"It sounds cool, but just because you aren't the one suffering," Alonn said with clenched teeth.

"Indeed, poor you," Long said sarcastically.

Alonn said this with all his heart, the suffering he went through isn't so simple. The sleepless nights for fear of not waking up, the sudden pains he felt throughout his body, the freezing and boiling sensations...

He also couldn't sleep properly because of the need to eat moss at least once every hour. At the beginning he needed to eat once every half hour.

It was a continuous torture for Alonn, an elf that never went thought something like this in all his life.

But what Long said has it's truth too, the pain and fear slowly strengthened Alonn's mind. It wasn't something that could be useful immediately, but in the future, if he still has a future, it could be.

Now Alonn can somewhat ignore his fear and do things without worrying too much about the tomorrow.

A sage once said, "the yesterday is history, the tomorrow is a mystery and the today is a gift, that is why it's called present."

If Alonn worry too much about his death, how can he live? He need the strenght to move forward now, not the hesitation and fear.

His cultivation might have stagnated, but he still wake up every day to eat the mosses and to talk with Long.

Over time, Alonn fell asleep during meditation. His legs gradually went numb to it and he didn't uncomfortable to sleep in the lotus pose.

He learned this pose with his father, who said it was the best way to stay still...

...

"Hey pointed-ear, wake up!" Long's voice awakened Alonn from his sleep.

"What? I was dreaming something good," Alonn said listlessly but then felt a strong suction force.

'Wtf, what is happening?' Alonn thought surprised. He is familiar with the strange suction force coming from the ceiling hole, but this time it was just too strong.

"I don't know too, my spirit sense doesn't reach the surface," Long said.

"Can you send me there?" Alonn asked with narrowed eyes.

"From where came this courage?" Long laughed and was also surprised.

"Shut up and answer my question," Alonn said. In truth, he wanted very much to go out there. His own mind was filled with this desire.

"Yeah, probably. But I may end up exaggerating a little bit in my strength for the surface being so far away, so don't blame me for anything."

"It has been a while, I miss the surface. Send me there," Alonn said with a smirk.

"Well then, don't blame me if you die because of it," Long said and raised his bone hand.

"Send my regards to Death if you see her out there," it was the last thing Alonn heard before being rocketed through the hole in the ceiling.

"Long, you fucker!" Alonn shouted when feeling the imminent danger, if he collided with the walls of the hole something very bad would happen.

The light of the surface was getting nearer and nearer, Alonn finally was out of the cave!

"Woaaahhh" Alonn screamed as his body continued to climb after leaving the hole.

All he could see was trees and mountains, nothing really-

"Holy tree!"

Actually, he found something that may be the cause of the suction force.

"What in the world is it?" Alonn murmured as he started to fall.

Next to his hole of origin, there was... another hole!

Cough, there's also another giant skeleton but much bigger than Long, with the 'nostrils' of the skull each being in front of a different hole.

The suction force come from the right nostril, and strong wind came out of the left. It was just like a strange breath.

"Please don't be alive, please don't be alive, please don't be alive," Alonn started to pray as he fell in the other hole safely...

But the poor elf was now facing another danger, the one of dying from the fall!

He went into the wrong hole!

All the elf had was an arm without a hand and two intact legs-

"Ahhhh" One of the Alonn's legs was pressed against the hole wall during the fall, it's skin was almost peeled off.

One intact leg.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh" Alonn's another leg was also pressed.

Now, the elf had only his mind to pray for the gods he didn't believe in.

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But it seems this wasn't the day he would die, Alonn could see the end of the hole and the water reflection!

But there's still a problem, even if there's water, if he didn't do something he will still die.

It was a snap, Alonn didn't even have time to complete a thought. He just looked to the water he was going to land in, and used his True Qi.

From the legs of Alonn, a strong force came out and collided with the water before his body, breaking the original resistance of the lake's surface.

Splash

Alonn lost consciousness directly.

When he wake up, he saw himself at the lake's shore.

The lake was in another cave chamber, but there's no statue or skeleton this time, neither chests.

It was just an empty chamber.

The first he thought was if there are moss around, he was lucky.

Without hesitation, he dragged himself to the wall of the chamber and ate some moss.

His legs were very hurt, but fortunately he didn't lost them.

He lost half of his True Qi to save his own life, it was almost a gamble but he was alive.

'I remeber that there's another cave chamber that should is intersection between the suction force and this... wind.'

Alonn used his remaining True Qi to seal his external wounds and started to drag himself thought the cave.

Hours and hours... He lost count of time. When he needed, he ate the moss. When he was asleep, he meditated too.

His body was strangely adapted to awake when needed to eat the moss.

The cave was really huge, over time Alonn managed to get up again.

After a long time walking, eating and shitting, he found the intersection he wanted to see... But there's a problem... A very big problem.

A small lovely kitty was eating some moss just like him right at the side of the cave tunnel that lead to the living fossil.

While chewing, the kitty slowly turned its head and saw the elf who was also chewing moss.

Both looked at each other for a while and suddenly stopped chewing, swallowing at the same time.

Without looking away, Alonn watched the enemy. The beast appeared to have been wounded and its left leg was slightly raised, a sign that it was at least useless in the event of a fight.

It's left eye seemed to have been pulled out forcefully.

The beast was also examining Alonn, it noticed the lack of an arm and the injured legs. But it didn't realize that Alonn didn't have the right hand because the elf hid the end of his right arm behind his back.

