In a dark, cold cave in which even the light of the day struggled to reach, a young man appeared out of nowhere. The man’s eyes were unusually eye-catching with those two-different colors made a quite odd combination: Left golden-white eye which could probably devour anyone that would block its way, and his right green eye which almost transpired nature itself was just as beautiful as the other one, the Golden-white eye.
“Where am I?” Hei Long asked his surrounding with expectant eyes present in his eyes. “Is this hell, or heaven?”
Before anyone could even answer his questions, the dark, cave that he was currently resting in, shuddered.
“In God’s name, is it going to collapse?” Hei Long frantically turned his head left and right. If anyone could see the world through his eyes, they probably wouldn’t believe that they can see the tiny crooked places inside the cave, it was as if a cave so dark itself, was as clear as day in Hei Long’s eyes. The eyes that could see even in the darkest of place in “any” world were one of his most outstanding abilities. He acquired this skill when one of his enemies made him blind after a fight. The Great Tree was distressed to see that he became blind at such a young age, so it healed Hei Long when he was still recuperating. By the time he woke up from his long slumber, his brown eyes, turned crimson in color, while the other set green. He didn’t know, that every time he got wounded or ill, the Great Tree would sacrifice great thing—its life-force— to heal and nourish him, but while doing that. The Great Tree itself did not know that Hei Long’s body was changing over time; he became stronger and smarter, ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!’ was Hei Long’s favorite phrase. Sadly, he didn’t know that every time ‘The Great Tree’ helped him, it would also kill its own-self— It’s love when a person who helped you, and doesn’t expect something in return.
He only sat on the ground, even when everything seems to be chaotic, it as if everything was normal for him. “What am I getting flustered? If I’m dead, what’s worse that could happen?” he looked around at his body to find if the things that he’d always carried were still there. However, to his dismay, his clothes were the only thing that was present, and the sword that he’d always held dear wasn’t there. After looking for a moment, he gave let out a sigh, “Ha, Father and Mother, I thought we’re going to have a family reunion after everything that happened, but who would have thought that I’ll be in this damned place…” Sadness gripped his heart.
After the shaking of the ground had stopped, an angry-thunderous growl had reverberated 10-meters ahead of Hei Long. “Moooooo!” The echoing sound of footsteps of the infuriated beast rang through his head as it went “boom, boom!” His penetrating eyes looked in the direction of where the sound came from; he frowned and said in a rough voice, “Now then, what’s this, a battle?”
It was getting nearer and nearer by the second. The dust had yet to settle when the beast that was slowly making its way toward him had shown itself. The first thing Hei Long saw through the dust were its two giant horns protruding on its head, then its eyes which turned out to be red(it was probably thanks to that red eyes that it could see through the dark place). And in moment time, the face of the creature finally appeared, a cow—similar to a cow—yes, a cow that can stand on its two truck-like hooves. The creature standing in front of him was 5 meters in height and 3 meters in breadth, it was humongous compared to Hei Long who was only 2 meters tall. Its arms and legs were black as a spot of ink, yet some of its hides were spotted with white. When it opened its mouth, white gas came gushing out of its mouth as it formed white clouds above its head just below those white horns. It bellowed. “Mooooo!”
Good, now its horns look like a mountain, thought Hei Long.
Without a weapon in hand, Hei Long took up a fighting stance; he lifted his hands up and prepared his feet to run to the creature whose mouth was drooling like an open faucet. When he’d tried to run at it, he’d heard a feminine voice saying,”
“Don’t fight it, how can you even fight it without a weapon?”
Hei Long turned his head left and right in search of the owner of the voice. He saw a woman around the age of 16-18, and a group of Orcs was chasing her. Hei Long only gave her a glimpse and thought. What are you doing by bringing those things over here, aren’t you trying to kill me, indirectly?
By the time he’d saw the girl who didn’t stop running to his direction. He said, “You should be concerned about yourself first!”
The girl didn’t understand what he had just said, and she shook her head in dismay. “Another person is playing hero again, why is there a lot of “Hero” in this place?”
