The abandoned building was now reduced to rubble scattered throughout a rge crater. Streams nearby flickered with harsh orange as fires broke out. Terror filled the air as town guards exploded into action, scrambling to evacuate both civilians and beasts.

  Wild beasts stirred from their slumber grabbed their young from harm and abandoned their artificial homes. Their habitats, crafted by the townsfolk with love and affection for their kin, now y ravaged as the fires devoured them, dissolving them into embers.

  The western district quickly erupted into a cacophony of chaos and desperation as panicked screams and bestial cries cshed with one another.

  "Hurry, it's spreading fast!" A female guard warned about the fire.

  "All western district units, respond!" A broad-shouldered guard shouted into his communication artifact.

  [The evacuation protocol is in effect. What's going on?"] A voice replied on the other end before an explosion went off. ["There's a ranger here but he's out of control. A conjurer from the looks of it. A powerful one! Send bac-"] The line cut off.

  "Everyone to the port, don't stop!" A tall guard guided the fleeing civilians.

  A short but athletic guard was in the middle of hurrying civilians to the evacuation site when he caught a glimpse of his female colleague falling behind as she coaxed a family of aqua bears to safety. "Hurry up!" He roared.

  The brutish ranger burst from the rubble. Every guard in the vicinity snapped their heads in his direction, their distress melting away into relief as they saw the armor typically worn by rangers he had on.

  "Oh, thank goodness. A ranger's here."

  "Sweet! We could use your assistance."

  "Can you do something about those fires?"

  The brute gazed upon them with bloodshot eyes. However, once he shifted his attention to the vacating beasts, a sickly grin twisted his features. The elixir's potent influence began overriding reason and accentuated his ambition to hunt.

  'Kill.' The single thought consumed his mind.

  Gripping his dual axes, he scanned the ruined district before locking onto the family of aqua bears still in the vicinity. The guards looked on in horror as he raised his axes, infusing them in preparation to unch a projectile.

  He swung, a crescent bursting from his bde and smashing into the ground, narrowly missing but tearing down a building in the process. The female guard sprung into action, scooping up a cub and leaping away from the colpsing debris.

  "What's he doing?" The short guard excimed.

  "Stop him!" The broad-shouldered guard barked.

  With no choice, the town's guards rushed him, their spears whistling through the hot air. The brute unleashed a whirlwind of sshes, plowing through their defenses and slicing through their high-grade armor like paper. They howled in pain as red sprayed from gashes in their chests.

  With his body engulfed in a chaotic storm of radiance, the brute flung himself toward the beasts. Sensing the immediate danger, the mother pced herself protectively between her cubs and the oncoming threat, letting out a bloodcurdling roar.

  He ignored her warning, his face split into a toothy grin as he swung downward at the aqua bear. She caught his wrists, pressurized air bsting outward from the impact. The bones in her paws crunched under weight but the adrenaline numbed the pain as she dragged him towards its gaping maw lined with razor sharp daggers.

  Jerking his head to the side, he narrowly escaped her snapping jaws before delivering a powerful knee to her sternum. It doubled over as a piercing pain stabbed at its chest, blood spilling from its mouth, but before the bear could recover, the brute sshed it across the torso. The bear tumbled to the ground as a pool of red formed beneath it.

  The aqua bear's cubs wailed as they watched the light in their mother's eyes flicker and she tried desperately to drag herself through the rubble to her young. The female guard stood frozen, conflicted about whether or not to aid the mother bear or help her cubs escape.

  The remaining guards scrambled to the beasts' aid, thrusting their weapons at the psychotic ranger. They engaged in battle as the bear used its remaining arm to crawl away but the fight was one-sided. The brute casually swatted away and dismembered any guard that was foolish enough to try and stop his rampage.

  "He's too strong!" One of them said, dragging his comrade away, their wounds forming a blood trail.

  The brute smmed his double axes into the ground creating a shockwave that ripped through the air, sending dust and debris in all directions and unching his assaints back.

  The female guard shielded the cubs with her body, the violent gusts firing shrapnel in their direction. Piercing hot pain tore through her as her body became riddled with puncture wounds. She fell to her knees, shrieking as the cubs looked on in terror.

  "Just go!" She writhed as if the cubs could understand her.

  "Behind you!" A guard shouted.

  She turned to find the hulking silhouette of the ranger raising his axes to strike the cubs down. She tried to stand, to move, to do anything, but with her body submerged in a vial concoction of blinding pain, she could only watch in horror.

  The fear-stricken cubs huddled together in terror, their innocent eyes pleading silently for mercy. Their crazed executioner raised his dual axes as he prepared to strike the fatal blow.

  However, in the midst of their despair, their rounded ears twitched to the sudden rustle of movement. With a fsh, a figure came rocketing from the fmes. Their shield, cd in a brilliant amber, rammed into the brute with a resounding metallic thud that cut through the night.

  The brute's arm snapped at an impossible angle, bones crunching under the sheer force of the attack, and was unched into a nearby building. An ear-piercing crash boomed from the impact before the weakened structure gave way and buried the rampaging ranger alive.

  The guard's eyes widened at the sudden intervention, gazing up at their rescuer. He stood tall, his familiar singed white uniform hugging his muscles to accentuate his masculine frame and trails of smoke peeled from his billowing mantle. His shield burned with an ethereal glow and his sword glistened against the dancing fmes. His commanding aura exuded a sense of reassurance and protection.

