2 End of prologue

Not too much time has passed since he began to seek cover behind another pillar again.

He kept rotating around for quite a few times already and now for the first time discovered something he rather didn't want to discover.

'Two of them are now slendering around here? Seriously?' Eguru's eyes widened. If they find out his location, he's as good as dead. That is, if he can't outrun them.

He tightened his breath to the maximum. 'Just to be safe...' Not causing any noise right now was the most important thing in the world.

Even though these two creatures didn't bother inspecting their surroundings, he had to be cautious and track their movements. 'They seem to only move forward right now. Turning left or right, or turning around completely was not in their slightest interest, huh'

He was glad. Another thing he was now almost sure of: They can't smell. 'Cause if they were able to they'd already find him due to him sweating so much.

"Mm?!"

Eguru was caught by surprise. Quickly getting out of sight, his body vanished behind the stone structure once more.

If he didn't hide just now, the creatures would've spotted him. For some reason one of them decided to take a glance to their back and almost discovered Eguru who's watching them carefully.

Luckily, it didn't see him. 'Phewww, god that was close', he let out a sigh. He almost thought he'd have to die again.

Since these monsters were now gone or at least a hundred meters far away from him, Eguru took a look at the time.

[System announcement - Updated current objective's description: Survive for 3 hours. 1 hour, 9 minutes and 34 seconds remaining]

'Alright, I got this. Just don't wanna mess up now'

Rotating once more, he was now even farther away from these beasts.

He grabbed the edges of his shirt and wiped some sweat off his forehead. 'I'd really appreciate a cold shower after this, maaaan...'

For the first time today, this man was yawning. All of this sure wore him out both physically and mentally. Though he was almost fit again, so he only was worn out mentally at the moment.

But that could change any given moment. You never know what lures in the dark when you least expect it.

[System announcement - Updated current objective's description: Survive for 3 hours. 1 hour and 10 seconds left... Prepare for upcoming events]

'What upcoming events?'

[9...]

[..8...] He finally understood.

His gut told him to run. [7..]

And slowly, he heard these beast's steps coming nearer.

[...6..] "Aw crap. So things are gonna get started during the last 60 minutes, huh?'

[5...] Eguru took a deep, long breath. 'They probably are supposed to find and hunt me now. No way they all would suddenly know my location if it wasn't that.

[4.... 3... 2..] He let out all the air that filled his lungs.

Of course, he was nervous and kinda scared, but that shouldn't stop him now. His eyes met those of monsters and they really didn't look friendly to him.

[1... - System announcement: S U R V I V E]

So, it began. Eguru sprinted towards an empty space as fast as he could and one of these creatures tried to plunge on him from above. It made weird noises a second before it came down, so he managed to evade the plunge without a problem.

'What do I do now?' he asked himself. 'I can't just run away from them for an hour, can I?' Behind him were 4, 5 or even 6 of these monsters. All of them equally fast and ugly. While they were chasing him, their bones, if they even possesed any, seemed to be cracking the whole time. Disgusting.

One of them let out an awful growl and leaped forward to catch Eguru. "Crap..!" he noticed it a little too late and barely managed to dodge by jumping to his right.

Fortunately, he didn't trip so he could get right back to running away. If anything, that's what he got good at today.

All of these monsters were behind him. 'Could I try outmoving them like I did at the beginning?' He wasn't sure. Getting chased by only one is not problem, but five at the same time? That was quite hard to achieve.

'Ah..' Instead, he tried something else. Running around the pillars in zigzag. Trying could not hurt him. Unless he failed, of course. As he moved in a pattern, these creatures did too. 'Maybe I'll be able to confuse them a little bit.'

He started picking up the pace. To his surprise, so did they. 'Alright... Didn't think they could go any faster. But it's to my advantage.'

Continuing to move left and right, he waited for the right moment. The split second all of them were lined up perfectly so he'd be able to lure them into the wall.

[System announcement - S U R V I V E: 47 minutes left]

But this was a rather difficult task to fulfill. 'Hmm, I'm gonna give it another try. They've been picking up the pace and don't seem to struggle keeping up at the moment. I've really underestimated them at some point.'

He once more examined his surroundings. 'A bunch of black pillars, black walls and small fires placed everywhere on them. But there doesn't seem to be anything I could lit with those flames to get rid of these monsters...'

