Riiiiight.. Okay.. what’s that supposed to mean? What damned trails and what damned game? Honestly, I should sleep more.. I bet this is a nightmare caused by my sleep deprivation. I mean I only sleep like 13-14 hours a days, surely that’s not enough!

A deep rumbling noise cut right through Tyler’s inner musings as the cave wall split in half. After some really long seconds of torturous screeching and ear bursting sounds the noise finally quieted down, a two by two meter wide hole had formed in the wall right in front of his eyes.

Ears still ringing and senses disorientated from the loud noise, Tyler fell down to his knees.

Holy cave walls, that was louder than a magnum 500.. And that speaks a lot, believe me. Now what on earth is this hole? An escape from this stupid dream perhaps? Waking up in my oh so soft sofa sounds quite pleasant, wouldn’t say no! Let’s go.

Just as Tyler straightened up and was about to take the first step towards his desired escape a man stepped out of the hole, confusing and surprising Tyler quite a bit.

What.. on the? Why is this dude naked?

“Oi mate? What the fuck? What are you doing in my sleep? I’d rather had a naked chick, you stupid brain of mine!”

Too preoccupied with his thoughts Tyler did not notice the man fasten his pace until he was practically charging at him with a sprinter’s grace! In the span of a second the man was already in front of Tyler, swinging his fist with mighty momentum bend on caving Tyler’s skull in.

His instincts kicking in, Tyler was just barely able to get his guard up before the kick landed with a massive force, causing him to lose balance and lifting him off his feet, sending him sprawling to the ground.

What. The. Fuck was that? That bitch struck like a 50 BMG bullet on a bullet proof vest, Jesus. And.. the pain.. It was definitely real? I thought you couldn’t feel pain in dreams?

Tyler laid on the ground, left hand bruised and stinging from the punch received, while the naked attacker started to walk towards him yet again. Not having enough time to get up on his feet, Tyler decided to go in a brazilian jiu jitsu guard, waiting for his opponent’s advance. As the naked man neared him, Tyler’s leg snaked around his ankle whilst with his other foot Tyler pushed the man’s quad backwards, causing him to fall down on his back.

Without waiting for a cue Tyler jumped a full mount on his opponent and started barraging him with his fists and elbows. It took only a couple of seconds before the man’s guard crumbled and fell unconscious, his face a mess.

God, was his face fucking hard. What the actual fuck is going on here? This definitely feels real.. I’ve heard of people actually smelling stuff in their dreams, but.. The smell of iron from the blood, it’s too real..

The unconscious body suddenly started disintegrating under Tyler’s mount, causing him to jump back with a surprised face. “Okaaay… what?” , not a second later a low growling vibrated throughout the cave, it’s source a glowing pair of eyes hidden in the hole of the cave wall.

Oh great.. Now what? Eyes widening as a german german shepherd with ominous glowing red eyes jumped out of the hole. You are kidding m- What? Seemingly out of nowhere Tyler felt a weight press down on his right hand. Upon moving his eyes downwards he found himself tightly gripping a basic dagger.

Metallic glint, a 20 cm long blade with a normal wooden handle lacking any sort of decoration. Did I have this dagger with me from the start or..? Not waiting any longer, the dog sprinted at his baffled opponent with opened jaw, revealing a row of sharpened long teeth, wet from the saliva that was being thrown everywhere. The dog ended his sprint with a jump bite, aimed at Tyler’s shoulder.

Putting a his left foot in front of his right with a practiced grace, he easily avoided the mad dash, as he now found himself staring at the back of the landing dog. “Now, now doggo, I am kind of against animal abuse.. So can we not?”, his plea found only deaf ears as the dog turned around to face him once again, a crazed mad look in his red eyes. A growl his only answer.

“..I guess that’s a no.. Oh well, I never really stay true to my words hah” Crouching down, concentrating his senses on his thighs and calves, Tyler exploded with momentum as he lunged at the growling dog, plunging his dagger right through the animal’s left eye, all the way through until the blade poked a hole on the back of the dog’s head.

“The Special Force’s training does have its merits after all, huh.”, he continued staring at the body of the dog, as it slowly started disintegrating just like the man had. As if it’s atoms were slowly being pulled apart in a show of blue and yellow light particles. Soon enough the dog was completely gone.

Damn not even it’s blood remained on the dag… Wait? The dagger is gone as well? Okay, this is starting to get creepy.. I mean, I try not to think too much about this situation.. But what if it really isn’t a dream? That would be kind of exciting in a.. Really strange and fucked up way, but exciting nonetheless!

If this is real it might finally bring some change in my stale life. It’s been the same things over and over again for the past year. It is really mentally exhausting if I am to be honest, even if I don’t really physically show it.

