A night to remember

Arche adhered to his mother's words. He kept on running. Getting further and further away from the conflict.

At the end of the long tunnel, Arche stumbled upon a stairway up towards what seemed like a wooden hatch.

He tried to pry open the hatch with his normal strength. He wasn't strong enough. Once more, but with more strength than before. After a lot of tries, he was successful. When he opened it, he was greeted by dried leaves flooding his face.

When he went outside, he was greeted by the serene scenery. With trees that seemed to reach the grey sky and bushes as high as his shoulder.

Before Arche could rest, he had to do one more thing, which was to collapse the tunnel. He went back to the tunnel's exit and used Lunaria's first form on top of it.

In doing so, he made the rundown tunnel collapse. When done, he laid down with his back on the grass, and leaves were dropped on him.

"Why… why did this have to happen? We just had grandpa's funeral last week-!!" he huffed and puffed and let out a big sigh with an arm covering his eyesight.

He fell asleep on the spot.

"No! Help!"

Bursts of fires were painted on that mental canvas of his. Screams of agony resonated. It was as if he was back there. The most vivid image was not of the guard's scream. It was the smile of his mother.

He woke up. Drenched in sweat. Unable to sleep again. Especially after that traumatizing experience. He decided to get up and search for food.

Under the starry night sky, he looked in every direction to find berries. When he had found one. He felt a presence on one of the tall trees that surrounded him.

It was still. Only echoes of wild animals and gusts of wind could be heard.

Swoosh.

Another gust of wind passed by.

He was in a spot where he was exposed to the moonlight. With the nearest cover five steps away.

Overbearing shadows surrounded him. Projected by the surrounding trees.

Another subtle gust of wind followed. This time, it was accompanied by fallen leaves.

They both were still. No movement from either side.

Arche headed back to his campfire. All while still paying heed to the presence he felt.

He sat comfortably by the campfire. His eyes gazed into the flickering flames as his senses felt a presence was following him. He waited.

Another gust of wind followed. The fire had flickered once more.

The unknown presence had yet to make himself exposed.

[What if-! Let's make myself vulnerable and see] a sudden idea came into the head of his.

A single yet strong gust of wind came. Only this time, it extinguished the campfire.

[Movement-!]

The presence was moving. They threw a dagger at him.

He felt it.

Though the armor he had with him was as tough and smooth as leather armor. He swiftly activated his Bison art on where the impact was going to be.

The dagger surprise attack failed.

They knew they could no longer use the same trick. They rushed in.

They looked at Arche's side. Planning an attack where he seemed the most vulnerable.

The shadow circled around and around.

Swoosh~!

They aimed an attack on his left arm.

He responded in kind. He pulled out a dagger from the pocket on his wrist.

The dagger was jammed.

[No, no, no, not now, come on-!]

After a moment of struggle, he stopped trying.

He stood there in silence. He took a stance as he awaits the lurking shadow.

This made the shadow think that he had given up. Which proved to be a fatal mistake.

They moved faster towards him. Whilst in a position to pierce through his shoulder with their dagger in hand.

Ding!

But then, time moved slowly. As if time itself had stopped.

[This is-! Okay, let's keep calm, let's do this-!]

When the enemy was within range his range.

He activated Black Mamba. Moved towards the enemy's left in a diagonal line.

He crouched down. Activated Roo's punching art, coating his left fist.

[This should do it, right?]

Ding!

He countered the enemy by punching them right in the stomach.

Upon receiving his hit, they were knocked backward. Leaving space between the two.

Unfortunately, it was not as effective as he had thought it would be.

Arche quickly moved back to widen the distance between the two of them.

They stood there in silence. Staring at each other down while re-assessing their enemy.

Another gust of wind followed by fallen leaves came again.

A leaf flew by Arche's eye. It made him momentarily blind to the shadow's attack.

Upon the moment of blinding, the enemy was gone from where they stood.

Swoosh!

In an instant, they were behind Arche.

Ding!

His latent ability had activated again and saved him.

[Shi-! Behind-!]

Ding!

Arche dodged the incoming attack by a hair.

Although he had dodged the incoming attack, the enemy was persistent.

They threw a set of needles toward Arche.

[Shi-! Even if I were to dodge, they'll rush towards me the moment I do that]

[…so be it-! I'll take some stabs! They're mere needles!]

