Ryzen watched how the eastern sun glistened, giving a chilling feeling to all of those beneath it. He also observed how the darkness chased the light away. He witnessed how the peaceful day turned upside down when nighttime came when all beastly creatures that craved flesh would race towards the wall.
The once-tamed boy—now a man—watched as two cycles of seasons passed by. The night he was the first thrust outside the wall was also the night he experienced what night raids were all about. Ryzen understood why Avatars never made it back alive after ten years, for when the night came meant survival with one goal—to witness the breaking of dawn again.
Over time since his rebirth as Raya Rozenhart, his life flipped into one hundred eighty degrees. He never thought that the sight of bloodshed, empty stomach, and harsh winter breeze would not affect him anymore.
A night without bloodshed seemed lacking for him. A stomach so full would leave him wondering if he was ever awake. And a night without the cold, harsh breeze, even during the summer solstice, could not penetrate the numb feeling he masked at himself to serve as his armor.
Just before Ryzen could surrender himself to sleepiness, birds started to sing a beautiful melody that echoed throughout the misty forest of Koor. The humid air and the little laughter of stellars caused Ryzen to grunt with frustration. Tired from a late-night raid, Ryzen just gazed upon the horizon. Then, he was greeted by countless looming shadows of the winged serpents.
It was a seemingly endless chore. Enjoying the serenity of the place, Ryzen stayed like that for a good hour, and when he had enough, he slowly got up with the help of the Kaiga wrapped securely with red satin.
And right before Ryzen's eyes, the full view of Raxes is a sight he'll never get tired of gazing at. The tree where he was standing was the tree of the Lady of Fire; it was the tallest in the land, and sitting at the uppermost branch of the tree surely had its perks. This tree had saved him countless times and served as his refuge when he thought all had been lost.
Ryzen watched how darkness was chased by the illuminating light of the blue sun. And when it reached its peak, all nightly monsters and creatures crawled back to their holes. It was morning again. He would take long naps during the day and hunt when necessary, but the day was usually spent with him taking long naps.
The night before this gave Ryzen a half-filled stomach. Last night, a herd of Torionns attacked the wall. A mile before these vile creatures could reach the wall, they were greeted by his presence. And, thus, those creatures became his meal. Ryzen ate them as 'she' taught him.
'Not again.' Ryzen shook his head to erase his lingering thoughts.
Forcing himself to forget the past, he readied his rears to jump off when he caught the sight of a broken blade unwillingly. And just like that, his thought returned to the night he dreaded the most…
"Hurry up, kid." A red-haired woman said between her labored breaths. Her tired eyes looked at Ryzen. It was a late night of winter, and the forest of Koor, originally covered with white, was now tainted with Saika's blood.
Ryzen could see the compassion burning in her dying eyes. There was no room left for remorse. The red-haired woman was an Avatar too, a volunteer to be exact.
Her name was Saika from the lupine race. The first time they met, she saved him from being eaten alive. Saika patiently taught him the ways of being an Avatar. From creating fire to eating raw meat, from creating weapons and traps out of nothing to handling his weapon properly, from jumping to branches from branches—Saika taught Ryzen well.
Saika even cut his hair with the use of his blade. Ryzen looked up to her; she was his mentor. They survived the winter together, fought monsters together, and ate their flesh together. But Saika never told him one important thing—that Avatars were not the hunters outside the wall; instead, they were the hunted.
And Ryzen learned that too late. Saika was now naked before him as her guts fell from her body. Blood runs through her ripped flesh. Bones popped from her skin and eyes, which became dimmer and dimmer as the second passed. The ground sipped her blood as her body lay on the ground, waiting for the predator to return. Her chest was almost not moving at all.
"Go and never look back," Saika whispered, which was still audible in his ears.
He wanted to, but he could not move his legs. Instead, he crawled towards a tree and sought comfort by thinking foolishly that he could hide from the monster. Curling down, Ryzen covered his face with her shaking arms.
The monster he never thought existed. A monster with a body of a faceless man, as if it was sucked from the surface. The monster was wearing a black cloak covering its entire body, but when the wolf form of Saika attacked it, giant tentacles came out from it. The tentacles crashed Saika like a snake until Saika's bones were crushed. Now, Saika lay limp on the ground. The tentacles grew some mouth with razor teeth before they attacked Saika's stomach.
