This chapter has been proof-read by: AnthonyL

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Deciding to trust my gut instinct, I leaned in closer to Rambo and whispered into his ear. “Don't eat or drink anything while we're here.” Hearing these words, Rambo subtly nodded and kept following me. In the centre of the village was a giant bonfire with people dancing around it. Everybody wore face-paints different than their usual, but after a few verifications, they appeared to be 'festival' versions of their normal face-paints.

Hunters had a 'festival hunter' face-paint and so did the others as well. These paints were more intricate and more colourful than their usual ones. Kuyani then brought a cup of something smelling like sweet alcohol for me, and a bigger bowl for Rambo before offering a toast. Being the paranoiac type, I decided to subtly dip my finger into the liquid and touch the tip of my tongue with it to test for poison.

Luckily, nothing seemed to be wrong with the strange liquid but I still decided to stealthily throw it on the ground anyway while nobody watched me. As for Rambo, he seemed to have decided to heed my advice to the letter and simply left his bowl untouched. Suddenly, a loud drumbeat echoed through the entire village and made everybody act frantically.

Wondering what was happening at first, some people wearing face-paints looking like they had drawn a blue beard on their faces appeared holding huge drums in their arms. The nanites identified these people as being musicians, which seemed logical seeing what they were carrying. The musicians then installed themselves near the fire and began to beat their drums in a very entrancing tempo.

Everybody began to dance and act wildly all around us. Kuyani kept pestering me to come dancing with her and have more food and drinks, but I kept stealthily throwing away everything she gave me. I wasn't fearing them, but I wasn't stupid enough to trust food given to me by strangers of an unknown species after all.

Rambo and I were sitting next to each others close by the fire and were astonished by the natives' ability to party. It had been no more than an hour since our arrival there, but the party was already going on full swing with people dancing and screaming all around us. I was expecting this party to be more about us, but most of the natives were seemingly ignoring our presence there.

A few minutes later, the drumbeats changed as well as the atmosphere all around us. Everybody suddenly became quiet and began to stare intensely in our direction. The drumbeats began very slowly and quietly, sounding almost like a war march. The atmosphere was giving me goosebumps, but Kuyani then stood up in front of me, and began to dance in a very seductive manner.

She kept staring at me in the eyes with lustful eyes as she kept shaking her hips to the music. The drumbeats gradually became louder and faster, and so did Kuyani's dance. The movements of her arms and hips remained in perfect sync with the music which seemed to be gradually reaching a climax.

Seeing her dance so seductively for me, made my heart waver. She was so elegant and attractive in the way she danced, that I wondered if her ultimate goal was to seduce me into staying here. Sadly for her though, it wasn't going to happen no matter what she tried.

The music kept intensifying as Kuyani got closer and closer to us, and as the music reached its peak, Kuyani grabbed two small sacks tied to her waist belt and threw them at us. As she did so, the two bags emptied themselves in the air, sending clouds of powder straight at our faces. “Cough* Cough* Cough*”

[Poison Detected]

[Detoxification initiated: (5%)] -- [(14%)] -- [(21%)]

Eh? Poison? While I was still confused and trying to piece things together, the thousand plus little humans then suddenly began to scream savagely. They all immediately began to dig up weapons they had hidden buried under the sand and came charging at us with visible killing intent in their eyes. I was feeling dizzy and could barely keep my eyes open.

So this was what she had come up with? If I didn't stay, then they wanted me dead? Quickly looking to my right so see how Rambo was doing, I saw my little boy wavering and having a hard time staying on his legs. “Father, Rambo is feeling bad, a-and scared-...” He managed to say with his voice quickly weakening. Seeing him like that, made my blood boil. These fucking aliens had poisoned my baby boy? Unforgivable.

As the rabid aliens were about to strike at us, the awaited message finally appeared.

[Detoxification Completed: (100%)]

“UNFORGIVABLE!” Blinded by rage after seeing Rambo lose consciousness, I let out a giant wave of dokari which blew all the nearby aliens away from us. The massive amount of dokari being released in my rage sent shock-waves capable of destroying the buildings and making some of the aliens faint under the pressure. Arrows were launched in my direction, but all bounced off of me like they were toys.

