Prime

The worst thing that could happen during a hunt was the appearance of a monster that the hunters were unable to deal with. This put the entire mission in danger, as well as the lives of the squad.

In order to avoid such incidents, the Phantoms had hundreds of people working for them, constantly updating OpenEye and keeping in contact with them. 

The Fire Fox Squad received their mission only after all Nests' locations were established, as well as the weather, time of day, and all the necessary information to successfully complete the mission.

In this way, risks were minimized, and Phantoms were only sent on missions they could complete without serious losses. 

In fact, only the loss of a Harvester was considered collateral damage, and if even a single Phantom died during a mission, it was a failure, because, for several years of work, one Phantom could clear dozens of Nests. After all, it was ten times easier to find a new Harvester than a Phantom.

"Fuck! It's Prime Type!" Lisa exclaimed, abruptly removing the flare gun from her belt and launching the rocket.

A red plume with a bright flash illuminated the area, sending a signal to the Citadel. A few seconds later, Lisa's bracelet activated, showing a blue screen where several messages show up.

"Everyone! We have to last five minutes before they take us out of here!" Lisa exclaimed, kicking aside the lizard running at her.

At the same moment, the Harvesters and Phantoms ran as far away as possible from the huge lizard who had already destroyed part of their squad. Adam did the same, standing up next to Jacob and Lisa.

"What the fuck is Prime Type doing here?" Jacob exclaimed, holding his sword in front of him

'Prime Type...?' Adam inwardly muttered, looking at the huge lizard destroying one truck after another.

No one tried to rescue the loot as well as attack the lizard, because everyone realized they wouldn't be able to handle this thing.

Lisa quickly clicked on her tablet, finding this very monster in the catalog.

"Prime Thick-headed Desert Lizard... Blue Threat Level... Shit, there's less than a 1% chance of a Prime Type appearing! Today is the worst day ever!" Lisa exclaimed irritably, turning around to the Citadel's walls.

"How much more time do we have?" Jacob asked.

Lisa glanced at the bracelet, "Three minutes, but... it looks like we won't be able to just watch from the sidelines anymore..."

Prime Lizard had already destroyed the entire caravan. Losing all the loot they had collected was a big blow, but keeping alive was much more important. 

It was always possible to kill more monsters and gather resources from them, but there was no way to resurrect someone from the dead.

Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.

The Prime Lizard slowly moved towards them, shaking the ground beneath its massive paws. Its eyes kept changing their target until they stopped on Lisa.

Lisa's eyes went wide as she exclaimed, "Everyone! Get away from me!"

At the same moment, dozens of people ran away from Lisa like from the plague, the only one left standing was Adam. He wasn't used to fighting, today was the first time in his life, so he was extremely lack of experience.

"What...? What the fuck are you standing there for?!" Jacob shouted as he sharply grabbed Adam's arm, tossing him aside.

Adam rolled down the sand hill while Prime Lizard approached Lisa.

She held her position until the last moment before her eyes flashed, and her veins swelled. 

Bright flames enveloped her gloves, then she put her wrists against each other with open palms and created a torrent of flame beneath her, throwing her high up.

Prime Lizard swept right under her, clearly surprised that Lisa was able to dodge.

"Hah, you may be out of our league, but you're still dumb!" Lisa uttered with an excited expression, pushing herself from the air with a stream of fire.

Whoooooooooooooosh.

Cutting through the currents of air, with a whistle a long tail plunged into her belly. Her eyes opened wide, a stream of blood rushed from her mouth while waves of pain traveled throughout her body.

Bam.

Like a projectile, Lisa collapsed to the ground, and waves of sand surged upwards.

"Lisa!" Jacob shouted, before removing two grenades from his belt and throwing them directly at the Prime Lizard.

His example was followed by everyone else, both the Harvesters actively firing all their weapons and the Phantoms using gear and Orders.

For a brief period, the attacks were so numerous that Prime Lizard was engulfed by various flashes of light, explosions, and elemental forces.

