“Jamie?” My voice was soft. “It is okay. It is dead. Where is Travis?” I scanned the area around us, straining to catch any sign of the asshole with the sword. Nothing. Only torn grass, churned soil, and scattered debris glistening with monster blood.
“He fucking ran.” Jamie’s voice cracked like a frayed wire snapping under tension. His head whipped toward me, a hot, furious anger burning through the terror on his face. “Travis. The second he saw that thing crawling through the gate, he just turned with a few others and ran. The fucking coward.”
His chest heaved. The fury and the fear tangled inside him until his hands shook violently. Bits of dust and shredded grass clung to his uniform, giving him the appearance of someone who had clawed his way out of a grave instead of a collapsed structure.
I reached a hand into the wreckage pinning his leg. “Come on.” My fingers closed around his wrist. I pulled him free with a sharp yank. He stumbled out onto the grass, his boots sinking into the soft, torn earth. His gaze dropped to the dead lizard lying at his feet, its twisted body still steaming.
A violent shudder wracked his entire frame. He jerked back from the corpse as if it might leap back to life.
“We have to go,” he stammered. His voice broke across the words like waves crashing against rock. His eyes were locked on the giant lizard now fully free of the portal. “We need the military. Missiles. Tanks. Anything.”
I could not argue with the instinct. Every rational part of me screamed the same thing. Fall back. Evacuate. This was not a situation for pistols and patrol officers. This was not even a situation for SWAT. This was a scenario that belonged in world ending movies. If someone handed me a radio linked directly to a bomber wing, I would have hit the button until my thumb bled.
This was a call in an airstrike problem.
But then my gaze shifted. And everything inside me hardened.
Logan and Charlie stood in the blood soaked field like defiant statues, their bodies framed by the flickering light of the mangled gate. The Elite towered over them, a monster ripped straight from a nightmare, and yet the two of them met its strength with every ounce of grit they had left. Beyond them I spotted Flynn and Gideon. Their movements were growing more desperate, their footing slipping on churned mud and monster gore, but they held on, refusing to abandon each other.
If I run, they die.
It was that simple.
The line is drawn here, in this blood soaked field.
It was time to pick a side.
Self preservation or uphold my oath of protection.
It was a terrifyingly easy choice.
A new roar from the giant rattled my bones. The sound vibrated through my skull and down into my spine. I swallowed hard, tasting copper. “You go,” I said to Jamie, the words tasting like a death sentence. “Find a vehicle. Get to Chief Dobson. Come back with reinforcements.”
CRASH.
My head snapped toward the sound.
A three ton police truck sailed through the air.
Its headlights spun in a dizzying arc. Its sirens sputtered weakly from broken wiring. The entire chassis twisted mid flight as if the metal itself was screaming. The Elite had swatted it aside with a single swing of its tail, an act of casual dominance.
The truck came down with catastrophic force. Dirt and debris exploded upward. The shockwave buffeted my body. And then, with horrifying clarity, I saw Gideon.
He had been standing only seconds before. A solid, immovable presence behind Flynn.
Now he vanished under the truck’s violent descent.
It swept him into the darkness like a meteor wiping out a mountain goat. When the debris settled, a fresh crater in the grass marked the spot where Gideon had stood. Empty. Silent. Wrong.
Flynn’s eyes locked on the crater. His kodachi lowered until its point touched the dirt. Something inside him broke. The fight drained out of him in a single heartbeat.
Fuck.
I turned back to Jamie, my face hardening into a mask. “Go.” The word was sharp enough to cut. It was not a suggestion. It was an order. A final, desperate prayer that at least one of us would make it out of this graveyard alive.
Jamie hesitated. His lip trembled. He looked like he wanted to argue, but survival instincts finally took over. He nodded once and ran.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
And I was running again too, charging back into the heart of the storm.
