Lucy had fallen to the ground and screamed as she’d turned around to see what the screeching roar had come from. Much to her and her mother’s surprise, the being it came from was quite big, huge in fact. Not only was it huge, but it had somehow been able to catch up to them. It stood a meter or two behind them and stared down into their frightened eyes as they were on the ground, shaking at the sight of it.
The creature was an Antlion. A giant ant-like creature with giant pincers in front of it’s mouth. Normally tame and nowhere near civilization, these creatures could span up to 30 feet in length, with pincers up to 10 feet, enough to easily snatch up any human and instantly mangle them to death. These creatures normally buried themselves under the sands of the desert, and rarely went far from that place, unless hunting for food.
The beast’s red, scaly skin shone in the sunlight as it’s head nearly hovered over the two of them, sticky drool dripping from the pincers, hitting Lucy’s shirt, making her scream even further. It looked down on them with it’s meaty, pearly-white eyes and clashed it’s pincers together, as if toying with it’s food. The two of them tried to crawl away, but as soon as they did so, it let out an ear-piercing screech, stopping them in their tracks.
The two of them were filled with an icy-cold fear. Neither of them had ever seen a creature such as this in their life and had no idea what to expect, other than the fact that it obviously had plans for them. Plans that would, no doubt, lead to their own demise. They fearfully watched as the creature inches forward, cracking sounds waving through the air as it’s six, boney legs rattled around as it walked. Getting it’s head just above Lucy it looked down and let out another screech.
Seeing the creature begin to move it’s head down, Lucy’s mother knew she had to take action. Her daughter was about to be taken and killed by this monster, and she could not let that happen. She was still so young and had a lot to look forward to in life. Seeing no alternative, she took all the energy she had and jumped into Lucy, shoving her to the sidewalk to the left.
Lucy had closed her eyes when she saw the monster above her, expecting excruciating pain as she was attacked by it but felt herself being shoved and tumbled to the side. As she hit the sidewalk, she immediately pushed her face off the ground and opened her eyes. Looking around for her mother, she looked back out into the streets and gasped at what she saw.
In the middle of the street was the enormous Antlion, raising it’s head into the air, Lucy’s mother pinned against it’s pincers. She tried to call out to her mother, but she was too shocked and scared with fright as she saw her mother’s face. She’d been looking over at Lucy the entire time and had a smile on her face, as if she were looking at her daughter for the last time. She let out a loud yell, telling Lucy to run from this place. This brought tears to Lucy’s face. She didn’t want to lose her mother, and couldn’t move at all.
As she sat there in horror, she saw the pincers started to move, causing holes to be formed in the side of her mother’s body. She started crying out to her mother, but was immediately silenced when something flew through the air nearby.
A large, black ball of energy nearly 20 feet long soared through the air and struck the side of the Antlion. As it hit, a large impact explosion happened at the scene, sending the Antlion to it’s side and freeing the woman from it’s grasp. The Antlion was scrambling to get back up on it’s feet and was letting out a window-shattering shriek as it lost blood from a large injury in it’s side.
Lucy, seeing her mother released, forced herself up and ran up to her, grabbing at her body and dragging her to the sidewalk. She sat her down and looked down into her eyes, tearing up at the sight of her. There was no movement, so she started nudging her body. “M-Mom! Mom! Are you alright? Mom! Answer me! Please, Mom!”
Her mother eventually made a slight movement as she cracked her eyes open, looking up at her daughter. She smiled for a split-second before her head fell back and her eyes shut once more, confirming Lucy’s worst fear. The young woman screamed out, tears running down her face, as she held her deceased mother in her arms. She buried her head in her mother’s shoulder and cried out. “NO! MOM! NO!!!!”
On the other side of the street hovered Tara, her hand reached out, steam coming from it, due to the Energy Ball spell she’d just cast to attack the Antlion. She didn’t like attacking magical creatures, especially ones that are normally docile, such as an Antlion, but had she not, both this woman and her mother would have been killed by it. She had to fight, in order to save the woman’s life.
As the steam finally disappeared, she saw the Antlion finally scramble to it’s feet and screech at her, it’s eyes now dark red. It began charging at her, clashing it’s pincers as it ran. Quickly hovering to the side, Tara narrowly dodged the enormous pincers as they lunged and tried to snatch her into their grasp. Quickly turning towards the beast, Tara concentrated, mumbling en incantation to herself and held her arm out.
Light slowly gathered around her hand, forming a small orb. As the moments passed, more and more light was brought in, expanding the orb’s size until it was the same size as the one she’d just hit the Antlion with. By the time it had reached it’s peak, the Antlion was charging at Tara again. Quickly realizing her position, she knew she couldn’t move around while this energy orb was in her grasp. Pushing her hand forward, she launched the orb towards the Antlion.
As the orb quickly approached the Antlion, it stopped and it’s red eyes began to glow, enveloping it’s skin in some sort of hard shell. The orb hit this shell and immediately dissipated into thin air. It let out a roar at Tara and held it’s ground as the outer shell began to disappear and it’s red eyes’ glow disappearing.
Tara then hit a realization she had completely forgotten about as she saw the Antlion’s eyes. ‘Oh, no!’ she thought to herself. ‘Antlion’s have an outer shell when their eyes turn red, repelling all energy-based spells! I can’t subdue this beast as long as it’s eyes are red! But…I can’t wait for it to cool down. I have to do something now to save the girl.’ As she thought to herself, the Antlion turned towards Lucy and began to walk towards her.
Upon seeing the beast’s actions, Tara tried to think as much as she could. Offensive magic could not work on this beast. It was well-known that Antlion’s, although tame, were a force to be dealt with, even for sorcerers. Quickly flipping through her memory, she remembered one key point from her reading. She’d heard that Antlion’s could be hit with advanced spells that targets an entire object. She quickly began to hover and chase after the Antlion as she realized and prepared the only advanced spell she knew, the same one she’d just finished learning.
‘I know I shouldn’t test it out like this’ she thought to herself, ‘but I don’t have any other choice. The Size Alteration spell could be the only thing that can save this girl. I have to do it now! I won’t let her get killed because of my mistakes!’ She then stopped directly in front of the Antlion and quickly let loose an incantation. As she prepared to finish the spell, her mind was filled with thoughts of the Antlion being smaller.
A bright orb of light appeared around the area and, as the Antlion started pushing into Tara, the entire area flashed from the orb rupturing and letting loose an enormous blast of light…