Pain.

It raged around within his body, a typhoon of agony. He clenched his eyes shut and yelled, unable to bear it. He didn’t know why it hurt. But it did. Like lava were flowing on his skin, like his skin was being peeled off his being. He rolled around, trying to stifle the pain.

A sickly smell hung on his nose, reminding him of the dragon’s blood. Finally, realization dawned on Yuuya as he remembered the epic fight between the two legendary beasts. The excitement and tension was beyond compare. His blood was boiling, roaring in response. And then, the dragon knocked him out with some kind of pressure.

Yuuya spluttered as he struggled to open his eyes. Saliva sprayed out of his mouth, as he attempted to recover. The pain primarily came from his back. It was searing hot, a hot ladle rubbing against his back. His skin had been flayed most likely, and his wounds had lemons rubbed in them. It was like a million specks of fire were forcefully widening the wounds, burning his innards.

He clenched onto the grass, stopping himself from rolling around. Clenching his teeth, he shakily opened his eyes, watching the world through the crack he could open up. The agony was just so much that he could barely do that too, as he immediately closed his eyes again.

Rolling onto his back, he howled again in pain, his skull reverberating with the sound. His throat felt like it was being torn to shreds as he roared, giving vent to the pain in his body. It had little effect, as the pain only got even more intense. Yuuya punched the ground, bloodying his fist. Ignoring the pain, he kept on doing it, shattering the bones of his knuckles. The skin on his hands was all but shredded, drenching it with his warm blood. Then, he could feel some thick viscous liquid covering the wound. Struggling again, he opened his eyes to look at the battered fist.

His entire arm-no, his entire body was covered with the violet blood. As he watched, the blood seeped into his fist. It was so battered that he could even see the horrifying whites of his knuckle bones.

An excruciating pain, triumphing what he felt from his broken fist shot up as the blood seeped in. It felt all too similar to the pain from his back. He resisted the urge and watched on. He wanted to know what it was that made him hurt so much.

For a second, he was bewildered. The violet blood was like some sort of glue. It visibly seeped into the cracks in his bones, and slowly dissipated. When the last drop vanished, it was replaced by a fully healed crack. However, that was all the more painful.

The blood healed.

Yuuya bit his tongue, gaining a bit of clarity. This could be his chance. If the blood was some sort of magical healing liquid, he should take advantage of it. Who knew whether he could get such an opportunity again?

The pain from his back, it was probably because of the blood healing his wounds. Biting down fiercely on his ravaged cheek, Yuuya struggled to sit up and sag against the tree. Gasping from the effort it took, he drew in huge breaths of air before he could get used to the pain. The agony from his back was mind crushing, but Yuuya held on. He had to focus now. He redirected his attention to his broken arm. The wounds on his right arm were quickly healing. A thick steam rose off of it as the skin was slowly being replaced.

Gritting his teeth, he gathered up some of the blood on his thigh and slathered it on his left arm. He readied himself for the onslaught of pain, but it never came. Surprised, he gazed at the slowly dissipating blood. Although it was vanishing, it had no effect. He checked his right fist and then the slowly decreasing puddles of blood on the ground.

It had to go inside him, mix with his own blood to heal. For a moment he considered consuming it, but his mind immediately warned him against it. Too dangerous. Some other way. Yuuya continued to storm his brain, trying to find a solution. Finally, he came to a conclusion. His right fist was almost healed, and most of the pain on his back was fading. The gashes would have healed by now. He turned around, and tightened his grip on a tree’s bark.

Grunting, he wrenched off a piece of the bark. Panting, he looked down at his arm, regret welling up inside him. Before rationality could persuade him away from it, he jabbed down. He tore a gash on his hand, ripping the skin, letting his blood burst forth.

With shaky arms, he dropped the blood soaked bark. He did not have much time remaining. He gathered up whatever he could of the violet blood, and pressed it into the wound.

Agony flared up as he did so. Grunting again, he kept gathering up all the blood he could. Droplets, handfuls-whatever he could and pressed it into the wound. The wound began closing up, and Yuuya panicked. He lurched forward and scooped up some of the blood on the ground, covering his hand with it.

With the extra blood in there, the pain almost doubled. Yuuya let out a gasp, his lungs lacking air. He curled up into a ball as his hand exploded into flames- flames of pain.

