original

Card Mysic

Chapter 1: 1. Strange planet

The red moon hung low over the darkened forest, casting long shadows that danced with the flicker of distant fires. Zilong sprinted through the underbush, his breath coming in ragged gasps, the unknown forest was a blur of shadows and danger, the gluttonous roars of alien entities behind hin echoed like the call of death, echoing through the trees as they got louder and louder.

Twisted luminescent vines hung from towering trees, their leaves glowing with an eerie blue light, the air was thick with the scent of weird gases and an unidentifiable metallic tang, each step was like a perilous dance over the gnarled roots and jagged rocks but stopping was not an option.

"Keep moving!" Zilong glancing back at his crew, captain Luo, clutching a makeshift weapon was right behind him, while the engineer, Feng Guo, struggled to keep pace, limping from a recent injury, the youngest in stature cadet Jane, brought up in the rear, fear evident in her eyes, but determination set in her jaw.

"If we reach the waterfall we can use that as a cover and possibly lose them", captain Luo said, his voice betraying his own doubt, in the recent months, death have been constantly breathing down their necks, they knew to well what happened to those that fell behind, those relentless creatures have already claimed countless of their commrade, and some got lost, what happened to them?, the team do not know, but what they do know is that they don't want to find out.

"How the hell did we end up here!" Jane panted, fatigue evident in her words, "we should have avoided that black hole!" She pointed out, the team did not slow down, upon the unbearable fatigue,they just had to continue.

"How the hell will we escape that back hole, before we noticed it we were already twenty nine kilometers away, it couldn't be avoided"

Captain Luo said, "and besides that stuff was bigger than Phoenix A*" Feng Guo said as he ran along.

The planet was a danger, itself ready to bring down the scythe of the Grim reaper on any foolish fellow dumb enough to walk into one of its traps.

Zilong finally spoke, "how can we escape from this forsaken planet?", Zilong asked, coupled with silence the mysterious entities that were after them seemed to have stopped pursuit.

Zilong looked back and he saw the true meaning of horrifying, behind the was a ten feet long, human like berserker, it had bones protuding from all of the joints in its body, firey red eyes that seem to be able to peer into the soul of its victims, and an eeriely black sticky liquid coming out of its mouth in small streams, its body was hunched back with weird tentacle like object protrudeing from its back, it stood there and looked at them running away, the more joined it, running after them and stopped that that exact plac the former stopped pursuing.

'It seems like they can't get into this area" Zilong thought, soon enough, the squad found a water fall nearby and without hesitation they went through it and a small cave was situated through, this waterfall.

Panting and bruised the captain motioned for silence, their wounds were already healing due to the strange properties of the strange water in the spring.

"We are stranded on an unknown planet, hunted by carnivorous abominations, and have no way of contacting the fleet" Feng Guo said, summarizing their dire situations.

Zilong was the most panicked among all, he was sent to the spaceship as an intern, and wanted to learn from professionals, not knowing the dangers of the Golden star sector.

'I've never seen this in my life, I'm not suppose to be on a strange planet, I've never even received training in space tex, and yet I'm still alive', indeed, Zilong got the permission to slip into the ship because he begged his father, who was one of the main researchers and allowed him to go, but...

As fate saw it none of them were going to make it out alive, he was just here to see the golden star sector, a distant galaxy containing one of the largest stars in the universe...not knowing that it also has the biggest black hole in existence, that was the last fasinating thing he had ever saw and possibly will ever see.

His hands were shaking and his heart had not stopped racing.

"We have to stay here", Feng Guo said, reaching for something in his tight suit, he pulled out a piece of paper and spread it on the floor, using nearby stones to support its edges.

"We will move in the morning, then he brought out some chalk, "weve check the east, south and west, its not there, I think... no, I'm certain that the crash site is in the north" the middle aged man said with determination burning in his eyes,"Tch, isn't that what you said when we were going west", Zilong said with annoyance as he glanced at the man.

"..Last time..ugh.. that was just a mis..calculation, this time its north, in sure" Feng Guo's voice trailed off at those last words betraying his uncertainty.

They have been stranded on that planet for a week, the first days were hellish for them they were more than two hundred astronauts who suvived that crash and now ther are only four in number.

Every day claimed a life and honestly they didn't know who will die first.

.....

The rest of the night they slept well aware that their was no monsters in this specific region.

The next morning Zilong woke up with the familiar feeling he knew too well, 'hunger' he had never tasted food since his unfortunate arrival at the planet but he persisted.

He looked around and saw Mr Feng Guo sketching something on the map, " Zilong you're awake" he said, pushing some spring water to him, Zilong knew this substance all to well, this has been the fluid that has been preventing them from starvation he held the cup shaped rock and forced the fluid down his throat.

Another day of facing imminent death has come.