“Oh no,” Daisuke muttered. His words, while simple, encapsulated the depth of the situation. This was no time to be standing idly by. Nerves driven by fear enacted the one bitter truth of this war-torn world: kill or be killed.

Monterio’s hold over the beast began to slip. The flimsy jagged-edged rock barely clutched within his bare fists was barely even making a dent. Monterio ripped the blade out of the monster’s flesh and jabbed it back in. Over and over, he tried to carve away at its flesh. Each plunge of the rock picked away at its pale gray hide, skinning it alive. Yet it didn’t show a single lick of care as the stalker swung its arm back and hurled Monterio into the den wall.

Whooooosh-bam! Thud.

Bits of rock crumbled off the wall as Monterio tumbled to the floor in a tattered heap. The damage done, blood pouring out of his nose as he struggled to roll off his back. Yet a sense of relentless rage boiled within his chest. He couldn’t lay there and let everyone else have all the fun. Hobbling upright, he veered his fangs in a sadistic smile to have another go, but it was already too far gone.

“rrrrrgrrRRRRAAAAWWWWGHHH!” The cave stalker cried out. An ear-piercing screech brought all the children to their knees, hands jammed over their over-sensitive ears.

The beast’s dire cry riveted their bodies. Daisuke and Kiyo were left defenseless in pathetic curled balls on the floor as the screams echoed past them throughout the cave system. Then it fell silent. Nothing could compare to the fear generated by such a stagnant sound, the sound of silence.

Wish-whish-whish.

They’re on their way.

An awful foreboding barrel of wind laced with a wave of stalkers bound in on their location, all navigating through the caves toward them. Certain doom was ensured, no definite escape from the call that closed off all possible exits. But there was no time to consider such a miserable possibility, the children now against the clock.

“Guys, we all have to—”

“Shut up, and stay out of this!” Monterio yelled back over Daisuke, no care given for the end rushing their way. This kill was all that mattered to him.

So what was there to do but make a break for safety. Daisuke turned tail back in the direction of their group, at the least, they could meet up with them. But he couldn’t so much as get three feet away from the door, Kiyo’s hand wound tight on the scruff of Daisuke’s gear. Words of peril filled the boy’s mouth, eager to flee from this death trap, but he couldn’t get them out. One look at Kiyo’s focus said it all. His eyes were locked onto the tunnels behind him. Onto something out of sight, something barreling toward them with malicious intent. Not one, but many.

“Surround it!” Monterio shouted amidst the chaos.

Whoosh-whoosh!

Attention absorbed in the beast, Monterio managed the sweltering distress hampering his body as he could. Bloodied and cut open on his left shoulder and the back of his head, a thick scarlet syrup drizzled off him onto the floor, clothes tattered by the razor-sharp long talons of the superior beast of the depths. Yet he could care less.

Slerch!

Monterio grasped his left shoulder and squeezed the gnashed flesh. Veins bulged out of his arm as he applied intense pressure, the agony warping his smile. But it remained through the immense physical strain, the boy grinning at his own suffering. Head shuddering with each antagonizing ripple of pain that engulfed his body, the inner bloodthirsty child crawling out. This self-indulged misery a make-shift energy boost.

The other three boys glanced at him with mixed admiration, each holding their nugget of fear from his wrath within their stomachs, even Isao. That boy had seen much worse in his day

“Ggggeeetrtrteeertr oouuutrtrouu.” The stalker groaned with a gargled spit that dribbled onto the floor.

Wobbling on its last legs, the creature had now fully reverted to its feral state. Blood-soaked eyes replaced the white-pompous bulbs, jaw unhinged its three sets of razor-sharp teeth, and talons flexed. Gripped onto the floor, it arched its back and lowered into a defensive stance, waiting for the children to strike.

The outcome of the fight was in Monterio's hands. Four lives, including his own, were in his hands. His mind was fast at work to find an opening. To survive.

Slash—whoosh!

Monterio looked at the other three in his group and shut his mouth. His eyes locked onto the target as he lowered his right hand to the side of his thigh. All eyes were on him, each pair waiting for the play call.

