Rustle!
Cal jumped out of fright when he heard the sound as he turned his gaze toward the source. It was the sound of something moving in tall grasses, causing him to become extremely alert. This world was too strange for him, and he might die if he's not too careful.
His supposed corpse from the fall, while still extremely mysterious, was temporarily forgotten by Cal as he focused his individed attention to the origin of the sound.
1 second… 2 seconds… 3 seconds…
As time ticked by, sweat flowed through his forehead. He tried to wipe it with his hand when another rustling of leaves and grasses was heard again.
Rustle! Rustle!
"Gruggkkh!"
Suddenly, an otherworldly sound invaded his ears and they all came from all direction. Cal hurriedly looked around, the sun still lighting up the entire area, maybe the entire world, he could see clearly what was happening above as only few trees have leaves.
However, the tall grasses were a different story. He could see that these grasses were red in color, same as the sky and the tree bark, as if everything here were painted by blood.
"Gruggrk!"
The otherworldly sounds continued to repeat itself as the frequency of rustling increased. Suddenly, a sound coming from behind Cal was heard.
"Grakkkkk!"
Cal instinctively threw himself to the left and his vision caught a mace being smashed to the ground. Stabilizing himself, he saw a little creature, about half the height as him, staring at him with devious grin. Its characteristics were surprisingly similar to goblins in the human world, as this one have bald head, long ears, short height and rotten teeth. But the only different was, this little creature was also colored red, just as how it was in this world.
"Grakkk!"
The red goblin screamed as it lifted the wooden mace on its hand, rushing toward him. Cal immediately stepped backward but he heard otherworldly sounds from behind him as well causing him to change direction.
Before he even realized it, he was already surrounded by red goblins. They all have sinister expression on their faces, and to be frank, they look really ugly.
Now Cal finally registered what in the world was happening. Unexpectedly, he was in the area where these red goblins were wandering. He looked at his own corpse and understood everything. It was clear that the scent of the blood puddle attracted their attention.
Cal continued looking at every goblins around him, estimating to be more than twenty of them. He clenched his hands into fist, ready to fight at moment's notice, but his heart was beating furiously. This is the first time he had encountered monsters closely. Usually, as the prince, he was always inside the kingdom and rarely ventured in monsters forest. And at rare occurrences where he did, he always have royal guards accompanying him, most of them being warriors and mages.
"I'm fucked," Cal said to himself in low tone as he gritted his teeth. He didn't know what to do, he didn't even know how strong these guys are. Could he do it?
"Fuck it, I'm bigger than them!"
Cal finally smiled evilly as all the goblins rushed toward him. He laughed and launched himself toward the horde, dodging mace attacks by weaving left and right.
Cal was extremely swift, he had learned how to do the basic fundamentals of hand-to-hand combat from his fighting instructor Erik. He did not know how effective they were here as it was supposed to be against human, but since his life was on the line, he will just do it!
As Cal continued dodging the maces from the little creatures, he threw a powerful punch toward a goblin's face, causing it to fly away.
"Gruuggkkk!"
The goblin screamed in pain as its long nose was broken. Meanwhile, the other red goblins looked visibly angry and they became even faster and stronger.
Bang!
A mace hit Cal's stomach, making him gasp for breath.
"Grakkkkgh!"
"Grrggkh!"
The red goblins screamed as they took advantage of this opportunity, smashing their maces on every parts of his body, raining him hits until Cal turned into egg shape into the ground.
So painful!
Cal screamed in pain as he felt that every hit shook his soul and gave him excruciating pain. This was as painful as the sensation he felt when he fell down from the "sky".
As he formed an egg shape, he protected his head with his hand. This beat down continued for minutes until the goblins left him, his body full of wounds. Cal stared in the sky, still feeling intense pain in his body. He can't move anymore, he felt extremely exhausted, and his vision was blurring.
He just stared at the crimson sky and chuckled inwardly.
"So this is how it is, huh?"
He didn't survive until the end. No, he didn't have any chance to survive this world. That man was just toying with his life, giving him false hopes about continuing his life, only to leave him dying here.
As his vision continued to darken, he looked at something to his left. It was the blood puddle, his supposed corpse from falling. He didn't know why he stared at it, he just knew there was some answer there.
Cal spent his last minute lying down, extremely exhausted, until he took his final breath. If one were to see his corpse, they would notice that it was full of wounds and his hands were badly mutilated.
***
Cal's eyes snapped open as he found himself staring toward the familiar crimson sky. He didn't know how much time had passed, the last thing he remember was the fact that he met his demise at the hand of those little red goblins.
However, when tried to stand up, he felt that he strangely have a lot of energy, easily moving his body. He looked at his hand, and noticed a smooth, jade-like white hands that has no scratch, other than the dirt he got from lying on the soil.
Cal immediately became confused and he touched his face and every part of his body, including the groin.
"What the fuck? How am I alive?"
He became even more puzzled as time goes by. No explanation appeared in his mind to reason with this bizarre situation he got himself into.
"Is it…a dream?" Cal muttered, thinking the possibilities. However, he immediately discarded that thought. It was too vivid to be a dream, and the pain that he experienced was real as well. There was no way to experience that kind of sensation in a dream.
"That blood puddle…"
Cal recalled about the blood puddle that looked like it belonged to him. It looked like it was himself that was the corpse.
Thinking about this, his eye scanned around and noticed a corpse near a tree. It has a badly mutilated hand and its entire being was a mess. However, this time, he could recognize the face. It was him!
"What the hell!?"
Cal looked at it in horror as he made one step back, but before he expect it, there was some soft and squishy sensation that his right foot stepped on.
He quickly retracted his foot and avoided what he just stepped on. As he had expected it, it was the blood puddle. Thinking about all this, Cal finally formed an idea about his current situation.
"Am I…always revived a moment after I die?"