Cut

His hands reached through the barrier that he was behind, shattering it as he ran forward.

Grabbing whatever sword he found, he charged at the creatures at full force.

Remembering the weak spots of the creatures that he spent almost an entire night fighting against, his body moved from the sheer memory of their attack patterns that he did not really know he knew.

Slash. Two fell.

Slash. Four more.

Slash. Another three.

He was just slashing and cutting them down as they got closer and closer to his brother's unconscious body.

How he did it, he couldn't tell.

Nothing else mattered at this moment as he continued to try and protect his brother.

How many was that now? He stopped counting after ten. What else now? How many more are there?

His body felt like it could go on forever. But he knew that was just his inner thoughts. His arms started to feel heavy as he continued to slash incessantly.

His arms ached as his lungs started to crush into themselves from the lack of oxygen getting into them.

His body wouldn't stop though, no matter how much he wanted it to. He must have let the emotions get the better of him too much.

But … why can't he stop? Why is his body refusing it this much?

The sword in his hands snapped in half as he jumped on the back of the creature and used the broken half to pierce into the centre of the head and pull it all the way up to the back of the skull before throwing it to the ground.

Not saying a word, he stared at the creature screaming and rushing at him. Summoning a spear into his hands, he threw it at the creature watching as it went right through its skull to pierce the ground.

He could hear gasps and murmurs but he really couldn't be bothered by them at the moment.

Picking up another sword from the ground, he stared at the many more creatures still charging at him. With blank eyes, he began charging at them as well.

What is going to happen if he is not able to control his body properly in the future and it just starts acting on its own? What is he going to do then?

As he was busy in his own mind, Ace finally paused, gasping heavily for breath. He was covered with blood. Whose blood? He didn't know.

His knees were heavy as he took in ragged breaths, dropping the sword to the ground as it disappeared from view.

A screen appeared in front of him, in it was written, 'Congratulations!

New Weapon Acquired!

Old Trusty Sword.'

He dismissed it, walking over to where Ajax laid. The first thing he did was to check if he was breathing or not then the wounds before sitting down on the grass beside him.

This is way too much trouble. He thought, remembering the lack of control he had over his own body. What am I going to do if something like this happens again and I am not able to control myself?

"You did a really good job." He turned to his side and saw the fox talking to him, everyone else around him seemed to be frozen.

"This is good?" he scoffed. "If this is good then I wonder what is bad."

"What's wrong?" The fox flew to his face. "You don't look as elated as I thought you would. Look at how many you took down."

"Just because my rage got the better of me." He said, turning away from it. "I couldn't even control my own body."

"That is true. But, I am sure you will get better in no time. Especially in controlling yourself."

"And if I can't?" He asked as the fox's eyes seemed to waver slightly.

"We will deal with it when the time comes. If it comes." It patted him on the back with a wide smile. "Just focus on your victory right now."

"It's hard to do that when you did nothing for it."

"All those techniques you used were things you learnt back in the forest." It said, sitting down on the grass beside him. "They are the things you knew and applied."

"Even if I am not the one controlling it?"

"Yes! Don't you know how good this is?" The fox asked flying around in excitement. "It means you are able to impact the character in a way that was not able to before."

"The character is learning and growing from this. The reason why you are not able to control too much is because you chose to go with the programmed settings and feelings of the character.

"But the character still knew what he was doing when he pierced the creatures in the middle of the forehead. So, you reprogrammed it, in some ways."

"If I keep this up ..." Ace said, eyes slightly lighting up again. "I will begin to have complete control."

"Yes! And then the spell will finally be broken from his place." It declared, clapping its hands, paws, together. "Are you happy now?"

"Of course I am." He said, trying to stand up but his knees grew weak and he almost tumbled down once again.

Somehow he was able to hold his hands in front of him to prevent himself from hitting the ground head-on.

"What now?" He asked the fox.

"Well, you go back to the original timeline you came from." It shrugged. "And you will go about your day from now on."

"Is that all I can really do?"

"We can continue this at night again." The entire world faded into white with nothing else around him. "You have killed ... let me see."

The fox turned into a screen in front of him.

"Two bottles of 'A walk down memory lane'." He read out loud. "What is that?"

"That is the potion you got to come to this time period." Cleo said, "So you much have killed two hundred of them. Incredible."

"Two hundred?" Ace repeated. "Are you sure? I couldn't even kill one hundred without almost dying several times and needing to level up several more times. Are you sure?"

"I couldn't be surer." It chuckled at him. "Why else would you have two bottles of these things?"

"You aren't wrong about that." Ace murmured, looking at the bottles. "Wait, did I level up at all?"

He went to his info page and took a look at his level. Level ten.

"Why am I not healed though?" He asked, looking at the wounds on his body.

"After level seven, your body is now able to heal itself. But you will need to collect items to 'upgrade' these abilities." Cleo said, "Understood?"

"So I am gradually healing right now?"

"You. Gradually. That ability is still in ... level one." It pulled up his stats and showed different abilities all in level one.

Agility. Strength. Intellect. Healing. Among others.

"And ... you have enough to increase one of the abilities, what do you choose?"

Ace looked at all his stats, thinking of which he could improve.

"About agility and strength, if I strained, will they level up?" He asked, staring at them.

"Yes. This is not like a regular game after all." It said, "You are the one with the cheats at the moment. Though, they can only be activated when no one else is around."

"That sounds like a horrible cheat." he said, staring at the 'Healing' ability intensely. "Cleo. Question."

"Yes?"

"This is a dating Sims game right?"

"Yes. Something like that."

"Why are my ... 'cheats' like an RPG then?" He tilted his head to the side, still a little bit confused.

"Because you are interested in RPG games." It said nonchalantly. "We just make it in the way that will best benefit the ... player."

"If you can do that for me, why can't you change the game like that? It sometimes seems that the system is for me and against me too." He said, frowning.

The fox laughed and turned back into the small animal. "That is a question I didn't think you would ever ask me because you didn't in the beginning."

"There was a lot for me to take in," he argued.

"Right. That is true and about the system ... In some ways, I am the system as well. But it is made up of a couple of other things." It said, tapping its lower jaw with its paws.

"I was created because of the pure frustration of reliving the same even over and over and over again. So, I am the ... guide. Unofficial.

"And the system isn't always against you. If you are able to play by the rules by exploiting the loopholes.

"Even the system can't do whatever it wants. That is just not possible. So again, loopholes."

Just then a beeping sound filled the area and the fox smile at Ace, "Oh, it seems we are out of time."

"What do you mean out of time?" He asked as everything seemed to fade away.

"See you tonight!" Its voice echoed like they were in a parking lot and Ace's eyes finally flew open.

He looked around groggily and stared at Ajax's smiling face just inches from his.

"Good morning baby brother." He greeted him. "Time for your first day back in school. I heard that your class is getting a new transfer student."

Ace groaned, pulling the pillow over his face and wishing he didn't have to get up anymore.