Synopsis
A predator's gaze, snapped awake beneath layers of stone and soil. Its massive, scaled body, each breath it drew igniting the air with raw, palpable power. The creature was a calamity—unbound, chaos incarnate.
Its roar echoed through beneath the city to the land above, a sound so pure in its destruction that the city above shuddered in terror, its very foundations trembling like leaves in a storm.
Beneath the cracked streets and shattered stones, the ground shifted with an unnatural sluggishness like a heartbeat from the grave. A subtle vibration that ran through the soles of their boots.Then, cracks spiderwebbed outward in the earth along side thin fissures that exhaled cold air.From these fractures, a low rumble began to build,the air thickened, charged with a suffocating energy that seemed to press against their minds, dulling thoughts, amplifying fear.
The moment the earth split open, time seemed to stretch and warp.
Itarim's chest tightened, every breath coming sharp and shallow. The weight of the beast's presence was suffocating, like cold iron chains wrapped around his ribs. His heart hammered in his ears—too loud, too fast—each beat echoing the raw terror clawing up from his gut.
Pure,evil. The kind that seeped into his bones, whispering death and hopelessnessHe felt it before he even saw it—the scent of the war beast's bloodlust.
A thick, metallic tang that coated the air, heavy and overwhelming.
It was the scent of violence, ancient and unrelenting. A predatory hunger so deep it seemed to warp reality itself.
Grey's gaze flickered to Itarim, eyes dark and sharp, betraying the same cold edge of dread slicing through his calm exterior. For a heartbeat, the two stood frozen—neither daring to blink, neither willing to look away from the abyss before them..
Then, it emerged.
From the shattered earth rose a titan of nightmare.A shockwave rippled outward, knocking dust and debris from crumbling buildings, rattling shattered windows. The city trembled, groaning beneath the weight of the monster's awake.
Its form was colossal—towering far above the ruined cityscape, casting a shadow that swallowed everything beneath it. The war beast's skin was a mosaic of jagged obsidian scales, cracked and glimmering faintly like volcanic glass. Each scale was edged in crimson.Massive horns curled from its head like twisted branches, blackened and sharp enough to pierce steel. Its eyes—burning coals set deep in a skull—flared with a sinister intelligence. The irises were slitted like a reptilian, but the glow inside was something almost divine in its intensity.
Its maw was a cavernous abyss, filled with serrated teeth—each fang like a dagger honed to shred body and soul alike.
Its powerful limbs ended in claws curved like sickles, each swipe capable of tearing mountains apart. Muscles rippled beneath its hide with every slow movement, revealing raw power barely contained.
Smoke curled from its nostrils, and the ground beneath it boiled where it touched.The war beast exhaled, and the heat hit them like a physical blow.
The beast roared.Its roar tore through the silence replacing it with a deafening roar that shook the very foundations of the earth—a sound so raw and full of malice it threatened it spoke of destruction, dominion, and death.
But beneath the crushing weight of fear, something shifted inside Itarim.The will of a warrior refusing to bow.
His fists clenched, veins throbbing with adrenaline.
Grey's lips curled into a hard, determined line—his usual calm replaced by a fierce excitement that made his eyes gleam like steel.
They had stared into the abyss and now, the abyss stared back— relentless and alive.
The War Beast's massive head lowered, its eyes narrowing as if acknowledging the two specks that dared to stand before it.
A silence fell—not peace, but the kind of hush that only comes before a lightning strike.
Itarim stepped forward. Slowly. Deliberately.
Grey followed, his fingers flexing, aura beginning to ripple faintly from his skin. The pressure in the air thickened as both boys activated their cores.
The moment had come.
[ Seconds Before Impact]
The War Beast moved first with a sudden, explosive movement, the beast lunged forward, shaking the earth beneath it. The ground cracked and shattered with each step, its claws tearing through the stone like paper.
Itarim's heart pounded in his chest as the sheer force of the beast's advance rattled his bones.
The air seemed to heat around him as the monster's massive form moved closer, closing the distance with terrifying speed. His thoughts fragmented in the face of such raw, overwhelming power. For a moment, he felt like prey, small and insignificant beneath the crushing weight of the beast's bloodlust.
"It's fast—!" Itarim's voice came out sharp, strained, the words barely leaving his throat as he scrambled to center himself but before he could even react, the ground trembled again, and a massive claw swiped through the air toward him. The beast's attack was like a landslide, swift and merciless.