Daisuke peered from the hall with a little scuffle of anticipation, not one hundred percent sure how the situation would develop. The state of the stalker was one he had only heard in stories, many poor souls lost at the claws of one just like this. Enraged and pushed to their mental limitations. What was a territorial dispute turned challenge for regional domination. The stalker’s only option of escape embedded in the carnage, the children all targets.

With the beast rearing its fangs, the children grew weary as they awaited Monterio, confidence diminishing beneath the sheer tension. Monterio was the only one to pick it back up and set it in their drive. All it took was two quick taps on the side of his thigh.

Tap-tap. Fwoosh!

Plan made set and match. At the whiff of the motion, all four boys took off in separate directions, creating different angles and unexpected trajectories for the rapacious creature. Forced to pick a lane between the four children charging it, the expectation asserted by Monterio. Thinking it would only dive after one of them in its rage, leaving three points of entry for the others.

Hmph!

At once, they all lunged into the air, fists raised with surprise. Each pulled out a jagged rock from their sling, prepared to end this with one split-second onslaught. The cost of this rushed maneuver was one’s flesh and blood. Lambs brought to the slaughter for the wolf to pluck out of the air, yet their advantage of sporadic motion left the stalker complacent on the ground. Stuck peering up at the falling children, analyzing.

Bph-bph-bph-bph!

But it was all for nothing. In a single swoop, the beast knocked all of them out of the air, the back of its talons bashing the wind right out of their lungs, slamming back into the crude rocky walls.

“ggggrrrrRRRRAAAGHHH!”

Smash! Dink! Donk! Shpish!

Thrown aside like pesky flies, they toppled over onto the roughened earth into a stupor. Brains rattled by the sudden motion. Within seconds they were rendered useless, left with their wits, bare fists, and training. At times like these, the truth of one’s vessels gleamed through the darkened shell, cracks letting it seep out into reality.

Each boy reacted in their own fashion, in their own truth. Kichi cowered against the wall, body enveloped in stress, hyperventilating as sweat brimmed his forehead. Unarmed and out of ideas. Yori swayed back and forth, his head only able to take so much more trauma before it was lights out for good. Isao tried to compose himself, but he had long reached wit's end, grasping at his ribs on the verge of shattering. Monterio only smiled. He was enjoying this. Yet his smile wavered. For the first time in his life, a win wasn’t sure-fire. And with such a devastating thought of defeat sinking in, his life came to mind, that this might be the end.

That he might die, here and now.

All of them came to the same conclusion as they stared death in the face, and it had such a menacing face. There was no peace in its eyes, only misery. Regret.

Whoomph-whoomph!

The stalker pounced around the room, each of the children narrowly dodging until it set its sights on Kichi. Stricken with penultimate fear against the wall, unable to move a muscle, mouth gaping open as his lips trembled. There was no escape.

“Wait-wait-wait!” Kichi cried out as his britches soiled and his body became overlapped in terror.

“ddddrrrddrrrrddrrrrRRRRIIIEEE!” The stalker screeched out as it dove toward Kichi.

Closing his eyes, he awaited the worst, for his body to be skewered alive. He was going to be ripped limb for limb, torn to shred. It was for sure, he was going to die. But the pain never came.

“I want to go home!” Kichi squealed.

BANG! Ba-thump.

From a sudden burst of energy, the stalker blasted back to the center of the room. Monterio was left standing in its wake, his right fist steaming. The little bit of radiance he could draw to the surface left his skin peeling right off the bone. Inflamed from the overexposure to the true power of the blessing gifted to them, not a suitable vessel for their full potential. Still, he refused to give up. He wouldn’t lose to death so easily.

Slap!

“Kichi,” Monterio stretched his steaming bone-dry hand down to Kichi, heaving in what strength he could. “Get the fuck up,” he forced out with all the air left in his lungs, a war cry.

Slash! Slash! Swipe! Whoosh!

No male intent behind his words, only a directed command. A smack back into reality brought on a boost of confidence that fueled Kichi as he thrust himself off the wall to aid his group. To survive.

