Zalan shut his eyes in fear, all but certain his life would end right now, without knowing anything about what was transpiring. Suddenly, he heard something thud in front of him. He opened his eyes and saw a young man with short black hair in a fading red tunic with his arms planted down on the swelling earth just as it erupted. Rather than exploding, the flame was directed out to the side, like a pot emitting steam from only one end. It arced sideways, blasting Zalan with the heat of the flames enough to leave his face a hot pink and burn his eyebrows clean off. Zalan was fine with the slight damage he took so long as he could still breathe. He watched the explosion dissipate with eyes wide, then looked toward his savior. 

“You certainly should not be alone at a time like this,” the stranger said nervously. Without looking away from the creature, he grasped Zalan and pulled him to his feet as he stood up. 

“Who are you?” Zalan asked, both ecstatic and stunned. 

“That is a Flamestriker. I suspect you are not nearly at a high enough Level to take it on. Make sure you do not let its explosive light touch you,” the young man explained. He looked to be about Zalan’s age, and he twitched and fidgeted as he watched the monster move.

“I asked who you were,” Zalan mumbled, looking past his new ally and keeping focused on the Flamestriker before it raised a claw again. 

“Right, sorry, umm, my name is Rep,” the ally replied, with a cringe-induced grimace. “We need to rush around the Flamestriker.”

“Rush around it?” Zalan asked, concerned. The beast slowly began raising its arm, its eyes locked on the two of them. 

“Its pointing explosion is rather slow. If we wait for it to get close to us, we can split and run at it. I will unsheath my sword to draw its attention toward me and strike. That should give us time to get to Oriton,” Rep gestured to the town on the other side of the creature. 

“I don’t know what’s going on! Are you sure—”

“I am not! But we have to move!” Rep said as the orange light raced toward them, preparing to explode. 

Zalan waited for Rep’s signal, sweat rolling down his neck. 

“Now!”

Rep pulled a sword from a sheath at his hip and ran to one side while Zalan stared, frozen in fear. The light continued to slide gradually toward him and Zalan grunted in frustration he forced himself to rush the other way. He made a wide berth around the Flamestriker while the place Zalan and Rep stood earlier shook as the explosion erupted raccously. Zalan looked away from the blinding light, then looked up at the Flamestriker to see it stalking toward him quickly, ignoring Rep on the other side of it. Rep’s eyes went wide in trepidation, and ran straight for the Flamestriker.

“You said it would follow you!!” Zalan screamed in fear as each of the Flamestriker’s shuffling steps closed the gap between him and the creature. 

“Keep running!” Rep shouted, straining to catch up. 

Zalan had no plans to do otherwise and carried himself as fast as his legs would move. He was stunned to see how fast he could handle himself, having felt so awful only moments ago, but didn’t have time to think about it. He chanced a glance backward and saw the Flamestriker’s ghastly wide smile as each earth-shaking step drew itself that much closer to Zalan. 

“Hurry!” Zalan shouted, keeping his eyes fixed on the town ahead. He wasn’t sure how much difference it would make to hide in the town with a monster of this size behind him, but at this point he was willing to try anything to get away from the thing. 

“Turn around! Get away from there!” Rep shouted in a panic. 

Zalan had no idea what he was referring to until he saw the orange light ahead of him, cutting him off. He shouted in fear and frustration, then twisted himself midstep to run parallel to the city as the earth he was running toward shattered and flung flame and dirt in all directions. The Flamestriker emitted a low growl of glee while it scraped the soil with the claws on its feet, making longer strides to catch up to Zalan. At this rate it was only a few steps away from him, even running as frantically as he was. 

“Do something!” Zalan begged. 

Rep yelled as he charged and sliced at the back of the creature's foot, causing it to stumble and fall to one knee. Zalan tripped and collapsed, having put too much strain on himself sprinting for so long. He turned back to look at Rep as he ran around the front of the Flamestriker. Rep put the full weight of his body behind the swing of his sword, but the Flamestriker groaned and threw a flaming arm up, smacking the sword clean out of Rep’s hands. Rep looked at his empty hands, then up at the face of the figure mere inches away from him. He shouted in a mix of fear and power and struck the creature’s face with his bare hands and knocked its chin straight upward. The Flamestriker recoiled, growling in pain. 

