"All right, everyone," I barked into my radio, "our orders from command are clear. The monster's currently smack dab in the middle of downtown. Air units are to give her a little taste of our firepower and pull out before she can retaliate. Ground units, we're to hold our fire while I attempt to make contact and let the monster know what we'll do to her if she doesn't cooperate. This all goes well, she'll follow us out of the city to the black site. This goes poorly, we blow her head off. Are you with me?!"

"Yes, captain!" a chorus of voices returned over the radio, with the driver of my truck joining in.

I never got tired of hearing that—it was inspiring, it got my adrenaline pumping, it almost let me forget that command had given us an impossible task and we were definitely all going to die. I'd seen this giant from base, and she'd looked about thirty stories tall. Our firepower couldn't do anything against something like that. But…well, I wouldn't be a good captain if I didn't let my squad think we had a chance.

I'd underestimated how hard it would be to spot a giant in a city. There were just so many buildings in the way. And the fact that it was night certainly didn't help. At least I'd been able to spot her from outside the city, a sinister silhouette against the skyline behind her. That's how I knew she wasn't just a huge person—the image still shone fresh in my mind of the powerful tail lashing behind her, its terrible barbed tip effortlessly tearing through buildings. And the jagged horns crowning her head were unmistakable too: I could only imagine the sort of damage she could do with those if she wished to.

The driver swerved as a neon sign crashed down on the road in front of us—it could only be a remnant of a destroyed building. We were getting close.

"Air squadron, you got eyes on her?" I shouted into the radio as we continued to drive, pulling an abrupt turn as we found the road ahead of us to be blocked by what had once been the rooftop of a grand tower.

"She's at Knight and Ferguson, captain! Commencing initial bombardment."

I didn't know where Knight and Ferguson was, but it appeared the driver did, and based on the sharp turn she made to abruptly reverse our course, we must have been headed in the wrong direction. I was fairly certain the crunch I heard from behind me was the back of the truck hitting a lamppost, but…well, the streets and our timeframe were both very tight, so this was bound to happen.

As we finished the turn, I spotted a massive object moving across the street up ahead. Was that the giant? It was hard to make out in the darkness—it seemed smaller than I expected.

An explosion illuminated it just before it disappeared from view. It was a foot—covered in green scales, and easily large enough to flatten a truck with a single effortless step. Which was obviously what was about to happen. Well, at least it would be a spectacular way to go.

The monster roared. I couldn't see her, but I could certainly hear her, and the rest of the city most likely could as well. Her roar didn't just shake the truck—it shattered the windows of every building I could see. The ringing in my ears was so painful that I couldn't actually tell when she stopped roaring. All I knew was that the megaphone resting in my lap was an absurd choice for talking to someone with a voice like that.

"You all right, Captain?" I faintly heard the driver asking.

"Just keep driving," I ordered, barely even hearing my own words.

And she did so—and a moment later enough, we turned the corner and the monster was directly ahead of us, forcing us to skid to a stop.

My initial estimate had overshot—she wasn't thirty stories tall, but rather a mere twenty. And yet I hadn't fully processed just how colossal that really was: I had to tilt my head backwards just to see her waist, not to mention her head. I'd never appreciated how large a skyscraper actually was—but I supposed that was because I'd never seen one move.

"Attention, monster!" I shouted into the megaphone as I stepped out of the truck, following the approximate script I'd been given. "This is the National Infantry. Stand down and come with us, or we will be forced to strike you down."

There was no way she would even hear me—even her footsteps were louder than my megaphone. I was fully prepared to see her continue walking away, most likely destroying the truck with her tail in the process.

And yet, as I watched in horror and amazement, she turned. And finally, I saw her face: the blood-red eyes, the terrible pointed teeth, the lips curled into a smile.

My soldiers gathered around me, guns raised, artillery placed, ready to launch a completely ineffective attack. And as they assembled, she lowered herself down to her elbows, which had to punch through the façades of buildings on both sides of the street at once in order for her to fit.

And she spoke.

"You're threatening to kill me?"

Her voice was not at all what I'd expected from her roar—it was remarkably soft and low, almost soothing. Even as it resonated for what I was certain would be miles around, it didn't hurt my ears to hear her.

"If—" I stuttered, "if you don't come with us, we'll have to—"

"How?" she interrupted, her eyebrows arching upwards in curiosity.

I drew a deep breath. "We have bombers, and tanks, and thousands of soldiers. You may be strong, but so are we, when we all work together."

It was total bullshit. But it was the exact sort of bullshit that my soldiers would always believe. That's how I'd gotten this far in the first place—I knew how to sound confident. And perhaps if the rest of the army had bought into my bluff…perhaps there was the tiniest chance the monster would too.

The monster exhaled, her breath kicking up a cloud of dust and debris that billowed down the street. One of my soldiers jumped in front of me with a plexiglass shield, just in time. I couldn't tell who that was, but I made a mental note that if we survived this I'd find them and give them a promotion.

"May I have a moment to think about it?" the monster asked.

That was unexpected. Had she…had she actually bought it? I couldn't hear any fear in her voice, but she hadn't simply killed us all, which implied she wasn't certain she could do so.

"If you must," I replied, trying my best to sound as if I was in control of the situation.

The monster pushed herself upwards, her elbows knocking both buildings backwards, away from the street. "All right," she declared, "it would be foolish of me to question you."

At that, the monster's hand descended abruptly towards us, cloaking the street in shadow.

"Hold your fire!" I immediately shouted to the soldiers.

"Yes, captain!" they responded in chorus.