“Bait the center!” Monterio called out with a flash of a hand gesture.

Yori and Isao nodded, lunging beneath the stalker's efforts and forcing it to chase them back to the center of the room. Just as Monterio instructed, he raced past them, and with a surge of radiance in his heels, he launched himself into the air. Body propelled right into the line of sight of the stalker, only two feet from tearing into his stomach. But he was faster.

BOOM! Crack!

Fist submerged into its chest, he sent the monster flying into the den roof.

A little green burst rippled through his left arm, arm hairs singed and bones left brittle from the excessive heat that emanated from the impact. He was on the verge of collapse, unable to deflect the beast’s last-ditch swipe at him. But he did what he intended.

WHOOHM!

“GGGRRRRAAAGHHH!”

The roof caved in right on top of the stalker, its hind legs pinned beneath a large chunk of limestone. Talons scraped at the floor as it tried to free itself. Time dwindling with their prey trapped.

“Don’t let it out!” Monterio shouted.

Slash! Slash! Swipe! Whoosh! Slash! Swipe!

Taking initiative, the other three boys hurled chunks of the roof at the sporadic monster. Bruising and scraping away at it from a distance. All they could do against the erratic frenzy of swipes flying through the air. But it did little to repel the beast, only becoming more deranged the longer it was entrapped.

Slash! Swipe! Slash! Swipe! Swipe! Whoosh!

“ISAO!” Monterio yelled through cupped hands, voice dry and laced with blood.

Isao glanced over for half a second, and with a single clenched fist, he knew what Monterio meant, confidence sweeping over his face. Putting down the large football size stone as he crept around to the back of the creature.

“Better not have to do this again.” Isao mouthed as he got into position.

With the beast pinned down, Yuri check Isao’s position and at the near-perfect time hurled a stone at the stalker’s head. Bullseye. It shattered right in the center of its forehead, attention redirected from the flank, a blind spot. It was for Isao’s taking.

From the flashing lights and continuous pelting of rocks, the creature couldn’t pin a single vessel in this cramped space. Too much sensory overload for it to dive after a specific target. Lost in the blue lights and objects echoing off its walls. Death imminent for those lost in the dark.

“KILL THE MOON-LOVING BASTARD!” Monterio screamed at the top of his lungs.

Isao immediately darted forward toward the beast, revealing a reflective thin-cut piece of obsidian stashed in his satchel. The sharpened rock was far more than enough in Isao’s mind to incapacitate the creature. To finish it off.

“I will relax.” Isao wanned as he took off, the time to claim victory upon him.

Tet-tet-tet-tet-tet-tet-tet-tet.

Sllllllllerrt. Shink!

Isao slid beneath the stalker undetected, hands primmed and ready as he plunged the stone into its stomach. Right in its weak spot. The monster recoiled at the sudden surge of anguish that riveted its immobile body, a thick line of blood glazing the stone floor as it scrapped for freedom. But there was nothing to grab ahold of. Death was the only receptor of the creature’s lackluster attempt to survive. Its hands drew out the soul of the pitiful creature, a once human reduced to nothing more than an inbred monster. A lurker of the night.

“RAAAWGGHhh! STARAAGHhh! STORGGPAGHhh!” The stalker wailed in defeat.

The four boys each eased back, overcome by a surge of relief embellishing their lips, a smile wound in confidence for the damage they had done. Still on guard, they remained vigilant for any sudden movements or last-ditch efforts the creature may attempt to pursue.

But they’d won. They really beat it. Kiyo and Daisuke couldn’t help but stare in awe as they wandered into the den, mind entrenched in amazement as the stalker curled up in a submissive position. It knew the end was near, the cost of this loss of its life.

But it was only trying to defend its home. Now struck with a kill shot, bleeding out across the den floor alone. Helpless to do anything against those of a superior blessing. It never wanted to fight, but what choice did it have?

One by one, the four boys pelted it with loose stones large enough to crush a child's arm. The creature’s cries descended into tortured pleas, groaning at them in agony to just stop. Its ravenous stare now a teary-eyed pathetic sight, like a toddler that scrapped its knee. Slowly draining out into a sullen stare, the last bit of life it clutched onto released onto the floor.

