Zaryon didn't know what would happen if he kept munching away at Tobi's arm. He just knew he needed blood. No one was nearby leaving him with only one option, to prey on the arm, lying on the floor.
He was disgusted that he had to resort to this sort of action, lowering himself like this. Over sixty thousand years of life spent, on only one invasion, he thought. His rage boiled over the top, as he ate away at the arm. However, energy like never before shot through him, leaving him bewildered.
Tobi watched as his energy seemingly burst out like flames. Rings of fire crushed the ground simultaneously, with Zaryon as the epicentre, almost reaching him. The prince's body steamed, as everything around him caught fire.
Tobi braced himself as hot winds shot right past him, almost knocking him off his feet. This was his gravest mistake yet, he thought to himself. He never actually thought a piece of him, could make them stronger.
Zaryon let out an immense war cry, unable to suppress his newfound strength. Then, calmed down, controlling his breathing, as everything froze. He laughed hysterically, as he looked around, leaving Tobi stunned. Zaryon had completely covered himself in a sleek armour of ice, leaving the joints with a light, frost padding.
"Isn't it about time you started begging for your life?" He asked, earnestly.
Tobi braced himself, creating a makeshift sword out of metal and dirt. "I would rather bet my life, on defeating you instead." He tried putting on a brave face, knowing that the world was watching him.
Zaryon swung at Tobi from where he stood, as an arc of flames, cut through the ground, making its way towards him at sonic speed. Tobi managed to dodge, leaping to the right just in time while returning one of his own. He noticed the prince's flames were stronger than before.
Zaryon managed to evade as well but started flanking towards him, trying to close the distance. Over twenty golems rose from the ground, rushing him. He cut them all down, in one horizontal strike.
Tobi retreated flying low to the floor, as the prince caught up to him and swung, aiming to cut him down with one strike. With quick reflexes, he clad himself in electricity and dodged to the left, while simultaneously summoning a fast-moving column at sonic speed. Right under Zaryon's elbow, he broke his arm and sent his sword flying out of the prince's hands.
Zaryon's arm hung horridly, limp and broken, but started to heal back almost instantaneously, as Tobi followed up by throwing a flaming, electric kick at his face. He ducked at the last second, seeing him swing around to continue his strikes, but grabbed him in a bear hug before he could, then rocketed into the sky. Soaring over Mach speed.
Tobi struggled to get free, bashing Zaryon's head with flaming fists. However, in moments, the force and altitude over several large clouds began to knock him out. Once he felt Tobi lose consciousness, he let him go, falling to his death.
The prince continued to gather energy, pouring it all into his fist, while chilling his body over, to keep himself from overheating. While Tobi continued to fall unconsciously towards the ground.
He woke up seven seconds later while trying to get a grip on his surroundings and panicked. Then out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Zaryon propelling himself with a rocketload of fire, bursting from his feet, and reaching his max speed while aiming for him.
Instinctively, Tobi created an armour of ice, then added flames and electricity to increase his defences. However, the punch was unstoppable. Filled with the prince's burning rage.
It sent Tobi hurdling down, almost catching fire from the friction in the air. His temporary arm crumbled away and the purple veins on his body disappeared.
He hit the ground with a resounding boom, sending tremors and a low earthquake in the vicinity. A large crater formed where he landed, with him as the epicentre. Half of the armour on his torso was destroyed, revealing burn marks on his chest and the rest of his body. Tobi faded in and out of consciousness, disoriented.
He turned his head to the side, as he coughed out blood. He was bleeding in several places from head to toe. Below, he felt a good amount of bones broken, throughout his body and could move. Grunting in pain, as the World watched horrified.
Zaryon descended but stayed afloat over Tobi. "Don't blame me for your choices. You chose the hard way... As a matter of fact." Realizing the world was watching, he looked back up at the screen smiling, then yelled out loud. "I think this whole World chose, the hard way!"
The prince continued, looking back at Tobi. "You wanted to protect them right? I already have your blood, Father can just make more with that. Try and protect this planet from your powerless position."
He ascended back up a little higher, to the height of a tower. Then, covered himself in an armour of ice, regenerating nonstop to keep himself cool.
He placed his right hand out and summoned a pressurized ball of fire, two meters in front of him. Turning white hot and growing bigger by the second.
Tobi could still see him, from where he crashed. He was losing strength by the minute but gathered enough to speak into his comm. "Sarah... I can't do this, I'm too weak. I can't move my body." He said, fighting back tears.
Sarah had been coaching him through the fight, as best she could, trying not to distract him. However, she knew Tobi was down for the count and had already deployed over 250 medic androids, each a synthetic copy of her, to his aid. She could control them at any time, as well as interchange with any one of them.
