My body felt so strong. The grip I had of my dagger was unbreakable. The explosiveness of my feet was nothing I had ever seen or felt before. It felt kind of like teleporting. I applied pressure to the ground, and suddenly I was in the place I wanted to be in. The feeling was addicting.

I sliced the gorilla's skin with smooth strikes, not needing to exert full force to pierce the skin. I had taken the approach of trying to inflict as many cuts as possible in order to drain the gorilla mentally and physically, and so far it was working. My attacks were constant and fast. To the gorilla, nowhere but everywhere at the same time. No matter where it looked, I wasn't there, and I would always find a way to wound it from a place it hadn't suspected me to be in.

The battle had turned into pure domination.

I was too fast, too nimble, too ruthless. That was until I got hit. I had been tearing the gorilla apart, and it was getting progressively slower and weaker, but my stamina and focus wasn't infinite, and while I was circling around the gorilla it spun furiously and hit me with the back of its fist.

It was like getting hit by a truck, and I only fully realized it had happened after I hit the wall of the dome with unimaginable force.

My vision was blurry, my ears rang, and I couldn't find my balance. My senses were a mess. It was like a nightmare. I was helpless as the gorilla approached me.

My vision started to clear after a few seconds, and I tried to pick myself up, but then I felt a stinging pain from my left ankle. I didn't know how I was injured, and I had no time to think about it, as I had to dodge an attack and create distance.

I side stepped with my right foot to avoid the gorilla's machete, but creating distance was going to be troublesome. However, there was a way. I could run by using my left leg to support my weight for just a second before lunging myself with my right leg. And that is just what I did.

I managed to distance myself, and the battle continued the same way it had before, but I was a lot slower, which meant the gorilla had time to recover. There was a chance I could win, but if the gorilla managed to recover to 75% of its strength, there was no way I could win. In other words, I had to be vicious and swift with dealing damage, or I would die.

***

My breathing grew heavier and heavier by the minute, and although I had managed to keep the gorilla from recovering, I couldn't damage it further. I was at a loss.

I jumped up to avoid a swing, and used the gorilla as a platform to jump off of, but I didn't do it in order to attack. Instead, I jumped backwards towards the wall, and after landing stumbled backwards until sitting with my back next to the wall.

"What are you doing?" the guide yelled with a mixture of confusion and anger in his voice. "Why are you letting that thing recover? Kill it now!"

"I can't." I said as the pounding of my heart started to slow down. "The thing doesn't have any weak point and keeps regenerating. How did you even manage to beat it?"

"That's not important."

My eyes opened as I realized something, "Wait, you didn't. Did you? You died at its hands. That's why you want me to kill it so badly."

"Shut up and fight!" the guide yelled just as the gorilla launched at me.

I quickly stood up, focused on avoiding whatever the gorilla threw at me. I ducked under the first attack and created space to prepare for the next one, and that is when I realized the complete truth.

'He said I would face harsh conditions, but I wouldn't say these are harsh conditions. This place is only made harsh by that gorilla, which means he wasn't thinking about this place when he said that. He made it past this level without killing the gorilla!'

"Hey!" I yelled at the guide and once our gazes met I said something which made his eyes widen, "I know you escaped without killing the gorilla."

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

I was once again forced to switch my focus to the battle, but after avoiding the next few attacks, I went back to talking.

"You couldn't beat the gorilla, but you managed to escape, right? But your friends couldn't manage to escape or were already dead once you found the way to do it, so now you bear hatred towards the gorilla." I said as I observed both the guide and the gorilla.

"How did you know?" the guide asked confusedly, which confirmed everything.

"You have to tell me how you escaped, or my death will be in your hands," I said, ignoring the guide's question.

I thought about looking for the escape myself, but I wasn't confident in finding it, since it was likely something that had been discovered completely randomly.

"If you won't kill the gorilla, then I guess you'll die." the guide answered coldly.

The fight then continued. I knew I couldn't last for long, so I kept talking, digging into the guide's mind. He was a human after all, and any human that would resent the murderer of their friends so much to refuse to pass away would surely have a strong sense of sympathy. All I had to do was grab a hold of that sympathy and manipulate it to save myself.

As I avoided strikes and managed mine and my opponent's positions, I desperately tried convincing the guide, "Listen, I can't keep doing this! The gorilla is healing, and I'm only getting more fatigued! Please, I can't imagine the hate you must feel towards the gorilla, but you have to let go! You can't keep living like this! Please, just let go!"

The guide spectated my battle with a grim look in his eyes, "You expect me to just forgive the monster that killed my friends? Who do you think you are? I owe you nothing!"

"I'm not asking you to forgive. Just to let go. Give up on seeking revenge. It's eating you up, making you a monster, just like the gorilla. What I ask is that you don't sacrifice my life for the revenge you want."

"No, I can't do that." the guide said and turned a blind eye to my suffering.

Enraged, I launched a reckless attack on the gorilla. I roared as I jumped upwards aiming to slice the gorilla's throat, but as expected I was hit.

I, however, managed to soften the blow unnoticeably by pushing myself off of the hand instead of getting hit by it. Nevertheless, I was flung around the dome and almost into a pit of lava.

I then screamed at the top of my lungs, "Please, I'm gonna die! You can save me by just telling me how to escape, but I can't kill the gorilla! I'm sorry, please just don't let me die!"

I was still in good enough condition to get to anywhere around the dome and do as instructed, but he surely thought I was helpless by now.

And that is when he broke.

With a painful expression, the guide finally shared his secret, "You can escape through the lava!"

My eyes widened, 'The lava?'

However, I didn't hesitate and made my way to the closest lava pit as fast as I could and dove in.

It burned. The pain was like nothing I had ever felt before.

'Did I miss something? Was there a specific lava pit? Did he lie?' such thoughts passed through my head, and then I found myself in a large tent.

My breathing was fast and deep, but I managed to calm down eventually, and just then I noticed the guide.

"What now?" I asked the unsatisfied looking ghost.

"Now there's the harsh conditions part. Before that, get some sleep," the guide said and pointed at the sleeping bag behind me.

I didn't say anything else and went to lay down. I could figure out the next challenge tomorrow. Right now I needed some rest.

I took me 2 hours of laying down nothing except heavy wind hitting the tent keeping me company before I finally got some sleep and throughout the whole 2 hours I only had one thought while pondering about the words I had spoken to the guide.

'Let go? I could never.' I thought, with my father's face that had been cemented into my memory popping up in my mind.