Sam is panting as he pulls the sword up off the ground, it’s partially buried in the ground as he looks as the dead body before him. A panther, a black panther with faint purple tiger-stripes, its neck sliced open while Sam himself gained another gash along his chest.

The sword comes up, dirt flicking into the air as, *ROOOAR*.

A set of metallic claws approaches Sam, that’s the only good thing about these creatures. They don’t know how to do stealth.

Sam holds the sword against the creature for a moment, but it’s only for a moment as he collapses under the immense panther’s pressure and his shallow sword swing. Sam falls backwards to the ground while the panther readjusts itself.

The bloodied young man pulls out some daggers and jabs into the panther’s skin a few times. It roars in pain but this gives him a moment to roll out from under it dodging its claws and feet.

‘Sto– 

A silver sword pierces through the panther's neck before splitting apart. The big cat slumps over with its head rolling away in a spray of blood from the now headless body. 

Sam looks at who it is, it’s another person with a collar. A similarly young aged man who will not say his name, just his ID number.

“Thanks, umm F00119191.”

“You shouldn’t be out there.”

“I know that, but you should know we had little choice if you’re from somewhere like me. Where are you from?”

“Anglean, A-C. We’re all from there, we’re meant to be far along this path already but you’ve delayed us a bit.”

Sam stands up fixing his clothing and takes a look around at the group, the armoured soldiers and Hanzel dealing with creatures cleanly but the slick-haired man is staying back enjoyed the fruits of other’s labour.

“So that means you have some more free time out here. What are you guys out here doing? Who is that guy?” Sam quietly asks, moving closer to him.

The man walks away, “We cannot speak too freely. We have a mission that’s different. People from your type of camp were sent somewhere else, it’s where we are going.”

“Do you know something? He’s a contender right?”

“I can’t say much more, we’ll see it soon.”

The collared person walks away quickly, Sam slows his step to think over those words but a stench hits his nose carried by the wind.

A foul smell that smells like deaths, lots of death.

They crest through the trees revealing a small hill, a huge building is partially buried under the hill yet also blends into it, giving a good camouflage from the distance. The road is coloured red as bodies pile up all over it.

The bodies of beasts of all types, but mostly one type, a small dog type.

The bodies of humans are there too, but they’re all wearing one type of clothing, the same as Sam’s. Many of them noticeably don’t have their heads but more of them are dead to combat wounds that have bled out. 

Sam walks up to one and touches it. The body is cold. A bunch of large slashes are over his chest and stomach, spilling it out. A painful death, disembowelling.

This didn’t happen recently. Sam looks around and spots many people in a similar condition and feels angry.

A noise comes from behind him, he looks and spots that everyone has caught up.

“Move it!”

“In there?”

“Yes, follow them. They know where they’re going. It’s inside the building but the pathway is obvious.”

‘Is it obvious because of the bodies?’ Sam mumbles inside but knows that it would cause problems.

Sam turns around and walks away when he hears a shrill screech from behind him, “EXCUSE ME?”, he turns back around and notices the man staring at him with bulging eyes.

“I’m doing like you asked,” Sam retorts.

“Respond to my guidance, it’s a privilege for you to even be talking to me. You should be thanking me for even breathing the same air as you, let alone tell you what to do. Now what do you say?”

“Sorry, thank you for telling me to follow the trail of dead bodies. I appreciate your guidance, it truly means a lot to me.”

Sam walks away without turning back, the man can be heard stomping but that is all. He’s allowed to follow the trail of dead bodies without incident, looking at all of them, stripped of their valuables both man and beast.

The sight isn’t too disturbing for him. The time that he spent in the prison camp were filled with their own disturbing sights but due to restrictions and monitoring, if anyone fought then it’d be quickly broken up and stopped.

Plenty of people died, yet no one was actually killed.

