“I was like you once, scared, new to this world. Then I met a cruel man who betrayed me and a woman far too innocent for this place that I cared for.” His eyes moved to the pile of rocks that was near the Mist Gate. “I tried to reason with him but he still took her life in cold blood, and tried to kill me too. But I lived…”

  The mood was heavy.

  “I told you, didn't I? There was a monster guarding this Gate, one much more evil than anything in this cursed forest.” He glanced back at Akira, who was lying on the ground, gasping for air. “It's us Akira, we’re the worst monster.”

  Akira's eyes widened as he now understood it all.

  The most terrifying monster wasn’t a behemoth like the snake that ignored him or the flying monster that toyed with him, it wasn’t the small winged ones that tried to weaken him nor the intelligent water one that baited him.

  No, it was another human being, the most inhumane opponent there could be.

  Akira’s eyes remained fixed on the pile of rocks as his breaths became shallow, his body growing weaker by the second.

  The formation wasn’t just a random collection of stones. It was a grave. A marker for someone who had died here, someone who had met the same fate as he is, at the hands of another ‘hunter’.

  Ekhis took a step forward, the stone tip of his spear gleaming in the light, and Akira instinctively tried to push himself up, his fingers scraping against the dirt, but his strength failed him.

  “Don’t bother.” Ekhis muttered, the bitterness in his tone cutting through the air like a knife. "You won’t have the strength to move, I made sure to puncture your left lung.” He lifted the spear slowly, preparing to deliver a final strike.

  Out of nowhere, tears started falling down Akira’s cheeks, he desperately tried to speak, but his words were silent, cut from air.

  Ekhis paused for a moment, watching the tears slip down Akira's pale face. The sight seemed to give him a brief flicker of hesitation.

  His eyes ditched the boy and moved to the pile of rock.

  Images of a young woman appeared in his mind, she wore the same type of tunic they were wearing, walking around the jungle… Her smile, her sweet voice, the way she was so innocent and caring despite the unknown. The man’s eyes softened.

  Then the images of her getting stabbed by a spear through the back, the blood pooling under her body, her dying last breaths and the tears that fled down her face, ending his memory as her life perished. “Alice…” The words were more to himself than anything else.

  Despite this he had somehow forgotten her face, perhaps he believed himself not worthy of remembering it after failing to protect her.

  His jaw clenched as his gaze turned to Akira, his pitiful state was saddening, his small frame, his sickly pale face. A dying, helpless child. The boy was the epitome of weakness by any standard, how could one not pity such a young and frail child? “I can’t give you much, kid, but if you have any last words. I’ll hear them out for you and keep your memory alive. It’s the most I can do.”

  Akira whispered something, but his voice was far too weak to reach Ekhis’s ears, it simply dispersed in the unforgiving air as he choked on his blood and tears.

  Staring for a few moments, the man leaned in, putting his ear close to the boy’s lips. At least he was willing to hear the boy’s final words and remember them, that was a mercy not often given.

  The voice in Akira’s head that had spoken at the Mist Gate, its soft command to "Kill another hunter.”, repeated in the boy’s mind.

  “I said…” He took a deep wheezing breath, though his lungs did not fill with air from it. “I’m not the one dying, you damn bastard.” Akira whispered.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  The words shook the man to the core as he tried to react as quickly as he could, but it was too late.

  The boy's head lunged with the speed only a predator would have, his teeth bore into the man’s throat.

  Ekhis let out a choked gasp as Akira's teeth sank into the soft flesh of his throat. The pain was immediate and searing, a violent surge that caught him completely off guard.

  His hands left the spear and flew instinctively to his neck, trying to pry the boy off, but Akira’s grip was ironclad.

  The bearded man’s body jerked as Akira’s teeth sank deeper, the hot rush of blood flooding his mouth. The man’s fingers scrabbled at the boy’s hair, his attempts to tear Akira away growing weaker as his strength ebbed.

  Then… The sound was brutal and visceral, and the result was just as terrifying. Akira's teeth had torn out Ekhis’s throat.

