Risk Of Epic

The claws of the manticore shredded the side of the massive cragadile's face, tearing the leathery flesh off in a giant clump. Backing up, the cragadile raised his snout upwards, bellowing in pain. As he let out a roar that shook the trees, his beady eyes caught a glimpse of a fireball screaming down towards him.

Unaware of what the incoming capsule held, the cragadile continued its fight with the manticore. The two circled around each other for a few moments, each eyeing the other’s bloodied and scarred body. One forceful strike could end the battle in an instant. What the dueling beasts didn't know was who was going to strike first: The Engineer.

The fireball exploded onto the scene, sending both creatures reeling backwards, the manticore slamming into a tree as dust and rock was thrown up into the air. Recovering slowly, the manticore rubbed his sore back, covered in blood stains, the dirty fur matted and grimy.

Meanwhile, the cragadile had been blown onto his back , but thankfully a tree had stopped him. With one quick movement, the oversized crocodile rolled back into his normal position, dirt getting caught in his scales that were soaked with blood. The two creatures observed the pod for a moment, the heat its fiery orange glow gave off keeping them from approaching.

The creatures flinched slightly as small servo arms shot out of small, hidden holes in the metal vehicle, spraying it down with a cooling mist of liquid nitrogen. The heated pod very quickly cooled, a small sheet of ice wrapping around it as the arms retracted, having served their purpose. It sat dormant for a few moments, only the slightest of straining of metal could be heard.

Hesitantly, the manticore inched forward, sharpened claws stained with blood in their entirety. The manticore stepped back instinctively as the pod began to radiate a cyan glow. The cragadile snarled slightly, still wincing at the pain coming from its torn face, the blood seeping into the earth below.

With an explosion that rocked the ground, the side of the pod burst, the smoke obscuring the makeshift exit from view. Slowly, a purple metal foot stepped through the smoke, beginning to become visible. In the course of a few seconds, the Engineer brought himself into full view, his top heavy purple carapace armor shining in the sunlight. His cyan tinted visor hid his face from being seen, and on either side of the bulbous helmet, mounted on his shoulders, were two grenade launchers.

Standing still between the two behemoths, he slowly rotated his helmet to look at the manticore, his scratched visor terrifying in its appearance. The blankness and lack of facial features disturbed the beast on an instinctual level, having never faced anything without... well, without a face.

Suddenly, the Engineer raised his left arm as a small rectangular box slid into view. It released quad harpoons, the red hot rods of metal zooming towards the manticore. With lightning reflexes, the manticore flapped its small wings while leaping into the air, the extra force of his wings helping him reach a greater height. Something unexpected and terrifying made itself apparent, as the heat seeking projectiles curved upwards, one smashing into the limb of a branch, getting stuck.

The other three missiles hit the mark with deadly accuracy, one catching the manticore in the hind leg, while another impaled him in his gut. The last harpoon was lucky enough to hit the thin skin of the wing, allowing the rod to pierce through it with ease, and not causing too much damage.

Overcome with the sensory overload of pain, the manticore ungracefully flopped down onto the ground below, the spike in his stomach causing his eyes to go wide as it pushed itself deeper into his innards.  The cragadile looked at the crippled manticore with what appeared to be sympathy, the manticore’s pained eyes reaching out for help.

The blood flowed to fast for it to entire seep into the ground around the manticore and instead began to pool around him, the spike still lodged firmly in place. The creature shook terribly, barely able to get to its feet, using its fleeting strength to launch a hail of razor-like projectiles from its tail at the engineer. The poison tipped shards impacted, some of them deflecting off, while a few managed to lodge themselves into the weak spots of the carapace.

The cragadile began to approach the Engineer quietly, attempting to catch him by surprise while he was concerned with the manticore. This was a grave mistake indeed. The shoulder mounted grenade launchers  swiveled in the reptile's direction, the inside of each one pulsing with energy before a cluster of grenades surged forth, headed straight at the cragadile.

