Chapter 2: An Encounter

With a sudden thud, Ben’s body collided with the cold stone ground. Chill surged from the moist ground and onto his stomach. Ben used the ground as his support as he pushed his hands against it and looked out in front of him. There were numerous small cells beyond the bars, the inhabitants could be heard but were hidden within the darkness. Short coughs, and painful breathing was heard. The guards once again hefted Ben up by both of his arms while dragging him towards the end of the hallway, where there was a large cell enough for 24 people if packed well enough.

As they walked through the hallway, muttering and short messages passed other to one and another. “Another one... “ “To the large cage?” “He’s surely dead” “So young” “Another mouth to feed” “Another prey”, words came from everywhere, Ben was unsure about where these words came from but continued to hang his head down for if he continued to use his energy for useless curiosity he’ll only fall into exhaustion quicker in a horrifying place like this. The cell doors opened to the darkness of the cell.

“Tch, hey you be careful with this one and don’t thrash it up like you did with the other trash.” stated the guard

They threw Ben into the cell and locked it, one of the guards turned back and kicked the cell door. Cause a loud racket and the metal to grind towards the leather boot.

“Another in the cell!”

Ben quickly got up into a sitting position and adjusted his eyes towards the darkness. As his eyes start getting used to the darkness, he could see a figure in front of him sitting down and it’s eyes constantly locked onto him. He felt a murderous aura encroach towards him, an image of a spear flashed by upon his eyes and stabbed towards his heart. Causing Ben to flinch towards the unknown afterimage, and an impact immediately occurred upon his right cheek once he flinched. His body immediately fell upon the ground, the power of the hit immediately burned when he became conscious of what had just occurred.

(What? What, I just got here and I got punched for flinching?)

Ben immediately stood up and faced towards the figure who punched him, slowly retracting its arm back towards itself. The arm was covered with dirty rags and the nails were dirty. Ben couldn’t identify the figure because it’s hair covered the face and the dirty rags were piled upon itself creating a fortress.

(What, why are there so many dirty rags? Wait)

Ben immediately checked himself and noticed that his clothes were also gone but were replaced with dark rags. The colors from what he wore had severely faded onto the rag.

(This is my clothes but for some odd reason it's as if it went through years of decay, then what about the pocket knife that Dannie gave me?)

Ben immediately felt for it, but nothing was there.

(I placed it in my pocket but nothing is there? Where could it have gone… did it just simply perished within the time lapse…. but it was made with stainless steel and had a nice cover for it as well. If that perished due to the time then why are my clothes still here? Or did the summoners place that on me while I passed through the summoning ritual….)

Ben immediately heard wind fly by towards his head and instinctively ducked from the attack and looked towards the source. He saw green light floating from the pile of dirty rags and it’s eyes stared at him with pure hostility.

(Did this thing kill everyone that was sent here to contain warmth?)

Ben took a closer look at the surrounding and saw that the cells were wet on the ground and the temperature was cold. The food that was placed inside one of the other cells was a moldy bread and cold looking porridge that had only a couple grains of rice floating on the watery soup. It didn’t seem to meet the necessary calorie needs for a daily intake or nutritional need. Ben’s eyes flitted over to the other cells and saw multiple figures just huddling together, by either sitting next to each other or just lying down on the floor.

(....what purpose to keep them near death?)

Ben looked over back at the figure within the dirty rags, the eyes once again connected. Suddenly a low voice that couldn’t be distinguished echoed through the short room.

“Strip, Give, Die”

“What? No, you already have enough… why are we fighting here…. we should be working together to work through this ordeal.”

“Your, life…. worthless”

“.... how so?”

“ …”

Ben continued to stare down upon the dirty rags, there were no movements, there was no talk, it was only silence and the cold. Suddenly a hand came out from the rags, the hand was full of calluses, showing that the person within the dirty pile of rags had worked through hardships and wielded a heavy tool or weapon for manual labor.

“More, Work, More, Food, Quota, Not, Earned, Equals, No, Food”

“So in order to feed yourself within this sorry state of a cell, there’s some sort of work quota for food. I see that’s why there’s some people here that’s dying slowly.”

“Sleep, prove,yourself, tomorrow”

Ben merely sat down onto a corner and felt the cold ground once again, he looked towards the other end of the hallway which had a door that separated them and the outside world. He brought his knees closer to himself and he sighed with exhaustion.

(I have to get out of here, regardless… but I don’t know anything within this world…the blue orbs can’t be visual effects…. this girl here is also using those orbs...why I’ve been summoned here… it can’t just be for merely being a sacrifice. I need to get out of here.)

