Antonio could only watch with complete dismay as the monster casually flicked his friend away. He could barely follow the path of the body as it twirled through the air, he himself was in too much pain.

He coughed up blood, as some of it was seeping into his lungs ever so slowly. He cursed his fate, to be born a slave, to live a slave's sad life and then to die in pain slowly to his wounds or horribly as a monster's lunch, whichever came first.

He managed to glance over in Andaris general direction, soon spotting the boy. He lay a crumpled heap of flesh and blood, limbs twisted in odd directions. He was most certainly dead, or very close to it.

Andaris wasn’t naive to believe there ever would have been a happy ending for one such as he, but this? This was too much. Too unreasonable.

Antonio coughed up more blood, as he turned his attention back to the monster.

The monster had been staring at Andaris for a while as if making doubly sure that he wasn’t getting back up. Yeah, as if! It then turned its attention back to Antonio, making his heart sink. It also just watched him for a while, before finally, casually strolling over.

A groan from one of the boys, apparently still alive, if just barely, caught the monsters attention briefly. It bent down and started eating the boy that was a little bit closer to it than Antonio himself.

Antonio was at once horrified and repunged by the sight and sound of the monster chewing through the slave. The sound of his bones being crushed and flesh torn as the monster devoured him, all the while literal pools of blood flowing out of its maw from its messy eating habits.

Antonio wanted to vomit, but couldn’t even find the strength to even do so.

Finished with its meal, the monster finally returned its attention back to Antonio and finally finished approaching him. Antonio watched in horror as it leaned down, its mouth filled with razor sharp teeth, leaning closer, intent on starting with biting his legs off first for an appetizer.

Antonio braced himself for the pain and attempted to prepare himself for his horrifying fate.

And then something happened.

A bright flash.

A loud thud sound.

The monster staggered ever so slightly to the side, its head taking the brunt of the blow from the projectile that was flung at it.

The ever so faintly glowing projectile quickly getting up off the ground after performing a drop kick at the speed of a crossbow bolt.

It was Andaris!

He stood there, his skin faintly glowing from between the patches of his body that was not completely covered in his own blood.

He glared at the monster with blood soaked eyes. His body no longer badly warped and twisted.

He drew heavy ragged breaths as wisps of steam rose off his body for some reason.

He looked determined.

The monster roared a challenge at the boys offense.

The slave boy roared back.

----------------------------------------

His friend was going to die. He could see the monster moving in on Antonio after having gruesomely devoured another of the slaves.

He didn’t want that. This was wrong. Antonio needed his help.

Andaris lifted his one functional arm and stretched it out. Planting it against the ground and with everything he had pulling it closer, to drag his limp body forward. To save Antonio. He was rewarded with an arm that mostly slid helplessly against the rocky floor and only succeeded in advancing his body about two centimeters forward.

In exchange for this gain, he was met with white, hot, blinding pain from his one ‘functional’ arm. Apparently not as functional as he thought, at least a broken bone in there somewhere.

He regretted being so weak. Andaris planted the broken arm once more against the ground and advanced a few more centimeters, almost passing out from the pain.

Antonio needed him. Everyone else was already dead. He didn’t want to lose his last comrade.

A slave was no stranger to death and misfortune, especially that of their fellow slaves. Yet somewhere in these last two days, something had changed. Watching his fellow slaves felled one after another had near broken him inside. The thought of Antonio joining was simply more than he could bear.

He fought against the pain assailing him, threatening to drive him insane as he inched forward. He fought against the blood loss and the drowsiness that was threatening to devour him. He fought against his fate with everything he had.

But it would not be enough. The monster had already reached Antonio.

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What do you want?

I don't want it to end like this!

What do you want?

I don’t want to lose Antonio.

No. What do you want?

Andaris’ mind for some reason flashed back to that moment. The broad back of that man as he faced down dozens of monsters.

I want to be a delver!

NOOOO!!! WHAT DO YOU WANT!!!

The man from his memory looking over his shoulder despite the monsters in front of him, looking at a much younger Andaris as he cried over his mother’s corpse. “Don’t worry, you are safe now.” Those powerful words would never leave him.

The realisation dawning on him, that for his slave status in this world, he never dared let bubble to the surface before.

I WANT TO BE A HERO!

T

H

E

N

R

I

S

E

!

Andaris gasped as fire filled his being.

His mouth stretched upon, as the invading force was so suffocating that it completely drowned out his screams of pain, not letting him utter a sound as his wrecked body contorted on itself. Wronged limbs righting themselves, torn flesh mending themselves, bones reconnecting.

