Kevin Wang woke himself up with a loud shout. “Ah!”

 

The man was soaked in his own sweat, sitting on the ground with his breath ragged. Frantically he turned side to side as if searching for someone, but then he remembered something. His hands scrambled across his body.

 

“I’m alive,” he said.

 

Despite the remark, there were small holes on his t-shirt and he couldn’t help but notice the bloodstains around those small holes. His fingers ran across his skin as he was baffled by the current situation. There wasn’t even a scar as if the bullets never been shot at him. Then again, he himself was confused by the current location of where he was.

 

Where am I?

 

A good question considering a second ago he was walking down the street under the street lamps of San Francisco. It was an impromptu decision for a walk under the night sky and yet who would have thought he would get mug just after a few feet away from his house. Then the situation escalated way too quickly and in the end, he was shot down by these muggers just because of a few bucks in his wallet.

 

“Fuck!” he shouted. His fists were clenched tightly as the veins were visible for others to see.

 

The frown on that forehead was hard not to see. But right now, he had bigger problems at hand.

 

All I can see is trees.

 

Left to right, front to back. Everything in his sight was trees and more trees. A few possible scenarios came into mind. One, he was kidnapped and dumped at a nearby park. But that didn’t make any sense considering if he was left for dead, where was the bullet holes on his body? Second, a big-time prank where he was shot with rubber bullets and the stains on the shirt coming from an animal blood, afterward he was then thrown at a nearby park with cameras waiting for his reaction. A plausible situation, but he was definitely sure of it, that those people he met weren’t joking around, and he doubted a prankster would go to such a dangerous path in pranking others.

 

If this's a prank, they really went too far, and suing them might not be a…

 

His train of thought stopped as his whole body turned to the back.

 

“Who’s there?” he heard rustling noises of leaves and twigs. His heart beat faster as being alone in this forest only heightened his fear of the unknown.

 

His hands went through his pockets searching for anything that could be used for protection, yet there was none. Sweats rained down his forehead as he grew nervous by the second. One thing he learned from his father, was never to let his guard down inside a forest.

 

“What the…” he was speechless as his eyes went wide.

 

A huge figure came from behind the shadow of trees, revealing itself in its gigantic size.

 

A boar, but how?

 

Kevin watched in awe as he was confused by the size of this mammalian creature. It was as big as a gold-medal horse and those tusks didn’t pale in comparison to a fully grown elephant tusk. It was now or never, he shifted his feet slowly in retreat preparing to break for a run.

 

“Grrr,” he heard it. A low guttural growl echoing within his ears. Never he had heard a guttural growl as loud as this. Fear crept inside his heart and mind, he didn’t wait for another second as he burst into a sprint. He didn’t look back as his legs pushed off the ground running through the forest floor.

 

“Org,” the grumble of the boar was loud as a beating drum.

 

It didn’t take a fool to know that the giant boar was chasing Kevin down. From behind, the sound of trees snapped like little matchsticks. He just hoped it won’t be his bones in the next few minutes. The horrifying noise alerted him, making him picked up the pace.

 

Shit.

 

The only word he could imagine in this current situation. While working those lazy ass lower limbs of his which rarely saw a day of heavy running, a fleeting thought emerged.

 

Zigzag! I need to run in a zigzag.

 

His random animal video trivia finally paid off, but he was too late. Right as he was about to make a sharp turn, an incredible force slammed right across the side of his body. In just a mere second, he couldn’t felt the ground underneath his feet. A momentary lapse of feeling weightless changed into a vicious force of being thrown by a powerful impact. He flew in the air and crashed over the huge tree trunk. Pain rattled his entire body as he groaned.

  

“Ugh.”

 

Barely moving as the pain was too much to bear, he clenched his jaw trying to endure the pain. Yet it was futile, slowly he was inching closer into losing consciousness. To made things worse, he felt something wet underneath his palm. He glanced and saw the reddish crimson blood.

 

Shit.

 

He knew better than anyone else that this might be the end of his dear life. With the last few strands of what left of his strength, he turned back towards the guttering growl of the giant boar. The giant boar rooted up the ground with its mighty snout and tusk, dirt and pebbles flung in the air as Kevin could only watch the boasting of the giant boar.

 

Just great, even a pig is mocking me.

 

It vexed Kevin thinking of how ridiculous it was of dying from being eaten by a giant boar. He dragged his body as he leaned over the tree trunk, he stared at the sight of the giant boar right at its eyes. He couldn’t do anything else besides looking at his soon-to-be killer.

