddenly running toward the ship.
“What are they saying?” Sara asked.
“Quick, get in the ship! It’s safer in there!” Damien ordered. The other survivors quickly followed behind.
“The ship? But it’s too small. We can’t all fit!” someone protested. Looking at it, Sara had to agree. Even if they all crawled on top of one another, there were too many of them to cram inside.
“Prioritize the sick and elderly. Get them in first. Once they’re safe inside, all others, form a defensive perimeter around that ship. Protect it at all costs. That’s our home base!” he said.
Sara was impressed with Damien’s leadership. He had grown so much since she had seen him last. He was practically a different person.
As ordered, the sick and elderly packed into the ship first. All others, carrying sticks and rocks, stood around it, ready to fight. Sara joined them, holding her pointed stick in hand.
The two creatures pushed through the perimeter, holding large cannons in their grasp. They spoke foreign words as they passed the weapons to the circle of humans.
“Where did they get those?” Sara asked.
“They say the weapons were in the ship,” Damien translated. “They belonged to the hunters. There are only five cannons available, so we need to distribute them at key points around our perimeter.”
“I see,” Sara said.
She watched as the humans around the circle accepted the weapons. Suddenly the light-shelled creature stopped before her and dropped one at her feet. The thing was massive. Sara stared down at it, not sure what to do.
“Is this for me?” she asked.
“It is,” Damien explained. “Kal Likus says it’s lighter than it looks.”
Sara stabbed her stick into the sand such that it stood vertically on its own. She then leaned down and tried to lift the creatures’ weapon. Admittedly, the device weighed less than she had expected, though that did not mean it was easy to wield. She struggled to hold it still.
The weapon seemed intuitive enough. It had all the same components as a rifle: a handle, a trigger, a barrel.
“Look out!” someone screamed.
Sara instinctively turned to face north. The ruors were mere meters away. She could practically feel their breath against her skin. There had to have been at least 50 of them.
Some of the humans wasted no time releasing their rocks. They pelted the ruors one by one, though the rocks seemed to do nothing but cause a minor annoyance.
Sara closed her eyes and gripped the trigger of the cannon in her grasp. She felt the weapon heat up like an oven. Even with her eyelids closed, she sensed the world explode in bright light.
And then the weapon fired.
Boom!
Ruors shrieked in pain like something out of a nightmare. Sara opened her eyes as a portion of the beach was now black with smoke and smoldering corpses.
Damien patted her on the back.
“Great job,” he said, “but it’s not over yet!”
He was right. The blast had taken out a few from the front of the approaching line, though there were still dozens more quickly approaching.
Some of the other humans wielding cannons let out a few blasts, though the ruors adapted quickly. After just a few shots, the humanoid creatures learned to dart away as the light illuminated from the muzzles.
“How do I recharge this thing?” Sara asked as she studied the weapon.
“I don’t know,” Damien answered. He looked down at it. “Try holding down the trigger.”
“I’m doing that! It’s not working.”
The ruors were nearly on them. They were running out of time.
“Is there a switch? A button?”
“No! I don’t see anything!”
“Fuck it.” Damien pulled the spear out of the sand and held it firmly in his grasp. He aimed the pointy end at the approaching creatures.
“Are you serious? We can’t fight them all off hand to hand!”
“We have to try!” Damien said.
A ruor pounced at the line. Damien thrusted the spear forward, hitting the creature in the center of its chest. Another ruor climbed atop the injured one and used its body as a platform to pounce. It landed atop Damien, causing him to fall over onto the sand. The creature tried to bite him, but Damien held it at bay with both hands.
Sara reacted fast. She pulled the spear from the injured ruor’s body and swung it around. With all the force she could muster, she stabbed the other ruor straight through the back. It shrieked and flailed its arms around madly.
“Watch the first one!” shouted Damien.
Sara quickly turned as the first ruor swatted at her. She ducked and kicked it in the bloody hole in its chest. The creature doubled over in pain, clenching its wound, but did not stop. It continued its approach as if nothing had happened.
Sara backed up, now unarmed. Her feet met the metal ship. She reached back and felt its hull. This was it. She could go no more.
The injured ruor pounced now, sending red blood flying this way and that through the air. It landed atop her and opened its mouth wide, revealing a row of razer-like teeth. Its breath practically made her gag.
“No!” Sara shouted. “Get away from me!”
Not knowing what else to do, she punched it square in the forehead. It shrieked and went in for a bite. Sara closed her eyes and shielded her face with both arms. In an instant, she felt the creature’s teeth sink into her skin. The pain was unbearable. Warm blood flowed from her skin.
The disgusting creature unclamped its bite and repositioned itself atop Sara’s body, as if angling for a better attack. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Sara dropped down and slid through the creature’s legs. Once on the other side of it, she kicked it against the ship’s hull.
“Gah!” it cried.
Sara ran up to it, ignoring the trembling pain in her arms. She gripped the creature by the back of its skull and rammed it forward against the ship’s hull. She felt a cracking sound as the ruor’s head met the ship.
“Die!” she shouted.
She pulled the head back and rammed it forward again.
“Die!”
Again and again she smashed the ruor’s skull until finally the creature made no more noise. A stillness came over it and the monster fell onto the sand.
Sara let out a deep breath and stepped away from it, victorious.
Then she felt anot
her body jump on top of her. She fell to the ground, face to the sand. She could not see anything, but she felt the warm breathing of the monster at her back. It clawed at her clothes, tearing them to shreds. She felt its long nails cut into her back.
Sara tried to flip over, but the creature had her pinned. She could not move.
This is it, she thought. I am dead. This time, I’m dead for real.
Sara closed her eyes and accepted her fate. She had cheated death countless times. Finally, death had come to claim its prize.
Just when all hope was lost, the weight of the creature’s body suddenly disappeared. It was as if the ruor had simply vanished.
Sara turned over. The ruor had not disappeared, rather it had risen. She had not seen or heard him coming, but the dark-shelled monster had come to her aid. He lifted the ruor with its left claw, then threw it out into the ocean like it weighted nothing at all.
Sara took a deep sigh of relief. She narrowly escaped death once more. The Lord Beyond Both Seas looked kindly upon her.
The large monster made its way through the swarm of ruors. The humanoid creatures aggressively jumped onto him, clawing at him like animals. But Sara’s crab-like ally was undeterred. He lifted the attackers in the air, sometimes two at a time, ripping them apart or throwing them aside like they were mere rocks.
“Sara!” a familiar voice shouted. She quickly turned her head to face the noise.
Damien was still pinned against the sand. The ruor she had stabbed before remained alive and undeterred. It wrestled with Damien, the spear still stuck in its back.
Sara wasted no time. She ran over to it and tackled the creature, pulling it off Damien and forcing it onto the sand. The spear snapped as the creature rolled against the ground. She picked up the snapped off half and inspected the tip. The breakpoint was sharp, perfect for another pierce.
The creature stood up and stared at Sara, as if ready to pounce. Sara held the sharp end of the stick high.
“I’m ready,” she said to it. “Come and get it!”
The ruor jumped. Sara thrusted the sharp end forward, sending it straight through the monster’s neck. Blood spewed out of it like she had never seen. Within seconds, the creature fell still and silent. Sara let go of the stick and the ruor fell to the ground.