Every inch of his being was on fire, yet his skin felt cold as ice, with a sharp tingling sensation. Despite the blood still in his eyes, the world was somehow awash with color, a vividness he had never seen before, never heard before, never smelled before, even tasted.

He was still feeling incredibly fatigued, like he was ready to pass out on his feet that he had just risen to, yet his body hummed with power. He felt invincible.

The monster was about to munch down on his friend.

Andaris burst forward at a terrifying speed. He had no chance to process what was happening to him and focused his full attention on saving Antonio. No longer armed with any weapon, he instead leapt. Using his tremendous speed he had picked up, he launched himself at the monsters head, feet first.

It was amazing how agile he was, how well his senses guided him, he dropped kicked the monster right in the head, throwing it of course and saving Antonio. The collision was so hard, he felt some bones in his right foot shatter on impact.

Andaris gritted his teeth in pain, but managed to land on his other foot all the same. Everything about his body and senses seemed to be massively enhanced.

The monster roared at him in annoyance.

The cold fiery power flowing through his veins seemed to egg him on and Andaris roared back, a guttural, beastly warcry.

The monster sprang at him, slamming its two front talons into the ground where Andaris stood, but meeting only air. Andaris had seen the attack coming easily and kicked off the ground. He had prepared himself for the pain from his broken foot for doing something this ridiculous, but it never came. He realised in astonishment, that the bones had already mended themselves.

Andaris was still unarmed, so he had dived in the direction of the nearest slave body, rolling as he impacted the ground and snatching up the slaves fallen shiv. The monster had wasted not a moment and leapt straight after him after missing its initial attack, pursuing him ruthlessly.

Andaris had barely scrambled to his feet as he was forced to raise his shiv to block the incoming swipe of one of the monster blades that it swung at him before its feet had even finished touching down.

Andaris could actually feel the bone shiv beginning to disintegrate in his hand as the monsters blade had barely even begun to make contact with it. The sense of it was so advanced, it was almost at the level of a premonition.

He slanted his head back as he intentionally buckled his knees and pushed up with the handle of the shiv against the flat of the monsters blade as it effortlessly went through the shiv, causing it to literally shatter.

The counter movement along with his drop in height had been just enough to avoid the bulk of the monster lethal weapon while pushing it ever so slightly off course. It only shaved across the the surface of this face, slicing through about half a centimeter off the tip of his nose.

The wound was minor, the nose quickly reforming.

The monster had swung hard and missed, even while it brought its leg back down, it had over extended and was off balance. Andaris only had a mere fragment of the bone shiv left in his hand and the monster was heavily armoured as he had seen from his very first failed strike.

Still he could not waste this opportunity. Despite his heavily enhanced state, this thing was simply too high level, it would eventually kill him.

Despite being off balance in an awkward half crouching position, Andaris did what he could, he twisted his body sharply and drove the bone fragment into the back of one of the monsters knee joints, which he had just noticed had gaps in the armour, just like its smaller brethren also had gaps in their armour.

It went in with great resistance but the shard held, and his enhanced strength managed to drive it deep.

The monster roared in pain and even crumpled to the side of the injured knee a bit. It tried to weekly swat at Andaris, but he easily found refuge out of its reach, underneath it.

The monster, noticing this, let loose its feet and slammed to the ground in an attempt to crush him.

It failed, the attack easily seen through with his borderline precognitive senses. He managed to dive out the way from between the monsters legs.

The monster then scrunched up its legs and set itself into an incredible spin. Even without his senses, Andaris could tell where this was headed. Many high level dungeon monsters were known to have special attacks like this that defied common sense.

Andaris ran away from the whirling blades of death before they had even got going, but the damn thing was spinning forwards in his direction and gaining on him at an alarming rate. What's more, looking over his shoulder with his enhanced vision, he could see the angle of the blades were not consistent, even if he tried to leap out the way, those blades would probably arc upwards and track his position.

It was going to get him.

Andaris did the only thing he could, he twisted about, standing his ground. He quickly picked up a huge rock, something he would never be able to lift in a million years without his enhanced strength, and shifted it into the path of the first spinning blade that would strike him.

The blade collided with the rock with astonishing power. That massive rock was simply pulverised into debri and dust. The shockwave exploding several of the bones across his body, mostly in his arms, hands and shoulders and the force of the impact flung him a dozen meters across the cave and into a wall.

The impact with the wall breaking more bones, crushing more flesh, pulverizing organs.

Yet he lived.

Just barely, but his enhanced body had not died yet, slowly healing the unreasonable damage.

Only, he was healing much slower this time.

Andaris was finally able to get to his feet just as the monster finished its special attack.

Whatever this effect was that had come over him, it was clearly starting to wear off. He did not have much time left.