"What's this feeling?" Code staggered backward, sweat sliding down his grime-covered face.
The group watched in silence as Dane's devastated body slid down the trunk with a wet squelch, leaving thick red trails of blood behind.
The footsteps grew louder and closer.
Ran turned swiftly to Kael, his heart hammering so hard it threatened to tear through his chest.
"This feeling..." he whispered. "It's terror."
Code's gaze darted across the survivors: Tenò, the scarred swordsman; Soudra, the second swordsman; and Elara, the healer, who trembled uncontrollably.
His breath caught, but strangely, the thought that flashed through his mind wasn't the approaching monster. It was four percent.
"Shit. What the hell is wrong with me?!" He bit his lower lip hard.
"Maintain formation!" Kael barked. His voice echoed through the forest. "Now!"
The group snapped into position: sword wielders forward, healer and Code at the center, Ran and Kael at the point.
Code's teeth chattered as he forced a shaky grin through the dread. Elara stared at the ground, body shaking. Tenò and Soudra gripped their blades with white-knuckled fingers.
When it seemed everyone might collapse from fear, Kael's voice boomed again, fierce and unyielding. "Everyone raise your damn heads. We have a job to do, goddamn it!"
Code blinked and lifted his head, staring at Kael's broad back.
"If we work together, we survive. Remember, only the living get paid." Kael's jaw clenched. His next words came softer, almost to himself. "We can... We will survive."
Code's pulse slowed. He clenched both fists until his nails pierced his palms. Determination surged through him, teeth gritting.
'Yeah. I can survive. I will survive. No matter what. I'll go home with my four percent profit!'
He glanced left at Elara. She still looked blank, but a faint spark of encouragement flickered in her eyes. Tenò and Soudra straightened, gripping their weapons tighter. Ran's gaze hardened, veins bulging along his face and neck.
"That's the spirit," Kael said quietly, scanning their faces.
The rumbling drew closer, trees shuddered, the ground bucked.
"Ran..." Kael braced himself. Ran nodded, chest heaving. The footsteps became thunder. The group swallowed hard.
"It's here," Code breathed.
From the black wall of trees emerged a foot the size of a small house, pale and grotesque.
Kael and Ran recoiled, fear gripping their hearts. But Kael recovered first, teeth baring, as he jerked back.
"Now!!!" he shouted.
Metallic impacts rang out as Tenò and Soudra launched forward, blades flashing, slicing through the air. They reached the demon's foot and let out desperate battle cries as they swung.
But just as their swords were inches from connecting, a hurricane gust ripped through the terrain, hurling sand and debris into Code's face.
Silence fell immediately.
"Ugh... ugh..." A desperate grunt snapped Code's eyes open. He slowly turned, gaze crawling across blood droplets on the ground to the tree beside them.
"What?" He froze in horror.
Sliding down the trunk was a smoothened mass of meat smeared with crushed bones and drooling blood.
Tenò was no longer recognizable. If not for his scars, Code would've assumed what he was looking at was beef.
Code's gaze shifted to the demon, tracing its massive outstretched hand dripping with Tenò's blood. His eyes twitched as they met the creature's. This thing made horror-film monsters look like a comedy sketch: a pale red grotesque mass of flesh with two twisted horns and a grin that stretched not from ear to ear, but from eye to eye.
In its wide maw dangled the half-eaten corpses of the three who had fled earlier.
"Ahhh!!!" The scream drew every eye.
Soudra dangled in the demon's tight grip, ribs already crackling, eyes bloodshot.
"No! No! It hurts!" he cried, struggling and thrashing, but the grip only tightened.
The group stood frozen as the demon's fingers squeezed harder. When Soudra's body reached its limit, blood, intestines, and viscera painted the canopy. His eyes and teeth rained down like a shower.
Soudra's screams died mid-breath; he was silenced forever.
Code's mouth hung open. His legs shook so badly he thought they would fold. The demon swallowed the remains in its mouth, then stepped forward, crushing Soudra's blood underfoot. It turned its cold, menacing gaze on the survivors, thick ropes of saliva dripping from its maw.
Code looked at Elara. She had collapsed to her knees, trembling uncontrollably, whispering the same words over and over. "I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die..." Tears carved tracks through the dirt on her cheeks.
"Hahaha..." Code's laugh came out cracked and hollow.
A sharp sound tore through the air: the ring of steel being drawn. Code and Elara lifted their heads.
Kael stood upright. In his hands were two curved axes, moonlight sliding off their edges.
"I refuse to fear," he growled through clenched teeth. He swung once, shearing several trees clean in a single arc. A dark blue light erupted from his palms, coating both blades.
"I'll kill you!!" he roared. The voice echoed through the woods. He twisted back, axes crossed, staring straight into the demon's maw.
"Ran..." He called softly and breathed, gaze fixed forward.
"Uh?" Ran rasped, leaning in as Kael whispered something too low for Code or Elara to hear.
Then the fight ignited.