Hei Long who was weaponless ran straight to the Minotaur that was eyeing him in the first place. The minotaur didn’t wait for Hei Long to launch his attacks, so its left hand—which was as big as a Hei Long’s body—came crashing to the ground where Hei Long stood earlier. The ground shook gazillion times when the minotaur’s fist reached the ground and punched a hole through it, sending dust flying in the air. But Hei Long was already at the right side of the minotaur, then with its right hand, it tried to reach and grab Hei Long off the ground, but Hei Long was simply too fast for it to grab. Anyone could see that the minotaur had even failed to touch a single strand of Hei Long’s hair.
After those two attacks, the dust of the first two blows had already scattered over the place, and a gaping hole marked the ground. The Minotaur slowly retracted its fist and launched its new barrage of attacks; nevertheless, Hei Long avoided everything the beast had thrown him by a paper-thin margin. In spite of the fact that he’d evaded all those attacks without much problem, he knew the pressures of the minotaur’s punches gave him a scratch on his left shoulder despite having evaded those fist. He looked at the hole where the minotaur’s punch landed, and unconsciously simulated a plan in his mind. It is stronger than I thought, though, I overestimated its speed.
After missing its target multiple times, the minotaur let out another angry cry, “Moooo!” The minotaur’s fiery fist had started to shake things up again. It was louder than the first one, thought Hei Long as he covered his ears with his hands.
“Bam!”
This minotaur’s punch is basically like a dynamite explosion. A punch could deal a lethal blow if it hits me, Hei Long thought. Before the dust dispersed through the air, Hei Long decided to battle it head-on. The Minotaur released another punch, “Bam” the punch missed Hei Long yet again. He ran over the Minotaur’s hands and climbed on its head. Then he grabbed one of its protruding horns that were roughly half his size. Hei Long gave out a cry, “Haaa!” a mechanical voice resounded through his head, it was unknown if the voice belonged to a man or lady’s mouth, the only thing he’s sure was that it was mechanical voice, and it gave an overwhelming power.
“War Cry—gift from the war gods above—activated!”
However, Hei Long didn’t bother thinking anything about it, as he felt his body surged with energy beyond what he had had before, and even anyone wouldn’t bat an eyelid because of some gibberish he thought he’d misheard—particularly, in an important fight, which determined his life and death. Without further ado, he concentrated all of his strength in his ballistic like arms, and he tried to pull one of the protruding horns off of the minotaur with everything he’s got. “Crack~” the horn he was pulling out made a crackling, breaking sound. As he struggled to pull the horn out of the minotaur, the horn shone, and the beast let out a painful cry, “Moo!” It staggered as it tried to swipe Hei long off of its head, or even better, grab him with that gigantic metallic-steel hand, but Hei Long knew its actions were acts of a creature in a desperate struggle for survival. In the eyes of the great hunters, the struggling beast that was at the last line of it life was at its deadliest state. The minotaur tried to grab Hei Long, but Hei Long wouldn’t let those truck-sized armed reach him. Dodging those truck-sized arms, he started to rain the minotaur’s horn with his own fiery-fist again and again as sound “Bam Bam!”
And his barrages of attacks didn’t seem much weaker compared to the Minotaur’s—as a matter of fact, it was even deadlier as it was aimed at the weak spot of the beast, its horns, and head. He kept on bombarding the massive beast on top of its head. After a few seconds, he finally tore out the horns out of its head. Before it died, the minotaur gave out its last anguish cry as blood covered its body. The monster’s body was slowly dispersing in the form of black smoke, and from smoking black-air to a bright white light. The white light moved towards Hei Long; he tried to grab it. However, it passed through his hands as if it was intangible. He didn’t know where it went, so he became worried. After a few moments of being baffled, a bell sounded continuously in Hei Long’s mind. “ding~!”
Level: ?; Exp: 67%; Strength:?; Agility: ?; Dexterity: ?
Intelligence: ?; Magic: ?; Battle Aura: ?; Life-force: ∞- (Unless your heart and head is cut into a thousand pieces, you will not die) God’s Gift—
“What’s this?” he asked. “I’ll check it later after I finish this mess.”
He picked the horn on the ground and ran straight to another fight.
Before Hei Long could even try to check if anything peculiar’s happening inside his body, he was already running straight to the girl’s location, which was currently the venue of the fight. The beautiful girl against the massive number of Orcs. With great haste, he exterminated many Orcs on the way; using his newly acquired weapon (the minotaur’s horn) he gave out an awe-inspiring air on the battlefield. At the same time as Hei Long, himself, had wreaked havoc on the battlefield like a beast on the loose, the slaughterer that could use anything in his arsenal and annihilate anything that blocks his path. Hei Long didn’t notice it, but he was unconsciously letting out an overwhelming and domineering aura around him. The surrounding monsters grew stiff upon seeing that their own kind slaughter like a fish on a cutting board —waiting to be gut helplessly.
