Demonic Human

Chapter 2: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger

ZEXUR TALION

Hmmm...

I came to my senses with a headache to wake the dead. I slowly opened my eyes only to see the dark, cracked ceiling of the cave. Despite the pain running through my body I managed to get up to sit. I scanned the room only to remember that Irin is dead. It was then that an immense fear invaded me at the idea that the giant orc was still there but after a second check I discovered that he was there, lying on the floor in a pool of black blood.

I decided to approach him to see what state he was in and that's when I discovered that he was dead, the front side of his body completely pulverized as if he had stood in front of a super-powerful explosion. But why is he in this state? If Tomson and the others managed to escape and warn a guild of our situation then why didn't the reinforcements take us with them? Even if they thought we were dead they should have taken us with them.

I don't understand the situation, I don't even know how long I was unconscious. Besides, I should have died during the fight, even if I had miraculously survived the impact of my fall, the boss would have devoured me, crushed me or whatever, but I shouldn't be alive.

After gathering the few forces I had I managed to stand up, I then headed towards the exit of the cave. I passed by the rock below which lay Irin's body, or what was left of it. I couldn't hold back my tears as I imagined those parents and her little sister when they heard the news.

I kept moving through the cave and came across several dead wolves, probably the ones we killed on the way to the boss. I kept moving forward when a group of three wolves appeared in front of me. I quickly gathered mana in my legs to dodge them but their movements were surprisingly slow to the point that I didn't need to use my mana to dodge them. I twisted to the side and then threw a point shot carrying all my frustration, sadness, fear and anger directly into the skull of the wolf closest to me.

I knew perfectly well that this blow would not work but I needed to deliver it. However, I felt the monster's skull shatter and collapse under my fist, its brains splattered all over the ground as its two other wolves became wary of me. I took the opportunity to leap forward and grab the head of one of them and broke his neck almost effortlessly.

Why did the monsters become so weak? In the past, when I was in good shape, I had to hit them in the stomach to hurt them, and now, in the state I am in, I can defeat them so easily without even aiming at their weak point. It is then that I realize something that should have struck me earlier, my right arm is there and intact! As if I had never been injured, on the contrary, the more time passes and the more I feel good, the feeling of tiredness and pain decreases more and more at an amazing speed.

I continued walking and facing wolves when I came across some relatively fresh wolf corpses, in any case more recent than those I had found so far. I kept walking for several minutes before I came across a whole group of wolves, at least a dozen of them and they came at me as soon as I approached.

I grabbed the first one by the scruff of the neck and sent it against another wolf while another one bit my leg but it only wounded me superficially while such a monster, although considered weak, should have the strength to break my leg with one bite. I pushed him away easily and started to circulate mana in my body, I felt so light, the wolves couldn't even follow me with their eyes, which allowed me to get rid of them very quickly.

The more I think about it, the more this situation doesn't make sense, the behavior of the wolves, the boss who is not the right species but who is mysteriously defeated while I am unconscious as well as my wounds which disappeared and the monsters weakened for some reason. But I was soon pulled out of my thoughts by a vision of horror.

The reason why so many wolves were gathered in one place was because they were devouring three people I could recognize by their tattered clothes. It's Julius, Aerga and Tomson. They are there, their bodies torn apart by the wolves, why? They should have fled, so why are they here?

Actually I know the answer to that question perfectly well but I can't bring myself to admit it, the wolves we didn't kill in the cave attacked Tomson and with Aegra and Julius to protect he didn't manage to get out of it especially since he had to face the wolves unlike on the way out where we could surprise them.

I collapsed in tears, kneeling in front of the lifeless and unrecognizable bodies of my friends.

They died because of me, I shouldn't have sent them alone. No, I shouldn't have even asked them to come with me to that dungeon, I should be the one to die, not them!

I stayed like that for almost an hour while wolves kept coming to eat them and me with them but as for the previous ones they were weak and I was able to eliminate them all without difficulty.

I then thought that if no one came out of the dungeon then many people must be worried because we disappeared, I have to get out of here and warn someone about what happened so they can organize an expedition to get their bodies back, I can't take them with me.

I then got back on my feet and went forward thinking about how their parents, their siblings would react to the announcement of the death of their son or brother, their daughter or sister. This idea tortured me all the way to the exit of the cave. When I finally stepped outside I had a sense of relief because it was finally over, the fighting, the wounds, the deaths. The sun was high in the sky so I had to stay unconscious for a few hours only.

I walked through the forest and finally arrived in front of the abandoned barn where we hid our equipment because our parents would have forbidden us to go into a dungeon without an experienced adventurer with us, I understand why now, maybe if I had listened to my father and mother my friends would still be alive...