The beach had turned into a strange mix of party and panic.

Music still pumped from a few villas farther down the shore, but most people had already drifted toward the water's edge, phones up, filming the crazy light-show in the sky. Every few seconds a new *BOOM* rolled over them like thunder, and the wind kept kicking up sand hard enough to sting bare legs.

A man in flip-flops and an open beach shirt came sprinting across the sand, waving his arms like a madman.

"Hey! Did you guys hear?!" he shouted, out of breath. "Vigilante Zero is fighting some actual alien up there!"

Half the crowd turned toward him, eyes wide. The other half never looked away from the sky.

One guy near a cooler of beers wiped salt water from his face. "So those shockwaves we've been feeling all night… that's them?"

"Yeah!" the runner panted, bending over, hands on his knees. "It's insane! We need to get out of here before it's too late!"

A woman in a black bikini, cigarette glowing between her fingers, blew out a long stream of smoke and rolled her eyes. "And go where, genius? This island's locked down. Boats don't come till tomorrow morning. We're stuck."

"But we gotta do something!" the runner insisted, voice cracking.

The woman opened her mouth to tell him to calm down, "Can you just chill for a sec—"

when a scream cut through the air from farther down the beach.

"LOOK! SOMETHING'S COMING! STRAIGHT DOWN!"

Every head snapped up.

Two blazing streaks (one black, one blood-red) were falling fast, spinning and flashing with sword light, getting bigger every heartbeat.

People stumbled backward, drinks spilling, phones dropping into the sand.

"Move! MOVE!"

*BOOM!*

The impact hit the wet sand right in front of the woman with the cigarette, maybe twenty feet away. A wall of sand and water exploded upward like a bomb had gone off. The shockwave knocked half the crowd flat on their backs. Someone's beach umbrella cartwheeled through the air and smashed into a palm tree.

For two full seconds nobody moved. Just coughing, blinking, ears ringing.

Then the dust started to settle, revealing a fresh crater the size of a pickup truck, steam and sparks hissing from the bottom.

"What the fuck was that?!" a guy yelled, scrambling to his feet, shirt half torn off. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

A teenage girl near the water's edge clung to her boyfriend's arm so hard her knuckles went white. "Hey… something just fell here," she whispered, voice shaking. "Like… something big."

The beach went dead quiet for one heartbeat, like the whole island sucked in a breath.

Dust and smoke hung thick in the air, swirling under the moonlight. Then, slowly, it started to settle, drifting down like dirty snow.

First came the shape: huge, taller than any man on the island, skin a sickly green-black that caught the moon in weird oily streaks. Jagged teeth glinted in a snarl. One massive hand gripped that terrifying red sword, the blade still glowing like it was fresh from a furnace.

"Arghhhhh…"

Alaric staggered up from the bottom of the crater, blood running from his split lip and a dark bruise blooming across his cheek. He wiped it with the back of his hand, smearing red across green skin. His red eyes burned brighter than the sword. "I will kill you, Zero…" he growled, voice low and rough, like rocks grinding together.

*BOOM!*

Another explosion of sand right in front of him. I shot out of the smoke like a bullet, boots hitting the ground hard enough to send a ripple through the wet sand. I straightened up slow, rolling my shoulders, black coat flapping in the wind, my thin black sword resting easy against my shoulder.

"Phewww," I blew out a breath, smirking. "Kicked you a little farther than I planned this time."

I flicked sand off my sleeve and grinned wide. "Thought I was gonna have to use aura search to track your sorry ass down. Lucky me, huh?"

The crowd finally found their voices.

"Hey! That's Zero!" a guy near the front shouted, pointing with a shaking beer bottle.

A girl in a tiny bikini clutched her boyfriend's arm so hard he winced. "Oh my god, that's the real Zero… damn, he looks even cooler up close!"

Her boyfriend couldn't take his eyes off Alaric. "So that's the alien everyone's freaking out about? Dude looks like he eats people for breakfast."

Moonlight poured down silver and cold. Me and Alaric faced each other across twenty feet of torn-up sand, swords raised, hair whipping in the salty wind that smelled like blood and ocean. My black coat snapped behind me. His red aura flickered like living fire around his shoulders.

Behind us, the crowd formed a wide half-circle, phones up, flashes popping, nobody daring to step closer. Some people were already backing toward the tree line, but most couldn't move; they were glued to the sand, hearts pounding.

Alaric spat blood into the sand and lifted his jagged sword until the moonlight ran down the edge like liquid fire.

"Ready for round two, big guy?" I called, rolling my shoulders as I rose to my full height, the salt-kissed breeze tugging at my hair. My sword felt alive in my grip, its weight a familiar promise.

"Take as much rounds as you want but the outcome won't change Zero." Alaric said in a serious tone.

Across the strip of sand, Alaric mirrored me—feet planted on the ground, spine straight, both hands wrapped around the hilt of his massive blade.

"Ohh is that so Alien? I have heard that multiple times from all of the aliens that came to kill me. Hehe." I said smirking. "Let's see if you are any different or just another empty can that likes to sound loud."

The soft wind from the beach blew our hair around as we got ready to go all for it. His storm-red eyes locked on mine, a slow, dangerous grin curling his mouth.