When he came near the girl, he had already killed all the nearby monsters that encircled them. With every swung and smash of his great weapon, and every time it hits its target—it would either sent the enemy flying straight through the roof of the cave or smashed them to the ground like grounded pork.
After a few minutes of fighting, he had already killed all of the enemies—that he had lost count after scoring 50. His penetrative eyes stared at the girl who was recovering on the ground with her face pale and panting. By the time, he saw the girl’s complexion was ashes, he knew the little lady had been exhausted in the fight against those numbers. Without saying anything to her, he looked around the place and thought that it was safe, so he decided to leave the girl right there.
However, before he left, he did something, which was out of tune if you based it according to personality—an introvert.
“If you want to survive in this place, you need to follow me,” he said. “This is not a good place to die.”
He patted his head in confusion beyond imaginable, thinking that he never said something peculiar ever before, so he tried to throw it away farther to the back of his head. Am I familiar with this place to begin with? Never mind, I’ll just deal with those whoever block my path- politely, thought Hei Long. Searching for something, he glanced to his left and right side; nevertheless, it slowly sidetracked, so his vision landed at the girl who was sitting on the ground, her face pale. Then his imagination went astray as he started to question himself when he had seen, and imagined how pitiful the girl would have felt all alone in this dark cave.
Is she really-really injured or exhausted? Is she sleepy? Is she hungry? Can’t she stand up? A plethora of question started to fill his mind. He put his right hand underneath his chin, and carefully thought to himself, What would Dad do if Mom can’t stand up on her own?
If it was years ago, he’d never have imagined that he’d asked himself questions like what if(s). Particularly, when it’s not about killing bandits and such, but for him to ask and speculate the things his dad would do for his mother made him feel the sorrow of being alive, and happy at the same time. The first time he arrived in this place, he thought he’d finally met his family and friends, but what came to greet were the beasts of the unknown land. As sad as he was glad that he was alive, he really had hoped a lot to met his family, yet god gave him something worst than meeting a bandit on a battlefield—a girl, yes, a girl, and an attractive one at that. What could he ask for more!
Although she looked pale and lonely, it only made her look more attractive. When she subconsciously tried to fix her resting position, her golden-white hair cascaded over her shoulder, and her long eyebrows fidget—once in a while—making her look like a small yet lovely animal.
After a few moments of thinking, he moved forward. After he arrived, he kneeled down with one leg, and carefully placed his right hand towards the girl’s neck to check if she was ill without waking her up. But, by the time, he tried to place his hand on top of the girl’s neck. The girl suddenly opened her blue-eyes, with a cold-gleam, and sprung up away from him. Then she hurriedly took a dagger out of her sleeves and pointed it toward the young man with her hands, trembling. She’d already seen how the man had fought the minotaur, and she knew how hard it was the bring down such a giant beast—single-handedly, and without a weapon! She could even imagine the looks of the people, who most probably would not believe her if she told them what she’d seen in the cave.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I’m sorry for scaring you,” he said. “My dad once told me to protect the weak and that once you started to help someone, you must see it through the end. I thought you were in great danger as you looked very pale… Therefore—I—I thought maybe you were injured, weak, and cannot stand up. I also wanted to check if you had a fever, you were panting a lot. But, when I tried to, but you suddenly woke up and pointed that thing at me…” he paused for a moment, to stabilize the awkward atmosphere he’d currently face. Glaring at him, she didn’t know what he was currently thinking—particularly when she’s very, very weak and all.
He continued, and clapped his hands, “I think you’re quite well alright, so I’m going to leave you here.” He waved his hand as if he was trying to send her off. “Careful.”
Although he’d sounded very concern, Hei Long’s face remained cold and stiff. He looked at the direction where he thought the exit would probably be. Without waiting for the girl to reply, Hei Long walked on the way to the opposite side of the girl. Before he could even take his 3rd step, a soft hand had suddenly reached his right. He faced the owner of the hand, he did not speak. The girl pulled his right hand and put it on her neck, with a reddened face, she spoke as she staggered and almost fell to the ground. Looking at her struggle, Hei Long caught her on the waist, he said, “Are you alright?”
