Mark smeared the black blood onto his arm as he warily stared at the gigantic figure towering above him like a mountain personified. Wild thoughts and theories raged inside his head: What was this thing? Is it human or... an alien? A genetic monstrosity? How is it as strong as me?
There were so many questions, yet, the figure was still, unmoving and unwavering. The creepy mask stared at him apathetically as Mark understood there to be a reprieve.
"Care to tell me who you are?" Mark tentatively questioned, "Why you've slaughtered so many; needlessly?"
The figure did not move, but it did respond. It came out distorted, some sort of electrical voice-changer altering the sound from inside the metal one-piece armour.
"I... I am no one significant. But you, Mark Evans, are so, very, very important." The figure sighed, "All those deaths... were necessary; I knew you would act. Nobody with power gifted to them this early could resist. But... you are still different to us."
Mark frowned, "You know me? You know my name? How?"
"You are an experiment, no? One of Tayi's or... someone else's."
Mark scoffed at the absurdities, mocking the figure in its deliberations.
"I am no experiment, cunt. Heh, and all those people? All those lives were necessary? The lies of a butcher; you are nothing but rabid dogs who slaughter people like animals!"
It was silent for a moment before it responded, somewhat aggrieved.
"They... are not important in the grand scheme of things. You, on the other hand, your importance could decide Humanity's direction; the Messiah has foreseen... parts of you."
Mark scowled as he became increasingly confused and incensed by the barbaric butcher's cryptic words. His eyes shone red, a subtle smoke wafting from them.
"The Messiah?" He spat, "Who is that? Is he the one in charge... the one who gave the order!?"
The giant finally moved, showing movement with emotion as it lifted its head and hand into the sky, closing the hand as if grasping a star.
"The Messiah! He is a god, given form. He will rule this world, someday." The behemoth enthused, "A New Dawn is arising, Mark; a golden age approaches. The Dark Days... will soon be gone, forgotten."
"What the fuck are you on about?" Mark spoke incredulously, "God given form? A New Age? Heh, you're a fucking American, right? Arrogant fucks."
The more Mark talked, the more his expression turned into a sneer of unbridled disgust and hatred. Anger bubbled below the surface of his skin like magma beneath a volcano.
"No... not all of us. We serve the Messiah, despite our differences; they are cast aside to be reborn as a superior human. We will uplift Humanity into the stars and beyond!"
It preached and preached, passion practically radiating from their being, battling through the distortion effect.
Mark smiled in derision, "You're... absolutely fucking insane. 'Superior human'? You're more of a demon than anything; the sword on your back reeks of those you've slaughtered. You are a monster, nothing more."
The figure shook its head, "Time will show, Mark. A monster is just something that humanity does not understand; you will be one eventually; we all do." It sighed, "Come then. Trying to kill me will achieve nothing, but I cannot reason with someone so... angry."
"You said those who died today, that their deaths were necessary, unimportant. I disagree; I want you to know; that is what drove me to action."
He sprinted forward, nothing but a blur as the groud was ripped upwards from the sonic boom. The sound washed over the homesteads, the pressure wave shaking the pots and pans as the terrified civilians clambered towards the house ablaze.
Appearing before the giant, his fist cocked backwards, Mark hit it square in the chest. It was unable to react, the front armour shattering into shards of metal like glass as the enormous body was flung, like an arrow, hundreds of metres into the distance.
It crashed powerfully through hills and mounds of dirt, coming to a stop in a ditch of its own creation. The rain poured down onto its brown skin, the purple veins illuminating themselves in the dark night. The figure was barely able to orientate itself before it looked upwards, Mark's fist descending from above.
Lighting struck behind Mark's silhouette, the illusion of Thor, the God of Thunder, reflected in the giant's eyes.
BANG!
Mark's fists thumped into the creature's shoulders, a vivid pop as the left dislocated and the bones in the right shattered. The shards of bone pierced through the skin like daggers as it grunted in pain, Mark becoming emboldened by the noise.
Mark prepared for his next strike, but the figure grasped his shoulders, grunting as the left shoulder moved back into place, the right relatively limp. The figure headbutt him, the clash's impact causing the ground below to violently quake as the shockwave terrified retreating civilians. Mark's eyes widened as he found himself stunned by the impact, his nose further trickling with blood, mixing with the rain. The figure's mask was gone now, an expression of pure disbelief on its face as the covering was now chunks of metal.
Contrary to his predictions, the giant was not a monster or a deformed monstrosity. Instead, it was a relatively average human, with brown skin and light amethyst eyes.
Huffing as he disregarded the appearance, Mark returned the strike with his own headbutt. The man's nose exploded, and his lower jaw cracked and bent at a painful angle.
"Argh!" The man cried out.
His eyes glazed over as the neurons screamed in agony as his brain struggled to cope. With half the job done, Mark grabbed the man's neck and blasted them into the sky, flying high into the thundering storm. With enough height, Mark punched the giant's face as the clouds parted behind. The man's countenance erupted into steaming fleshy gore and gallons of dark purple blood; the body fired back towards Earth.
Not content, Mark's eyes flaming with the ravenous hunger of revenge, he speared into the figure like an asteroid into a planet.
