The end of the forest led to something that the Udwi never expected of this land. A sight so beautiful that he was left standing, wondering how such a cruel and disgusting world could create such a landmark.

The whole world seemed to go still for a single second. All to let him bask in the view in front of him.

There were fields and fields of silver grass that had tall violet bulbous flowers that shed off some light red sparkles as they swayed in the wind. The path he had gone down kept on going on past the horizon, where they seemed to be a giant structure in the distance. One that had giant walls and a grand bridge that seemed to lead off somewhere that he could not see.

There were no creatures in sight. All that existed were the silver that expanded across the land and some minor settlements scattered throughout the area. There were no signs of the hell he had gone through. Nothing but peace existed in this place.

At least, for now. He was being pursued by those monsters, after all.

He moved forward several more paces before turning around and getting ready for a fight. He kept his eye out for any incoming spikes and for the monster to come barrelling in to try to take him out once more.

He was not disappointed by the results.

A swarm of spikes came rushing down at the Udwi, all of which he was able to either deflect or dodge with relative ease. However, he didn’t get too focused on avoiding those projectiles as he knew there was another threat coming up that would definitely be able to take him down with ease.

He proved right. That mass of arms and legs came rushing towards him, the maw open wide and drooling as it came for him. He merely breathed out in annoyance, before repositioning his spear to defend himself against the incoming threat.

“Mama!” The thing screeched. Then it launched its attack.

All of its arms came rushing forward towards the Udwi, each of them trying to seize him and drag him into the mouth. A seemingly endless swarm of those hands came charging that made the sheer act of defending impossible.

Thank goodness. He wasn’t planning to defend.

The spirits came and touched his legs and he could feel himself becoming lighter. He closed his eyes for a brief moment, before shooting them wide open and charging forward. He rushed past every single one of the incoming hands and launched his spear right at the mouth.

His gambit worked. The strike aimed true and pierced right through the flesh and out the other side. The beast gagged as he held his spear in place, gritting his teeth as he waited to see what would occur. Then he felt it.

The sensation of something pushing back against his spear. That was odd, nothing was gripping the weapon except himself. The monstrosity had gone lax which meant there was nothing on the other end that could be pushing forward. So why was he getting such a fight back?

He checked the wound he had made and that made his eyes widen with shock. What he saw was the flesh of the beast bulging and staggering to shove his spear out of the way. The fact that this thing kept on going even after death was quite gross and absolutely abhorrent, but led him to realize how this thing survived that previous blast. This was–

He could hear the spikes being launched. At that moment, he staggered back just in time to see several of those projectiles pierce right through the abominations flesh and come close to where he was. He gripped his spear as he got ready to strike at the monster once it regenerated fully and came up.

Then those spikes began to twitch and shudder. At that moment, a whole flood of flesh broke out from them. The abomination in question was broken apart once more as each of those spikes began to grow into another mass of arms and legs, copycating the exact same design as the one before.

The wails of children filled the valley. At that moment, the Udwi knew the battle was absolutely lost. That archer up above could simply keep spamming spike after spike and spam more of these unkillable freaks. There was no way for him to follow through at this point.

He’d have to turn tail and run. That was the smart option. That was the wise decision to do here.

Yet. Yet. He could not. His feet stayed planted where they were as he stared at the numerous monsters that were beginning to grow. He wasn’t able to run away.

Why? Why was he not able to? Why did he stay here with his spear at the ready, his stance in a position to fight, and his teeth grit in pain?

There was no reason. The path to survival would be to get away from this fight. What he was doing was pure stupidity in the most honest fashion and right here and now, he wasn’t doing what his mind was telling him.

Stolen novel; please report.

What was the purpose of this? Was this fear? Impossible, he didn’t have the same sensation as when he fought that Samurai earlier.

The Samurai. That fight. That single world that kept on digging into his mind even now.

Coward.

At that moment, the Udwi understood. What compelled him to stay here and fight.

Pride. He had his strength as a warrior and the last battle challenged that. He had to talk his way out of a fight when he would normally never do such a thing. He had to run from an opponent several times now instead of standing ground and fighting. That was the wise way to do things, but at the same time, he tarnished the reputation of the Zulu tribe.

He couldn’t run anymore. Not with his pride on the line now.

So, he grit his teeth and got ready to fight. The monsters all came alive and turned towards him with their maws wide open. They rushed forward and–

A red and black blur burst from the forest and went straight past through each of those monsters. The Samurai screeched to a halt in the silver fields, before rapidly sheathing their curved blade and pulling out its bow.