 

“Orgg,” the giant boar growled and began its charge.

 

“I…” Kevin was speechless as he sat there staring at the incoming giant boar. He didn’t know how he should be feeling right now as death inched closer.

 

“Gust Arrow,” a woman’s voice reached his ears.

 

It took Kevin by surprise. Something unexpected came along with the stranger’s voice. A strong breeze of the wind blowing over his face and yet his astonish eyes were glued at the sight of the giant boar squirming with an arrow on its head.

 

A silhouette landed in front of him bringing along a sweet mild fragrance liken to spring itself. Kevin couldn’t gaze away from the lustrous platinum blonde hair draping over the silhouette shoulders swaying by the slight wind.

 

The giant boar pawed the ground with its hooves, staring at the sight of this new person. The giant boar shook its head a few times as its bestial instinct flared up. It huffed and puffed through its snout as it charged straight at the person with the platinum blonde hair.

 

Kevin was about to warn this person and yet his lips were sealed. He saw this silhouette pulled the string of the bow. But there was no arrow nock on the bow, confusing the injured lad bordering close to fainting, then his eyes turned out wide.

 

“Gale Strife,” said the silhouette.

 

The unseen wind started to become stronger rushing towards the bow, concentrating at that singular point manifesting into a mint green arrow, it  nocked perfectly on the bow.

 

Kevin couldn’t believe it, the sight of something appearing out of nowhere went beyond the common sense of his mind.

 

The owner of the platinum blonde hair released her fingers, the bowstring snapped throwing the mint green arrow ripping through the air, flying straight at the giant boar. It struck right in the middle of its head stunting the advance of the giant boar. Its foreleg grew weak bringing down its huge, heavy body down to the ground.

 

Kevin could felt the ground trembled by the fall of the giant boar. He tilted his head to the side, away from the person in front of him. Again, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. A deep huge hole right on the head of the giant boar. Blood spurting out from the hole with the inside of its skull visible for him to see.

 

She killed it.

 

A single thought which made him turned his head to the silhouette. The moment he did, she too turned towards Kevin.

 

“Are you hurt?” she said.

 

Rather than answering, Kevin was smitten by the beauty of his savior. Her emerald green eyes enraptured his will, her porcelain fair skin accentuates her natural bright rosy pink lips. In essence, everything about her was beautiful. But then his eyes trailed off something peculiar.

 

Her ears, it’s pointy?

 

Kevin faded away from her beauty as his curiosity got the better of him. Those long pointy ears made him remembered about a particular fictional race.

 

“Elves?” he said.

 

She frowned hearing the words muttered by Kevin’s careless lips. Yet a few seconds later, the frown disappeared as the maiden expression returned to normal. But Kevin didn’t miss it. He knew he made a mistake.

 

“Ugh,” he groaned.

 

With the tension relieved from his body, the pain started to hit where it hurts.

 

“Ah, shit,” he said.

 

His hand went over his back and he could felt the viscosity of whatever liquid it was. He looked at his hand once more and saw his fingers dyed in crimson red. Kevin was still bleeding.

 

“You’re bleeding,” said the woman with pointy ears.

 

“Yeah, I know,” said Kevin.

 

The woman crouched down close to Kevin. She took out something from her side pouch fastened over her belt.

 

“Let me see,” she said.

 

Rather than waiting for Kevin's response, she took matters into her own hands. She turned Kevin’s back towards her much to his displeasure.

 

“Urgh, watch it,” said Kevin.  

 

He could only glare at the lady who was manhandling him like a child. She ignored the useless glare as she uncorked the test tube in her hand. Kevin saw what it was through the slight corner of his eyes. A purplish liquid rested within the test tube. He was wary but seeing he was heavily injured and close to death, it didn’t really matter to him about what she was going to do to him.

 

She poured half of the liquid onto the wounds as both she and Kevin heard the sizzling noises over his wounds. It surprised him but rather than pain, he felt rather calm with ease.

 

“Drink this,” she said.

 

Kevin grabbed the test tube while shifting his eyes from the remaining liquid to the face of this elf-like woman. Expressionless, cold as ice. Yet he could saw the confidence beneath that cold exterior. He drunk it down in one shot and within a few seconds, the pain he felt slowly disappeared. But what came next made his eyes even wider.

 

Health regeneration increased by 100% for 10s

 

Some text window was floating in front of him and with his jaw wide opened he pointed it out while looking back at the elf-like lady.

 

“I know you have a lot of questions but we do not have time. We need to go, now.”