A few minutes later, it slowly faded away. Yuuya panted on the forest floor, lying down on his back. His body was covered with sweat. His clothes were fully revealed, and the blood had already vanished. Only dregs of it were around, remnants of large puddles.

With shaky legs, Yuuya struggled onto his feet. The pain on his back was all but gone. But, he lightly winced as pain shot up from his left arm.

“It’s not completely healed huh…” Yuuya bitterly smiled as he held his left arm.

The pain was minuscule, but it was there. The gash he opened up was gone, but the broken bones were not completely healed.

When he raised his head, Yuuya caught his breath.

Before him, there lay a humongous cylinder, covered with brilliant white scales. The scales glittered in the sun, although a major part of it was dim, covered in dirt.

“The dragon’s… head?” Yuuya muttered to himself as he captured the scene with his eyes. He remembered the wingless dragon’s head dropping after the dragon chopped it off with its tail.

Curiosity overwhelmed his caution as he went towards the dragon’s head. His steps were shaky at first, but they gradually grew more stable. Finally, all the pain he felt had faded away. His arm was the only injury he had, and that was almost fully healed. He heaved a sigh of relief, for the hectic events that had inflicted several wounds on them, they had finally been healed.

As he walked towards the severed head, Yuuya kept swinging his left arm around. He wanted to know how much it hurt, and when. As he raised his arm above shoulder height, the pain flared. Smiling bitterly, he quickly neared the head.

However, the removal of pain from his wound brought about a new pain. One that troubled him even before, but which was much more pronounced now. His stomach curled up in hunger, sending out twinges of pain. He pressed his arm against his tummy, as if he were suppressing the hunger. He needed food. And if worst came to worst, he’d just eat the grass.

When he reached the remains of the dragon, what greeted him was a huge oval. The outer oval was white, like the scales, while the inner surfaces were a thick pale violet. It was meaty, with a partially covered hole in the middle. A strong smell assaulted his nose, similar to that of the blood from before. Only, it was much stronger. Pinching his nose, he came about 5 steps away from the meaty surface.

There, Yuuya blanked out. His head was completely devoid of thoughts as he gazed at the flesh. Within him, a raw unbridled desire welled up. One that he could barely hold in. Within moments however, he couldn’t. Throwing away any and all restraints, Yuuya dove towards the flesh, his hands lashing out. His stomach growled as if in agreement. Any civilized impression he gave off completely disappeared as it was replaced by an animalistic expression. He tore the flesh away from the huge mass and stuffed it into his mouth.

It tasted like wax. Wax, with a fiery taste. His mouth felt like it swallowed a candle as he choked for breath. He clutched at his throat, his face turning blue as he struggled to swallow the chunk of hot wax. It almost burned a way through his esophagus as he somehow managed to swallow it. Gasping for breath, his caution against the pain was completely overwhelmed as he once again tore off meat from the carcass.

A few times he kept doing it, swallowing the hot waxy meat and choking himself to a near death state. His tummy was filled, his hunger sated, but he couldn’t stop. For some reason, the allure the meat presented was almost otherworldly. Even though he wanted to stop, he just had to keep eating it.

The last morsel was larger than the rest as it sent him sprawling on the ground, gasping for air. It was clear that this was too much for him, as he finally became lucid- only to be greeted with him choking himself to death. Stopping his attempts to spit it out, Yuuya struggled to swallow it.

His face turned white as he somehow managed to do it. He was tired-everything that happened finally took its toll on him as he collapsed. It was purely mental fatigue. Any physical fatigue he had was completely wiped by the painful yet potent treatment of the wingless dragon’s blood. His gaze was dimming as finally, finally Yuuya could go to sleep.

Darkness.

When he finally regained consciousness, Yuuya could feel that something was wrong. His back felt like it was being rubbed against something. Opening his eyes, he was greeted by a mud roof. Surprised, he tried to get up, but was unable to. His body was immobilized and something was holding him down as it dragged him along. Directing his gaze downward, Yuuya sucked in a cold breath of air as he realized that a pincer was gripping his abdomen tight.

Looking beyond the pincers, there was a dark brown fleshy part, with an aperture in the middle. Above it was a pair of large semi transparent sheets. Below the fleshy part, two long appendages stretched out, waving about. They were both covered with thin hair like filaments, and bent in the middle.

