End Boss

by Bryan Nyaude

  Oddly enough, I couldn’t see anything as the whole area was covered by very thick, tall trees. How could an energy signal that large be so undetectable, up so close? Honestly, I was expecting to see something large and magnificent, because this type of energy reading was too great to be hidden. I stopped flying and descended down slowly, as I scanned down for anything unusual. It was indeed the location based on my scanners, but where was the source of the energy? Landing, silently, on a branch of one of the trees, I began a survey of the area, using two small square cubed drones. Based on their readings, the area was free from traps and there was something down below. I quickly jumped down to the ground, once my drones had returned to my suit. It felt like steep concrete, a very odd sensation considering I was on the planet Erzat. I gently held my weapons more tightly and proceeded forward towards the source of the energy. There was a small, faint glimpse of light that quickly caught my eye. I headed towards it slowly, my mind clouded in fear and curiosity. I wasn’t sure what I was going to find, although excited beyond a doubt. Wait a minute! What am I doing? I stopped moving and closed my eyes for a second. In that moment, I felt a slight sensation of fear brush gently against my neck.

  “This isn’t scary, there is nothing here okay? So get it together and find the source,” I snapped myself out of it, and began to move forward again.

  Every step I took only made the signal much stronger and incredibly intense. With my left free hand, I reached out towards the light, expecting to grab onto something as quickly as I could. I didn’t want to stay in this place too long, because for some unknown reason, I kept feeling something terrifying and big was here.

  “Unknown energy detected,” my AI came back on, making me jump uncontrollably. “Unknown energy detected! Unknown energy detected!”

  I was startled for a second as my heart raced wildly. My breathing was wild and heavy like I had ran for miles. Stupid AI!

  It kept going on and on, shouting the same thing over and over.

  “Okay, shut up already,” I said, becoming a little annoyed. “I need to focus now.”

  Once I got my thoughts back together, I went back towards the light and touched something from within it—it felt round like a sphere and very smooth almost like a diamond’s surface. I couldn’t see inside as the light the sphere emitted was almost blinding. I slowly took it out and gently examined it closely once the light had faded. It was some sort of emerald crystal with symbols unknown to me.

  “You have got to be kidding me”

  I laughed at the thought of this little sphere being the source of the energy I had been tracking. To my surprise it was; my scanners were going haywire and reading energy levels off the charts. I honestly thought it would be bigger, or at least heavier than what I was holding. The symbols, however, aroused my interest the most. I had never seen anything like them before.

  “DX300, analyze the symbols by matching them with all ancient languages going back to year 1720.”

  If this was an earth language symbol, my AI would be able to analyze it and make a match any second now.

  “One match found” it responded to me quickly, with such a loud frequency, it was almost annoying. “The symbols belong to the ancient empire of Raz, based in the east, between Asia and Africa. It was destroyed in the second Planetary War by the allied Masattereans force. Databanks records show that it was the base of construction for terrible weapons of mass destructions. This particular symbol means war and the other words are not recognized in my database.”

  Figures! But what was it doing here? Wait! Why was that place sounding almost too familiar to me, like I had seen it before? Before I was done thinking, the ground began to shake tremendously, as it collapsed beneath my feet. Now what? Quickly, I jumped up with my hands raised as I tried to get away and escape the danger. It was at that time, I saw something rise out from beneath the concrete ground. I was shocked and at the same time terrified to look at it. It almost looked like a terror beast, but at the same time, it almost looked like a machine.

  “What is that?” I trembled, not knowing how to react.

  I had never seen something like this before in my entire life; it looked like a giant lizard, with blue scales and very wide red eyes—it was greatly maddening. The sight of this creature intimated me down to the very core of my being. It looked up towards me, barely moving.

  “Stay away,” I screamed, out of fright, and fired my javelin bazooka at it.

  The proton missile hit the giant lizard’s head and there was a terrible explosion, followed by a menacing roar. Fierce red flames engulfed the sky for what seemed like a second; however, that was not enough. The creature had taken a direct hit and came out of the blazing explosion unharmed.

  “You gotta be kidding me!” I chuckled slowly, losing my mind from sheer frustration.

  I was not discouraged by this action; instead, it fueled my rage towards the brink of irrational, offensive maneuvers. I kept firing the proton missiles, one after another, but all my efforts seemed futile.

  Pausing in its tracks, its eyes locked on me, the giant creature opened its mouth half-way. I moved a few yards, in the air, away from it to plan my next move.

  “Laser guided system detected,” my AI went off, warning me of the impending danger.

  “This is bad,” I whispered to myself, and began to fly even higher, distancing myself from the monster.

  There was no weapon on earth that could evade a laser guided system; the only way to deflect it was with an emission shield or with something of equal power. Since I didn’t have that, all I could do was wing it the only way I knew how. But, how was I going to wing it?

  “Danger!” the entire suit system echoed with my AI system’s annoying voice, and before I could even respond, I felt a beam brush my shoulder.

