Atlas was in the most confused state he has ever been. In just several hours, he was experiencing something he never thought he would. Traveling to another dimension, meeting a weird creature and acquiring an ability. This all was too much to take in one go. At the same time, somewhere deep inside, Atlas felt happiness, since it was his first ever ability. And now it was time to test it.

“Okay, oh my god, this is really an ability! Am I a hunter now? I mean, I am in another dimension and I have an ability, that means I am a hunter, am I not?” Atlas thoughts were all over the place. He was so ready to test his ability, that he forgot about everything else. Lots of different thoughts were going through his mind when reality had to interrupt.

All of a sudden, he heard a very loud roar somewhere in the distance. It was coming somewhere from the forest.

“What in the world was that?!” In a moment, all of Atlas’ attention was on the forest, from where the sound was coming from.

Atlas knew he had to get moving. He started to run towards the tunnel, and as he was getting closer all of his cells in his body were telling him to run faster.

It was about 20 meters between him and the portal. Atlas was a fast runner (anyone without an ability in this world would be), and he was confident that he was making it in time.

15 meters left. Atlas was never that scared in his life. This feeling was something unexplainable. Not just roar that made him scared. The whole aura of the place changed. Still, Atlas kept running.

10 meters. Atlas felt slightly relieved since he was quite sure he would make it. Yet he never relaxed. He used all of his power to push through. He ran as fast as he could possibly run.

5 meters. “Yes, finally I am here..”

It was 5 meters left when suddenly, all of Atlas' body froze in place. Not a muscle he could move.

“What is going on, body! Please move, there are only a few steps left!” Atlas was crying inside as he desperately tried to move any part of his body.

And that was when he heard it. Lots of cracking sounds coming from the forest.

“Something is coming…” a very scary thought just came into his mind. Atlas tried to at least look in the direction to see what was coming. Yet he couldn’t. The cracks began to become louder and louder, as something was approaching. The louder they got, the harder it was for Atlas to keep his mind straight. The pure fear was taking over his mind. He had nothing he could do. He could not move nor even see what was coming. And when Atlas thought he was about to faint, the sound stopped.

Yet he was not really relieved by the silence. He felt it.

Something was there.

Standing behind.

It felt like an eternity for Atlas. Eternity of nothing happening. At some point he started to doubt himself. Maybe it was just his imagination or a dream. And that was when he saw it. The creature. It was like nothing he saw before. Looking like a humanoid beast covered with dirty black fur. Arms so long they reached its knees. Sharp claws about 50 centimeters long. It was about 4 meters tall, slouching as it went forward. He could not see the head, as it was very tall, and Atlas couldn’t even move to see more. But the most horrifying thing was the smell. The smell of blood coming from it.

This was the moment Atlas understood what it was to be a hunter. A constant fear to bear. A constant fight not only physical, but also mental. As Atlas was about to accept what was coming for him, the creature did not even look at him. It went past him. Towards the portal.

“Is it trying to enter the tunnel?”. A very faded source of hope shone in Atlas' heart.

He was watching as the creature raised its long hand in an attempt to touch the portal. But when its finger just barely touched the portal, the sudden pulse of energy came out of it, causing an explosion. The energy wave was not wide, but the pulsewave was strong enough to send Atlas flying for a few meters.

Atlas opened his eyes to see the sky. He could feel all his body hurt. He tried to move his hand, and to his surprise, he managed to succeed. He was moving again.

At this point he realized. He is still not ready to give up. Was it due to a sudden adrenaline rush or something else, but he stood up.

Looking at the portal, he saw the creature standing up as well. But it was different. The hand it tried to touch the portal was missing. Just a large wound where its shoulder was supposed to be. And the dark red blood was dripping from it. The fur which was supposed to cover its body was burnt through half of its body. It's dark, almost black skin was visible.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

And Atlas could finally see it. Its head. It looked like a mix between a wolf’s and deer’s head. Head of a deer with its antlers but with a jaw of a wolf. As if a deer was supposed to be a carnivorous creature.

It didn’t take long for Atlas to understand that it was looking at him.

“It now wants me” Atlas knew that to escape and live, he had to somehow defeat it.

“I want to lay down, I want to just give up and cry for help. I want this all to be a bad dream. But somehow I am still standing. I can move. That means I at least have to try. I can't explain this feeling, but I for some reason, I feel free”

All this time Atlas was looking at the creature, giving his full attention to it.

