The silence after the strike was almost deafening.
Kyle groaned, lying on his back, staring up at the smoke-stained sky.
Every muscle in his body ached, his chest heaving as though the air itself had turned heavy.
"Ahhh… my back"
He muttered, rubbing at the sore spot with a grimace.
Beside him, Cedric hit the ground with an equally rough crash.
For a second neither of them spoke, too drained to even move.
Then, slowly, Kyle rolled onto his side.
His tired eyes caught the scene before him and froze.
The mammoth's massive skull had been separated cleanly from its body.
Its enormous frame, larger than some houses... now lay motionless, collapsed like a mountain finally brought low.
Black blood gushed from its neck in a fountain, soaking the fractured stone and filling the air with a sharp, metallic scent.
But what stunned him most was the line of destruction that stretched beyond the corpse.
