Alex SullivanMy head was spinning. The realization hit me hard; we were not on earth anymore; hell, we might be dead! Whatever this place was, be it "afterlife," "Hell," or "another world," we were screwed. surrounded by a bunch of dead Elves wearing armor, their broken swords scattered across the cave. I kept looking at a broken piece of shining armor of who I assumed was a commander of this unit. The sword that I found had the same initials as his armor; he had killed that lizard. and given his life for it. That gigantic creature was slain, and yet he was dead. What chance did I have to survive in this place? I looked at Yukio; she was sitting in the corner, covering her face with her hands and trying to calm herself down. It was sad really.I got up and walked to the commander's corpse. slowly closing his eyes. I did not know who he was, but the battle must have been amazing; the size of the slain creature we saw only gave me the sense of deep respect towards him. I slowly reached for the sheath of the sword I was holding. We could not afford to lose this weapon, so I wanted to hold it properly. It was then when I noticed a shining crystal on his left hand. It was vibrating, emitting a weird orange aura around it. Not knowing we were in a fantasy world, I would think it was a bomb! It stopped emitting aura after I touched it and shattered completely, startling me."What was that?" Yukio asked with concern, slowly approaching me. "I don't know," maybe something that was supposed to protect him? "Well, it sure as hell did a bad job; not surprised it broke then," Yukio said, trying to lighten up the mood."Ha... search the bodies, find anything that will fit us; we need something to defend ourselves with." I turned towards her, trying to analyze what our next move was.After searching every body of elves, we found there were 10 elves, 3 of whom were heavily armored, 3 were wearing quivers, or rather what was left of them on their backs, and 3 were just wearing light armor to move quickly. This was a strategically developed team to fight together. The leader wore heavy armor that was a lot lighter and sturdier compared to the other elves'; it was dark blue compared to light gray as well."Leaders armor was made from a different material," I voiced my thoughts after Yukio was done collecting good arrows and storing them in a single quiver. We now had 2 weapons to protect ourselves!"Yeah, looks like a hunting or search unit, designed to fight together. Judging by the fact that half of that armor is barely dented, it is a lot sturdier compared to the ones these 9 had. The only significant damage it has is from the poison by the looks of it." Yukio surprised me. She had analyzed everything better than I had! Was she familiar with the fantasy genre as well? Maybe she also likes anime/manga? "Y-yes," I snapped back into reality; there was no time to think about such things; we had to move. After collecting everything we found useful, along with a leather pouch where we relocated our sweet water and some armor, we were ready to depart."Let's go. If they got here somehow before meeting that lizard, the way out should be this way. I took charge as Yukio followed me.After walking for around an hour, the scenery suddenly changed. We were no longer in a rocky cave; it had transformed into a complete open swamp; the smell of it almost made us vomit as we kept approaching the water; the land was gone, and the water was around ankle deep by the first look. We decided to camp in the swamp for some time and discuss what our plans were."I'm not walking through that water; we have no idea what we're up against, no idea how deep it is, and no idea if there is even a way out in this direction." Yukio voiced her thoughts while making rather good points."I agree, but we have been walking for hours now. We only saw any sign of people closest to this location, and we now have 2 choices. Either we try to push through this water, or we walk back completely, hoping we either missed something or there is a way out where we started." I decided to share my voice of reason as well."I... I understand, but we have no idea what lies beyond this," Yukio tried to persuade me."I know, but we know what lies ahead for a day of walking behind us." I stood my ground. After a few more minutes of discussion, we finally decided to go with my idea and risk it being the right choice. Yukio crossed her fingers as we slowly started walking into the swamp.The swamp got a little bit deeper as we walked; it was now reaching our ankles, and we were struggling to move quickly, but we could not stop; there was no dry surface around us; there were only ugly trees without leaves, but they were full of spikes for us to even consider climbing it. After walking for more than one hour, the water was finally starting to lower once again, making our journey a lot easier as we walked to a small piece of dry land in the middle of the swamp. At this point we were full of mosquito bites, hungry, thirsty, and exhausted; we needed to rest. As we finally went on land, Yukio fell on the ground grumbling."Why did I even agree to follow you? Who in their right mind would go into a mysterious magical swamp without knowing the consequences?" she