Too slow to avoid the projectiles, four of the six grenades hit immediately, rupturing in an instantaneous burst of cyan energy. The cragadile's hardy skin was no match for the highly advanced tri-core grenades, the entire creature vanishing in an instant, a pile of ash remaining where it had been moments before.

The least two grenades bounced off a tree, heading straight for the Engineer, who calmly sidestepped, the grenades bouncing once more before reaching the manticore. With his last reserves of strength, the injured beast managed to agonizingly leap out of the way, the rod stuck in his leg twisting around, shattering his femur as he hit the ground.

The grenades exploded on contact with the tree on what would've been their fourth bounce. The Engineer stood in the same place he had been during the whole ordeal, simply observing the injured creature through his unflinching visor. The two just stared at each other for a bit, the manticore fearing what was to come, while the Engineer simply recorded various facts in his databanks.

With his visor finishing the diagnostic scan, he slowly marched towards the nearly dead manticore, his metal boots sinking slightly into the ground, and his legs making an audible noise as the pistons and technology inside turned and fired up. It isn't often you can find fear in the eyes of an animal who lives in the Everfree, but for the first and last time, his eyes betrayed his stoic and savage appearance, revealing the utter terror he felt in his gravely damaged heart.

Coming to a halt several inches away from the beast, the Engineer knelt down, bringing his visor closer to the incapacitated manticore's face. The two looked at each other, the Engineer deciding upon the best course of action, before standing back up, and unclipping a small hexagonal device from his belt. He switched a lever on the side of it, the lever sinking into the mine as he gingerly placed it beside the manticore.

Giving the beast one last , unfeeling look, the Engineer walked off slowly, his metal boots sinking every so slightly into the fertile soil beneath him. The manticore watched the figure go, until finally, he disappeared into the thicket of the forest.

The manticore glanced at the pile of ash that was once the cragadile who had bitterly fought him just moments ago. He didn't know exactly what the small device did, but if the Engineer's previous actions were anything to go by, it wasn't going to help him in any way. Or was it?

The manticore could feel the life draining from him, his complexion getting paler by the moment as blood gushed out of his stomach wound. He futilely tried to move his hind leg, only to be met with a sharp surge of pain that ran up the length of his leg. For a moment he considered pulling the rods out, but he knew it was no use at this point, too severely injured to ever hope to survive.

He eyed the mine with desperate resolve, raising his paw weakly. He shut his eyes, another surge of pain assaulting him. He knew it was over. The mine beeped softly, the pace of the beeping picking up the closer the manticore's wrecked paw got to it. He closed his eyes, wincing as the pain became too much to bear. He hesitated, trying to consider any other options, but he knew he was being ridiculous thinking that anything other than death would find him in a state like this.

His hand was not more than an inch or two away from the mine now, and with a final thrust of his paw the manticore touched it, smiling ever so slightly with the final thought of release on his mind as he did so.

The explosion violently shook the ground, causing the Engineer to stumble a bit as he continued to walk deeper into the forest. He turned back for a moment, looking over the firestorm of cyan that began to engulf the forest a few hundred feet back. But his attention was drawn away from the beautiful symphony of destruction as his internal AI began to shout at him. The ground continued to shake, far past the explosion of the mine, one tremor rocking the Engineer slightly every few seconds.

"CLASS 6 THREAT DETECTED," the urgent female voice warned the Engineer.

"Identify,", he ordered the AI, his speech contorted into more of a guttural growl from his implants.

"THREAT TYPE : EARTH. CATEGORY: GOLEM. NAME: ..." the Engineer knew what came next.

"COLOSSUS,"

"Bring up X-Ray mode," he ordered, the AI quickly shutting his visor's systems down, and rebooting into X-RAY mode within three seconds. The Engineer stood unflinching, simply staring through the forest, observing the rock foot of the behemoth. He looked up slowly, taking the sight of such a massive creation in. Finally reaching the top of the golem's body, and staring at the side of its head, zooming in on it. A flock of birds passed idly by the immense Colossus' head.

"ORDERS?" the AI asked politely. The Engineer sorting through the best course of action to take, before lowering his gaze and speaking firmly.

"Initiate Monsoon Protocol."