Fate's Embrace: A Story of Late Medieval Galaxy Adventure

*They say curiosity killed the cat,* Sam thought to himself as he slowly stalked his prey. *But I'll be the one to kill this cat.*

He moved forward with a slow and steady approach. It was at that moment he noticed the creature's ears twitch. His eyes widened before he could stop them from doing so, but it didn't matter. The creature's head snapped up, and its cold stare met with his; something that should have been impossible because they were separated by a large chasm filled with lava.

The creature slammed its fist down on the stone floor, creating a large crack underneath Sam's feet. He jumped back just in time to avoid being swallowed by the crack. The creature took advantage of Sam's surprise and launched itself out of the lava towards him. Sam barely had time to react, and before he knew it he was lying flat on his back gazing up at a large, clawed hand that was reaching down towards his face.

*Well, shoot.*

He rolled over at the last moment and narrowly avoided having his head ripped off by being crushed by that same hand. The creature, unable to stop itself quickly enough, crashed into the ground next to Sam and skidded dangerously close to his feet. Not wasting any time, Sam leapt up onto its chest and thrust Soul Edge into its chest, then yanked it out quickly as he jumped backwards.

The creature rose up slightly from the ground before falling back down with an angry howl. It stayed down for only a moment and then sprung back up again like nothing had happened. Its mouth opened wide and let out an ear-splitting roar before lunging at Sam once more. This time, however, there was no avoiding it; the monster slammed into him full force and he was sent flying across the room until he hit a wall hard enough to knock him unconscious.

*What... what happened?* Sam wondered groggily as he rose back up into consciousness. He looked around frantically while trying to figure out where he was before remembering what had happened earlier that day: He'd been sent to this planet after hearing rumors of an alien race who were hostile towards those who had abilities like his own. In order to warn Earth of this threat, he had vowed to destroy this entire planet in hopes that it would send a warning signal to Earth so they could prepare themselves for whatever may be coming their way next. He'd been sent here alone against orders from his superiors due to some "irregularities" in past missions, which meant that if he failed here all his past missions were going to be scrutinized closely and possibly deemed invalidated due to him being mentally unstable. In other words, his entire life's work would be for nothing if this mission failed here today. This was why he had specifically chosen *this* target; if things went south here then there was nobody else on this planet who could tell anyone about what happened here other than him; his superiors wouldn't know anything about these aliens or whatever they might be planning unless he succeeded here today and got through alive while also sending word back home somehow. That's why he'd been tracking this one alien since landing on the planet; it seemed like its species was either leader of some sort or at least acting as such due to its size compared to others of its kind... So far all the others had either been hiding or too afraid of him (or both) but this one hadn't bothered standing still long enough for him to take a shot at it without risk of hitting another alien instead; every time it saw him approaching it would roar loudly enough for everyone nearby to hear and run away from him fast enough that even someone with abilities like his own couldn't keep up with it for long. Unfortunately for both of them, though, today luck wasn't on his side: He'd finally been able to corner it inside one of the buildings when things had gone south suddenly despite everything seemingly going well for him in recent days... Now the very thing that made this mission so important may end up being what kills him if he doesn't do something fast!

Sam looked around frantically as soon as he remembered where he was again while trying not to fall victim once more to whatever mental effects that monster possessed; fortunately for him, though, it seemed like luck had returned just in time: The building seemed mostly intact apart from a few cracks here and there in addition to lots of dust scattered everywhere thanks to all the damage caused during their battle earlier that day causing visibility inside to be worse than usual despite how dimly lit things were in general thanks to most of them being underground anyway... But maybe that wasn't such a bad thing after all: If luck really WAS on his side then maybe those aliens couldn't see too well without light! Better yet maybe they couldn't see at all! If neither option ended up working out then well... maybe moving around everywhere faster than they could follow would allow him to find some way