He ran, his legs were so tired, but under the threat of death, there was nothing more he could do. His lungs were breathing in the scorching hot air. He had no more sweat, and yet he had to keep running or he would be killed like the others.

Running across the hot stones and pillars of fire erupting from the earth. Jules was taken from his job as a security guard and sent to this hell by something called the System. There was only fire everywhere.

A land filled with volcanoes and eruptions. Ashes made it hard to breathe, and the animals were all hostile to humans. The worst part were the demons hunting in the land. He had no idea how, but he could understand their coarse language.

"Kill them all!" "Don’t let anyone escape!"

They were intelligent and massacred people without mercy. This is a dream; it can’t be real! What did I do to deserve this? His mind couldn’t accept the cruel and bizarre reality, but after two weeks in hell, he had to face it. This was his life now.

Being hunted like an animal by demons He had to eat the corpses of other animals he found and drink their blood to survive. Like a leech feeding off the scraps, he managed to last this long because of his power.

He had acquired the ability to turn invisible with a cloak. Maybe it was because of the extreme circumstances, but he was glad to have received this power. It allowed him to get past lizards that could spit fire and magma worms that roamed the lava rivers.

Sadly, his luck had run out today. A couple of demons saw him and were following him despite his invisibility. How? How can they see me?

It was too unfair; he had to run for hours, and he was reaching the point of exhaustion. "Aaahhh!" he felt from the side of a hill. His clothes were torn apart, and his knees were injured, but he had to keep running. The two demons were right behind.

"Stop running, coward!" The big one was bulky and had powerful muscles.

"Hahaha, let him run. I want to see how far he can get." The second one was slender but very tall. He was holding a strange object that looked like a lantern. It had a demon head with a light in its mouth.

That lantern was the reason Jules couldn’t escape from them. At the first moment, the demon marked his presence with the lantern to keep track. It was a tool made by tolgar artisans to track prey and other fugitives.

As the lords of the Great Bastion commanded, every creature of this new race called "human" must be captured or killed on sight. They can’t afford to have a new enemy with the powers of the System. That’s why Jules's fate was sealed.

"Uf, uf..." He was out of energy, but he saw a small opening in the hill. It looked like a cave. He ran inside, trying to lose them, but it was full of people.

"Who are you?" About 30 more people, all hugging a door at the end of the cave.

"The door, is it locked? We need to get out of here! The demons are coming!" Everyone panicked, and the man who spoke shook him by the neck.

"You brought them here, idiot! Go outside quickly, run away from here; we don’t want to die!"

"Me neither!" They struggled for a bit when a voice called to them.

"Hey, don’t kill each other. That is my job; you’re supposed to fight me!" The demons were looking at them from the entrance.

Jules felt his hopes shatter among the screams and cries of the people. There was no way out unless he fought them head on. It was impossible. He had already seen the things demons were capable of: breaking people with their bare hands and controlling fire. Humans were like toys in the hands of these terrible demons.

The group began to try to move the metal door on the other side. They tried to use their powers to push it out of the way, but it was futile. The slender demon laughed at their struggle.

"Hahahaha, like small animals running for the hunter. So funny, hahahaha. You won’t be able to move that door even if there are a hundred of you. It is made with one of the strongest metals in this world. Even we would have trouble with it."

Suddenly, the door began to rumble, and it started to slowly open.

"Huh, Ga’ry I thought these doors only opened with a machine on the inside?"

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"Yes, someone must have opened it, but I thought this city was abandoned after a plague of insects took over and killed all the Pix inside."

The people turn back to the center, afraid of what could come out. The only thing certain in this hell was that there were always hunters or beasts looking for their next prey. The metal gates opened fully, and three people were standing in front.

They were humans, but Jules could feel something wrong about them. He looked back to the way they came from and saw the blood spatters and organs smudged against the cave walls.

Two men and a woman. Why am I so scared? Why do I feel I’m still in danger? No, they feel more dangerous than the demons.

"Oh, another couple of those red-skinned guys. Should we kill them?" The young man with a sword pointed at them.

"More tolgars. I would like to learn more about them, but these guys are not even System users. They are just riffraff like the others we killed. I doubt they have valuable information." The man in the center moved his hands in the air, and Jules could see some type of screen.

Is he pushing buttons? What power is that?

"Kill, you said you killed some of our people? What a funny joke! Hahahaha, don’t you think it is hilarious, Gy’so?"

