Jack moved through the bushes, trying to move silently in order to get a better view of the enclosure. The first thing he noticed was a barren patch of land, his tent, along with all other belongings gone. He wasn’t much fazed at that, for this was the second time such a phenomenon was occurring.

However, what made his face blanch was the thirty or so year old blonde woman lying twenty metres away from him, staring at the sky motionlessly- though Jack could only see one side of her face from this angle. His body, refined under the blue flames of the divine, could make out her features clearly.

She wore a look of horror on her face, or at least watch Jack inferred- her left pupil was wide, from possibly shock, and her mouth was still open- she might have died screaming, which sent chills down Jack’s spine. A puddle of blood had coagulated along her abdomen, but there were no further wounds on her face, arms or legs Jack could make out. There were no scratch marks, so it was unlikely that the perpetrator was an animal type monster, but more likely one of those alien goblins or some other variant.

Jack’s instincts flared up, and he had not forgotten how badly he’d fallen for the ambush last time- almost resulting in the death of his companion. He had lucked out at a second chance at life, and if he was destined to go down, then it would be on his terms.

He slowly retreated, his emotions as a civilian on Earth biting at him for letting a crime go unpunished, but there were no cops to call anymore. His brain however, did not help- reminding him that he’d actually seen the woman in the morning, drinking coffee with a black haired man in his late thirties, who had a well built physique and gave the aura of a serious, no-nonsense type of man. Jack hadn’t really exchanged any words with the duo, beyond a casual ‘morning’ greeting- he liked minding his business anyway, and the couple didn’t invite him for a chat either- a fact that he subconsciously appreciated them for.

Huh, how did he even remember that much detail? Jack inferred that thought processing went beyond the literal description, and even improved his memory storage capabilities. What happened to the man? Did he manage to survive? He should still be within the forest, which meant that there was a chance Jack might run into him later. Where were the rest of the campers? Did they scatter?

‘Fuck. Relax,’ Jack said to himself, but it wasn’t helping. That was a person right there, a human fucking being. Thousands of years of societal evolution and weapon development gone just like that, with a ‘poof’. This was the wilderness, and the only laws that applied here was that of the jungle. He felt a wave of nausea was over him, but the adrenaline and tension he felt seemed to stave that off for now.

Jack retreated backward slowly, while keeping his eyes on the open campground to watch for any threats.But the bigger problem he was being confronted with was, what now? Regrouping with the campers didn’t seem plausible since the only one he found was dead and the nearest motel was a seven hour drive away, through forest roads. : Jack knew he’d just find an empty patch of land there instead, not to mention he’d be going further and further away from the Citadel.

Jack felt a sensation akin to a phantom pinprick assailing the right side of his body, and the next instant his instincts started screaming at him. Without hesitation, he shifted from his crouching position, using his left hand to roll forward- a fear he had confidence performing with his reforged body.

Turning around swiftly, shield at the forefront, Jack turned around to face… nothing. There was nothing there, except an empty patch of grass flanked by shrubbery at either side. The instinct Jack felt at that moment was a primal response, and every instinct of his being told him he was not being paranoid: but then what was the problem?

Concentrating on his hearing, Jack tried to see if anything for amiss. It was very slight and muted, but Jack could barely hear the shifting of grass in the eerie, silent forest. A hiss echoed out the next second, and a slender blur of purple and pink that was three feet in length darted at him with surprising speed.

Jack’s eyes opened wide, and he shifted his shield to guard lower while taking one step back. His shield rippled as now what Jake identified as most likely a snake clashed against it, being repelled half a meter. The snake was relentless, taking half a second to recover and then leaping back at him, but Jack was prepared. The snake leapt, and Jack waited for it to make contact with the shield: it was connected to his qi, so he could sense the exact moment it did. Then he pushed his shield outward with all the force he could muster, sending the snake careening for over a dozen meters, easily.

Jack took off into a sprint in the other direction, without looking back. He wasn’t about to gamble his life on a puny snake that he could barely slash at with his sword- his objective was survival, at all costs, not mindless killing. There was simply no way a snake was catching up to him, or at least it shouldn’t. If it could run faster than him at full speed, he was probably a goner anyway.

