The monster was coming.

Although its visits followed no pattern that young Alpkan or his clansfolk could deduce, they all knew it would be back. It would come, trespass on their hallowed grounds, take whatever resources it desired, ordinary or sacred, and then leave, only to return again and repeat its offenses.

The clan elders said to stay away from it. It was incredibly powerful and skilled, and it would not hesitate to kill in an instant if provoked. However, as long as one left it be, it showed little to no interest in the local clans as it went about its business.

But Alpkan insisted, as many a hot headed young warrior would: "We cannot ignore its disrespect. I will succeed where others have failed." After all, the monster was only one, and it was always reported alone. Yet Alpkan was not quite like the other hot headed young warriors of his clan. Where they dreamed of glory at the front of a charge, he dreamed of victory.

He had studied how those before him had fallen, and every tale told the same story: brave warriors rushing in one after another, swinging wildly, and dying one by one. The monster had not beaten them, Alpkan reasoned. Their own mindless charging had. He would lead his band not from the front but from behind, where he could see the whole field and direct each blade and spell to where it was needed most.

And in his view of the world, Alpkan had reason to be confident, for he had enlisted other young folk from his own clan and a neighboring one. There were Sancar and Demir, two brothers whose muscular statures and skill with massive war clubs were unmatched. Then there was Gokhan, who, like Alpkan, was a warrior and a master of the axe.

There was Tuna, a slender huntress who could have a blade in her prey before it realized she was there. Then there was Umut, who had nearly completed his studies under the clan's holy folk. He was capable of casting elemental attack spells and also well skilled at reaching out and poisoning a foe from afar.

Finally, from the neighboring clan, came Hagop and Vahan, and Alpkan counted their joining as his greatest triumph before the battle had even begun. The two young shamans were spoken of in hushed tones even among their own. It was said they could call up dark creatures up from the earth to do their bidding.

They could also take the shape of ordinary forest wolves so perfectly that hunters had walked past them without a second glance. Some claimed their summoned beasts had once driven off a pack of real dire wolfs and even ice elementals. With these two at his side, Alpkan was certain, no creature could stand against them.

They waited. They trained. Alpkan drilled them in tactic after tactic: the warriors would hold the monster in place while Tuna struck from its flank, Umut would weaken it from the tree line with spells, and the wolves would harry it from behind until his signal brought them all down upon it at once.

Again and again he made them practice waiting for that signal. Charging in alone, he told them, was how everyone before them had died. And all the while, they ignored their clan elders' warnings of disaster and death.

Then the day came. The monster was sighted making its way, as it usually did, off the path and into the most sacred of the clan's lands. Occasionally it would pause to collect flowers, mushrooms, and similar things. Soon word was sent, and Alpkan's band assembled. They took up positions just behind the tree lines on opposite sides of the path, made an offering for success, and then waited silently and intently.

The monster was unimpressive, or at least it appeared so. For one, it was clearly old, with grey hair and a step that was far from its prime. Its armor and adornments were unremarkable, their predominantly white color almost comically out of place. Still, Umut urged caution, noting what appeared to be a staff carried on the monster's back. The monster might very well also be skilled in the magical arts, he warned.

Sancar and Demir, however, did not wait for any signal. All of Alpkan's drills forgotten, they shouted a war cry, ran from the tree line with lightning speed, came upon the monster, raised their clubs, and... the clubs seemed to bounce off the monster. They struck again and again, to the same effect.

The monster, it seemed, did not even notice. It simply walked around the two warriors and continued on as if oblivious to the clubs being swung at it. Just then, Tuna appeared right in front of the monster, blade out, and thrust up at its throat... only for the blade to bounce off once again. Tuna struck again, where the heart should have been... no effect.

The monster continued on its way, though slight annoyance crossed its face as it had to slide around her, only to find Gokhan blocking its path. Without hesitating, the massive warrior brought his axe down at the monster's skull. This time he seemed to cut a tiny bit of the monster's hair, but otherwise the blow had no effect and bounced off.

Two wolves, Hagop and Vahan in disguise, leapt from the forest into the clearing. Teeth bared, they jumped at the monster, only to somehow miss. They wheeled back and charged again, only for the same thing to happen.

Alpkan was lost for words. His careful plan had collapsed the moment the monster appeared, and worse, it had not even mattered. Their attacks had done virtually nothing. Furthermore, the monster seemed to barely notice them, appearing more annoyed that it had to walk around the warriors than that weapons were being swung at it.

