章節 7: Chapter Seven

Shit, shit, shit!

How the hell did this even happen?! I just wanted another person to talk with- No, hell, I just wanted to some bullets, so I can feel safe, not killing another person!

I already pointed my gun at the man's head, but obviously, my hand was trembling a bit. Damn it, do I really have to do this? This is going to cloud my mind for god knows how long!

I looked at the man's eyes; they were empty. He accepted that his death was coming, and if anything, he looked like he was relieved.

"H-Hey..." I managed to utter out, "W-What's your name?"

"...Damien." I can feel it in his voice that he was in so much pain. Damn it, damn it all! There wasn't anything like this in the game!

I wanted to get this over with, the man was in excruciating pain, but… My finger didn't move.

I gulped, and managed to barely utter out another question.

"Do you... have a dying wish? Any regrets?"

Damien managed to somehow let a chuckle, "Many... So many, in fact, that I can't even begin to mention all of it."

Shit, I shouldn't have asked that, I feel worse now! Why am I supposed to do this? Why me? Why not just shoot yourself and be done with it, you selfish bastard?!

No- what am I thinking? My thoughts are clouding my judgement, and I just want to get out of here. But, the man gave me his gun. This is the only thing I can do for him. I couldn't even ask him any questions about this place.

Somehow, someway, my finger began to slowly move, the trigger about to be pulled. Eve kept on whining, even she is uncomfortable in this situation.

I managed to mutter out, "Goodbye." to which he responded with a small smile and a nod.

Well, here goes nothing, I'm about to kill a man.

Three.

Two.

One-

"Stop right there."

I felt like a chill struck me down to every cell in my body, as my hairs stood on their ends, just like every time when I encounter danger. My entire body stopped, I couldn't even move a finger now.

The voice came from behind me, and it was quiet. Yet, I can feel it, it was filled with such hatred and killing intent that it shook me down to my core, and worst of all, it was filled with strength, despite it being quiet.

It was the voice of a woman. Shit, this didn't bode well. Even Damien had a look of utter shock.

Slowly, very slowly, I managed to barely turn my head around, and looked at her.

She, she was like those plant monsters I've seen on the computer when I first arrived here. But, this one seemed more mature, she had way more tentacles coming out of her, and her hair, which was made of leafs, was far longer than the other ones. She was a humanoid, although just like the plant ones, her skin was light green, and her eyes a frightening scarlet red. She was much taller as well, and her breasts were, to be blunt, far larger than those plant ones. Still, she kept it hidden under what seemed like a shirt made out of plants. She had a flower for a skirt that almost covered all of her lower half.

And from her gaze- I could tell, it wasn't like the gazes of the plant monsters like before, or like Eve, they weren't a lustful gaze, wanting to violate me.

No- these were of someone that wanted to kill me! There was no compassion in it, just pure killing intent!

And this pressure- Shit, this wasn't the type of pressure that wants me to take off my clothes and submit to her, no, this was the type of pressure that made me want to grovel and beg for forgiveness.

I can't do anything against her, and I got the feeling that neither Eve could anything as well.

"I-It's you!" Damien uttered something from behind me, his voice full of surprise. Was she the one who did this to him? No, it doesn't make sense. He said it was a snake-like creature, the same boss from the game.

"WOOF! WOOF!" Eve growled at the woman, threatening to pounce at her, her claws out. You know, I just noticed how long her claws were. Those could easily kill me with one swipe.

The woman looked at Eve the same way someone looks at trash, as if she wasn't even worth paying any attention to. She returned her attention to me, and suddenly, a strange sensation came over me. I felt like I'm going to die right here, right now.

Sure enough, her tentacles somehow stretched even longer, and launched towards me at a frightening speed.

*Thump*

I'm going to die!

"NO! DON'T KILL HIM!"

Damien managed to shout, but I could barely pay any attention to it. I just froze in place, not able to move. But, something strange happened, a strange sensation appeared all over me. It felt as if time was slowing down, as the tentacles, and everything else around it began to slow down.

*Thump*

I can feel my heart about to burst, it's thumping noise, and I could swear I'm hearing the blood flow in my body. The tentacles were flying towards me at a snail pace, and I could see everything in them, the thorns, the drops of water on them, and the intense killing intent.

This only happened once in my life before, when I was playing baseball. There was one moment, I felt the same as I did now, I saw every stitch of the ball as it flew towards me, every minuscule detail. And, I reacted out of pure instinct, and managed to hit it.

I could feel it, my body. It was bizarre. I could feel every cell in my body moving, my neurons, the sound of the fabric of my clothes touching my body, and more importantly, my muscles, I could feel them move on their own.

In this life or death situation, adrenaline pumped through my blood, and my body, out of pure instinct, reacted on its own!

Half a second, that's all I have. At an impossible speed, I grabbed Eve who was still barking mid-way in slow motion, and immediately threw myself and her to the other side of the room as the slow motion effect subsided. I saw every tentacle, their degree of attack, where they will hit, etc... I managed to somehow dodge all of them, as if I was an acrobatic. What was even more shocking was that I could lift Eve with one arm, even though I previously could barely shove her off with both hands.

"Haaaah...!" Fuck, after I managed to dodge all of that, I felt like my heart is really going to burst! I was breathing heavily, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see the woman looked at me with a bit of surprise. Of course, nothing compared to the look Damien gave me.

"Not bad," she uttered, preparing her tentacles to attack again, "Unfortunately for you, that's not enough."

"Wait!"

Damien managed to shout with all his strength, causing the woman to glance at him.

"He- He didn't do anything wrong... Please, don't kill him, Ivy!"

I could tell easily that Damien knew who this monster was, even with my crumbling consciousness. I felt like I'm going to fall unconscious any moment now. Fuck, that feeling I got must've taken away all of my energy. That's what happened years ago as well.

"Please," Damien begged, "I wanted him to shoot me..." The monster, Ivy I presume, looked at him with slightly raised eyebrows, as if what he just said was incomprehensible.

After a few moments of utter pain from my body, she turned her attention towards me. And just as fast, she flung one of her tentacles at me.

"No!"

There's no away I could dodge in this state, none at all. Eve pounced at Ivy, hoping to somehow hurt her, but this woman was on a whole another level. She easily caught her mid-flight, and the tentacle caught me as well.

Instead of crushing us, or anything like that, flung us to the door, and threw us out with an immense force.

"If I ever see you again," She said with an empty voice, "I'll kill both of you."

With a maddening thud, she closed the door, the walls slightly cracking due to it.

Wait, did I actually just survive?

Just as I was about to stand up, I felt a stinging pain in my back, and my consciousness was fading away slightly. I just wanted to sleep right now.

Shit, woman, you didn't have to throw me that hard! I tried my best to stand up and not fall asleep. Sleeping here is a death sentence. If a monster finds me, it's over.

I managed to turn my attention towards Eve, who was in a much better shape than I was. She easily stood up on her four legs, and was growling at the door.

Noticing my state, she immediately came over and began to let out small whines.

At least she's fine. And hey, at least I didn't kill a man.

I don't know what's the relationship between these two, but I could tell, they've known each other for quite some time. Evident by how pissed Ivy was when I tried to kill Damien.

Shit, is he gonna get sucked to death? I certainly hope not.

I continued to try to stand up, but to no avail. My injuries weren't serious, at least nothing life-threatening, but the real problem here is my lack of energy. Eve continued to lick my face, as if that would help.

"D-Damn it, if I fall asleep, other monsters will- Ugh..."

Ah, damn it.

The fatigue finally got to me, and just like that,

I fell unconscious.