Yuuya gasped as he realized that he was being dragged away by some sort of giant insect. Looking back, he was in a tunnel, and there was a huge ugly face right behind him. It looked like an insect’s face, with multiple joined hexagons constituting two gray eyes. The tunnel was quite dark, but it was illuminated by some sort of glowing stones that were scattered here and there.

With horror, he realized that he was probably being dragged into the insect’s nest. He struggled to free himself, twisting and turning within the pincer’s grasp. It was futile as its hold was quite firm. Yuuya slammed his fists against the thick pincers, wincing in pain. His arm was still not healed, and it sent out pangs of pain. However his actions were useless as the pincers refused to budge.

As a last resort, Yuuya fiercely kicked against the hole in front of him, unwilling to give up.

A shrill cry, which sounded like the strings of a violin being ripped, echoed out as the pincers abruptly loosened. Yuuya’s body was freed as he fell onto the ground. Scrambling onto his feet, Yuuya immediately bolted to the opposite direction in which the insects were heading.

The insect right in front of him gave way as if it were afraid. It scurried away from him, and on its back was a chunk of violet meat. The dragon meat! Yuuya recognized it as he soon as he saw it.

Following after the ant, Yuuya shot off to the exit.

There were a lot more ants behind the first ant as they all began to flee. At first they were unwilling- but after seeing Yuuya running towards them, they were almost panicky as they rushed towards the exit. Gratified, he bolted toward the exit- hoping there was one.

The tunnel, which was initially level, began to slope upwards. A rush of cool air brushed past him, alerting Yuuya that the exit was close.

The ant guides did not disappoint as soon, Yuuya was jumping out of a hole. Without waiting for even a second, he bolted towards the left, deep into the forest. He was no longer hungry, nor in much pain. Being well rested, Yuuya was in a near perfect form as he raced into the forest.

Soon, he left the horde of ants behind as he went deeper into the forest. The golden moonlight illuminated the path as Yuuya kept running- He did not want to take his chances. As soon as he got a suitable distance between the insects and himself, he would try to climb a tree. With his nearly healed arm, it would only be a matter of time.

Glancing at the moon, he realized that it was night already. Meaning, he was out for quite a few hours- or maybe even a day. Since he wasn’t all that hungry anymore, it might’ve only been a few hours.

Yuuya slowed down and stopped running, gasping for air. He didn’t exercise much, and didn’t have a large amount of stamina- only average at best. He sagged against a tree and slid down into a sitting position. His eyes were filled with determination. All the happenings only proved one thing to him. He cannot die here. Until his last breath, he shouldn’t give up.

As his breath calmed down, he jumped onto his feet and began inspecting the tree. He placed his arms against the rough bark, and clenched it. Placing his right foot on there first, Yuuya slowly began climbing the tree.

It was quite slow. With an injured arm, there were some times when he almost fell down. After about 10 minutes, Yuuya finally mounted a branch. He lied down on his stomach, hugging the thick branch. Although it was rough and uncomfortable, he tried to sink into a light sleep. Although he got some sleep before, he had to rest when he could. And since it was nighttime, there was no guarantee that there wouldn’t be predators prowling around.

Yuuya’s eyes were clouded over as he reminisced about all that he faced here. It had been two… or maybe three days since he’d arrived. Slowly, he remembered how he came here, and how the others had vanished. Were they here as well? However, they were zapped away, while he was thrown into the sky. Worry for Shizuka blossomed in his gut.

A hint of panic arose in his eyes. He had no idea what to do. Even if Shizuka came here, how would he find her? Within this forest, he could only barely survive, how would he go about searching for Shizuka?

Taking a deep breath, he tried to calm himself down.

Yuuya collected his thoughts as he tried to figure out a solution. The biggest disadvantage was that he had literally nothing here. No knowledge, no strength, no contacts. That said, it wasn’t even necessary that Shizuka was here. She could be somewhere else, and he wouldn’t be able to find her either way.

Finally, Yuuya came to a conclusion. One, he had to get out of the forest, or find some habitation. There, he had to find someone to help him search the forest. Two, he had to find some method to make himself able enough to scour the forest. Either method was not easy.

His gaze turned resolute as Yuuya decided on his course of action. He had to either find someone to do it for him, or make himself able to do it. Either way, he had to find a place of inhabitation.

He once again began to sink into sleep as he made up his plan. He could only depend on luck as he had to walk in a random direction.

And hope he’d end up somewhere.

End up somewhere alive.