Life's Essence

The sun was already setting when Kristen and I reached the park, the place was basically deserted just some few people walking by.

"Are you sure, he'll be here?" I asked Kristen as we began looking for this Patrick guy.

"I have no idea. Based on the actual Kristen's memory, he's only met Patrick like maybe twice. That was when Christopher used to live in the hostel." Kristen replied, we reached where Chris said he had met Patrick but no one was there.

"Seriously? We walked all this way and we didn't find him?!" Kristen groaned in frustration as he kicked a rock into the pond in front of us.

"Let's just try looking for him around here." I suggested, "He couldn't have gone that far..."

Kristen's response was a grunt as we continued walking through the now deserted park, everywhere was just quiet. Eerily quiet.

"So about Xander." I said as we walked through the park, Kristen's face darkened at the mention of the name.

"We don't talk about Xander. I don't talk about Xander." Kristen said.

"Well I do." I replied as I folded my arms trying to feel warm as a cold breeze passed by. Kristen rolled his eyes to the point I could only see white in his eyes as he groaned in exasperation.

"You're insufferable." He said as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Insufferable? Nah, just inquisitive." I replied while shrugging.

"What do you want know about him?" Kristen asked in a grumpy manner.

"Everything you know about him." I replied. Kristen's expression darkened with barely restrianed anger, he took in a few deep breaths as he gathered his thoughts together.

"Well... I think before you got transmigrated. Lucia also entered my room, told me something about proving herself to everyone and all that bullshit." Kristen started as he tried evening his breaths. "She asked me if I wanted to change my destiny, if I wanted to go back to having a normal life with my actual family. And like an idiot, I agreed to playing this game. Didn't expect to nearly die like five different times before being granted my ability." Kristen finally added.

"Really, what happened?" I asked in surprise.

"When I was transmigrated into this body, I was already drowning in water. " Kristen said.

"Damn. That's rough." I said. Kristen gave a rundown of all the times he had nearly died, once he had nearly been hit by a truck, another time he had been shot in the arm in a crossfire he accidentally walked into, another time he had been left in a room that was burning, last year he had been attacked by bears in autumn.... wait, that sounded familiar.

"Wait, wasn't that when we had been hiking?" I asked, Kristen simply nodded. "It was autumn, how on earth were bears even there?" I asked now thinking about the incident on Mt. Bliss, Kristen stared at me, then the now dark sky the streetlights finally illuminating, his expression grim.

"We both know the answer to that." Kristen replied, I felt my stomach churn at his words.

"Xander." Kristen and I said together our faces both expressing a confused anger, what on earth did we do to him to deserve this? Not like we even know him.

*GROWL*

"Do you want something to eat?" I asked Kristen who stared at me with a questioning look.

"I didn't growl." Kristen replied as he looked at me warily.

*GROWL*

The sound became louder and more audible, we looked around but we found nothing.

"Are you sure it wasn't you?" Kristen asked me, his eyebrows arched in confusion.

"No, it wasn't me. Maybe it was-" I began saying annoyed but Kristen's scream cut me off, it sent an uncomfortable feeling down my spine like he was dying. I finally snapping out of my thoughts, wishing I hadn't.

Kristen's dead body greeted me, his neck wide opened as blood oozed out of it. His eyes wide from shock, but nothing was around. My eyes darted around the area, finding nothing unusual.

Kristen just died. In front of me, in one of the most gory ways I've ever seen. And I've never anyone die before.

Then I turned my head, worst mistake ever. The last thing I recall seeing was blood and two predatory golden eyes. The last sound being a thud.

*DRIP*

My eyes slowly opened as I took in the darkness enveloping where I was, I looked down realizing I was in a pond. Didn't I just die like five minutes ago? Is this a dream?Suddenly I felt an immense pain on my neck, my fingers ran across my neck feeling a thin line on it.

I definitely died, no way was anyone changing my mind about that.

[Welcome back]

I stared at the blue screen in front of me, wondering if it was being sincere or mocking me.

[In case you haven't noticed, you died]

I felt my eye twitch at its sarcasm, had it been a person I would have punched it hard.

"I know." I said dryly. It chuckled clearly amused at seeing their host dead.

"What's so funny?" I asked annoyed.

[Oh, the way you died! Wanna see?]

Before I could answer, a video played in front of me and there I was staring at Kristen's dead body before snapping back to reality, when something dark with fur lunged at me.

"Wait, replay that scene again. But slower." I said while pointing to when I was attacked, the system obeyed me and there it was. A big black wolf with large claws slashing my neck opened before I fell dead.

It didn't take an idiot to know who was behind this, the psycho bastard Xander was.

"Reset time to an hour ago." I ordered, feeling my fists clench.

[With or without him?]

I stared at the screen confused. "Who?" I asked.

[Kristen, duh]

I let out a small "oh" at the remainder, I forgot he had died. But was it possible to bring him back? Then the screen showed me a list of powers or something like that.

[Primary skill: Time Laspe: Enables user to reset time to 2-3 hours ago. Cool down duration: 12 hours.

