Part 1

Countless sharp yellow teeth that reached all the way to the end of both sides of the monster’s monkey-like face formed into a devilish grin. Every single one of them looked as sharp as a knife. Blood was dripping from them. I wanted to run away with all my might.

I immediately recognized the creature as soon as it appeared in front of me yet I couldn’t believe it...I didn’t want to believe it. Right in front of me, with a height of around three meters, stood a monster nicknamed “devil spawn”. One of the monsters who stands at the very top of the silver tier: a fiend.

The reasons why the fiends acquired that nickname were their absurdly developed taste for blood and their horrific appearance that made it look like it came out of a nightmare. It would be impossible to compare the fiend’s appearance to that of an animal. It was a mix of many.

The overdeveloped front body, including shoulders, front arms and roughly half of it’s torso, was that of a gorilla. The muscles could be seen contrapting at each and every movement even under the thick black fur. The fiend’s hands had much less fru than the rest. The brownish skin could be clearly seen and it’s long fingers showcased a set of long and sharp claws. It’s back legs looked like that of a but, yet they were still covered in fur. It even possessed pitch black clogs, big enough to crush a grown man’s head. Unlike the rest of the body, the tail was completely devoid of fur, however, brown and dark green scales covered its whole length. The shape of the tail resembled that of a lizard, except for the tip that had a puff of fur like that of a lion. To end the fiend’s monstrous appearance, over the gorilla shoulders stood a long neck of a horse that carried a stretched version of a monkey’s head with white antlers on its top.

It was terrifying. I couldn’t bear the sight of that horrifying monster so I instinctively took a step back. I didn’t even get to finish the step that the monster resumed its crazed rush. With its head low and the antlers directed towards me, the monster started running, rising a heavy cloud of dust in its passage. I tried to run, to dodge the certain death that was coming my way...yet my legs didn’t move an inch. I was stuck on the ground, paralized by fear. I could do nothing but look straight at that black mass of fur and muscles rushing my way with the clear intent to trample me.

[Move...move...MOOOVEEE!]

I tried to scream but my voice didn’t come out. The only words I could formulate were stuck in my head, petrified.

[...I’m gonna die…]

It was now a matter of a mere second before the fiend would reach me. I could already see my death, either crushed or pierced by its antlers. I panicked. Cold sweat covered my whole face and body, yet I felt hot, feverish so. A thin curtain of sweat obstructed my sight, slightly blurring everything in front of me. My heart was beating so fast that I could feel it hitting against my lungs. It was as if my whole body was beating. My brain, my stomach, my liver, lungs, muscles, everything. Then, the world started spinning.

[I’m dead]

Suddenly, I felt like I was falling and right in front of my eyes was a familiar sight. Both my left and right were filled with tall grey and black colored structures full of glass and lights. Their top reached all the way through the clouds. In front of me was a blue sky filled with bright stars, some of them were even moving. I was back to Japan.

The cold air of the night was rushing through my hair as the sound of the usual traffic was ringing in my ears.

[I’m dead]

The lights in the sky started moving, little sparkles of light dancing on a deep blue stage. As I watched them moving, a cold grip strangled my heart. The shape the stars had created was a familiar one. It was my family. My old family. All of them were there, just like I remembered them, with their expressionless faces set in stone.

[I’m dead]

The stars changed their form once again. The cold grip became almost unbearable as I recognized the face painted in the sky. Kei. Kei, the girl I loved. Kei, the only one who stood with me even though I isolated myself. Kei, who watched me fall deeper and deeper in the pit of depression everyday. I felt like my heart stopped the moment the stars broke formation. She was leaving again.

[Let me die]

Other images started appearing in the sky. This time smaller. The stars started forming small groups and creating various images. The first one to take form was that of my father and mother. Arthur and Elizabeth. Unlike my late parents, their faces carried heavy expressions. In particular sadness. Their eyes were pointed directly towards me. I wanted to cry. Cry my eyes out at the sight of the parents who loved me so much being sad, yet no tears fell down my face. One more face took form, this time it was the turn of Kyvern, my master. His usual prideful and majestic expression was nowhere to be seen, in its place was one of powerlessness and remorse. I tried to stretch my hand, grab that bunch of stars, but they were too far away. More faces appeared around the others. Lucas, Julie, Sora, Youm...they were all broken. The suffering in their faces was as clear as day. I screamed, shouted, cried, stretched my hands and grabbed the sky. But it was all fruitless. Their faces were starting to fade away, disappearing into the deep blue.