“Run! Run! Run! Run! Run!” Rep screamed repeatedly in panic, waving for Zalan to get to his feet and run back toward the city. Rep began running at full speed toward Oriton. 

The Flamestriker roared in anger as it brought itself back to its full, considerable height. Zalan was barely able to begin running once more when he heard the monumental movement of the Flamestriker, its wolfish face howling in anticipation as it began bounding on all fours instead of walking. Where Zalan thought he had seconds, he had only heartbeats. It ran toward Zalan, ignoring Rep. 

Rep shouted more instructions, 

“Head down! Get down!” 

Zalan simply allowed his exhaustion to take over and collapsed on the ground, hardly able to keep his face from striking the ground. He felt both the searing heat and the wind of the claws swing above his head. Zalan clenched his body tightly in fear as the Flamestriker bounded forward a few more steps, its momentum carrying it further than the two allies. 

“Rep, what do I do?” Zalan picked up his head, watching the Flamesriker turn itself around and slowly grinning at him. “Rep!?” Zalan looked back to see Rep running away without him, sprinting towards the town. 

Zalan picked himself back up just as the Flamestriker took passing notice of Rep and then focused on Zalan. Zalan squatted down and fumbled until he picked up a sizable rock and threw it with all his might at the monster. The Flamestriker didn’t even react to the rock cracking against its leg and began to rush forward. Zalan ducked down at the last second, hardly having the chance to do anything else, but this time the Flamestriker didn’t rush beyond him with unintended momentum. It stopped, remaining just above Zalan. It looked down upon him and grinned. 

Zalan yelped. Without thinking, he jumped up with his fist in the air and collided with the beast’s face just as Rep did earlier. Except, instead of doing any damage and sending its face skyward, all Zalan heard was the crack of his own hand. 

“Ahhhhh!” Zalan looked down to see his hand bleeding profusely from the knuckles. Pain shot up his arm and he trembled involuntarily.

The Flamestriker found the display wildly amusing and laughed a low, fear-inducing chuckle, each chortle causing the flames of its arms and legs to increase ever so slightly in its mirth. Zalan’s other hand was searching desperately for another rock on the ground, but instead found a handful of dirt that he threw straight into the monster’s eyes. 

It roared in anger as Zalan scampered away, his chest heaving in pain from the most exertion he’d ever experienced in his life. He could only use one hand, while the other hung bleeding uselessly to one side. Forcing himself upright took too much strain without the use of both of his hands. He twisted his ankle, hurting himself in the process and barely got himself moving away from the monster.

The Flamestriker wiped the mess of dirt from its face and glared with its red eyes at Zalan before pointing, the slow explosive light. The deadly beam was catching up quickly to Zalan who was barely able to keep himself upright, much less run at full speed. The town felt lightyears away from him. The orange light was a few feet away when a flame sprouted from under the Flamestriker, burning its face. 

Zalan had been so focused on fleeing, he didn’t notice Rep had returned. Reappearing under the monster’s feet, fire streamed from his fist. In his other hand, he gripped tightly to his retrieved sword. 

“Get out of here! Run!” Rep demanded. He dodged away from a claw coming down on him. 

Zalan nodded numbly and continued to stumble toward the short walls surrounding the town, painfully taking each breath while his fist burned and his ankle stung in pain. He kept his eyes on Rep and the Flamestriker behind him and saw that a small trail of blood drops was being formed from the wound in his fist as he ran. Rep dodged another strike and swung his blade with full force at the creature, only for it to be grabbed, then cleaved in two by the Flamestriker’s other arm. Rep stared in horror. The creature kicked Rep several feet away with full force then went bounding toward Zalan. The Flamestriker snarled as it pursued its weak, bleeding prey.

“Keep going!” Rep coughed. 

The Flamestriker’s mouth went from a grin to a gaping maw as it decided to forego flame-based attacks and consume directly from Zalan’s flesh. 

“You are almost there!” Rep promised. 

Zalan could see that he was nowhere near the wall of the city, much less able to get behind any of the gates by the time the creature was able to attack him. His fastest speed was barely more than a casual walk, and the city was just about another hundred feet away. The Flamestriker would be on top of him in seconds. Nonetheless, he continued shuffling, desperate to escape the grisly fate he felt chasing him. He disregarded all the pain he could, but his heart pounded as the Flamestriker’s teeth reached out to take Zalan’s neck.