The Day of Metal

It was an overcast day, when the wind was blowing strong enough to make trees groan in protest, that a young man was walking through a field barren of all but a few small mounds of snow. Slowly, the sky grew darker, clouds seeming to coalesce into darker amalgamations, building upon one another, twisting the sky into a bulging mass of torment. Lightning cracked between them, arcing downwards in brilliant savagery. Great peals of thunder rumbled across the land, shaking the very foundations of the mountains.

Then, the rumbling shifted, seeming to spawn from the depths of the planet instead of from the nightmarish heavens. A single bony fist shot through the ground yards in front of the man. It scrabbled upon the earth, claws digging in to pull the rest of the creature from the dirt. It arose from its cthonic tomb, a skeleton a full two feet taller than the man, holding in its left hand a rusted greatsword. The skeleton raised its empty hand, and the earth shook again as a small army of skeletons tore themselves from the ground. The skeleton lord motioned towards the man, and the undead host began advancing upon him, fleshless joints scraping together.

The man closed his eyes and began to slowly nod his head. Steadily the nodding grew stronger, faster, more exaggerated until somehow electric guitar exploded forth from nowhere and yet everywhere all at once. Face-melting metal solos and ludicrously fast percussion echoed across the land, pulsing in the veins of the living, reverberating in the skulls of the undead. The man opened his eyes, and a white light now burned where his eyes should have been. His mouth stretched into a manic grin, his feet left the ground, spinning expertly in the air to connect with the nearest skeleton's ribcage with a satisfyingly loud crunch in time with a drumbeat and an epic wail of the guitar. The skeleton shattered apart, bones flying in all directions. As he landed back on the ground, the man caught hold of a somersaulting femur. He pushed some of the unknown power evident in his blazing eyes down through his arms, forcing the brilliant white fire to twist around the thick bone before he brandished it against the oncoming tide. Skeleton after skeleton was scattered, bones flying in every direction as the battle-frenzied man punched and kicked and clubbed his way through the unfeeling sea of undead, fighting his way toward the lifeless commander.

The last skeleton he dispatched with a single downward swing of the femur, cleaving the skull in half and snapping off every bone on one side of its spine. The man now stood alone in the field with the first skeleton, as the omnipresent metal came to an interlude. The man's burning eyes locked onto the empty sockets of his adversary in a silent contest of wills between the living and the undead. Then, with a sudden onslaught of double bass drum and blistering guitar, both warriors rushed toward each other. The skeleton lord swung its blade at the man's midsection; the man leapt into the air, dodging the sword and slamming his bony weapon downward. The skeleton's empty hand flew up to block the blow, however, and it flung the man back through the air. He twisted, and managed to get his feet beneath him, landing, sliding back a few feet before he took off once more, running towards his enemy. His arm drew back, and he flung the femur at the skeleton. The fire in his eyes burned even brighter as he channeled his energy down his arms, wreathing his fists in white flames. The skeleton lord brought its weapon up to block the hurled legbone, but before it could make an attack, the man was upon it, landing a fiery punch on the greatsword and shattering it. He threw another punch with his other hand, but again the undead commander deflected the blow.

The battle raged on, each fighter throwing punches and kicks as the inexplicable metal soundtrack built to crescendo. Finally, the man broke through the skeleton's guard and latched a hand onto its faceless visage. Letting out a guttural cry, he poured forth blazing energy into its skull. The skeleton cried out, its unnatural shriek cutting over the land as its bony hands clawed at the man's face in a terrified attempt to free itself. The man's burning eyes narrowed. He fastened his other hand onto the skull, curling his thumb into the empty eye socket, and leaped into the air, bearing the skeleton to the ground. White fire exploded from its head, shooting out along its thrashing body until it was completely covered in flames. With a final hollow scream, the fire consumed its bones and the man was left kneeling alone in the field, his hands grasping only dust as a final wail of the guitar faded into the nothingness from which it was born.