The rubbish that would be dumped included all sorts of things, including bodies all mangled up like this, yet compared to the horrific sight that is piles upon piles of bodies mangled up, disembowelled with their blood and stomach contents everywhere. It’s nothing.

Sam sniffs the air as it truly captures the feelings this area brings, death, despair, decay and ruin. Thousands upon thousands of lives lost for what so far?

He silently walks towards the building ahead, carefully avoiding anything on the ground lest he trip over and fall in the mess below him.

Sam looks ahead and notices the other collared people going into the building. They disappear into the darkness that is the doorway. Several minutes pass as Sam continues to walk there, bright lights appear inside and many creatures run out the door.

They’re being chased by the other collared people, F00119191 who Sam was talking to previously is included in this group and as he kills the small dog-like creatures that escape he gives a quiet signal to Sam.

Sam notices this and gives a quiet nod, quickening his step.

The entrance to the building is before him, two large doors with one of them broken in. The entrance itself looks nondescript as it is buried in the hillside with no markings, yet the pile of bodies around it highlights something major has happened recently.

Sam walks through the doorway and looks around, it’s a garage of sorts where vehicles and old boxes are standing and rusted out. The bodies continue inside but they have thinned out considerably. There is only a single pathway which is a road going downwards.

Several large red crystals are floating in the corners lighting up the area, making it seem like a ruined underground garage.

The collared person walks over to Sam, the others are working their way over to the road leading down, “You probably should try to escape while you can.”

“Why? Where’s there to go?”

“There isn’t anywhere to go, especially not in this region… but you will not find anything here except death for you. I can guarantee that.”

Sam frowns, “Why don’t you explain things instead of telling me what to do?”

“Why do I need to explain to you, just look around and judge for yourself? If you don’t wish to heed my advice, then you don’t need to,” The collared person walks away leaving Sam alone standing in the red-lit room.

His thoughts are conflicted. If someone without a collar told him to leave then he would simply blow them off, how could they know what it’s like to have the threat of death hanging over you all the time.

Every 48 hours the collar needs to be reset, that’s what he was told and so far that’s held true.

That other people with collars told him to escape suggests that whatever is here is worse for him than the guarantee of death after 48 hours if he were to escape. It doesn’t give rise to any feelings of confidence.

Sam lets out a sigh in frustration, there’s nothing he can do.

“I’ve gotta keep going forward, maybe I can work out some way to remove the stupid collar or whoever is here can do it for me.”

Sam walks to the downwards ramp and looks down it, it goes down for what seems like forever into darkness yet there’s a red light every few metres. The collared people look like distant shadows as the places down the lights before they too disappear behind rubble and debris on the ramp.

“Well, at least there are no bodies.”

Sam walk the roadway, silently he watches out for movements or flickering shadows but luckily there’s nothing.

He gets to the first set of lights and doesn’t spot anything before walking to the next set and the next, the 4th set of lights has a narrow walkway entrance leading into a pitch black hallway.

‘Where am I meant to be going?’

Sam walks away from the entrance and to the next set of red lights, when he hears a buzzing sound from his collar, it hasn’t done this for some time until it was first activated. He touches it when a voice comes out from it.

< “Wearer is located outside designated area, squad 2-4 position is 742 metres away. User will receive 1 unit of punishment increasing in severity until such time you return to the designated area. Administering punishment.”>

*ZZZZZZT*

Sam grits his teeth and bears with the shock, it only lasts a split moment yet wakes him up from the stupor and reminds him of the situation he’s in.

< “Wearer is located outside designated area, …”>

The voice repeats and administers another shock. This time it’s more painful, and the voice starts up again.

Sam hurries his step down the ramp. The distance is decreasing but the counting doesn’t stop.

*ZZT*

“Fuck!"

Sam nearly falls over from the zap locking his muscles, “Fuck this!”

‘Stop!’

The world shimmers and Sam smiles yet, <“Wearer is located outside designated area, squad 2-4 position is 682 metres away. User will receive 1 unit of punishment increasing in severity until such time you return to designated area. Administering punishment.”>

*ZZT*

“FUCK!”

