Chapter Two

Maria dashed her way towards the horizon, in which Carnax was lumbering on. She had always heard stories of the day when Carnax rose up from Stonerule, but she was five at the time, oblivious to the threat Carnax really posed. How could she when she was only five?

"Hey, big, green and ugly!" She shouted towards the beast. It turned its massive head away from the group of Adventurers who were trying to destroy it. One of them was firing electrical bolts at it like crazy. It fully acknowledged Maria, turning its whole mass to face her. "I saved a little present for you!" She pushed off the ground, bring both swords up over her head, sailing towards the tower. Almost as if it took no effort at all, the beast whacked Maria with its head, knocking her crashing to the ground.

"Foolish girl! You cannot harm the creature! None of you can!" A voice called. Maria managed to get her bearing just enough to recognize the voice. 'Oh, no. Not him.' she thought. "Halt your thunderous movements, and turn your fetid breath away from me, foul beast! Now you shall feel the teeth of the greatest Guardian ever to grace the surface of Lore! Prepare to face Oblivion, behemoth, for it is I; MEGAPRIME!" MegaPrime shouted as he stood beneath Carnax.

"Move, you idiot! He'll crush you like a bug if you don't..." Maria was interrupted by Carnax bringing his huge metallic right forearm atop MegaPrime. The entire land shook at the impact. Above, where Stonerule used to lay, Jakel Sano was flying above, pelting his thick hide with magic. The X-Guardian ran over to the Wind Warlock as he flew to ground level. Off in the distance, where MegaPrime once stood, she could barely make out a hardly audible 'Ouch. Okay, yea, I'm hurt' emit from MegaPrime. "Ouch. I guess MegaPrime'll have to go and visit Twilly. Er...once he manages to hike a ride back from the over side of Lore, that is. What's the situation, Jakel?"

"Poor. Carnax is chewing through our defenses like tissue paper. Nothing we do can stop him. If Drakkonnen were here, and if we could convince him to help, we may stand a better chance."

"We don't need Drakkonnen when I'm here, Jakel. Get everyone to a safe place. Everyone. And what ever you do, DO NOT let anyone out of that place. Got it?" Maria stated, pointing a finger at him. He had a mixed look of relief and confuzlement on his face.

"Surly you don't plan of fighting it alone, do you? It's suicide! You saw what he did to MegaPrime! That thing can crush a man alive!"

"Jakel, MegaPrime can hardly be considered a man, and besides, when I get through with Carnax, I'll have him in bondage chains forcing him to call me Mistress!" Maria ran towards Carnax with weapons full spread. Jakel just hovered in mid-air with a dumb-founded expression upon his face.

The battle was already in full spread by the time the X-Guardian got to the front lines. Several young adventurers were laying dead upon the ground, blood pooling under them. She recognized one of the adventurers near the middle of the ranks.

"Amani! Amani! Come here!" She shouted to her. The timid-looking Amani sulked her way towards Maria.

"Yessum?" She asked stopping before her senior. Maria scanned the area, and watched Jakel lead a group of battle-weary fighters into a cave several hundred feet away.

"Do you see that cave in the distance? The one Jakel Sano is going into?" Amani followed her finger with her eyes, eventually coming to see the cave in question.

"Yes, ma'am. What can I do?" Maria leveled with Amani, crouching on one knee. Maria was only slightly taller then Amani, but she liked to be lower then the person she was speaking too.

"I need you to gather all of these people and lead them into that cave. Hopefully, they'll be safe from Carnax in there. And whatever you do, no matter what you hear from either myself or Carnax, you must not come out. Any of you. I'll provide a distraction. It won't be much, but it'll get you out of danger. Just tell me when you're ready to make your move." Amani inhaled deeply and nodded. "Great. Get going." Maria stepped forward in the ranks and faced Carnax one-to-one. As the adventurers fled towards the cave, Carnax followed them.

"Hey! Big green and smelly! Look at me, a tender little morsel!" The creature turned its massive head to face the X-Guardian, at which point, she proceeded to pull her lower eyelid down with her left index finger, flash him a raspberry and brandish her middle finger rather threateningly his way. Carnax studied the gesture for a moment before finally realizing its significance. This enraged the beast, who immediately began making quick movements towards Maria. She pulled her swords from the ground and waited for the behemoth to strike. Carnax stood before the X-Guardian and in one massive push, stood off of it's fore legs, completely supporting itself on it's hind legs.

"Oh, shit." Maria muttered, looking up, her heard taking shelter behind her pelvis. "You're a big one, aren't you?"