Slowly Ben’s eyes closed, confirming the darkness within his own mind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“HEY WAKE UP INSECTS!”

As soon as the voice was heard, water splashed around. Ben was immediately kicked and was thrown towards the cell bar. He cringed at the pain, and looked at the source. He saw that the guards have yet to arrive towards their door, but next to him was a dirty girl’s face. Her hair deteriorated within the cells and was now mixed with mud, the color of the hair was of either black or brown, her clothes were knitted together with other rags. The extras were left where they were at. Once the guards reached towards the cell, he only smiled and opened the cell as if letting a princess out.

“Well, seems like you got the rookie to get out early… Don’t want that hard work to get soggy do ya.”

The guard was holding a bucket filled with water looking at the pile of rags. The girl simply ignored him and grabbed Ben’s shoulder and quickly dragged him out the cell. After a while she let go and walked towards the crowd.

“Alright, lambs. Time for work. Once you get out of here, grab a stone… get yourself some sunlight and start pouring some of your own aura into it. If you run out grab a shovel or a pickaxe and start working.If you dare pretend you’re still pouring your sweat and soul into the stone then prepare to get whipped.”

The door promptly opened after the guard’s speech, in the center there were 24 stones, and on the side there were numerous racks of pickaxes and shovels. Ben followed the others to the center and looked at the stone. He slowly placed both of his hands onto the stone… the stone was only a sharp stone that looked like an arrow head but was large enough to be the size of a bowling bowl. A symbol faced towards him from where he sat, as he placed his hands onto the stone. The stone slowly reacted with a white symbol glowing, however before long it returned back into its original state.

(? It got turned on and quickly flickered off…)

Ben got up and looked around, the people around him were still sitting down, focusing onto the stone. Suddenly someone yelled at him.

“Hey you! Out of aura? You’re pitiful, I don’t get how you got in here with that useless aura. Get working at the tunnels, maybe you’ll find something useful for a bargain.”

Ben watched the guard as he finished talking and grabbed a shovel. He noticed the entire room only had eight tunnels, each of the tunnels was dry, there was a light on the side of the tunnels and each of them radiated a warmth close to being the sun itself. He looked behind him and saw the girl from his cell follow him with a pickaxe. Her eyes devoid of feeling, Ben gave a quick glance to the guards who gave a short grin.

Ben turned his head towards the girl. The girl gave a signal for him to turn around and continue walking deeper into the tunnels.

(.... her face… the snickers... )

As they walked deeper and deeper into the tunnels, Ben saw the end of it. Immediately stopping from where he walked, he quickly turned around and looked at the girl with stern eyes. She stopped walking when he stopped and started to twirl her pickaxe with her fingers.

(It’s clear her strengths are somehow enhanced or stronger than me…why not do some acrobatic jumps to show how much of an advantage she has?)

Sweat started to drip from his forehead, Ben knew that the only way out of this was to convince the girl. The girl started to walk forwards and a green light started to form on her fingers.

“Wait….”

The girl slowly stopped and gave a murderous stare as she stopped.

“Explain why you’re murdering me.”

“You. failed.”

(It must’ve been the aura stone… simply because I failed to transmit any, I suppose the quota was not met?)

“Your death will serve to ensure my survival… I’ll abide by my time to wait for the one…

>>>May the spirit of the wind guide me to my goal, to rein free from this chain that I am held by, Speed Enhancement<<<

The girl quickly finished her sentence and rushed forwards towards Ben, green light dispersing from her body as she ran towards Ben.

Her body suddenly disappeared within the air, Ben quickly followed with his eyes where the green lights traced toward him, he immediately jumped away as the pickaxe swung where he was just a moment ago. The girl, missing her target, quickly disappeared once again, and since her speed was faster than Ben. Ben was quickly tackled once he jumped into his place, his body crashed onto the dirt walls. He opened his eyes and saw the girl throw the pickaxe with terrifying speed. (So this is how it ends) Ben flinched upon the pickaxe hitting towards him, as his eyes were covered within darkness. He felt pain starting from his neck, he opened his eyes again and saw that the pickaxe wooden handle was across his neck. While the pick was lodged within the dirt next to his neck, which was slightly scratched. The girl walked closely towards him, her aura was the same, she held onto the wooden handle and leaned her head towards his face. Close enough to feel the warm breath of hers, her eyes continued to study his face and seemed as if it was peering within him.

“Your eyes… are…. special”

“What?” Ben could only question her, after all the murderous attempts she had tried to do. She ended the violent acts by complementing his eyes.