He now severely regretted leaving Luna along for even one minute, switching to the direction his mini-map pointed in. He picked up the fur bag he’d fashioned along the way, slightly reducing his speed to do so, then going for another five minutes before taking cover behind a tree.

He was panting from the exertion this time around, but thankful for the new ‘danger-sense’ power the sensory stat seemed to have unlocked. He had no intention of finding out what toxic venom the snake carried within its poison glands, but it had still come too close for comfort. He desperately needed something to level the playing field, but getting in one piece to the citadel was a long term goal.

After scanning his surroundings twice, he decided to wake up Luna because carrying her around simply wasn’t feasible with how dangerous things were getting.

He unfurled the fur cloth, delighted to see that the wound on her cat’s abdomen had mostly healed, only slight bruising remaining on her side.

“Luna, hey, Luna, time to wake up,” Jack gave her a good head rubbing, causing her to nuzzle in his hand. She opened her eyes, communicating a general emotion of grogginess and confusion. So far, Luna seemed to only be able to communicate one emotion at a time, but that was still a great feat. Jack conveyed a sense of urgency and asked her if she could follow.

The feline did not complain, getting up to her feet and shaking her head vigorously from side to side. Then, she gave Jack a nod.

Jack told her to try and walk around, and though her first few steps were a little sleepy she seemed to be alright.

“Thank you, Luna. You saved my life.” Jack thanked her with heartfelt emotion, and the cat seemed to stand uprighter at that, extending her neck out.

Jack had an amused expression on her face, because the emotion Luna conveyed was of pride, deservedly so.

“Please, just warn me by screaming, er.., mewling, as hard as you can. Never do that again,” Jack tried to be stern, but it was damn hard to scold someone who just saved your life.

Luna nodded in response, but Jack didn’t know if he could trust her word. He just hoped she listened this time around.

The man and cat were back in action, moving deeper through the jungle after running out of options. Besides, Jack figured that if he couldn’t meet up with people at the camp ground, on route to the citadel was the next best option. He would honestly have preferred to wait at the campsite, but one dead woman and a mutated snake attack weren't exactly the welcome he was hoping for.

The next forty or so minutes passed uneventfully, with Jack taking the lead and Luna following behind him. He knew he’d lost out on a few hours of travel by going back to camp, but he had to try and recruit people.

Distant voices coming up from up ahead alerted Jack, causing him to stop in his tracks- trying to make out what was being said.

“- is that!? I lost sight of- aaaaah!” A gruff, older male voice screamed in agony, Jack only being able to catch a part of the conversation.

“Fucking hell! Run!,” A manic female voice of a younger woman screamed shrilly, barely a minute later.

“Alex on me, Sam with Charlie. We need to split up, or we’re all done,” A commanding, loud male voice ordered loudly, in immediate succession.

Silence reigned for a few minutes, before Jack realised he could feel the footsteps getting closer.

Jack cursed under his breath, this was not what he had in mind when he said he wanted to recruit people.

“Charlie, we need to fight back. They’re gaining on us too fast!” The woman shouted with panic dripping from her voice.

“Damn it all. Fine!” An equally young male voice responded back with resignation in his voice.

Jack’s self preservation instinct long having kicked-in, he was clambering the douglas-fir tree he was using for cover earlier, gripping between the gaps in its bark for grip. The moral conflict raged in his heart: the idealistic side believed that he should assist his fellow hikers because that was the right thing to do, while the pragmatic side argued that his efforts to provide assistance might backfire on him if they were dead before he even reached them, meaning that he’d be next in line for whatever monstrosity they were facing. He tightened his resolve: the objective mattered above all, but he would reserve the decision for later.

His increased physical and sensory stats meant that it only took him a few minutes before he was up on the lowest hanging branch that jutted out from the opposite side of his fellow cultivators. He stood upright on the branch, Luna already having gotten up there on her own with a feline agility that surprised Jack every time he saw it.