The white horned tiger started to growl threateningly.

Alonn clicked his tongue and started to walk towards the tiger while remaining close to the cave wall.

The tiger started to do the same, but in the opposite direction as if to avoid Alonn. It did not stop looking at the elf for a single moment.

Finally, Alonn was in front of the tunnel entrance that would take him to Long, and the tiger was at his previous location.

Without turning his back on the predator, Alonn started to take one step at a time into the cave tunnel.

The beast seemed to see it as a show of weakness and started to follow Alonn.

'Damn it, just go away!'

Each step of the limping beast was a hammer on Alonn's heart. It's white horn was directly pointed at him.

'If I can get there Long will surely help me...' Alonn thought as he looked at the tiger's eyes.

From time to time Alonn peeked to see if the fake wall was near. After some time walking, he finally saw it.

'Finally, if I go past there...' Alonn was almost crying.

However... Alonn didn't go past the fake wall, it seemed to be a real wall.

'What?'

Badump

'Why is my back sensing a wall?'

Badump

Badump Badump Badump

Alonn's heart started to pound harder and harder.

"Hehehehhehehehd" Alonn started laughing.

The beast seemed to be ready to attack the cornered prey, but it hesitated when hearing Alonn's laugh.

"One time after another... One time after another," Alonn murmured with bloodshot shot eyes and visible veins in his forehead.

"One time after another!"

"ONE TIME AFTER ANOTHER!" Alonn started shouting.

"WHAT'S WRONG WITH MY DOGSHIT LUCK!? WHY DO THIS ALWAYS HAPPENS!?"

Alonn started to gasp and his bloodshot eyes now was filled with fury.

"SINCE THIS WORLD WANTS ME DEAD, I WON'T DIE SO EASILY!"

Alonn slowly showed the end of his right hand to the tiger, as if showing his own weakness.

"Come on, I'm just a damn cripple! Come and try to kill me! I'm already sick of this fucking drama!"

Growl~ROARR

With a roar, the tiger jumped towards Alonn.

Alonn avoided the attack and tried to kick the tiger, but it avoided easily.

'Damn it, I am losing my balance!' Alonn thought avoided another attack.

The tiger's paw easily crushed one of the stalagmites.

ROARRR

"Come on, you damn kitty. Try harder!" Alonn shouted but all he could do was to avoid the attacks.

Alonn clenched his teeth and started to run towards the cave tunnels intersection.

Fortunately for him, the tiger injuried leg prevented it from reaching it's maximum speed.

However...

BANG!!

BANG!!

'Damn it, I almost died!'

From time to time the tiger managed to reach the elf, who had to dodge it's attack.

Many stalagmitites were destroyed if they were in the way of the furious tiger.

After reaching the intersection, Alonn choose one of the tunnels without hesitation.

ROARR

The tiger roared as if it was telling Alonn to stop running and fight.

"Fuck you!" Alonn cursed while running.

Alonn ran for half a day, a fucking half a day! If not because of his True Qi, he would have already colapsed.

He finally reached another intersection.

ROARRR

"Damn it! Why don't you just give up!?"

Alonn continued to run, but his True Qi was already almost depleted.

The temperature started to rise and Alonn finally reached the lava chamber.

'I'm almost there!' Alonn thought and ran towards one of the stone bridges.

The tiger followed him furiously, it was extremely pissed off by running for such a long time.

'I remeber it's the third bridge...' Alonn started to slow down a bit.

ROAARRR

Suddenly, one of the tiger's paw landed on Alonn's back, throwing him several meters forward.

Alonn coughed a lot of blood and feel right in the end of the bridge.

"You fucker!!" Alonn shouted with bloodshot eyes and kicked the ground with all his remaining True Qi and every bit of strenght!

Crack

"Growl?" The tiger seemed confused with the elf's action and started to slowly approach the dying prey.

Crack Crack

"Hey..." Alonn looked to the tiger with a weak smile.

CRACK CRACK

The tiger seemed to feel the danger and was already running.

"Too late, smart-my-ass!" Alonn laughed.

BANGG

Suddenly, the bridge colapsed.

ROARRR

The tiger roared in fury as it feel in the lava.

The fact is that the thickness of the bridge was extremely thin, Alonn discovered this the first time he crossed it. He planned to kill the beast with it.

The tiger started to growl and roar in pain, but didn't die instantly.

"What a damn monster, just die!" Alonn said with sweat all over his body. He knows he can't stay in the lava chamber for long.

But then, the tiger managed to climb one of the floating rock in the lava.

"..." Alonn almost coughed more blood on seeing this.

'Don't tell me it will survive?'

The tiger was burned and badly hurt, but it still looked at Alonn and roared with all it's might, as if swearing revenge.

It didn't feel the danger approaching.

From the lava, an enormous mouth swalowed the small black tiger in one go. The mouth seemed that of a whale, but it's eyes and crimson skin are that of a monster.

Seeing this... Alonn didn't see it's eyes, he started running away as soon he saw a mouth emerging from the lava.

"Fuck... Huff... Fuck... Huff... Fuck..." The poor elf didn't have enough strenght to lift a stone but still ran faster than before.

'How can a monster like that exist?' Alonn thought with a cool spine.

SSHHRRRIIIEEKKK

A piercing scream coming from the place where the monster emerged almost made Alonn fall.

"Do you want me to piss myself so much!?" Alonn shouted as he tried to not piss in his pants.