Sometimes one just can’t run away.

There are times when running away would be the obvious choice, the easier choice but standing your ground and weathering the storm was the right one.

I never had such moments in my life, but if I have to imagine.

This might be it.

I screamed in terror and defiance, like a cornered rat who had his escape cut out.

And like retaliation, they screamed back and dashed towards me. I screamed back, raising my tool for agriculture. They were just in front of me, too close for me to run lest the deer incident is repeated.

I had to stand my ground. Somewhere in the back of my mind, amidst all the dread and panic, thought that.

The first two were on me. I stabbed my weapon while yelling, the pitchfork easily piercing the eye of one of the two who lunged at me.

If there was any shock or restraint for attacking people, my actions didn’t show any.

I pulled back my pitchfork immediately for it to meet the second one, but he was already on my face, ripping my face with his nails. I almost fell back from the weight and pain, but with a show of strength, I didn’t know I had. I kicked the person in his chest, throwing him to the back of the room, and stabbed the next person who was about to jump on me.

But even after kicking one off and stabbing the other, the crowd in front of me still didn’t feel any smaller. Within my peripherals, I saw a few still staring at the ball of light, not paying attention to me. I was thankful for that small silver lining but soon realized that I was done for if I don’t escape from here.

I tried to back away, while holding off the rabid crowd back, but I must have missed one, as one lunged at me from the side, clawing at my face and biting down on my ears like a rabid animal.

I tried to pry it out of my face, but the others immediately joined in, and like food being consumed by a school of fish, I fell onto the ground with them all over my body.

For a moment, I thought that this was it. But my body moved regardless and kicked the naked human on top of me, throwing him way back to the end of the room.

Surprised that my kick could throw off a grown man like that but thankful for the small breath of life and space it gave me, I punched the next one on top of me. A lady, who was still scratching at my face, and like the man before, she too had surprisingly little strength as well. And went down for the count with a solid one.

Next, I grabbed the fucker, who was still chewing on my ears and punched his face. But because of the lack of leverage since I was still lying down with him in my sides, it didn’t knock him out like the others.

And like retaliation, he started chowing down on my ears even harder. With renewed vigor and pain, I got up and pushed the bastard away from my face, throwing him away from me with bits of my ears still in his mouth.

I didn’t give him time to lunch at me again and punched through his soft face, throwing him to the ground. But didn’t stop there and kept on punching while on top of him, bashing his face in on the 5th one.

Dead-tired and satisfied that he stopped moving, I stopped and fell to the floor, absolutely sapped.

I was left wheezing on the floor. My hands were shaking, and I don’t want to even imagine the state of my face and ears, but I knew that I still had one thing left to do before I could rest. The few people still huddled around the ball of light.

They were still unmoving and were watching the floating ball of light which now, kept on blinking, while all of this was going on. I forced my battered body to get up and slowly moved closer to the light with the pitchfork in my hands raised.

I got closer, so close that my pitchfork was right in front of their face, but they sat indifferent to my presence, unlike the others who attacked me.

I also noticed that they looked sickly pale and weak. Too weak. Almost like they were impoverished for weeks. I looked at the hovering light they were staring at, suspended in the air with no support and glowing with an ethereal light.

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Seeing all of this, I made a logical deduction. This ball of light was something alive, something just like those monsters, and it was controlling these people.

I remembered how the attack was followed by the ball blinking and the memory of me walking into this room in a trance, wanting to remove everything and bathe in its light naked, coming so close to joining these mindless hordes. I shuddered at the thought.

I looked back at the people who appeared like they hadn't eaten food in days.

It was eating them slowly, that was clear from the state of these people. I don’t see any physical connection between them to enable any digestion, but I was sure that it was using them as food. someway or the other.

well, it's not like that minotaur appearing from thin air made any sense as well.

I raised my pitchfork and readied myself to stab this blinking ball of light, glancing at the humans to see if they would make any movements.

Satisfied, I looked back at the ghostly ball.

it stopped blinking as if accepting its end, or understanding its futility.

I brought down my pitchfork, stabbing it right in the middle, and like glass it broke into hundreds of shards, plunging the room into darkness.

The people surrounding it, as if switching off like a computer, powered down and fell to their knees. Listless and without light in their eyes.

But I didn’t notice any of that. As soon as the ball broke, I felt something intangible flowing inside of me. From the broken shards of the ball. It felt wrong, but it also felt right. The thing flowing towards me felt depraved, corrupted, which elicited a feeling of guiltiness in me as if what I was sensing were my own, but it also felt enlightening and invigorating.

As soon as it flowed completely from the disappearing shards onto me, I felt more real.

More substantial than I was before.

And then it was followed by those accursed words again.

CATALYST 13% -> 100%

Level 0 --> level 1

EGO - COMPLETELY CONNECTED TO PLANETS CATALYST

huh? the 13% increased to 100%? and level 0 to 1?.

Like last time, if there was any meaning to these words, it went right over my head.

But I remembered the invigorating energy I felt moments before, I felt like I could bring it up again if I wanted to; but before I could test it, I was interrupted again.

Sentience Confirmed -

Would you like to receive a Directive?

This... felt different from the previous times, this time it felt like it was a message, a message to me.

I felt like I could accept or reject it. or delay it ?. I don't know how I know, but I just knew.

I forced my tired brain to think for a moment. Every time the words came, it followed something bad, something which I currently don't have the resources nor the mental and physical energy to deal with.

I need to take a rest so I could properly think this through.

Just as I thought that, the message disappeared from my vision. But I could still feel its presence, though I don't know how one could even feel that.

But I was positive I wasn't imagining it.

And I could ponder about this later because- I looked behind me, at the lying bodies.

I had some moral responsibility to do.

I walked closer, to the people who tried to kill me just moments ago. One had 2 holes in his face from my pitchfork, the other had his face bashed in. I checked their pulse just in case, but they seemed dead as they looked. If there was any guilt for causing their death, I squashed it down.

If I did anything less or if I had held back, I would have died a painful and slow death, a death by blood loss from being bitten to death and my face torn off.

I checked the other, the ones who didn’t attack me, but they too had no pulse, as if the ball was only keeping them alive barely.

They died as soon as ‘it’ died.

I went over the two I kicked. Their pulse... was still there. I left out a sigh, though it was weak. And the lady whom I punched had a nasty black eye but was also alive as well.

Some clothes and other miscellaneous items were lying around the floor, likely from when they were controlled to remove it, like I almost did.

I tried waking the three from their sleep, but no matter how hard I tried or shake them, they didn't seem to budge. I sighed again, at this point my body was about to crash whether I liked it or not, so I left them in the hall after covering them barely with the clothes lying around.

I got out of the hallway and scanned the area closely, to see if the brawl attracted anything.

I noticed I could see the surroundings more clearly, but was too exhausted to care and walked to the shop.

I opened the half-closed door in déjà vu and checked the inside for anything, a task which was made easier than last time, satisfied, I went inside, closed the door and locked it, and this time pushed a heavy desk in front of the door.

I walked towards the washbasin and washed my face again and looked over at the mirror.

.... ahhh.

Saying my face looked horrible would be an understatement, my face was swollen with large gashes all over my face. My nose had a nasty cut, which made it seem like it would almost fall over.

My ears were half missing, the other half inside that bastard’s broken mouth.

I washed it closely, wincing every time the water touched my wounds. The wounds thankfully stopped bleeding from the inflammation. Which was something, I guess. But it kept pulsing in pain.

Feeling lethargic and exhausted, I walked to the counter and fell in exhaustion, with the pitchfork lying next to me, more for making me feel safe than for its use.

And drifted into sweet painless slumber...