Shine, seeing the enemy before him vanish along with the rest of his surroundings for the first time in his very long 39 seconds of life panicked. His core was on the verge of exploding and with no enemy left to take to the grave with him. He faced the prospect of a meaningless death unless he could stop it. Unfortunately, when he designed this body, he planned only to become a giant ball of radioactive fire, not to prevent himself from becoming one.
He slowly dropped his heat shielding making sure to gradually shut it down in order to avoid causing a backdraft and began running. Trees evaporated in his path, irradiated chunks of wood launched into the air, scattering for miles. He darted between groves, narrowly avoiding inhabited trees and nearby herds.
The wind, now unimpeded, slammed into him with its full force. Without his shielding, it slowed him drastically but also helped siphon some of the core's unbearable heat. It wasn't enough. The core screamed in its containment, temperature still rising, irradiating light still blasting out, unstable and furious. He had 18 seconds left. Air wouldn't be enough.
He stopped and launched himself into the air as high as possible and scanned the area.
There's a lake, a perfect glint through the canopy, far to the west. I'll be cutting it close but I should be able to make it.
He slammed back onto the ground, cratered it with the force of his landing, and bolted. All that mattered was the lake.
Nine seconds.
'Making it in time at this speed is impossible', he reactivated his heat shielding accelerating as wind resistance become a non issue, no time for detours or slowing down moving in a straight line from here to his destination was his only chance he disregards avoiding while life and starts blowing through anything in his path leaving any creature unlucky enough to encounter him dead or homeless
four seconds.
He was close. He could feel the lake's moisture on the edge of his sensors. The trees here were denser yelps of pain and blood curdling screams erupted as he passed by but now isn't the time to feel bad for the creatures. If this core blows this entire forest would die, millions more animals would die than just the few hundred he's currently steam frying.
Three seconds.
With a burst of desperation, Shine threw his entire body into a leap that tore the earth beneath him. He rose high, the forest vanishing below, sky rushing in around his glowing form. The lake, a perfect mirror, stared back up at him. "MADE IT!"
He hit the lake like a meteor, and the world detonated.
The entire body of water exploded into vapor in seconds. Waves of scalding irradiated steam burst outward, flattening trees, cracking boulders, and turning birds in flight to drifting ash. The shockwave rang out for miles, a boiling roar that swallowed the horizon. Where the lake once was, there remained only a deep, smoking basin, hissing and glowing faintly, ringed by scorched earth and melted stone.
Silence.
"Whew" shine wipes the water vapor from his head and lays on his back in the newly made crater
"System display condition"
A 3D model of himself pops up in his vision, it's the first time he's seen this body since he created it and man does it look terrible.
He had sprung for the bare bones shape of a golden suit of heavy plate mail going for the look of a dashing knight of old But that image was thoroughly crushed, his arm was gone,the gold covering his body was either destroyed or melted off in his rush or turned black by the radiation and his chest plate was visibly caved inward it's a miracle it can still contain the cores radiation at all.
Looking deeper into his internal systems the situation wasn't much better,
[Model: GWU-2013892-WE
Chosen name: Shine
Core: Polonium-210L — self-refilling(stabilizing…), weaponizable(cooling)
Body type: Humanoid-male, titanium/tungsten compound-23 chassis(heavily damaged), pure gold covering(destroyed))
Modifications: Polonium flamethrower(disabled, can't be used without repairs to launch method), projected heat field, monomolecular spear, weight dampeners]
His greatest weapons were either completely unusable or severely weakened and He has no idea where he was or if making repairs would be possible let alone returning to the battlefield.
"ALRIGHT!" he shouts out into the open air and stands to his feet the crater around him empty as even the fish inhabiting it have been turned to pink mist that rose with the lake when it turned to steam.
"This wasn't expected but its not the end of the world, my people have survived greater challenges than this, it's merely a test from great great grandfather, a chance to achieve heights that make even beating one of the great enemy seem like nothing"
He slowly draws his spear as he speaks out loud to the open air
"I'll find out where this is then return home the long-" He hurls the spear right at the relative cold spot in space and it comes to a complete stop just a few meters from him as the air starts bleeding and the spear falls to the ground.
"I'm not so primitive That I would not detect such an obvious deception creature, I did not know the great enemy bothered with stealth but such expected gaps in knowledge are to be expected. After all, before today I didn't know they were capable of teleportation either."
He curses in his head at the pure stupidity that was throwing his weapon at the enemy and braces his feet into the ground and points his fist forward.
The creature Comes into view entering the world from a invisible wound in space and it is a marvel, it stood at 3 meters tall and was covered in smooth black fur with tail, its face like a panther with fangs that drip from its mouth all the way to the ground below far to long to be practical in combat or daily life. It possessed six legs each ending in a hoved foot like a horses and worst of all now that it was no longer hiding shine sensors could see it, this things body was emitted the energy of a small reactor from its skin only it wasn't radiation or electricity or heat or any form of energy he'd ever encountered before it was something new, something…..different.