He was sure he wasn't gonna make it as he closed his eyes waiting for the monster to rip him apart. But it didn't.
"What are you doing?" Someone shouted as he heard a slash and the monster shrieked.
It was the man who had shouted to run earlier.
"Are you gonna wait for it to rip you apart?" The man jerked him up, pulling on his shirt. "Come back to your sense and try to find the door, before I run out of stamina." He looked deep in Abraham's eyes, making him jolt.
"Oo..okay." Abraham had answered and the man let go, running off to fight another monster as it lunged forward.
Even the girl in the hoodie was keeping a fight, though she was unsuccessful in killing the beast.
He dove into the think trees, avoiding the clearing where the ghouls mostly were.
The difference was immediate. The clearing had been open and exposed. The forest was claustrophobic, trunks thick and uneven, underbrush dense enough to slow movement. Visibility dropped to maybe ten meters at most.
He stumbled over a root and nearly fell.
Think.
The mission wasn't to kill.
Locate the Gate.
He didn't need to fight them, he needed to survive these 10 minutes and locate the door.
A door in a forest.
"Brilliant," he muttered breathlessly.
A shape darted between trees to his right.
He froze behind a trunk, pressing his back to rough bark.
Slow your breathing.
Listen.
The forest was alive with distant screams, guttural snarls, the thud of bodies hitting earth.
A bright flash flickered somewhere deeper in the woods, not white like last time, but golden.
The man's voice shouted something he couldn't make out. Then another ghoul shrieked in pain.
Abraham risked peeking around the tree. Through gaps in the foliage he saw him. He hadn't taken a good glance earlier at the man
He was older, maybe late twenties. Lean build, and somewhat calm posture. In his hand there was a blade, something different from a kitchen knife. The blade was not short enough to be a knife and not long enough to be a sword. It was curved weapon glowing faintly blue along its edge.
The man moved differently.
When the ghoul lunged, he sidestepped with minimal effort and slashed downward. The blade sliced clean through gray flesh.
The ghoul collapsed after some fight, the man was also injured here and there.
A small notification shimmered above the man's head briefly before fading. Maybe his stats. They were higher. Abraham didn't even know his own stats, but as soon as he thought about it, a new interface shimmered in front of his eyes.
───────────────────────────
STATUS WINDOW
───────────────────────────
Name: Abraham Clark
Level: 0
Title: None
Class: None
Phase: Orientation 2
Experience: 12 / 100
Status: Active
Physical Condition: Stable
Mental State: Elevated Stress Response
───────────────────────────
ATTRIBUTES
───────────────────────────
Strength (STR): 7
Agility (AGI): 8
Abraham's eyes stopped on his level, Level 0, and the ghouls were level 2.
When he moved his eyes up, the status window scrolled. It was very long and Abraham didn't have time to read it all.
His eyes fell on a certain statement.
[Combat Probability vs Level 3 Entity: 11%]
Huhh...he sighs.
"Hey!" Abraham hissed before he could stop himself. The man's eyes snapped toward him instantly. And Abraham didn't need for the man to say anything further.
He sprinted.
"Gate's probably perimeter-based. Check the boundary!" The man shouted.
"Boundary?" Abraham echoed.
"Games like this love patterns!" the man snapped, cutting down another ghoul mid-sentence. "Clearings funnel toward exits. Move!"
Another shriek echoed closer. Abraham didn't wait for further instruction. He moved deeper along the edge of the clearing, keeping trees between himself and the open area.
He kept low, crouching when movement flickered too close.
Twice didn't see other participants. There might have been less participants in this time. Just few here and there.
Once, a teenage girl sprinting blindly through brush, panic overtaking logic. A ghoul leapt from above, actually from above, dropping from a tree branch, and slammed her to the ground.
The girl screamed for help. Abraham froze.
He couldn't help. He wouldn't survive trying. That's when the girl appeared, attacking the ghoul from behind.
[Time Remaining: 05:12]
Half the time gone. His pulse pounded so hard that his vision pulsed with it.
He didn't look back to what happened to the girl or the ghoul, he dragged the teenage girl and ran. The girl followed behind.
What would the look like? A literal door?
A hidden portal?
He scanned tree trunks frantically. Nothing but bark and creeping vines.
A rustling sound erupted to his left. He ducked instinctively behind a fallen log, dragging the teenage girl down with him.
A ghoul shuffled into view only meters away.
Up close, it was worse. Its joints bent too loosely, like they weren't secured properly. Its skin was veined with dark lines that pulsed faintly. It sniffed the air, jaw twitching.
It stepped closer.
Abraham held his breath, and put a hand over the girl's mouth as her face paited with horror.
The creature tilted its head unnaturally. One more step and it would see them. A rock flew from somewhere behind it.
The ghoul snapped toward the sound.
A girl's voice whispered sharply, "Now!" And she ran in the opposite direction to have the ghoul follow her.
Abraham didn't question it.
He crawled backward, then bolted in the opposite direction while the ghoul lurched towards the distraction.
He kept moving along what he assumed was the outer ring of the clearing. The forest began to thin slightly.
His lungs burned. His legs felt heavier as if they had lost all the strength. He wasn't built for extended sprinting.
[Time Remaining: 03:01]
Three minutes. Panic clawed at his ribs.
He broke through a line of thin trees, and nearly ran straight into it.
There was a structure. Half-hidden by overgrown vines and moss.
At first he thought it was just another tree trunk.
But it was flat and somewhat rectangular.
It seemed like dark wood reinforced with iron bands.
The door stood alone between two ancient trees like it had been swallowed by the forest and forgotten.
"There you are," he whispered.
A faint symbol glowed at its center.
[Inactive]
There was no door or handle, only a circular indentation the size of a palm.
Footsteps crashed through brush behind him. He spun.
The man burst into the small opening, eyes wild.
"You found it?" He gasped, there was black liquid splashed all over him, his clothes, his face.
Abraham nodded, stepping aside. "I think so."
He approached the door cautiously.
A ghoul shrieked somewhere close.
"Time?" He demanded.
He glanced at the interface.
[02:17]
"Two minutes!"
Hee pressed her palm against the indentation experimentally, but nothing happened.
"Maybe multiple people?" he said quickly.
"Like activation threshold?"
The man looked at the teenage girl and Abraham. "Put your palms on it, together."
They followed, but there appeared another palm sign. The door needed four people to activate it.
As if summoned by dread, a ghoul burst through the trees behind them. Then another. They had followed.
"Get ready!" the skilled man barked, stepping forward.
"I can't fight those!" Abraham snapped.
"Then don't! Just survive until it opens!"
The ghouls lunged. The man intercepted the first mid-air, blade carving through its torso.
The teenage girl grabbed a thick fallen branch and swung wildly at the second.
It screeched, claws raking across her sleeve, tearing fabric and skin.
She screamed and fell to the ground. Abraham grabbed the same branch and lurched at the ghoul. But of course, he was match. With one swing of the monster's humanoid hand, Abraham was thrown away. He crashed against the door, pain overtaking his senses.
The man lunged and waved his blood stained, dark black blood, dagger, he slashed the ghoul, its shrieks deafening from such proximity.
In his haze, Abraham thought about the hoodie girl. Where she was? What if she was killed saving him?
"Thirty seconds?" The teenage girl shouted.
Abraham checked.
[00:54]
If the girl is dead, then we are all gonna end up dead here. Abraham thought, his head hanging low.
The ghouls shrieked louder, movements becoming more frantic. One slipped past the skilled man's guard and lunged straight at Abraham.
Time slowed.