Two scaled fingers pinched around me, lifting me off the ground. The street disappeared below me, and soon, I was suspended in front of the monster's face. She was remarkably precise in her grip—it hurt, but she'd managed to avoid crushing my bones, which given her size was remarkably impressive.

The monster smiled once again. "So, captain, where did you wish for me to go?"

My heart was threatening to pound right out of my chest. One false word, and it would all be lost.

"Turn to the left," I answered. "Head out of the city; I'll guide you from there."

She began to walk forwards. Over my earpiece, I heard several brief screams, and then static, and I realised in horror that her first step had taken out the entire squadron that had assembled around me. And probably the driver, too…

But I couldn't lose my cool. I couldn't let on that I was weak.

"Tell me," I directed, "what exactly are you?"

"I'm Hydirax," she replied. "I came to bend this world to my will." She paused as she continued to walk, stepping carefully over a fallen building. "But I suppose this world is full of surprises: I've never been outmatched like this before."

This felt wrong. How could she think that we would stand even the most remote of chances against her? Did she have some weakness that she assumed we knew about?

…or perhaps she knew full well that she could kill us all in a heartbeat. That would explain the complete lack of fear in her voice. But…what reason would she have to play along?

It wasn't long before we were out of the city—her stride length was incredibly impressive.

"The site is this way," I directed, pointing. "It's not too far now."

Hydirax's pace slowed. "Might I rest here for a minute? I'd just like to take a moment to catch my breath, if that's okay with you."

"I…suppose," I replied. I didn't want to find out what would happen if I contradicted her.

Hydirax smiled, turning her hand over and dropping me in her palm. I shakily stood up, trying not to lose my balance as her skin shifted under my feet. There were no scales here—it was remarkably soft.

Hydirax smiled down at me, her face filling half my field of view. "Thank you, captain. Your courtesy is much appreciated. And worry not, it shouldn't take me very long to catch my breath."

At that, her mouth opened, and a dazzling blue glow shone out from the back of her throat. The air around me began to ripple with chaotic currents as she sucked inwards and the glow shone brighter and brighter, and electricity began to crackle on the insides of her mouth, forming into a single ball above her tongue that was too bright for me to look at directly.

Of course she wasn't actually cooperating. She was even more powerful than I'd imagined: I couldn't do anything against this kind of terrible might. And so I collapsed, curling up in her palm, accepting my fate.

But a few seconds passed, and I wasn't vaporised. Slowly, I picked up my head, looking up in terror at Hydirax's face.

"Oh, don't worry," she crooned, electricity crackling around her lips as she spoke, "this isn't intended for you."

And at that, she turned her head, gazing back at the city from which we'd come.

"No, please—" I called out.

And she fired her blast, arcing across the land like a bolt of lightning—if a bolt of lightning were blue and much larger and sustained. I could do nothing but watch in horror as a massive explosion erupted around the impact point, lifting skyscrapers off their foundations and sending them hurtling through the air, disintegrating as they did so.

And Hydirax's head turned, her apocalyptic thunderbolt sweeping back and forth through more and more of the city. Smaller bolts began to spark around it, each one still large enough to pierce through a building. It was like nothing I'd ever seen—the fireworks show of the damned.

"Stop!" I screamed.

And she did, her jaws snapping shut, her teeth a barrier between that apocalypse and our world.

But before I could say anything else, her head turned again, and I saw the lights of a second city on the other horizon.

"No, please…" I whimpered. "They weren't part of this. Please, spare them—"

Her mouth opened again, this time firing only for a few seconds before fizzling out. But before I could take in the sudden silence and darkness, she fired again, and again, and again. Each time, she sent another terrible blast into a different part of the city. The entire skyline had been demolished after mere seconds, but she continued to fire, over and over and over, even when there was nothing left to destroy.

This was the way the world would end. Completely at her mercy.

As the cacophony subsided, Hydirax gazed down at me with another of those awful smiles, that I now knew without a doubt were mocking me. 

"All right!" she exclaimed with a yawn, stretching her arms outwards as I immediately grabbed on to prevent myself from being thrown off her palm. "I'm feeling refreshed and better than ever. So, are you ready to keep going?" Her eyes flickered to the side, and I suddenly saw the lights of a third city, across the bay. "Unless you'd like me to stay and catch my breath a bit longer, I suppose."

"No!" I cried out. "Please—please, don't do that again!"

"As you command!" she teased. "What would you like me to do, then?"

That was all I could take. I broke down, collapsing in her palm, sobbing as she watched in amusement.

"Why—why are you doing this?" I choked out.

"Doing what?" Hydirax asked, raising her eyebrows once again.

"You—you just killed hundreds of thousands of people!" I yelled. "And for what? To mock me? To put me in my place?"

Hydirax bit her lip, seemingly thinking about how to respond. After a moment, she chuckled. "I wondered how long it would take you to notice."

"To…to notice?" I asked, unable to meet her eyes.

"You thought you could control me," she sneered. "You thought your species could convince me to follow your lead. I wanted to show you just how absurd it was to think such a thing."

"But I—" I stammered, "I never thought that! I assumed you'd ignore me and destroy all our forces effortlessly! I never believed what I was saying. I only—I only told you what I was ordered to—to…"

That seemed to actually surprise her. For the first time, her smile faded, and she stared at me with genuine curiosity.

"But you sounded so confident," she pointed out.

"It's how I became a captain," I replied.

And at that, she laughed. It wasn't the condescending chuckle I'd heard before…it was a genuine laugh. Somehow, she was actually amused.

And without another word, she set me down gently on the ground, before turning and walking away.