Huh?!
My eyes widened as I realized the situation. Instantly, I raised my hands to try and grasp another platform but instead met air.
"No way..."
Gravity began to settle in as I broke into a cold sweat. Panicked, I looked down and saw what awaited me.
A rough and spiky platform of stone was beneath me, beckoning me to a cruel and painful death.
Tsk!
Immediately, I tried to take a deep breath to calm down but failed, the wind was hurling around me at a breakneck pace, I was falling.
Think! Think!
I urged myself to surmise a plan, refusing to fall into panic. Instantly, something clicked.
My legs!
My legs were still a little close to the wall I was climbing, since I was falling in a horizontal position.
Come on!
I used all the power I could muster from my muscles to plant my legs against the rough wall. My shoes scrapped and ripped on impact.
"Come on!"
In one desperate move, my feet finally touched the wall and without thinking I kicked off it.
"It's all or nothing!"
I yelled as I fell in a different direction, my collision course to the morbid platform was successfully altered but...now I had bigger problems.
"Where am I going to land?!", I exclaimed as I descended at full speed before crashing into a stray tree branch.
"Ack!"
I coughed up a slight amount of blood as a blinding pain tore from my back. Without a moment of respite, I crashed into a couple of rocks before gracelessly crashing into the ground.
I remained on the grass for a few moments, panting heavily; my chest expanding and contracting at a measured pace.
"So much pain..."
Well...at least am alive...I think...
After a few moments of catching my breath, I finally rose to my knee and looked around.
"Where am I?"
I spoke as I glanced around.
Where's the waterfall?
I frantically looked around but couldn't find it, I couldn't even hear the sound of rushing water.
"Don't...tell me...am lost...", I stuttered as my expression turned to one of alarm.
Wait...wait...calm down...
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before sighing.
"Nothing good will come out of not being calm."
I muttered to myself before standing up. I stared at the expanse of trees around me, and then at the tall hill I had supposedly descended from before sighing.
"Climbing that thing is totally out of the question."
I turned away and walked off into the woods.
It seems I might be in a meadow...
I thought to myself as I walked towards a couple of trees nesting around the hill. I observed them for a moment and then found the tree branch that I had crashed into. It was protruding from the rocky hill.
"You saved my life, Arigato.", I cupped my hands and bowed in a somewhat humorous manner before walking away.
I hope I find a way back...no I have to find a way back.
I ascertained myself and kept walking through the woods. My feet leaving behind a trail of footprints in the soil.
TMP. TMP.
An hour later, I had stopped to rest. I had apparently not found a way back and was starting to get frustrated.
"Tsk...had I not been feeling so 'adventurous' none of this would have happened.", I cursed under my breath and stood up, before swallowing my saliva.
I need water...
I lingered for a moment and then continued walking; putting my hand on my core to support it.
It turned out that I had actually sustained damage from that earlier fall. A long but shallow gash was spread on my back, I didn't notice it right away because of my high tolerance to pain but after finding it I quickly sealed it using my tie and waistcoat but still it hurt like hell.
"I need to get back."
If this kept going, there's a big probability that I might collapse and even...
Die...
"Huh?!"
What the hell?! This is a game for god's sake...even if I die here, I'll just lose the game and return to the normal world...wait...
I looked at my blood-stained hand.
"Die?"
Would this game also realistically render death?
Instantly, my blood ran cold. A deep primal fear began to rise in my heart threatening to consume me but before it could...
I bit my tongue.
"Pfft! Like I'd die to some goddamn game."
A cold smirk made its way to my face as blood trickled out of my lips. I licked them and kept on walking.
Minutes passed but yet I kept on walking, even with my thirst and inevitable hunger, I kept walking. Even with my injury, I kept walking.
These minutes rolled into hours, and soon, a twilight glow could be seen in the sky.
Dusk was approaching, and once it ended...
The darkness of night will swallow the world, and with that darkness, will come a deep-rooted primordial terror...
The fear of the dark.
Soon my large confident struts turned to pained and crippled strides, my pink uniform absorbed more blood from my wound turning it into a dreadful shade of wine.
Yet, even with the encroaching doom, I kept walking.
If there was one quality I had, it was tenacity.
I was a very stubborn person, someone who'd go as far as to gaslight himself into believing that a broken bone was nothing.
To break me, would be a tall task.
Not that am asking for someone to do that though...
I took a step then another step, venturing deeper into the Wyvern Woods. The twilight of dusk had long disappeared, living behind the darkness of the night.
The sound of silence was loud and overbearing, only being dismissed by the sound of my steps only to return immediately after.
With each step, an omen of dread was finally beginning to tear into my heart.
I walked, walked and then finally stopped.
"Huh?"
I blurted out once I noticed something in the distance.
"What is that?"
For the past hours, I had been walking continually in a straight line not even paying attention to my surroundings, so I had not even noticed the current scarcity of trees.
"Is... that...a..."
Yet, even that strange happenstance wasn't what caused me to stutter.
My eyes widened in a strange mixture of revulsion and excitement.
Because before me, etched on a single Wyvern Tree in sight was a skeleton dressed in a medieval hunter's attire and with the unmistakable length of a silver katana protruding through its skull and tacking it to the tree.
"A katana!"
I yelled in excitement before finally collapsing to the ground, falling into a deep slumber.