“Sometimes human places, create inhuman monsters.”
― Stephen King
James awoke to pain and lying on a cold hard surface. More importantly, it was dark very dark. He could barely see his own hands.
“Where the fuck am I?”
Looking around he found himself in a chamber the size of a stadium. Silver light appeared through cracks and openings in the walls and ceiling. Looking through one of the cracks James saw the moon. Actually, he saw three moons. One was white, the other blue, and the third red. That is when it really hit him. As if he needed more evidence.
“I truly am in another world.”
It was moonlight, and it lit the chamber well enough for James to see details. The floor he stood on was cobble stones. Around him was partially destroyed pillars, walls, and statues. Half the ceiling was gone too.
“Garrrrr.”
The growl caused James to turn around and scan the darkness before him. At first, he could not see anything. Then, something shifted in the dark. James could make out the silhouette of something large it was humanoid in shape, but it was not human.
“Oh shit.”
James said as he backed away with one step. When the humanoid thing came into the moonlight, James said with more vehemence.
“Oh shit.”
It was a creature that looked like a cross between a guerilla and a grizzly bear.
“What the fuck is that? Is it a guerilla bear or bear guerilla?”
James had no idea what to call the creature. But he did know it stood 10 feet tall, had dark brown fur, an elongated mouth, large fangs, forearms which reached all the way down to its clawed feet, and blood red eyes. The creature, the bear guerilla thing never took its eyes off James.
“Come on man. Don’t tell me It sees me as prey?”
The creature licked its chops, and James got his answer.
“Fuck me.”
He said just as the creature sprinted towards him, galloping on all fours like a combination of a guerilla and bear.
“FUCK ME!”
James could only do one thing, and that is to turn around and run like hell. Looking around desperately, he tried to find a way out of this chamber. But the moonlight only lit some of the chamber through the cracks and openings. Everything else was in darkness, and James could not penetrate the dark to see beyond it.
“GROARRRR!!”
The monster sounded closer than before, and when James turned his head to look back. He was just in time to see the creature crouch down on all fours and leap maybe 40 or so feet into the air. The monster came down on James’s position like a guided missile. James tried to pick up speed, trying to outrun the impact zone.
When the monster hit the ground, it created a crater with explosive force. James was only a dozen feet from the impact site but that was not far enough. The floor beneath James’s feet broke apart and lifted like a trampoline.
“OH SHIIIIIIT!”
James found himself sailing throw the air head over heels. He had no way of controlling his landing, so he tried to brace himself for a crash. Whether it was by luck or an accident, James landed on his feet then rolled to soften the impact. He was back on his feet and running in just a few seconds.
Something meaty and hard struck James on his left side, sending him flying 20 feet and striking a pillar. The blow hit so hard that when James hit the pillar, he actually went through the solid structure. Causing the pillar to crash down while he hit the ground hard.
“F-fuck…what hit me?”
James was in bad shape. Accessing himself he had a broken left arm, maybe one or two broken ribs, and a broken leg. Despite his injuries, James partially lifted his head to see the monster walking slowly towards him. James could have sworn the guerilla bear monster had a grin on his face.
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“H-how did it…catch…up to me? Something t-that size…shouldn’t be so fast.”
As the monster stood over James stared at him with its red eyes. James thought about his past on Earth. His mother was always high, forgetting to buy food or feed her two sons. His father would rather sell drugs than take care of his wife and kids. His brother who gotten so angry at their parents and so cold towards him. Decided that he could sell drugs and do it better than their father.
He never knew love from his parents or brother. As for his social skills. Once people knew who his parents and brother were, he could not make friends with the other children. Their parents did not want their children associated with the child of criminals. James was alone most of his life. Invisible to his family, and an outcast in society.
“I don’t want to die.”
James did not want to die alone in another world so far from home. But the monster did not care about James’s past life and issues. The creature grabbed James’s broken left leg with a hand the size of a monster truck tire. It squeezed his leg and James screamed in agony. The monster made a huff, huff sound. It took him a moment to understand that the creature was…laughing.
This thought ran through his head as the monster lifted him off the ground and swung him back down once, twice, and thrice. Like a child playing with a doll, the monster was toying with James. James felt more bones break as tears started streaming down his face. He was going to die, and for what?
