★★★★★
"So that's what happened" Martin said as the memories of his disgraceful death flooded through his head, he immediately vowed to put up an actual fight during his next assassination.
Suddenly his blood started to boil, why would his own father do such a thing, even if he was his bastard son, he was still his own blood and part of the family.
Even though his grandfather had accepted him, he made sure to stay very clear from his father after the reading of the will, but now he was dead. He was gone and his father would have his own wealth distributed to his other of his useless brothers.
"Why did Grandpa have to write his will in such a way?"
His Grandpa was the owner of all the riches they lavishly enjoyed, he had fallen sick and had passed away a year back, and, in his will, he had written that all his wealth, every drop of it should be handed to Martin once he reached the age of twenty.
He had never liked his father but he didn't think the old man would stoop so low.
"What a coward." He growled, he didn't want to die yet, he had to go back and take back what was rightfully his. His left hand instinctively moved to his neck and he realized that the necklace his grandfather had given him was nowhere to be found.
"Well, damn it." He had lost his life and the most important thing to him.
Then it struck him.
"I'm supposed to be dead, how the hell am I talking?"
"Wait, where am I..." He immediately felt a burning sensation coming from the side of his head, his hand instinctively moving to touch whatever area that produces the painful feeling.
His fingers felt something sticky, he brought his hand down, rubbed his fingers together, and brought it closer to his face.
Blood.
He tried to open his eyes, but he couldn't. Every cell in his body was ringing alarm bells, something wasn't right. He directed his senses to the area of his head that was causing him to fall into agony. It was as if something was happening there, and the pain was reducing.
Well, unknown to Martin, he was right, there was a hole in his head and due to the transmigration process, the after effects was what was taking place at the moment. The tendons, muscles began to reconnect followed by the reattachment of his skin.
At that moment, his ears picked up a sound, it sounded a bit familiar but he couldn't quite picture where it was coming from.
"Axton… Axton! Axton! Look out! Get out of there!"
It sounded like the voice came from a far distance.
Martin was confused, his eyes slowly opened but it looked like it would take some time before it would get used to the darkness. It seemed like it was the middle of the night.
"Who the hell is Axton? What was he looking out for?"
"Why is it dark all of a sudden?" He wondered.
He could smell the thick, metallic scent of blood hanging heavily in the air, yet his vision was still blurred.
The smell of blood was never a good thing, he thought. He desperately wanted to see what was going on at the moment.
He focused his eyes despite his aching pain and saw what gave him the biggest fright of his life.
It was even scarier than the moment of his death.
"F**k! What the f**k is even that?!!"
He yelled the only word that his brain could register at that moment, echoing his terror as he struggled to comprehend what he had just seen and ended up breaking the eerie silence in the air drawing the creature's attention.
He then realized that he shouldn't have alerted the creature that he was alive, he basically screamed to it, "Yo, you haven't seen me yet!" but it was too late for second thoughts.
The darkness seemed to thicken as the figure slowly turned to him and it was the most hideous thing he had ever seen, apart from the way his father looked before his morning shave.
It had a huge head with the shape of a gourd. There were two large talons in its mouth facing upwards while another two a bit smaller than the first faced downwards.
The blood stains on its mouth vividly described what it had done to some unfortunate ones. Its body was so muscular that its muscles twitched with every movement.
Long sharp claws made its cruel nature evident. It had a large nose that looked like it had been molded into its head but strangely there was no sign of a sense organ used for visualization.
It raised its head up and sniffed the air.
With a growl, it moved closer to the area where it had perceived a mouth-watering scent.
Martin froze in fear watching the hideous beast making its way to him.
The only word in his head was,
"F**k f**k! F**k!"
The sound of his drumming heart reverberated in his ear, he was going to die again and from the looks of it, it didn't look like it would be a painless death.
At that moment, a loud voice was heard, and Martin could feel his eyes well up with tears, someone was coming to save him.
Martin found it a lot similar to the voice he had heard before.
With a commanding roar, the familiar voice seemed to utter a power filled order to nature itself.
"Earth Rune: Rock Fist!" Martin could feel the surge of power from those words and he watched in amazement at the events that followed it.
As if the earth itself had come alive, a portion of the ground in front of the menacing creature responded.
It surged upward, sculpting into a massive fist of solid rock. A young man, a savior materialized from who knows where and stood before Martin.
With unwavering resolve, the young man extended his hand, and the giant fist shaped-rock fist moved in perfect harmony with his intent.
It was a mixture of raw elemental prowess and human willpower, a fusion of earth and man. With a single, breathtaking motion, the rock fist charged forward, a harbinger of destruction.