[Don’t leave me...I don’t want to die! I wanna see you again! DON’T LEAVE ME PLEASEEE!]

The cold darkness of the night’s sky suddenly beamed with a bright white light. All the stars that formed the faces of those I held dear shone brighter than anything else as they all fell down towards me. Masses of pure white light, warm light, began dancing around me in circles. Sometimes touching my skin, others stopping in front of my eyes. When all the stars gathered around me, an explosion of light broke them all to pieces that gracefully fell through me. Whispering voices spoke in my head saying incompresible things. The chaos generated by them was driving me insane, breaking me apart. It felt like my brain was being torn apart and put back in a different place like a puzzle. Yet though all the pain and chaos one word was clear. Only one was loud enough for me to hear it, carried with strength all around my chaotic mind.

[Live]

Part 2

A brutally strong hand pulled me back to reality. The tall green trees, the slow river, the musky smell mixed with the stench of blood and a huge black mass of fur and muscles charging at me. I was indeed back to reality...but what was that? That question kept running through my head like a maniac. Was it really a dream? A revelation? The final delusion of my life? Or was it my own conscience trying to snap me out of my fear? Whatever the answer was, I was thankful. My legs had finally started moving again.

With all the strength I could possibly access in that split of a second, I threw myself to the side in an attempt to dodge the fiend. I could feel it’s body as it rushed not even five centimeters away from my feet. I rolled face first to the ground with dust in my eyes and shivers through my whole body. I breathed, finally. It felt like it was the first time I breathed in years. Air permeated my entire lungs sending pulses of life all around my muscles and organs. I was all right. I was alive.

Not as lucky as me were those who me and Lucas tied to the trees. A group of three adventurers who were struggling to break free from the tree right behind me was caught up in the monster’s run and were trampled by it. The result was horrific. I didn’t even notice that some of our “prisoners” had already escaped by the time the fiend made its appearance. Others, just like the now dead group of three, were still tied and trying their best to break out of the ropes. It was a pathetic yet pitiful sight. They all came here as a group, all with the same goal, all comrades. Yet now, everyone was caring only for themselves. If one was lucky enough to be able to break free, he wouldn’t even think of stopping and helping the other. Not even the friend next to him tied to the same tree. It was in those moments that I remembered just how pitiful humanity really is. More so in the moment of need. It doesn't matter how much or how many times you’ve helped someone, that same someone wouldn’t think twice about abandoning you if his life was at stake. I wasn’t any better. I stayed behind, blinded by my own “strength”, convinced I was able to take on everything. Yet as I saw the monster I wanted to do like those scared adventurers are doing now. Run.

But I had no time to think about my own cowardice. With another bone chilling scream, the fiend pointed his ugly head towards me and breathed out a heavy cloud of thick gray vapor from it’s nostrils. It's pale white eyes were pointed at me, glaring at the men who dared to offend that beast by dodging it. The fiend moved closer to one of the trees without interrupting eye contact, for a moment it felt like...humane. That is until it crushed two unfortunate adventurers under one of it’s big fists. The scene was gruesome. Only small bits of their bodies remained intact, the rest became something akin to a bloody puddle.

It was no random action of a mindless beast. The satisfied grin of the fiend’s face told me just how much it enjoyed the sound of broken bones and the smell of fresh blood. It was disgusting. The monster was pure evil intent made flesh.

I could not stand there and wait for my turn to be the monster’s enjoyment. I hid my left hand behind my thigh and rapidly created a stone bullet. The strongest I could make. The maximum density of the stone, the maximum rotation, the sharpest shape, the highest propulsion. Everything was maximized so that I could injure it, possibly heavily or at least incapacitating it long enough for me to cast another spell.

I was ready. The stone projectile 20 centimeters long as hard as steel was spinning midair a couple of centimeters from my palm. All that was left was to shoot it at the right time. And luckily, that moment came before the monster could claim other victims. The fiend took its eyes off me, searching for other people to crush. In that brief moment I extended my left hand and poured the remaining mana needed for the activation of the spell in my palm. It noticed me right after I shooted, but it was already too late, the projectile had already covered half our distance.

