Yuri wandered through the forest alone, an empty shell of his former self. Just hours ago, he had been someone else entirely, a happy child playing around, now he wasn’t even sure what he was. As they walked mindlessly, the sun began to set.
Exiting the forest, Yuri was now walking through a clearing of green pastures, he looked out into the distance, it was a sight that would have made his former self blush at its beauty.
The yellow-golden hue of the setting sun reminded him of his mother's long, blonde, silky hair, and the red glow brought back memories of Molly's short red hair waving through the air as the sun set.
Images of them running and dancing in the field, smiling at him, the woman who had given birth to him and the girl who had liked him filled his mind. They were happy and lively, a sight he never wanted to stop seeing.
But now, they are dead.
"Mother, Molly... what am I supposed to do? Why am I alone? Why is it so dark and cold?" Yuri sat down on the grass. "I am scared." He buried his face in his knees as tears fell from his empty, lifeless eyes.
A few minutes later he looked up again; it was dark, and the moon was at its highest, softly illuminating the land ahead. He had accidentally fallen asleep while crying and now found himself still in the field.
"I see... so it wasn't just a nightmare, huh." Tightly clenched his fist tightly, gripping his dagger with such strength that his knuckles turned white. "Where am I even going? Where am I even?" The lone boy said to himself, feeling lost and without reason or destination. He felt unstable, searching for anything to cling to, someone to help him, anybody, anything...
Suddenly a bone-chilling howl echoed from the forest he had emerged from, deep in the darkness, he quickly stumbled backward, putting some distance between himself and the forest's edge.
Staring intently into the darkness, Yuri saw a group of glowing eyes closing in on him. Each pair was as bright and golden as the next, their growls growing closer, the sound claws digging into the earth with each step sending a chill down Yuri’s spine. The creatures emerged from the forest into the clearing.
There were five identical wolves, darker than the night, as dark as the shadows they casted. Their eyes glowed like bright moons locked onto him.
Yuri could feel their emanating bloodthirst. This was actually going to be a battle for survival. His throat was still sore from the Fire Breath, and his mana had barely started to recuperate. For the first time, he would have to spill blood with his own hands. Yet, strangely, he felt nothing—no fear, barely even startled.
"I will live, no matter what I have to do. I will survive, and I will burn down this world and its evils." His expression softened, his face completely relaxed, his eyes barely half open, and a small, cruel smirk crept across his lips. He felt different, almost as if he hated and wanted to destroy his weakness and everything around him.
The wolves circled Yuri slowly, their eyes fixated on his body. He could almost see their mouths drooling at the thought of ripping him apart, their sharp fangs displayed as if teasing him.
His mana reacted, the small mana core he had as a talentless commoner erupting, almost breaking and forcefully growing within his body. The pain felt unbearable yet felt so good, the power he needed, the thing he wanted to cling to.
The wolves stopped dead in their tracks, their instincts were the only thing differentiating prey from predators. For the first time, they felt powerless and afraid. Their instincts screamed at them to run; their minds raced with fear as their eyes trembled at the sight of Yuri's awakening, a forced, ugly, and selfish awakening, the awakening of a monster in the making.
Flames began seeping out of his body, his red eyes glowing softly in the darkness of the night as he looked at them.
"For my sake, die." His words were filled with nothing but the pure selfish desire for power.
In that moment, the wolves lunged at Yuri in a desperate attempt to kill him before he could act. Their black fur flew through the sky like shadows coming to life, their giant fangs reflecting in the moonlight, their sharp eyes glowing in the dark, striking fear into the souls of prey. But it was all futile.
"Flames."
A simple word, yet filled with so much destruction. flames swelled around his body, forming a tornado of inferno. His skin felt like it was peeling off and burning from the flames, a result of forcefully using so much mana.
The flames swallowed the wolves whole, their yelps of pain and despair filling the air. Patches of their fur burned as they ran around like headless chickens. Though the fire managed to do some damage, simple flames wouldn't be enough to kill them. Not taking any chances of them escaping, Yuri lunged at his prey, his dagger shining in the moonlight before penetrating the first wolf's side. He could feel it's tough fur and thick skin resisting the dagger slowly, but it wasn't enough.