Sam falls over from the shock while the ancient devourer worm in his mind acts up and makes a large amount of noise giving him a headache, but that’s not all as the voice from the collar continues.

Sam hurries his steps, at least he knows that he’ll be safe running down like this.

The distance decreases with every doorway he passes when he spots the collared people avoiding a particular large doorway opting to continue downwards.

Sam looks in the large doorway and spots numerous bodies inside, of people and beasts yet the most important thing is that the people are wearing the same clothing as him. He walks through the doorway able to notice the distance counter is going down much quicker.

<“Wearer is located outside designated area, squad 2-4 position is 282 metres away. User will receive 1 unit of punishment increasing in severity until such time you return to designated area. Administering punishment.”>

*ZZT*

Sam grits his teeth, his muscles are starting to sizzle after each shock and as he comes upon a large hollowed out area that looks like a man-made cave with smooth walls. Three large conical structures are in the middle that are crawling with thousands of tiny little creatures.

They look like a mixture between dogs and ants yet Sam doesn’t have time to look at them as he hurries his steps, the distance is only 150metres, 100, 50, 25 yet he cannot spot any grouping. It looks like all the people wearing collars that are alive are just everywhere.

Sam looks around and spots many people that he can recognise before spotting the people with golden stripes standing far in the distance safe surrounded by over 100 collared soldiers. He quietly gathers some of the weapons on the ground, knives and daggers.

The robotic voice of the collar speaks again, <“Wearer is 9 metres from designated area, distance is within permissible range, wearer keep in mind restrictions when undergoing combat. Current severity: 8”>

‘Stop Stop’

Sam waits for the world to change but nothing happens, he looks internally and spots the devourer creature unmoving while the timers are both decreasing at the same time.

‘Stop Stop, I said.’

The seals glow softly, the creature flails about some tentacles but does nothing after the seal stops glowing.

‘Fine, lets try this.’

Sam looks around the cave for a moment before spotting a pile of dead bodies, ‘Devour.’

Swarms of tiny little worms appear on the pile of bodies, Sam only wanted to get a few of them but it appears that the whole pile of 100s of animals is disappearing into a pile of dust as it implodes on itself.

The creature’s noises change in his mind, he returns to looking internally where thousands of the tiny little worms are queuing up with the tiny little energy cubes, Sam still isn’t sure what these energy cubes represent as they don’t touch the core energy.

Sam waits a few seconds before trying again, ‘Stop Stop.’

The world shimmers and everything comes into motion again, Sam instantly notices the noise as the chaotic battle comes back into life around him. The collared soldiers are fighting against thousands of little dog-ant creatures.

“ROOOAR”

Someone runs into Sam within the chaos, the two of them fall over where the other person yells at him.

“Don’t stand there!”

Sam pulls out a knife and throws it at the man, it misses the man’s head by millimetres as it continues to fly along but fails to hit anything. The man is silent as Sam yells at him, “Don’t yell at people, focus on killing.”

The other person nods and stands up. Sam quickly stands up too but notices that his body is feeling hot. The energy within it is becoming uncontrollable as it expands and contracts by itself.

Sam looks internally but doesn’t have time to watch it, this is signs of an increase in level but this situation doesn’t let him worry about it.

*CLANK*

Sam swings his sword and intercepts a dog-ant jumping at him, its ant pincer jaws wide open grabbing onto his sword.

*SLICE*

Sam flicks his sword forcing the creature's body to go flying off it, split in half.

This scene lasts for a few minutes, the chaotic battle scene continues as Sam kills creatures as they appear near him, nobody noticing him being a newcomer and slowly the battle gets easier with the creature thinning out when, *BOOM BOOM RUMBLE*

A huge amount of dust is kicked up as several 3 metre tall, large dog-ant creatures appear, looking more like ants than dogs now with their giant mandibles, multiple legs and exoskeleton but there’s still the distinct dog head and upper body.