Zaryon noticed the medics breaking the skies and making their way towards Tobi. "This bitch, can't stop ruining my show can't she?" He said out loud. He pointed his left arm at them while keeping his right building up the ball of fire, then launched hundreds of fireballs sailing at the medics.
As this was happening, Sarah connected into the telomonitor on just the audio, with the camera still focused on Zaryon and the medics being destroyed. She spoke back to him, through his comm, while simultaneously speaking on the telomoniter. "Listen to me, Tobi. You can't give up, or give in. Your brother, the world, and your family are all depending on you..."
Explosions went off as dozens of medics blew up in flames together. Only fifty of them made it to the ground and began jetting, flying low to the ground towards him. They were less than 500 meters away.
Sarah continued, getting a little emotional herself. "We have to win Tobi! There is no one else that can beat him. Save us!"
As she uttered those words, Tobi fell unconscious, opening his eyes, 10 seconds later. There standing above him a medic robot with Sarah's smile was kneeling beside him. She had injected the adrenaline booster straight into his heart. Then a ball of fire sailed from her right side. Vaporizing her head off.
Tobi sat up slowly, as her body fell to the side with a thud. The fireball that took down his medic, caused a small explosion nearby, covering his face from the dust and smoke.
Each movement he made, resulted in spikes of pain, shooting throughout his entire body. He felt his heart beating quickly, a side effect of injecting the medicine twice.
His breathing was ragged, but with difficulty, he finally regained his composure, looking up at Zaryon. The ball of condensed white-hot fire had reached three times his size by now, growing to the fourth.
He was furiously keeping up his armour of ice, to protect himself from the heat. This attack was shaving away thousands of years, off his life. He couldn't lose focus on it.
Tobi spoke into his comm. "Sarah, can you patch me through to the World?"
Sarah surprised, asked back, while disconnecting from the world telomonitor. "Are you sure? There's no time, that ball of fire could wipe out half of the planet."
He shook his head. "Yeah, I know... I just wanna ask them something."
Sarah agreed and patched him through. "You're live."
The broadcast switched to him. Tobi chose his words carefully. "People of Earth, my name is Tobi and I'm human, just like you. Born in Nigeria, and raised in Canada. I only found out I was part alien recently, but that doesn't really matter right now... That alien up there isn't like us. Their advanced AI, hell-bent on wanting to take away our will to live... However! We still have the power to fight back against them."
He made a fist, gripping it in front of him, and not budging his eyes from Zaryon for one second. Then began gathering energy. Rings of fire demolished the crater further, as he drew energy from all around him.
He continued. "I barely have the strength to stand, but I know we can still win..."
The world watched at the edge of their seats, as ice and stones replaced his missing arm. Thin layers of ice manifested protecting his body. He added more layers on his right palm, just to be safe.
"I have one final move that can put an end to this and help us all see tomorrow, but I will need your help to do it! Lend me your energy, no matter how small. We are all connected... If you decide, then we can defeat him, right now." He said, hoping they knew what he meant.
People across the world were confused, terrified, and shocked all at the same time. However, the majority understood. There was no other moment. Now was the time to make a choice.
People across the world reached out, wishing to give him strength. Some threw their hands in the air or closed their eyes praying, while others looked at the screen in the sky, just having faith that he would win.
Tobi reached out. Farther than he had ever done before. He felt his allies and people across the world, sharing their energy. For the first time in history, across the world, a massive collective phenomenon was felt by billions of people. Feeling the streams of energy being shared was a weird, but euphoric feeling for all those participating.
Luckily, he had spent the last eight months practicing this, to make sure he never killed anyone he drew energy from. First on plants, then wild animals, then criminals on vigilante missions.
His eyes flickered blue, as purple veins marked his body once again, with even strands of hairs flickering silver and rising. Rings of fire burned bright orange, then near blue, ripping apart the ground around him, with snow falling in the crater, as thunder bellowed overhead
The destruction continued with his entire environment breaking up, whirring into a subtle hurricane around him. Electricity ran as a hazard all over the ever-growing crater. This was the most amount of energy that Tobi had ever collected within his body. He didn't waste a single drop.
Placing both of his hands to the side, a ball of electric fire sparked in between his hands. Growing bigger, then condensing, a hundred times over. He distanced his hands a bit more, to hold the ball of energy.
Zaryon noticed what Tobi was doing. His fireball was ten times his size by now, a miniature burning star.