The wolf yelped loudly as it fell to the ground, The boy’s dagger stuck in the beast’s side as it drew its last breaths, labored and heavy. It looked at him, begging for its life. Yuri took the dagger out, ending its suffering. Ignoring the chaos surrounding him, he looked at the dagger, blood flowing down the blade. For the first time, with his own hands, he had taken a life. Beast or man, it did not matter; he felt a heavy burden on his heart, but he knew this was the path he chose and this burden was something he had to accept.
Keeping the inferno flowing burned too much mana; he had to end things quickly. Just as he was about to turn around, he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder.
He looked and saw something so terrifying it made his heart drop, one of the wolves had bitten down on his shoulder, its face mutilated by the fire as it looked at Yuri with hatred, one of its eyes hanging out of its socket.
Yuri could see its skull through some burnt patches in its fur, the boy’s eyes widened in terror as he quickly stabbed the mutilated mutt in the middle of the forehead. He heard the sound of its skull cracking as the blade pierced, its fangs letting go of his flesh as it fell to the ground, lifeless.
"¡AAAAAH, IT HURTS!" he screamed, the bite wound leaking blood profusely. His scream was drowned by pain as he tried to cover the wound with his hand. He needed to finish this quickly, or he'd die from blood loss.
He turned around with a look of desperation, the pain from using his mana and the bite was excruciating, the three remaining wolves were running still around mindlessly, trying to put out the flames that were scorching their bodies, the wolves looked like frenzied helldogs.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Yuri lunged at the closest one, stabbing it in the neck and pulling down, slitting the wolf's throat and killing it on the spot. It died without making a sound.
"KNOW YOUR PLACE, YOU DAMN FILTHY ANIMALS!" he shouted, his anger rising but he was running out of time. His body contorted with pain from the bite and the large use of mana. The flames were starting to die out; he couldn't keep up with the mana output.
Suddenly Yuri felt a little dizzy and stumbled, feeling the drawbacks from the forceful use of mana and the awakening. The world around him started spinning, the boy’s anger boiled inside of him.
The sudden increase in mana had gone to his head, making him think he was strong. He was still just a dumb kid in the end and would probably meet his end here if he didn't act quickly to defeat the remaining two wolves.
The beasts seemed to notice the flames dying out and looked for a way to escape, but then they saw he could barely stand and decided to take this opportunity and lunge at him simultaneously.
Yuri readied his dagger, just as one of the wolves was about to bite him, he managed to slip under and stab its underside, slicing it open. The guts of the wolf flew out as its body crashed onto the ground, but the desperate boy’s victory was short-lived.
The last wolf threw itself at him, headbutting him and making him crash into a tree.
"Damn, my back. I don't think I can get up," Yuri whispered between breaths, trying to regain his composure, he sat up, his back against the tree. He couldn't get on his feet; it hurt too much, and the fatigue was overwhelming.
The last wolf strode toward him, its charred body missing clumps of flesh, looking almost like a corpse come to life.
"Don't you dare approach me, you dirty beast. Don't think I'm afraid of you," he glared at the mutilated monstrosity, Yuri’s eyes filled with hatred, however the fear was also subconsciously building up. Could he even lift his dagger in this state?
As the beast approached, it let out a low growl, making every fiber of Yuri’s body alert, his arms refusing to respond.
What could he do? No mana, no strength, nothing, he was back to zero, back to his useless self, images of his family and friends burned in his head, his hatred for this cruel world rising, he wanted to destroy it.
How dare it take everything he cared about away and now even his life, he would burn it all down?
"I won't allow it. YOU HEARD ME, BEAST! I WON'T ALLOW YOU TO TAKE MY LIFE!" Yuri screamed at the top of his lungs, the beast suddenly stopped and collapsed, succumbing to its injuries, it must have been holding up by its last threads like the boy was.
He looked into the wolf’s eyes; they didn't have any hatred in them, it simply wanted to survive, and he was just a mea, a means to fill its belly.
The beast's eyes started losing their glow, honorably accepting death while Yuri squirmed for his life with every ounce of strength left in his puny and battered body.
His limbs felt too heavy to lift, all he could do was watch the beast's eyes lose their light as the wolf went from an apex predator of this forest to a corpse, Yuri let out a sigh of relief, he looked around; the fire had completely gone out. All that remained was charred grass and trees.