The last thing I had ever wanted to do, was to kill a human. But these motherfuckers had come at us first, so this was self-defence. I could also rationalize this by considering these purple fucks as monstrous aliens instead of humans. Not feeling any hesitation anymore, I pulled out my handgun and rained lead upon them. BANG!* BANG!* BANG!* BANG!* BANG!* BANG!* BANG!*

These shit-bags' bodies were so fragile that a simple 5mm bullets acted on them like .50cal ones. Simply put, the bullets could go through 8 of them before stopping, so a small 10 rounds magazine was dealing with a surprisingly large number of them. As soon as the magazine ran empty, I lit all of my pipe bombs and dragon-juice incendiary grenades, and threw them everywhere around me.

No matter where your eyes landed, only chaos, fire and destruction could be seen, and all that had happened in only a minute. Most of the aliens had quickly turned tails and were running away into the forest, but one of them had remained at the same spot the entire time. Kuyani was among the only ones still in my immediate vicinity at this point.

I had been careful not to lose sight of her this entire time. At this point, I was even prepared to torture her to get the antidote for Rambo if necessary. So no matter what she did, she was not going to get away from me. If a glare could kill, she would have been shredded to pieces on the spot. Terror could be seen in her eyes as she slowly backed away from me.

Following her speed, I slowly walked toward her while still expelling a monstrous amount of dokari. A few meters later, I sensed a few aliens running toward the unconscious Rambo behind me. So even after all this, Kuyani had still tried to distract me away from Rambo so they could kill him behind my back.

I rapidly formed a dokari tentacle and sliced the stealthy aliens in half without even looking back. My control over those dokari tentacles had greatly improved these last days. Just like that, the last bit of affection I had left for Kuyani vanished. Not knowing the word for 'antidote', I opted for a word she would understand.

“HEAL” I threateningly said in a voice filled with killing intent while pointing at Rambo. By now, she should have realized that she had messed with the wrong person, but before she could say anything, my sensing ability caught something unexpected. Something else was happening.

All around us in the forest, the presence of the retreating aliens were disappearing at a very fast rate. They were either teleporting away, or being killed off at an incredible speed. Among them, a familiar presence could be felt moving around at a speed I could barely keep up with. “N-n-no need f-for an a-antidote.” Finally blabbered Kuyani, bringing my attention back to her.

What did she mean by no need for an antidote? Was she saying that it wasn't a deadly poison? Or that it was impossible to save him? I rushed up to her in a swift movement, grabbed her by her hair and lifted her off the ground so we could meet eye to eye. “Will he survive?.....” I calmly asked with veins popping out of my forehead. “ANSWER ME YOU BITCH!!!!” I then screamed in her face as my temporary composure began to fall apart.

“Rambo is safe now.” Unexpectedly said a manly voice coming from the forest. I recognized this voice. It belonged to the mysterious man I had felt going around and killing the retreating aliens a few minutes ago. It was the voice of my mysterious black masked benefactor. The man then suddenly appeared as he walked out of the forest, and headed toward us.

He was still wearing his famous black cloak and black mask, and seemed to be holding two severed heads in his hand. After walking a few more meters, the man eventually stopped and threw the two heads in our direction. The severed heads rolled for a few meters and stopped near my feet.

Instantly recognizing who these two heads belonged to, I unconsciously let go of Kuyani's hair, making her fall to the ground with a thud. “1843 numio zo karna. Iz khool farni za opaz ziru kasham, Kuyani-jho~~” Said the masked man in a playful voice.

Duliptani to English:

“1843 people in total. I didn't spare a single one of them, dear Kuyani~~”

“UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!” Recognizing the heads of her father and mother, Kuyani let out a heart wrenching scream which seemed to be coming from the deepest part of her soul. First came the screams, followed by tears, then sobs, but eventually her boiling emotions turned to anger.

She then grabbed a stone axe she had found on the ground, and ran toward the masked man with fury in her eyes. “GRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrr*” Seeing Kuyani scream and growl like that, made me see her in a different light. She had suddenly lost all of her charm and looked more like a wild beast, rather than the cute and gentle woman I had first thought her to be.

“GYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaa- Kuh!* Urggrgggggggr*” What happened next was simply too fast for me to clearly see. Kuyani began to run toward the masked man with the axe in her hand, but had already lost her head a few steps later. After witnessing such a gruesome scene, knots formed in my stomach and almost made me vomit my lunch out.

My legs were shaking so much that I could barely stand up straight. Quickly snapping out of it, I ran back to Rambo and shook him a bit to try to wake him up, but no matter what I did, Rambo remained unconscious. “Don't worry, he will wake up in a few hours. The poison they used was meant to temporarily knock the both of you out.” Eventually said the masked man.

I was incredibly confused and my head was filled with thousands of questions, but all I could focus on right now was Rambo's safety. “Are you sure? Will he really be alright?” I inquired whilst still panicking. “I would not have let you come here with him if I hadn't been sure of his safety...” He finally answered.

His answer sounded weird to me for some reasons. He 'let us' come here? Making sure of Rambo's safety? Didn't it sound awfully weird? The way he spoke almost sounded as if he knew this was going to happen, but didn't feel the need to tell us because he knew we weren't in real danger? Isn't that an ass-hole thing to do, or even to say to someone?

“I know how you feel, trust me I know it very well... But you can calm down now, no one is in immediate danger anymore.” He then added after seeing the annoyed look on my face. “Why are you speaking as if you knew this was going to happen?” I asked the man while trying to calm my anger.

“Haaa but that's because I did know... You must have many questions, but what about adding even more questions to those?” Immediately after saying these words, the masked man raised an arm and reached for his mask. He then slowly took it off while feeding the suspense but eventually allowed me to see my mysterious benefactor's face.

Looking at the man's face almost made me lose my mind for a moment. I couldn't quite comprehend what I was seeing but the man standing before me, was me. An older version of me certainly, but there was no doubt that it was me. “W-what is this?.. How is th-” Unable to finish my question, I was starting to feel like I was losing my mind.

“Hehehehe, I waited to see that face for a looong time, 'younger me'. Hehehe” He simply said with a giant grin on his face. “Now, how about I answer all of those pesky questions of yours once and for all? Ha! But let's not do this here shall we.” After saying these words, 'older me' reached for a tactile screen tied to his wrist, and pressed a finger against it a few time. He then pointed his finger up at the sky, indicating me to look up.

As my eyes went up to the sky, something suddenly began to appear out of nowhere. It was as if something had been there all along, but was hidden by some type of cloaking device. Like something from a sci-fi movie, electrics sparks then began to appear in some areas where we couldn't see through anymore, gradually allowing us to see the basic shape and size of the flying object above our heads.

Finally able to see the giant object that had been invisible up till now, I was floored. I was a very rational man, but what my eyes were seeing didn't make any sense. I was gradually falling into a pit of confusion. I sat next to Rambo, placed my right hand on his head and kept looking at the flying object in awe. I was in such disbelief, that I thought my jaw would dislocate itself.

“Hahahaha! Yes yes! That's the face I was really waiting for! Hahahaha* My sides, my sides hurt! Hahaha*” Older me was laughing his ass off because of my reaction but it was impossible for me not to react this way. “A-A....A fucking spaceship????” Until a few minutes ago, I was still in the stone-ages, but now this?

“Khukhukuku How about we go for a ride. We'll have time to talk on our way there.” Said older me. “Go where?” I worryingly inquired. “To where your friends are, obviously...” He nonchalantly answered. “You know where they are? Rambo said they weren't in town anymore!” I was worried about them, and maybe this older me knew where they were.

I was still really wondering who this person really was, but his voice, the way he moved, his face, and even every mole and scar on his body seemed to be similar to mine. There was also the fact that I knew that if he wanted me dead, he could have killed me a long time ago. All of this put together made it a lot easier for me to trust him.

“Of course they aren't there anymore... I brought them somewhere safe. They would be dead by now if I hadn't. And trust me, I know that for a fact.” He eventually answered with seriousness in his voice. The spaceship then slowly began to descend and softly landed right next to us. 'Older me' then walked up to the ship, and by doing so, prompted a door to open out of nowhere.

Before getting on board, 'old me' turned toward me and waved his arms with excitement clearly visible on his face. “Come on, bring Rambo and let's get the fuck out of here already. Stop spacing out for fuck sake....... That face earlier though. kukuku”