Growing up in the slums taught Damon everything he needed to know about survival. Kenny's constant drilling of survival tactics made Damon confident that he could strategically slip out of life-threatening situations.
However, today he broke the first rule of survival: if the enemy doesn't know of your presence, keep it that way.
Thanks to the twig he stepped on, his life now rested on a thread.
The moment the rats sensed their prey, they quickly advanced towards him. Their eyes were practically useless in the dark, yet they could pinpoint Damon's location due to their whiskers that sent out sonic tremors, bouncing off anything within a 20-mile radius and reverberating back to them.
That was why the soft breaking of the twig alerted them.
Damon instinctively brought out his trusted knife, ready to defend himself. There were about five rats dashing towards him, and in that brief moment, he wondered if this was the end.
"No! I won't die that easily. Even though I am weak, my courage should be higher as I succumb to death," Damon reassured himself, unwilling to go down without a fight.
"I eat you bastards for breakfast. So what if you're twenty times bigger than before? I will still squash you."
Immediately, one of the rats reached his position, and a sharp pencil-like claw came his way. It was so fast that Damon had no choice but to free-fall backward to avoid the attack.
Even with that, the tip of the claw grazed the surface of his skin enough to form a slash mark.
Landing hard on the ground, Damon quickly rolled out of the way, bypassing a stomp from the rodent, which seemed to possess a certain amount of intelligence.
"That was close, I almost lost the top half of my body," Damon hastily said. The situation wasn't good at all; he could literally smell death.
Damon kicked off the ground and bolted in the direction he had initially come from. He wasn't cut out for this. It was better to be a coward and run away than become the rats' next meal.
Unfortunately, Damon had almost forgotten about the other four rodents. The back of his leg was suddenly whipped by a spiky tail, sending him stumbling to the ground.
His chest was bleeding from the claw attack, and now his leg was punctured by the spike from the tail. The stinging pain from the open wound was excruciating, but he held himself from screaming out in pain for a reason.
The reason was that the rats were blind and attacked him on instinct. Although, it was mostly because Damon was the only moving thing in the area besides them, giving them a clear advantage to locate him.
'Ahh, fuck. I think my back's broken,' Damon exclaimed. While stumbling on the ground, his back had landed on a rock and fractured his spine.
The realization of his situation gripped him, and he knew this was the end. Immobilization meant an easy prey for the rodents.
As the rats crept towards him, Damon started to see flashes of his past with his parents.
The sound of his mom humming, with her beautiful black hair fluttering with the warm, cool breeze under the bright sun's rays. The lullaby was soothing and pleasant to the ear.
His father trying to fix the television but only making it worse in the process, still declaring he could fix it.
'What beautiful memories. I almost forgot about them. I'll finally be coming to you, Mom and Dad. The world doesn't need me. I can't even avenge you. All that you owned will be taken away forever. I'm sorry,' Damon closed his eyes, accepting his fate under the dark sky of the void.
In response to his decision, a few centimeters away from him, an intriguingly designed book with exquisite golden patterns and a carving of a skull started to tremble.
The eye sockets of the skull design glowed brightly with a magnificent eerie hue. Then, like a magnet, the book flew from its position and attached to Damon's body, who was already bleeding out from a fractured rib sticking out through his back, painting the ground with his warm liquid.
As the book quivered, an intense pressure greater than Kenny's power tenfold was released. Upon feeling this pressure, the rats quickly retreated. However, the one that was already close to Damon's body had its bones fractured like glass and its head caved in, eliminating it on the spot.
It was truly terrifying. Just a simple release of pressure killed the rat in the most fatal way possible.
The book suddenly stopped quivering and started to liquefy into a substantially dark gooey slime. The dark slime slowly crept over the body of the now unconscious Damon, who had passed out due to excessive blood loss.
The black slime crawled around his body, then moved to his right hand and fastened itself to his skin like glue. As it glued to Damon's skin, the form started to change, consolidating to his right arm and emitting a white glow.
Eventually, the white light subsided and left in its place a tattoo with an intricate design running up to his elbow. The wounds and broken bones subconsciously started to heal, halting the excessive bleeding.
Not only that, in the process, his body started to change, becoming more advanced and robust.
Unknown to Damon, his body had undergone a great transformation.
…
"Why hasn't he got back yet? It's already noon," Kenny wondered, staring at the sky.
The sky might be dark, but it wasn't dark enough for one to be unable to see. It was like a cloudy day, every day.
The only way to tell if it was nighttime was the change in temperature and the sky darkening more than before. It wasn't wise to venture around at night; there were rumors that those who did never came back.
Kenny himself knew the rumors were true about void creatures lingering around the slums; he had fought with them. The thing was, they weren't even completely void creatures, just rats that came in contact with the corrosive form of void energy.
"I guess I should go out and look for him before it gets dark. I hope you're fine, Damon," Kenny said, worry lingering in his heart.
Suddenly, his attention was drawn by a silhouette walking towards him. For a brief moment, he became on high alert, but upon a clear view, he exclaimed,
"Damon!"
*****