My objective was Flynn. He stood frozen, a pale mask of terror hollowing out his face. The lizard that he and Gideon had nearly killed was back on its feet, wounds sealed by whatever monstrous biology powered these things. Its eyes fixed on Flynn. Its muscles coiled.
It lunged.
I didn't shout. There was no time. The world blurred around me as I sprinted, my heart a feral drum. My Jian was already in my hand. I felt the edge of it humming with mana, or maybe that was just my nerves electrifying every cell in my body.
I closed the distance in a heartbeat.
My blade slid through the creature’s back with a speed that felt almost alien. The Jian punched through muscle and bone, severing its spine and erupting from its chest in a spray of hot ichor. The force of the blow carried me past the lizard. I ripped the blade free and pivoted, ready for anything else.
Lesser Lizard killed
25 XP
Congratulations on Leveling up!
Accept Rewards? Yes/No
No.
I dismissed the screen with a thought as I reached Flynn. His legs had buckled. His hands loosened on his weapon. His eyes were glassy and unfocused.
I grabbed the front of his vest and shook him hard. “Flynn. Get up. The fight is not over.”
His pupils trembled. His lips parted. “Gideon…” he whispered, the name a cracked shard of grief.
I needed him functional. Not for the fight. Not for me. For himself. Because standing dazed and broken in a battlefield was a death warrant.
“He might not be dead,” I said, pouring all the conviction I could muster into my voice. “If his defense was high enough, he could have survived. He needs you. Go check on him. Get back in the fight.”
A sliver of hope flickered in his eyes. It was small. Fragile. But it was enough.
He mumbled an okay and staggered off.
At least now he will not be standing dazed, waiting to be eaten.
I pulled up my menu with a thought. My stats glowed in the air before me.
Three points into Agility.
Two into Strength.
Strength: 38 → 40
Agility: 39 → 42
A high voltage jolt shot through my nervous system. It was sharp enough to make me gasp. The world snapped into painfully sharp focus. Grass blades moved in the wind with crystalline clarity. Every sound separated into distinct layers: the clash of weapons, the hiss of monsters, the crackling distortion of the portal.
I sprinted forward, targeting the back of a truck to vault into the fray. My body responded with blinding speed. I pushed off the grass, expecting a simple hop.
Instead I flew.
My stomach dropped as I launched past the truck entirely in a wild, uncontrolled arc. I hit the ground in a heap of limbs, the impact rattling my teeth.
Smooth, Elias. Real smooth.
I scrambled to my feet, recalibrating my sense of my own body. I was not the same person I had been this morning. I was stronger. Faster. More dangerous. The system had rewired me, and my instincts needed to catch up.
Charlie and Logan were fighting like cornered wolves, backs nearly touching as the Elite stalked around them. The giant’s shadow swallowed the grass. Its breath came out in rattling hisses that fogged the air.
As I sprinted toward them, the Elite shifted its immense weight. Its tail rose. The movement was so fluid it looked almost beautiful.
Then it swung.
The tail moved with the force of a freight train. Charlie dove clear, rolling across the dirt. Logan was not as fast.
The impact landed with a sickening, hydraulic crack of breaking bone. The blow folded Logan’s torso around the massive tail. He did not just fall. He was launched. His body tumbled through the air like a broken doll before crashing into the grass.
He didn't rise.
I slid to a stop beside him, my boots carving trenches in the torn earth.
The right side of Logan’s body was a ruin. His arm twisted back at an angle a human limb was never meant to see. The bone protruded from beneath a tear in his sleeve. His breaths were shallow, desperate gasps that sounded like he was drowning in air.
Behind me, the Elite took a heavy step toward his motionless form, its massive head lowering, ready to finish the job.
No. Not on my watch, you scaly son of a bitch.
I could not hurt it. I could not stop it. But I could make it angry. Angry enough to forget Logan. Angry enough to chase me instead.
I charged.
“Hey.” The word tore out of my throat. The creature’s head snapped toward the sound. Its hateful yellow eyes locked onto mine with a terrifying intelligence.
