With trembling hands, he slightly pulled at another splash of metal. This time it was on his chest. As the knife touch the flesh his teeth instinctively bit harder upon the crystal and he could feel the blood pooling within his mouth. A muffled scream erupted and with one swift movement, he cut off the flesh, picked up the torch, and burnt the wound. The tears he had thought exhausted came out again.

By the end, he was in a drunken state. Unable to understand where he was, or what he was doing. Mechanically he kept taking out new crystals each time one was exhausted as it revealed his mind. Time passed and bit by bit his mind cleared as though a heavy fog had lifted.

The mental anguish subside but its place was quickly taken over by the physical pain that seemed even more magnified now. He whimpered, trying to block any noise but failing to do so. He quickly took out a bottle from the inventory. It was completely black in color with a red-colored plus sign in the center. He brought it near his lips but then stopped. The internal struggle continued ending with him placing the elixir back in the inventory.

He could still go on. Like a mantra, it kept being repeated within his mind.

The pain seemed to show no sign of going away so he kept thinking of going out but the slightest moment caused so much pain that he was forced to rest. Slowly he could see. At first, he had only considered it an illusion but when even more time passed he could make out the white moss.

He could see the few specks of bright rays that were able to make their way through this thick cluster of trees.

He started moving. The pain came in crashing and he stumbled but one step after another, he could feel that his condition was not as bad as he had thought.

***

He tried deflecting the swing but his arm helplessly gave way, a diagonal wound cutting through his chest. Before the monster could stab, he explode the flame and the sparks rushed at it. Small but numerous explosions occurred on the monster's body. It fell down. His eyes widened. His arms shot up with unknown strength but the burning body fell straight upon him. The fire quickly spread across his arms. He pushed the body and with fanatic favor, he slammed his hand against the ground.

It was persistent. Despite the constant bashing it only seemed to take advantage of it, lighting the moss on fire where ever he struck. He rolled on the ground, the fire now completely enveloping his arms.

Whimpering and crying he took out the elixir, the bottle droping from his hand. His heart jumped out as every negative thought suddenly exploded forth but thankfully none of them actually happened. The elixir was unharmed. He tired picking it up but his arms simply did not have the strength. He brought his mouth towards the bottle, opening it and drinking the content.

There was sudden shift. For a few seconds he could not understand it. The noise, the chaos that had filled his mind was now gone. The sudden change made him confused for a few moments until he was sure that he was now recovered. He teared up thanking the God that he was finally free from that hell.

A crystal held in his hand, he focused upon it. He could just sense the bundle of energy within his hand and he could sense trindles of energy breaking from the crystal and then they were gone. He focused upon the crystal and after some time the speed suddenly picked up, becoming double the normal passive regeneration. He had just thought about its speed when it reverted back to the normal speed. Confused, he again spent time gathering his focus and he could feel the absorbing speed increase. But just like the last time he was quickly throw out of this state. This time though he could pinpoint the reason. It seemed like the focus had to be maintained at all time making it useless while he was here.

He picked up the torch. Massive burn marks covered his arms, from the fingers to the shoulder and the chest. The massive cut he had received just before burning was also visible. Alongside them were other scars, big and small littered all over his body. He trached his finger across the wound. It was completely smooth and despite all the fights there was no sign of it reopening. He wondered, if his whold body could be stitched back then why not erase the scars too but he did not have time to waste on these useless thoughts.

He moved through the darkness now no longer feeling that same horror and anxiety as he had felt at the start. He had adapted and he did not know whether he should be happy or sad about it. Slow, quite steps took him on a journey through the forest. He quietly climbed a massive wall of roots, peaking over to make sure the coast was clear. Usually these places hid monster but thankfully there was none this time.

The sudden quiet made him uncomfortable. It felt wrong but he did not encounter another group for a long while. With his diversion gone he found that he had still not adapted to this place as well as he had thought. His mental defense was slowly corroded as the darkness seemed to have bore its fangs at him.

Curiosity, then terror. Nobody to keep him company, nobody to talk to, nobody to look at, nobody to argue with. The heartbeat increased, nightmarish thoughts coming into his mind that felt only more real in this place. His thoughts kept on going towards the dark grizzly horror and he tried stopping it but in this place, there was nothing to do. No monsters became a problem itself as the fights kept him distracted, not allowing him the time to think about this.

Having no choice he actively tried to change what topics were going through in his head. What would he do? A topic he had been trying to avoid. It was complicated and difficult to answer. First, he had to make sure they got a taste of all the despair that he had felt, the pain that he had felt but even then that was not the right way to get rid of them.