The demon's left arm shot forward like a cannon. Kael met it head-on, swinging his axes and slicing off chunks of flesh as the limb exploded into wet rolls of meat.
"Shrieeeekkk!!" The demon staggered.
"Feel the pain you gave us, vermin!!" Kael roared. He surged forward, air rippling in his wake. Another arm swung downward. Kael carved it in half and erupted upward, the demon's blood coating his entire body.
"Woah!!" Code gasped in awe.
Kael floated above the monster's skull, looking down like judgment itself. "I'll make you pay!!" he roared, diving downward, axes first, forming a comet of descending blue light.
Code's lips curled into a hopeful smile. His heart calmed. "We can win. We can actually win."
The group held their breath as they watched Kael descend. "Kill it!!" they shouted in unison.
'And I get to receive my pay and leave here alive,' Code prayed.
Kael spun through the air, blurring into a shining boulder as he connected with the demon's skull. But just as his axes were about to strike, the tables turned.
The demon slowly turned its head until its face met Kael's. Its maw twitched, lips splitting into a mocking smile as the mouth tore open, revealing rows of knife-like teeth.
"What?!" Kael gasped in horror. He tried to slow himself mid-air, but momentum carried him forward.
"No!" he begged, already centimeters from the gaping maw. "No... no... no... no!!!"
He fell inside with a wet splat, saliva erupting upward. With a desperate motion, he raced through the jaws, trying to leap out, but it was too late. The demon's jaws snapped shut, crushing his body. Only his legs and a few drops of blood escaped. The rest was devoured.
Code looked up at the moon, as if expecting divine intervention. Everyone could hear it: the chewing, the crunch of bones, the squelch of flesh, the gulp of blood, and Kael's final wails.
"It's over..." Code muttered. Tears didn't come. Sweat didn't pour. He just stared, as if in a daze.
"You bastard!!!"
Code lowered his head. Ran was screaming, clutching what remained of Kael. "You motherfucker! Curse you! How dare you?!"
But the demon's grin only widened, unconcerned by Ran's cry.
"It's pointless," Code whispered grimly, placing a hand on Ran's shoulder.
"Get those fucking hands off me!" Ran snapped, slapping the hand away. "Don't act like you know me. You don't know anything! You're just a child who's had it easy!" he screamed, tears sliding down his cheeks.
"Kael..." Ran whispered, clutching the remains. "He was more than a friend. He was my brother."
Flashbacks struck him.
He remembered Kael's final words, the ones only he had heard. "Ran..." Kael had called as Ran leaned in. "We can't beat it."
"What do you mean?" Ran had asked, eyes widening.
"But I'll distract it," Kael continued, tone grim. "In that time..." He gulped and faced the demon.
"...Run!"
...
"Why? Why did you have to die?!" Ran screamed. "I should've been the one."
"Oi!" Code cut in, clutching his shoulder again. "This isn't the time to cry. He's gone, but he gave us a chance to escape." Code glanced at the demon, which was busy regenerating its arm. "We can still make it."
'Without the group leader, I won't get any payment!' he screamed inwardly.
"You bastard!" Ran yelled, slapping Code's hand away once more. "Don't act like you care! You think I don't know? You only care about the profit, don't you? The reason you stayed when others left. You knew you were useless and weak! But you stayed because of the profit!"
"You know what? Fuck it all!" Code retorted. "I didn't come here to die, goddamn it!"
"And you think I'd pay you after this?" Ran sneered.
Code's gaze darkened. "Don't fuck with me," he warned, hand moving toward his dagger.
"Heyy!!" A scream pierced the air, halting them.
"Uh?" Code and Ran turned.
Elara's trembling finger pointed behind them.
"Hehe..." Code forced a nervous chuckle. "What... what is it?" he stammered. Sweat poured down his face.
He looked at the ground and saw a massive shadow looming over his own. Ran froze. Cold air blew from his lungs, his heart thudded.
'I have to get my payment... sorry, survive!' Code's mind spiraled.
'Survive...'
"Survive!!!" he screamed, bolting forward. He took the first step, but before the second could land, a wet, sickening sound boomed.
The noise made him freeze mid-stride.
He looked down. His arms were intact. His legs were still there. His head still thinking.
It wasn't him.
Elara raised her hand to cover her mouth and fell to the ground.
Code turned, and a wave of blood and gore splashed across his face.
"Ran?" His heart skipped as he stared at the half-body before him. From the waist up, Ran was gone. Even Kael's remains had vanished, reduced to red.
"My... my four percent?!" Code muttered, shaking as Ran's legs toppled to the ground.
His chest pounded violently. "I don't want to die! I can't die here. I still have a long life to live!" Code screamed in his head. Without another thought, he bolted into the woods, screaming "Run!" as he dashed past Elara.
"Gyaaahh!!" Elara scrambled to her feet and followed.
"My payment matters, my four percent cut matters, my profit matters... But my life matters more!!" He muttered the words like a mantra as he disappeared into the darkness.
Now he understood.
Life was real.
Death was real.
And neither cared about percentages.