Day three met its end as the creature died.

“Yeah!” The boys cheered as they leaped into the air, rejoicing at their exertion of dominance and victory. They were alive. They could return to the surface, return to Harion.

Yet beneath the cheering, Daisuke looked on with dismay. He pitied the thing. A weird connection to it that he couldn’t find a proper way within himself to explain. Left stunned at the sight of it being beaten to death in its own burrow. The feelings were forlorn and minuscule, but they tugged at his focus. And in a moment that he should be relieved those of his blood were alive, he only felt disconnected from them. Was this the price of killing? 

Monterio just stood there admiring the kill, his work there accomplished. The stalker was pulverized, its carcass fading into a dreary paled moonlight as its blood drained onto the floor. 

Kiyo brushed past him and entered the room, Daisuke tried to warn Kiyo, but his voice fell to an unheard whisper. Only able to watch Kiyo slide down into the den, walking right up to Monterio. His body was visibly troubled, hands unable to hold still.

What’s happening? Daisuke thought as he peered from the entryway to see the situation unfold.

All admiration halted in Kiyo’s presence, smiles flattened, and defenses reinstated. Monterio took offense to his presence, riding high off his win over the stalker as he strutted over to Kiyo in a lopsided manner. Drops of blood lined his hobbled strut across the room, teeth gritted in a disgusted snarl.

“Yeah, we beat it. Now you can just—”

“We all need to go,” Kiyo said without skipping a beat, Monterio's insult cut off without hesitation.

“What?” Monterio blurted out with a slight headshake.

“It’s not safe.”

“Kiyo, don’t know if you can tell, but the thing’s pretty dead,” Yori pipped in, kicking the corpse to add visual confirmation. The creature was completely unresponsive, a husk of the deranged animal that once resided within it, massacred by Monterio’s group.

“Yeah, you stupid or something? There’s no threat,” Isao spat out with a cocky smirk.

Staring down at him with benevolent pride, their success a was little boost for Isao’s prestige in the clan. Yet per usual, Kiyo showed no interest in Isao’s antics, only leaning closer with a dead-eyed glowing stare. No emotion and no malice, only pure honesty. His inner petty nature recoiled back into Isao, backing off out of fear of the aura that flowed freely from Kiyo, a frightful demanding essence that sent chills down his spine.

“They’re coming,” Kiyo muttered.

“HeY sTaY tHeRe.”

The whispers. They were near.

“Monterio. . .you hear that?” Yori asked as he scoured the den with an upturned nose.

Inspecting the stalker on the floor, it took no time to see that it truly was dead. But the whispers were still echoing from beyond. A slow moment of realization whirled around them as they gazed at the entryway, a vile wind pouring in from behind Daisuke. Backing away from the tunnels toward the rest of them, Daisuke reached into his bag and clutched onto the shard of obsidian he had found, but one dagger wouldn’t be enough this time around.

“WaIt. WaiT. wAiT.”

More whispers. Then silence. A frigid air filled the room, and no one dared to speak. No sudden movements, only an abrupt stillness. Sweat brimmed everyone’s brows as they lowered themselves into defensive stances. Waiting for it to come charging in. Beady unkempt eyes locked onto the craggy doorway.

“What do you. . .” Kichi fumbled his words and cleared his throat. “What do you think they mean they—”

CRASH!

“DDRRRIEEEEAAAGGHHHH!”

The right side wall had burst open, a stalker appearing before them coated in a light dusting of limestone. It wasted no time lunging at the invaders. Talons reaching for any of the children, all of them darting back to the other side of the room.

“WHAT THE SUN!” Isao shouted, flustered by the abrupt entrance of the creature.

Scrambling around the children all narrowly charged to the door, Yori shoving his way to the front.

“I’ll clear the—”

Slash!

His sentence fell flat, swiped out of his body swatted right back into the den. And with him, another stalker tunneled in through the entryway. The herd’s arrival was inevitable. The boys were trapped, pinned down by two treacherous killers that ruled this domain. Both eyed the children, invaders to their home, yet all the more delicious, saliva drizzling out of their mouths.

