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Gauntlet
Chapter 1 “Selection Trial”

Chapter 1 “Selection Trial”

The world lay cloaked in darkness, an all-consuming void that swallowed every trace of light and sound. Suddenly, a voice, serene and almost angelic, pierced through the suffocating silence.

“Welcome to your Selection Trial hunter. Now, prove you are worthy of walking the Gauntlet.”

Akira felt a stirring within, a flicker of awareness that pulled him from the depths of oblivion. Slowly, he blinked open his gray, almost pure white eyes, grappling with the unfathomable shadow that enveloped him.

As his vision adjusted, his eyes darted from side to side, an ember of hope flickering against the oppressive gloom.

His heart raced, a frantic drum in the hollow silence. “Where am I?”

The stillness offered no answers, and frustration gnawed at him as he struggled to make sense of his surroundings.

Shifting his gaze upward, Akira squinted into the endless abyss above him.

He caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a rock floor, solid and gray, scattered with stones and pebbles, yet it loomed ominously two meters above him.

“That’s pretty far… Wait, if I’m looking up and seeing the floor, then…”

The chilling realization washed over him, making his spine tingle with dread. His world tilted on its axis as comprehension dawned upon him.

“What the-”

He craned his neck, attempting to assess what held him captive.

It was a cocoon, a beautiful array of thick, yellowish silk strings. It extended into the blackness, a twisted army of tethers binding him to the unseen ceiling above.

“I’m upside down?” Panic began to bubble beneath the surface, but he forced himself to breathe, steadying the rising tide of fear, the question coming out more like a fact.

Struggling against the confines of the cocoon, he felt his body sway slightly, but the silk held firm, as unyielding as iron chains.

“Damn it, what the hell is this thing made of?”

He glared at the binding threads ensnaring him, his heart pounding a frantic rhythm against his ribcage.

“Alright, calm yourself, Akira. There has to be a way out of this… Wait, how the hell did I end up here in the first place?”

Questions swirled in his mind like a tempest, each one more daunting than the last.

“Why am I here? How did I get here? What was I doing before this? Who the hell am I?”

His thoughts spiraled as he grasped at fragments of memory, only to find an agonizing void.

“I can’t remember… anything.”

A sinking feeling lodged itself in his gut as the oppressive silence amplified the sound of his quickening breaths.

“My name is Akira… I think,” he reminded himself, clinging to the single thread of identity in the dark. “But what about everything else…?”

“No, focus. I have to find a way to break free and get out of… wherever the hell here is.”

As he fought against the despair creeping into his mind, a distant sound caught his attention, a soft plop, like a droplet of water falling into a small puddle.

“Water, huh… I’m somewhere humid then.”

Hope ignited within him, fueling a renewed sense of determination.

“Wait, what if I…?”

With newfound resolve, he swung his head to one side, feeling the slight weight of the cocoon shift with him.

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“That’s it, just a little more.” Akira said as each time he swung his head, he would rotate slightly to the left.

As he moved, his breath caught in his throat, a chilling realization gripping him as he glimpsed something lurking in the shadows.

A surge of fear froze him in place, his eyes wide with terror as he dared not breathe, his lips shut tightly.

Gray, jagged raptorial claws hung limply, their sharp tips dragging against the ground, leaving behind a trail of scratches, a testament to years of entrapment.

The sight of an ominous cocoon loomed adjacent to him, a grotesque echo of his own. Its surface was cracked and decayed, revealing glimpses of the malevolent interior.

Inside lay a nightmarish creature, a giant mantis, its gray body adorned with rugged spikes that jutted out like the teeth of some ancient predator.

Fangs protruded menacingly from its mandibles, giving it a feral appearance that sent chills racing down Akira's spine.

He dared to gaze into the creature’s multifaceted eye, a lens intricately woven like shattered mirrors, distorting the surrounding darkness. However something was wrong with the creature, it was almost see-through, as if it had no flesh on the inside, it was just a husk, an empty exoskeleton.

