Survivor's Curse

 Survivor's Curse

Chapter 1: Alric

Taken to a world with no aid. The first thing he had learned was the world wanted nothing to do with him. 

 Left alone in the grass plains, he began to hope. Hope that there will be a tomorrow for him.

Upon arriving in this strange new world, the first thought that crossed his mind was to check for any magical abilities. 

However, reality proved to be less accommodating.

 I could feel the magic. It was a swirling mass I could just picture lying deep in my consciousness. That power belonged to me. Me alone. 

"Alright…focus. Feel it and pull it out." Alric's fingers curled instinctively, expecting the unknown power to fill his body.

But of course, something had to be wrong. Just as I could feel magic being manifested, it simply rushed back to the core of where it originally was. The Solar Plexus.

'Huh?! No, no, no! Come on! Come to me!' Despite his earnest pleas for the power to return it had slipped away from him like sand through his fingers.

"Guh!"

A wave of nausea hit him causing him to bend over. It felt as if his soul had been wrung out. If I were the protagonist of a story, I would probably be able to obtain magic instantly. But I wasn't. I was just an insignificant speck named Alric. Maybe a glowing screen would grant me powers beyond my wildest dreams or a mysterious girl would be there to guide me. I had expected power. But instead, I was embraced by agony, a cruel lover whispering promises of suffering into my ear.

Back home I always imagined being in another world would be exhilarating, an escape from the monotonous lifestyle of school and chores with no dreams. Being left on this plain with no idea of why I am here, I couldn't feel any smaller.

Alric groaned, directing his rage toward the endless plains before him. He slammed his fist onto the dirt, the ground unyielding under his powerless strike.

"Oh great. So I'm not only stuck in another world, but I also get to be useless well I'm at it. Great.

"Fantastic. Another world and I get nothing? No cool powers, no hidden skills- hell I'd even take a basic tutorial screen over this! But no, just me and this goddamn grass-" he kicked at the dirt, barely making a dent "and this uselessly big world. Perfect."

Alric had been stranded on these plains for five hours already. Five damn hours. With no village or noticeable landmarks nearby except that eerie-looking labyrinth. He could only curse the bastard who brought him here. If there ever was one. 

Initially, a new world seemed so exciting compared to the monotonous lifestyle he experienced every day. Yet, as time passed, he deeply regretted ever complaining. As seconds, minutes, and hours passed, the excitement faded.

Time seemed to pass at the same rate as Earth. Although everything looked the same, in the same direction of the forsaken labyrinth which he didn't dare venture into; the sky held a muted indigo color periodically turning black as the sun which should have been a yellow pulsating orb became a distorted pale star-covered with an unknown energy.

It was a matter of life or death. Either he would rot in these plains or he would move to the only thing present. The labyrinth. As if answering his call, he saw something flicker. It wasn't the weird sun that he had seen, but the energy had rippled. It was under the ground, moving towards the labyrinth. It was calling him. 

The magic underneath the ground this time didn't leave as if it had been beckoning him to follow along. Now a choice had to be made.

Alric instinctively knew. 

In this world nothing was easy. It was either you perished in silence or you had paved your way through the unknown. 

Slapping his face repeatedly until it had burned red, he had steeled himself. The sting was a reminder of the unknown he was about to explore. Every step he took was a choice that he had made. No one else.

And there it was. The first step. The first step into the unknown. 

'I am not going to die. I will survive and rip out the throat of the bastard who left me here if it's the last thing I do!'

***

An hour passed, the landscape stretching in eerie silence and he followed the faint trail of magic residue. Alric's legs ached, his throat dry from muttering complaints to himself.

He scowled at the horizon, wiping sweat from his forehead. "Who even makes someone who comes into another world walk for an hour?! What type of sadistic god does that?!"

The foot snagged a rock nearly forcing him to fall face-flat into the dirt. 

 Towering over him, he had come across the entrance. The labyrinth stretched across the plains and looked as if it had existed there for eons waiting for someone to stumble across and embrace it.

Pausing right before the dark maw of the labyrinth, doubt had resurfaced in his mind.

'Wait…are there even other humans..or am is this some messed up idea of amusement to somebody..?' He muttered under his breath before a bitter laugh escaped his lips. Although the question had rooted itself in the back of his mind he quickly pushed it away. 

'No use dwelling on it.'

Forcing himself to take a deep breath, Alric steadied his thoughts. The labyrinth awaited.

"Alright…time to go," he whispered to himself, almost sounding like a prayer. He forced his legs to move as he dragged his feet past the ancient stone door.

Step. Step.

As he crossed the threshold, the atmosphere grew darker and the air grew more oppressive. The faint magical trail he had followed; his only hope had disappeared never to return. Once again he was separated from whatever tether he had.

'What the hell?!' His heart began to pound rapidly as he strained the sixth sense that he recently acquired to try and find whatever was left of the magical trail but of no use.

The labyrinth was a prison and he had just walked inside.

"No..no.. this can't be happening." I was supposed to go in, follow the trail, get a cool sword, or something. Not…this. His fingers clenched into fists, "I'm not turning back. I'll find a way out. I have to."

As he shuddered he forced his legs to move. As if the labyrinth was responding to him as if it were alive, it began to relish in the fact he was in the palm of its hands. The shadows whispered tugging away at what confidence and sanity was left.