In the split second before the blow struck, Itarim's instincts flared. He dove to the side, barely avoiding the razor-sharp claws that slashed through the air, sending up plumes of dust and debris.
He rolled, his heart racing, and barely had time to regain his footing when another claw descended.
He had no time to think—only to react.
His pulse thudded like a drumbeat as he hurled himself upward, summoning his energy in a flash of raw power. The ground beneath his feet cracked as he launched himself into the air, his sword flashing out to meet the beast's strike head-on. The clash of steel against scale rang out, echoing through the ruined city as sparks flew.
The beast roared in anger, but the blow had done little more than scratch its hide.
Grey wasn't far behind.
He watched as Itarim deflected the beast's attack, his movements fluid but filled with an unmistakable sense of urgency.
Grey's fingers twitched, a surge of power flooding through his veins. The beast's bloodlust was contagious, its savagery pulling at the deepest parts of him but Grey focused, narrowing his gaze as his senses sharpened.
His energy surged through him like an unstoppable tide, gathering in his palm.With a single, fluid motion, Grey thrust his hand forward, releasing a torrent of explosive force. The blast hit the war beast square in the chest, sending the creature stumbling back with an unearthly screech.
For a brief, fleeting moment, Grey allowed himself a breath.
The war beast staggered, its enormous body shifting with unsettling grace.
It blinked, its glowing red eyes narrowing. The strike had only grazed its massive form, leaving no more than a burn mark on its scales. But the fury in its eyes only deepened, the bloodlust escalating to an maddening level.
The war beast bellowed again, this time its roar vibrating through the very marrow of their bones.
"It's not enough! It's stronger than we thought!" Itarim gritted his teeth, pushing back against the suffocating weight of the monster's presence.
Grey's gaze flicked to him, understanding the gaze in his eyes. They needed more.
Without hesitation, Grey raised his hand, the air around them rippling as he channeled beast energy into a concentrated beam but the beast wasn't finished yet.
It swung its claws again, this time more deliberately, aiming for the space between them.
The impact was thunderous.
Itarim leapt forward.
He had no plan other than survival, but survival meant creating an opening. His sword cut through the air with precision, slashing against the monstrous claws as they descended like iron pillars.
The sheer force of the war beast's assault pushed Itarim back, the ground beneath him crumbling away. Yet, as he slid backward, his body reacting with instinct,he saw it for a brief moment.
The opening needed.
A fleeting moment in the beast's movements, when it overextended—just enough for him to exploit.
"Now!"
The shout came from Grey, a split second before he unleashed everything he had.
Beast energy a bit raw and unrefined, erupted from his hands, roaring like a storm as it enveloped the war beast in a blinding explosion of energy.
The explosion sent the war beast reeling, the force of it knocking the creature back several paces. Its massive form shook, and for the briefest of moments,it made another opening.
Itarim reacted instantly.
He surged forward, his sword raised high, and with a single, decisive strike, he aimed for the war beast's exposed side.
The blade sank deep.
But the monster's roar of pain was more terrifying than the slash itself.
Its body trembled, dark blood dripping from the wound, but the creature's eyes blazed with renewed fury.
It was then that the beast edged its head back and unleashed its full rage—purple flames of massive destruction.
Grey barely had time to react.
He summoned a shield of energy just as the war beast's tail slammed into the ground, sending a shockwave through the battlefield. The shield buckled under the force, and Grey gritted his teeth as he struggled to maintain control.
The sky above bled twilight hues, streaks of scarlet and bruised purple seeping across the heavens like open wounds. And at the heart of it all, the war beast stood.
Grey knelt, one palm to the fractured ground, gasping in short, ragged breaths. Sweat dripped from his brow, mingling with blood—his, or someone else's, he no longer knew. Just a few meters away, Itarim clutched his side, blood staining the shredded remnants of his tunic, though his eyes burned with a fire undimmed.
Between them, the war beast loomed, its colossal frame limned in the fading sunlight. The wound on its side, carved by Itarim's earlier strike, still glistened with its blood, but it had already begun to scab over—thick black crust sealing the gash like armor.
"It regenerates faster the more we damage it," Grey muttered, voice hoarse. "We can't drag this out."
"Then we end it," Itarim replied, his tone flat but resolute.
