The rain stopped soon after all the fire was gone, despite the size of it, not many roots were burnt. Zanir collected the parts of the bugs he deemed edible and we resumed training. I didn't complain.

Now, besides running, we sparred. He used a wooden stick and I used the axe, and I knew that was still not a balanced fight. I had seen a glimpse of what he could do going all out, he was far stronger than me, a stick in his hand was a deadly weapon.

The hardest part was that we didn't run then sparred, we ran while fighting, and I also had to kill the smaller bugs that were brave enough to attack us with him around, and he killed the bigger ones—though any bug bigger than a meter was quite rare around that area. He was always in front of me, dodging my attacks and correcting them at the same time.

He hit me every time I did something wrong. Stance too high? He hit me in the back; feet touching the ground for too long? He kicked them; swing and miss? He knocked the axe out of my grip, then whipped my hand with the stick for letting the axe drop.

That went on for several more times, my body was barely able to keep up, I ached all over and always felt tired enough to sleep whenever I got the time to lay down. It got easier as I fell into the routine, but the worry about Asha was always at the back of my mind.

It was the cycle one hundred and sixty when he changed our routine once more.

"Sit," he said.

"Ok..." I said, sitting, legs crossed. At that point, seeing what I'd seen, I stopped questioning him.

He walked behind me and put both his hands on the top of my head.

Then I felt it.

It was like a gentle wind was blowing inside of me, carrying a extremely light and warm fluid through my body. I intuitively knew that several minutes had passed since it started, maybe even hours, but it felt like seconds.

"Now, concentrate on your legs. Meat, bones, every detail," he said, in a uncharacteristically soothing way.

I did.

The wind started to move towards my leg, settling the fluid there, going even deeper inside the fabric of my legs. into something more fundamental. I lost myself in it, many more minutes must have passed before I could no longer discern what was my leg and what was the fluid.

I felt Zanir's hands off my head, breaking the connection. I opened my eyes, not recalling having closed them at all.

"What the hell was that!?" I said, turning.

Zanir fell more than sat, looking tired for the first time since I've met him.

"Lu," he said, breathing heavily.

"Lu?"

"Yes. Lu. Energy that makes all, ends all. Life, death, beginning, ending. Lu," he said, "I transferred part of my Lu to you."

"I don't really get it, what exactly did you do?"

He sighed, pointing outside, "Concentrate on feeling, on leg. Go, run."

"You won't come?" I asked, hesitant, I hadn't really gone out without him since I got here, he always followed me, wether I knew it or not.

"No need," he said, "run."

There was no apparent change, but he definitely did something to me.

I grabbed the axe on the wall and went to the tunnels. I warmed up like usual and started slow, but I instantly noticed the difference.

I was fast. The more I concentrated, the faster I got, my body felt lighter than ever, like I just had the best nap of my life; I reached certain landmarks in almost half the time. The difference was bizarre, kind of scary, even. Nothing that I could think of could explain this, except, maybe magic, which was an idea I was starting to open up to. How could I not? Giant bugs; a man probably more than sixty years old running faster than any human probably could; flaming swords and a cave with glowing crystals and flowers where it rains. I could probably think of a way to try explaining all of those things, if I really tried, but it would take a lot of coincidences and meaningless action from unknown powerful people to do so. Like one of my craziest of what I called "theory moments", in which this tunnel was a government facility, the creatures were failed experiments and Zanir was on some kind of juice.

Regardless, it felt good just running for the sake of it, I didn't have the habit of doing it before all this, but I was starting to see the appeal, especially in these caves, the place had a strange pleasant earthy smell to it, the light from the crystals were gentle to the eye while still illuminating the path more than enough, and the wind in my face felt cool but not too cold, it was nice.

When I realized, I was already quite far, so I decided to run back, thinking of nothing for maybe the first time since I woke up in the tunnels.

As I stopped running and concentrating on my legs, the warm feeling started to fade and a burning cold was left, it was berable but still hurt, and my legs felt more tired than the rest of my body, in a concerning way, like they would give out if I tried running again.

I had a lot of questions but Zanir was already asleep. Whatever he did, it took quite the toll on him, I had never seen him sleep so soon. In fact, I never saw him sleep at all, not really, he was always awake in some level. Always vigilant.