Secondary skill: Time Resurrect: Enables user to bring another transmigrator with them to their designated reset time. Cool down duration: 7 days.]

There were other skills but I needed to level up before unlocking them. After a while of thinking I pressed my second skill, causing another prompt to appear.

[Enter The Resurrect Receiver's Name:]

That didn't take too long to do honestly.

[KRISTEN]

Then I remembered I didn't have a weapon of any sort but it was too late as both Kristen and I were brought back to the park.

Kristen attempted to speak but I hushed him as I explained what happened.

"So could you pretty please~~ summon us weapons?" I asked after concluding.

"You make it sound like I'm an arms dealer." Kristen replied as he stared at me.

"Aren't you one?" I teased before laughing at his scowl. "But for real. We need it to live Kristen." I said as I sobered up, my expression serious.

"Don't expect anything fancy." Kristen said as he focused his energy to his hands, a bright light forming before finally a baseball bat with drawings of pink and purple clouds along with a silver dagger formed.

"What?" Kristen asked as he saw my expression, I shook my head as I mumbled an incoherent excuse. If he was still curious, he refused to show it as he gave me the bat.

"Thank.... YOU!" I said as I swung the bat behind me with all my might, a satisfying crunch and howl of pain followed after. I turned to see the black wolf staring at us with a furious, surprised and yet pained expression. Suddenly I saw the dagger fly past me and connect with another big wolf's chest, blood gushing out.

"You threw your only weapon?" I asked surprised.

"Don't worry." He said as he yanked a chain that turned out to connect with the dagger. I didn't have time asked questions though as the first wolf struck again with blinded fury, claws out. I jumped back as Kristen easily dodged it before barely dodging a swing by the second wolf, the first wolf kept chasing me. It was obviously mad at me for the unexpected attacked.

I grabbed some rocks from the ground as I threw one in the air and whacked it with my bat, it hit the wolf right in the eye. It howled in pain but after the first throw, it became way smarter at detecting my moves slowly catching up on me.

Finally I ended up stepping into the pond where I used my bat to toss a wave of water at the wolf to catch it off guard. While the wolf tried to recover from the water play, I started trying to run out of the pond.

*SPLASH*

The wolf pinned me to the pond as it tried to bite me, the only thing keeping it bay was my baseball bat that I forced in its mouth as I tried to push it off me but it was getting heavier.

Correction: It was getting bigger.

It grew larger by the second while ferociously biting into my bat, I was seriously going to die again from the same animal in the same way because I saw as it was staring at my neck like it's the most delicious thing in the world. I closed my eyes praying for a miracle, memories from both my actual world and this world playing in my head: When Ruby befriended me, my first boyfriend, that time my mom grounded me for not doing the laundry, when I volunteered to make breakfast for the Harpers, when Chris invited me to the Harmony Flavour Festival, when he kissed me, when Luke taught me archery, when Siniaria defended me from Vlad, when I went hiking with the Harpers.

I didn't want to die, at least not when my life was finally gaining meaning. If I was still in my mediocre life I wouldn't mind dying.

But me in this life won't die again. Not now, not ever.

I forced myself to push against the wolf before using all my strength to push it off me and whack its head with my bat, another crunch broke through the evening silence, my mind barely registering its pained howl. I raised the bat against and shut my eyes shut.

I'm killing this fucker.

*ARRGH*

*WAANNGH*

*UUGHU*

I was about to whack it again but something caught my bat, I tried to break free from the entity's grasp but it remained firm.

"Jade, look at me." Kristen said, causing me to open my eyes and look at him. His face looked normal but his eyes showed shock, I looked down to his hands which were a bit bloodied then I looked over him to see the second wolf swimming in its own pool of blood.

"Are you angry at someone?" Kristen asked, his voice sounding awfully concerned, I shook my head slowly.

Why was he asking that?

Kristen pointed behind me. I felt like puking at the sight: the wolf was limp in the pond with blood everywhere, there was a serious opened up wound at its lower abdomen. Its eyes were closed and it looked like it had several broken bones.

I turned to face Kristen, the expression on my face clear: "Did I do that?" Kristen nodded. I have never fully restored to violence not even like I would, I was scared of confrontations and beatdowns. It was pretty obvious that the violent girls in middle school picked on for that reason, it reduced in high school but that didn't stop them from break my nose frequently. Teenagers suck.

And yet, I just literally did animal cruelty with a baseball bat. Wouldn't that make me a bad guy? I felt nauseous, Kristen must have seen that as he summoned a paper bag and gave it to me. Which I happily puked inside, after vomiting uncontrollably in the bag Kristen led me out of the pond. His arm around my waist as he supported me.

"Where are we going?" I managed to ask, my voice hoarse from the puking.

"Home." Kristen said calmly as he made me throw the paper bag into a bin.

"But what about the quest and Patrick we have-" I tried arguing but Kristen's put his finger on my lips to hush me.

"We both have blood on us from the fight which draw a lot of questions if we continue looking for him and you just vomited, you need rest. We'll continue when you've rested well enough." Kristen said matter-of-factly. "Just let me take care of you." He added, his voice a bit quiet.

That last sentence was what allowed me to let him carry me home.