Flows of white and blue lights dances across the vast cavern's ceiling. To Kenchi's surprise, the cavern was host to many half-sized, ore encrusted creatures. As he walked by a gathering of gelatinous critters of different colors with no peepers, he couldn't help himself. He stretched his hand out, only for the critters to shriek and squirt water in his face. As Kenchi wiped the water from his face, they retreated into one of the many watering holes littered throughout the cavern.
"Come back! I just wanted to pet you!" Kenchi whaled desperately.
The rings of water that previously resonated on the water surface calmed and all the other critters swiftly retreated back into their holes, the air held a current of eminent danger, the ground sound a tone much like footsteps, but bigger. Kenchi's body instinctively entered flight, clinging to the nearest boulder in sight.
[Recommendation; run.]
"We can't run, at least not yet."
The reverberations drew near at a sluggish and agonizing pace, until it stop.
[Heart rate unstable, 110,120,122]
"Maybe it decided to turn back... Anyways it gives me more time to prepare."
As Kenchi breathed a sigh of relief, he glanced to his side, and his heart came to a halting stop, his skin drained of color upon locking eyes with the creature. It's eyes were more beastly than that of a staved wolf. Kenchi found himself to be frozen in spot as the beast unclenched its jaws.
"What is this feeling?... Could it be, fear?" Kenchi eyes remain in fixed on the beast, unable to move, speak or beg for mercy, as if this monster he was faced with would ever listen to his pleads.
Its nose seized up and its whiskers followed as from the abyss of its mouth emerged a deafening roar that silenced every other sound in the cavern. The beast's claws swiftly shot fore with little mercy in its pursuit for Kenchi's head.
[Control Shift.]
Kenchi back-stepped, barely evading what was certain death by single bead of sweat.
"You really saved my ass there." Kenchi remarked whilst unsheathing the rusted blade.
[It's survival of the fittest and I intend on surviving.]
"I've never fought anyone with a sword before, but from what I remember from TV, the stance is something like this." His legs stretched apart and he firmly held the blade in front him with two hand.
[warning, your enemy's power level exceeds yours by 1158 levels.]
"Well we're not leaving without its head." Kenchi mustered a smile as he waited for the striped beast to make its move.
In an instant the beast cleared the distance between them and brought its paw down on Kenchi, but Kenchi slashed its paw and maneuvered out of the way. The beast roared even more powerful than before, however this roar relayed a song of great frustration.
"Maybe it isn't as fast as I thought." The beast's fur stood tall and a muscling-stiffening shock spread through, bring Kenchi to his knees as he vomited enough of his blood to paint the ground with streams of red. In an act of mercilessness, it imprinted its paw on his chest, pinning him to the ground with its claws slowly piercing his skin.
[heart rate: 135,137,140]
"Why hasn't the poison taken effect why? My blood should've worked by now? Is it resistance?" Kenchi tightly grasped the beast's claws, whilst blood flowed down his cheek.
The beast unclenched its jaws, which dipped excessive amounts of saliva. Sharp cracks reverberated from Kenchi's rig cage as his muscles' un-tempered nature began to show. One by one they gave out on him.
"Shit, am I really about to die again?... Ally system, help me out here would yuh?"
[I have my limits, you should've ran.]
Kenchi's grip gradually weakened, his mind slacking its grasp on reality...
"You're so damn, petty..."
The distinct sound of something piercing became the loudest sound in the cavern for no more than a second... Standing with his arms stretched wide was Gonma...
"Why did you follow me?"
A smile from Gonma, made the pain seem faint and less bothersome. "I could let you risk your life to prove you were worthy of a title, that you've more than earned in my eyes... So get up and let's kill this bastard."
[heart rate: 190,210... hidden skill awaken.]
Kenchi's muscles expanded as he broke the claws of the beast. The beast retreated away from Kenchi and took a defensive stance, it's fur charged and a aggressive snarl on its face.
"I feel it, the sum of my heart beats, it's like I have two hearts in my body..." As Kenchi took a gulp of air, his heart beats became an indomitable rhythm of survival...
The sound of thunder ricochet through the air, signaled to Kenchi that it was time for a counter-action. Kenchi whipped the blood from his hands into the beast's eyes. The wave of thunder halted.
"Attack now!!" Kenchi shouted as he dashed forward and delivered a nose-breaking punch.
Whilst Kenchi disoriented the beast with a flurry of punches, Gonma shot fore, and tore into its side with the rusted blade, however the beast released five consecutive discharges into the air, stunning them. In Kenchi's moment of paralysis, the beast slashed open a gash on his chest, and in the same moment a blonde-haired boy burst fore from the beast's belly, and punched through Gonma's chest, piercing his heart with ease, but Gonma clutched the boy's arm and smashed the boy into the ground with the little strength he had left...
"Damn, that was some punch." As he collapsed Kenchi caught him.
"Shit shit shit. Don't worry I can fix this, just hang on, it's gonna be okay!" Kenchi stretched out his hands. "Blood manipulation! Come on! Blood manipulation!!"
"Kid, I don't think a little blood magic is gonna fix this, and you've taken some damage yourself." Gonma said, as he gripped the spot where his blood drenched heart rested."
"What are you saying?! it'll work it has to! it's magic right?"
"Kid... You don't believe those words yourself, why should I?"
[Your mana:[249mp] is too low for the skill you're trying to use.]
"I ask one thing of you... Keep my village safe."
"Don't say things like that damn it! You'll make it out of this alive." A stream of tears flowed down Kenchi's face, no matter how much he tried to hold it in.
"I'll see you on the other side someday, chief..." As the last glimmer of life left his eyes, Kenchi wiped his tears, and his sorrow turned to a deep desire for revenge. Kenchi approached the unconscious blonde-haired boy, he stood over him with his merciless gaze fixed on the boy's face.