That could be the only chance I would ever have to get away. I was stronger, had more stamina, was more resilient, faster. Not that I didn't feel free to leave at any time, he never showed any intention on keeping me there, I was the one choosing to stay, but if he did want to keep me there for some reason, that was my chance to leave.

Memories came to me, of the beetle, of that weird creature I killed, of the black orbs and of the scythe crickets. I didn't feel confident enough to take on any of the larger bugs.

Not yet.

I waited for him to wake up. I had questions to make, more to learn. I wanted to learn, dangers aside, that was all too exciting. The guy had not one, but two flaming swords! That was every boy's dream at some point, maybe it was wrong of me to be excited about that when Asha was at home waiting, alone, but there was no point in leaving now if I was just going to be killed along the way by those creatures.

The pain in my hand was gone, mostly, only the edge of the rot hurt, a mild stinging. My arm was purple from the tip of my finger to halfway through my forearm, almost black. It wasn't secreting any kind of pus, fluid or anything one would have imagined when thinking of rotting meat, it was just loose and solid at the same time. Would my whole body become like that?

Like a puppet with its strings getting slowly cut.

With that grim thought and those worries in mind, I slowly fell asleep.

Zanir was already awake when I opened my eyes, he was sitting by my side and I noticed he was looking at my arm.

He got up to get one of the bowls and filled it with some bug goop and one of the weird fruits or vegetables we sometimes found in our runs, which despite their weird colors, were very good, and like everything in this place, tasted like nothing I experienced before,

"Eat and come," he said, handing me the bowl.

"Where?"

"You'll see."

"Are you sure? You looked like you needed to rest."

"No time, I rested enough," he answered. "I must teach you."

"Teach what? Something new?" I asked, maybe a bit too excited.

"Eat."

I didn't particularly enjoy surprises but I learned that pressing him for answers often would lead nowhere, so I just ate in silence.

Finished eating, I got up and followed him to the tunnel, I wanted to test concentrating on my legs again to see if I could still feel that warm flow and run as fast, but my legs were still feeling from the last run, so I decided not to.

We ran until we reached one of the larger tunnels, the ceiling was so far up that all I could see was the glow of the crystals, making the roof resemble a starry sky. The walls too were too far apart for me to discern anything specific, with rock pillars growing out every few meters, some growing up past where my vision could reach. We didn't go to those large caves often because most of the stronger bugs were usually found there.

"There, arda," said Zanir, almost whispering.

"Arda?" I asked, matching his tone.

"White armor, strong." he said, "Yes... good."

I looked, the creature was around three to four meters tall, six legs and elliptical type of body, but different from the previous ones I'd seen, and I couldn't see too clearly the parts where its head, thorax and abdomen connected, like they were all one. Rather than armor, it appeared to be covered in white fur, its feet had three long claws, the middle one being twice the size of the others. The head was the most ominous part of it, since there wasn't a neck I could see, the head looked like a ball was put in the socket of the thorax, going halfway inside, and the eyes were just big dark circles, as if someone had drawn them there using black paint, and there was no clear nose, or mouth, only a long, black thin tube growing from its horror masklike face.

"Now what?" I asked, "You're gonna fight that?"

It wasn't uncommon for him to show me some kind of technique in practice, fighting some of the larger bugs

"Not me," he said, "you."

"Wait, what?"

"You."

"What do you mean?"

"You will fight arda," he said

"Waitwait, I don't think I'm ready for Mr. Arda just yet, Zanir," I said.

"You have to, no time," he said, pointing to my arm.

"What good killing that thing will do to my arm?"

"You need to learn."

What I need is a hospital, I thought.

"Learn what?! Maybe if you try actually explaining things before throwing me in these situations, I'd learn better!"

The beast turned, looking straight to the rock where we were hiding behind.

I really need to fucking learn how to keep my voice down.

"You ready, Mika," stated Zanir, running out and attracting the Arda's attention.

"No, wait!" I shouted as quietly as I could, but he was already gone.

Fuck. Okay, okay, I keep saying I don't have time, now is the chance to see if I can really fight alone one of these things, I thought, taking deep breaths.