  "A...A Sentinel?" She muttered in disbelief, her mind rexing as relief and immense gratitude washed over her.

  He looked over his shoulder at the awestruck guards, his brown hair fluttering in the warm wind. "Please get the wounded to safety. This won't take long."

  The brute painstakingly pried himself from the rubble, streams of blood running down his now contorted arm. His bloodshot eyes scoured the battlefield for the one responsible for interrupting his hunt until they nded on the familiar figure, only he was in a white uniform now.

  "You're a Sentinel?" His eyes widened in both fear and shock before hardening again. "Regardless, I poured every ounce of strength into putting you under."

  "Then this battle has already been decided," Kiyoshi stated cooly, raising his shield resolutely.

  Anger fred in the brute's eyes, his knuckles turning white around his axe's handle. He'd just received a significant boost in power but he was still looked down on. The Sentinel's confidence was mispced. If his arrogance stemmed from his strong defenses, he'd just have to shatter those defenses along with his spirit.

  Tendrils of chaotic amber coiled around the brute's bulky frame, searing his radiant channels. "Then let's see who's strongest!" He propelled himself forward, each radiant-infused step sending tremors through the earth.

  "You're a fool," Kiyoshi said simply, pnting himself firmly.

  The glow of his shield expanded, encompassing Kiyoshi's vision to form a near-transparent semi-sphere.

  "I can still see you!" The brute sneered as he made his fast approach.

  However, as he rapidly closed the distance, Kiyoshi's features began to distort. His sword and shield had lost their gleam and his billowing mantle had slowed to a halt. The man appeared frozen in time as his form began to phase into nothing.

  Nonetheless, the brute continued barreling towards him, a battle cry ripping out of his throat. He assumed the Sentinel was attempting to cloak himself but unfortunately that ability took far too long to cast successfully.

  "To think the council knighted someone so useless!" The brute barked, raising his axe before sending it plummeting down.

  Expecting it to ssh through flesh and carve through bone, instead, his bde was met with air as Kiyoshi's form dispersed harmlessly into a smokey amber. His eyes widened once again in shock but before his fractured mind could register what had happened, a thin streak of silver whipped through his neck.

  "W...wha..." His voice failed him as his head rolled off his shoulders.

  His body followed, revealing Kiyoshi with his back turned calmly flinging the blood from his bde. The guards carrying their wounded shot Kiyoshi gazes of admiration and astonishment, their jaws sck. Though they outnumbered the brutish ranger, they were hopelessly overwhelmed, but one Sentinel managed to singlehandedly turn the tide in an instant.

  "Those of you who are still able," Kiyoshi snapped them out of their daze, "continue with the evacuation. Request fire control units to sweep the western district immediately." He commanded, returning his bde to his scabbard.

  "Yes sir!" They all said in unison, their resolve restored as they followed through with his order.

  Kiyoshi pressed down on his communication artifact and spoke. "Sentinel Haruka, respond."

  ["Kiyoshi? I've been trying to reach you. Are you alright?"] Her usual even tone gave way to a trace of worry.

  "I appreciate your concern. I'm alright, though my mirage artifact was damaged in the bst," Kiyoshi made his way over to an unassuming area of the crater the brutish ranger had created. Removing a rge wooden board from the ground, he was met with the hooded man from earlier, still cuffed to the twisted metal rod that'd survived the bst. "I've detained the distributor but there's still a conjurer running rampant. Do you have a visual?"

  ["Standby."]

  From the roof of the three-story building, Haruka looked through the scope attached to the top of her conduit, scanning the area. Within seconds, she caught a glimpse of the likely suspect using flight to zip through and around buildings at lightning speeds, leaving a trail of devastation in their wake.

  "He's heading westbound, likely to escape over the water," Haruka responded into her artifact. "A quick one, he is."

  ["I'll pursue."]

  "Negative. He won't get away." She assured.

  Locking onto her target before he disappeared around a far building, she drew in a breath and let her radiance crawl down the length of her arm. The silhouette of a dragon tattooed on the inside of her forearm ignited with brilliant light, shining hot beneath her illusory disguise.

  Her conduit absorbed her radiance, amber trailing along its intricate mechanisms down to the barrel. Bracing herself, she squeezed the trigger, the rifle kicking violently into her shoulder as the barrel unleashed a torrent of raging energy with a deafening bang.

  As the beam of radiance traveled, it shifted its shape. It convulsed and morphed into a hulking scaly body that sprouted beating wings, carved out razor-sharp talons, formed a monstrous maw that housed dozens of dagger-like teeth, and sculpted shimmering carnivorous eyes.

  A ferocious dragon took form, letting out a thunderous roar that quaked the air. Its luminous form torched the night sky as it soared through the town, weaving between the maze of ruined structures with graceful fluidity. Powerful winds produced by its massive beating wings extinguished fires as it passed and parted waters as it whipped across rivers.

  Eventually, it found the crazed conjurer attempting to flee, consuming him in its shadow. He turned to find the manifestation rapidly fill his vision as it hurdled towards him on a collision course. His face fshed with fear, and before he could retaliate, he was engulfed in an explosion of brilliant gold.

  Haruka looked on from a distance as the sheer force of the impact sent sharp winds to tangle with her hair. With a cool expression, she pulled back the bolt to allow the remnants of radiance to hiss out of the chamber.

  "Threat neutralized."