Chapter 7
"Wait! A beast attack?!" Zen screamed in shock, his mouth suddenly going dry.
A sharp headache pulsed through his skull, and his vision dimmed for a split second. Panic clawed at him, and before he could even think clearly, screams erupted from the villagers around him.
"Shit! It has started."
CACKLE!
BUZZ!
TIZZZ!
The air exploded with strange, high-pitched crackles and electrical buzzing. Zen immediately braced himself.
The sounds were so unnerving, so foreign that even the villagers, who had been ignoring Zen's earlier outburst, halted in their tracks and turned their attention toward the source.
Everyone was looking around in confusion, searching for the cause of the noise. Zen, though terrified, had a sinking suspicion. His heart pounded violently, each beat echoing like a war drum in his chest.
And then it happened.
The air directly in front of Zen shimmered violently, and something began to tear into view.
Like glass being sliced open, space itself ruptured right there, just a meter away from where he stood. Zen stumbled back slightly, eyes wide and dry as his breath caught in his throat.
A large, gaping hole which was dark, swirling, and alive, tore open in the air, radiating a bizarre and eerie energy that sent chills crawling up his spine.
It pulsated, throbbing like a heartbeat. An unnatural, otherworldly aura bled from it.
"Wh…what is going on?" Zen muttered, his voice barely audible, his hands trembling both from fear and confusion. "Wh…why does this look like a portal?"
Before he could even blink—
Two monstrous figures erupted from the portal, stepping through with a slow, thunderous presence.
Zen froze. The moment he laid eyes on them, it felt like ice-cold water poured down his spine. His blood turned to ice.
"Shit. I'm dead," he croaked.
{You were warned.}
A system message blinked in front of his face, but he didn't even acknowledge it. His eyes were glued to the nightmare standing before him.
Two massive creatures lumbered into view, each footstep cracking the earth with bone-rattling force.
They towered above ten feet tall, their hunched backs twisted and swollen with veins and sinew.
Jagged bones jutted out beneath rough, grey-green skin that looked as if it had been burnt, then healed poorly. Their bodies were grotesque misshapen even, terrifying, and thick with muscle.
Tufts of wiry, matted hair grew in scattered patches along their shoulders and scalp, like weeds in scorched soil.
Their swollen bellies swayed as they moved, gurgling with vile noises that sounded like something alive sloshing inside.
Their arms hung low and heavy, nearly brushing the ground. The hands at the ends of those limbs were monstrous, three thick fingers tipped with claw-like nails the size of daggers, stained with layers of dried blood and unwashed filth.
Rusty metal bands were clamped around their wrists and ankles like old shackles, with some still trailing lengths of broken chain that dragged behind them, scraping the ground with a sharp metallic whine.
Their faces were the stuff of horror.
One had a torn ear; the other twitched constantly, scanning every movement like a predator on the hunt.
They had broad, flattened noses that flared with each snort, and thick tusks curled up from their lower jaws like jagged scimitars. Their yellow, beady eyes glowed faintly beneath their furrowed brows, filled with primal hatred.
Then came the sound—low and guttural. A snarl rippled from their throats, wet and bubbling with mucous and menace.
It wasn't the sound of mindless rage. It was the sound of monsters that enjoyed what they were about to do.
Each of them dragged a massive spiked club, roughly hewn from the trunk of a tree. The wood was reinforced with scraps of iron, shards of bone, and the shattered remains of weapons. Brutal. Savage. Deadly.
And worst of all, they weren't rushing. They moved slowly, with purpose. With confidence. Like creatures that had never known fear. Only destruction.
Zen couldn't move.
His breath hitched, his limbs froze, and his thoughts vanished into a haze of dread.
He was staring into the face of death. And death was grinning back.
'Wh… what are those? Wh… what kind of monsters are these?' Zen gulped loudly as he began scanning the whole place looking for an escape route.
But it was too late as there was nothing he could do because a loud growling noise suddenly filled the air and instantly, the beasts made their moves as the whole village immediately descended into chaos.
One of the beasts could be seen chasing and hunting the villagers down. With practiced ease, it fell the villagers one after the other.
Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, no way to help themselves as the humans rapidly fell like flies from the sky.
Before Zen could blink, the remaining beast swiftly dashed towards him and the next instant, its club could be seen aiming straight at the NPC'S head with immense speed.
"Shit."
'Damn it! Move body, move!' Zen roared in his mind as he could see the club closing in. His mind trying to make his body move but it was too slow and his head was about to get pulverized.
BANG!
The club connected as a huge gust of wind was kicked up obscuring where Zen was.
'I guess I'm dead huh? Didn't even last a minute in this damn world.'
"Move Zen!" A voice suddenly snapped Zen back to reality and as he snapped his eyes open, he could see a villager standing in front of the beast, his body pierced with the spiked club with blood dripping down his mouth.
'Huh? Wh…why would he save me? Wh…who is he?' Zen thought as he stared at the soon to the dead man in front of him who clutched a chipped sword in his hand.
"You have always been a helpful and kind kid despite your frail look. I would really hate for you to die so run away. Live your li… TCHK!" The man coughed out blood as the beast pulled out its club letting his body fall to the ground with a sickening thud.
His grip on his sword loosened and it rolled over towards Zen's feet.
'Wh…why do I feel a kind of pain in my chest? I don't know this man, but why do I feel saddened and somewhat enraged? How does he even kn… shit!' Zen cursed inwardly as he could see the beast's spiked club heading towards his head again.
'Okay! I need to live and get out of this accursed game.' Zen thought with grim determination as his eyes flashed towards the sword beneath his feet and with all the speed his frail body could muster, he immediately picked up the sword but the club was now inches away from his head.
'Damn it! I can't die now! I don't want to die!' Zen roared internally as he quickly pushed the sword above his head in an attempt to block the strike from the beast.
CLANG!
CRACK!
"Huh?" Zen muttered as he blinked rapidly and the next second, he was hurled away with immense force as blood sprayed from his mouth while his body smashed straight into a small hut.
{-5 HP}
{15/20 HP left}