The night sky was completely black as if a thick curtain had been pulled over it, filled with heavy clouds, all sound blocked by a deluge of rain that beat down on Knight’s city of Helvetia.
A young man just dashed out of an alley, trying to catch his breath.
*Huf huf huf*
Kai was hunched over, his hands on his knees - though his attention was fully focused on the alley.
He glanced back through the dark passage he just ran down. It was grimy, filled with trash and scents of the sewer, but Kai was glad - there were no pursuers in sight. For now at least.
“Finally, I lost them. I need to leave the city… only a few more days to go…” he thought, crossing the cobblestone street and passing through another filthy alleyway, straining his every breath while leaving his pursuers further and further behind.
“I’m not going to be powerless in this world. If there’s a chance I can get a system, I won’t let those cultist bastards take it from me.”
Since coming to this world as a child seventeen years ago, he had been training his mind and body for this day - the day of his escape from a cult he was unfortunately born into.
His fingernails were filled with dirt, some ripped off and his hands shaking after crawling out of a basement; Kai was still coming to terms with his freedom - if you could call it that, as he escaped just a few minutes ago.
Recovering some stamina as he walked through another grimy alley, a pile of trash suddenly moved and a filth-covered man sprung out.
His gritting mouth filled with black and yellow teeth and he growled like an animal, he reached out.
His dirty fingers tried to grasp Kai’s shoulder.
“Wh-?”
Kai had already jumped back when the trash pile moved, while his soaking wet coat offered no grip for this homeless stranger.
Seeing Kai slip away, the man lunged with a punch.
Yet Kai noticed his hand was not crunched into a fist - it was gripping a knife.
Kai’s eyes widened as he sidestepped and battered the assailant’s hand away.
“Stop! Why are you-?!”
The man brought his knife back and slashed forwards, cutting the flesh on Kai’s arm before he could even finish talking.
“Grrah!”
Kai grit his teeth in pain, thinking if he should run back up the alley or if he could talk the man down.
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The trash-covered man saw Kai hesitate, and took the opportunity to attack again with a thrust towards his stomach.
It was too late to run. There was no time to reason.
Kai pulled his stomach back and grabbed the man’s arm with both of his hands, blood flowing down his fingers as it flowed from the bleeding wound.
The lethal thrust was stopped - but not enough to reduce all damage.
Kai’s chest was slightly pierced and now bled too.
“GRRH! Fucker!” he yelled through gritted teeth, his screams muted by the heavy rain.
Adrenaline flowed as his fingers dug into the man’s arm.
Kai pushed the man's knife upwards, then stepped forward and planted a knee into his stomach.
The man groaned in pain, dropping the bone knife as his bony arms shuddered.
Clearly he was suffering from some illness - probably from eating trash. His belly was bloated while his body was skinny. Kai noticed his eyes were sunken but glared right back at him, filled with an intensity of a vengeful beast, and desperation which seemed to hold onto life itself.
Kai smashed his forehead into the man's nose, causing him to stagger back, his face scrunching in pain; Kai felt nothing but his blood coursing through his veins.
Seeing the bone knife on the ground Kai ducked down, grabbing the knife while the man was stunned. He had to get up again before the man regained his senses and retaliated.
As Kai rose to his feet again he blindly brought the knife upwards in a wild swing, hoping to make his enemy think twice before coming close again.
“Gh!~~”
A single short grunt. The man couldn’t even finish his scream.
The knife found flesh and pierced right into his assailant’s throat.
Kai could only look on in horror as he dropped the knife.
“I- I didn’t mean to, I didn’t - fuck” he dropped the knife in panic.
The filth-covered man grasped his throat but it was all for nothing.
The heavy flow of blood wouldn’t stop.
Kai could only step back in shock, not knowing what to do he froze.
Before Kai’s eyes he watched the man choke on his own blood as he dropped to his knees. Eventually his hands dropped to the side, as did his body as he lost strength.
A pool of blood could barely form before it was washed away by the heavy rain.
Kai was alone with his thoughts as he stared at the lifeless corpse.
“Fuck… did I just…”
Kai was shaking, both from adrenaline and fear - yet all he could do was stare at the man’s body which seemed to turn to cold and lifeless as if lumps of cold clay, and this image imprinted in Kai’s mind.
“Did I really just kill someone?” He looked at his own hands, forgetting all about the wound in his chest or the cut on his arm.
“Why are they shaking so much?” he thought, the rain washing away the blood.
This was the first person he had ever killed, and he hoped to be the last.
It didn’t make sense to him, but nothing about the situation did. The man attacked, the murder just happened, all logic be damned.
It happened so quickly; the fight instantly replayed in his mind as he stared at the corpse at his feet.
“Fuck… I’m a… murderer…”
The heavy rain slowly cleansed his hands of the blood covering them, yet he was still shaking as thoughts rushed through his head.
“Do I tell someone? Did anyone see? How could I do this? Why, I could have ran? It was self-defense.”
Looking at either end of the alley, no one was coming. Either no one cared or no one heard a thing in the downpour of rain. Oddly, there were not even any lights coming from the buildings around, it was as if everyone had gone to sleep - despite it being early in the evening.
However, two thoughts became most prominent in his mind:
“... If he thought he could get away with killing me, then I probably will too.”
“It was self-defense… he decided it was my life or his when he attacked.”