At this point, he could no longer muster the energy for the Bison art.

He took on two needles in total. One stabbed his shoulder while the other grazed his cheek.

Albeit luck, the enemy did not coat the needles with poison. Or else Arche's plan would've gone awry.

As Arche thought, the moment he moved to dodge the needles. They rushed in.

The shadow aimed to stab Arche's wounded shoulder.

[What if I…]

After a moment of thinking, he moved towards the enemy's side.

He tried to stab their sides with the needle that had wounded his shoulder.

But the shadow knew and countered his attack.

They grabbed his arm that was below theirs. Pulled him in. Then, they strike his stomach with their shoulder. Which made him fall on his back.

The moment he was knocked down, he had thought of his spear.

He looked. For the spear that he had brought out with him.

He looked around. With flurries of attacks coming. He kept on crawling with one hand while the other covered his stomach.

Up, down, left, right, he looked in every direction possible.

Arche finally found it after he crawled and dodged for what seemed like an eternity.

The spear was leaned against a tree. He rose and bolted towards it,

When he had gotten his spear, he took a stance. Again, awaiting the shadow's next attack.

Oblivious to the situation, the enemy rushed in. With a clear attempt to slit Arche's hurting stomach.

[Now-!]

Arche parried their dagger with his spear. He slid it down to the embrace of mother earth.

But the shadow got up in an instant. They began another barrage of attacks on him.

Although he had been parrying all their attacks, he was running out of stamina quickly.

Time passed by, and even after parrying all the enemy's attacks while standing still. Arche had run out of stamina.

Meanwhile, the enemy was standing three meters across him. With barely any sweat on them.

Arche needed the enemy to make a fatal mistake. He needed them to underestimate him even more than before.

As he thought that, the enemy rushed toward him again. He took a deep breath and readied himself.

He didn't know why. The shadow had announced that they would no longer dodge and move in a straight line toward him.

He had no other choice. He could only ready himself with that sole information in mind.

All of a sudden, a huge surge of power emerged from his body. It had a familiar aura.

[Dad-?! No! No! No! Not you too!]

It was Damian. He had implanted his aura on Arche's spear. Damian sensed that his son was also in danger. He spent his remaining lifeforce to boost Arche's power momentarily.

It was Arche's mistake, he shouldn't have relied on that piece of information.

He shouldn't have met him straight on.

Though he pierced through their chest. In which he left a hole in their body.

They had wounded him on their way to the gates of hell.

Instead of aiming to kill him, the shadow stabbed his thigh.

Now that his thigh is wounded, he had less mobility than he had before.

[Ha, ha, ha. I shouldn't have underestimated them as they did so to me]

Arche didn't know he was in luck until later.

His luck was that the shadow was only a scout. If they were an assassin or even worse. They would've been even more brutal and wouldn't have missed as much.

As shameless as it was, Arche went through their corpse to find anything of use. The only thing of use he had found was a spyglass and a map.

It was then Arche realized how lucky he was. And as they wanted, he had to walk with an injured leg, which slowed him down.

Thunders roared

[Ah… …a storm is coming]

Arche now has to find shelter as it looked like a storm is brewing, he looked to his right, then again to his left. He kept on looking in all directions as he headed forward with all his stuff in his sack.

Eventually, he found a cave. The cave itself had a big hole for its entrance. This meant that he had to find a suitable cover. A cover that'll keep him safe. It also needed to leave open gaps so he could breathe.

Before he settled in, he had to find herbs that'll help his aching wounds. Or at the very least helps tend to his wounded leg.

He put his belongings in the cave and headed back to where he came from. This time, he looked for a plant that was dark green in color and rectangle in shape.

He found them. He grabbed a few of them and ran back into the cave, albeit slowly. Whilst also grabbing a few berries on the way.

On the way to the cave, he spotted a boulder big enough to block the open space and leave enough space for air to come in.

He quickly entered the cave to put down the herbs, then went towards the boulder to push it where he needed it to be.

Moving it was a very slow process since he still had wounds all over my body, but he eventually got it there.

Once it was in place, he crawled inside. Through the small space and pulled the boulder once more to partially cover the hole.

Once inside, he dressed his wounds. Unfortunately for him, he didn't have enough to dress them all, so he only dressed the sore ones. The moment he finished. He fell asleep. Only this time, peacefully.