With his palms profusely sweating he wiped them as he reminded himself:

'Focus, damn it.'

His hands trembled with sweat replacing whatever he had wiped away. The fear was consuming him just like the darkness was. All he wanted to do was just run away and leave but he couldn't. Not yet at least. He forced his feet to move. One step at a time.

Windows tinted black somehow only reflecting his features. The boy stared at the black-tinted window and his reflection stared back warped, as if space was separated from there as well. His gray hair that hung over his eyes seemed normally dull and unremarkable shimmered closely to silver through the black-tinted window. His brown eyes which were steady but upon closer look, looked more hollow consumed by the unnatural shade of his reflection. 

The tint stole some of his warmth causing him to not look like a boy but a shadow of one. A ghost in someone else's skin.

That face wasn't his. It was Alric's. He wasn't sure when that name had slipped from him, but it had. The weight of the body he possessed felt foreign. He was in someone else's flesh, someone else's bones. He stood there, fingers trembling to understand what he saw in the reflection.

No…he wasn't Alric. He was someone else instead. The body felt alien, the true possessor of the body lay dead on the Forgotten Plains. He had no memories of Alric, no ties to him, no claim to his past. Alric's body was lifeless, forgotten. And he? He was Kalen.

"I'm…Kalen." The name tasted so foreign on his lips, yet it was his name. That identity of his felt more real than Alric did. The boy who died. The boy who no longer existed.

He snapped out of his daze, parting away from the reflection of the black-tinted glass window. The cold air was infused with the thick scent of dust and decay. 

His steps quickened. Then- 

A bone snapped underneath his foot. 

He froze as his eyes darted downwards as he witnessed the ground littered with remains broken, some scattered or some even too big to even be a human's. His stomach felt queasy.

Then he saw it.

His eyes landed on a sword, buried at the hip of a fallen soldier. Yanking it from its sheath, revealed a sword that had been dulled by time but still intact. He wrapped his fingers around the sword with the weight sending chills down his arm. He marveled at the opportunity that had been sent down to him. 

'A weapon. A chance to survive.'

The door creaked open, revealing a shadowed chamber beyond. As he entered, silence swallowed him whole. Before he could react, the door slammed shut, sealing him inside.

And that's when he heard it.

"Shit."

A low, husky growl.

From the darkness emerged an easily visible shape- hulking, unnatural and wrong. A wolf or whatever that thing was. Its fur was riddled with grime and something sinister and dark. Its fur was dark maybe due to the filth or just the energy that surrounded it. Its eyes burned like dying embers—filled, hollow, and famished. Worst of all, it had no sound. No dragging of its paws or any clicking sounds. It was like a born predator waiting for its hunt. 

It lunged. Its jaws snapped shut just inches from his arm as he rolled aside. He scrambled to his feet, sword raised high, breath ragged. The air grew oppressive as it pressed down on him. His breath grew heavy as he felt a crushing force weigh him down. It was like unseen hands holding him down draining his willpower and strength. 

"What…the..hell?"

His strength was draining with each second, his knees almost buckling, and Kalen realized something.

The realization had struck like ice in his veins.

Wait… this wasn't just weight. It was magic. It's pressing down on me. His fingered tighetned on the sword. "Oh, that's just great. Of course, I get stuck with a gravity-wielding nightmare."

The wolf had not just been stalking him. It was pressing down on him 

smothering him under the invisible yet tangible force. It moved deliberately slow and relaxed with its eyes gleaming with a deep, sinister light. It... it was controlling the space. The pressure was real. It was manipulating the space around me, forcing me down. 

'Just how did he do that..? I have to move. If I stop moving now, I will die.'

 With no more time to speculate, the wolf chased him, making him turn and navigate through stone pillars as he searched for a way out. But there was none. The walls loomed high, smooth and unscalable. 

He was cornered. 

The dreadful beast stalked forward with its head hung low, sniffing the air.

Kalen's eyes widened. 

'It's sniffing.'

That's when he realized. The beast was blind. It wasn't seeing him. It was sensing him through scent.

Desperation twisted into something else. He found himself letting out a small smile as he found the solution.

"Bingo."

His mind raced. If it couldn't see him then..

His hand darted down, wiping sweat from his neck. Without hesitation, he smeared the sweat on the loose piece of cloth torn from his shirt and tossed it to the side, landing behind a nearby pillar. 

The wolf's ears twitched. Its nostrils flared, its head snapping toward the fabric focusing solely on the false trail.

'That's right…follow the bait.'

The moment it lunged toward the scent, Kalen moved. Silent. Precise. Tightening his grip on the hilt, he gritted his teeth, positioning himself at the right angle. 

And then- 

He stabbed upwards.

The impact was almost immediate.

The beast shrieked out in pain and recoiled violently with its black putrid blood gushing from its ruined snout. Its only means of tracking him was now useless. 

Kalen gasped for air, muscles aching but he wasn't finished. Not yet. 

Now the hunter had become the hunted. 

The boy gritted his teeth as he tightened his grip on the hilt of the sword. With inky blood falling onto his arms, Kalens's muscles screamed yet he stood firm brimming with resolve. 

This time he wouldn't run.

He grinned, bloodied sword in hand.

"Your move."