🌌 Saiyan of the Red Dawn
Chapter 4 – The First Kill
(Part 2)
The Kesh'an warhounds poured from the camp in a tide of chitin and screeches.
Six of them—each as tall as Kael's chest—fanned out to encircle him, pincered limbs raised, mandibles clacking in a rhythm that seemed almost ritualistic.
He felt their ki signatures—sharp, flickering presences. None as strong as the target.
But they are still killers.
Kael shifted his stance. His tail swayed in slow arcs behind him.
The first warhound lunged, forelimbs poised to shear through his skull.
He pivoted into its charge, palm spearing forward.
The impact collapsed its thorax in a spray of black fluid.
Another came at his flank—he twisted, caught it by the forelimb, and hurled it into the two closing from behind.
All three crashed into a pile of broken armor and shrieking pain.
The last two hesitated.
Kael didn't.
A ki blast bloomed in each hand.
Twin beams punched through chitinous skulls, silencing them.
He exhaled, body vibrating with exhilaration.
Seven down. Where is the one?
He turned—and there it was, rising from the largest hut.
The Kesh'an Alpha.
It was nearly twice the mass of the others, its shell a sickly ochre striped with old scars. Four yellow eyes fixed on Kael with a predatory calm.
Its ki coiled like a storm front, dense and suffocating.
Kael felt sweat bead on his back.
Forty thousand. This will not be easy.
The Alpha descended the slope on clawed limbs, each step booming through the valley floor.
Its mandibles spread, emitting a sound halfway between a roar and a war trumpet.
Kael inhaled, gathering his energy.
His aura flickered—brilliant red, edged in black.
He did not wait for it to come to him.
He attacked.
Kael launched forward in a burst of speed that cracked the ground beneath his feet.
The Alpha slashed with a forelimb as thick as a tree trunk—he ducked beneath the arc and drove his fist up into the joint.
Chitin cracked but did not break.
The creature staggered, shrieking.
Kael pivoted, planted his boot in its midsection, and kicked off, flipping backward to land in a crouch.
He raised one hand, palm brimming with energy.
The Alpha's eyes flared.
Before he could release the blast, it surged toward him, all four limbs outstretched.
Kael dodged left, but one scythe-like claw tore a ragged gash across his ribs.
He hissed at the pain.
Focus. Breathe.
The Alpha wheeled to face him again.
This time Kael didn't retreat.
He charged low, fists a blur.
Each strike landed with seismic force—first the creature's knee, then its thorax, then its skull.
Chitin fractured under the relentless barrage, black ichor pouring from cracks.
The Alpha retaliated with a backhand blow that caught Kael across the face.
He saw stars—fell to one knee.
In that instant of spinning dizziness, he felt the creature's ki gathering for a final charge.
I cannot stop.
He reached for that raw, bottomless well inside himself.
The place that was only hunger, and the certainty that nothing would deny him life.
Red lightning flickered around his shoulders.
His power surged in a violent pulse that lit the ravine walls.
He rose.
His eyes locked on the Alpha's.
And he moved.
Faster than thought, faster than fear—
His elbow crashed into the creature's jaw, splintering it sideways.
A second blow split the armored sternum.
He thrust his hand forward, ki flaring into a searing spear of red.
The beam erupted point-blank into the Alpha's chest.
A scream split the dusk as the creature's massive form crumpled backward in a fountain of black ichor.
When it struck the stones, it did not rise.
Kael stood over it, chest heaving.
Blood—its and his—spattered his arms.
The silence that followed felt heavier than any noise.
He reached down, bracing one knee against the corpse's sternum.
His hand seized the cracked skull plates.
With a grunt, he ripped the head free.
Hot black fluid spattered his face.
He did not flinch.
I am alive, he thought again.
And I am stronger.
He hefted the severed skull in both hands, feeling its weight.
And for the first time, he smiled.