I saw the muscle on its back legs twitch as it readied itself for the dodge. I had miscalculated. Looking at its huge body I thought it wouldn’t have much speed nor reflexes. I was foolish. I forgot one, if not the most, important rule in every battlefield: never underestimate your opponent.

With the grace and sprint of a mantis, the fiend jumped towards my position. Judging by the looks of it, the monster had just jumped twice his height. But my spell wasn’t completely useless. Right before the fiend made it’s jump, my stone bullet was able to graze where the wrist should be. Drops of blue blood began wetting the floor it covered with it’s jump.

[I can injure it!]

I thought right before dashing backwards as I readied the next spell. I tried gathering mana as fast as I could in order to cast my modified version of “stone pillar” right where the fiend was supposed to land. Alas I wasn’t fast enough. With a sound landing, the monster slammed it’s forearms and closed fists on the ground, creating a huge cloud of pesky dust. The sound of its feet stomping was what followed.

“Stone pillar!” I shouted.

In my mind was the position of it’s already in motion step. As the spell accelerated by the use of natural mana reached it’s position, iron-like spikes rose from the ground for around a meter. The aim was to break its bones or cause it’s front arms to lose strength due to blood loss.

Ineffective.

The fiend simply swung it’s arms aimlessly in a furious rage, breaking apart the spell I had just conjured. Seeing my spell being trampled I started running in the monster’s opposite direction. Yet the speed of the fiend’s dash was too much for me to escape with a single dash. A clenched fist was ready on top of the monster’s head. When it fell it did so like a hammer. The ground around it broke and crumbled. With pieces of broken stone and dust being shot around the field, I was lucky to simply be thrown further back and not to lose my balance or be pierced by those stones.

I kept running. With the now acquired distance between us, I was able to reach the other side of the field undisturbed, where the thickest row of three stood like a wall. In the meantime I gathered mana in both my hands. “If piercing weapons don’t really work let’s try another approach” I thought to myself.

I spotted a tree. It looked sturdier than the rest, perfect for what I had in mind. With the edge of my eye I looked back to assert my prosecutor's position. It was close enough for the plan to work. I kicked the ground with both feet right in front of the tree. I had to send a whole lot of mana to my legs in order to reach a height of more than three meters, an impossible feat if I were to only rely on the “medium strength boost”. I had to go beyond. But that came to a price. What the boost became was an incomplete version of the never tried “average speed boost”, something that surpassed the limits of my current body. I felt my bones cracking yet not breaking, my muscles ripping yet still working and my tendons melting. All my lower body, from toes to the pelvic area, was breaking apart from the inside, causing me unimaginable pain. I had alway wondered, while coming up and testing new spells, how far I could go, how far I could push myself. Now I had an answer!

But surely, it was no time for me to give in to the pain. What awaited me if that plan failed would have been far worse than what I was experiencing now. I bit my lip and a warm taste of metal filled my mouth, momentaneously subduing the pain in my legs. The sound of the fiend’s head hitting the tree was the signal. I bit my lip even stronger than before readying myself for the pain that was coming. As blood spilled over my chin, I kicked the hard tree and propelled myself forward, with my head facing that huge mass of black fur. I wanted to scream. Scream my pain. I had never experienced the feeling of having all those bones cracking.

“FLAMER!” I shouted with my hands joined by the wrist and facing the fiend’s back.

A hot red blaze sprung from my palms and rained down on the muscular monster’s back. The black fur helped the fire spread as it burned faster than I had imagined. A scream of pain mixed with fury rose from the wide open jaw of the ugly monster as I was being pushed away by the knockback of the fire. It felt amazing seeing that seemingly invulnerable monster who had me stuck in place by fear, now wriggling in pain with a red hot fire on it’s back. If it wasn’t for the pain in my legs and my imminent fall of four meters, I would be laughing.

I ungracefully fell on the ground, trying to make a roll so that I wouldn’t put too much strain on my legs but still ended up hurting them quite a bit. “My job’s done” I thought with a smile on my face. I had indeed stalled it long enough for my two companions to flee the forest, or at the very least to put a huge distance between them and the fiend. Furthermore, with the now blazing fire on it’s back, the fiend wouldn't be able to outrun me like it did before due to the pain it was feeling. It was now my time to flee. I was planning on creating spikes and walls as I fled, just in case.