That was when he realised. He could see more. His vision was different. He could see the energy emitting from the portal. He could see the energy move as it was carried by the wind. And he could see it clearly. And most importantly his vision was good enough to see the creature. Its energy. How its muscles were reacting to the missing limb. For the first time, Atlas felt some control over the situation.

But as he was watching the creature, analyzing, the creature saw him. It was hard not to, since the left eye of Atlas with half of his face was glowing blue.

The creature instantly charged at him. Running at a very high speed. But Atlas was ready. When the creature was right in front of him, Atlas dodged to the side of the missing arm. And to his surprise, the creature did a very strange move, as if it tried to hit him with his missing hand.

“Do you still not realize that your hand is no more?” Atlas thought looking at weird moves the creature was performing “That might be useful”

The creature tried to hit him with its missing right hand and as it failed, Atlas evaded the phantom punch and was behind the creature. Instead of punching it, he ran past somewhere off to the forest.

“It is too fast for me to just run straight to the portal, but maybe I can outsmart him.”

Atlas ran towards the forest creature came from. “It did break a lot of branches here. But that means it can not maneuver here freely. He picked up a broken branch from the ground.

“Not sure if it is gonna help, but why not, I guess.”

The creature was already behind but he was ready. This time the creature attacked with its left hand, but Atlas dodged behind the tree. When the creature hit the tree, like a very sharp axe, it broke through the 3rd of the tree's trunk.

“Atlas expected it to be insanely strong, but to see it in person, that was something else. Never has he seen destruction done so easily. But that was a good reminder of how weak he was, and that he had no rights for mistakes. Evading the hits in the forest, Atlas was waiting for one special moment. Without the new ability, he was sure he would end up dead. And the moment Atlas was waiting happened. The creature tried to swing his right hand to reach Atlas, and obviously nothing happened. Atlas moved to the side of the missing hand, and with all his strength, he pushed the branch he held into the creature's open wound. He hoped it would give him enough distraction for him to run. He was partially right. The creature emitted a mix of roar and scream. But it was so loud, Atlas had to cover his ears instantly. But that moment was enough for the creature to turn and try to swing his arm at Atlas. Turning its body it hit Atlas, but instead of slicing him in half, he was hit with the branch he stuck inside the beast himself. Even though the hit was not made by an arm, the punch was strong enough to send him flying out of the forest on the open field. The creature screamed again in agony and pain.

Lying on the ground, Atlas felt horrible. As if all his insides were turned into a mash. He used all his willpower to stand up. Coughing blood, he knew, the hit was hard enough to cause very severe damage.

At this time, the creature came half crawling half walking out of the forest. With the bloodshot eyes, it was coming toward Atlas. He knew that the only thing he could do was get to the portal as soon as possible. He started to run towards it. But he knew the creature was faster. He would not make it in time. That was when he had the craziest idea. He had to get hit again. If the hit was enough for him to fly a few meters, maybe he could use it to his advantage. He was not sure if he would survive one more punch, but there was nothing else he could do. Do or die. As the creature approached him and tried to punch, Atlas could already see the punch. He could see the energy of the creature, the muscles moving to make a punch. He evaded and with the last strength he hit the branch that was still inside. The scream, the pain. All over again, the creature tried to get rid of the pain by swinging its new branch-hand towards Atlas.

Atlas used all his muscle strength to block as much damage as he could. Raising his hands in front, he took the swing. He heard the crack of the branch, but he no longer cared, since he was flying towards the portal. Not feeling his hands, and having all his body scream in pain, he landed almost near the portal. It was about 2 meters. Atlas no longer cared where the creature was. He started crawling to the portal. His body was barely moving, hurting everywhere. At this point he started to enjoy the pain. The feeling of the danger. Slowly approaching the portal, he was almost touching it. That was when he was lifted. Looking in front of him, was the creature. Holding him with his long fingers. Looking in the eyes of the creature he could only see red glow in empty eye sockets.

“I guess this is the end” Atlas closed his eyes “Ending here, on this planet zero, no one to remember me. No one to cry for me. Not even I will.”

*Swing

Suddenly, Atlas heard a swinging sound, as if someone swung a sword. Opening his eyes, he saw something unexpectable. The creature he fought for so long, the creature to inflict horror onto every cell of his body, was standing in front of him. Beheaded. Soon after, he was dropped to the ground. The body of the creature fell down motionless. And behind the creature was another one. But not a random one. It was the stone creature which Atlas encountered after waking up.

Holding the lifeless head of the creature it slowly approached Atlas. It picked him up.

Atlas wanted to say something at least, but could not even react; he was pushed and sent flying into the portal.