However, the monster was simply heading forward, moving to Lisa - to its primary goal.

"Tsk. There's no way our attacks can break through its armor... Fuck, there's only a little bit left!" Jacob bit his lip before rushing forward.

He was taking quite a risk, but it didn't matter, because he had to save Lisa, who was still recovering from the hit.

Jacob acted collected, Prime Lizard spotted him and attacked, but Jacob was ready for it as he ducked and his eyes tensed.

Tiny ice crystals appeared on his fingertips, and he threw them at Prime Lizard. The crystals exploded, covering everything around it in a thick layer of ice and freezing the monster's paws.

'Nice! Just a little more!' Jacob inwardly cheered, getting close to Lisa.

Prime Lizard almost broke the ice, but Jacob clearly had plenty of time.

The sand in front of Jacob trembled as two Lizards appeared in front of him. Because of Prime One, he had completely forgotten that they hadn't destroyed the whole Nest, a few monsters still remained.

The Lizards slammed into him with their thick foreheads like bulls, throwing him to the side and robbing him of any hope of saving Lisa.

"No! No! No! Somebody help her!" Jacob exclaimed before falling into the sand.

However, everyone was far away, many were too afraid to do anything. Prime Monsters weren't something that normal Phantoms were prepared for, it wasn't their level. Only someone skilled enough like Lisa could fight against such monsters for a while.

Whooooooooooosh.

Adam appeared from behind the hill, quickly running towards Lisa as the last person who could help her.

Two Lizards reacted quickly, trying to ram him, but Adam simply jumped over them, closing to his target.

"Dodge!" Jacob shouted as the sharp tip of the Prime Lizard's tail rushed towards Adam.

Adam didn't see the monster's tail since he was running towards it with his back, but his reflexes did not need to.

Abruptly, as if someone was controlling his body by strings, Adam twisted at a strange angle, at the limit of his body's capabilities.

The tail swept right over his head, and for a moment he saw himself in the reflection.

Then, Adam picked Lisa up off the ground and looked around to see where he could escape.

However, there was nowhere to run, for a huge shadow covered the entire battlefield.

Whoooooooosh.

Dozens of missiles rained down on the Prime Lizard, with crushing explosions. It didn't do any damage to the monster, but it slowed it down for a couple of seconds, which was enough for several huge nets of heavy steel stakes to fall on the monster.

Even a monster as strong and large as the Prime Thick-headed Desert Lizard couldn't tear apart nets specially designed for such situations.

Adam looked up, only to see a huge airplane that looked more like a spaceship.

Several stairs descended where everyone immediately rushed to, while dozens of men in black military armor fired rifles, aiming for the monster's eyes.

"Come on! Hurry up! Get on top!" Jacob shouted, urging the others on.

The last to go was Adam, who climbed up with Jacob, holding Lisa up.

"Is she okay?!" Jacob exclaimed, getting on top and examining her.

To Jacob's relief, Lisa was breathing, and her heart was beating, faster than normal, but that meant she was alive, and that was all that mattered to him.

Then, the man in charge of the rescue squad approached Jacob, discussing something with him.

At the same time, Adam sat at the wide window, watching the Prime Lizard depart as their plane flew away, returning to the Citadel.

It seemed like it was all over, but that was only true for the Fire Fox Squad.

A fighter jet flew over their plane, from which a man in desert clothing and wide goggles protecting him from the wind jumped out to Adam's shock.

Was it possible to survive a fall from such a height? Who was he?

A series of questions raced through Adam's mind, but soon none of it mattered anymore.

The man's hands were covered in dense white energy, like a flame with boundless power. Then, the man put his hands together and brought them down on Prime Lizard's head like a hammer.

A flash comparable to a supernova explosion tore the monster apart. A crater like a meteorite crater was formed dozens of meters around, filled with the blood of the giant monster.

Adam's eyes went wide, sparkling like a child seeing a cartoon for the first time. 

That was exactly how he imagined the Phantoms to be, exactly how he wanted to be!