  The monster had fired two laser guided beams, which barely missed me because I was moving up in every direction to avoid its target lock system. The monster lizard roared again and jumped up into the air after me with such unrelenting force.

  “What! Seriously, give me a break.”

  This was really bad, considering its size and massive and unnatural speed. It couldn’t be! I think the monster was after the spherical crystal in my pocket. Maybe by taking it, I had activated a defense mechanism which turns out to be this lizard. Perhaps, if I gave it back, the monster would go back to sleep, allowing me to flee. No! No! No! If I did that, then I would shame all the efforts of my entire crew, who risked their lives to get here. Darn my conscience! I guess I was going to keep it and somehow find a way to escape this terrible monster. Roaring again, it shot two more guided laser beams at me with great ferocity. It seemed, it wasn’t trying to recover the crystal, but actually destroy it with me in the process. I stopped flying with my wings, by putting my hands down, and began to free fall in the air, in a vertical position. The first laser barely missed me by a few microseconds, but in the process, burned a piece of my shoulder. The second laser was coming towards my location really fast. I was within range of its blast radius. Instinctively, I aimed my javelin bazooka at the incoming beam, and fired a dozen of missiles, hoping to intercept it, by changing its trajectory. It worked as I was able to evade it by a few milliseconds. The monster became even more furious and picked up massive speed, coming after me from above with its jaws open. But how was it flying like that? The mechanism inside this creature was unlike anything I had ever seen or heard of. Whoever created this creature was definitely brilliant. To create such a powerful creature like this, definitely, meant whatever this crystal was—could be more dangerous in the wrong hands. A sudden thought emerged in my head. Selling this thing could make me one of the richest men alive. With that kind of money, I could retire on any planet for the rest of my life. Whoa! It seemed my fear of the monster was slowly fading fast the more I thought about money. At that moment, my courage fully erupted, overcoming the fear I once had for this creature.

  “Can you locate any weak points on this creature?” I asked my AI
, as I constantly kept firing more proton missiles at it.

  “Negative,” it replied back to me after a small beep, which displayed the structure of the giant lizard. “The material design of this creature is similar to the skin structure of the terror beasts. However, beneath the skin is a machine design of unknown origin.”

  So all in all, I couldn’t destroy this beast, even if I wanted to—my only option was evade it.

  “Can you display the suit’s default weapon system onto my com link screen?”

  If there was a way to evade this monster, in the suit, I was going to find it, although, it was going to be tough.

  “There are five smoke pellet canisters, flash point canisters available for use,” my AI said and went silent after that.

  Just that! That wasn’t going to be enough to evade this type of creature in the air. I turned my attention away from it, and looked towards my environment, seeking for a way out. The night air was filled with the smell of dispersed proton smoke and residue; it was almost suffocating. I had fired almost 200 missiles at that lizard monster and none of them had proven effective. I could barely see through all that smoke, although I could feel a menacing bloodlust in the air which filled my heart with a bit of fear.

  “Wait, that’s it!”

  The smoke was certainly proving to be effective against this monster as it was against me. Even optic sensory systems were ineffective in the smoke as was night vision. With the odds slightly shifted, I landed my body softly in the dense grass, and fired the remaining missiles in my arsenal. Once that was done, I placed the javelin bazooka on the ground and threw all the remaining smoke canisters in every direction, to cover myself from being seen. Slowly, I crept in the grass, my heart pounding wildly, searching for a place to hide. If this monster had sensory vision, it was going to be a matter of time before it figured out my location.

  “Switch to super sonar vision, DX300,” I whispered not trying to be heard by the monster.

  I knew it was close and looking for me. The smoke wasn’t going to last forever, meaning I had to find secure shelter immediately.

  “Unable to follow command,” My AI responded loudly, almost startling me to death. “This function is not active at this moment.”

  What! No! How could this be? Without this function, my entire plan was falling apart sooner than I expected. I heard another roar and this was even louder than the other two. It was so thunderous the skies echoed like a storm was brewing. Oh no! Another crucial obstacle at the very least—the monster was getting very angry. I began to panic as I was breathing very heavily; it was rare, but once in a while, I suffered from panic attacks when I was under severe stress, and I was possibly having one right now.

  “Calm down and breathe,” I whispered, unable to control the state of fear I was now in.

  No one had prepared me for what to do if a situation like this emerged. In fact, there had never been a situation like this in the entire world’s history. I guess, I should feel honored to be the first one to be eaten by a giant lizard on a foreign planet. No! This was not happening to me, was it?

  “Get it together:” I scolded myself, and took a long deep breath to calm myself and thoroughly analyze the situation. Since frontal offense was not working, I had to rethink my strategy.

  Easier said than done; without sonar vision, I couldn’t find my way through anything—and if the smoke cleared up, I was a goner.

  “Think fast, time is running out,” I whispered silently, pondering my mind to find something I hadn’t thought of.