"Is not a lie!" the man with the sword exclaimed, like a child explaining the truth. "A couple of guys like you also tried to fight us. So, we killed them. Mmm, I think it was right when we were about to enter that cave."

"Our race is not so weak that creatures like you could kill us, unless it was a child." Gy’so moved with amazing speed despite his size and grabbed one of the people. The rest ran to the other side in a panic.

He began to squish the human until blood came from the holes in his face. "Aaaauugggggghhh!" With one more squish, the person exploded like a berry. Jules watched, frozen in fear. He moved his eyes around the others. Except for the three people at the gate, everyone else was taken aback.

The man in the center keeps pushing buttons in the air, ignoring the murder in front of his eyes. The woman saw it all with a bored expression, and the man with the sword looked more annoyed at the demon for thinking he was lying.

"Look, you guys are so easy to kill! There is no way you could defeat us. Why are these weak creatures blessed with the powers of the System like the lords? is not fair, Ga’ry!" He grabbed another person and tore her in half, spilling her organs on the floor.

"Hey, don’t kill them all, Gy’so. If we take a lot of them alive, we are going to get a bigger reward."

"Oh, yes, the reward. Sorry. I just get so mad thinking these weaklings have so much power they didn’t earn."

"I know, but focus on the future. If we work hard and capture these creatures, we are going to earn a chance to join the army. If one of the lords recognizes our potential, we can earn powers too."

"Ok, I’m done. We can kill them now. They don’t have anything useful. They are just saying the same things the others did. One of those lords must have the power to grant abilities. We should look into that later." The man finished pushing buttons in the air and stood with a triumphant smile.

"Hey, shut up!" Gy’so ran in front of the man and raised his fist. He was about to crush his body in a single blow, but the man kept a smile on his face. The fist never touched him.

"AAAAAAAHHH!" Gy’so took a step back in pain, holding his arm. His right hand was cut so fast he didn’t see it.

"Hey, you thought I was lying. How about this? You really think I can’t beat you?"

He was so fast, I didn’t see him grab his sword. I need to run, but the other demon is tracking me. I don’t want him to notice. I’ll escape when the fight starts.

"Gy’so!"

"Shut up, I know! You weaklings!" The bulky tolgar charged forward with a tackle, but the young man jumped high and was about to swing his sword. "Too slow!"

Gy’so changed posture and threw a kick at the human. His size was so great that he couldn’t move in the cave without destroying the wall; it barely slowed him down, but his leg was cut off.

"Aaaaggghhhhuu!" The demon was on the ground like a wounded child. Missing an arm and a leg, the young man stepped on his body and put the sword on his neck.

"You know, the most important thing is to become stronger. The answer is risk. The risk of dying is the time when we can surpass our limits and reach a new level. Hanging from an abyss, fighting a powerful beast, or drowning in a bucket of water. As long as your life is at risk, you can tap into your hidden potential and become stronger."

"Ugh... Ga’ry!" he yelled for his companion's help.

Ga’ry jumped back to the entrance, and a ball of fire appeared in his mouth.

He’s going to burn everyone inside the cave! I need to run! Jules was too shocked to move, but this was the time. He summoned his cloak and put it on in a moment, but the ball of fire was already flying at him.

The woman took a single step and raised her hand. "I already saw this magic." The ball of fire stopped in the air, and then she threw it back at him.

"Impossible!" Ga’ry was hit by his own spell and burned in agony.

"How useless. Tolgars aren’t even immune to fire."

"But they’re resistant to it, look." The man pointed at Ga'ry, who was barely standing with half of his body burned. Before he could do anything else, the young man slashed his neck.

The two demons had been killed like nothing. Jules started to run away. He knew exactly what was going to happen. He could feel it in his soul.

"Then, if any of you manage to hit us once, we welcome you to our group with open arms. If not, this will be your tomb." The man said as he made a magnificent gesture.

"What?" "Wait, we are humans like you!" "We should work together."

"Yes, working together is why we’re giving you this chance, but we don’t have the luxury of dragging dead weight. Now, let this risk show us your true potential!"

Jules only heard the screams of the massacre as he ran outside. He was close, but he heard the words from inside the cave.

"Oh, you’re invisible. Escaping is also a good thing to do here. If you make it out, I’ll let you live." The young man began to run across the cave, hitting random places.

The tunnel became a blender, but Jules only had to run a bit more. Nine steps, six steps, two steps...

"Sorry, you lost!" Those were the last words he heard as the sword cut his neck, and he felt the warm blood.