The impact was breathtaking.
The ground quaked, and the air vibrated with a strong force.
The creature was sent hurtling through the sky and into a far distance.
The young man stood triumphant, his heart with the excitement of having won a massive battle, he turned back and smiled at Martin who was just looking ahead trying to make sense of what had just happened.
Martin's head had instantly gone blank. He couldn't understand what he had just witnessed.
Is this Hell or Heaven?
He asked himself
"Whoa… you are pretty messed up Axton, I wonder how you survived!" The young man furrowed his eyes and dropped to his knees as he examined the huge hole behind Martin's forehead. Although the after effects of transmigration were already taking place, there was still a lot left to do.
He chuckled, "You should be happy you can't see this; you would probably freak out."
Martin was confused.
"Axton?" He muttered.
"Yes. You are Axton of course. The one and only Axton. Lone wolf who defied the Family Head." The young man smiled.
Martin was about to say something when he was interrupted by a cooling sensation in his head.
The pain he had previously felt started to fade away.
It was as if his head was doused in a bucket of cool water.
He instinctively raised his hand to his head. He wanted to find out where that cooling sensation was from but he found out something else. There was no sticky substance on his hand, he felt no pain.
"What… what did you do?" Martin asked with widened eyes.
"Oh… I forgot to tell you that I recently awakened my secondary element, I got the healing rune before we left for the mission. I pretty much healed you right here, speaking of which, we can't stay here we need to move. This place is dangerous."
The young man immediately raised Martin to his feet.
Martin thought he would fall down right there but he was shockingly steady. A surge of warmth filled his body as the young man's strange magic flowed through his veins.
Whatever the man did to him proved to be really handy and effective, and he called it a Healing Rune, What was that by the way? Martin couldn't help the amount of questions that popped up in his head.
"Thank you… " Martin's eyes moved to look at the face of the man and it was then he realized that he knew nothing about this man.
"Liam. That head wound must have been really severe." The boy smiled at him.
Martin could only crack an awkward smile, from the little interaction they had, he could tell that Liam was quite close to the owner of this body. He needed to get answers as soon as possible in order to avoid such awkward interactions.
He only knew two things, One of which was that he had died in his world, then the second one was a process called Transmigration.
His grandfather had told him stories about them but he never thought they were real, well not until now.
The next question he needed an answer to was the name of his current location.
Surveying the gruesome scene around him, Martin couldn't suppress a grim expression as his stomach took a deep drop down.
"I'm sure that's not your regular piece of meat," he muttered, his voice tinged with a mix of horror and curiosity. What exactly had happened here?
The ground was littered with blood and grotesque remnants of flesh and what looked like they once belonged to humans and it spoke of a recent, brutal battle.
The young man furrowed his brow and ran forward with Martin beside him.
He glanced at his friend and realized that there was something wrong with him, his countenance was calm and he suddenly felt easy to converse with.
"The Blind Orcs have done things that are unforgivable. They want to take over our land but we would never let them."
Liam said, his voice carrying a tone of promised vengeance.
Martin really couldn't care less, he just wanted to find out where he was at the moment.
Martin couldn't hold back his thoughts any longer. "What in the world is this place?" he inquired, his gaze shifting to the dilapidated houses and crumbling ruins that surrounded them.
He noticed that he was already getting tired but when he looked at Liam, the boy hadn't broken a damn sweat.
He stopped and leaned against a broken fountain trying to catch a breath.
His question, however, caught Liam off guard, causing him to come to an abrupt halt. His eyes widened, and he chuckled with a hint of disbelief. "Your head must have been deeply damaged if you can't even remember this place. Are you kidding me? This is…"
Before he could finish his sentence, a chilling snap shattered the air, like the breaking of brittle bones. Martin immediately went on alert as his eyes darted around in alarm, searching for answers, but the young man fell eerily silent.
"Dude, why'd you stop talking?" Martin questioned, his voice trembling with unease. He turned his head to where he thought Liam was.
Then, in a sudden, horrific realization, he stammered, "Oh, f**k me!"
Standing beside him was the headless, lifeless form of Liam, who had been his guiding light in this nightmarish world. The decapitated body moved for a moment before crashing to the ground with a bone-chilling thud, leaving Martin alone to survive in this forsaken place.
Martin immediately felt his blood freeze up. His throat had suddenly gotten parched and he couldn't make another sound.
His legs tried to move but he just couldn't. He froze directly on the spot. His pupils shrank and they began to search around for signs of death looming.
"Come on Martin, Move your damned legs! Come on!" He cried out in his head.
He had to run even if he didn't know where to, he just had to run.