"Shit"
Thren cursed under his breath as his teeth grinded against each other. He bent backward, His spine protesting as his hair brushed the dirt. But he had to do it else...
A massive hand or what one would assume to be as it was covered in black leathery like substance, tore through the air where his torso had been a second ago, aiming to obliterate it.
Thren gulped, saf...
His legs buckled under him and he sprawled into the dirt, right under the hulking creature.
The creatures black pupils moved, looking down on him, it lifted its two massive hands over its head, and for a second Thren could swear he saw its grotesque mouth twisting to form a grin, before bringing down its colossal hands aiming to turn his body to a paste.
But the hit never landed as a massive man slammed shoulder first into the creature, pushing it off for a bit. Causing the clobbering fist to slam into the ground, the impact forming a mini crater next to Thren's head.
Without wasting a beat, the man spun around and dug his feets into the dirt, his fists cocked back.
Slam!
The sound rang out sharp like steel against steel as his fist drove into the monsters writhing abdomen, the force lifting the hulking abomination a few inches above the ground. Black blood sprayed out of its mouth, splattering on Thren's face.
Within a heart beat, the man pulled back his fist and struck again, smashing into the creatures side and sending it flying.
The man cast a brief glance at Thren.
"Get up."
He dashed towards the monster which was already crawling back up, his fist pulled back as he got ready to finish it off.
But Thren had no time to admire the man—his father, not in this situation.
He quickly rolled up, getting out of the way as another monster slammed into where he was a second ago.
The creature which looked like a wolf—except it didn't have hair, rather its skin was covered by scale like substance similar to a snake, snarled at Thren, revealing gleaming teeths covered in blood as it walked around, getting ready to pounce.
Like I'd let you.
Thren dashed forward, flicking the dagger in his hands into a slashing position. The creature responded in kind, its hinds legs pushed against the dirt as it pounced forward, tongue hanging loosely, its claws reaching out for Thren's neck.
Just before clashing, Thren dropped low, sliding beneath the creature. He stabbed into its exposed belly, the dagger dragged through, tearing open its belly as Thren slid forward.
He spun to a stop, observing as strands of viscera and blood poured out, the creature staggering and finally falling.
For a second he wanted to breathe a sigh of relief. But Relief was a luxury he couldn't afford—not while his father was still fighting, and not while his brother trembled behind him, dagger in hand, gray eyes blank and terrified.
As if the world was trying to prove him right, a scream rang out behind him.
He turned sharply to see a girl, gurgling as a creature tore through her throat, her body flopped like a ragdoll, while her head rolled to his feet. Her eyes wide in a mixture of fear and shock or perhaps relief. Yes relief, that she no longer had to endure this nightmare.
He could remember her name, Amy, he wasn't exactly close to her, but in this hell, he remembered everyones name, or at least tried to. Not for any deep reason, but just because it felt right to him.
A heavy hand landed on his shoulder drawing him out of his thoughts. He looked up to see his father, his aged eyes looking tired as he let a small smile as if trying to convince him that everything will be okay.
"Just watch your brother, I'll deal with the rest."
He looked up, at the chaos in the arena, monsters, no these were aberrants—twisted creatures, a result of the fall, savagely tore through flesh.
While the few remaining humans struggled to survive.
Thren always wondered why they did that, wouldn't it be easier to just die and leave this hell. Why try to survive only to be thrown into this hell again? was death that much terrifying? Or was it the pain?
But he couldn't get that answer, atleast not yet, not while his father was alive, and his brother.
He turned back to the lean teenager, who was clearly not built for battle as made obvious by the way he trembled as he held a dagger with both hands, flinching at every sound, not to mention...
Thren's gaze moved to his grey blank eyes, he was blind. He didn't belong here, no, that was wrong, none of them did.
A soft squeeze on his shoulder was the last thing he felt before his father dashed back into the battle tearing through aberrants with his bare hands like a demon.
Screams echoed all around them at the sight, but these were no screams of fear. This was excitement for a good show. Thren's gaze moved upwards, scanning the cheering audience, the real monsters.
The so called higher races or as they called themselves "Alynds". Humans who accepted the seed of the Gods, becoming something new, different.
But as if abandoning their humanity wasn't enough, they decided to torment those who kept their's, hunting them and using them as entertainment.
They cheering got louder as his father, the strongest person he knew, the one he always admired, who whenever was around, Thren felt safe, was now turned to ultimate performer slaying another aberrants.
Thren's teeths clenched against each other so much he felt a faint metallic taste in his mouth.