said, looking at the ceiling of the cave."Well, my bad for not being able to find a guide in this place," I attacked back, annoyed myself. After successfully collecting dry branches and exploding one of the small fragments of the crystals, we made a fire to scare away mosquitos; after that, we drank half of the sweet water we had brought with us using almost a weird bowl made from Yukio's old shirt as we fell asleep from exhaustion."Alex, we have a visitor." I was awoken by Yukio grabbing me by my hand as she was still lying on the ground.Slowly opening my eyes, I looked around only to see the red-eyed lizard a couple of meters from us. "I think it's the same one we first saw; it must have followed us," Yukio whispered, grabbing her bow slowly."This f*cker sure is persistent." I whispered, grabbing the sword and slowly sliding it out of its sheath. Suddenly, Lizard jumped with incredible speed towards us, landing in less than one meter next to Yukio, making us both jump to our feet. startled Yukio pulled her bow with full force, aiming at the lizard."DON'T COME CLOSER, YOU CREEPY OVERGROWN CHAMELEON." Yukio screamed, aiming at the creature as I stood next to her holding my sword.The lizard turned its head, hissing loudly, scaring us even more before spitting green spit at us."LOOK OUT!" I pushed Yukio on the right side and went on the left by myself only to get kicked back by the lizard and drop my sword as it jumped on me.Lizard went for my head as I managed to lift my left arm to bring it in the way while I was being pushed down by this terrifying creature."ARGHHH!!!" I screamed in pain as Lizard's spit burned my hand; it was as if acid was being poured on my hand as I started punching it in the eyes with my right hand."LET HIM GO, YOU MONSTER!" Yukio screamed, hitting Lizard on its side with her arrow."HISS," Lizard groaned as it let go of my hand and jumped back, only to notice Yukio pulling out another arrow from her quiver."Ke Ke," lizard-eyed Yukio before preparing to jump at her."DODGE!" I yelled, trying to get up as Lizard launched at her."DAMN IT!" Yukio screamed as she jumped on her left side towards me, dropping her bow and arrow. Lizard hit the tree. Yukio was standing next to it, stuck on the side of it, looking at us."HISS." It made another terrifying sound before I realized what was coming."OH NO YOU DON'T!" I screamed, grabbing the sword I had dropped with my right hand and swinging it in front of Yukio with all my strength. "MGUAHHHH!" A terrifying scream shook us as I struggled to not fall while Yukio pushed me from behind with her full power, giving me strength to push back the dying lizard as my sword pierced its stomach open."QUAAAGHHH!" the creature screamed as it tried to bite my head again, only to get stopped by my left arm once more. My arm was completely numb at this point; skin was completely red, and I could only feel the burning sensation from it. "DIE, YOU BASTARD!" I screamed as I pushed the sword vertically, feeling the blood of this creature dripping next to my feet as it screamed in agony.After what felt like an eternity, the sword was stuck; I could not move it up further as the half-dead creature struggled against me. feeling my strength starting to go down, I realized I was slowly losing consciousness, but the lizard was somehow still alive; even if it would die in a couple of minutes, I was still screwed."AGHHHHHHHHH!!!! I WON'T DIE HERE, YOU BASTARD!" I screamed at the creature, looking it straight in the eyes as I threw away my sword and concentrated all my energy in my right hand, the same way I saw Yukio do it with her feet in the morning.Suddenly I felt dark energy filling me up; it's as if all my anger had turned into power. Dark purple energy had started emanating from my right hand."NOW DIE!" I screamed as I plunged my hand straight into the creature's open stomach, sliding it vertically as high and as deep as I could. even more blood covered me as guts of the creature started to hit the floor with a disgusting plop. It wasn't long before I reached something big. I felt the beating of its heart as it was pretty close to my hand, only a small layer separating us."YOU'RE DONE FOR!" I yelled as I smiled and pushed once more, breaking through whatever layer was protecting it. "AAAGHH!" I screamed like a madman as I ripped out the beating heart of a creature right out of its stomach."MGUAHH!" The creature screamed one last time as it fell on the floor, completely dead."Hehe, I got this bastard, I blabbered out, barely as I looked at Yukio while she was staring at me, telling me something; only then did I notice tears flowing out of her eyes while her worried eyes were drawn at me. as of begging me something.I looked at the creature once more, noticing its dead intestines at my legs; everything was spilled out. The creature was butchered as the green hiss of acid was emanating from it, and then I noticed it... my legs... there was almost no cloth left on them; they were completely red, bleeding alongside my right arm, confused and barely conscious. I looked at my left arm with blurry vision, only to find 4 of my fingers almost completely gone, burned by acid."I...see," I smiled as I fell on my back, my vision turning dark.