All Alphonse could hear was muted thumping coming from his ears as the surrounding people screamed and shouted. His thoughts went back to home…

“Mum, Tehya.” His voice trembled at the words as he recalled their faces for the first time since that event. His mum appeared, following his sister. Then his father gradually formed like a shadow, tormenting his heart.

“NOOO!” His guttural scream pierced everyone’s ears, and then suddenly, as if everything was just an illusion, it all disappeared

***

His eyes blankly looked around. Everyone looked at him in fear as they brandished their weapons. Dillan and Ellena’s eyes were still leaking tears as they looked at the cold, dead body of Isobelle.

“Leave him, we’ve got to move now!” Ian shouted at the others. Their complicated eyes finally looked like they had made their decision.

The screams of orcs were getting seriously close, they likely wouldn’t make it very far even if they tried. Alphonse's lips upturned into a brutal smile as he lifted his mace up off of the floor, gripping it so hard his knuckles turned white.

“I’ll keep them off of your back for a while.” Alphonse spoke directly at Dillan and Ellena. Before he even knew it his long found friends were being torn away from him.

“Alphonse…” Dillan and Ellena spoke their voices were choked up. Their eyes looked at him with great difficulty.

“No need for all of us to die here.” Alphonse didn’t give them time to decide as he sprinted forward.

‘I will not die… I will live with my sins… all of them.’ Alphonse swore to himself as he quickly met up with the two orcs. Their tusks snarled at the appearance of the human.

The two orcs seemed to shout something at him, but Alphonse wasn’t in the mood to interpret rage like orc language.

Despite what happened before, he activated Spectral Rage, his body changing once more. Alphonse looked like he was casting a shadow of an Orog, and it was strangely following his every movement.

“AHH!” He roared forwards as he catapulted himself towards the nearest orc. Just as the orcs' axe was about to land, Alphonse suddenly exploded in speed. His vastly increased strength stomped on the ground, propelling him forwards and sending a straight kick to the orc's chest.

He heard a loud cracking sound as the orc was flung backwards. Thanks to the speed they were both travelling at, the force of the hit had increased tremendously. Blood seeped from its mouth but it didn’t give up, the orc only seemed to become angrier as it throttled forwards. It completely ignored its own injury as adrenaline and rage seeped through its veins.

All of Alphonse’s well practised martial arts were now nonexistent, his instincts purely relied on his body being superior to the enemy as he barreled towards the orcs.

The orc moved his axe downwards, and then suddenly swiped upwards as the raging Alphonse approached. Alphonse, with his anger fueled mind, blocked the axe with his arm. The blade of the axe dug into the skin as blood trickled down from the wound. With his increased constitution, his strong bones held on as he sent his counter attack towards his enemy. He swung his mace downwards, straight at the hardest part of the orc's body. He heard a dull crunching sound. Its skull had shattered and splintered, but the Orc was relentless, barely clinging on to its life.

Alphonse immediately opened up his mouth without hesitation and chomped down as his Swallowing Bite skill activated. As he was already close, his mouth sunk into the neck of the orc. His teeth felt zero resistance as they tore through the thick green skin. Dark red blood sprayed forwards as the orc finally fell to the ground, helplessly clutching at its throat.

As Alphonse finished with that orc, the other had already quickly approached, its thick arms wrapped around his body as he squeezed tighter. Alphonse smiled as black shadowy teeth appeared once more. He looked into the eyes of the orc as his mouth widened… and then chomped down towards the green monster’s face.

Its harrowing screams filled the forest, it was missing half of its face, its quartered tongue wiggled around and then the orc fell limply to the ground.

[ Orc consumed | 1.8 Strength added | Constitution added 0.9 ]

With his enemies defeated, the Spectral Rage skill ended. Alphonse absentmindedly looked around at the destruction he and the orcs had created. However, he felt like something was missing. He felt like he had forgotten something. He quickly tried to go through his memories, trying to recall what he had lost. Then, like a lightning bolt struck his mind, he finally recalled the faces of his mother and his little sister.

He had almost forgotten them.

‘Is it because of the skill?’ Alphonse said sadness was clear in his eyes. Those memories were something he swore to never forget.

His body trembled. ‘I can’t use that skill again…’ His mind wandered, but he shook himself awake. Alphonse listened for any movement, then dragged his dreary body away from the fresh corpses of the orcs. He knew predators would be attracted to the smell of blood. His mind turned to his friends as he trudged through the forest.

‘Would they forgive me?’ As Alphonse’s thoughts were in turmoil, he eventually found a small crevice that was just big enough to crawl inside. ‘I’d better not go back…’ He forced his body into the small passage and soon passed out from exhaustion.

Alphonse wasn’t sure when but he woke up, he hadn’t a clue where he was, or what time it could be. It was then that a familiar voice arrived.

< Discover the secrets of the Veiled Cavern. [ Difficulty: Extreme ] [ Time Remaining: 29 Days. ] >

His eyes twitched at his updated mission.

‘How the fuck can we complete it in 29 days? Pretty much everyone is dead!’ Alphonse held back his seething anger. The words almost escaped his mouth as he thrashed around in the cramped little crevice.

‘Calm down, Alphonse, one step at a damned time.’ He took a deep breath and formulated a plan.