Rangers Endgame

TWO WEEKS AGO:

SENTINEL DAI:

The carriage rumbled to a stop at the edge of the dirt road. The world opened with a gasp of bestial calls rolling through a vast expanse of jutting earth and slithering vegetation. Trees sprang upward before arching in inverted semicircles, crowns plunging into the underworld to form a labyrinth of wooden ribs slick with moss. Meandering clouds cast shadows that swam across a gargantuan river in packs.

Dai stepped into the humid air, dirt yielding beneath his boots, surveying the immediate area as Shin joined his side.

Kenzo left the carriage, shield already in hand, face fierce with protectiveness. Hideki nearly tumbled down the steps but played it off as if inspecting the soil.

Fool.

Kouami pushed Asuka out, the latter white-knuckling his staff, head darting left and right.

‘He’s an A-rank?’

No matter. They wouldn’t need to call upon their battle experience in a Sentinel’s presence, anyway.

“Kouami,” Shin said, not bothering to scan their surroundings.

Without needing clarification, Kouami sent a jolt through his wand and waited, the conduit bouncing casually between his fingers.

Three seconds. Four.

“We’re clear,” he confirmed, looking at Dai with a grin as his radiance dimmed. “See? Just leave the vigilance to me.”

Dai’s gaze hardened slightly. “Do not confuse caution with a role to step in.”

The conjurer’s smile wavered as Hideki shot him a scolding look.

Dai casually tossed the coachman a platinum coin and clicked his artifact, a holographic model of their surroundings flickering into being. Confirming the direction, he marched ahead while the others followed.

Shin hovered at his side, letting his rangers trek loosely behind with a nonchalance that told him he wasn’t worried about them. At least the others didn’t fall too far behind even when absorbed in trivial chatter.

The journey tested them with steep ravines and tight obstructions. The wind came in bursts to rob their balance but failed to budge the Sentinel’s sturdy 6’ 10” build. Something splashed in the river, disrupting its wandering chime. The bank was clear, and Kouami hadn’t said anything, choosing to resume his conversation with a startled Asuka.

Dai glanced over to ensure they weren’t lagging behind. The conjurer flinched, caught staring, and whipped his head to the side.

Kenzo kept his shield up with a stiff alertness that offset Hideki’s negligence, the conjurer gazing over the rough landscape in fascination.

“Hmm,” Hideki hummed, taking an exaggerated step over an exposed root. He pointed at the tree responsible, almost accusing it. “It’s like they’re trying to drink the earth. No regard for travelers.”

Kenzo urged him forward. “Focus, you idiot.”

Dai didn’t break stride, weaving through the gaps with the grace of a needle threading fabric despite his size.

“Some things never change,” Shin sighed beside him, stepping over a sunken fissure.

“As in?” Dai asked, eyes still forward.

“That razor-sharp focus of yours,” Shin clarified.

“Complacency breeds casualties," Dai replied, voice flat and cutting through the humid air like a blade. “I thought you would remember that.”

“My teachings weren’t a license to embrace such a stubborn mindset,” he answered, gazing toward the river’s glittering surface.

“It is the mental foundation that has earned me the title of strength and a symbol for sanctuary.” Dai pushed aside branches that sprang from the ground in his way. “Sentinels are not to be underestimated.”

Shin looked at him for a long while, expressionless. “Be very wary of that obsession of yours, Dai,” he called out bluntly. “Though I’m proud of your success, be careful not to put a title on a pedestal. Because if the world decides to knock it down, you’ll collapse with it.”

Dai’s steps wavered as his words hung in the air. Shin passed him silently, the others catching up. For some reason, the Sentinel’s response got lost in his throat.

Irrelevant.

The mission took precedence anyway—no time for idle chit-chat.

A step forward. Then halted again when the air changed, hair standing on end.

“We have trouble!” Kouami shouted from behind a second later.

Every ranger froze. Kenzo raised his shield, eyes darting for threats. Asuka, though anxious, readied his staff, and Hideki did the same, backs toward one another.

“Direction,” Dai demanded, not yet drawing his weapon, gaze panning across the empty terrain.

Kouami raised his wand, its threat-sensing light brightening and dimming, tugging him in different directions. It wasn’t until he pointed it towards his feet that the wand flared dangerously.

“Below us!” he roared.

The earth trembled as something massive quaked its foundations. Fortunately, it didn’t take a shouted order to get the rangers moving. Asuka snapped his staff toward the bulk of the group, embracing everyone with a soft amber hue. Gravity ceased its hold as Dai’s feet slid off the jittering soil. Stomach queasy with nothing under him, he and the others flew sideways just as the earth split into a web of fissures that exploded skyward.

Unfazed by the loss of equilibrium, Kenzo ignited his shield, personal panels flaring to life around every individual party member. They flashed intensely as debris crashed against them, but they held firm, arcing and expanding to cover blind spots like they had minds of their own.