He was still fifteen, maybe twenty metres high, but didn’t feel particularly nauseous or scared despite never really having climbed a tree before. In fact, when Jack let go of the tree’s bar for support, standing on a thick tree branch that could easily support his weight, he felt confident, knowing that he would not fall- a certainty had born into his actions, after surviving two creatures that most likely should have killed him.

He perked up because he could clearly see the back of the hikers from his new vantage point, and the foes they faced.

“Guard my back!” The five foot ten man roared, and Jack could feel the adrenaline in this voice. This was the voice of a man who’d accepted the odds were stacked against him, and would not go down without giving his foes a glimpse of what awaited them in the afterlife.

He was projecting a Qi Tower Shield in the front, and the system wasn’t lying- it was a curved semi-cylindrical shield that guarded the entirety of his front from all attacks, while a large, intimidating, bloody mace was raised up high in his right hand.

“Be careful,” The woman called out as repositioned herself, holding a long spear with a glowing light blue tip- that Jack assumed was the skill: Qi spear. He guessed she was the one called Sam, while the other one was charlie- from the tone of their voices.

Jack’s heart almost skipped a beat when he saw the monstrosities they were facing: their base physiology resembled that of wolves, but they were much smaller and compact in comparison. Their skin was composed of a crystalline substance that was glimmering under the light of the setting sun. Each time Sam’s qi spear collided with the surface of the wolves’ skin, sparks echoed out as cold steel met mutated physiology before the wolves retreated. Their bright orange eyes, razor sharp teeth and claws and tricky speed due to their small size made them a bonafide nightmare.

Sam kept two wolves from snapping at Charlie’s exposed back, thrusting wildly with speed beyond the average human, while Charlie defended her front from two wolves relentlessly slamming their bodies into the qi tower shield, trying to breach its tolerance level.

Pressed to the breaking point, Charlie roared madly and started to press forward- with one step, he maneuvered his tower shield and slammed one wolf charging at him from the left- sending it flying for half a dozen meters. He caught the other wolf leaping at him with a scary precision, connecting his brutal spiked mace directly with the wolf’s small head- slamming it into the ground.

“Die!” Charlie screamed, and smashed down his mace again, and this time Jack saw silvery liquid dripping from his mace.

However, Charlie’s abrupt movement caused an already swamped Sam to lose her tempo. She managed to finally pierce through one wolf’s hide, causing a painful yelp from it in response, but it wasn’t fatal. Perhaps it was the anxiety from not knowing if Charlie was still guarding her back, but she ended up taking a fleeting glance involuntarily.

That turned out to be a costly mistake, as the other wolf used that moment of weakness to its advantage- clawing at her arm and leaving three streaks of bloody laceration across it, rendering it useless.

Sam screamed, instinctively flailing her muscles and luckily pushing the wolf away from her before she lost feeling within that arm . This entire exchange had taken place in slightly over a minute's time, and Jack was moved by their determination. His objective was one thing, but he was a human like them in desperate straits- his instincts told him that it was just the right thing to do, even if it placed him in danger. Civilization had once shaped itself out of the law of the jungle and it could do so again.

Just as he was about to scream at them to hang in there, something happened that caused Jack to just stare at the scene of their epic fight with hollow, blank eyes. His sword hand lay limply at his side, and his shield dissipated.

A bloody Sam, who was down to gripping her spear with her remaining hand, turned back around to gaze at Charlie, who coincidentally looked back at her at that exact moment- taking in each other’s situation. On her side, there was one healthy and one lightly injured wolf, while Charlie, who seemed to be in perfect condition, had killed one but still had to face one down. All their efforts, and only one of their foes was dead.

In one fluid motion, Sam swung her spear with such precision and grace that Jack was entranced- until he realised that she wasn’t aiming at the wolf. A slashing sound echoed out- Sam had perfectly targeted the back of Charlie’s right ankle, cleanly severing all his tendons in one go.

Charlie screamed in pain, but even greater rage. “You bitch!” He howled in the agony of betrayal, as he fell down to one knee- his tower shield dissipating from the momentary loss of focus.

