Laz closed the door to the hanger and walked outside, only taking one look back to wave goodbye to everyone. Once he had left, all the lights were turned off in the hanger with only the sound of the crawler rumbling. Inside the cab, Captain James sat at the wheel while Jun was in the co-pilot. The only light in the cabin was a soft red light that didn’t interfere with the drivers at all. Outside, everything was quiet for only a moment until they started hearing shouting and screaming along with blasts that seemed to rock the base. Something loud and hard hit the hanger door, but the thick steel didn’t budge and only shouting echoed out from around them.

With no knowledge of what was happening outside, Jun suddenly got agitated and pulled out her laptop before tapping away quickly. Shelly asked her quietly, "What are you doing?", but Jun didn’t respond. After a minute, several images appeared on the screen. Jun had hacked into the security cameras of the base and were currently cycling through them as she tried to get a grasp on what was happening. Seeing this, everyone else got quiet and watched on. Jun then seemed to hesitate before doing some more typing. Nothing on the screen changed, but she sighed as though accepting something heavy and letting it go.

On screen, the chosen were desperately fighting the lizard like people who seemed to be toying with them, letting them try as they might to let off all of their skills, but brushing off the attacks like it was nothing. Suddenly the building shook as all of the lizard like men were thrown backwards. Up in the sky, a figured appeared, behind him a massive red ring spun in the air while his body was bathed in a black flame that seemed to suck all light out of the sky itself, those lights being from the spot lights of the base shinning outward and illuminating the land.

Laz came into view, standing in front of the nearly dead chosen and facing the lizard men, his expression calm as his body suddenly shimmered. In only a moment, the shimmer had stopped and a black and red armor appeared on Laz’s body, looking like a body suit covered in armored plates. Only his head was visible, but his hair had grown out longer, turning a whitish red. Laz then turned his head to look at the chosen and say something, but without any audio, nothing could be heard. Still, the men shook their heads as even Oliver appeared desperate.

Laz then shook his head and raised his hand. The red ring behind him began to turn as a red aura started to cover the few remaining chosen, healing their wounds and making their eyes turn slightly red with an unnatural light. Laz’s eyes then turned golden as he turned his head to the lizard men who all had abandoned their beasts while their own armor glittered in the pale, snow infested beams of light.

Like two waves colliding, Laz lead the charge lead by the remaining chosen, Oliver on Laz’s right while a young man was on his left, their eyes looking like they had gone insane.

AS the two sides clashed, the crackle of lightning and rush of flames from the chosen seemed to be several times stronger than before, sending their enemies flying backwards as another one of the chosen was hit in the chest by a thrown spear of the lizard people, sending him flying. They then clashed hand to hand and while the chosen suffered greatly, they held on and inflicted massive damage back to their enemies as well. Even the one with the spear jutting out of his chest had risen again and charged forward, massive pikes of ice flying from his hands that smashed into whatever lizard men they collided with.

Outnumbered ten to one, the chosen fought on. As for Laz, dozens of the lizard men were coming for him as he stood there like a pillar, meeting their weapons with hands and fists, sending them flying away with either limbs missing, their chests caved in or, in one or two instances, their heads having been removed.

No matter how they came at him, Laz didn’t move from the spot, nor did he assist the failing chosen who were intent on taking as many of their enemies out before they could no longer stand.

After half an hour of fighting, Oliver had fallen and Laz stood along, green blood coating his body as the circle of remaining lizard men looked on cautiously, hesitant to approach him.

Laz laughed, but his words were lost. For those who could read lips, it was clear he was saying, "Is that all?"

Suddenly, the air seemed to explode all around as three massive beasts figures appeared high up in the sky, their shapes getting clearer and clearer the closer they got to the ground. The lizard men on the ground retreated back, giving them a massive berth of room with which to land.

The beasts were massive, as their bodies stretched hundreds of feet into the air. They roared out, shaking the base and causing the cameras to flicker and show static for a moment before clearing. Those beasts looked down at Laz with hate in their eyes while Laz stood their unconcerned.

Laz was so unconcerned in fact, he took a breadstick from dinner out of his spatial ring and began munching on it, still hot enough to steam in the frozen air. Jun, Sven, Anton, Shelly, James and Saanvi looked on in amazement as the massive bodies seemed to glow brightly before the huge figures disappeared, revealing three human shaped creatures covered in various forms of dress, showing clearly that two were male while one was female.

The three figures then approached Laz until they were within twenty feet of him before one of the men called out. Laz didn’t reply at first, instead choosing to finish his snack before wiping his lips. Laz then said something back, causing the three figures to grow agitated. The same male as before called out, but Laz quickly shook his head to stop him and laughing, said something else which made the three’s faces turn hostile. Laz then shot up into the air before they could stop him and flew off, heading in the direction of the gate. The three quickly resumed their massive forms that resembled what could only be described as dragons before quickly following after him. All of the troops on the ground then recalled their mounts and did the same, racing off into the dark night.

"Go... NOW!" Saanvi said before the others could recover. James hit the button to raise the door and the old beast began it’s slow crawl to the burning ships, off in the distance so far that they resembled nothing more than a firefly in the dark of night.

Jun was furiously typing on her laptop and adjusting controls on the beast as she swore, over and over again.

"What are you trying to do?" Sven asked finally.

"Get a remote connection to the base to see if I can get a connection to the destroyed crawlers those chosen left behind. Their might be a camera still in tact as they were enclosed systems attached to the vehicles. If any of the cameras survived, we might be able to get an image or something about what’s happening out there.

Various messages kept popping up on Jun’s screen as she worked, but she ignored each and every one of them as she worked. After what seemed like forever, she suddenly smiled and pressed enter. On screen, although the picture was slightly distorted from the flames that seemed to be surrounding the camera, a clear picture of Laz came into view along with the massive cavern that seemed to enter the darkest pits of the Earth. In front of the cave stood several more massive figures of dragons whose figures could barely be made out in the dark, illuminated only by the flames of the burning crawlers.

As Laz stood there facing them, his back to the camera, several more massive figures landed, the same three dragons who had met Laz at the base. There were seven now, all lined up in front of the cave, denying Laz access. As though the heavens themselves were influenced by the surging energy, the clouds cleared, leaving a white wasteland being brightly lit by a huge full moon, lending a ethereal light to the picture on the screen.

As they watched on, no idea what was happening, the massive beasts moved their heads and mouths, seemingly speaking to Laz who’s face was hidden. After what seemed several years or just a few moments, the dragons all roared heavily into the skies as Laz’s body moved and a bright, bone white blade with a handle that sparkled like rubies suddenly came into view.

Laz then calmly walked forward as the beasts and a massive number of lizard men charged towards him. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Only then did the camera cut out as the screen went black, leaving them in stunned silence.

...

A massive screen in the conference room of a sky high skyscraper went dark as the women looking on all had mixed expressions on their faces.

"He’s back," Kennedy said, turning off the power to the projector and turning to her sisters.