The duo impacted the ground, the pressure wave catapulting the villagers in every direction as they sprinted as far as possible from the supernatural destruction. The land nearby was torn asunder as massive boulders were flung all around, the Earth rumbling in pain.
Landing on top of the figure, Mark pummeled the man's face with unrelenting fury, visions of all those he had failed, those who had died, flashing through his head. He hit and hit and hit again, the orange in his irises becoming extremely pronounced and vivid.
The butcher resisted, shielding its face as best it could and trying to return its own strikes, shrugged off by Mark. Eventually, he stopped; long after the man had remained still. The man lay there with its skull smashed to pieces, warm and slick brain leaking from the crevices; purple blood scattered around the site.
Mark relaxed as the assault ceased, his gaze wandering the surroundings as he realised the extent of the damage. He had beaten it, but at a great cost to the local area.
The house continued to burn nearby, the explosion unnatural and the fire feral like wild dogs, snapping their jaws at any living matter, uncaring about the downpour. The nearby hills and countryside, the winter vegetation, were utterly obliterated as the ground cracked and creviced. Mark sadly sighed at the devastation, his gaze returning to the seemingly still-alive figure, the heartbeat restored.
The man pushed himself to his knees, a device previously attached to his waist now in his hands with the button pressed.
'It's... it's still alive! What the fuck is this thing?' Mark screamed.
He watched it grin, the hanging lower jaw making the smile deeply unsettling and obscene. Mark started to panic as a sound hit like turbulence on a plane, causing him to stagger. An almighty shrill screech echoed across the land, the frequency high, unable to be heard by humans but clear as a whistle for Mark.
"Arghhhh!" Mark wailed.
It reverberated throughout his ears and brain, even after covering them with his hands, as the sound pierced through them like they were intangible. He kneeled in agony as he stared ahead to laser the device, hoping to force enough concentration to activate it. Instead, he was stuck with a fist, flinging him backwards.
He grunted at the sudden impact, managing to stand but unable to react as he was hit again. The left side of his face turned red, saliva shooting out of his mouth, mixed with blood from his nose and ears. Bumbling to the side, Mark was punched again, the cheek throbbing as his posture stabilised. Struggling to concentrate, he was helpless as the giant man held his shoulders and kneed him in the stomach.
Pain rippled throughout his torso and gut as he coughed; hit into the air before being grabbed by the man. The giant twisted Mark one-hundred and eight degrees and smashed him into the rock, the impact hurting less than if he had been punched.
Mark continued to get battered, the strikes constant despite the horrific injuries suffered by his opponent. The creature had lost an eye, the eyeball hanging out of the socket by a string of flesh as the brain crept out of the skull. Yet, even with such grievous, fatal injuries, he continued the crusade.
Time passed, the strikes got weaker, and Mark started to shrug them off. He desperately tried to silence his ears, to mute the sound through any method, as the pain became unbearable to the point of drastic action. His face was heavily bruised now, his left eye black and his upper lip busted.
Unable to stand it any longer, making a deranged choice, he found reprieve as he flung himself out of the figure's strike. With barely any time to mentally brace himself, he held his mouth and nose and blew as hard as he could.
The pain was sickening; his breath enhanced as he found out and used to blow out his eardrums. The world turned silent as Mark let out a screech of pain, vomiting whatever he had eaten during the day onto the mud. Despite this, bliss greeted him.
Mark stood up, blocking the agony as best he could and smiled like a shark, the giant rooted to the spot by the insane action.
'My turn, cunt!'
His eyes turned red, then redder still before becoming bright blue, the air waving like the ocean. His anger was directed, forced, into his eyes as blood poured from his face and onto his naked torso.
The man retreated slightly, the dangerous gaze terrifying him as he realised Mark was not a typical experiment but rather... something more. He hesitated and wavered before deciding, sprinting forward and picked up the dropped sword.
It was a unique, fantastical blade, metal and light green, a plasma sword. Mark had seen them on the news, very rare and created by the Tayi Corporation in France. Despite his suspicions, he watched on the verge of sadistic amusement as the monster rushed toward him. The man did not even notice as the left side of his body was evaporated into ash, the sword swinging onto Mark's neck.
Mark panicked slightly, underestimating the man's determination to hit as the man's eye burned in success. He was hoping for something; anything - a nick or a cut - but was disappointed by not even a scratch. Instead, the sword dimmed as cracks rippled throughout its length before it blew up from the impact.
Realising his fate, and with a grim smile, the man looked into the night sky one last time, as the ever-brightening blue glow of death flooded his vision.
Beaming through the man's flesh and right side of his body, Mark ensured the entire body was gone. The ground melted for metres, but the heat could not progress too far as if blocked by an invisible force. He continued pouring the laser into the long-gone figure, roaring like a dragon as a blue glow lit up the region around him, darkness giving way for light.
Grunting at the understanding that the body was gone, Mark stopped. Nothing remained; no dust or ash, only a molten pool of liquid dirt and rock. As the beam faded, the sound of the air reforming resounded with a slight bang, the overbearing pressure ceasing.
Despite not needing oxygen, Mark deeply huffed in relief. He stared at the ground for a few minutes, apologising for those he did not help as the world around him was silent. Bending down and putting his palms on his knees, he gazed at the stars before he spotted it; a helicopter above him.
'Oh shit!'