“Lily… you can call me Lily, c-could you carry me, and bring me outside of here?” her crestfallen face took Hei Long’s breath for a few seconds,
“Thump,” His heart was beating frantically, but he didn’t know how or what he felt at the moment, he just simply took Lily’s right hand.
“I can carry you as long as you are willing to fulfill one of my wishes.”
Lily was taken aback by what he had said, and she struggled to free herself, covered her ample chest in a flurried manner, and shyly said, “What do you want me to do? A—Are you planning on doing something to me?” Her head was full of exquisite-imagination—that only she, herself could ever understand. However, the action of the man in front of her made her thought otherwise, and that maybe she was merely overreacting, so she tried to cover her reddened face. She said,
“What do is you wish?”
Nevertheless, to her dismay, Hei Long only grabbed his chest that was madly beating; he panted that he’d scared the pitiful Lily.
“As of now, I don’t know… I am not sure if it is a sickness, but my heart is beating like crazy after you touched my hand. It hurts. Did you poison me? Why?” He gave her a questioning look. However, Lily also had an amazed expression across her face, and secretly thought,
Is he hitting on me? she glared at him. “What poison? What is there for me to poison you, my savior?”
Hei Long grabbed her hands, Lily’s face started to turn red like a ripe tomato. She moved her head down when she suddenly felt her hand—which Hei Long was holding— received a drop of water, “Is there leak inside the cave?” She asked. Without waiting for the answer to her question, she decided to look up, only to see Hei Long’s crying face. She asked in a manic manner. “Why are you crying?” she was so entranced when she saw that sad figure crying in front of her, Lily’s heart shuddered when she saw how miserable Hei Long was. She was confused as to why he suddenly changed from a powerful man into a helpless chap.
Maybe he is powerful as lonely he is right now… Weird how can he turn like this? she thought. What a turn of event.
“It hurts. I do not know why it hurts… Father, mother, please forgive me. I cannot protect you… I’m tired, too tired” His hand continuously trembled as he held his chest. His mind went blank. Lily caught him when Hei Long was about to fall to the ground, and slowly laid him to her lap, which was much better than to be laid on the floor. Lily—who had been two head shorter than Hei Long—stayed close beside him, comforting him from his nightmare.
“Dad, mom sorry… can’t protect you…” Was all he said in his sleep, over and over again. The pure-child Lily sympathized with Hei Long for she knew that he had indeed gone through many trials in life, and carried a weighty burden on his back—every single day of his life.
“There, there,” said she as she slowly, and gently caressed Hei Long’s head. “I’m still here, you can protect me instead.”
Unexpectedly, when Hei Long heard those words of hers—his nightmare and trembling had come to a stop, and he began to sleep soundlessly. Although it started her. She’d released a sigh of relief. “What an unexpected day,” she said.
By the time she thought of what she said and everything she did, her face began to turn red. Lily you brat, what are you doing, how can you take advantage of this pitiful man? She hid the knife inside her sleeves and thought of how wicked she was.
Unlike Hei Long who could see through the dark, Lily, however, didn’t have the ability to see in the dark. She didn’t have the impression of whether he was a prince-charming on a white horse, or otherwise. The only impression she had on him was that he had a big build, and had a beautiful white hair, which hid most of his face. Out of curiosity, Lily’s right hand tried to move the glossy white hair which was covering Hei Long’s face. But Hei Long—who was sleeping—suddenly woke up, and caught Lily’s hand.
Their faces were so close to each other that their hearts began to fluster in unison. She was so attracted to Hei Long’s eyes: the left golden-eye and right verdant green eye of his were so beautiful that she became flabbergasted. Hei Long’s face was so beautifully-handsome it definitely wouldn’t lose to a girl’s beauty and charm, especially with those eye-catching eyes of his. She bet that any girl, who would see him and his eyes, would find it hard to resist his charm. She touched his face, thinking that it was only a dream, ‘How could a man like this become so beautiful?’ But, it wasn’t a dream, it was genuine… it was her who started to become delusional, believing it was only a dream. Fortunately, someone brought her back from her delusions and spoke to her in a very gentle manner.
“What exactly are you doing?”
“…”