He kept a large distance away from it, then called out with a megaphone-like voice. "What? Trying to stop me? Just watch and let me make this side of the world, a burning wasteland. I'll keep the survivors as slaves... Face it, you've failed!"
He condensed the ball further, to half its size, causing him excruciating pain. He grimaced, then yelled out. "World Breaker!" He yelled, launching his attack at Tobi down below.
Tobi had just finished amassing the incredible amount of energy, in between both of his hands. A blue ball of fire, rotated at Mach speed, with a magma core forming in the middle, along with thousands of volts charging it.
The destruction intensified all around him, as he prepared to launch his attack. Grimacing from the pain of his side effects creeping up on him. Then he thrust his hands forward, letting it all go. "Ignite: World Static Cannon!" He yelled, with mist escaping each breath he took.
His sphere cracked open, revealing a blue beam of laser fire, colliding, with Zaryon's burning sun. Leaving behind ring clouds. The world watched, at the edge of their seats, praying.
A deafening explosion resulted from the impact and sent ripples of shockwaves across the city. However, Tobi's beam boomed on, leaving the ball of fire in another massive explosion and engulfing Zaryon as he placed up a barrier.
Tobi didn't let up, screaming at the top of his lungs, as his prosthetic arm started to crumble. Third-degree burns appeared on his remaining arm and wounds opened up all over his body. He relentlessly kept regenerating thin ice layers healing himself as he received damage, however, the heat was too intense to keep up with his body.
Zaryon's life flashed in front of his eyes. "But...but I can't die... There is no way, I could lose here. There's too much I've left behind-"
The beam completely engulfed him, booming through the sky and out of the atmosphere, erasing some meteors, as his body caused yet another explosion. His remains fell back down to the earth.
"We won," Tobi whispered, then fell over.
The world celebrated, shocked, thrilled, and confused about what just happened. They watched their hero fall unconscious, with wonder. Multiple medics landed moments later, putting him on a futuristic-looking stretcher, and flew him back to the landing shuttle.
They injected him with a toned down pain killer, that had nanites working away, giving him temporary relief. Then gave him blood, prepared by Sarah, as he had lost a lot during the battle.
Tobi woke up in the middle, then sat up and called out. "Sarah we can't leave them like this. Patch me through one more time, please."
Sarah agreed without questioning. "You're live."
The broadcast which focused on the shuttle, showed it disappearing in midair. Then it switched to the interior, focusing on Tobi, battle-worn and barely holding it together from the temporary treatment. Behind him, medic androids were at work, gathering tools and typing away on the console, and flying them back to the moon.
Tobi spoke, as the entire World listened, on the edge of their seats. "I am not a hero." Those words sent shocks through everyone listening.
"My actions today were purely of the fact that my family, friends, and my own life were in danger. I'm just a startup entrepreneur, trying to live a peaceful life and travel the world one day. Instead, I find out that a serum from a lost people was injected into my mother, without her consent and now I'm being targeted by an Empire that spans a galaxy..." He sniffled a bit and wiped his nose.
"Speaking of, we are the only solar system still safe from the Cerian Empire, which spans 175 worlds across the Milky Way. Only thanks to the Sputnik, which was discovered by my alien grandpa, when it first reached space...
He nodded, smiling. "I know right? The Sputnik came through. Anyways... He launched a machine called the Arflauge, which protected us since then from any of their scanners. Unfortunately, that machine is no longer functioning as it used to and will take a lot of time for Sarah to fix."
He took a deep breath, then continued. "They say I am the last hope and defence against this threat. My Rennayan older brother has been urging me to leave Earth, since I'm not strong enough yet, to take them on, on my own. However, Sarah has developed new tech, that with your help, can defeat the alien threat and keep our freedom!" He raised his voice while keeping a positive tone.
"So I'll give you the choice, we'll let you know what secrets we have to offer, at a U.N. and all leaders meeting. Let's call it the World Meeting, hosted by us. This will be our contract. Do you want us to stay, protect this planet, and rebuild the Arflauge machine? Or do you want us to pack up and leave?"
He paused letting them take it in, then continued. "The choice is yours. We are ready to invade one of the prince's planets soon and can restart our lives there. So don't worry about us." As he spoke, Sarah beamed out, dialogue boxes with his question, to every person, that it could reach.
In a blue and white friendly box with Beyond's logo,
People across the world earnestly cast their votes. Wondering what was going to happen.
After a few moments, Sarah let him know the results in his comm. "It seems like 73% of you are in favour. We'll see you again at the meeting. We'll be announcing the details soon on sarahsworld.org. Stay safe..."
Tobi fell back, as the broadcast went blank. Disappearing from skies, all around the world.