A rumble comes from the entrance where Sam came from, dust spews out from it unnoticed to most.

The creatures attack out instantly, killing hundreds of the collared soldiers that are standing before Sam. Everyone backs away from the group of new creatures trying to find some safety and reform the line when the collars hum,

<“Wearers designated area has changed, move 10 metres forward.”>

Sam frowns, everyone around him frowns, but no one moves.

*POP*

<“Wearers designated area has changed, move 10 metres forward. 1 unit of punishment will be administered shortly, move forward.”>

A noise comes over Sam’s head but everyone just looks at the several people that have had their heads explode, several people just collapse and kneel over while a few walk forward, toward the creatures.

“Those fuckers, they’re just using us as live bait. They might as well just strap bombs to us and tell us to walk forward!”

Someone yells out and runs forward, one of the new creatures lashes out and kills them instantly.

Sam stands there silent, his feelings inside brewing and a quiet rage building up as he looks at the people, they’re all wounded or in various levels of hurt and truly before death's door yet these people are still being pushed forward.

This time literally being pushed into the jaws of giant creatures, and for what?

These creatures could be killed easily with a monster, they’re not emitting any mana which indicates that they’re not strong at all but against people that aren’t able to summon monsters, these things are incredibly deadly.

*ZZT* *POP*

Sam is shocked again while many other people lose their heads, the remaining people move forward without emotion and hold out their weapons, ready to engage the giant creatures that are protecting the conical structures.

Two of the creatures move forward while the others stay back, one of them lunges forward and grabs two people in between their pincers. 

Their attacks hit the face of the dog-ant creature, it’s able to ignore those blows as if they’re nothing and crushes their bodies in half between the sharp pincers.

The other creature has moved forward and using its feet to step on other people, Sam’s feeling of rage builds as his body gets hotter.

The worm inside his mind screeches as it’s doing something, he cannot tell what it’s doing as he just knows he needs to expend mana now and lots of it.

Sam suddenly yells out as the sword in his hand comes to life, energy is being forced through his body involuntarily as it almost leaks out of his body, the flaming sword brings attention to himself so to stop himself from standing he has to do this.

‘Stop!’

The world shimmers yet it seems different to usual, the world seems to be filled with more energy than usual yet he doesn’t care about that as he runs forward and leaps up to the first ant creature currently swinging its leg.

‘Stop Stop!’

Sam’s mid-jump when the world comes back alive, no one has time to pay attention to him so they don’t notice that someone is now mid-air before the creature mid-swing.

The creature swings its leg forward but suddenly notices that it’s going to hit someone mid swing, it shifts the blow but cannot stop Sam’s plan.

The creature’s leg comes down on him but the angle is perfect, he has practised this move several times and this is one of the few times it has worked out; he holds the sword out to impact the blow burning his hand in the process.

*OOOF*

The dog-ant’s leg hits the sword, it forces the wind out of his body but he forces it to spin around and prepares the sword as his body uses the momentum to jump onto the back of the other creature. A move worked out through many nights of boredom.

*SCHCCREECH*

The other ant is leaning down to grab more people when suddenly,

*BANG*

A flaming sword hits the top of its head, the creature doesn’t know what’s going on as it has never had its head hit. It has always been above people.

It shifts its body, but this works against it, forcing the flaming sword further into its body.

The creature’s screech as Sam struggles to maintain a grip on the sword as it pierces through the exoskeleton, profusely bleeding a foul smelling green liquid.

The tall dog-ant suddenly shifts its body upward, his feet are caught in its body but he doesn’t let it mess him up.

‘Stop’

The world shimmers again. The creature’s body stops moving but his own body is tumbling off the metres tall creature.

He falls on the ground hard but he doesn’t let that stop him, Sam quickly stabs several knifes into a body joint of the large animal.

