The young man hit the ground hard. He didnt move. Above, high in the sky, the floating figure of the other who had thrown him looked down in smug superiority. If he said anything, it didnt carry to the people below, most of whom were still reacting – poorly – to the crumpled, unmoving figure not far from them,
“You see?” the flying man said, lowering down to be within earshot. “You dont have any hope to stop me. Your finest are nothing in the face of me. Now, bow and maybe the rest of you will have quick deaths.”
“None of us will bow to you,” one of the remaining people said, he was dressed in a tattered gi, and wore bruises and cuts from a previous fight. Still, he took a stance towards the flying man.
The flying man sighed and quickly, faster than any of them could see, dashed to face the other man face to face. “Really think about this,” he said. “If you do this, I will drag yours out longer than I did his.”
“We die on our feet. You cant come here and beat the honour out of us.”
“Your world leaders disagree,” the flying man spat.
The flying man was alien to this world. He, and an ally of his, had arrived here less than a week ago. Between the two of them they had decimated the population of this world and even after complete and utter capitulation from every world leader, they kept going. Flying from city to city, destroying what they wanted, killing whoever they saw.
A day ago, a band of warriors, trained in various different martial arts and, some say, imbued with the favour of the gods, stood before them. It took their combined might, but after a battle that lasted hours, they brought one of the aliens to his knees. At their mercy, they declined to kill him. Showing that they were better than the two aliens, more compassionate.
It didnt matter. The other, the one that floated a foot off the ground right now, took his own ally’s life. The spray of blood still caked their clothes. The smell of it was still inside their nostrils. When they had asked why he did that, the alien replied he had no use for broken things. It was better to die than to be given mercy and be shamed like that.
Then he started his own fight against the local warriors. Quickly and easily he cut through half of them. Even as they fought as one, his skill was no match for them and their weariness, exhaustion and inability to fly.
He dragged out their fights, making each longer than the last before, as the light disappeared from their eyes, threw them as hard as he could at the ground where the survivors stood and watched.
The message was painfully clear. But he spoke it anyway, one final time.
“Stand before me and die.”
The aliens had devastated the world, but they had focused on population centres and places of government. The farmlands and rural settings were left alone, for the most part. The further out of the cities you were, the safer you would be. For now, at least.
Here, then, in a small valley between jagged mountain peaks, lay a small town. It was nothing special, they dotted the landscape around here like pockmarks. Each of them self-sustaining and without much of a connection to the larger world, besides that which the messengers brought every month.
While the people who lived here could hear the explosions of the aliens fighting across the world, they thought little of it. The damage was kept outside their valley and, so far, no one had told them there was anything to fear. They carried on with their lives as if nothing unusual was happening. All of them except one.
He stood at the mouth of the valley, as it expanded to meet the plains beyond. In the distance, one of the great roads was filled with traffic. Unending caravans of people and carts of their belongings. All of them seeming to be heading away from the great city some dozen or so miles back up the road. He had been standing there for nearly an hour now and hadnt moved an inch. An unreadable look on his face.
A small ways behind him, a group of elder townsfolk watched. They knew this day would come, but they didnt know when. They hoped, in silent prayer, that it wouldnt be today. That the commotion on the road and beyond was something minor. But the way he stood, alert, firm and ready to move in an instant spoke of something bigger. It was the leader of their village, the father of the young man who stood watch, who spoke first.
“You should come back and help me in the office,” he said. He tried to sound authoritative and leader-like, but his voice cracked just that little bit.
“Something bad is happening,” the young man said.
“Something bad always happens,” one of the others said. “It will not affect us, it never does.”
“And that means we sit here and ignore it?” the young man said, turning at last to face them. His face painted with pained anger. “I can help, but you refuse to let me.”
“You dont know what is happening. You might go to your death.”
“Then I shall die knowing that I tried,” the youth said. “Like those others.”
“What others?” his father said, confused.
“You dont feel them? The heroes of this world, the ones that have laid their lives before this thing, whatever it is? Each of them, picked off one by one. Dying futilely because they had to try something. I have no right to do any less than them.”
“And if we bury you tomorrow?”
“You all trained me well,” the lad said. “I can tell Im stronger than any of the people that are over there now. I can help.”
