The sky was clear, the moon shone with its mellow radiance. A figure clad in armour flew in the air, carrying with him a huge object that was shaped like an inverted fountain.
Spanning 10 metres tall and 2 metres wide, the inverted fountain looked like a mini hill as compared to the person who carried it across the skies. The armour donned by the person shone with a silver-blue colour and voraciously absorbed the ambient moonlight in order to recharge its rapidly draining energy reserves.
'Boom'
A missile exploded in the air beside him, the resulting shockwave sent him reeling towards the sea beneath.
The figure dropped into the raging seas when another missile came crashing towards him, intending to deliver the finishing blow. The figure hurriedly pushed the object shaped like an inverted fountain behind him and sent a white coloured beam of laser towards the missile. A small section of the surrounding seawater froze over as the white coloured laser beam impacted the missile.
'Tssss'
The missile froze into a Popsicle the moment the white laser beam touched it and fell into the seawater, resulting in a barely audible plop sound. The missile had become a dud due to being frozen completely from inside-out.
White light shone from within the seawater as a figure once again resurfaced and took off to the skies, carrying the object shaped like an inverted fountain with him.
"How the hell can humans still use their naval force?" Wutak cursed as he concentrated on evading the missiles launched at him.
Tens of kilometres behind him, a battleship trailed in the general direction he fled towards and launched missiles one after, all in order to completely destroy him. Twenty kilometres east, another battleship tracked his movements and sped along the raging seas.
When he was in the process of destroying a battleship and capturing the humans inside for his research purposes, the soldiers managed to send a distress signal in all frequencies and even managed to send a video footage of their resulting fight with the invader.
Using their communication systems, the soldiers of other battleships immediately traced the source of the distress signal and rushed towards them without pause. They had turned small, but most of the functions of the battleships only required a push of a button which they could actuate by using the weight of their bodies.
It was when they made use of their satellite systems to scour through their surroundings for anomalies did they detect the existence of North Sentinel Island where humanoid people who hadn't become small roamed about while carrying numerous foreign objects.
After looking through the established records in their database about the North Sentinel Island and the existence of the Sentinelese tribe, the more they observed them, the more scared they became.
In an Island where only about 60 tribesmen were rumoured to exist, thousands had appeared all of a sudden and had also erected numerous gigantic structures that could easily be detected by the satellite images as they peaked above the thick forest foliage.
They immediately communicated with their superiors who promptly gave them the green signal to launch a nuclear strike, not one, but three.
What followed next wasn't surprising; North Sentinel Island was wiped out from the face of the planet, eradicating all the giant humanoid lifeforms that stood out like a sore thumb among their shrunken selves.
Fear! Apprehension! Haste!
Due to many reasons, the authorities in power had taken such a hard decision. There was also the fact that as time passed on, their communication lines were no longer getting through to many bases, possibly due to the fact that the receiver was no longer available to receive the data transmissions.
On seeing that they were getting attacked by insects, animals, and birds from all sides, the higher-ups gave the final command to all the online naval fleets to pursue the sole humanoid figure that had survived before they too went offline.
The naval fleets proceeded to chase after Wutak from then on like rabid dogs while simultaneously gaining comprehension about the transformation powers they had gained.
Wutak's speed of flight was faster than the maximum speed of the battleships which he made use of to widen the distance between them. But, the battleships used their long-range missiles to hit him and slow him down.
'Swish' 'Boom'
"Aaargh"
A powerful blast once again sent Wutak reeling into the seas below. Even though he had manoeuvred at the last possible minute to avoid the missile, the shockwave produced from its explosion was still enough to send him flying. The inertial forces he experienced as a result, rocketed his insides.
"Guh….dammit" Wutak forgot the number of times he had cursed in the past hour as he continued to sink deeper into the ocean. The barrier that had wrapped him dissipated into fragments of golden light. If not for the Knowledge Altar that had erected the barrier at the crucial time, Wutak would have died for sure.
Even though his attacks could freeze the missiles and prevent them from exploding, eight out of 10 times he failed to hit the missiles, attributing to their insane speeds that made it impossible for him to aim at them while in motion.
'Gzzz'
Faint sounds came from the Knowledge Altar as its lustre dimmed further. Every time it had to erect a barrier, it consumed the pitiful amount of energy stored in it which made the barriers it erected to be weaker after each subsequent missile blasts.
'Knowledge Altar' Wutak gazed at the sacred relic of their race, the one that could even survive three nuclear blasts without as much as a scratch. It had considerably dimmed as compared to when he first spotted it.
Based on the rate of its energy expenditure, it would probably stop functioning after erecting five more barriers. The more powerful the explosions, the more energy it would have to expend in order to withstand the force.