I feinted left, the silver arc of my Jian flashing beside its snout. The Elite lunged. Its jaws closed on empty air. I was already moving, circling behind it, striking at its armored thigh. My blade screeched against the thick scales, throwing sparks but doing little else.
It spun, roaring in raw fury. Its tail cut through the air with murderous intent, scything the space where I had been standing half a second earlier.
It reared up, blocking out the sky, its silhouette swallowing the barricade behind it. A massive clawed forelimb swiped forward, carrying the momentum of a collapsing building.
Shit.
I leaped back and summoned Trent’s shield, raising it with both arms.
Just survive the hit, Elias.
Just survive the—
The impact struck.
The impact swallowed the world. The Elite’s massive claw collided with Trent’s shield in a way that felt less like a hit and more like a collapsing star. A deep, concussive WHUMP slammed through the field, so powerful it erased every other sound for a moment. The shockwave pierced through the metal of the shield and blasted up my arm. My shoulder socket gave way with a sick, yielding snap. My arm folded uselessly at my side as if it belonged to someone else.
The force lifted me off the ground. The sky spun. The ground rolled upward. I struck the side of a police cruiser and the metal surrendered around me. The frame buckled inward as though I had been fired from a cannon. The world lurched as the impact peeled me off the wreck and sent me rolling across the torn grass.
Breathing became a battle all on its own. Each inhale dragged shards of pain through my ribs. Something inside my chest shifted with a grinding friction that made my stomach twist. My lungs seized in short, frantic attempts at air. Every shallow breath felt like a blade sliding between bone.
The field lost its shape. Colors ran together. The sounds of fighting—claws tearing earth, voices shouting, Logan screaming earlier—bled into a dull roar, muffled and distant. My vision flickered, the horizon tilting and sliding like a picture pulled loose from its frame.
The ground trembled again.
Three lesser lizards burst from the gate. Their movements were fast and jittery, driven by instinct and hunger. Their talons tore through the dirt. Their jaws opened and shut with eager anticipation. They scanned the battlefield in erratic jerks.
One found me.
Its eyes locked onto my broken form. A low hiss rattled from its throat as it lunged, body stretching forward with cruel momentum. Its hind claws tore up clumps of grass as it pushed off the ground, eager to claim something weak and bleeding.
Move.
My brain pushed the word with all the force it had left. My body delivered almost nothing in return. My limbs refused to cooperate. My legs trembled. My elbows buckled when I tried to push myself upright. I rolled sideways, clutching at the ground for leverage, but the pain ripped through me and sent me collapsing again.
The creature’s breath reached me before its body did. Hot. Rot-heavy. Thick with the scent of spoiled meat.
My vision dimmed at the edges. The grass blurred into streaks of dark and pale green. The lizard’s shadow stretched across my chest.
I tried to rise again. My ribs burned. My arm hung limp. The ground felt like it held me in place.
So this was what the ending of a life looked like in moments. Sharp pain. Dull panic. A strange, quiet finality sinking in like cold water.
Then her face surfaced in the darkness.
Kira. Her green eyes warm. The flecks of gold catching the diner lights earlier that day. Her brow creased with concern as she had looked at me over burnt coffee. Her voice soft when she reminded me to breathe. Her presence steady even when the world threatened to tear open in front of us.
The memory hit me harder than the Elite had.
I am sorry.
Just do not let her find my body.
Not her.
Please.
It was not a thought shaped by strategy or logic. It came from somewhere deeper. A place of instinct and fear and a fierce refusal to let her face this kind of horror.
The lesser lizard crouched. Muscles tensed. It pushed off the ground and closed the final gap between us.
I tried to brace. My fingers twitched in a weak attempt to bring my blade up. The weapon barely shifted.
The creature leapt, jaws widening as it aimed for my throat.
And all I could do was watch it come.
