The determination to kill burned brightly within my eyes, allowing me to take the final decision of lowering my already raised arm into the remaining eye of the wolf before me.

*Pichui*

I stared at my stake as it sunk into the eye socket of the wolf with a wet sound one would expect to hear when squeezing a wet paper towel.

The sound was slimy and wet, yet at the same time, I felt like the more disturbing sound was the pained howl of the agonized wolf.

However, those howls of pain only captured my attention for a split second since it was only then that I realized that the fur on the wolf was becoming sharper and more jagged than it was before.

‘Crap!’

My eyes darted around to find any escape route, yet there was none.

Even if I were to try and run to the nearest tree, I was sure that the wolf would have used its final attack, one that I would not be capable of running away from no matter how far I were to go.

As long as I was within range, I would die a horrible and gruesome death that would have left me as a corpse with as many holes as swiss cheese, if not more.

There was only one way I could survive now, and it was either to try and push down on the eye socket even more than I had already done, or…

A realization hit me, making me quickly take out my stake before putting my weight on my heel and twirling to the front as fast as I could while also gaining momentum.

When I found myself in front of the wolf, I stabbed in an upward motion where I would be aiming for the area below its chin.

I knew trying to stab it from within the mouth would be near impossible as the wolf could have simply closed its mouth and I would be forced to say goodbye to my second hand and most likely die of blood loss since I would have no way to stop the bleeding._-.

Instead, aiming for below the chin would have been much more successful even though it might seem slightly harder.

The stake was just long enough to pierce the entire head, but for some reason, I could never hit the right angle whenever I tried to pierce the wolf’s brain through its eyes so now I simply resorted to using all the power left in my to stab it from below.

With a final push, my hand moved at a blurring speed, planting the stake through the bottom jaw and even reaching the upper jaw, but no matter how much power I tried to put into it, it simply didn’t go any further.

In a last-ditch effort to survive, I threw my hand back landed it on the floor, and kicked up both my legs hitting them into the butt of the stake, allowing it to finally shoot through the upper jaw and into its brain, causing it to finally die.

I watched as all the hairs on its body went from being razor sharp to completely flaccid within a matter of seconds, like scruffy hair having warm water poured onto it.

With a loud thud that echoed the completely silent wasteland left behind after our battle, the corpse fell with the only sound besides it being the sound of my constant panting.

I could feel my heart pumping the hot adrenaline-filled blood through my veins, each heartbeat sounding like a drum to my sensitive ears.

[You have killed a Dark-Spiked Wolf]

[You have gained 40 EXP]

[You have successfully leveled up]

[You have gained 2 stat points]

[Stats-

HP: 12

Strength: 12

Agility: 12

Intelligence: 12

Vitality: 11

Mana: 0

Defence: 0 ]

[Level: 2]

[Progress: 0/200]

The exhaustion seemed to finally kick in, allowing me to fall backward onto my behind and forcing me to look at the sky as my neck snapped back due to the momentum of my fall.

My neck was too tired to hold up my head anymore which further kept me in the position that I was in.

I didn’t know I was this tired, yet here I was barely able to move.

It was in the peace and quiet where it kicked in.

This feeling wasn’t dread since I wasn’t in danger.

I wasn’t happy even though I had won against an enemy which never in my wildest dreams did I think I could win again.

The thrill of the fight didn’t excite me.

The adrenaline didn’t make me feel good at all.

‘I’m not a fighter.’ was something I told myself not only in the last 4 days but ever since I had my first fight in 3rd grade.

I can’t fight, because I am weak… Because I have nothing to fight for. Why do I fight?

Questions I asked myself for what seemed like a century, yet it had only been 4 days.

In the last 4 days, my face had been covered in dirt while looking like it had simultaneously aged a couple of decades.

It was as if I had lost something deep within me that I didn’t know has existed before. Something precious. Something I had taken for granted.

“Hahahahahaha.” A soft, maniacal laugh left my mouth.

“Hahahahah.” The laugh was croaky and almost horrid.

“Hahahahahaha!” It was no longer the laugh of a normal man. Maybe it never was.

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” No… It was the laugh of a man who had lost everything he held dear.

A man who had watched as everyone he ever cared for and loved was snatched away from him without remorse.

Without an ounce of sympathy

By those cruel and horrid creatures.

Spawn of the devil himself.

Demons in the bodies of what looked like humans, but not quite…

He was a man that had no one to care for anymore, nor anyone to care for him.

He was lonely, scared, distraught… Hell, he hadn’t even gotten enough time to allow the situation to fully sink in.

Every day he found himself running from a new danger. A new problem. A new threat that might tear another leg or arm off, and maybe if he were lucky enough, even his head.

“Haha *Sob* HAHAHAHA *Sob* HAHAHAHAHA *Hic*”

Tears poured out of his eyes… Out of my eyes.

They were like glistening waterfalls, each one of its droplets holding a memory that now has come to pass.

“M-Mom… D-Dad… Emily. Crystal. Everyone.” My cries, my sobs, and my wails grew louder and louder.

“Why did you leave me?” I asked with a little bit of anger in my voice.

“Why did you all leave me to suffer alone?” I asked once again, my questions not really directed at anyone. Maybe I was speaking to myself, or maybe I had gone crazy. Who could tell?

Yet there was one thing that I was certain of, and that was that I myself didn’t know how I was feeling.

My echoing laughs intertwined with my wails of dismay and sorrow, further mixed in with my cries of anger.

My body slowly moved in and curled up into a ball that rocked back and forth with my hand grabbing onto my hair as if wanting to rip them out.

My sobs did not waver and my cries of agony were just as loud as before.

The phantom pain from earlier where I felt as if my hand had been bitten into still resonated in me, yet I could feel it being dramatically nullified by the pain of loss.

While I cried my heart out, I slowly felt hands, hundreds of hands placed onto my shoulders and back. The feeling was abnormal as if hundreds of hands passed through once another, yet every one of them touched me at different intervals.

A comforting and soothing feeling washed over my body as if I had been dipped into a cool river after standing in the light of the scorching summer heat.

I could not understand it at the moment it had happened, but one could say that it was a final gift from beyond the grave.

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