Yuri looked up into the sky, his eyes wandered onto the round figure of the bleached moon as it radiated a soft light over the scenery, it sure was pretty as the light lfoated over teh grass like a blanket.
"I'm just so damn tired, I don't want to sleep now though, I just want to watch the moon." The exhausted boy's eyelids felt heavy, he couldn't resist it anymore, his body seemed to be slipping in and out of consciousness, no matter how hard he try he could feel himself slip away in a trance, finally falling unconscious.
A few hours later...
Hours later Yuri finally woke up, dazed and with an aching sensation burning his body, the sun was out and the events of the previous night felt like a hazy nightmare but the charred scenery and the corpses of the wolves confirmed it was all real.
Not knowing how much time had passed he still let out a sigh of relief, at least he had finally woken up, now the question was. What should he do next? Every muscle in his body ached, and his mana was slowly recuperating, starting to fill his core again.
He looked down and saw the corpse of the last wolf he had fought, its body just a few meters away from him. It seemed to have dragged itself a few centimeters toward him before dying completely.
"Serves you right, you filthy animal. You shouldn't have dared mess with me," A sudden sharp pain ran through his shoulder, sending a shock down his spine. It was the bite wound from last night. While the one on his leg seemed okay, this one was throbbing like hell, he used all his strength to cover it with his hand, noticing that the blood around it had dried.
The pain and throbbing were constant, Yuri felt famished, his body aching all over, and every fiber of his being screamed, his only option was to use the very little mana he had left.
"Healing."
The lowest level of healing magic, unlike the Healing Light that Molly used. It didn't have much range or coverage and had to be applied directly to the wound to be effective, its primitive spell, its definition was its name. It was so weak he could barely tell it was working, even though it consumed giant amounts of mana.
"Seems like I don't really have an affinity for healing-type spells, huh," Yuri muttered under his breath, his wound closed up after a few minutes of healing but he ran out of mana, his body was still aching, but he felt he could move a little.
Yuri lifted his hands weakly, pushing them against the ground to get up but before he could make any progress, he fell back down.
The situation, while not as dire as before, however it was definitely still bad, his body continued to ache, his hunger grew, and his dry, flaky lips felt every breath chipping away, as the minutes passed, his body ached less and less, but his hunger and thirst only grew.
The starving boy weakly dragged himself over to the corpse of the wolf that was in front of him, he knew he was going to regret what he was about to do later on, but he had no choice.
He bit into one of the spots where the tough fur and skin had been burned off, ripping away its flesh with all his strength and devouring it. Each bite felt sickening; the taste, the texture, everything was disgusting however it was what had to be done in order to survive.
"How does it feel, huh? You like being the one getting eaten?" Yuri took one last bite before falling onto his back. His dry, chapped lips soaking in the remnants of the wolf's blood.
He was in desperate need of water but had no energy to move yet, he needed time to recuperate his energy and mana. Even if he wanted to find water, he didn't know where the nearest source was, it could be hundreds of kilometers away for all he knew.
This wasn't a good spot to be in. If he couldn't find water, he'd die, Yuri just rested, trying to think of a solution.
A few minutes later, feeling a little more energetic and capable, Yuri staggered onto his feet and decided to walk through the open fields instead of going back into the forest, even a boar could easily kill him in his current state.
After what felt like hours, he finally spotted a small puddle on a dirt path, he ran out of the field and threw himself into it, scooping up the water, using the very little mana he had regained, he heated his palms. His patience ran thin, and his thirst was overwhelming.
After a minute of boiling the water, he gave in and sipped the handful of water, Yuri had never felt so satisfied in his life before, he repeated the process a few times until his belly was full. the taste of mud still lingered in his mouth a little, but it didn't bother him.
He got up, now with newfound energy, fed and without thirst, he looked down at the path. It was the first actual path he had seen in a while, no matter which direction he picked he should be able to find something along it.
He looked at the puddle and then around, everything looking so dry, yet somehow a puddle had formed there. He shrugged it off, counting it as luck, and then looked down at the dirt path.
"Which way is the nearest city?" Yuti looked both ways, staring into the empty distance, leaving it to chance, he started walking towards a giant mountain range in the distance, following a path surrounded by nothing but plains of green grass.
He was now reformed and born anew through the death of those he loved and the killing of those who tried to hurt him, his anger now steadily grew towards the world and everything within it, he could feel his existence becoming less and less human.