Kyle had been walking alone for hours, the dense forest canopy above casting shifting shadows on the ground. He had hoped to find another artifact, but instead, he found himself face-to-face with a creature that seemed like a twisted amalgamation of a monkey and a panther.
The beast had the sleek, muscular body of a panther, its black fur absorbing the dappled sunlight. Its limbs, however, were elongated and sinewy like a monkey's, ending in sharp claws that scraped the forest floor. Its face was a disturbing blend—flat with wide-set, glowing yellow eyes and a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth.
Kyle stared at the creature, exasperated. "Who the fuck designed this game?" he muttered.
The creature responded with a guttural roar that echoed through the trees.
Kyle shrugged helplessly. "It roars now?"
Without warning, the beast lunged at him. Kyle turned and ran, knowing that retracing his steps would lead him to open ground with no cover. He hoped to find something—anything—that could help him evade the creature.
As he ran, he noticed the beast's agility. It swung effortlessly from tree to tree, its long limbs giving it an advantage in the dense forest.
"Game designers are getting ridiculous these days," Kyle muttered.
Spotting a fallen tree branch, Kyle grabbed it and turned to face the oncoming creature. He swung the branch with all his might, but the beast dodged effortlessly.
The creature counterattacked, and Kyle instinctively stepped back. Expecting solid ground, his foot instead found emptiness.
A hidden trap.
The ground gave way beneath him, and Kyle's scream echoed as he plummeted into darkness.
Kyle's eyes snapped open as he gasped for air, lungs pulling in the cold, musty air around him. It took him a moment to remember what had happened—the chase, the trap, the fall. He blinked, adjusting to the dim, earthy light that filtered through cracks above. The last thing he remembered was screaming as the floor swallowed him whole.
"Where the hell am I?" he whispered hoarsely.
Then he groaned in pain as a sudden rush of blood filled his head. Only now did he realize he was hanging upside down, suspended several feet from the ground. One of his legs was tightly caught in a vine, wrapped like a noose around his ankle. His arms dangled uselessly beneath him, his body swaying gently.
The place he had landed in was a narrow cavern of sorts, formed by jagged rocks and thick roots twisting from the ceiling. From the distance above, slivers of light fell like broken beams across the cavern floor. If it wasn't for the vine, he would've been a smear on the rocks.
He looked up at the vine around his leg and tried reaching up. It was thick and fibrous, pulsing faintly with moisture. He twisted, strained, even tried to bite at it, but it refused to give.
"Come on," he growled, gritting his teeth as he struggled.
But all his efforts were pointless. The vine was too strong, and his position made any attempt awkward and ineffective.
Then he heard it.
Click. Click. Click.
The sound echoed through the cavern, sharp and rhythmic like bones snapping. His body stiffened immediately.
"What the fuck is that?" Kyle whispered.
The clicking grew louder, closer. He twisted his body to face the sound, still swaying from his suspended position. Then, from the shadows ahead, it emerged.
It looked like a spider—or at least something that tried really hard to be one.
It had eight legs, each covered in a sickly blend of black fur and glistening, chitinous armor. Its body was massive, about the size of a large dog, and its abdomen pulsed slightly with each step. Two forward-facing eyes glowed red, larger than the rest, while smaller, duller ones dotted its head in a chaotic pattern. Its mandibles clicked together hungrily, and a yellowish ooze dripped from its fangs.
It wasn't the most terrifying monster in the game, but it looked dangerous enough to kill a man who couldn't fight back.
Right now, Kyle was that man.
"Oh shit. Shit. Shit!"
The creature hissed, the sound sharp and invasive. Then, with alarming speed, it scurried toward him.
Kyle screamed and instinctively covered his face with his arms. His whole body tensed. "I'm gonna die hanging like a bat in a cave. This is it. Great."
KREEEEEEEEKK!
The spider shrieked suddenly, its body flailing as it was pierced clean through by something.
Kyle flinched. The scream of the spider beast was followed by a heavy thud as its corpse collapsed beneath him.
Slowly, one eye cracked open, then the other. He was still alive. His heart was thundering in his chest like a war drum.
"What… the hell just happened?" he breathed.
Then he saw her.
A girl, no older than sixteen or seventeen, stepped out from the shadows. She was holding a wooden spear in her right hand, her stance cautious but confident. Her clothes were simple, practical—a tattered tunic, dark pants, boots caked with dirt. Her short hair was tied back in a rough knot.
In her other hand was nothing, because the other spear was still lodged in the spider's abdomen, pinning the creature to the rocky ground.
Kyle stared in disbelief. "You… saved me?"
She didn't respond right away. She simply walked toward him, eyes narrowing at the vine that still held him up. Without a word, she raised her remaining spear and slashed at it with one clean motion.
The vine snapped instantly.
Kyle dropped like a rock.
"Ouch."
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