  Wait! The hover ship was still nearby on the ground. I retyped the coordinates to where the ship was and stood up silently. Based on my scanners, it was to the east of my direction, approximately 800 meters away. If I could fly beyond radar, there was a slight chance of slipping by unnoticed. Excellent! This plan was very idiot proof, in my own opinion, and it could work. Using my map scan system, I took off into the air, silently, and began to fly close to the ground. I could only hope the flapping of the wings wouldn’t attract the lizard monster to my direction. The smoke was starting to clear up really quickly like something was sucking it up.

  Oh no! Don’t tell me the lizard had vacuum sucking powers now, did it? Without hesitating, I increased the frequency and speed of my suit’s wings, as I was in a rush to get out of the vicinity. A sudden rush of adrenaline jolted though my entire body as I sped away, trying to locate the ship. The giant lizard roared again and suddenly the smoke was all gone. I looked back to see how much distance I had put between the creature and myself. Shockingly enough, it wasn’t that much. I could clearly see the blue colossus beast hover above the ground, not too far from me, with its gaze towards me. With only five flash point canisters, I had to be very careful in how I used them. The giant lizard didn’t hesitate to come up after me with great speed.

  Did this creature know anything about giving up? I guess the creator had programmed it to pursue the raider to no end, until the crystal was either recovered or destroyed. I couldn’t help, but admire the creator’s brilliant creation— from one scientist to another, that was a great fit accomplished. The amount of dedication and sophistication that went into this monster was clearly astounding. Wait! I was a thief in a way, and this creature was after me. So why was I applauding that mad genius for creating this monster? Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

  “Stop thinking and focus,” I brought myself back to reality and begun to concentrate on my objective. According to my scanners, I was very close to the hover ship and would be there in a matter of seconds. Before I could locate the exact position, I heard a loud thump on the ground, almost throwing me off course. With my left shoulder, I balanced myself by shifting all my weight to the left, and turned to look back while still flying. The lizard had landed forcefully and was coming at me on its four legs, at an incredible velocity. Fascinating! I had never seen or heard of a creature that could run at this speed on foot. Such grace and elegance truly deserved admiration by all scientists personal. If I could capture this lizard, I would surely win a prize in science and be very rich.

  No! No! No! What was I thinking? This wasn’t the time to be thinking like this. Slowly, I took a deep breath and waited until the creature was so close to me, I could feel its stinky gun powder breath. Automatically, my head gear turned to night shade vision as I threw all my flash point canisters directly at its face. I barely turned around and escaped before I heard them explode, sending a massive ray of bright light across the night sky. At point blank, those canisters were enough to distract and blind the creature for a couple of seconds. My head gear visor switched back to night vision, allowing me to locate the hover ship. The ground stopped shacking as I heard the creature stop in its tracks—stunned. The first portion of my plan had succeeded. I quickly doubled my speed, wasting no time or taking any chances. Once I got to the hover vehicle, I made my way into the ship and forcefully shut the metal latch behind me. My heart was pacing heavily as I felt a bit of sweat crawl down my forehead. I didn’t have time to type in some coordinates for a specific destination, so I quickly went to ship’s navigational controller and switched it to auto pilot, by turning on the ship’s AI system. There was a slight pitch for a few seconds, signaling that the ship engines were coming online. The inboards lights all turned on, as I felt the ship begin to hover above the ground. Had to admit, my patience was wearing really thin, at that point. The whole process was taking too long. Intolerantly, I programmed it by recalibrating it to go to the first well known coordinates, which was the location of the main ship. The ground began to shake heavily again as I felt the large monster approach. I quickly took over the ship’s weaponry system and latched on it as hard as my arms could grip. The system beeped three times before giving me the green card to operate it. It was rather uncomfortable; however, my feelings appeared irrelevant at the moment. I had less than two days before the nuclear power core in my suit’s system became too unstable and would explode.

  Yep! Definitely felt the odds stacked again
st me. The hover ship slowly took off, but my heart rate did not decrease—I felt the creature draw closer with each second, even without seeing it. The creature let out another massive roar and it sound like it was coming from far above me.

  “Now what!”

  The tremors beneath the ground had suddenly stopped, which puzzled me completely. I knew the creature was still close, although, I had no idea where it was. The main video system was not showing anything around me, proving my first postulation to be true. The alien lizard was no longer on the ground; it had just suddenly taken off into the air, somewhere.

  Before I could redirect the ship’s scanner units up, I felt a terrible and tremendous earthquake slowly eroding the grassy terrain. I could hear a whole lot of trees falling from every direction, as the quake continued ravaging the ground. The ship vibrated, back and forth, causing the systems to go haywire on me. Slowly, but surely, I managed to reposition the ship back on track. If I had to guess, I would conclude that the lizard had done a terrible dive bomb in attempts to swish me inside the ship. It roared again and jumped into the air, but this time, I was ready for it. I had deployed a vast number of the ship’s unit drones out into the surrounding.