Mark M Bulmer

I shattered into existence upon the plane of my enemies and drew a deep breath of what they called air. It would suffice.

"I am Thrantor!" I exclaimed, axe held high. "I challenge!"

Lesser beings scattered and fled, screaming fear and confusion. Let them run.

Howling from all sides filled my ears and beasts surged into view, their eyes burning with the fire of the sun.

"Freeze!" voices called as beings emerged from the beasts.

"Climate weapons?" I asked and blasted a creature with heat.

Poppings sounded and tiny things struck me.

"Projectiles?"

I swept my shield and sprayed the area with shards of pain. The small beings fell to the ground and screeched when the splinters dug deep.

"Who stands?" I stomped the ground flat.

None answered.

None stepped forward to face the Champion of Velvet.

"I, Thrantor, summon the weapon. Show the Spear of Agonies!"

The sky darkened with a finality to crush the souls of these insignificant things. It was not filled with clouds; it was invaded by them. They swarmed.

The pitiful things who had not yet fled did so when the Spear crashed among us.

It crumpled the ground as if hurled by the mightiest of arms from a galaxy far away.

Lightning filled the sky and thunder boomed to deafen mere humans.

"Four hundred years I, Thrantor, have studied and trained to destroy your champion."

I paced around the spear, studying it. A grotesque weapon with the balance to snap wrists. None could wield it effectively.

"I have slain thousands!"

I was prepared for more. I could face more. More is only more.

"Face me!"

"I'm Milly."

A being stepped over a corpse. She was puny.

"I'm eleven years old."

Eleven? Gods, you jest.

"Sorry I'm late and shit." She plucked the Spear of Agonies from the brittle ground and tested the weight. There was no rage in her voice. No hatred for my kind or even for me. "Got detention cuz I'm a cunt and beat a guy up."

She was on me as the words registered.

One mighty breath sucked in air to feed a million lungs and my muscles swelled to monstrous size. I became the Destroyer of Legend. I roared a battle cry to cow the planet.

Her eyes.

Her pupils were the all, the everything, more than a simple mind could understand. Enormous.

I fought with the intensity I'd been bred for, of a race reduced to a single being. I rained down a storm of blows to shatter the shields of thousands.

"Yer fucked."

The Spear of Agonies struck me.

Pain. All was pain. Everything.

I crumpled.

"I can do this for hours."

I lay on hard dirt, the spear's tip buried in my thigh filling my body with a suffering I had never imagined.

"I beg release."

"Yer all sure and shit?"

"Kill me."

"Say 'please'."