I felt victorious as I sprinted in the direction of the horses while holding back the tears from the pain. Surpassed the hole in the ground with stone debris. Run through a couple of dead bodies, too intact for them to be victims of the fiend. Jumped over the stash of weapons we previously collected and finally reached the first row of trees. I gave one last look back to my opponent. The fiend was shaking its head, trying to get rid of the fire that spread to the fur over there. Though it seemed confused, it was still running towards me. Slow and slightly wobbling.

“I wo-”

My exultation was cut short by a blade that came for my neck. I ducked and extracted my own sword, now sheathed back on my waist. A punch came from the same direction from where the enemy’s sword came from. I couldn’t dodge. The taste of blood in my mouth didn’t change much but now a burning pain on my lower lip was added to the list. The punch had probably broken it.

I fell to the ground and rolled on my back to regain my stance, buring the tip of my sword on the ground to stop the knockback. In front of me was the previously armor-clad man who played the ocarina-like instrument. A wicked smile was painted on his bloodied face, a knife stabbed in his side. I didn’t know for what reason he was doing so and why was a knife stabbed in his side. All I knew was that he was dangerous and that I didn’t have the time to fight him.

I tried to sprint away from him and outrun him but he saw through me. With a thrust of his sword he forced me to jump like a frog backwards. The fiend was coming closer and closer by the second. A sense of anger and fear started dwelling inside me.

Before I could react he had already dropped his sword and approached me in a hug-like position. I turned around, facing him with my back, in the attempt of pirouetting and dodging whatever was coming my way. My legs had to leave me in the worst possible moment. The pain was unbearable and the movement I had started never found it’s finish. A pair of wide arms hugged me around the chest like a clenching plier. I squirmed as much as I could, headbutting whenever his head was in reach and in the end managed to push him against a tree. As I felt his grip loosening, a sense of impending doom pervaded me, freezing my blood.

I looked in front of me and what displayed in front of my tearing eyes was the personification of fear. The huge mass of flaming black fur was charging right at me with it’s antlers readyed like a spear. My heartbeat accelerated. My pain completely disappeared. Around four meters before impact.

I struggled, squirmed, headbutted, pushed my arms out, hit his side with the hilt of my sword, launched my legs to the side. I tried everything I could. I was panicking.

Two meters before impact.

“May your death plashe Mashter Gallher-shama!” Whispered the man behind me. His grip loosened more. With a little push I could break free...but it was too late.

One meter before the impact.

I swung my arms as hard as I could and broke free from the hug. One last desperate try to dodge by dashing on the side...It was futile. An excruciating pain rapidly spread from where I was pierced by one side of the antlers. Right side, just over the waist. Outer left thigh. And lastly a hit dangerously close to my spleen. I could feel every single millimeter of the rough bony antlers piercing from side to side though my flesh all the way to the guy behind me and the tree.

My brain went blank. All the pain I had accumulated struk me at once. Legs breaking, face burning and body pierced all over. I felt the tissues around the said pierced parts burned as hot as a forge. Staring at me were the pale white eyes of the fiend. Was it satisfaction that I was seeing in them? Amusement maybe? Perhaps I was imagining things but those eyes...I hated those eyes with every fiber of my body. In an instant my right arm moved on it’s own. The sword I was carrying in it pierced the monster’s left eye. Half the blade was inside it when a scream full of pain made my ear bleed.

A sudden sense of emptiness filled my body as the fiend retracted its antlers by backing away. I remained in place, almost frozen like a statue. I could feel the energy leaving my body, the feeling of my conscience fading and the sprinkling sound of blood gushing out of the holes. Even thinking was becoming more and more difficult, let alone keeping my eyes open.

[That’s...how I...die…?]

My weakened knees fell on the ground, followed by my bloodied torso and my heavy head. The guy behind me did the same. I couldn’t see but I could hear the thud of a body hitting the hard ground.Looking in front of me, right in line of my sight, was the monster who I so desperately fought and almost escaped, crying in pain as it’s back burned and blood flowed out of one of its eyes.

Screaming and shouting in what felt like a mixture of pain, anger and shock, the fiend glared at me right before sprinting away with the same speed he appeared in the beginning. My vision blackened as my mind blurred and drowned in drowsiness. The back of the fleeing monster was the last thing I laid my eyes upon before all the light disappeared.

[I...did it...brother…!]