‘Stop Stop.’

The world shimmers but to life, the creature rocks about trying to get him off its head when it tips to one side changing the direction it’s looking at.

Sam waves at it before throwing a dagger at its eye, the creature angrily screeches at him and lunges.

‘Stop’

The world shimmers again, the creature is almost upon him but Sam casually walks several steps forward and grabs several spears laying on the ground. He walks up to the creature’s disgusting mouth and places the spear wedged against the ground before holding his flaming sword against the creature's mouth joints next to the spearheads.

‘Stop Stop’

The world shimmers back into life, the creature lunges downward without time to notice the change.

*RIIIIIP* *SNAP*

Sam withstands the creature's body weight as it leans into the lunge, its jaws snap down at where he was but they don’t clamp on him. A huge amount of green liquid covers Sam creating a hissing sound, yet he doesn’t have time to wipe it off.

The creature notices Sam next to it and it leaps backwards, yet it stumbles on its landing.

The other creature moves forward as if noticing that this one is hurt. They move forward as a unit, crushing several people instantly. Sam’s eyes go red upon seeing this, these creatures truly don’t care about anyone.

‘Stop’

The world shimmers and Sam quickly sets about to work, the creature in his mind screeching giving him a massive headache but he ignores it, he runs forward grabbing all the swords, spears, knifes and other weaponry on the ground that he can and sets about to work.

He shoves everything he can into the open gaps on these creatures, between their joints, between their body segments, in the mouth and in the eyes. Everywhere that Sam can reach in these few minutes before the timer runs out.

Sam pants as he returns to the crowd of collared soldiers that are safe, they’re backing away from the new dog-ant yet some of them still step forward with their swords.

‘Stop Stop’

Sam lets out a deep breath as the world comes back, his body feels hot still but not as overflowing with energy causing the sword to settle down into its normal appearance wiping the green acid-like blood off his skin.

The creatures move a step forward before suddenly stopping; the people standing around Sam look at the creature in terror, their weapons held unsteadily out before them, but they notice the creatures have stopped.

“SCHCRREEECH”

The creatures all roar out in pain, attempt to back up a few steps before collapsing on the ground in a lump.

Sam is raising his eyebrows in shock, he didn’t think his move would have such an effect.

The people all rush forward and attack the fallen over ant-dog as Sam watches the two in the distance. The other creatures both look at the ones on the ground before screeching and burrowing under the ground again.

Sam joins the group of people to kill these dog-ant creatures that have fallen over, everyone is hacking at the creatures squirming on the ground before they all stop moving but not before taking out several people.

The scene slowly settles down with the conic structures, losing most of the little dog-ant creatures. The group of people that were observing have now moved forward. They’re approaching the area where all the creatures are.

“Ok that’s enough, we’ll set up the device. We don’t want to wait for those creatures to come back,” one of the golden striped people speaks while the two of them walk over towards the conical structures.

Sam recovers his energy and walks to someone that he knows, “Hey Paul. What’s going on?”

“Sam? What are you doing back here? I thought you were with the group that took Benny.”

“I got separated on the plane. What happened to you guys?”

“Nothing good. You shouldn’t have come back. You’ll die with us then.”

“What do you mean?” Sam asks.

Paul shakes his head and doesn’t speak. Sam wants to ask what he means but the golden striped person speaks up.

“Ok now you guys need to ensure this thing goes through all 3 stages, we’ll surely be back here later to pick you up. We’re already running late for something important but right after we’ll be right back.” a young man speaks. His cocky smirk as he looks at the crowd annoys Sam, but he holds it in.

The golden striped people walk, they walk by themselves towards the entrance surrounded by 5 people wearing different clothing much like the other golden striped person who Sam was with prior to coming in here.

A buzzing sound comes from the collars while many people collapse on the ground, the golden striped people murmur to themselves and walk into the darkened hallway before loud cold laughter comes out.