Ambush

Let's go back in time to when Zen had just entered the training grounds.

The figure in the dilapidated building looked at the person who had stumbled upon his place.

'Interesting…'

Thought the figure while a small smile formed in the figure's lips.

The figure saw Zen who started punching the training dummies which interested the figure even more.

Seeing how persistent Zen was, the figure chuckled lightly and began to reminisce about his past.

'Just like me when I was still a youth…'

Though after a while, this impression of the figure shattered like glass.

The figure soon saw Zen picking up a rock and throwing it to a nearby boulder.

The figure also saw Zen laughing maniacally.

The shattered pieces of image became powdered when the figure saw Zen crying and laughing as he ran in the running field.

'What the… does he have mental problems?'

Thought the figure in wonder.

***

Present.

The figure from the forest sneaked towards the sleeping Zen. It couldn't help but drool and lick its lips.

After it was only about 3 meters away from Zen, the figure lunged at him.

The figure landed on top of him and opened its mouth, as if preparing to eat Zen.

Drop~ Drop~

Feeling the water drops that landed on his face, Zen woke up in a groggy state.

'Huh? Have I unknowingly slept?'

He thought in wonder.

Soon enough, the blurriness of his eyes became clear and he saw what was on top of him.

The illumination of the red moonlight made it possible to see some of the features of the figure.

What greeted Zen was a mouth full of fangs closing in on his face while dripping with stinky saliva.

"What the fuck!?"

Shouted Zen in shock.

Zen instinctively used his hands to choke the figure. At the same time, he also used his knees to attack the figure's stomach.

Ackk~!

The figure groaned in pain, but that only made it more angry.

Zen was scared shitless.

He knew that it was a matter of life and death. And thus he had no choice but to fight if he didn't want to become eaten.

Although he knew that this was only a game, it felt a bit too real and Zen did not have the guts to explore what it feels like to be eaten.

After Zen's repeated attacks, he tried to throw away to the side only to find that it was impossible.

Even with his newfound strength, he couldn't inflict much damage to the figure.

Crack~

The figure held Zen's hand that was choking it and crushed it.

"Ahhhhhhhhh!!!"

Zen screamed in pain, though he knew that he had to fight no matter how painful it got.

Seeing that Zen was still resisting, the figure shouted loudly, "Damn human! Just die and be eaten by me!!"

"Fuck you."

Zen cursed with a clear voice as he wrestled with the figure.

The figure began to reach out with one of its hands.

Zen allowed the figure's attack to hit him. Believing in his [High-Speed Regeneration], he chose to exchange injuries for injuries.

He reached out his hand to a fist-sized rock nearby and smashed it on the figure's face.

Zen's attack was not effective at all, instead the figure's hand gouged one of his eyes causing blood to splatter in the surroundings.

"Arghhhhhhhhhhh!!!"

Zen screamed in pain.

He felt weak, he really was not ready to see the other side of the "fantasy" world that made him excited, much less experience it.

Pain surged through his whole body, it was so overwhelming that his mind began to blank out.

Not caring about anything anymore, Zen used his uninjured hand and shoved it in the figure's throat through its mouth.

The figure used both of its hands to block Zen's sudden attack.

After a while, Zen used his crushed hand which had just healed, to hold the back of the figure's head and shoved his whole arm in the figure's throat.

'Wait what?! Didn't I crush his hand?!'

The figure who was caught off-guard by the attack, thought in shock.

The two of them wrestled for a few minutes before Zen started to feel weak.

'Damn, is this bitch a cockroach!?'

Thought Zen as he used the hand that was in the figure's throat to damage it from the inside.

Gripping and clawing whatever he could touch inside the figure's body.

The figure let out a loud screech of pain.

It used its hands with long, sharp nails and tried to attack Zen's heart.

'Is this it?'

Zen thought weakly.

Just as he was about to collapse, he seemed to have heard a vague deep voice.

"Fire Sword Art…"

Following that, his eyes that were closing saw the figure he was fighting.

The figure looked sickly-pale, as if it had some kind of disease. It even looked handsome if it weren't for the fact that its face was filled with a vicious expression.

Soon enough, Zen vaguely saw the figure get devoured by fire.

"Arghhhhhhhh!!!!!"

The monster-looking creature in front of him let out a loud screech that grated through his ear drums.

"Oh fuck!"

Zen could not help but curse as he forgot that his other arm was still inside the figure, which meant that it was also devoured by flames.

The heat and burning sensation from the fire further exhausted his body and mind, making him want to give up and sleep,

After that, Zen couldn't hold on any longer and directly lost consciousness. The last thing that he saw was a figure walking towards him.

No matter how hard he fought the drowsiness and exhaustion, Zen couldn't get up.

'Ah shit…'

Thought Zen as he unwillingly closed his eyes.