Even though it defended him from the missiles, the power of the explosion still sent him flying—barrier included—which injured his organs. Blood rushed to his head while his lungs were feeling increased pressure, making it progressively more difficult to breathe.
The laws of Inertia were playing with his life now. Even though he had managed to defend himself from the explosions, the force that sent him—including the barrier that wrapped around him—flying was enough to pressurise all of his internal muscles, stressing his organs. The increased gravitational forces that came into effect due to the rotation of his body further endangered him.
The energy stored in his armour was also running low, so he had to somehow escape from their attacking range before it completely ran out.
Wutak thought as he held the Knowledge Altar and swam through the sea. The energy expended to travel in the sea was almost 10 times as to what he used to travel in the air, not to mention the fact that he could recharge the energy reserves of his armour by absorbing the ambient moonlight while travelling through the air. But, the moonlight he could receive underwater was naught but a paltry sum.
The Knowledge Altar was way too big and conspicuous to carry in the night which was why the chasing battleships could easily pinpoint his location. The golden light emitted from the Knowledge Altar shone like a lighthouse in the night that pointed his location to his chasers with crystal clear accuracy.
Wutak once again resurfaced to the surface and took off to the skies, hovering 10 metres from the sea surface as he sped through, rushing towards the south as pointed by the Knowledge Altar.
'Sweeeee'
Followed by an ear-piercing noise, three missiles exploded a kilometre above him, sending out a huge smoke cloud that blocked out most of his vision to his back. He could now only see the skies to his front.
It was then, a missile rushed out through the smoke cloud and exploded; its speed was many times that of the speed of sound. The Knowledge Altar erected another barrier in time and faced the brunt of the explosion; just that, the missile launched this time seemed to be significantly powerful as compared to the ones launched before. The difference between them was like the day and night.
"Gaaah" Wutak screamed in fright as he witnessed the sea of fire around him, completely enveloping the barrier erected by the Knowledge Altar on all sides. The Knowledge Altar showed signs of cracking as it tried to resist the force of the impact while using some mystical force to stay rooted to the spot in the air.
Had it erected another normal barrier, Wutak would have turned into mush due to the inertial forces he would have experienced when the barrier was sent flying hundreds of kilometres due to the shocking force imbued in the missile.
It was a nuclear warhead!
The seawater was pushed kilometres away from the centre of the explosion while a huge mushroom cloud rose towards the skies. The skies instantly brightened as if the sun had decided to make an unannounced visit.
Just the light alone that passed through the barrier almost made him blind, even though he was shielded by a layer of tough crystalline armour.
'Clack'
The bottom part of the inverted fountain shaped Knowledge Altar shattered into pieces. The pieces then under the action of a mysterious force converged towards the barrier and reinforced it. The surrounding heat and broiling shockwaves rapidly evaporated the barrier while the Knowledge Altar continued to shatter and infuse the broken pieces into the barrier to further reinforce it.
Minutes passed by in such a manner, but the flames were still going strong. There was only a small cylindrical part remaining of the Knowledge Altar. Spanning a metre tall and half a metre wide, this was the core of the Knowledge Altar as various hieroglyphs surrounded it, looking unstable without any energy to sustain them.
Suddenly, the hieroglyphs seemed to come alive as they swooped towards Wutak and merged into his armour. A moment later, the remaining cylindrical piece of Knowledge Altar dissolved into streams of golden light and merged into his armour.
'Swoosh'
Golden patterns adorned all across his armour while stripes of gold formed all over the edges. The crown on his head turned complete gold, with numerous complicated hieroglyphs inscribed into it.
The energy stored in his armour was rapidly consumed by his crown and the barrier erected around him was further strengthened. A steady stream of information rushed into his head, carrying with them knowledge about usage of his enhanced armour, the meaning of various hieroglyphs, secrets of his race, precious memories infused into it by his ancestors, designs of precious weapons and armours, etc.
The barrier then shot towards the south, emerging out of the fiery ball of flames when the barrier dissolved into fragments of light. Immediately, his glistening armour turned black and concealed him in the night.
Moreover, the rate at which his armour absorbed the ambient moonlight had increased to almost ten times the original. Such an increased absorption rate actually made it possible for him to travel without worry about his energy expenditure. Moreover, his speed of flight was even faster than before.
"The core of the Knowledge Altar actually fused with my armour." Wutak thought as he relished in the experience. A steady stream of knowledge rushed into his head without burdening him and also enhanced his overall combat abilities.
"Damn Humans, I will pay you back a million fold. Just you wait." A barrier of light formed around his body and further increased his speed of flight, taking him beyond the range of the chasing battleships.