A tiny movement in the corner of his eyes cut his monologue of his existential crisis short. As he refocused his sight on the movement, his jaw slightly opened as his eyes widened. “Oh no you didn’t!” , deadly 5 cm long claws, twice as long and at least 3-4 cm thick pearl white fangs and of course red glowing eyes staring right at him. There was a massive 2,5 m long tiger at the entrance to his enclosed room, weighing at least at 400 kilos. An apex predator, a ture killing machine.

“You are joking right? At least give me a damned weapon!” as if waiting for this very stating Tyler suddenly found himself gripping a european styled short sword with his right hand and a medium sized circular wooden shield with iron reinforcements in his left. “Huh, thanks! That’s definitely going to help against arguably the best predator on Earth! 400 kgs of muscles, claws and fangs! How’s that supposed to help you dickhead?”

Oblivious to his plight, the tiger had different intentions as a deep powerful roar sounded from deep within it’s chest. The sound so thick and strong that it caused a slight earthquake effect.

“Does this thing have a subwoofer installed in it’s chest!? What the fu-”

*ROOOAAAAAAR*

This time the huge cat roared in full force as the very room shook, completely getting Tyler’s guard down as he tried to cover his ears up. As if making an intelligent observation the tiger denounced this as the best time to make it’s move.

A huge half claw half paw was sent flying straight to Tyler, causing him to hastily bring his shield up in a pitiful attempt to block. Eyes widening as the shield couldn’t quite take the massive cat’s onslaught and simply crumbled beneath the weight of the swing, sending him rolling to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

There is, however, no rest for the wicked as the Tiger followed through by pumping blood in it’s powerful hind legs and lunging towards the still confused Tyler. The wild cat landed right on top of his body, bringing it’s massive maw in an attempt to clasp it’s razor sharp teeth around his neck and end the fight. Quick thinking, or more likely, his instincts are the only thing that saved his life, as Tyler put the sword between himself and the opened mouth of horrors, just barely stopping the teeth from sinking into his flesh.

Seeing that it’s attack was successfully stopped the Tiger swang it’s massive paw at Tyler’s right side abdomen, taking a huge chunk of skin and flesh with it. The sudden pain causing Tyler to grunt and grit his teeth in pain, fortunately the adrenaline keeping it to a minimum for now.

Thanks to the sudden jolt of pain, Tyler’s mind finally came to the present and panic slowly settled onto his very being. He started throwing everything he could think of with his left, free hand. From jabs, to punches at the side of the tiger’s head and nose, even trying to poke it’s eyes out with his fingers, alas with no success.

Having had enough of playing around the Tiger made another swing at the same spot, this time the jolt of pain that ran through his body was at least twice as strong. He definitely had at least one broken rib at this time, if he was lucky.

Fucking hell I can think of only one way to escape this predicament. And I really, really don’t like it. His thoughts were swimming, the gears in his brain turning at impossible speeds, trying to figure out a way out of this situation. No matter how much he thought about it, though only a single solution kept popping in his mind. And when he finally saw the tiger preparing to launch a third swing, he grit his teeth with as much strength as he could muster and decided to act.

Fuck you, you stupid cat. Suddenly removing his sword out of it’s mouth, surprising the tiger with his actions and giving him enough time to put his left, free hand inside the maw of razor sharp teeth. The tiger, not thinking much of the foolish human’s actions clamped his jaw around the hand with a sickening crunch as Tyler screamed with all his might, shoving the sword straight through the windpipe of the giant cat.

The cat’s body instantly going limp as it collapsed on top of his body, causing a massive grunt as it put pressure on his abdominal wound. Now being completely immobilized from the weight of the cat, Tyler could only wait in silent agony as he waited for the body to slowly disintegrate, just like it’s predecessors.

After five or so minutes, which Tyler perceived as an eternity the body was finally gone and with it, his wounds suddenly healed back to normal.

Okay, that was definitely real, real pain real fight. I was actually about to die. What the heck is going on here? What exactly are these trails and for what?

Having no answer for any of his questions and nothing better to do, Tyler simply waited to see what happens next, denouncing it as the best course of action for now.

Tyler was currently swimming in his own thoughts when suddenly the same imposing, powerful voice boomed throughout, causing his very bones to tremble from the vibration.

“GOOD, GOOD! YOU SURPRISE ME HUMAN! TRULY INTERESTING HAHAHA. CONGRATULATIONS ON COMPLETING THE FIRST PART OF THE TRAILS! DO NOT CELEBRATE YET THOUGH! AS THE SECOND, HARDER PART IS YET TO COME! THIS TIME YOU WILL NOT BE FIGHTING CREATURES FROM YOUR HOME WORLD THOUGH! SO YOU BEST PREPARE FOR THE UNKNOWN, BECAUSE LIKE IT OR NOT IT’S IS COMING!

ENTERTAIN ME FURTHER AND YOU MIGHT JUST LIVE ANOTHER DAY! HAHAHA”

….

….

Well fuck.