'So that won't really do it, then. I gotta stick to with that I was planning.'

And so he did. Still runing in zigzags, he aimed for the perfect moment. Three of them were lined up now and only two remained.

Now!

Eguru took a sharp left and grinned. 'Finally!' He circled the pillar and slowed down his pace, to confuse them even more.

Suddenly, they all started to scream in agony as they tried to stop before they'd slam into the wall and each other. He ran a bit further and looked at them.

The first one slammed into the wall and because of it's speed and impact the chamber began to shake. "Ew gross", Eguru had to look away for a second as it got squashed when the other four finally collided into each other. It's body literally exploded and tons of blood flew everywhere. Even it's organs were found on the floor.

The impact the collision had was so immense, Eguru lost balance and even the walls that seemed to be really solid, cracked.

One of those beasts was dead. Another one seemed to be severely injured and the other three which got up way faster than he had expected it. 'My gut... Is telling me to run now. Before it's too late...'

"Ohhhh, shit! They don't look happy at all.. This is not good!!" He began to run like Usain Bolt after he saw the creature's face and body suddenly changing.

They let out a piercing scream again and Eguru had to cover his ears because of the paining frequencies. All of the remaining monsters grew bigger, grew another mouth and even more eyes. Also their body color had changed from plain black to glowing, crimson red.

They were enraged and would kill Eguru with an instant if they got the chance. No doubt about it. To make things worse, this man looked at the system announcement once more.

[System announcement - S U R V I V E: 30 minutes left | #%?#&%;]

The whole, enormous hall changed. Eguru finally noticed it. It's layout and interior did not change, but his sight grew smaller every second.

Within a few seconds all of the light sources he relied on were gone. It was pitch black and he did not see a thing.

'Are you kidding me?!'

Eguru had to run away from these creatures without any eye sight. "FUCK! They are way faster now! How am I supposed to keep my distance from them now?!"

"What a pain!"

One of the creatures suddenly shot something sharp at him and only slightly missed his neck. His shoulder was now a giant flesh wound. "arg- tssk"

'God this hurts to much. Since when do they even do that?' He lost a portion of his speed for a moment and was now closer to the verdge of death.

"Huh?" Eguru was afraid he might get surprised any moment. 'Where did the other 2 go??"

This definetely meant nothing good. Unless...?

"I still have 24 minutes to go! Come on I can do this!" He picked up his pace to the limit. He can't go any faster than this. Faster than around 29 miles per hour is impossible for him.

But he slowly realized something. 'I only have to run forward the whole time, don't I? I mean if I'm not wrong this hall is infinite...' That wasn't the only thing though.

'Welll, fuck. My flesh is burning because of the pain.. What in hell did this creature fire at me?! At this rate I really might die.'

He continued to run like there was no tomorrow and his breath has gotten heavier over time. 'Huff... I still got 9 minutes left.. I can't keep this pace for any longer!'

He was bathing in sweat at the very moment. His wound still burning and his teeth grinding. It's not about fighting them off. It's about stamina.

As unfortunate as it may be, he ran out of stamina. He was hurt and way too exhausted to keep going. The creatures coming closer with every step he took, he collapsed to the ground.

---

"Sigh. Oh man..." someone let out a few disappointed words.

"At least he managed to make it to the last 7 minutes, right? If he just kept it going for a few more, he would've done it." - "But it wasn't meant to be then.."

"Can't we do something about this? He seems to have potential, right?"

"Well, yeah but if we do something to help him we break the law. Devourers are tested. If they fail, they fail. It is how it-" Someone interrupted them, "Still. He has potential and that is what counts."

"Tss, just this one time..."

---

Eguru was still conscious, crawling on the floor even though it was useless. The monsters caught up to him now and are preparing for a new meal to enjoy.

He had 5 minutes and 34 seconds left.

Now, even the other two creatures showed up, smiling with their long sharp tongue sticking out. "It's over.."

He clenched his fist one last time. One of the creatures now laid it's arms on his body, lifting Eguru up in the air. His arms were hanging down and he had given up.

He already expected to die any moment. But it didn't happen. The monsters freezed and so did time.

[System announcement - Congratulations. You have successfully survived 2 hours and 55 minutes. You have been chosen]

"What th..." Eguru had fainted.

---

"Let's hope we didn't make a wrong decision..." the voice talking was filled with anger.

"I guess."

---

To be continued.