By that point, all of those spiked monsters were cut harsh enough that their two halves were hanging on by a few strands of flesh. They all fell forward in half, their parts all aligned for the Samurai to let loose their arrow. That single projectile had to have the spirits guiding it, as they pulverized every single part of the beast corpses.

Everything got destroyed. From the arms to the legs to the teeth to even the spike. Nothing remained of them after the initial volley from the Samurai. Anything that could have remained after that projectile launch turned into dust that began to scatter away in the wind, away from the silver grass and out of the valley.

The monsters were all gone. Every single one of them had been defeated single-handedly by the Samurai. By all rights, the Udwi should be happy. He had just been saved, after all. He didn’t have to fight those unkillable bastards and he could spend the time to track down that archer now. He could win this fight once more.

But he wasn’t. He was pissed. And he knew exactly why.

His pride had been trampled on once more. At that exact moment where he had accepted death and was willing to put everything on the line, he had been saved.

I’m ashamed. How could I call myself a Udwi if I could not even take on such dangerous foes on my own? Why did I have to have this intervention? Is this truly because I am weak?

The Udwi did not know. He didn’t think himself as weak, he had defeated that last monster by himself. But the fact remained that even at his highest power, he could not even come close to accomplishing a feat as the Samurai had done. This was something he could not fault himself or the respectable warrior, this was a flaw of his own.

He grit his teeth. He wanted to lash out at something, anything. But that alone was even more shameful than his behavior today. No, what he had to do was to swallow his pain and give his thanks.

He turned to the Samurai. He took a deep breath and got ready to talk to him when the warrior turned and looked him in the eyes. Whatever thanks he was planning to give the Samurai all died on his tongue as he realized what emotion his savior had.

Regret. Pain. This Samurai felt nothing but misery in those lifeless eyes. They seemed almost regretful in their actions, as though what they had done had only been to destroy and ruin the entire series of events rather than to help. Disappointment was clear in their slow and reluctant movements to stow away their bow.

However, that moment of contemplation was not allowed to fester. Another swarm of spikes came rushing in aimed at both of them. The Udwi once more danced and moved out of the way of the incoming attacks, but not the Samurai.

No, that beast of a warrior merely unsheathed the sword at its hip and sliced at every single one of those spikes with one hand. Each of those incoming projectiles were cut down to pieces before they could even reach the Samurai. Then, once the barrage was over, they pulled out their bow once more and shot out into the treetops.

One arrow. Two arrows. Three arrows. They kept on shooting at the treetops without any sense of tracking ammunition. However, they were not doing so with reckless abandon. Their eyes seemed to be moving at a rapid pace as they seemingly checked for the mystery archer that was shooting at them, before sighing once more and putting away their bow.

With that, the battle seemed truly over. There was no other way to move onwards now, though the Udwi was in a predicament. Though, he wasn’t too worried.

The Samurai didn’t seem to have any intentions of fighting him anymore. In fact, the warrior seemed to be lackluster and nearly dazed with the way their eyes lazily scanned the area. Then, they turned back to him with forlorn longing in their eyes.

He gulped. The Samurai stared at him. Then, they proceeded to bow to him.

“I apologize for my previous actions,” they said, “When I heard the commotion, I assumed that there was a battle worthy of my skills. When I saw you struggling, I had assumed you were in desperate need of assistance and thus took control of your body. After looking into your eyes, I realize that what I had done was wrong.

“I stole your worthy battle. I have robbed you of the perfect moment to cement your pride as a warrior and to prove that you are not a coward. Thus, I apologize.”

What? This Samurai, this thing that can only think of battles and satisfying its bloodlust, apologized to me? What compelled this being to do so? Am I being played as a fool here?

The Udwi looked back at them and analyzed their actions, checking for anything that might give away some sort of hostile intent. However, no matter how many times he looked, there was nothing. This Samurai was being sincere in its apology and showed genuine regret for their actions previously.

How amazing. This was absolutely something he could not have expected from this being in front of him. Although, that said, he had to admit to his own shame that had this Samurai not come in, he most likely would be dead. Thus, there was no need for the apology, no need for that anger previously. No, he was being immature and thus had to shape up.

“No need to apologize. You did nothing wrong.”

The Samurai’s lifeless eyes lit up with a hint of surprise and confusion, but that didn’t last for long. Not when a loud crack could be heard in the distance and a blur rushed through the sky towards them.