That brief moment of looking at the audience, ignoring the fight, Thren knew it was dangerous, usually he'd resist the urge, but not this time.
And that did not go unnoticed by the humanoid aberrant, a unique mutation even among the aberrants. It was lurking behind the others, unwilling to get involved in the chaos, waiting for its chance.
Its eyes lit up, a certain grin forming on its twisted face with withing flesh as it noticed Thren.
Without wasting time it dashed forward, ignoring everyone else, heading straight for Thren who due to that brief distraction noticed too late. Its abnormaly long clawed hand already reaching for his face.
Thren subconsciously closed his eyes and lifted his hands, bracing for the inevitable, but the pain never came, no piercing, nothing.
Rather warm blood dripped onto his face, one drop, then another and another, then the raspy cough of a dying man.
Thren's eyes slowly opened to a scene he couldn't accept, his father's massive body in front of him, except this time there was a claw piercing through his torso. His muscles bulged as he held on to the hand preventing it from moving further in, saving Thren's life.
The aberrants head tilted slightly, perhaps out of confusion or amusement, then it grinned.
And with it came the resounding cheers, after all the greatest protector had finally fallen, what great thrill they derived from that compared to what Thren was feeling.
He looked on blankly, tears beading in his eyes at the scene. His father's head slowly turned, his mouth slowly opened to say something but he gurgled on blood instead.
"Br...Brother."
The words finally came out, but as if waiting for that moment or just it's cruel nature, the aberrants other hand pierced through his head, destroying both eyes and most of his face.
As if that wasn't enough, a scream came from behind Thren. He turned to see his brothers pale neck stained red, three deep cuts engraved into flesh letting blood flow freely.
The cheers got even louder as Thren sunk deeper into despair. At this point, he didn't know what to feel, his throat tightened, breath hitched as he turned between his father and his brother.
Upon loosing the greatest obstacle to their rampage, the aberrants made quick work of the remaining survivors, leaving the shattered Thren for last, quite fitting of his name.
They slowly approached him, surrounded him even, but they didn't take that last step, keeping a distance as if scared, but not of him.
The humanoid aberrant standing in front of him, licked the blood off its claws as Thren's father's body slid off, sprawling onto the floor, his face mangled up.
The aberrant slowly approached him, taking it's time. It's grotesque mouth twisted to form a smile straight out of hell. It was enjoying this, seeing this human break was better than devouring essence.
It stopped just short of the kneeling Thren who had lost all will to fight. His father was dead and so was his brother, what was the point anymore.
He wasn't like those crazy humans who kept fighting to fight another day in this hell. He'd rather die, or so he thought.
But his chest tightened, fist clenched at his side as if rejecting that philosophy. He was feeling both fear and boiling rage, it was like something was pushing him to reject that fate.
Perhaps this was why they kept fighting.
A weak chuckle made the creature stop for a second, it's expression changing.
Thren's head slowly lifted, his lips pulled apart revealing teeth beneath. The next second everyone, the aberrants, the alynds all stared wide eyed as Thren burst into maniacal laughter.
For a few seconds, no one moved a bit, just watching the young man laugh like a maniac.
Has he finally lost it?
Thren's eyes scanned the stands, the higher races, dressed in Victorian style outfits with gears as adornment, all looking at him with confused expressions. His gaze stopped at a particularly lavish stand, extending forward like a balcony, the mayor's seat above it.
"You better hope I stay dead." His voice rang out in the silent arena.
"Or what?"
"Filthy human."
"Even in fifty lifetimes you can do nothing"
"Yep, he's finally lost it,"
"How boring, I thought he awakened or something."
Various comments rained down on him from the sneering audience.
But it didn't matter, he had said what he wanted to anyway.
His head moved back as the aberrant pulled back its clawed hands, thrusting towards his chest, his heart.
Time slowed down to a crawl at that moment just before the claw touched his chest, he strangely felt more alive.
Then pixels crawled in front of his vision, obscuring the claw behind. Like a broken
screen it coalesced to form a purple translucent screen.
«THE MONARCH OF HUMANITY HAS TAKEN INTEREST IN YOU»
«YOU'VE BEEN GRANTED THE GOD SLAYER SYSTEM»
«CONDITIONS HAVE TRIGGERED BOON»
«LEVEL TEMPORARILY INCREASED TO 25»
What is thi—
His thought was interrupted as he felt his muscle get tighter, sudden strength surging in from nowhere.
Then his hand snapped upward.