"Yahhhhhh!!!"

Someone screamed, It was a long and agonized scream. Ethan perked up at this. Kathy tensed, with eyes wide.

Soon the group was up and in movement. "What was this!? does anyone know who..."

"That was Reene!" a girl screamed to the teacher. "That was Reene!! O my god, it was her..." she said in distress.

"Calm down, Taylor" Jose approached her and put his hand in her shoulders. "Explain it slowly, ok?"

The girl took a gulp of air and continued "She said... she needed to use... the bathroom...The bathroom...But there was no bathroom here" the girl was hyperventilating and making long pauses in her talk. "We offered to accompany her..." She said, motioning to a friend by her side "but she declined it... and went off on her own" She said. The teacher signed for someone to bring a bottle of water to Taylor. She took long gulps of it.

"Christ..." the teacher whispered, while holding a small crucifix in his hand.

"Okay, we need to form a search party." he said. "Jose, Jack and..." he looked around and his eyes rested on Ethan... What? "Ethan. Please, go look around for Reene. I would go if I could, but I need to stay here and take care of the other students, It is my responsibility...

Shit, why him? Ethan bit his lower lips trying to find a way out of this, but he could see none. He doubted anyone would accept to take his place. He could try to question the authority of the teacher, but at this point, everyone already accepted him as a leader. If he simply refused helping look for Reene, he didn't know what would happen. They wouldn't outright expulse him, but he was certain that he would be excluded from the group and labeled as a coward for the rest of his life.

And Kathy was watching him too. He couldn't show such lame side to her.

He gritted his teeth and glared at the teacher angrily behind his back. Son of a bitch...what the fuck!

He also didn't understand why the teacher had chosen Jose and Jack to investigate Reene's disappearance when they seemed to be his pawns. Whatever happened to Reene might happen to them too. It felt like he was throwing them to the wolves.

"Hey, Ethan" Jose said, waving to him. Jack just looked at him uninterested. Jose smiled wryly. "We need to hurry up, each second is precious."

"Okay" he said. He looked around him for anything he could bring, but nothing seemed useful. "It would be good if we had weapons" he blurted out.

Jack's eye shined. "Hmm, that's actually a good idea" he reached for his pocket and brought up a switchblade. He opened and closed it skillfully while smiling.

"Normally I would scold you for bringing weapons to school..." Jose said. Jack scowled. "But in this situation all I can really say is 'good job!'" He smiled, making a thumbs up, Jack grinned.

Jose looked at the other students and waved his arm, "Does anyone here have a knife or anything we can use as weapons?" he said. While walking through the crowd. "I promise" he laughed "that no one will have face suspension over this. I will even commend you for your forethought" Some students smiled at his antics, but in the end, only Jack had brought a switchblade.

"I have an Idea" said Ethan. "What about a pen? Or an automatic pencil, the metal-made ones. They might not be as good as a switchblade but..."

"I prefer to go weaponless then" said Jose. "You will probably end up just hurting yourself if you use a pen as weapon"

Easy for him to say. Jose had the body of a gym rat, just like the teacher. Punching his face would be the right way for Ethan to hurt himself. He decided to look around for anyone who had a metal pen with them. Luckily, it seemed one of the girls was holding her automatic pencil when they appeared here. He breathed out in relief.

Kathy smiled and waved at him. She didn't seem worried at all...maybe he shouldn't be too.

Jack, Jose and Ethan left the section the students were resting and went for the way Taylor said Reene had went. They were walking slow, with muffled sounds. Jose was leading them. He had wisely chosen to walk the path with less pebbles and more sand. The path they were taking had the form of a tunnel and had many curves.

"It is dark here" said Ethan. The place had less mushrooms, almost none in fact. "there are no mushrooms here. I think we should go back and bring in more light"

Jack scowled. "fuck this, let's end this shit. I don't want to hear your cowardice." he said, feigning indifference.

Jose just shrugged. "there's light enough here, I don't think there will be anything really dangerous up ahead." he said. "I fear that we might get lost, though. Where is Reene anyway? We should already had found her, her scream didn't sound that distant."

"She probably just slipped in her own piss, heh" Jack said.

A small trembling in the shadows projected at the walls made Ethan turn his head sharply.

"What?" said Jack, restlessly. "Stop being so jumpy, what are you? A girl?" he said.

"It's just..." He couldn't say that he thought he saw something...If there was nothing it would have sounded just pathetic. If there was something, no one would commend him for seeing it anyway. He decided to keep quiet.

"Stop..." Jose said, lowly but sharply. Ethan was hearing it...It was very low, but it was there. "Don't make a sound..." Jose whispered. The sounds stopped.

"W-What was that?" Jack whispered, to no one specifically.

Suddenly, sounds of running surged in the room. Shadows shuffled frantically in the walls. Small figures appeared, jumping over the boulders while holding what appeared to be spears, rushing at Ethan and the group. "The Hell?"" screamed Jack while kicking one of them. They were fast, Ethan eyes were wide and his heart was beating like a war drum, he gripped the pencil, while preparing a kick to the small thing that was rushing at him.

The thing appeared in front of him, moving fast and steadily like a cat. It's eyes shined like one too, They were round like a fish and shined with a sickly yellow light. The spear was flying at his chest. He would die...Gods, he was gonna die!

"Aaahhh" he screamed in terror, while retreating from the spear point rushing at him. A small rock behind him made him stumble, what probably saved his life, as he shifted his body away from the spear who passed just above his left shoulder.

Having lost the element of surprise, the small creature fell back a readied his spear wearily. It was eying every movement of Ethan. Ethan couldn't see the features of the thing very well, it was very dark, but his focused eyes showed that whatever this thing was...

It was a warrior.

The thing went forward again, made some aggressive movements and some mock pierces, and fell back again. Ethan was failing miserably at keeping a cool head. His rational mind was almost completely taken over by his horror. Luckily, among that storm inside him, he had a small thought.

"It is trying to test me, to understand his enemy."

The thing went forward again, made another set of mock attacks with his spear, and fell back again. If that thing understood how pathetic he really was, it was just stop this play this game and go for the kill. He had to think something fast.

"A weakness. I need a weakness, an easily exploitable one."

New title acquired. "One with a brain"

One with a brain

+ 1 wisdom when equipped.

He was having delusions again...and in the middle of a battle...He kept his mind in the battle and just ignored it.

A weakness...

He slowly bent down. The creature noted that he was changing strategies and straightened itself. It seemed ready to run away.

Ethan kept his right hand in front of him, stretched in a defensive position, In his hand there was a small automatic pencil. Useless, just like Jose said. With his left hand, he grabbed a fistful of sand.

When he stood up again, the thing went forward, tired of waiting. He threw the sand in front of him without even looking at the creature.

It hissed.

The thing screamed in agony and dropped the spear to put his hands in his eyes and hide them. Ethan darted forward, took the spear from the ground, and in a display of brutality, plunged it deeply in the creature's belly. He was also screaming.

"Yahhhh!"

Blood spurted from the wound while the thing squirmed from the pain in his eyes. It didn't even seem to notice that it was being transposed by its own fucking spear. "Die! You piece of shit, Die...Die, die, die, die!"

Ethan felt a hand in his shoulders and turned his head fast, expecting another enemy. He tried pulling the spear off the creature but it was sticking to it! Damn!

"Hey man, easy..." he heard.

It was...It was just Jack. He breathed in relief and collapsed on the floor.