The whole time, Saika was protecting Ryzen. Saika covered him with her black cape as Ryzen hid and watched Saika die. It was at that moment he realized how pathetic he was. How weak he was. Thoughts like that ran through his mind, so he could not think of what Saika was telling him, to run.
"Run!" Saika yelled with all her life, breaking the silent night.
Snapped from his reverie, Ryzen raced to the woods. He was not too far when a very unlikely howl replaced the echo of Saika's voice. It was at that time that his legs gave up. Ryzen stumbled to the ground. Like a rugged doll, his back hit the sturdy pine tree.
Ryzen's lips quivered as he struggled to stand. With unfocused eyes snapping back and forth around him as if, at any moment, a predator would eat him... The silence of the night eerily mocked Ryzen as it loomed like the death grimmer's blanket for him.
'I don't want to die! No, please,' he thought.
Ryzen's silent pleas were interrupted by another howl, but it was a lot closer this time.
'Saika!'
The image of the bloodied Saika mocked him and how he ran away from his friend.
"If we die, at least, we die together."
Ryzen dashed back to the place where he had left Saika. But when he was a few meters away from her body, he saw a dragon with bloodshot eyes butchering her with passion, leaving Saika's head rolling onto the ground.
Ryzen stood immobile from his spot. The monster earlier was now riding the undead dragon.
'What are those?'
Ryzen stood there as he watched the beast devour Saika piece by piece. He watched how it enjoyed his mentor's taste. His body trembled as he imagined that it was him that the beast was devouring.
"The weak become the prey, and the strong become the predator. The natural law of survival," Ryzen absentmindedly chanted to himself.
The black-scaled dragon roared.
That was when Ryzen was snapped from the trance he was in. The memories Saika left him flooded his mind. Saika's last attempt to save his cowardly self. Saika gave her life to him. Saika was always there for him since he came out from Raxes. Saika was guarding him for four months, and this was how he would repay her?
Ryzen laughed like a lunatic amidst the pain of losing someone dear to him. Looking up at the moon, he grinned as tears streamed down his chin.
He may be new in this world full of darkness, but he must not forget who he was.
He was a hellhound—the personification of carnage.
Stepping outside from the shadows, the illuminating light from the moon made his white hair shine brighter, his canines sharper, and his claws longer—liquid substance dropped from his eyes. Ryzen was crying with crimson tears. His beast and soul wept for Saika, his mentor, his companion, his protector, and his friend.
"Hey."
The two beasts snapped their attention to him. Ryzen saw Kaiga at the corner. He crossed the distance between him and his weapon before he grabbed the handle in one fluid motion. When the contact happened, the gem on the Kaiga glowed. He felt a surging power coursed through his veins.
Under the moon, he could practically see his veins glowing under his skin.
The monsters did not move; they merely observed his every move.
Ryzen slowly sauntered towards Saika's head. He carefully picked it up and brought it near his heart as he wept with blood under the moonlight.
"Saika!" His voice was laced with a growl, howling the anger and loss for all the nightly creatures to hear.
It was at this moment when the monsters made a move behind him. Tentacles and claws attacked Ryzen from behind. His entire eyes turned red, and in one swift motion, the tentacles and claws were sliced from their bodies, causing a series of ground-shaking roars from both monsters.
Before the monsters could regenerate, Ryzen used the Kaiga.
"Afirus!" Raya yelled the command to the Kaiga, producing a torrent of crimson flame. The flame devoured the roaring monsters in a matter of split second.
He watched with bloodshot eyes how the monsters turned to ashes. Ryzen stared at the Kaiga. He did not know how he knew the command. It just clicked in his head. This was his Kaiga's ability, an ability that only hellhounds could give with their sacred weapons.
'Maybe the wizard knew all along.'
Ryzen vowed upon the gods above him and his friend's head before him that the time had come for the hunted to be the hunter.
And that night, the first Avatar who became a hunter roamed outside the wall to seek not revenge but redemption.