Asuka landed them near the riverbank, Dai dropping to a knee to force down nausea. Chunks of stone pummeled the river’s surface with hollow splashes, its once peaceful waters now a chaotic mess of crashing tides.

Smoke blanketed the ruins before them, a gargantuan arthropodous form ascending from subterranean depths, eight amethyst eyes piercing through the haze.

Hideki waved his staff, and radiance answered. Golden light swirled into shape around his off-hand, a handle shimmering in his fist and a blade extending from its hilt.

Shin dropped into his signature battle stance, back knee bent, sword drawn. Radiance sank into the blade’s seams, the alloy unlocking with a series of crystalline clicks and snaking into the air like a serpent coiled to strike.

Everyone prepared to meet the giant. Then stopped when Dai held out an arm.

“Stay back,” he ordered curtly.

Stomach settled, he rose to his feet and approached the dissipating cloud.

Smoke rolled off the creature’s massive form, obsidian armor gleaming menacingly as its gaze bored down on the insects who’d stepped onto its turf.

Pressure shoved down on his shoulders. He accepted it. Locked gazes with it.

A behemoth.

Nervous shuffling behind him. “S-so it’s true…” Asuka's voice trembled, trying to force calm through chattering teeth. “H-high-tier monsters are fleeing the Outer Rim.”

Someone’s breath shuddered. Another re-wrapped their fist around their conduit for the seventh time.

“Everyone,” Shin’s unshakable will cut across the tension in the same way it always had when formulating a counteroffensive. “Don’t face it head-on. Asuka, obstruct its vision. Hideki, Kenzo. I want you to support Dai and me while we—”

“No,” Dai rejected, eyes still up, cool but challenging. “Kenzo. Protect your team.”

Stunned silence fell over them for a moment at the implication.

“Sentinel Dai, sir. You aren't honestly going to—”

“I will.”

The Sentinel marched forward.

Alone.

The behemoth tracked his audacity. Then unleashed an earth-shattering roar that slashed tremors through his bones.

Typical battle cry.

It charged, colossal mass excavating a canyon in its wake. Dai finally drew his war hammer, metal seething with golden power. As it rapidly closed the distance, he leapt sideways, and it missed him by inches. Torrents sliced at his face and whipped his uniform in its passing as he countered with a calculated strike to its armor.

Alloy met alloy in a deafening shriek of energy. He didn’t put his might behind it, just let the beast pass, hammer grinding insistently against it. Testing its hide, the dragging force vibrating through his body.

It was durable enough to exhaust reserves.

The behemoth burrowed and exploded out of the earth from a different angle. He spared it an unbothered glance. Violet mist spewed from the crevices in its plating, billowing off its form and devouring vegetation.

Trees, plants, vines; everything living melted into revolting heaps of boiling biomass. The avalanche of gas barrelled towards everyone, the rangers nervously shifting as Kenzo erected a thick barrier around his party.

Contrary to them, Dai planted himself firmly, hammer loaded and blazing. Then swung wide across his body. A tsunami of radiance tore through the air, clashing with the mist in a brief tussle before completely overwhelming it. The mist hissed in agony as the radiance launched it skyward, harmlessly dispersing it into the atmosphere.

The behemoth staggered, but held. Its legs, however, buckled painfully.

‘There.’

The beast responded with another furious charge, its sheer size reshaping geography. Kenzo planted himself, gritting his teeth as a meteor shower pummeled his defense.

Dai didn’t bother with another measuring jab. He cocked his hammer again, condensing energy into the head, then fired a concentrated beam that lanced through its first several legs. The beast cried out, blood spraying, as it collapsed on its side mid-charge, stopping just before Dai.

The titan thrashed, failing to lift itself in its blind, agonized rage.

The Sentinel sprinted up a ramp of debris, hammer loaded one final time, his form reflected in its amethyst gaze. Then, he brought it down on its eye.

Radiance surged, shredding its softer insides, until fierce golden light ripped free from its other seven eyes in strobing pillars. The behemoth flailed, twitched, then ultimately went still. Dai pried the hammer out and gave it a swing, viscera arcing.

A mix of horror and astonishment settled over everyone as they gazed up at the Sentinel standing atop the corpse of a calamity.

Kenzo let his defensive panels fade, speechless.

“He just…” Kouami trailed off, wide-eyed.

“I suppose we’re in good hands,” Hideki determined, sword dissolving in his relaxed hand. “Not that there was any doubt.”

Asuka’s nerves subsided as he openly admired the sight before him. “Incredible.”

Shin’s radiance guided his sword back to default, and he sighed, though there was a hint of nostalgic endearment. “You were always exhausting to travel with, Dai.”

The Sentinel met his gaze. “I survive.” His radiance went out with a victorious hiss, his uniform rippling as he stood tall. “So do those with me.”