It was only darkness. Endless darkness and solitude.

But from within the darkness, John was able to see it. A singular space rift, just as the air around it was made of glass, it cracked open.

From within the rift, long red tentacles slowly creeped out. They calmly moved and swayed around, dormant.

As time passed, the crack opened further, and from that hole in space, a single, unblinking orange eye emerged, surrounded by red tentacles.

The eye hovered around for a moment before it located John that was not very far away from there.

[What's that thing...?] John thought as he stared the monster that slowly emerged from the spatial rift.

Once the orange eye entirely focused on John, out of nowhere, tentacles sprang out from the rift and charged toward John.

John was unable to move and could only helplessly watch as the tentacles fastly came for his head.

He closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable.

*PUCHI*

"AHHHHH!!!!" The tentacle easily pierced John's head. The pain was almost unbearable. John screamed and screamed in pain until he lost his voice and his consciousness faded into darkness once again.

...

John sat up immediately after he woke up. His back was covered in cold sweat after that terrible nightmare. His eyes flared open and immediately went to scan his surroundings cautiously.

He tried to stand up, but...

"Urgh..." He groaned in pain and rested his head once again in the floor.

"You woke up..."

John became stiff for a second when he heard a strange voice, and then he struggled to get up even more fervently.

Once he was on his feet, he realized that his belt, with the holster and dagger, wasn't on his waist. Even his PIPS wasn't on his wrist.

"Who are you?" John cautiously asked the female Floran in front of him.

It was a beautiful Floran. She was slim, but not enough to make her look fragile, her foliage was green colored, the small flower on top of her head was yellow, and her hair was made of purple, blue and light blue leaves.

She looked a lot more savage than Peri, but not enough to make her look like the previous Florans John met in the Caverns.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Her black eyes glinted with intelligence and curiosity as she stared at him.

She was resting by a bonfire, not far from John. In her hands, a menacing looking green and brown spear. She was wearing only simple clothes made of leaves and vines.

"I'm Nuru." Nuru flashed a wide grin at John, "Nice to meet you....what's your name?"

"Where's my stuff?" John interrupted her and coldly asked. He was still on guard.

He knew that in the Ceremonial Hunting Caverns, it was, kill or be killed, to the young Floran hunters.

"Oh..." Nuru turned her head to the side and took a few objects that were on the ground beside her, "You mean thisss thingsss?" She showed an object that looked like a wristwatch, the PIPS, a holster with a white pistol, and the sheathed black dagger.

"Yes..." John nodded and took a step forward to reach out for his items.

Nuru swiftly retracted her hand that was holding the objects, "Why would I give them back?" She asked while grinning, but her eyes flashed with a mischievous light.

John froze in his place, then realized that he wasn't in a position to ask for his stuff back.

However, John still stared at her and reached out with his hand.

Nuru easily dodged John's charge while she grinned at him.

"What do you want?" John gave up after only one attempt because he felt that the wound in his abdomen had opened and started to bleed. "You saved me, don't you? Why?"

Nuru sadly Return to her placed by the bonfire when she saw that John gave up. When she heard John's question, her smile widened a bit. "Do I need a reassson to sssave sssomeone?"

John was speechless for a moment. She was right; she doesn't need a reason to save someone, but...

"This is the Ceremonial Hunting Caverns..." John said while glaring at her. "It's kill or be killed..."

"Really...?" Nuru played around with John's PIPS, then she smirked at John's remark. "Then....why haven't you killed thossse Florans back then...?"

"Back then...?" John pondered for a moment before he came to a realization. [She was the one that was watching him the whole time in the previous landscape. I was able to feel that someone was always watching me.]

"You saw it..."

"I sssaw a lot more than you think." She spoke once again. "Why don't you kill?" Nuru dropped her head to the side and curiously asked John. "And I'm very curiousss asss to why and how a human had found his way into the Ceremonial Hunting Cavernsss. But I have a feeling that you won't tell me, right?"

"It's... complicated. As for why I don't kill, it's because.....I can't just kill some innocent people..."

"Innocent!?" Nuru exploded in laughter. "Every sssingle one of the Floran huntersss here hasss their fair ssshare of blood in their handsss."

John froze for a split second before he went back to normal.

Yes, he knew deep in his heart that all those hunters that were partaking in the Great Hunt already had experience in killing both animals and people.

However, he couldn't make himself cold-hearted enough to execute the young Florans.

"Although I have to commend you for having sssuch ssstrong sssense of jussstice and all, I alssso have to warn you that thisss isn't sssomething good. This sssense of jussstice will get you killed in the future. I won't be sssurprised if sssomeday you die by sssomeone you saved, or you didn't kill." Nuru flashed a wide grin at John before she went back to roast some meat in the bonfire, "But you are lucky. I sssaved you only because I sssaw your previousss actionsss if you had killed thossse huntersss from before I wouldn't have bothered to sssave you when you needed. Ssseeing how you persssevered in not killing after so many battlesss, made me admire your courage and determination."

John silently sat opposite to Nuru, by the bonfire.

"While I usually doesssn't kill, it doesssn't mean that I don't kill." She threw a side glance at John while maintaining her smiling face. "Sssooooo... don't do anything that could make me want to end your life, okay?"

"Yes..." John answered with a faint voice while averting his eyes from Nuru's glare. Just that one glance made John feel a chill down his spine.