After what felt like an eternity, Akira finally gave out a soft breath as sweat had built up on his face.

If that thing couldn’t rip apart this web, then what chance do I have? Doubt gnawed at his resolve, but deep within, a flicker of courage remained.

A soft crimson glow caught his eye, illuminating the space around him with an otherworldly light.

“What is that?”

From within the creature’s decaying body emanated a faint, steady radiance, like a reminder of life trapped within death. The husk hung limply, a victim of whatever malevolence ensnared them both.

His eyes narrowed as he focused on the glow, a sense of urgency propelling him forward.

“It's coming from… inside that thing?”

The realization solidified his resolve, urging him to act. If brute force wouldn’t suffice to escape his current prison, then perhaps strategy could be his salvation.

Akira tilted his gaze upward, studying the cocoon that held him captive.

“Maybe whatever this is attached to is weak enough to break.”

With a surge of determination, he began to swing his body once again, using momentum to rock back and forth, each movement gaining intensity.

With each swing, he felt the binding threads straining against him, small chunks of rock tumbling away as he fought for freedom.

“Good.”

The cocoon began to tremble, the darkened world around him vibrating with the effort of his struggle.

Then, in a dramatic climax, the cocoon broke free from its moorings, plummeting to the ground with a resounding thud that echoed in the darkness.

“Damn it, that hurt like hell.” He muttered through gritted teeth, his body aching from the sudden descent. “Shit, I didn’t think this through completely.”

He felt the weight of the world above him shift, he could hear stones tumbling down as if nature itself conspired against him. “This is bad.” Scared of whatever mother nature had in store for him Akira closed his eyes shut.

The darkness of the boulders that descended pressed in on him, a suffocating shroud that threatened to swallow him whole.

After what felt like an eternity, Akira cautiously opened one eye, peeking into the void, hoping against fate that he had somehow survived this ordeal.

“I’m still alive, right?”

But the darkness offered no assurances, and the uncertainty lingered like a specter at his side.

Akira looked down at his body to see that he was under a mountain of rocks that had fallen over him. Luckily, the hardened cocoon acted as a sort of shield and took most, if not all the impact and the damage breaking apart with the rest of the rubble.

“Now, how will I get out?” The rubble over him was heavy, restraining him the same way the cocoon did.

Akira tried twisting his body in every way he could think of, but to no avail, the mountain of debris that had piled up on him was simply immovable.

At most, a few small rocks fell from the top would scatter.

He moved his head around, which was the only part of him that was sticking out of the rubble, to look around, it was all still in darkness with the exception of the slight red glow from the monster’s carcass that was still hanging in its cocoon.

Slowly something poked out of the cocoon, it looked to have a kind of short hairy exterior and dark blue to black color, however Akira couldn’t make out any more details due to the darkness.

The creature's ‘head’, or what he assumed was its head, turned to Akira as it crawled slowly out of the cocoon of the dead monster.

It fell onto the cold, stone ground, making a satisfying sound as its skin slapped against the ground.

“What the hell?” Akira’s voice trembled.

Suddenly the creature twitched before slowly putting itself back on its many short, stubby and hairy appendages that served as legs.

The creature stood at an impressive two meters long and about half a meter tall.

Its head was pretty round and soft as it consisted of two long and thick antennae attached to it, in the underside of the rounded head, a fleshy pad, and in it two sickle-shaped black fangs stuck out almost hidden by it.

Akira’s breath hitched as the grotesque creature shifted in the dark, its fleshy body glistening with a sickly sheen under the faint weak red light.

He swallowed hard, every instinct screaming at him to move, to flee, but the mountain of rubble pinning him down made escape impossible. He was trapped, a helpless observer, forced to watch as the abomination dragged its bloated form closer.

Its movements were unsteady, almost like a child who had yet learned how to walk, but each step brought it nearer, and the hairs on Akira’s neck stood on end as he felt an inexplicable sense of impending doom.

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