The carnage was menacing. Blood smeared all over the floor, painting the sandy shores with deep crimson.
On the sand, humanoid beasts roamed, slaughtering all humans who still had breath in them.
A group of guards stood in a formation.
"Who are these guys???!!" One of them gritted their teeth, terrified.
A huge armored creature stepped out from the group of Thyxars, holding a large battle-axe.
It looked at the shivering humans, grinning.
"So these are the humans that have been causing us trouble?"
He raised his axe, casting a vast shadow over the group of soldiers.
"Disappointing."
A blur zipped past the shadow, blocking the devastating strike; its double katanas.
"So that guy was right..." Grey gritted.
Zach managed to convince the groups, and they headed straight to the other end of the island.
Valen jumped through the shadows, swinging his scythe at the huge beast.
A large dragon hovered in the sky and landed, carrying Roland.
The rest of the platinum knights followed.
"Hmm... interesting." The giant behemoth grinned.
"Be careful; one of them is a Hunter!" Zach yelled.
"Go, alert central command." Roland yelled to the groups of guards, and they all bolted to the lift instantly.
"Not on my watch." The huge armored beast bolted towards the group of defenseless guards, but Arthur bolted behind him, slashing at his armor; the slash didn't even dent him, but Zach stopped in front of him, waving his blade, which was countered by the brute's giant axe.
Arthur twisted, stabbing at the towering monster once more, but it was blocked by the massive axe.
The battle began instantly with no word needed.
Zach could tell by the fluid speech tone that this guy was a hunter.
Another attack was countered, sending Arthur skidding backwards.
"I didn't expect there to be strong humans here. Are you perhaps one of those knights I've been hearing so much about?" The beast straightened, towering over the two; its body was like brazen iron, and its tone sounded like a broken record player, unsettling.
Its arms were long and unnatural, and its hind legs gripped the floor with strength.
Zach activated the sight of an eagle, the strength of a gorilla, the speed of a cheetah, and the reflex of a mantis—he wasn't going to die just because he let his guard down.
Zach also wondered what happened to the other Thyxar they encountered back at the shores.
"Finally!! A challenge." Darius grinned ear to ear, facing off with a Thyxar that looked like an abomination.
Its body was covered in dark, iridescent scales that shimmered subtly.
Its limbs were a blend of human and feline, with powerful, muscular thighs tapering down to digitigrade feet reminiscent of a great cat.
A long, sinuous tail extended from the base of its spine, ending in a sharp, sword-like appendage.
The beast grinned. "Fight me..."
"With pleasure..." Darius's sickles glowed red.
There were other beasts, a couple dozen being taken care of by the rest of the group.
Isolde confronted a chameleon-like Thyxar, shifting through colors, accompanied by another that looked like a blend of a crab and a snake.
With pincers and a lower body of a snake.
When a Thyxar is newly born, what they eat determines their forms, like, for example, a Thyxar is born feeding on a plethora of fishes, then that Thyxar is going to look like a fish.
So each humanoid figure had eaten a human and a blend of other creatures; the more they eat, the more powerful they become.
Zach dashed in, unhooking his hook blades as Arthur followed closely behind him, brandishing his bastard sword.
The clash between the knights and the beasts rang out like a war cry.
Sparks danced each time Zach's axe clashed with the beast's axe.
"Too strong." The force of the swing made Zach's arms tremble; this monster packed devastating strength; sand spraying all over as it shifted its stance, delivering another horizontal slash.
Arthur slid in low, carving a silver line at the brute's knees, but to no avail; the blade bounced uselessly off the Thyxar's scales.
Zach ran in, stepped on Arthur's shoulders to carve a line on the monster's torso.
The monster was pushed back a bit, but it grinned.
"So you really are knights." It let out a crackle.
"Arthur, be careful." The duo charged in.
"Then I won't hold back."
In the distance, Darius ducked under a slash, countering with its double tail.
"Do you know my ability?" Darius smirked.
The monster looked at him. "Don't care." Then dashed in, waving its claws frantically.
Isolde was struggling; her blade pulsated with a cold aura as she countered one monster's attack, skidded backwards to block another incoming slash from both angles.
The dragon waved its massive tail, hitting one of the Thyxars, sending it flying a few meters; Roland jumped off its back, delivering a punch with his gauntlet.
Valen moved like a stealthy assassin, countering two Thyxars' attack simultaneously; one looked like a human lion, draped in gold with sharp claws and saw-like teeth, with the other like a six-armed beetle.
He waved the massive scythe, which was blocked by the beast's metal wrist; the beetled closed in behind him, wielding some sort of sharp blade embedded in its arms; Valen twisted, clashing with the latter beast.
Grey fought against three Thyxars by the shore, wielding his double Katana.
Each one of them resembled a praying mantis, and another resembled a Hornet, with vibrant black and yellow coloring.
"You humans are nothing but pawns." The third, which looked like a deer but was humanoid and had the legs of an oversized chimera and the arms of a bear.
"Okay." Grey said with a straight face, pointing his blade at them.
Back in the main melee, Zach's instincts screamed; he dodged just as the axe cleaved where his neck had been a second ago.
He responded instantly using the reflex of a mantis; his blades flashed, striking four times in a blink at the monster's hide.
The monster's eyes glowed, and two strikes of lasers zipped past Zach's cheek, obliterating the boulder behind to pieces.
"Oh shit."
The rest of the battlefield had erupted into chaos; dragons fought against scaled monstrosities; the sound of steel echoed as the knights activated their abilities.
***
The patrol guards finally reached the palace a kilometer away, panting frantically as they reached the golden gates.
"Intruders, intruders... ack." One of the guards choked on his spit, collapsing instantly.
The knights at the gate exchanged confused glances, looking ahead.
"What is wrong, soldier? Speak now."