The moon hung low and cold, painting the ruined beach in stark silver and black. The air still trembled from the last explosion, and the smell of burnt sand and blood clung to everything. Alaric stood in the middle of the crater, one arm gone, blood pouring from the stump in thick, dark rivers. Yet he threw his head back and laughed, a deep, broken, evil sound that rolled across the water like thunder.
"BWAHAHAHAHA!!!"
The crowd, scattered farther back now, went dead quiet again. A hundred faces stared in pure confusion.
A guy in a torn tank top muttered, "Oye… that alien's still laughing?"
His friend, eyes wide, swallowed hard. "Does he have something up his sleeve? This guy just lost an arm…"
An older woman clutched her husband's arm. "I don't know… let's pray."
A teenage girl near the front whispered, "He's supposed to be beaten… right?"
I folded my arms, sliding my black sword into its sheath at my hip with a soft *click*. The purple-black aura around me settled, calm but ready.
"What are you laughing at, alien?" I asked, voice steady, one eyebrow raised. "Finally lost it now that death's knocking on your door?"
Alaric's laugh cut off. He tilted his head, red eyes glowing brighter, and tapped a finger against his chin like he was thinking about dinner.
"Death?" he repeated, voice low and mocking. "You said death, Zero?"
He straightened, blood still dripping, and that confident, ugly smirk crawled back across his face.
I took one slow step forward, boots crunching on broken glass-sand. "Buying time to heal? Won't help much, Alaric. Give it up."
He didn't answer. Just kept staring, smirk widening.
Then his eyes flicked past me, toward the crowd.
"Well… you do love playing hero for these clowns, don't you?" he said, voice dripping with venom.
My stomach dropped. "Ehh!?"
*ZAP!*
His remaining arm whipped sideways. A jagged red energy wave ripped out of his palm, bright as a sunrise made of blood, screaming straight toward the scattered crowd.
Time slowed. I saw faces turn white as his energy blast dashed towards them and their phones drop
But I dashed.
My body blurred. Sand exploded behind me as I shot forward, faster than thought, arm slashing across the air.
*CLANG!*
My hand met the red wave dead-on. Black-purple aura flared around my palm, shattering the attack into a thousand harmless crimson sparks that rained down like dying fireflies.
The crowd stumbled back, gasping, some falling to their knees.
Alaric threw his head back and laughed again, louder, crazier.
"Hahaha! Look at you go!"
*ZAP! ZAP! ZAP!*
Both hands now, even the bleeding stump somehow firing, red energy blasts tearing out in every direction toward the running, screaming people.
"STOP IT, YOU BASTARD!" I roared, teeth clenched so hard my jaw ached.
I became a streak of black and purple lightning.
Left—*CLANG!*—deflected a blast heading for a family.
Right—*BOOM!*—shattered another aimed at a group of teenagers.
Up—*CRASH!*—blocked one that would've taken out half the boardwalk.
Every blast I stopped sent out its own shockwave, kicking up sand, flipping tables, shattering windows. My boots barely touched the ground. I was everywhere at once, a dark blur between the innocent and the storm of red death.
Alaric stood in the crater, laughing like a madman, blood pouring, eyes glowing, firing blast after blast.
The crowd screamed and ran, but hundreds were still too close. I growled under my breath, aura flaring hotter with every heartbeat. This wasn't a fight anymore. This was a massacre he was trying to start. And I wasn't letting a single person on this island die tonight. Not one.
The beach had turned into a war zone lit by moonlight and hellfire.
*Thud—BOOM! Boom! BOOM!*
Red energy blasts rained down like meteors. Each one hit the sand, the shallow water, the air itself, and exploded into blinding crimson fireballs. The shoreline glowed blood-red, steam hissing where the waves met the burning sand. Palm trees caught fire and toppled.
The air smelled like scorched salt and ozone.
People screamed and stumbled over each other, arms over their heads, running anywhere that looked safer. A little boy tripped and got yanked up by his dad just as a blast landed ten feet away, showering them in hot sand.
"Oh no! It's too bright—too fast!" a woman shrieked, shielding her kids with her own body.
Another man tried to drag his girlfriend behind an overturned bar table. "We're gonna die! We're gonna die!"
In front of them all, I moved like a shadow on fire. Every blast that came near the crowd, I was there.
I spun, flipped, dashed—black-purple aura flaring around my fists and boots.
*CLANG! BOOM! CRASH!*
I punched, kicked, slashed the air itself, shattering every red comet before it could touch a single person. Sparks and steam exploded around me, lighting my face in flashes of violet and crimson. My coat whipped like a flag in a hurricane.
Alaric stood in the middle of the chaos, laughing like a madman, blood still dripping from his missing arm.
"Hahahaha! Zero! How long you gonna keep this up, huh?" he shouted, voice booming over the explosions. He waved his remaining hand like a conductor and fired even more blasts—faster, wider, wilder.
I didn't answer with words. I just kept moving.
My lungs burned. My muscles screamed. Sweat mixed with blood on my face. One tiny mistake—one half-second too slow—and someone behind me would be gone. I could feel every heartbeat of every person on that beach like it was my own.
"Until I've completely and utterly destroyed you," I finally growled, voice low and deadly serious. My hair hung over my eyes, hiding everything except the cold focus in them.
I landed in a crouch after deflecting another wave, boots carving trenches in the sand, chest heaving.
Alaric's laughter cut off. He lowered his hand slowly, red eyes narrowing.
"Ohhh, that's good, Zero," he said, voice suddenly calm, almost admiring. "You're still standing. After all that."
I straightened up, wiped blood from my lip with the back of my hand, and stared him down.
"Obviously," I said, exhaling hard. "I'm not weak like you."
For one tiny second the beach went still. Then the crowd found its voice again.
"Zero saved us!"
"He blocked every single one!"
"He's insane—he's amazing!"
People started cheering again, shaky at first, then louder, fists pumping, tears on their faces. Someone started a chant and the whole shore picked it up.
"ZE-RO! ZE-RO! ZE-RO!"
Alaric tilted his head, listening to the cheers with a slow, ugly grin.
"But how will you save them now?" Alaric said, raising his hand.
The air behind him tore open.
Dozens—no, hundreds—of glowing white portals ripped into existence, hanging in the sky like jagged wounds. Inside each one was only darkness and a low, hungry hum. The temperature dropped ten degrees in a heartbeat. The cheers died instantly.
Alaric's grin widened, all teeth and madness.
