Worried to search for a place to hide the man began to do so when suddenly a notification tone sounded. The system screen materialized before him, displaying a message: “Well done to the host for being let down by your very own savior!” Such comments are followed by a menacing smiley.

This anger and betrayal rolled out in his system. "Bloody hell!" He yelled punching the screen roughly. The pressure was so hard that rather than reaching the girl’s body, he hit the tree trunk about her, the hardness of the trunk took his full force and he felt a pain shooting up from his hand. “Ah!” he exclaimed furiously holding his swollen fists.

However much the anguished scream was done, it was heard. The chasing group having been alerted by the sound of the gunfire started moving towards him. ‘That’s him!’ cried one of them. The sound abruptly turned into a scream, “He must be nearby. Quickly, follow the direction of the scream!”

The man gets up and starts to run again in the fit of obsession or desperation that maybe accompanied by a mental disorder. His heart raced and he had a great surge of desperation in him and every fiber of his body screamed from the burn. But as he rounded a bend finding himself confronted with a new horror another group had stopped him. They eyed him up and glared with extremely poised body language right across his line of movement.

‘Where do you think you are going, you criminal?’ one of the men asked in a very rude manner. His voice had all the deadliness of command blended with hatred. “This time, we will surely capture you.”

The man turned around to meet his back only to be welcomed by another group of people. Their leader with that menacing flared grin slowly moved and said, “You cannot escape this time.”

He was surrounded, he was cornered to be precise, in-between two advancing formations. Fear gushed through him and he could barely breathe. Why? he then asked Why is this happening? I have been let down by the system, let down by individuals who I expected they would assist me and is there betrayal of fate too?

His thoughts were a storm of despair for a final conclusive moment, as the groups closed in. He could feel too the pressure of his fate on him, the deceit of the so-called savior he was expecting and the hunting that drove him to this loneliness and despair. His hand was sore, where the pain of the hit with the tree had not yet completely subsided, and he carefully placed his hand on his shoulder.

However, suddenly, when the shades of his situation close in on him, an incredible serenity comes over him. He felt a desire in him to fight back a fierce desire slowly building up a light in the corner of his dark eyes. Suddenly he rose from the chair, the lunatic glaze coming into his eyes when he threw back his head and laughed – a strong full laugh that all but challenged the very wind itself.

He did not laugh like a man who had given up and did not laugh with a light-heartedness. It was the anger and the fierceness in him and the roar of a lion was heard through the trees and around the night. The cry that came from him was one of pain and defiance all rolled into a single and complicated sound. The uproar that filled the woods was perfect for a war cry was wild and sustained.

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For a brief moment the groups stared at the man, surprised by his hearty laughter and then they glanced at each other uneasily. What they had anticipated was that a man under such circumstances would be scared to death and in a pitiful state but here was a man who was so full of fire and ready to die. The laugh of the man was an affirmation that he was not ready to be defeated and it is a last stand against all the odds.

‘You want a fight?’ he screamed between his grandious laughter. That’s when she dared him “Come at me then I’m done running ”

He spoke to me in a commanding voice, yet there was a certain form of defiance in it that only came from having nothing to lose. At this the groups looked visibly shocked and before one could blink their anger was back again. They were angered, their own ego and authority jeopardised by the man’s impudence. The eyes of their leader became cold with anger and baring his teeth he shouted, “Follow him! Do not let him get away!”

With fresh enmity, the groups charged, their gun held aloft, their features attracted with stubbornness. The man, who has accepted his fate decided to tighten his eyes and prepare himself for the worst.

The man laughed and finally put his hand down and stopped laughing shortly after. He was all alone, the storm gathering in the yard drawn by his rigid stance and labored breath. He could sense the ground reverberating in response to the movement of his enemies, a sense of impending battle still the thick air.

When the first of the attackers closed in on him, he remained with his eyes closed, closing the book on the moment. Sometimes, he felt fear other times he felt acceptance, His heart pounded. He had fought, struggled and stood up against every adversity and faced the cardinal challenges in a way that a beast confronted and here he was, cornered with no way to escape the repercussion of his precarious situation.

With what looked like fierce determination, the groups closed in on him, their movements coordinated and efficient. The man saw flash of memories and mistakes in his head but his determination did not waver even a little bit. During the last breath he dropped fear and died with the same spirit with which he fought to the end.

This was a posturing of what felt like a showdown, the man encircled by his enemies, what remained of his brash laughter still ringing in the air. The night had been chosen as the appropriate setting to end his fights; the heavens, black and grim, appear to suffocate the last efforts of his fight.

When the attackers approached closer the man prepared himself for the last part of his terrible ordeal. Often the fates of men unfolded in the night and there in the darkness he was caught in the deadly hands of those who had vowed to bring him down.

In the last throes of the man’s fight, he stays strong and thus defiance became the final triumphant and unyielding note of his life’s song. His laughter may have become weak but it was as powerful a sign of the determination he had and the fight against those who wanted him.