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The ten minutes was up now was the time to decide. Regis’s mind came back at a steady pace enough to where he could pick for himself. He looked up with a defiant glint in both of his eyes only one word came out of his mouth.

“NO” that shout echoed in everyone's mind. Why would he say no? doesn’t he want to live?

Hans who looked the boy straight in the face asked, “Boy don’t you want to live?” his sword still hovered on the boy’s throat.

“Of course, I do want to live! though I will not live underneath someone else’s hand. I’d rather die than be given orders the rest of my life!” spittle gushed out from his mouth as each word was formed. It started to drip down his chin due to how much he spit.

“Nice words to say when you're at death’s doorstep kid” Hans snickered as he took his sword away from Regis’s throat.

“Get up boy!” Hans yelled motioning for the bandit to force him up as well. “Consider this your lucky day. I’ll leave you with a serious injury if you are able to live, come back and find me. If not then just lay down and die like the dog you are!” Hans swung the large broadsword across Regis’s body from the bottom right hip up to his right shoulder. Blood spewed onto Hans along with the surrounding area making Hans look like a crazed animal in the middle of a life and death battle.

“AHHHH" Regis cried out the moment it registered in his mind. Pain erupted in Regis’s body so much that he almost passed out due to it hurting. His head swayed as the adrenaline coursed through his body making him feel high on pain.  A metallic taste emerged into regis mouth.

The blood dripped down his body as the tattered shirt soaked it up like a sponge. All of the surviving people gasped as they thought that the errand boy was going to die for sure. Every bandit grinned in enjoyment their boss did this every time to at least one person that was defiant and, in the end, no one has survived.

“Lean him over the edge of the well so that he will bleed out some while I explain what is going to happen in this village,” Hans said to the bandit holding him. The bandit dragged him over to the water well located behind all the lined up villagers.

“To the one’s that survived you will be a part of my dream…” as Hans talked all Regis could think about was how cruel the gods are to him. Fate played one of it’s tricks on him tonight when he slept soundly in his shack. He mentally checked himself by saying,  “I have to survive this ordeal. I have to challenge fate since this can not be the end of me. I have to be the best. Though can I still do all those things?”

“So let’s begin tomorrow morning bright and early,” Hans finished talking with a smile on his vicious blood soaked face. “Let’s make us at home gang!”  This concluded the night's events.

Blood began to drip down Regis nose and chin as it had found the easiest escape route. Each drip caused the well of water to echo drip. One after another caused his heart to be in pain.  He never wanted to die until he was old with a family of his own. Drip his eyes shut thinking about what could have been. The achievements that awaited him in the future, drip. He wanted to, at least, ask a girl out before he died drip.

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“All right that is enough bleeding for you kid!” A strong bandit grabbed his belt line and the collar of his shirt at the same time. The strong bandit lifted him in the air above his head like a leaf drifting in the wind.

The strong bandit walked to the entrance of the village with Regis in hand above his head.

Along the way, Regis drifted in and out of conscious at every bump while being carried. Regis was fortunate enough that the strong bandit did not totally lack compassion for other cultivators.

He set down Regis next to a natural spring with fish inside it to provide a food source. “Kid I do hope you can, at least, make it out of this tribulation alive.” sighed the strong man. With that, he made a one-hundred-eighty-degree turn and walked away from Regis.

The area that he laid in created a scenery that was like the heavenly gates opening up to him. Lustrous trees that grew thousands of feet in the air towered over him watching the clouds. Birds buzzed past at a lighting fast pace to catch the prey they located before taking off. The clear water sparkled in the sun.  

Regis continued to bleed out dying the pure green grass a dark red metallic color. His body convulsed from time to time as it tried to provide the amount of blood needed for him to survive.  His heart pumped with a vigor that vibrated his chest.

Second by second Regis continued to fade away from reality into a cold abyss devoid of all life except his own.  

Back at the village the glowing embers of the once broken down houses penetrated the darkness enshrouded it in its claws. In the center where the well was a mound of bodies formed from the people who had died that night. One young villager in her twenties said, “Let us give them a proper sendoff into the afterlife.” she shook her head from left to right with eyes closed.

“You're right I will go get the oil for you,” said the young man.  In the next moment, the young women splashed all the oil on the mound of bodies. A hot ember flew at the mound once the young woman kicked it, she didn't want to burn herself.

Afterward, everyone fell into a slumber again.