The Gryphon Roost was chaos. Perched high on a sheer cliff face overlooking the sprawling city of Aeridor, it was usually a place of majestic beauty, the proud cries of the Royal Gryphons echoing across the valley. Now, it was a scene of devastation.
Shattered stone littered the wide platforms where the gryphons nested. Great claw marks, deeper than a man was tall, gouged the cliffside. The acrid smell of ozone and something else, something reptilian and primal, hung heavy in the air. Royal Guards, their faces grim and smudged with soot, scrambled to douse fires and tend to the wounded – both men and gryphons. Several of the magnificent beasts lay injured, their eagle-like heads drooping, their lion-like bodies trembling. A few, tragically, were still.
And in the center of the largest platform, a creature of nightmare and legend was wreaking havoc.
The Sky-Tyrant.
Even describing it as "young" felt like an understatement. It was easily sixty feet long from snout to tail, its scales the color of a stormy sky, shot through with crackling veins of electric blue. Its massive, reptilian head was crowned with a series of jagged, bone-like horns, and its eyes, slitted and glowing with malevolent intelligence, were like molten gold. Two vast, leathery wings, each spanning the width of a small house, beat powerfully, stirring up gale-force winds. Its roar was a physical assault, a sound that vibrated deep in the bones and threatened to shatter eardrums.
It had just swatted aside a heavy ballista bolt with a contemptuous flick of its armored tail, the projectile clanging uselessly against its scales. Now, it reared back, its throat glowing with an ominous blue light.
"Incoming!" a guard screamed, diving for cover.
A torrent of pure lightning, a blinding, zig-zagging spear of raw elemental fury, erupted from the Sky-Tyrant's maw, striking a watchtower. The stone exploded outwards in a shower of superheated rock and debris.
Ken Ryugasaki arrived on the scene with Captain Elara Vance, who had insisted on accompanying him, her face pale but resolute. They had taken the fastest route, a series of winding, steep stone steps carved into the cliff. Ken hadn't even broken a sweat, while Elara was breathing heavily, her hand resting on her sword hilt.
"Gods above…" Elara breathed, her eyes wide with horror at the scale of the destruction. "It's even worse than the reports."
Ken just whistled, a low, appreciative sound. "Now that's an entrance. Makes the furball look like a housecat." His eyes, however, weren't filled with fear. They were alight with a predatory gleam, assessing, calculating. He saw the beast's power, its ferocity, but he also saw its movements, its patterns, the slight hesitation before it unleashed its lightning.
A group of Royal Mages, led by the same elderly mage Ken had inadvertently chastised earlier, were attempting a counter-attack. They chanted in unison, their staves raised, weaving a complex magical shield of shimmering golden energy.
The Sky-Tyrant, annoyed by their efforts, let out another deafening roar and slammed its massive foreclaw onto the platform. The impact sent a shockwave that cracked the stone beneath their feet. The mages' shield flickered violently, and several of them stumbled, their concentration broken.
"Pathetic!" the Sky-Tyrant's voice boomed, not in words, but in a wave of pure, telepathic malice that scraped against their minds. "Your pebble-magic tickles! Your feathered pets will make a fine appetizer!"
It lunged towards a cowering, injured gryphon, its jaws, filled with teeth like obsidian swords, opening wide.
"Hey, ugly!" Ken's voice, surprisingly calm but carrying an undeniable authority, cut through the chaos.
The Sky-Tyrant paused, its head swiveling towards the source of the sound. Its molten gold eyes narrowed as they focused on Ken, standing at the edge of the platform, arms crossed, looking entirely unimpressed. Elara was a few steps behind him, her sword drawn, though she knew it would be largely symbolic against such a foe.
"A new morsel?" the Sky-Tyrant sneered telepathically, its gaze sweeping over Ken with disdain. "You reek of… nothing. No magic. No power. Just meat."
Ken smirked. "Funny, that's what the last oversized lizard said. Before I turned him into a handbag."
The Sky-Tyrant let out a reptilian hiss, a sound like a thousand snakes. "Insolent worm! I will char your bones to ash!"
It whipped its tail, a bludgeon of scaled muscle and bone, in a devastating arc aimed at Ken. The speed was incredible, the force enough to level a small building. Guards screamed a warning. Elara tensed, ready to try and pull Ken back, a futile gesture.
Ken moved.
He wasn't just fast; he was a phantom. One moment he was standing there, the next he was gone. The Sky-Tyrant's tail slammed into the spot where he'd been, pulverizing the stone, sending shards flying like shrapnel.