This is so fucking unfair. He thought as he struck the ground a fourth time. James did not want to die, but he did not have the power to stop it. Or did he? As his body struck the ground for the fifth time. James remembered he had mana flowing through his body. His affinity was dark magic, he had power. It’s just that he did not know how to cast spells.
James thought about the first time he saw magic done in this world. That bastard of a King Perceval Marshal Grant IV performed two spells. One of them was a fireball spell. The king had chanted a word, just one word, and James assumed the word meant fire.
As the guerilla bear monster lifted James up for the six time, his thoughts went into overtime. I can’t create a fireball, but perhaps a dark ball instead. His right arm was not broken, so, raising his right-hand palm open. James shouted desperately.
“Dark Ball!”
For a moment, James stared at the empty space above his hand. His heart sank when nothing happened, it was over for him. Suddenly, James felt a surge of power as a dark ball emerged an inch above his hand. If there was time, James would have marveled at his first use of magic. But as the monster swung him down to the floor, he acted as quickly as he could.
“Fuck you!”
James shouted his defiance as he swung his dark ball down on the arm of the guerilla bear. There was an explosion followed by a roar of pain. Blood, bits of bone, and a severed arm flew. The force of the explosion sent James flying a few feet away from the monster. He hit the ground skidding a few more feet.
Despite his broken bones, James had to get back to his feet. He would not stay prone on the ground in front of a predator.
“God, shit, fuck, this hurts.”
James cursed as he stood with a broken leg.
“I’m a one-legged man in an ass kicking contest.”
He said to himself as he stared at the monster who was roaring in pain at the stump of an arm. Then the monster stopped roaring, looked at his severed arm, and then glared hatred at James. Who glared back at the monster.
“Yeah, you didn’t like that did ya? Well, that’s what happens when you fuck with someone you shouldn’t.”
In response to James’s words, the guerilla bear monster roared at him. James shouted back.
“Come on then asshole! Come get some!”
As if the monster understood James’s challenge, it charged forward on three limbs instead of four. James waited for the monster’s approach; he had a plan. The second spell I saw that fucking king perform was fire stream. James knew what it felt like to sense mana in others. More importantly, he knew what it felt like to sense the use of mana in his own body.
The monster’s red eyes looked brighter than before. As though its rage against James blinded it to everything else. James waited for the right moment, and when it looks as though the monster was about to run him over. He acted. James moved to the right which was on the side of the monster’s severed left arm. The monster tried to stop its momentum but slid on the cobble floor. James was within range of the monster’s head. He thrust his right hand forward and shouted his spell.
“Dark Stream!”
A black stream of darkness shot out of James’s palm and struck the face of the monster guerilla bear. The results were a bit messy. The monster’s head just exploded, showering the immediate space with blood, pieces of bones, and gray matter. Some of the blood splashed on to James’s battered blue T-shirt. But he did not care, he was alive.
“Thank God, I’m alive.”
James celebrated as he collapsed to the floor. The corpse of the monster lay there, headless and dead.
“Fuck this place man. The Ruins of the Forgotten. I need to get the hell outta here man. I do not want to fight anymore monster life that again.”
Fate, however, would not grant James’s wish. Growls could be heard coming from the opposite end of the chamber. James’s eyes widen in disbelief.
“Oh God no. Sweet baby Jesus, tell me that’s not what I think it is.”
Looking in the direction of the sound, he was just in time to see multiple guerilla bears walk out of the shadows and into the moonlight.
“Ah, fuck me sideways with a broomstick.”
There must have been a dozen or so monsters with the same features as the one James killed. They saw the headless corpse of their fallen brethren and then stared at James. The look in their eyes said it all, they were going to rip him apart. James painfully but quickly got back to his feet. His left arm and leg were still broken, but he had no choice but to fight. James stood his ground.
“Alright, you ugly motherfuckers. You want to fight. You want a piece of me. Then come get me.”
Again, the monsters seem to understand the challenge James issued. They roared and ran towards him, some of them spread out to attack James from his flanks. Even though it hurt James summoned two dark balls in both hands. It was do or die time, and James planned on not dying in the Ruins of the Forgotten.