"Shit! These ain't lizards!"
The creatures weren't lizards of course. Their bodies were covered in thick, dark blue and tan scales that looked like hardened leather or stone, with jagged, translucent teal crystals protruding from their heads, spines, and shoulders. They also had sharp, bird-like beaks at the end of their snouts and a single piercing green eye. Their tails were long and muscular, striped with blue and sandy-tan patterns.
They looked the size of cars, with some of them having leathery wings.
Immediately, one of them flew into the sky and everywhere turned into chaos.
The lizard-like creatures shot crystals from their mouths at the civilians, ending the lives of those it hit immediately and injuring others.
A few Jiangs who had decided not to involve themselves in the battle of the first blue portal were forced into action in order to survive.
Rain gripped his mother's hand so hard his knuckles turned white. The air was thick with the smell of ozone and burnt rubber as the crystal projectiles struck the asphalt, sending razor-sharp shrapnel everywhere.
"Rain, get down!" Ryan yelled, swinging a shock baton he had found at a shard that whistled past his ear.
One of the winged lizards banked hard in the sky, its single green eye locking onto the densest part of the crowd. It opened its beak, sending a high pitched vibration into the air as a teal glow gathered in its throat.
A volley of crystals rained down. A Jiang warrior in front of them tried to parry with a heavy broadsword, but the force was too much. The crystal exploded on impact, turning the warrior into a bloody sieve.
"We aren't going to make it," Rain realized.
Behind them, the single-eyed humanoids were closing in. In front of them, the Crystal Lizards were turning the estate entrance into a graveyard.
Rain looked at his parents. His dad was panting, his face pale, but his eyes were fixed on the monsters with stubborn hopeless defiance. His mom was trembling, her lips moving in a silent prayer to gods that were never truly known.
Then the ground tilted.
The blue light of the Tier 4 Gate was suddenly swallowed by a shadow so dark it felt like a physical weight. The screaming of the civilians was cut short, replaced by a silence so absolute it made Rain's ears feel like they were bleeding.
A massive skeletal claw, three times the size of a Crystal Lizard, ripped through the sky as if tearing a sheet of paper.
It was a gargantuan creature of bone and violet mist, its ribs forming a cage that seemed to hold a dying star. It descended directly over the chaos, hovering in the sky.
It did not appear from any of the portals, rather it had manifested itself, gazing at the chaos with large predatory eyes.
The dragon did not do anything as the chaos continued. Screams and roars filled the air.
Rain stared at the dragon with awe and dread, then immediately snapped himself out of it. He dragged his parents to the side of a car where they hid in the corner, with Rain occasionally peeking at the chaos and praying for a Yaoguai not to spot them.
It did not take long before he heard thunder rumble in the sky. He took a quick glance at the dragon and saw it moving its massive body, battling small insignificant beings that looked quite bigger than their size. The figures twisted and flew in the air, attacking the dragon.
Rain immediately hid back, almost getting seen by one of the Crystal Lizards. He gasped and stared at his parents.
"The Cultivators have gotten here. We will be sa—"
His words were cut short when suddenly Ryan's right arm exploded into a chunk of flesh and blood that tore off immediately.
The old man yelled in pain alongside his wife who screamed in shock. Rain was left speechless as he was the only one who noticed a shadow looming over them.
The moment his eyes caught the gaze of the creature's orb-like eyes, he lost his ability to control his own body.
With a grunt of effort, the single-eyed monster swung its arm, snagging Lila by the waist and hurling her across the asphalt. She hit a concrete pillar head first, her body rebounding off the stone like a ragdoll before skidding into a motionless heap.
"Lila!" Ryan choked out, his voice bubbling with blood.
The monster turned its attention back to the dying man. Before Rain could even find his voice to scream, the creature stepped on Ryan's chest, the sound of snapping ribs echoing in the small space. It plunged its claws into Ryan's stomach and unraveled him, pulling and tearing with mechanical, mindless hunger.
Rain's father did not even have breath left to scream. His head fell back, eyes rolling into his skull as the creature finished its gruesome work, leaving the old man as nothing more than a mangled pile of meat and shredded clothing.
The monster then turned toward Rain. It hissed, a wet sound coming from the maw on its chest, and delivered a brutal kick to Rain's ribs.
Rain flew backward, his back slamming into the side of an overturned car. The world spun. His lungs seized up, and for a few seconds he could only gasp for air while his vision blurred into streaks of blue and red. Through the haze, he saw the monster looming over him again, its sharp claws raised high for the final strike.
"This is it," Rain thought, his mind surprisingly blank. "I'm going to die."
Just as the claw began its descent, a flash of white light blinded him. A sharp sound followed, the sound of steel meeting flesh. The weight of the monster suddenly vanished. Rain tried to squint, tried to see the person who had stepped in, but his eyes would not focus. He caught a vague shadow of someone in flowing robes holding a sword, but the figure moved too fast for his human eyes to track.
Then the sky groaned.
The massive skeletal dragon, riddled with glowing holes from the cultivators' attacks, finally gave out. Its gargantuan wings folded as it plummeted from the clouds. It crashed directly into a three story apartment building a block away.
The impact was like an earthquake. A wall of dust, bricks, and violet mist roared down the street, swallowing everything in its path. Rain felt the shockwave hit him, tumbling his body further into the wreckage of the car.
The last thing he felt was the freezing cold of the violet mist washing over his skin. His eyes drifted toward the spot where his mother lay, then toward the bloody remains of his father, before the darkness finally rushed in and pulled him under.