For several long seconds, nobody moved.
Thousands of survivors stood frozen across the vast grassland, their eyes locked on the enormous corpse lying at Alexander's feet.
Dark emerald blood seeped from the creature's ruined neck, staining the vibrant green grass beneath it. Steam rose faintly from the wound where the broken blade had pierced its exposed gills, carrying with it a strange metallic scent unlike anything found on Earth.
The monster was dead.
Not driven back.
Not wounded.
Killed.
The impossible had become reality.
A man clutching a bent length of steel pipe stared at the corpse with trembling hands.
"…It died."
His voice barely rose above a whisper.
A young woman still gripping a kitchen knife looked from the fallen creature to Alexander, disbelief written across her face.
"He… he actually killed it."
More heads turned.
Dozens.
Then hundreds.
Hope, fragile enough to shatter with a single touch, began to appear where only terror had existed moments before.