Before the beast could even register the miss, Ken reappeared on top of its tail, running along its length with impossible agility, like a tightrope walker on a living, thrashing cable.
"Whoa there, horsey!" Ken quipped, easily maintaining his balance as the Sky-Tyrant thrashed its tail wildly, trying to dislodge him.
The Sky-Tyrant roared in fury and surprise. It had never encountered prey that was so… audacious. So fast.
It tried to snap at him with its massive jaws, but Ken was already leaping, using the beast's own flailing momentum to launch himself upwards. He landed lightly on its broad, scaled back, between its powerful wings.
"Nice view from up here!" Ken called out, his voice surprisingly clear over the roar of the wind and the beast. "Shame about the smell, though. You ever try a breath mint?"
Enraged, the Sky-Tyrant bucked and twisted, trying to throw him off. It beat its wings, attempting to take flight, but Ken was like a limpet, his grip seemingly unbreakable. He wasn't using magic, just an inhuman sense of balance and a core strength that defied belief.
"Hold still!" Ken grunted, his legs wrapped around one of the bony ridges on the beast's spine. He saw his target: a spot just behind the creature's horned crest, where the scales seemed slightly thinner, where sinew and nerve likely converged.
The Sky-Tyrant, realizing it couldn't shake him, resorted to its most potent weapon. Its scales began to crackle, arcs of blue lightning dancing across its body. It was preparing to unleash an omnidirectional burst of electrical energy.
"Bad lizard! No shocking the passengers!" Ken yelled.
Before the Sky-Tyrant could fully charge its attack, Ken punched it.
It wasn't a flashy, wind-up haymaker. It was a short, brutal, piston-like blow, delivered with his bare fist, directly into the spot he'd targeted on its back.
THOOOM!
The sound was deep, resonant, like a giant drum being struck from the inside. It wasn't the sound of scales cracking; it was the sound of kinetic energy being transferred with devastating efficiency.
The Sky-Tyrant screamed. Not a roar of fury, but a high-pitched, ear-splitting shriek of pure, unadulterated agony. The building electrical charge across its scales sputtered and died. Its massive body shuddered violently, its wings faltering. It stumbled, nearly collapsing.
Elara, the guards, the mages – everyone on the platform stared in stunned disbelief. He'd hurt it. With a single punch. A creature whose scales deflected ballista bolts, whose hide was tougher than dragon scale.
"What… what was that?" one of the mages stammered, his voice trembling.
Arion, who had finally arrived, panting and leaning heavily on Lyla, his eyes wide behind his spectacles, whispered, "It's… it's like he's bypassing its defenses entirely! Focusing all his force on a single, infinitesimal point! A perfect transference of kinetic energy… I've only read about such concepts in theoretical martial treatises from the Forgotten Age!"
Ken didn't give the Sky-Tyrant a chance to recover. He rained a furious barrage of blows onto the same spot, each punch a thunderclap, each impact sending shockwaves through the creature's colossal frame. His fists were blurs, hammering down with the force of meteorites.
THOOM! THOOM! THOOM! CRACK!
This time, there was a distinct cracking sound. Not just the air, but something solid. A fissure appeared in the Sky-Tyrant's supposedly impenetrable scales, right where Ken was striking.
The beast thrashed wildly, its roars now tinged with genuine terror. It tried to bite, to claw, to unleash its lightning breath, but Ken was relentless, a storm of controlled violence on its back, each blow precise, each strike calculated to inflict maximum damage. He was like a woodpecker made of adamantium, hammering away at an ancient oak.
"You like that, sparky?" Ken grunted, sweat flying from his brow. "Got plenty more where that came from!"
With a final, desperate surge of strength, the Sky-Tyrant managed to rear up, arching its back violently, trying to scrape Ken off against the cliff face.
Ken anticipated the move. Just as he was about to be crushed, he leaped. He pushed off the beast's back with explosive force, soaring twenty feet into the air, a dark silhouette against the stormy sky.
The Sky-Tyrant, momentarily disoriented, looked around for its tormentor.
Ken was already coming down.
He descended like a hawk, his body angled, his right leg extended in a perfect, devastating axe kick. He wasn't aiming for its back this time. He was aiming for its head, right between its glowing, malevolent eyes.
"Party's over, big guy!" Ken roared, his voice a match for the Sky-Tyrant's own.
CRRRRAAAAAASSSSSHHHH!