  The boy had crossed many lines after waking up in this strange world, but this one, it set him on a path beyond salvation, he had done something no human should ever even dream of doing to another, and the boy knew it as well.

  “You… monster.” Ekhis’s willowing fell on deaf ears as his body shuddered once, then collapsed heavily to the ground, his life slipping away in an instant as he took one last glance at the piles of rocks. The blood that had once gushed from his wound now pooled beneath him, staining the earth in a dark crimson. I’m sorry Alice, I couldn’t avenge you in the end…

  “Congratulations hunter, you have completed the condition and proved to be worthy of walking the Gauntlet, please step into the Mist Gate.”

  Akira spat out some of Ekhis's blood and flesh before staring at the sky. “Is this what it takes to survive?”

  The jungle around Akira seemed to fall into an oppressive silence. The wind stilled, the birds ceased their calls, and even the rustling of leaves seemed to hold its breath. The weight of what he had just done hung in the air like a suffocating fog.

  His chest heaved, the sharp sting of his wound barely registering as he wiped the blood from his mouth, his hands trembling with the tremors of adrenaline and horror.

  With desperation he started clawing at the dirt, dragging his flesh to the Mist Gate.

  His body felt like it was shutting down as he dragged himself forward, the dark crimson of his blood leaving a trail on the dirt, marking the path that had brought him to this moment.

  Though it felt like he was not only dragging himself, the weight of his actions pressed down on him so heavily it felt like a struggle to even take a breath. Because of his wound, even taking a breath was an unimaginable task as the air seemed to just flow out of him as it entered.

  Digging with desperation. his right hand finally found the cold surface of the Mist Gate, the stone so ancient yet it felt so sturdy.

  His head moved up to glance at it, his eyes half way shut.

  Was this truly salvation? A way out of this lush hell? Would that mean that all the hardship he had endured until now would finally stop?

  Well, there was only one way to find out.

  Using his other hand Akira grasped at the base of the Mist Gate and pulled himself into it.

  The world around Akira seemed to twist and ripple as he crossed the threshold of the Mist Gate.

  His vision blurred, the swirling gray mist enveloping him, thickening and shifting, pressing against him from all sides.

  It was as though the very air had become liquid, suffocating, and alive. The world around him moving and twisting in unpredictable ways.

  “Congratulations on passing the Selection Trial, hunter. You have proven your worth.” The voice resonated within Akira's mind, soft and serene, yet utterly alien.

  “You will now be given the appropriate rewards for passing the Selection Trial.”

  Rewards? What could that mean?

  Suddenly he could feel his wounds closing up as he could again gasp for air.

  The fatigue and pain that had been dragging him down felt like giant weight lifted off his body.

  Weakly, he pushed himself off the ground and onto his feet.

  Looking down he saw that there was no floor to stand on, just mist, yet the footing under him felt solid.

  But that wasn’t all, the wound, both the bite on the shoulder and the stab through his lower abdomen were gone, his tunic clean and unscathed, as if the fabric had never even been touched.

  Akira stared at his body in disbelief, his hands trembling as they moved over the places where his wounds had been.

  The fabric of his tunic was pristine, and his skin, once pale and sickly, seemed healthier, though still far from vibrant. The pain that had wracked his body just moments ago was gone, leaving only the memory of agony and desperation.

  “What… is this?” Akira whispered, his voice hoarse. He took a tentative step forward, his bare feet finding footing on the mist despite its intangible appearance. The sensation was unsettling, like walking on air that had somehow been compressed into a firm and cold surface.

  “As your first reward, your body has been restored, your health improved, your hunger filled and your thirst quenched.”

  Akira quickly looked back to where the Mist Gate would have been, yet there was nothing, almost like it never even existed.

  “Hey… Don't fucking mess with me! Where the hell am I? Who are you? Why am I here?” This might be his only chance to communicate with whatever brought him into this world, so he needed to make this moment count, yet he couldn't quite contain his anger completely.

  The voice, however, offered no answers. “You will now be granted your second reward.”