The elders looked at each other and then back at the young man. As one, they echoed the same thing. A phrase that they had all learned as children. “Do well, for all.”
And then, as if he had never been there at all, the young man was gone.
The man in the tattered gi was sent flying through a brick wall and slid across the pavement of a large car park. Once he came to a stop, the only movement was a few involuntary twitches.
“Humph,” the alien said, frustrated. “That was meant to last longer. Which one of you is next?”
“I am,” a new voice said from behind him.
Everyone present, the alien and the remaining three humans turned to where the voice had come from. There was a young man, maybe 18 or 19, walking between two damaged buildings. He sported an unfamiliar gi, made to measure and freshly cleaned. A logo which was also unfamiliar adorned his chest. On his face was a look of pure determination. As he approached the alien, his eyes flicked from corpse to corpse and then the still standing three humans. His eyes shone a brighter determination and he kicked up a lump of concrete at his foot and hurled it at the alien, who dodged it with ease and watched as it sailed away harmlessly behind him.
“Is that all,” was all he managed to say as he turned back to face the newcomer before the young man landed his punch, square in the face, and sent him flying on the same trajectory as the concrete block. The alien came to a halt within a small building, which proceeded to crumble down on top of him.
“Holy shit,” one of the other fighters said. “You killed him with one punch.”
“No,” the newcomer said, his eyes not moving from the pile of rubble. “He isnt dead. But he is distracted. Get your people out of here, as fast as you can. I dont know how strong he is.”
“Theres no way he could get up from that,” the other man said, impressed. He went to say something else, but was interrupted as the pile of rubble started to vibrate and then exploded out in force as the alien screamed.
The three human warriors gathered what they could of their fallen comrades and moved away as fast as they could. The alien was incandescent with rage and was flying a few feet off the ground.
“What the fuck was that?” he screamed.
“You need to leave,” the young man said. “This world is not for you to treat as your personal fighting ring.”
“So far that one punch is the closest anyone has come to hurting me. You think Im going to leave because of that?”
The young man took a martial arts stance and beckoned the alien to come to him. “No, but I think if you dont leave, you wont get the chance to.”
The alien screamed in rage again and flew hard towards the young human standing before him. He had got lucky with that punch. He would not be lucky again.
He threw a flurry of punches and pulled back, waiting to see the human collapse under his strength. But he was still standing there, having hardly moved. The humans eyes were locked with his and he slowly breathed out.
“Youre far too easy to read,” the human said. “Your punches feel like someone who has never, truly, been challenged. You assume youre the best, so you dont actually try.”
“How dare you, I have beaten the greatest warriors of 17 worlds. Yours will be 18.”
“You have to get through me first. And I am still not the strongest warrior this world has to offer.”
“Then I guess I have no choice then, do I?” the alien smirked and flew up into the sky. “If I must destroy your world to take this victory, then so I shall!”
The other humans looked on in terror as the alien took a strange stance, one with his hands cupped before his body. They looked over at the other human who hadnt moved. He looked up at the alien and waited.
Within the aliens hands, a small blue glow. Quickly it grew within his hands and became the size of a basketball. He chanted something in a strange language and then pushed his hands away from his body quickly sending the ball of energy towards the surface of the planet and the single figure waiting below.
The young man breathed in and out slowly, put his hands out in front of him. Unlike the alien, he did not chant anything, he just held his hands up, palms out and waited.
The ball of energy impacted against his hands and rebounded back towards the alien who was still in the sky, breathing hard from the exertion of his attack. It took him a minute to realise his energy was coming back towards him. By the time he figured it out, it was too late to do anything and it engulfed him entirely before shooting harmlessly off into space.
The man dropped his arms and sighed before heading over to the others, who were shocked and amazed at the way he had just defeated the alien. As they thanked the newcomer and welcomed him into their group, one by one and without them noticing, the bodies of their comrades faded from view.
At once, screaming as they were when they died, everyone who stood against the alien on Earth, appeared in a group in a field of bright green grass which waved in a very pleasant breeze.
“Welcome,” a strong voice said from somewhere. “This is as close as you will all get to heaven, but if you do everything right, you will get to go home again. Now, lets begin.”