Hunted

=Our challenger has conquered the first challenge, but is he prepared for the second?=

As I heard the announcer declare that there is indeed a second challenge, a single thought passed through my mind:

'No. No I am not.'

And then the announcer went on to explain the second challenge.

=The second challenge will be quite different from the first. In the first challenge, the challenger is given an opponent that is more skilled than them, but the second challenge will give them an opponent they cannot defeat!=

The crowd cheered loudly at the exclamation of my coming doom, and the announcer continued.

=We are not the type to waste materials, so we decided to use our first opponent for the creation of the second!=

I looked back to the pile of green shards that used to be my opponent, and I was surprised at what I saw.

The shards were slowly liquefying, forming a bright green puddle, and the ashen mirror shards seemed to have turned into a type of contained ball of smoke floating above the puddle.

And then the process went one step further.

The ball of smoke floated down into the green puddle and began diffusing into it. The green puddle slowly darkened until it was dark forest green in color, while some parts had turned a similar color to the ashen mirror.

The dark green and gray puddle slowly pulled into itself and began reforming itself into a vaguely humanoid shape that was facing away from me.

The humanoid was a deep forest green at all parts near its torso, but as you looked down their limbs, you would see that they slowly shifted in color until they were identical to in color to the mirror I had broken. The physical features did not stop there though, but instead kept the strange feature of what it was created from.

The humanoid creature seemed to have kept the features of the green puddle, leaving its body looking like it was unable to keep its form.

I watched the whole process occur with a sort of disturbed curiosity, unable to look away from the strange scene.

My focus on the humanoid was broken by the voice of the announcer.

=Well we have the enemy, but it seems a bit out of place here! Let's change the scenery a bit!=

And then everything went green.

-Everywhere-

The entity seemed both intrigued and confused at the opponent Talon had been given.

~That... Thing is something I would have considered a crime against life if it had even an inkling of thought. I'm not sure if that boy is lucky or unlucky that the creature has no emotion or restraint.~

The entity contemplated that thought for a few seconds before they came to a conclusion.

~They're going to have a field day with this challenge.~

The entity fell silent, feeling that they had nothing more to say.

~What? Was the commentary unsatisfactory? Tough luck, I have better things to do than talk to a disembodied narration.~

The entity had nothing else to say.

-Back to Talon-

I finally regained my sight after a good few seconds, noting my new surroundings.

I was no longer in the arena, but instead in the middle of a forest comprised of the same colors my opponent was. Trees the color of ash, with deep green leaves.

At least the ground looks normal.

=Welcome to the scene of the second challenge: Are you afraid of the dark!=

'Of all things to call it, they called it 'Are you afraid of the dark'? That sounds so cliched. What am I, in a horror movie?'

I looked at my surroundings and nodded to myself.

'I'm in a horror movie. Great.'

And the announcer returned once more for the final instructions.

=our adversary is hiding in this forest and hunting you. You don't know where it is, but it knows where you are, so you shouldn't stay idle for long. Your only goal is to survive for the duration of the challenge, without any of your usual gear. The time is for me to know and you to find out! Good luck, since the challenge starts now!=

As soon as the announcer finished the message, I noticed something I had missed: I was not wearing my armor, but instead wearing a light green shirt and pants.

I checked my inventory, only to see everything grayed out.

'Ah f***. I'm completely screwed, aren't I?'

And so I began running in a random direction, with no idea where I was going.

As I ran, I noticed something unsettling: Everything looked the same.

I felt like I had passed the same tree at least three times in the past minute, and it did not help me with my location.

And then I heard my adversary in the distance, and it sounded like someone threw a water balloon at a tree and it exploded.

'I guess it hit a tree...'

I never stopped moving, running even when there were no noises nearby.

As I traveled through the strange forest, I noticed some more disconcerting things, like how I never traveled anywhere no matter how much I ran.

I only figured it out after I grabbed a branch off of one of the trees and stuck it into the ground.

As I ran, I had passed the branch several times, noting that I saw it every few minutes.

And then my hunter came into view, dashing towards me on all fours with reckless abandon.

I had been surprised by its appearance since it was the first time I had seen it, and its face was not a pretty sight to behold.

The creature had a similar face to the doppelganger, but the mirror had been shattered and embedded into its face, leaving it looking like a pincushion.

As I was noting its features as I ran, the creature roared at me, a noise sounding like a glass pane being hit with a baseball bat.

'How the f*** does it even make that noise? It's just so... unnatural.'

I looked back at the creature and noticed something VERY creepy: The glass shards in its face had moved, making a deep grey frown upon its featureless face that had been dotted with holes.

And then the holes widened, creating empty eyesockets that dotted the face of the creature, all at random angles.

I could also hear cracking sounds coming from the limbs of the creature, noting that it was getting more elongated than before.

And that was when I turned around and ran even faster.

'Nope, not dealing with that creepy shit.'

I turned at a random point, hoping to lose the creature, but it kept chasing me without giving up.

I decided to take one last look at the creature before trying my best to get away from it, and it was a creepy sight to behold.

Half of the empty eye sockets of the creature had been filled, now containing eyes that had bright green pupils and grey sclera.

I also noted that the frown on the beast was much less pronounced, and it was slowly forming a smile.

And that's when I realized that I was doubly assured that this thing was the WORST news.

So I ran away as fast as I could, which isn't very fast, but enough to outpace the creature running after me.

I tried to make the beast collide with the trees to slow it down at one point, only to see that it collided and seemed to splatter onto it and reform on the other side, avoiding the obstacle with a slight delay.

'This thing really is unkillable, huh?'

I decided that I should just keep running, and that it can't catch me if I'm faster.

Oh how wrong I was.

The beast had become extremely thin, with its hands becoming extremely thin, its fingers extended beyond what is even remotely normal. Its back legs had become similar to a wolf's, giving it an advantage on all fours.

It had adapted to chasing me, and it was going to catch up.

It took only a minute for it to catch up and pounce at me.

My only option was to fall to the ground before it tore into my back, only hoping it would pass right over me.

I was both lucky and unlucky in that regard, since I avoided the front legs, but still got slashed by the hind legs.

If I could see my back, I would've seen six slashes along my back, looking like I had blood-red stripes.

I winced in pain, and looked up at where the creature landed.

I saw that all the eye sockets had filled with eyes, and its frown had disappeared, instead replaced with a smile.

'I'm so dead.'

The creature leapt at me, intent on tearing me to shreds.

And then the creature just... Paused. In the middle of the air.

=And that's the end of the second challenge! Our challenger survived for a good amount of time, nearly half an hour!=

That was when I realized it.

'There was no time limit. I just had to survive as long as I can.'

I was glad that I wasn't dead, and nothing could change that.

=Congratulations on passing the second challenge! Onto the third!=

At the mention of a third challenge, my emotions made a complete 180.

'F*** my life.'