The impact was cataclysmic. Ken's heel connected with the Sky-Tyrant's skull with a sound that echoed across the entire city of Aeridor. It was louder than any thunderclap, more violent than any explosion the Citadel had ever witnessed.
The Sky-Tyrant's golden eyes, moments before blazing with rage and elemental power, went dull. A tremor ran through its entire sixty-foot frame. Its massive wings went limp. Its jaw, which had been open in a silent scream, hung slack.
Then, with a groan that sounded like mountains crumbling, the legendary Sky-Tyrant, terror of the southern skies, collapsed. It didn't just fall; it crashed, its immense weight shaking the very foundations of the Gryphon Roost. Dust and debris exploded outwards. The remaining watchtower, already damaged, crumbled into ruin.
Silence. A profound, ringing silence, broken only by the distant cries of frightened birds and the ragged breathing of the onlookers.
Ken Ryugasaki landed lightly on the now still, unmoving snout of the Sky-Tyrant. He stood there for a moment, chest heaving, sweat dripping from his dark hair, the sun pendant on his chest glinting. He looked down at the colossal, defeated beast beneath his feet.
"Well," he said, dusting off his hands. "That was a decent stretch. Little bit tougher than the last one. Ten out of ten for effort, two out of ten for actual defense."
Elara Vance could only stare, her sword hanging forgotten in her hand. Her mind was reeling. She had seen Sir Gideon fight. She had witnessed powerful mages unleash devastating spells. But she had never, ever, seen anything like this. This wasn't a battle; it was an execution. A display of power so absolute, so far beyond the known limits of their world, that it bordered on the divine… or the demonic.
The Royal Guards, the mages, even Arion and Lyla, were frozen in place, their faces a mixture of utter stupefaction, profound relief, and a healthy dose of sheer terror.
One of the younger guards finally broke the silence, his voice a choked whisper. "He… he killed it. He actually… killed a Sky-Tyrant. With his… with his fists."
Ken hopped off the Sky-Tyrant's snout, landing with a soft thud. He walked over to Elara, who was still looking at him as if he'd grown a second head.
"You okay, Captain?" he asked, his tone back to its usual casual cool. "Look like you've seen a ghost."
Elara swallowed hard, trying to find her voice. "I… I've seen a man kill a Sky-Tyrant with his bare hands, Master Ken. I believe 'seeing a ghost' would be considerably less shocking." She finally managed a shaky smile. "Aeridor… Aeridor owes you a debt that can never be repaid."
Ken shrugged. "Just doing my job. King's Shield, Unbound, right? Gotta earn my keep." He glanced around at the devastation, then at the injured gryphons. "Alright, mess is cleaned up. Now, who's got the first aid kit for these overgrown pigeons? And seriously, someone find me that steakhouse. All this… tyrannizing… works up an appetite."
As medical teams rushed forward to tend to the gryphons, and as news of the impossible victory began to spread like wildfire through the Citadel, King Alaric Thorne arrived at the Roost, his face a mask of astonished disbelief. He had felt the tremor of the Sky-Tyrant's fall even in his chambers.
He walked slowly towards Ken, his eyes taking in the colossal, dead beast, then the man responsible.
"Master Ken Ryugasaki," the King said, his voice filled with an awe that bordered on reverence. "It seems my gamble has already paid dividends beyond my wildest imaginings." He looked at the Sky-Tyrant. "This creature… it would have taken the combined might of my entire Vanguard and a full complement of Battle Mages days, perhaps weeks, to bring down, with catastrophic losses. You did it in… minutes."
Ken just nodded. "It had a glass jaw. And a really bad attitude."
King Alaric actually laughed, a genuine, booming laugh that echoed across the Roost. "A glass jaw! By the Ancients, I like this man!" He clapped Ken on the shoulder, a gesture of camaraderie that would have shocked his court to its core. "Come, King's Shield. The finest steak in Aeridor awaits. And after that… we have much to discuss about your future duties. It seems the threats to my kingdom might find themselves facing a rather… unconventional deterrent."
As Ken walked away with the King, Elara watched him go, a thousand questions swirling in her mind. This man who defied magic, who shattered legends with his bare hands, who treated apocalyptic threats like minor inconveniences… What other impossibilities was he capable of? And what would happen to their world, now that he was truly unleashed upon it?
One thing was certain: life in Aeridor would never be the same. The goosebumps were no longer just a fleeting sensation for Elara; they were becoming a permanent state of being whenever Ken Ryugasaki was near. And deep down, amidst the fear and the awe, a part of her was undeniably, thrillingly, excited to see what he would break next.