Something was running toward him.
The sound made that much clear. Unlike the other noises he had heard so far, this time he could tell the direction too. Whatever was charging straight at him from the front, it was obviously not human. Most likely, it was moving on four legs.
As it ran, it let out low growls and sharp barks. Something wolf-like, he thought.
The young man could hear the approaching creature clearly, but he still could not see it. The surroundings remained pitch-black.
Was he really about to fight in complete darkness?
The thought had barely crossed his mind before the sound came even closer. There was no time left to think.
He turned around and started running at full speed. He could not see his surroundings, and he had nothing on him except his naked body.
As he ran through the darkness, he tried desperately to think of what he should do.
If it was a large wolf, he might not have any chance at all.
Sacrificing a hand or a foot was not something he wanted to do, but it seemed he had no other choice besides fighting it barehanded.
Then, in the middle of his sprint, his foot slammed into something. Because he had been running at full speed, the impact threw his legs out from under him. He was sent flying and crashed hard onto the ground.
The last time he had run through this dark place, he had not hit anything. Foolishly, he had assumed it would be the same this time.
The force of the fall drove his head and torso into the ground with brutal impact. Everything had happened too fast for him to brace himself.
On the ground, he twisted to his right, trying to roll onto his back.
His brain was spinning.
Even through the dizziness, he could still hear that thing charging toward him. It was getting closer and closer.
A few seconds later, when the dazed fog in his head began to clear, an unbelievable pain exploded through his leg.
He jerked upright and reached down at once.
The moment his hand touched where his leg should have been, he found something else instead.
It was wet. Hard. Moving. And most importantly, it was growling.
Something had clamped onto his leg. The instant he realized that, a wild surge rushed through his body, and he began punching whatever was holding him. He swung blindly in panic, hitting without thought. But every punch only seemed to make the thing bite down harder.
His fists were accomplishing nothing.
Then, in the middle of his panic and confusion, he suddenly remembered something he had once heard somewhere.
Using both hands, he started clawing at the thing latched onto his leg. Every bit of flesh or texture he could touch, he gripped with all the strength in his fingers. He squeezed, scratched, tore, and ripped at anything he could reach.
He was trying to find an eye.
If he could blind the beast, maybe he could force it to let go.
He had no idea how effective that idea would be against some unknown beast in absolute darkness, but it was the only thing his mind could come up with.
Before long, he had damaged everything his hands could reach. Whatever had hold of his leg, the strategy had worked. He could feel its bite loosening.
He grabbed the jaws clamped around his leg with both hands and tried to pry them apart.
The beast was still biting, but if he forced it hard enough, he could pull his leg free.
With both the wolf-like creature and the young man groaning in pain, he made one final desperate effort and tore his leg out from its mouth.
The animal collapsed where it was and went still.
His situation was better than before, but only slightly. His leg still throbbed with pain, and he could not move it properly.
On top of that, his hands had been injured during the struggle.
And through all of that chaos, the creature whose footsteps he had first heard had nearly reached him.
The young man lay there helplessly on the ground. Forget standing up and running—he barely had the strength to move at all.
When the second beast reached him, he chose his left arm as a last resort sacrifice.
The moment the animal bit down on it, he used his other hand to do the exact same thing he had done to the previous creature.
This time, it was harder.
Even after weakening the beast, he could not pry its jaws open.
With his already injured hands, he beat the animal and tried to choke it at the same time.
After a long, desperate struggle, he finally managed to neutralize it.
He could not open its mouth, but at least it was no longer moving.
When the danger finally passed, he stretched out flat on the ground.
He could no longer feel his right leg or his left arm. On top of that, there was a huge wound in the middle of his forehead, and another across his chest.
There was a bitter kind of relief in knowing that the things he had fought had at least been too weak to kill him outright.
He had managed to defeat the beasts, but what was left of him now? That part was hard to say.
In the middle of the pitch-black silence, he thought, So this is probably my last moment.
Right then, that unpleasant sound rang in his ears again.
It was just as disturbing as before, but the young man could not even react this time. He lay there half-dead on the ground.
A blue line appeared where his eyes were fixed, and then text began to flow after it.
----------------
Assigned Objective:
Eliminate the target completed.
Reward:
Gear
----------------
As the words passed by, the sound of something falling echoed from nearby.
It seemed his reward had arrived.
----------------
< Selection >
Status
Subject : Person 8
Form: Human
Cause: ███████████████████████████████████████████
Rank: E
Aspects:
Gears: < Everdawn >
Contracts:
----------------