The war beast moved again—more swiftly now. Its massive claws dug into the ground for leverage as it lunged, not recklessly, but with measured brutality.
Grey's eyes flashed. In one smooth motion, he pushed himself up and rolled to the side, conjuring a trap mid-roll. A lattice of ethereal chains burst out beneath the war beast's advancing limb, snapping upward.
CLANG—CRACK!
The beast snarled and pulled, and the energy-forged chains resisted for a while,then the beast flexed its limb and the entire conjured chains shattered.
Grey grimaced. "We need to layer suppression. Chains won't hold it anymore."
"We need coordination," Itarim snapped, stepping forward, sword braced across his back. "I'll draw its attention—set the next bind mid-swing. Don't cast early. Wait for my mark."
Grey nodded.
Itarim surged forward, his form a blur of motion amplified by mana-enhanced reflexes. Dust and loose stone exploded behind his launch as he rocketed toward the beast, ducking just beneath a sweeping claw.
The war beast responded—fast, vicious. Its tail whipped around like a battering ram, forcing Itarim into a sideways dash. But that was exactly what he wanted.
He leapt, rebounding off a crumbled pillar, and slammed his blade down in a wide arc.
"Now!"
The war beast raised its claw to intercept—exactly as planned.
Grey's hand snapped out, precise energy pillars around the war beast's lifted, locking it in place. Simultaneously, chains shoot out out of the pillars bloomed hinering its legs,jaw and wings,designed to halt the beast's movement long enough for a follow-up.
"Go!" Grey shouted.
Itarim didn't need to be told twice.
He dropped low and swept in from under the beast's locked claw, spinning as he brought his blade across the soft joint beneath the beast's plated shoulder. Steel met flesh. Blood followed.
The war beast shrieked, a terrible sound that fractured the silence and shook the heavens.
But it didn't fall.
It shifted.
Grey's eyes widened as the creature's muscles swelled and its scales thickened.The war beast was no longer reacting. It was hunting.
The ground cracked beneath it, mana pouring from its body like a broken dam.
"Fall back!" Grey shouted.
But the beast was already upon them.
Itarim barely managed to disengage as the beast surged forward, its claws sweeping low in a blur of burning red.Grey move as fast as he could,just in time, to get out of harm's way—though the mana backlash tore at his nerves, blood leaking from his nose and ears.
"It's forcing our mana consumption—draining us before it commits to a finishing move," Grey realized aloud, gasping.
"That level of combat instinct—it's unnatural," Itarim said, wincing. "Like it's... learning us."
The war beast's eyes locked onto them again.
Grey stumbled back to his feet. "We can't outlast it. But we can bait it—into a bottleneck. High energy density. It'll trigger reflexive defense mode."
"You're thinking of the Crucible Well?" Itarim asked.
Grey nodded grimly. "We flood the area with energy signatures—trick its instincts. When it hardens defenses in one direction, we go all-in from the blindside."
They moved.
Using mirrored imagess, they lured the beast with afterimages of themselves—illusions too lifelike for even the beast to distinguish. Each movement led it deeper into the ruins of the Crucible Well, where ambient energy from the city's old leyline still layed.
Grey set the trap. A high concentration of energy woven together into a chamber that fed on his own core.
"Once this triggers, I'll be locked in place. The rest is on you."
Itarim didn't hesitate. "Just hold it still."
The war beast sensed something and hesitated but it was too late. In a flash, gravity twisted as pressure from the unstable amount of energy collapsed inward.
The war beast screamed.
Tapping into the final reserves of his energy, Itarim charged as he wrapped his sword with condensed energy adding an extra length to his sword mid-sprint.
He leapt.
"This ends with me!" he roared.
The beast roared.In that singular flash—a moment suspended in eternity—Itarim tore through the war beast's lower neck, slicing cleanly in one swift, divine motion.
The air fell silent. The beast's body stood still.
Its head lingered awkwardly, as if even gravity had paused to witness the impossible.
Then it slipped—slowly—tumbling from its perch with dreadful finality.
When it struck the ruined floor, the impact sent tremors through the city's bones.
A second later, the severed neck exploded in a torrent of pressurized blood—
—crimson geysers that painted the sky, the earth, even the very battle feed itself a grotesque shade of red.
Above them, the clouds wept scarlet, streaking across the heavens like divine judgment.
And then, silence.