The Earth After Rebirth

He felt the wind behind him change, he started pacing himself. He thought the winds in these wilds would get him if he stopped for a second. It felt alive, like it would cut him up to pieces and swallow him whole. He had no idea where this fear was coming from, it was just there.

He started running when the feeling refused to leave him, he felt like he was in danger. No, he was sure of it. Not just him, but the entirety of his universe. He wondered whether this danger was the same one he saw in that door of dead stars.

His stomach lurched. He usually couldn't feel his stomach's temperature, but here it was ice cold. It wasn't a feeling that went away either, it pronounced that it was here to stay.

"Hubris, run."

But there was no Hubris there, just him, alone, in an unknown environment. Darkness, full of trees he couldn't understand, the paranoia got to him before whatever he was running from caught up to him. He ran until his legs couldn't carry him anymore.

He was sure his lungs were about to explode. The sharp pain shot more than his relief breaths came. He held on to his knees, calming himself down.

When he could more less breathe on his own without forcing it, he looked at his surroundings. Nothing but trees surrounded him. He cursed at why he didn't run the other way, now he just felt trapped.

At a distance he noticed a witchlike figure. Crouched back, short, big nose with eyes popping out. It was just like he had seen in story books. It was just standing there, cackling and pointing at him.

"Why's this part of the game? This is confusing, nothing, absolutely nothing makes sense about this!"

He was suddenly uprooted from the ground, he flew dangerously close to the sky. The witch was clearly levitating his body, bouncing him in the sky like he was a new toy to play with.

Without warning he plummeted back to the ground since the figure stopped waving its finger, he had nothing to keep himself afloat. He closed his eyes and protected his skull from the fall.

'Stronger.' He heard the wind whisper to him.

Just when he hit the ground, he jerked awake, sweating profusely. The pain from the fall didn't go away just because he was awake. Though it wasn't as intense as what he felt when he was asleep.

He'd never heard anything about the game generating scary dreams for you in his past life, then again, maybe people weren't crazy enough to sleep here. They'd just logout like normal people and let their avatar rest.

"A dream, that felt so real." He took a deep sigh massaging his neck.

It felt cranky, since he fell head first. Sure he protected it with his arms, but that wasn't enough to cushion the fall. He reckoned his dream self was done for.

The rain had already stopped outside. The sky was clearing, night bugs could be heard singing unsightly songs, according to Kiro.

After that bizarre dream, he couldn't sleep anymore. He just waited for morning, so they could continue their journey up the mountain.

He wondered what was up there, it would probably be stronger than that squito king he fought and if there were more than 1 of them, Kiro was ready to lose some progress. He had an eerie feeling about these things, the system won't tell him about.

"Harbingers..." He mumbled. 'What are they?' He wondered.

The next day, they continued their journey up the mountain. Kiro opted to not ride Hubris, he'd been riding him since they started this mountain climb, he didn't want to overexert the newly evolved beast, lest his body was still a bit fragile.

The higher they climbed, the less vegetation there was. As much as it was a mountain the lower parts contained some plants and trees, but the higher places were absolutely without any shelter, just a rocky thin trail to follow. Needless to say, Kiro was using his footwork skill, not that he wanted to deplete his magic, he just hoped to one up it from continous use.

Since his evolution, Hubris had been slightly faster and significantly stronger. Now, it was Kiro who needed to keep up. It was great for him that hubris chose to be loyal instead, he had no idea how he would've forced him to subdue, being an ancient beast and all.

They were so fast that they nearly didn't see it, Kiro swerved to avoid the collision. He made eye contact with it nonetheless, the eyes were flaming crimson. The moment their eyes met felt like a kind of eternity for Kiro, that one moment slowed down.

It felt like neither space nor time existed in that, singular moment. He didn't understand, the moment lasted but a second, though he swore he saw the life of the thing in its eyes, its whole life. He flinched at the savagery.

"I may have watched the game in my past life, but playing it is a whole different experience. This is so unreal." He couldn't help himself as he said excitedly. The game never ceased to amaze him.

They didn't stop to admire and play with the monster though, it gave chase immediately. It couldn't really keep up with them, but it was right at their tails.

It didn't attack either, as if it was herding them somewhere. That didn't really matter to them, since there was only one road, if there were more of these up ahead, they'd run into them whether or not they stop to think.

"There's more up ahead." Hubris commented.

"Way ahead of you buddy, about a hundred." Kiro said having activated vibrational sense.

"127, Master."

"Show off!" Kiro spat.