The peaceful, cloudless night above the lush Perennial Forest, a vast and still pristine frontier of the human race, illuminated by the full moon and a myriad of stars to the accompaniment of a rich orchestra of life thriving in the warm summer time, was abruptly and violently torn by a thunderous rumble and a vicious, angry wail.

"Perfect!"

Uru inwardly celebrated and jumped up in joy, despite his painfully ringing ears and the concussive trauma to his lungs making it hard to breathe. His heart was racing like a drum and pumping him full of adrenaline – he couldn't have wished for a better hit on the explosive trap he had set for the ancient force annihilator.

It followed him unswevringly through the natural corridor made of a colossal fallen mammoth tree on one side and a tall rock wall on the other, where he had laid out and camouflaged four massive shaped charges – on the ground, the wall, the tree trunk, and lastly on the thick, broken tree branch which was wedged against the stones to form a ceiling, making a full surround of the target once it stepped foot into this perilous place.

Because of the fast pace of his pursuer, he only had a tiny window of opportunity to activate his harmonic frequency generator and induce a highly potent flux spark – which in turn, given a close enough proximity to the amplifiers inside the mines, would cause their unstable crystal batteries to disintegrate, initiating a miraculous, causality-breaking chain reaction …

… it's liberated culprit – the origin energy stored not within, but beyond the crystal lattice and parallel to it – emerging via controlled criticality as a burst of chaotic fermions and bosons vectored towards the silver liners constituting the projectiles, whose geometry was designed to result in concentrated jets of molten metal encapsulated in a residual flux field, their hypersonic tips akin to a hellish guillotine, Grim Reaper incarnate.

The linear charges were placed alongside the route Uru was taking his prey, meant to cut the beast in a straight line from snout to tail on all four sides, the concurrent energy flux disrupting the creature's notoriously formidable aegis in the exact split second when the kinetic impact arrived – if all went well, that is.

He really risked a lot to nail that detonation, casting himself as bait – there was no other way to ensure it would work as intended, not with his skills and resources. So he had to be close, practically as close as he could be and still survive the explosion. And since the legendary monstrosity was much faster than him even under the best circumstances, it would spell his certain doom if he slipped up and missed the right timing.

But that was not the case at all.

The spray of blood that shot in all directions from the awfully mutilated head and torso was proof of both the terrifying device's power and Uru's flawless execution.

"Worth its weight in gold!"

Now that it had come to this point, he had no more regrets.

It stung Uru a lot when he decided on this method to deal with the challenge, because in order to purchase the required materials he had to spent most of his wealth, which he diligently and painstakingly accumulated for the past two years, and he had to disburse it up front, absent any guarantees.

He had to very meticulously construct the lethal contraption alone, because he couldn't afford to commission a finished product, and nobody would make one for him anyway, since manufacturing and distribution of regulated weapons and equipment was obviously heavily monitored – and nothing was more regulated than WMDs and flux impactors, which were a threat to even the greatest powerhouses among men. Besides, pretty much all the proficient weapons experts unswayed by the private sector were scooped up by various government agencies and subsidiaries, stifling covert operations and barring entry to aspiring amateurs.

...

Deprived of sleep, he went through an internal ordeal when the reality of what he was about to do eventually hit him with full force. He was an absolute wimp by nature, which he further exacerbated by frequently staring into the abyss. He desperately wished to overcome this weakness, but it seemed impossible – it felt like an integral part of him. Thus, he was always rigorous and pedantic, introducing multiple safety measures and strictly avoiding life or death situations …

… until now. This time, there was no way out if things went awry. Deep down he was fully prepared to die in this endeavor, and already accepted such an outcome – after all, the end was inevitable, and Uru came to terms with it long before he even developed abstract thinking. All that remained was to stand up with a head held high and take it with dignity – now that was the elusive goal, the dream of a warrior … the dream of a coward … the dream of a man mocked by fate …

However!

All the pieces fit together impeccably, as if he just wasn't meant to meet his demise on this noble quest.

He somehow managed to assemble the mines without killing himself in the process or being found out. The annihilator went undiscovered despite three months elapsing since Uru first saw it, and he knew the creature could be tracked, as he had pinpointed and isolated its discreet flux signature from the background, and kept triangulating its location – crucially, it also didn't force him to report it to the authorities by encroaching on the habitable zone. Today, it didn't launch its infamous, hallmark ranged attacks, and practically let itself be lured straight into the trap. Uru didn't panic or freeze up from fear and ran the course smoothly without stumbling, passing the trap moments before his lightning quick adversary caught up to him. His personal AI, to which he relegated the discharge of a spark, performed its job with microsecond precision. Finally, all four mines went off without a hitch, and with an astonishing fury, the shockwave instantly breaking apart Uru's shield that he deliberately boosted past its limits, thus frying all the flux circuits in his armor, and yet sparing his consciousness, and more importantly – his life.

He knew not to be careless and not to lose focus before this fatal struggle was concluded, but he just couldn't help the warmth of elation and pride overflowing him. In those two years that he was completely alone for the first time in his life, only relying on his unparalleled intellect, he went from a poor wannabe hunting for gourmet delicacies or eradicating wild animals troubling the local infrastructure, to a fully-fledged beast slayer, killing rare and dangerous species that fetched lucrative bounties due to their useful properties, their potential with trophy makers, or their extermination warrants – since the Perennial Wildlands, occupying the furthest reaches of civilization, were still swarming with danger and opportunity alike.

And now he had brought down a being so ancient, so powerful, and so horrifying, that its reputation and awesomeness could take it straight into myths. A living and breathing millennia-old legend, a true monster in a full sense of the word, sowing terror in the hearts of ordinary people and mighty warlords alike – a primordial realm guardian!

Nobody would believe it!

Him, a lone teenage boy with no background and no flux sense, tangling in a battle to the death with the uncontested overlord of the primeval world!

And winning!!!

Though Uru's ambition was limitless and he always looked towards what he couldn't see, he was now filled with euphoria. A fortuitous encounter that almost cost him his life, followed by a great deal of strenuous scouting and arrangements, and it looked like he finally made his break. He was going to be rich and famous now! And although he cared for neither, he knew that he needed capital and connections to keep forging on.

Now that he seized this golden opportunity, things were going to move forward at last, towards more exciting and rewarding ventures. Towards a better future, one that would ultimately give him the chance to learn real magic!

Or so he thought …

… because after a long, pained howl, the devastated annihilator – very gradually, as if in slow motion – stood straight up unyielding and dauntless, opened its bloodshot eyes, and looked at Uru with a humanlike, fiery wrath...