Axe firm in my hand, I was sweating, my feet didn't move. It was roughly twenty meters away, which with the creature's size it didn't seem far at all. Zanir didn't hold its attention for long, when he got too far and disappeared behind the rocks, it turned to me.

The creature start running in my direction and the weight of its body made a heavy pouding on the ground that immobilized me in fear, I just couldn't move. It was ten meters aways when it stopped, it stood there, analyzing me.

"Move!" I heard Zanir shout.

The creature shot its tongue at me, going five times farther than its nose-mouth size indicated. I dodged by stumbling to the side, moving more by reflex from the shout than a conscious act, but the Arda moved the extended tongue midair in my direction, wrapping around my torso and bringing me up then down, hard. As my back hit the rough rocky ground, all the air in my lungs left in a cough of pain; then did it again before I could even register the first blow, this time the impact was more felt in my head, leaving a throbbing pain and dizziness; then a third time and I almost dropped the axe, a fourth, fifth and sixth time and I felt my consciousness slipping despite the pain on my back. I winced when the Arda brought me up a seventh time, but it didn't come. It slightly shook me and simply put me down instead.

I could feel a wet spot behind my head, and my back hurt really badly, I slowly turned my heard in its direction and the creature just stood there.

Does it think I'm dead? I thought. But if that was it, why didn't it try to eat me? It didn't matter, this was my best chance, It would be ideal to end it with a single hit, or even two. But how? When? Should I strike now at it's tongue? That wouldn't kill it but it would give me time time to slash at it again while it's in pain.

I started to feel a burning sensation around my torso that was distinct among the pain I felt in general, targeted, stronger, growing. I looked and the tongue was now secreting some sort of acid, quickly burning through my shirt, then my skin, then more. I was about to hit it with the axe when I felt the tongue move, pulling me in the creature's direction. I held back and waited.

One hit.

Play dead and wait, I only had one chance. It dragged me painfully slowly, I could almost feel the tongue sinking into my flesh, I wanted to scream, to move, to cut the fucking thing off, but I set my jaw hard and endured.

It stopped dragging me when I was right underneath it, being this close only made it worse, it towered over me like the monster I forgot it was. My hand was trembling terribly, and I wasn't sure I could stand up. Its head was now lowered, but still wasn't close enogh for me to hit laying down, ther burning sensation increased as the creature's saliva came down faster from its tube-mouth, forcing me into acting.

That was it, I had to do it, I put all my strength in a single swing at the tongue, but it didn't cut, the muscles on it's tongue were too thick and firm, the blade only managed to go halfway through it, a pale liquid spouting out from the wound. I quickly pulled the axe back for another swing, but in panic and pain the Arda unfurled its tongue strongly enough for me to spin one time in the air before hitting my shoulder on the ground, sending another shock of pain through my body and making me drop the axe, which went clattering away.

In its frenzy, the creature attacked the axe with one claw, sending it under its body, then turning to search for it again and attack.

"Now, Mika! Attack!" I heard Zanir scream.

Despite not making any noise, the creature was flailing in pain and it didn't seem to notice me, only reacting to the clatter of the axe and Zanir's scream, turning towards them.

It doesn't see me, I realized.

I slowly got up and remained crouched so it didn't hit me in its random attacks. The axe was right in front of it, close to one of its claws, I had to do it now. I lunged for the axe, seizing it just as the Arda pulled its claw up intending to thrust at the sound I made, I dodged to the side and slashed up with all my strength as the claw hit the ground and its head met my axe.

With the axe sunk at the base of its head, the Arda slightly twitched before the body collapsed.

I stood there, panting, my heart going a thousand per second, my midsection was in raw flesh, I was bruised and hurting all over, but I did it, somehow I defeated it. I didn't feel particularly happy, or sad, only relief, relief that it was over.

"Put hand on arda's body," said Zanir, suddenly at my side.

"Why?" I said, tired.

"Fast, before arda dies."

The tongue was still flopping mindlessly and the legs had spasms in short intervals, but I reluctantly put my hand on the Arda's torso.

Zanir put his hand on the back of my head and said, "Now, concentrate, Mika. Or arda consume you."