Beyond

Extinction

Nuktah looked ahead as the asteroid continued on its new course smoothly. He smiled to himself and stared at himself. His clothing had been reduced to nothing and he was once again naked. He chuckled to himself before looking around and flying in the planets direction. On getting to the planets atmosphere he started to Freefall until he was about 1 kilometer away from the ground before slowing down and landing gently. He was familiar with the planets geography so it only took him a second to get his bearings and fly in the direction of the jakuts settlement.

He was just two kilometers from the camp when he noticed something was wrong. The settlement was gone. In its place was ash and flames. A few dragons were in the vicinity spewing fire in every direction. Enraged Nuktah appeared on a dragon in an instant. A single punch later the decapitated body of the dragon dropped lifelessly. 3 other dragons in the vicinity turned their eyes towards him and spewed flames in his direction as they moved closer. The flames bathed nuktah but he did not feel a thing. He flew to the nearest dragon grabbing one of its wings. Holding the wings he swung the dragon around crashing it into the others. The dragons wing ripped in the process and it fell to the floor. The other dragons recovered mid air and charged at him again. They were injured but their rage seemed to overpower any pain. A kick from nuktah sent one crashing lifelessly to the ground; its body creating a small crater. The other dragon opened its jaws in an attempt to tear into nuktah. Nuktah held its jaws open with both his hands then drew them in opposite directions. The dragons body separated in two from its jaws down and it’s blood and innards rained down on the forest floor. The first dragon nuktah had swung around was crawling away its single wing dragging on the floor of the forest; it didn’t get far. Nuktah descended to the ground in a flash crushing its head underneath.

There were no other dragons around for a few miles so nuktah calmed himself down. He needed to look for any signs of the tribe. He focused his senses and found to his delight that he could hear the jakuts within the mountain. They must have taken shelter in the network of tunnels in the mountain. Nuktah was relieved and flew into the tunnels. In less than two seconds he was in front of the tribesmen. They were unable to contain their excitement when they saw him and a small uproar started. It only took him a second till he realized toruk and the hunting party were not there. He spoke to the closest jakut [ “where is the hunting party” ]. The jakut looked at him and spoke in a sad voice [ “they never came back; the dragons came upon us suddenly a day ago. The hunting party had not yet returned”] nuktah hesitated a little then asked for the direction the dragons came from. When he learned it was the same direction the hunting party had traveled towards he couldn’t help but conclude the hunting party had most likely encountered the dragons and since they were yet to return it could only mean they might all be dead. Feeling responsible for the tribe he asked them to remain in the tunnels then flew out to survey the area. As he floated high above ground he looked towards the usual hunting grounds of the hunting party. He flew closer but even with his senses he could find no traces of the party. He did observe several other dragons for miles around. When had such a large swarm of dragons emerge. Had something caused them to migrate here. In the distance he had also seen a particular large dragon several times bigger than the rest. He had toured the planet and seen several species and mutations of the dragons so he wasn’t surprised. He might have even seen this particular one before but didn’t pay much attention to it. However now he could tell it was some kind of alpha and the other dragons seemed to follow it . He knew the jakuts would never survive in such an environment . The dragons were a truly terrifying breed of apex predators. They destroyed the environment and hunted recklessly. It would be hard for any specie to survive in such an ecosystem. Pride and anger coursed through his mind and he made a decision that would change the fate of all beings in the planet. Alone as he stood there floating in the sky he decided he was going to exterminate the dragons.

Toruk and the other party members stared at themselves. They had been stuck in the tunnels without food or water for two days. They couldn’t even sleep as the sounds of burning, roaring and the ground rumbling were too distracting. The tunnels were hot and getting hotter. Whatever the dragons were doing up there it felt like the mountain was on fire and they were being cooked inside. Toruk spoke to the party members. [ “the dragons are still outside. We can not stay here forever. Let’s scout the tunnels. If we find one that leads to somewhere safe we can circle back and make it to the tribe. Nuktah will protect us” ]. The other party members stared at toruk with fear in their eyes contemplating his words . They couldn’t stay here as they had no food or water. The heat in the tunnels had made all the kiwis to run away outside where they were all burnt to crisp by the dragons and as the heat in the tunnels continued to rise they would also be dead soon. The members scattered to explore the various tunnels after agreeing to meet up later. Two hours later most of them had finished scouting and returned. They began to exchange information. One of the scouts had discovered a tunnel leading outside. The tunnel led to an entrance at the mountainside very close to a thick forest. If they made it to the cover of the forest they might be able to pass the dragons without drawing their attention . Without any other options toruk and the rest of the party headed for the tunnel entrance. In thirty minutes they were at the mouth of the tunnel. It was eerily quiet. It looked like the dragons had not even passed this side of the mountain . The party members were tense but decided to make a run for the trees. They all ran out of the tunnels as fast as they could, the forest was twenty meters away they could make it in under a minute.
They had only gotten halfway there when a dark shadow flew over them and something huge landed in front of them. It was the dragon, the alpha. As it landed the shock wave forced most of the party members to fall down. The rest were frozen in fear as they stared at the dragon. It’s huge vertical irises stared at them and it slowly opened its jaws. It was big enough to swallow them all whole. From within its jaws a faint reddish glow could be seen getting brighter by the second. The jakuts knew what was in store for them; a fiery death . As they resigned themselves to their fate something fell to the floor directly in front of them creating a cloud of dust and a minor shock wave. The dust cleared revealing nuktah standing between the jakuts and the dragon.