“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!” Kichi mumbled as he clung to the wall for salvation.

“Sun, do something!” Isao wanned as he swung a rock toward the monsters, but it did little to repel them.

Monterio’s group was left in shambles at the face of two of these creatures. Yet Daisuke was intrigued, attracted to their nature of them. Not mindless but waiting for the moment to strike, or for backup. For more stalkers, these two were just scouts. Identifiable by their wider eyes and thinner bodies. A horde of them on the prowl. On their way.

Coooooll, so they work in packs. Wow. Daisuke thought to himself, shock rewiring his mind, absent of fear.

Kiyo stretched out his right hand to Daisuke, fingers curled and ready for the object of his desire: the obsidian-cluttered dagger, their only means of survival. Daisuke read through the lines and ominous composure of Kiyo, their connection established off trust. With a curt grunt of heated approval, Daisuke passed the dagger over, but he couldn’t let go just yet. He just wanted to admire the stalkers for a second longer, just one more.

“Remember. We can’t die, not yet.” Kiyo whispered, a solemn glare encaptured in his face.

“Not till we see the land of green,” Daisuke mumbled with a slight nod, handing off his confidence in their safety to Kiyo. That was all the prodigy needed.

Kiyo intended to keep their promise. One that death himself couldn’t break.

Fwoosh!!!

Like a bullet, Kiyo took off toward the creatures. Radiance freely flowed through him into his arms. Channeling it evenly to keep from excessively burning his skin, just enough of the Sun’s blessing to kill both of them.

“Thats suicide. . .” Monterio mumbled, shaking his head at the blockhead running off to die. But he was far from right. They truly had no idea of what Kiyo was capable of. What star was embedded within his chest.

“RRRAAAAAAGGHHH!”

“ggGGGRRRAAAF GGGGRRAAAFF!”

The two stalkers chanted at Kiyo as he charged them. The first in the room lunged forward in an attempt to skewer Kiyo with its length talons. Kiyo struck the beast’s fingers upward and moved in toward its left arm, slicing it open with the heated grated chunk of obsidian.

“AAAARRRGGHHOOOUOUOU!” The creature cried out.

Its last words as Kiyo used the dagger to speedily climb up the beast’s chest and grapple himself onto its head. Repeatedly plunging the blunt blade into its skull, the sheer heat and force of Kiyo’s radiance were enough to break through. To decimate the creature within seconds.

Th-thud!

The stalker toppled onto the ground dead, and its brain caved in within a matter of seconds. The second took no time to strike as it finally fit itself through the entryway.

“Look out!” Daisuke shouted as he pointed at the bumbling stalker.

But Kiyo didn’t even break a sweat. Cocking back his fist, he let the radiance build in his knuckles. Skin turning a vile red as it blistered over, too much of the internal blessing for his unprepared body to bear. Remaining calm and collected, he rushed over to the second beast without a single wrinkle of fear on his bloodstained face. He was a machine fueled by pure energy, with no room for petty emotions.

Whoosh-whoosh! Whiff-whiff-berck—fwoosh!

Ducking every single haphazard attempt, Kiyo got beneath the stalker and plunged his fist into its chest, launching it up into the ceiling. There was no time to process his motions, it was fluid like water yet direct like lightning. The instant he struck the stalker all life departed from its steaming corpse, Kiyo’s radiance too strong for it to bear. Chest concave in, ribs pierced its heart as it landed back onto the ground. A lump of mangled bones and flesh. Dead.

Flomp!

“Holy Sun,” Kichi muttered astonishedly.

The entire group stared at Kiyo in awe, some in horror others in wonder. Yet Monterio masked his inner joy, this interaction was all he ever wanted. Kiyo’s limitations to his strength were put on display like a show, his move set and power. All on display right in front of him, the last bit of information he was missing. It wasn’t his full potential, but it was enough to go off of, to plan for.

But that was for another time. What came first was survival. I mean, how could Monterio beat Kiyo if they were dead?

“We need to go. Now.”