Skyborne Raider

I’m stunned. Did I just hear a voice? “Huh?” I slowly turn my head to the left, my mouth open. There is a silhouette. Tall and slim. Completely sheathed in black. I’m mildly shocked by its presence as it approaches closer, anxiety building up in my body. Its eyes are glowing gold, the same as the wyvern itself.

Since I can’t see any facial features, I have no idea if it’s talking to me. The chaotic thudding of the wyvern running around in circles occupies my ear canals the most. The ground shakes, and the same sound starts to echo as it did twice before. The sound of its laser beam charging. I panic and look at the deity near me. It disappears into the shadows without any further interaction.

Now I start to panic for real. Before I even decide where to make my first move, the beam starts to fire again. Bursts of golden energy hit the spot where the archer was and continue to destroy everything in their path, melting the soil, blowing out rocks, and burning all the fauna to charcoal. It moves from left to right, towards the place where I am standing, shaking.

Fear and anxiety build up. The beam approaches, and I'm blinded by its shine and energy. This is how I imagine witnessing an atomic bomb's glow from close proximity. The heat surrounding it makes my plate armor heat up like a pan.

As panic and anxiety build up, my fear of burning alive in this armor feels as real as all this seems. All I can think of is the ancient torture device—the bronze bull.

A liquid drips down my forehead and makes it near my lips. Instead of salty sweat I can taste the blood.

My heart races, and all this escalates to even greater heat accumulating in my body.

But this one is different; the enormous heat radiates from myself. From the bottom of my stomach, I feel something I’ve never felt before in this part of my body, an unearthly tingling. Like a bottle of champagne just before the burst.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, an insane idea sparks. What if I can?

Not controlling my body, I crouch automatically, and the strength from my core is released. The incoming laser blast is about to hit. I feel my calves and hamstrings bloating, expanding, and the only thing slowing it is the strong armor itself. My skin feels rock hard, touching the inner shell of my armor, filling it with my flesh. The leather buckles are about to burst.

Release

The heavy metal boots are pushed into the dry rocky soil, almost to half of my ankles. I hear a loud thud from underneath me, and a circle of dust and soil emerges as the energy blast is released. My body leaps at the last second, avoiding the gruesome death of being melted.

The energy released from my swollen legs is enough to catapult me toward the dome barrier and the wyvern. The distance is great, but so is the speed and power of the jump I just made.

Flying at tremendous speed, I barely hear anything; all the banging, laser, and thunder sounds merge together. Taking a quick glimpse below, I see the tree canopies and remaining bushes flashing before my eyes. The laser burns through them with ease.

The speed of my flight makes enough breeze that I catch a second breath and do not faint.

I am confused about what I will do up there.

Will I land on top of the dome and disintegrate while falling in? Or will I make it through and be annihilated by the wyvern? Curiously, my brain processes all these thoughts while I’m flying toward the dome, like an adrenaline rush simulating time slowdown.

My velocity is great, yet by a simple estimate, I know I won’t get close to the wyvern. Halfway, yes, but not close enough. Based on what I’ve seen the barrier do with the metal rod, I start to get even more afraid.

I can barely acknowledge more of the surroundings, yet something catches my eye. There is a dark figure running on top of the dome trying to catch underneath me. Each step he takes ignites more and more burn under his feet. As the man becomes a torch burning alive, he jumps up, flying towards me from behind.

“You owe me one toe now, Mark!”

I hear the same voice as before. A burst of energy hits me from the back, followed by an unpleasant sound. I can’t comprehend what just happened. All I know is I got a boost in my leap.

My hair and neck are suddenly wet and warm from behind. I was pushed toward the stormy sky with powerful mythical energy. But I have no clue how.

Turning my head to the side, examining the situation, I see that my sides are covered in red. “What the fuck..?” Pieces of burnt flesh are hanging from the creases of armor on my elbows and everywhere the separate metal parts connect.

“Is this me?” I wonder in shock, whispering to myself, trying to assess the damage.

I tilt my head to the opposite side and notice the leftover arm, torn to pieces, hanging from underneath my elbow shoulder armor piece, which connects to the cuirass.

“Is this what's left from that man?”

It shakes with me a bit, and a shiver runs down my spine. Yet, in the boil of events, I concentrate on the flight.

My fists are clenched tight as I fly upwards, closer to the target. The dome gets smaller beneath me, and I calculate when I will be over the wyvern. The beast is still pounding its laser beam, annihilating everything in its path, not paying attention to me. “It lost track of me?”

Not for long. After the beam stops, the nightmarish beast looks directly at me. Its glowing golden eyes stare into my soul. Its head tilts straight upwards ninety degrees, without moving its body or long neck. Oddly terrifying, I creep out for a moment. The head locks onto me precisely, following my movement. As I expect, the same scenario repeats—the sound of charging its laser beam.

I’ve reached my peak velocity, and I’m falling. It seems the barrier field somehow affects gravity, making me fall slower than expected. No, is my mind working too fast at this moment, so I comprehend all of this in a blink of an eye? I wonder again.

Opening my eyes wide in awe, I notice something off about my scaled metal gauntlet. My fist is still tightly closed, and the ring finger is completely missing the armor. Only the thin fabric covers it, presumably linen by the color and texture. The glove underneath the plate armored gauntlet covers my finger with a black ring on it. The ring is silky smooth on the surface and looks almost plastic or shiny rubber, but I can feel its significant weight.

Looking down at the wyvern, I see the golden light between its giant teeth. My eyes land again on my hand. I have this urge, an indescribable urge to open my fist and let my hand go loose. My fingers unravel, facing down at the wyvern. It feels like slow motion. I observe every single detail of my gauntlet, unable to take my eyes off the ring. As my fist releases and the fingers face down, I feel an extreme burden.

The ring slowly slips off my finger, tearing the glove fabric with it. The skin on my finger is sore and seems burnt from a single stroke.

A loud whistling completely deafens me. Acute pain shoots to my brain as I look at my burnt ring finger.

The ring slides off my finger at a speed I can’t comprehend; it almost feels like it vanished, but I swear it slid off.

*Glass shattering piercing sound*

The falling ring hits the top of the dome. A large part of the dome shatters instantly from the impact. I hear an extremely loud ringing, like breaking all the windows on a shiny glassy skyscraper at once.

The ring bursts straight through the wyvern and into the ground. A huge pile of dust emerges as the dragon is completely destroyed, torn to pieces in the newly formed crater beneath me.

*Ding. Ding. Ding. Din. Di-di-di-di-di. Ding.* The sound of the bell, clear at first, begins to stutter and collapses into a crashing noise.

I cover my eyes with my arm and free fall into the crater.