Chapter 12: Inhumanity
A blood-curdling scream that Luan never thought any sane human was capable of rang out from the depths of his throat as he felt the vines latch on to him with their inhuman jaws.
Whenever he tried to pry himself free from their grasp, the vines simply bit off chunks of his flesh indiscriminately.
Luan screamed and twisted in strange ways as another part of his shoulder was ripped off, revealing the bone located in the place.
Luckily, only the upper parts of his flesh had been ripped so far, so he could still run at top speed which couldn't remotely compare to the speed at which the vines lashed at him.
Luan didn't actually have any hope of surviving his ordeal, but a human's basic survival instinct took over him, making him try to run for his life.
Another vine snapped at his side, ripping chunks out of the meaty flesh at the side.
Luckily, the wound left this time was shallow–at least compared to the others since only the flesh was bitten, leaving the muscles and bones intact.
The forest was extremely foggy, but Luan's mind didn't even register this. He just kept running and running, crashing into trees, tripping over roots and slipping on the grass.
Smaller cuts and bruises appeared on his body, but Luan simply gritted his teeth through the pain and ran.
He just kept running.
Suddenly, he tripped on something and landed with his face to the ground. He groaned, as the pain made his head feel like his brain was shaking, but he quickly stood up to continue running.
He used his hands to feel the ground where he was in order to regain his sense of balance when his hands felt something.
It was a cane.
A wooden cane that felt like the bark of an ancient tree.
Luan's eyes widened in pleasant surprise, but it soon waned when he heard the slithering of vines not too far back.
Therefore, he continued running.
Five minutes later, he reached an area where the fog started to dissipate.
Almost moved to tears, Luan rapidly made his way to the fogless area.
When he got there, he paused a bit to look at his surroundings.
There were trees with mundane vines hanging from them, the grass that swayed with the nonexistent wind, the slight rustling of the leaves and the waving of the branches.
Luan choked back tears of relief as he unsheathed the austere blade and hid behind a tree.
Then, he waited for the approach of the vines.
Minutes passed.
Five minutes passed.
Ten minutes passed.
Thirty minutes passed, but he didn't spot them at all.
Still, he didn't dare move from his position, having learnt his lesson from the myriad footsteps earlier.
After an hour passed and he didn't spot any indication of the vines, Luan straightened his back and slumped on the floor, not even caring about the sharp, tearing and searing pain he was feeling.
'What kind of forest is this?!
'I've almost died so many times within two hours of the night!'
He lamented inwardly and was about to move his body when he suddenly felt his heart rate spike!
Knowing that this could only happen if he was in immense danger, Luan froze on the spot.
He didn't dare move.
He felt that if he didn't move, he wouldn't be in danger.
He was right, but he had underestimated the forest once again.
Suddenly, it was as if a veil was peeled from his eyes.
The part of the forest that was seemingly free from the influence of the fog was actually filled to the brim with fog!
Everything he had been seeing was simply an illusion!
Horror that had been suppressed in his heart suddenly rose up with amplified strength, causing Luan's knees to almost give out.
He tried to maintain his balance, but was unable to.
He landed on one of his knees, genuflecting.
Suddenly and without any warning, he felt a kind of energy leave him as his right arm suddenly withered, leaving nothing but skin and bones where the arm of a young boy used to be.
Luan's eyes widened and he tried to run, but his two legs withered.
After that, his left arm was reduced to a husk.
With his bones unable to support his weight, Luan landed gracelessly on the floor, his head–the only normal part of his body–colliding with a thick root.
Luan's body had endured too much in too little time, and this was like the last straw for his brain.
A wave of nausea and dizziness slammed into him like an oceanic ride, bringing his mental capabilities down to nil.
He could only keep himself from falling unconscious.
If he was going to die, he wanted to at least know what killed him.
As he felt his consciousness slip away, the form of what had reduced him to such a pitiful state was revealed to him.
It gently lowered itself from the illusion it had cast around itself, revealing the entity to be a spider, or the ethereal form of one.
Transparent silk came out of the spider's legs and into the parts of his body that had withered.
He couldn't make out the features of the spider since the ethereal figure's mandibles opened wide over his head.
Luan was waiting for his judgement when he suddenly felt the cold intensify.
Countless erratic footsteps made their way towards him at rapid speeds while an equal number of uneven voices muttered incomprehensible speeches.
The spider tried to retreat, but a cacophony of ear-piercing wails rippled through the fog and landed on the spider.
And then, the spider, which had thrust Luan into the pit of despair was annihilated.
All that told of its existence were the disappearing motes of light where it once was.
Luan closed his eyes in order not to see what he was not supposed to see, but let out a hoarse chuckle when he heard close to one hundred faces smacking their lips.
He felt an extremely foul breath assault his nostrils as one of the faces drew closer and steeled himself for his death, but was startled when a loud boom reverberated throughout the whole forest.
Then, it came again.
BOOM!
And again.
BOOM!
The myriad footsteps and faces that were about to die on Luan suddenly turned to the direction of the booming sounds.
An immense wave of hostility and bloodlust poured out of them, making Luan's grasp on his consciousness as feeble as an infant's grip.
His eyes opened involuntarily, but what he saw wasn't the myriad faces and footsteps.
Instead, Luan saw the source of the booming sounds.
It was a giant.
The giant was made of gold and was without any facial features. It was dressed in an intricate battle armour, and had a sword in its right hand.
Slowly, he saw the giant lift up the sword over his head before locking onto something far away.
The erratic sounds of footsteps revealed the thing being locked on to as the myriad footsteps and faces.
An ear piercing wail rang out, but Luan, who had borne the full brunt of the wail could spot something different.
This wail… was filled with fear.
As his consciousness slipped into oblivion, he was able to see the beautiful, almost totally heavenly arc the giant drew with his sword.
Surprisingly, the giant also spoke.
"SPLIT!"
And then, everything went black.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone