Grey Zone

It's been two months since his arrival in prison. Estefan had been preparing, his body didn't show much change, but there was change. He was stronger mentally and physically than how he was two months ago.

The prisoners were taken to the assembly area outside, on the podium stood the Captain and his men. "Good Morning everyone, today is a wonderful day for you guys because you will be sent to reclaim the lost land and City from the demons. Rejoice because when you reclaim what was lost, then you shall all be given the freedom you deserve no matter what crime you have committed." He announced and those words changed the gloomy mood of the prisoners.

Maybe a slight hint of hope but Estefan saw through those lies, there was no freedom because none of the one hundred men gathered here would leave the Grey Zone alive.

Practically making people walk to their deaths while saying that walking to that certain death can lead to freedom.

"The audacity." He whispered to himself while his eyes were scanning the vicinity.

Estefan after checking the area understood that none of the prisoners would make it through, they were all malnourished and unhealthy. There were weapons placed beside them and they were old, low quality weapons and armours not fit to face any demons or humans.

The Captain began to explain "You will all be wearing a collar with a rune, the rune will allow us to know whether you all are alive or well have died. There will be a hundred of you and the next batch will only be sent when every one of you is dead." But there was no reasoning about why they do things like that.

Everyone received their collars, it cannot be removed by the one who is wearing it. Only the soldiers present at the base knew how to remove it. The collar didn't give them any limitations since its purpose was to notify them whether the prisoner is dead or alive.

The Captain explained the situation and their mission. It was quite simple, they were tasked to traverse through nearly four hundred kilometres before entering the demon infested territory which itself span across a hundred kilometres.

The City Rammstein was just about ten kilometres from the border and it fell to the demonic invasion, the surrounding area of the City fell to the demons and the remaining four hundred kilometres was shut off and was named the Grey Zone.

The Grey Zone was very dangerous due to the villages inside. After the border shut-off, none of the civilians in the villages weren't allowed to escape, instead they were simply used as a meat shield to delay the demonic invasion. But the humans in the villages have reportedly killed the soldiers aka the prisoners who were sent to recapture the City.

The Prisoners were told to be extremely careful especially with any humans inside the Grey Zone because they will attack and kill.

They were given their essentials, a sword which was of low quality alongside with other low quality materials. It was like they wanted to make sure the mission would end up as a failure, hence why giving low quality things because it didn't matter at all.

But Estefan noticed a bag, inside there were many spherical beads. They didn't smell much but the Captain explained that it was their ration. The beads were food made with the help of mages. Mages compressed many different food essentials and water into beads and they were told to eat one bead per day and there were enough to sustain them for at least a thousand days.

Although they were useful, the food beads or pill were basically low quality food or worse food scraps with tiny bit of nutrients compressed together with water because they really don't want the prisoners to survive.

Estefan was confused "Why do this? Why all this hassle to just kill some petty criminals when they could torture us to death?" He whispered to himself, it was a doubtful move.

Too much effort just to kill some prisoners, even if it was for the sake of propaganda there was no progress. It was like there was another reason which none knew but Estefan only had two objectives.

Train his body and absorb the energy given to him by his Godfather and also survive. Recapture of the City will be hard but without being prepared he cannot do much about it.

Estafan lined up, there was a large door on the wall. The soldiers were checking all the prisoners to see that everyone had brought the essentials and that there was no foul play.

The soldiers who checked him was Keane who laughed and leaned towards Estefan's ear "Make sure to die." He snickered before standing back and leaving the area.

Estefan didn't care much about it because such taunts are practically worthless and useless especially against someone who's already broken by severe mental and physical pain at a younger age.

They were finally deployed into the Grey Zone. Passing the gates, Estefan saw the vast abandoned area. It was green flatlands covered by thick jungle which decreased visibility much. "Be careful, you could get ambushed if you don't." One of the guards shouted before the doors closed behind them.

That was wise advice, Estefan walked forward. His aim was to go somewhere secluded where he can cultivate the essence and train till he fully absorbs it into his body.

His body lacked the capability to bring out its soul essence and the essence given by Ulf can be absorbed by his body which will strengthen it enough for him to face stronger foes. Since he was training at a young age, he could maybe achieve greater strength due to the early start in training with the essence of someone who's considered to be the strongest in the region.

Estafan entered the forest, there were others as well but they all moved forward with gaps. Perhaps due to the lack of trust since all of them were criminals who have done worse crimes or have been branded as a criminal in fake cases. But whatever it may be, none trusted each other and the distances they took to create a gap between them was advantageous especially for Estefan.

He heard screams from long distances, screams of prisoners. It was as if some of them were attacked by things. Maybe demons? He thought to himself but there was something far worse than demons lurking in the forest.

Forest was the best place for hunters to hunt, placing traps and waiting patiently to strike at the right moment.

Especially when the prey is inexperienced in surviving against a hunter or is afraid and cannot handle a jungle area. The hunters thrive against such prey and it was very obvious because Estefan began to run forward when he heard the screams getting closer and closer.

There was a small sense of fear because it is terrifying to hear screams getting closer with the realisation that people are actually being killed by something, something unknown which he doesn't know anything about. Fear of the unknown was bound to cause a human to be scared.

Estefan picked up his pace, maybe due to exercising and having absorbed a bit of the essence. Estefan felt like he could run faster and sustain himself without getting tired quickly.

He ran and ran but the screams were getting closer and closer. He simply couldn't outrun it but he didn't give up.

The Grey Zone was more dangerous than anyone else thought to be considering its massive size and lack of information since all the prisoners die out inside the area which made it hard to know what kind of enemies resided there aside from the villagers who disliked the Duke's forces.

The Duke abandoned the villages and the civilians who resided on the area which created a hate amongst the people. Their plight was unheard and made sure to not be heard by the people outside the Grey Zone.

They were after all sacrificial lambs for the sake of delaying the demons who were invading the Duchy.

But something was off, some of prisoners had extra luggage and they were the first captured since everyone left the wall. It was like if whatever it was hunting them knew who were carrying the extra luggage but what was it?

What did those prisoners carried which attracted this creatures or random unknown things which is hunting them? This entire region was shrouded in a mystery.

Estefan climbed a tree to hide, he chose a tree which had enough branches and leaves that can hide his presence there.

After hiding, Estefan waited for some hours but the screams stopped and not much movements were heard until he heard the cries of a woman. Estefan peaked through the leaves to avoid being noticed and saw three men wearing the outfit he was wearing along with the baggage similar to his. They were standing in front of a woman who was laying on the ground while screaming and crying.

She seemed to be a native, her clothes were teared off revealing those plump breasts with brown areola, her waist was a bigger one with curves and her thighs were not too big, she has black hair resembling charcoal, nose on the smaller size, thin eyebrows and something was suspicious.

The Prisoners, they do not look malnourished enough and for a villager who was abandoned by the Duchy and a area where resources were sparse, the woman looked way too healthy for it. Not to mention her attractiveness felt like some kind way to gain attention.

"This is suspicious, might as watch a bit more before heading in... Women can't be trust and I shouldn't waste my time and life for one again." He said to himself albiet with spite because a woman who he loved so much ended up betraying him while sleeping with his younger brother.

Estefan didn't make no sound for them to hear, they shouldn't know he was there but "Seems like they are delaying it, if this was a real scenario they would have jumped on her but it's if like those guys is trying to see if someone will stop them." He whispered to himself while being suspicious of the scene unfolding in front of him.

While Estefan was pondering over whether he should save that woman who might be behind some odd trap, the things slowly began to change.

The Prisoners began to move in, they did not speak a lot but Estefan can hear their laughs. Laughs of lustful beings who found food to satiate their hunger. Estefan still held back because it still felt like they were delaying it but suddenly one of them ran to the woman.

Other two remained still while one of them grabbed her by her hair and pulled her closer to his crotch.

Estefan saw the man saw something but he couldn't hear it properly, but the man pulled down his pants revealing his erect penis.

He grabbed her soft cheeks and squished it near her mouth to open it while the tip of his erect penis was used to tap on her lips. She seemed to be showing some resistance as he could see the reflection of her tears coming out. But Estefan still hesitated, something in his gut saying it's not real while his heart was beating faster while telling him to save her.

The Prisoner forcefully pulled her jaw down and pushed his penis into her mouth, the sounds of rejection while her hand was helplessly hitting the man's body to let her go. Estefan wouldn't have jumped till he saw a face of satisfaction from the man who put his penis in her mouth.

He found that to be enough and jumped from the tree, aiming for the face he flew in a trajectory where he could kick the prisoner for the sake of Justice but unbeknownst to him, Grey Zone was much more crueler than he could image.