Help Me!

[Aero Vermilion]

"Hmm? What did I see, you ask? Hold your horses, little ones. It is quite a scary story so you two better prepare yourself for what you are about to hear."

"** ***** ** *****?!"

"** ***** ** *****?!"

"Of course they will get worse. I'm not even at the best part yet… let's continue!"

---

A human, of all things. Gwaffing on a piece of leg like chicken drumstick. Sounds of breaking bone creaked out with each of his chewing.

I instinctively grabbed my pickaxe and held it in front of me, confronting this beast in human skin. My loyal pickaxe never failed me before. Surely it could protect me from this blasphemy.

Now that I had seen it, I wished I never eagerly ran to the monolith like a hero to save the day. What could I do? I was only a normal boy.

Okay, okay! I wouldn't say normal per se. Let me rephrase it. I was only a normally cursed boy.

In the heat of the moment, my tired leg carried me to this scene. I didn't know what overcame me. Something just persuaded me to come here.

'Or is this one of my curses? Looking for trouble?'

As soon as I drew my pickaxe, the beast looked my way. It dropped the leg, wholly discarding it. His attention was now hundred percent on me. Maybe it found me as a threat with my pickaxe pointing at him.

Yes. It was a male. Specifically, a boy. Short stature and small body but shoulder broad enough that I could tell that it was a boy.

'That face where have I seen it before?' I muttered to myself.

Yes, I think I know this boy. But with how messy his face was with blood, I couldn't really confirm who?

'Well, does it matter?'

It did not.

What I should do right now is turn around and join the masses running away from the monolith.

'But then, wouldn't the others get caught up with this guy?'

Dammit.

In the end, my conscience held me back from running away. Even though all of them were scum who gave me inhuman treatment, a live lost is still a live lost.

A human is still a human in the end. Since they treated me like trash should I also give them the same treatment? Well, it depends on your moral values and ground.

Since I didn't have anything that defined me ever since I was stranded in this godforsaken place, the moral values that were instilled in me proved that I was brought up in a good environment.

That was what I thought. Still, I would like to believe so. So as not to betray those who had raised me with these good moral values, I should stand my ground with them in mind.

The boy looked at me with the eyes of a beast. That was what people would see superficially. With my curse, what I could see extended more to that of normal people.

It was so much that I wish I didn't have the ability to see them. Or should I say gifted? Whatever, a curse is a curse!

While his appearance without a doubt depicted him as monster or beast alike, his eyes were crying. Not literally you see. They were the emotions inside those eyes.

He was crying for help.

Even so, he still advanced towards me. Crawling upside down the monolith, his eyes didn't leave my figure even for a second. I could swear, not even once did he blink.

I gulped hard and took one step back.

I was confused. What should I do? I knew running away was not an option. Then what should be my next move? What is my end game? What am I trying to achieve? What was the outcome I wished for?

The answer was simple.

Survive.

Survive and escape this place. I wanted to know the truth so badly that it had become like a quest to me.

Literally.

Two things that define my existence with my nonexistent memories, my name and Gift.

An objective that kept me going strong in this world that rejected me, my quest.

[Quest]

[1. Survive and escape The Mine]

'What a weird quest' was what I thought when I first read it. Survive? Survive from what?

One month in and now I understand why the quest uses the word 'survive' but the escape part was still a mystery. Like, it could just use words like 'find a way out' or 'exit' or something along those lines.

Now that things had unfolded like this, I thought the quest would make perfect sense if it appeared now.

The quest was written just to fit this incident to a very terrifying degree.

Seeing that the boy was attacking people blindly, I couldn't escape from this predicament unscratched. I might not even 'survive' this. And since the quest mentioned escape, that may be my only way to survive this event. Survive and escape, maybe they were meant to come in pairs.

This guy was dangerous. Just his victim count alone would be in the tens from the parts of limbs I see here and there.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Those limbs could be from the same people so the head count shouldn't be in the tens right?

Then what about tens of bodiless heads? Now you know.

What I didn't know was, how he did it and why.

It sounds like an explosion. It came from him leaping hard from the monolith lunging straight at me.

I was caught by surprise! I did not expect him to have this kind of super strength!

'So that's how he overpowered tens of them in mere minutes,' was my last leisure thought.

After that he pounced on me and my back scraped against the hard ground as both of us skidded quite a distance away from where I originally stood.

His hands pinned mine and I was left defenseless.

"Warghhh!" He howled.

He looked at me, his newest freshest prey. Something dripped on my face. As you would expect from a beast, it was his drool.

I hope it was only that.

But this scenario was different from your normal 'the-beast-pinned-me-down' picture.

His eyes, while they had lost the light of humanity, tears still flowed from it.

Such contradiction. You would not expect these two things to happen in one setting.

With my Gift I could probe more from his eyes.

"Help me!"

His eyes were screaming those words.

From this, I could interpret a few things. While he had become a monster and lost control over his body, it was against his own will.

I was confronting a puppet beast controlled by another party all the while the owner of the original body could only stand by and see his own hands kill his friends and family.

For a moment I sympathize with him. Only for a moment. I could not afford to give him any reassuring word nor any promise of help as he opened his mouth wide and lunged his head towards me.

I struggled to tilt my head aside, dodging the incoming dog bite. This repeated a few times while I racked my brain to find a way to escape his grip.

I decided to lock my legs to his body and spin my body as hard as I could. The result? Reversal of situation. Now, I am the one pinning him down.

I know this situation will not last. With his super strength he would always have the upper hand.

Since it wouldn't last, I have to use this chance to execute my next move. Which was to draw a considerable distance from him.

Quickly, I jumped away while he struggled to get up. Despite his monstrous appearance and absurd physical abilities he looked like a klutz to me.

What I also found weird was myself. Confronting this boy that could one-punch-kill me, I wasn't even afraid. My mind was calm enough to maneuvere my body and respond to the situation accordingly.

It was like my body was used to this sort of situation.

As soon he got his feet back on the ground, he once again lunged towards me.

I was caught off guard since I did not know his capabilities but now I know what to expect from him.

Using the same move twice in a row was a bad choice. For him that is. Not like he had a choice to control his body. Someone else was controlling him.

Anyway, I was ready to receive him. My loyal pickaxe was still firmly gripped in my hand. Even in that short struggle earlier, my hand refused to let go of it.

That was instinctive I say. I don't know how I did it. It just did.

I tilted my body sideways and let him lunge pass me. It was a smooth move if I do say so myself.

Now that I had some leeway to think, it was time for round two!