Without looking back, Sam rushed into the nearest forest clearing and broke out into a sprint, leaving Jack’s field of vision.

The wolves remaining three howled in unison, and one of the two healthy ones broke out from the pack to hunt Sam. The other two jumped at a defenceless, horror stricken Charlie from both sides. One wolf instantly ripped out this throat, causing him to die choking on his own blood, eyes wide in horror.

‘No…’, Jack powerlessly whispered to himself, and felt something breaking inside him. Until now, he didn’t really understand what the ‘survival’ part of the trial meant, but now…. All Jack wanted to do was walk away and deny the event ever happened, deny that it might have been his fault.

But he couldn’t. At that moment, Jack realised that he hated himself. He couldn’t walk away. A tear dripped down his right eye, as he confronted his conflicted emotions.

“Remember the objective, Jack,” was all his mind kept telling him over and over again. There were two powerful monsters out there in the open, one injured and the other one vulnerable.

A hollow-eyed Jack disembarked from the tree, climbing down for five meters and then just letting him fall on his knees. Sword drawn and shield projected, Jack charged- already knowing their exact location from his vantage point.

He broke through the clearing two minutes later, to see two repulsive crystalline wolves whose luminescent skin was matted in blood by now. Red blood.

There was no doubt or hesitation in his movements as he charged with his shield at the front, already having mapped out any obstacles in his path. The wolves were startled by the entry of this new combatant, and the uninjured one managed to beat a hasty retreat. The one that was leaking silvery blood however, was just a bit slower.

Jack smashed, more than slammed his sword down upon its head, forcing it to crumple against the ground- but from the sparks it was clear he hadn’t done enough damage. The mace was a brute force weapon, and this artefact wasn't supposed to break easy- so Jack just smashed his sword at its head again. And again.

The wolf whined in pain, but Jack was incapable of mercy after seeing what it did to that helpless man. This was a creature that killed not for food, but for pleasure- it enjoyed dealing pain. The other, uninjured wolf roared in anger leaping at Jack furiously.

But Jack just easily sidestepped it, letting it use its own momentum to create distance from him. He used that momentary respite to smash down one final time, causing a spray of silver blood to gush out.

A mental notification informed him that the wolf was dead, but Jack did not feel any sense of accomplishment at the feat. He had expected it, after watching their movements in advance.

The second wolf leapt at him again, but Jack felt a massive burst of energy flow into his body after the first kill, energising and empowering him.

The wolf charged at him, and he parried with his shield. It came again, and this time Jack countered with a slash. The wolf was relentless, even though it could escape at any time, but Jack had already realised that he was not much different. It took ten long minutes, but Jack grinded it down until its crystalline shell took so much damage it began to show visible cracks.

With one final strike, Jack granted the wolf absolution- severing its neck clean from its abdomen. His sword was now a gleaming silver, dyed in wolf blood. Another wave of blue fire purified him, but he did not feel strength flow into him like before. Now that silence had once again shrouded his surroundings, he could hear light whimpering from behind him.

Surprised, Jack turned around, only to almost vomit as Charlie’s body came into his sight. Next to it, the wolf Charlie had pummelled into the ground was surprisingly still alive, its small chest expanding and contracting in agony. He walked over and dealt it a finishing blow as a mercy, but Jack knew he would have done it regardless for the power it would grant him.

The blue flames flowed through his body, healing a small nick the wolf had left behind and strengthening him. Jack filed that in his mind for later use, it could be a possible life saver.

Before going back to pick Luna, Jack felt that he could do the brave warrior one little mercy- Jack did not wish to see those haunted eyes on a man who fought with such valor, so he moved his palm to close them and offer a prayer.

To his surprise, a system alert popped up in front of him.

You have discovered an unclaimed kill. You may claim the cultivator’s items. Time remaining: 12m 24s/ 30 m.

Jack felt himself losing strength in his knees, as he fell to the ground- conflicted with the new reality he faced, a far cry from the civilization he was used to.

He stared at the sky with conflicted emotions in his eyes and spoke, “You terrible, terrible bastard.”

“Yes.”