Just getting rid of them was not the solution. They were like weeds and had to be rooted out from the ground without letting any part slip away. Afterwards, he had to make sure no other criminal group should come and fill the gap. He had been pondering upon it years since he had been jailed but not a single solution came to mind. When the system itself was corrupted, where taking the correct path was like walking on burning coals he could not even find a way to release himself despite being innocent. Circumstances had now changed. As he looked at the flame upon his palm he felt more comfortable. He finally had power. A power that was his own and could not be stripped away at the whim of another human, at least.

As soon as he got out he was determined to make them pay and then he would make sure that those weeds could not grow. He was intent on not allowing them to suck the already poor population. Now allowing them to harm them, cause them pain or anger.

But what to do after that? He was no longer part of the police force to whom he had devoted his youth nor did he have any desire to after what had happened to him. It was not just because of what had happened to him though. There was a big potential to help the people if the police forces were operated correctly but they were not and the acclimated years made an environment where most were more focused on filling their own pockets, indifferent to the plights of the people. Among the few that did try to enforce justice most ended up like him while the remaining could only keep their heads down trying to do whatever they could.

A burning smell invaded his nose and as he came out of his thoughts the surrounding appeared slightly brighter. He turned but the trees blocked all the view, still, he was sure that the fire was coming. He sped up, a slow run through the forest as he jumped over, slid under, and climbed the obstacles that were blocking his path. The tension snapped back into place as he came to a stop, a group of monsters pounced at him.

He took a few steps back, taking out a war hammer and a knife from the inventory. He threw the knife which was deflected. The hammer swung down from the top and the scaled skull was blasted apart. Air above was ripped apart. His arm blocked his face. Kicks sent him rolling and he rolled even more while the attacks rained down, blowing apart and cutting the ground. 

Spear deflected and he closed in, the morning star crushed its shoulder. Another strike threw it back crashing into others. With a gaze, he confirmed and spun, evading a blow, and struck back.

The pressure kept mounting and he started using the spells, immediately the headache worsened. He kept on moving to keep himself from being surrounded. Using the environment to his advantage he made sure the monsters were always running after him after which he would slowly rip them appart. Whenever the thing got difficult he ran taking out a few before he had to stop to recover his breathing.

The battle ended in a much brighter forest. Even the darkness above seemed to have thinned as he could now see the shadows of branches cast upon the trunks. Still, no matter how much he narrowed his eyes he could not see the top.

The fighting kept on going and he started experimenting with how he fought to try to even the slightest bit of advantage. He stabbed his knife into the tree, stretched his other arm up, and stabbed again, pulling his body up with one arm he again stabbed the knife. He repeated until he reached his desired height and then slowly changed his position until he was holding both knives with a reverse grip with his back to the tree. He scanned the surrounding tree and then jumped.

Below a hoard kept growling, surrounding the trees he was upon. From above the sparks lazily drifted down exploding into blasts that burnt the monsters. The flames spread within the group. In retaliation, they threw their weapons but he, already expecting it, jumped to another tree. By taking advantage of their close distance he kept on repeating it until the monsters below were nearly all killed.

He was wondering whether he should go down. His arms were hurting from constant use and needed rest. He looked down, surveying the arm. His neck snapped at the sound, his eyes zooming at the monster that was jumping at him from a nearby tree. Barrier appeared as he was startled. The monster crashed screaming as it burnt and then dropped down, unable to find any surface to pierce its knife-like fingers into. He looked around and then he saw a few more all around him. Looking up above there were even more. He cursed and quickly moved down the tree.

They kept on jumping at him trying to tackle him but he held on until those at the top came. When had they surrounded him like this, he wondered. Unlike him, they did not need anything to move vertically up and down the tree. The knife-like fingers and toes all stabbed into the trees allowing them greater stability unlike him. Jumping on his tree they crawled down towards him with speed greater than he could muster. He hopped between different trees. Again he jumped onto another tree but before he could even sigh in relief a monster crawled to his side and jumped. Surprised he was tackled down. The shield slowly burned the monster but it was still on the top.

Having gone berserk it attacked and he could only watch, unable to push it off. Its blade like finger rose to the sky and came down. Panicking he connected to the barrier, recalling all the energy and concentrating it on the place where the attack was to land. The barrier in that place became red hot while all the other parts seemed like a plant without any water. The attack landed and fire burst forth at the point of impact and he could see its scales melting before it was thrown off.