I'd rather be scared to death than bored to death.
Corner of Fourth and Freemount - Karin City - Gorean Occupied Karin
OCCUPATION: Day Three Hundred and Nine
The biolite hoverboard blew down the street, rocketing over the top of the cars and cabs as it climbed skywards contrails spiralling off of its aerofoils. Its pilot expertly crouched into his turns, stabilizing the board as he used the glass and concrete buildings to build momentum, aware of the thunderous crashing behind him, gaining on him.
How many times? He didn't have time to think about time, not when everything hinged on his beating it. His breathing was hard through the respirator built into the helmet, tilting his head to try to get a good look at the thing pursuing him, but all the could glimpse was the occasional burnished blue blur as it swept down side streets trying to cut him off.
He counted down to himself, calculating how much time he had, knowing from the last time he had tried the same trick what would happen. His gloved hand hammered on the speed gauge built into his wrist guard, punching the hoverboard up to its full acceleration trying to spot his opening, if he missed it the creature would be upon him and it would be all over.
Not a pleasant memory as he recalled the sharp rending and the gouging teeth that would crack his bones and tear his flesh... How many times?
He forced himself to concentrate, Darien's words of advice ringing clearly in his ear, 'Timing is everything.'
The great beast reared before him, pulling itself around the edge of the skyscraper on massive fore claws around the edge of the skyscraper, its gaping maw bristling with teeth as its fan hood rippled outwards. Sal-zÿr in all his glory, the last disciple of a dead god and the Gorean war master on Karin.
Prince Edward threw himself into a full three hundred and sixty degree flip, curving in a well practiced motion over the swipe of the claws, using his memory of the same battle to predict the creature's next move, straightening his legs as he leaned into a turn that literally brushed the hoverboard up the Gorean's teeth and over it's craggy horned nose, skimming down its long back and off of its tail.
Too close by far. Edward's breathing hissed as he grabbed the edge of the board propelled too fast towards the large building that had housed the First Bank of Orion's headquarters on Karin, before the invasion.
"Backflip method..." Edward murmured, reciting his manoeuvres like a mantra, "Stalefish to Chocolate Thunder..."
The Gorean behind him had scaled his skyscraper, throwing himself after the fast moving human, spreading his wings as it glided across the great Imperial Maw, and over the blackened crater that had been the Black Tower. Using one of the abandoned pylons, he forced himself to a higher altitude, gaining on the Prince.
Edward hit the street, his board sparking as it skimmed the pavement, keeping down low as the creature sailed over his head, sparks flying as the board spun out beneath him, throwing him along with it as he tried to recover. Too much, too fast. Edward hit the emergency release, crashing to the pavement as his chest protector caved in, absorbing much of the force of the impact.
He rolled end over end as his board slammed into a taxi, embedding itself deeply. The young Prince yanked off his helmet and tossed it aside as he wrestled to pull Darien's shard weapon from his belt, looking up at the impressive beast crashing to the street a quarter mile away.
Distance meant nothing, not to a creature that could keep up with him on a hoverboard, and Edward knew he'd lost that round... again.
He depressed the trigger, sprinting across the road towards the subway access tunnel, watching the Polian Zero-point energy tear through the Gorean's membranous wings but smatter harmlessly off of scales that had evolved over aeons to resist such weaponry.
The Gorean's roar of pain and frustration shattered glass, rocking cars and setting off alarms up and down the street. Like an enraged bull it charged after Edward as the young Prince threw himself down the stairs to escape the chomping teeth by a hair's breadth.
Edward landed heavily, rolling over as he looked back at the teeth and jaws that were tearing at the air where he had been, the muzzle literally filling the stairwell above him, and he tried to find his shard weapon, blinking as he realized he had no idea where it had gone.
No matter how many times he flipped the loop, some random event always seemed to throw him off. He couldn't predict everything. He backed himself up the tunnel as the Gorean switched to its long clawed arm scrabbling to reach him.
"You won't escape me!" Sal-zÿr bellowed in fury.
"Odds are I won't," Edward replied panting as he wiped some blood away from his lips, "but even if I have to do this all over again, I'll find a way to beat you..."
"You can rewind a thousand suns," Sal-zÿr's muscles rippled as he tore at the stairwell opening, "and always the result is the same, end this damnable loop and accept that I am going to kill you!"
"Killing me doesn't do you any good!" Edward countered, lifting his fingers and sending a pair of garbage cans hurling through the air towards the Gorean's maw, his telekinetics were an act of desperation, a small edge in their fight but not nearly enough to stop the nightmare killing machine that heaved and tore its way closer towards him.
Edward looked to his right, pushing away from the wall and trying to leap down the stairs, feeling the solid wall of the Gorean's claws encircling his body as it caught him and dragged him back towards it. It tossed him up and out into the open of the street and Edward crashed into the slush and snow.
His breathing was laboured as his GN-3 body knitted broken bones back together, not fast enough though as Sal-zÿr pounced upon him, driving its clawed hand down and pinning the Princling to the pavement, it's teeth broadening into a wicked smile.
"I have you at last!" It purred.
Edward coughed, smiling. "And so it begins again!"
THE BEGINNING OF THE END