Perhaps the monster had incredibly thick skin or armor, Alpkan thought, as he recovered from the shock and saw the warriors and the huntress moving back a few steps. Remembering Umut's warning that the monster might magically skilled, he gave the signal. Soon Umut emerged from the trees and began chanting, first striking the monster with a curse. A blackish-blue cloud formed in the air around the monster.

Then the warriors, the huntress, and the wolves closed in again, taking swings. While most bounced off harmlessly, a few got through, causing ever so tiny bits of redness and even a speck of blood on the monster's skin. However, the monster paid them no mind and continued on its walk, stopping momentarily to pick a flower, which it put in a pocket of its armor.

Then everything changed in a second. Umut, after successfully cursing the monster, had kept chanting, and a burst of red energy, a poison spell, left his body and struck the monster. Alpkan could see the monster was feeling it; its face drained of color as the poison took hold in its body. Alpkan roared in triumph and called his band to strike from all sides.

The triumph was short lived. Suddenly the previously oblivious monster changed its demeanor and shifted into an attacking stance. The staff previously carried across its back appeared in its right hand. In the fastest display of magic any of them had ever seen, it cast something on its own body, removing first the poison and then the curse.

Then the dying began.

The monster raised its staff and muttered something. Lightning stuck. Alpkan's eyesight momentarily went out; he felt burning all over and stumbled to the ground. When his sight returned, Sancar and Gokhan lay on the ground, dead, their bodies burned beyond recognition, their flesh charred.

Demir and Tuna had been hit and were struggling to their feet, but like Alpkan, they still lived. Hagop and Vahan, who had been disguised as wolves until now, saw their disguises burned away. Together they prepared to summon unholy creatures to fight back against this equally unholy monster.

As for Umut, the lightning from the monster's staff had gone right to him, but thanks to a talisman given to him by his elder instructor, it bounced off him harmlessly. He then raised his own arm, channeling the earth, and hurled it at the monster. Alas, the monster must have had talismans of its own, for the elemental earth attack simply dissipated in front of it.

The monster was now fully focused on Umut. Raising its staff in its right hand, it waved its left hand in a peculiar circular fashion, and suddenly Umut was frozen in place. He had only a few seconds to ponder his situation before the monster sent a far greater curse upon him than the one he had cast on the monster earlier. A second later, a bolt of lightning cut short Umut's magical education, and his life.

Only a few seconds later, Demir, enraged at his brother's death, threw everything he had at the monster, but to no avail; lightning quickly sent him into the afterlife. Hagop and Vahan, meanwhile, had not been idle. They had backed away and begun the summoning ritual that had made their names feared across multiple clans, calling forth two grey creatures that crawled on all fours and resembled scorpions with faces.

The monster simply summoned another round of lightning, vaporizing the two creatures and ending the lives of Hagop, Vahan, and Tuna in one stroke, the last of these as she tried to drag herself behind the monster to stab it. The same lightning hit Alpkan again; he felt and smelled his flesh burning. Yet, perhaps thanks to his warrior's physique or simply distance from the monster, he still lived.

Barely able to stand, he staggered forward for one last swing at the monster, missed by a wide margin, and then collapsed unceremoniously in front of it. Alpkan looked up at the monster, which was raising its staff for what would no doubt be the killing bolt, and remembered what his clan elders had warned him. In his arrogance, he had thought he knew better.

As he pondered this, the monster seemed to pause. It lowered its staff and inclined its head, almost as if someone were standing next to it, whispering in its ear. But Alpkan saw no one there. Was the monster perhaps honoring Alpkan and his band with a ritual for their courage before the end? Alpkan laughed inwardly, thinking not, but it would be nice to die with such a thought.

The monster held its odd posture, and as his senses returned, Alpkan heard that it seemed to be responding to this silent "whisper." He did not know the monster's tongue, but he thought he caught the same thing being said multiple times: "slep-han-tin." Was that the monster's god? Slephantin? Alpkan made a quick prayer to his own goddess as the monster seemingly finished its whispered conversation.

Yet death did not come. The monster fiddled in its armor pocket, as if looking for something. Perhaps a blade for a warrior's death, Alpkan thought? Instead, it drew out something small and flat, dark as the sacred black stone from the mountains, and covered in strange, tiny colored marks that meant nothing to Alpkan. Then the monster began... chanting? Singing?

Ad-mwin-yur deth n-ah-lind n-ahn,

Gl-yuk-uh rehl, ree-gan glan...

Alpkan thought he saw a brief flash of green. And then the monster was gone. It had not walked away. It was gone. Vanished.

Alpkan was alone.